This was our 11th cruise, 3rd on NCL.
Embarkation. We took a cab from Penn Station to the pier that was less than 10 minutes and about $12 with tip. We arrived at the pier at 1:00. Security was no problem. We were sent to the corkage fee table to pay the $15 for our bottle of champagne but they did not consider our bottle of Port to qualify as allowable wine so they kept, it, gave us a receipt and we retrieved it the last night of the cruise. We knew the Port was a long shot but enjoyed it the last night. We are Latitudes members so we chose the Latitudes line which was MUCH shorter and were on the ship quickly.
We went to Windows for lunch (as recommended by our CC colleagues) and it was very nice, peaceful, not crowded, and gave us a nice introduction to food on the ship. Overall, it is my opinion that the food has improved on NCL in recent years.