The weather reports had grown more ominous with each passing day. A powerful storm, a Nor'Easter, was forming and would be barreling up the coast just in time for our departure from the port in NYC. Speculation flew on CC. Would our ship sail? DH got on the horn to his father, a former merchant mariner. He, unfortunately, agreed with the more frantic of the posters on the boards. The Spirit would never sail in the middle of such a powerful storm. A storm that was promising to be the worst of its kind in 10 years. Driving down to Connecticut on Saturday to meet up with the friends who we would be traveling with, the weather reports grew more menacing. This storm was going to be perched, roaring, directly over NYC at the exact moment that we were to depart. There was no way we were leaving the next day. Or was there?

When we awoke Sunday morning, it was just beginning to rain. As we traveled I95 south towards the City, the precipitation became torrential, slowing our approach and raising our anxieties....

The directions were clear from Connecticut...we only had to really pay attention to getting onto the Henry Hudson Parkway (9A South) from I95. After that, it was follow the signs. Despite our premonitions we could just see the Spirit, the only ship in port, towering above the terminal buildings. A cheer went up in our car. No matter what, we were nearly on vacation! We arrived at the terminal at about 11:30 and stood around for about 45 minutes before we went through security. We almost ended up in the giant check-in line until we noticed the sign for Latitudes! It pointed us to the left and away from the masses! There was no wait and we were quickly checked in, given our room cards and were on the ship. Read more