What a great way to spend a weekend!!!! We boarded at 12 noon and after no wait at all to check in, headed to a wonderful lunch in the Windows dining room. Whoever recommended the cold banana soup--you were right, it was delicious! And I NEVER order anything like that.

After lunch our rooms were ready. We had an inside category I on the 10th deck and it was a little larger than I anticipated. Overall we were very pleased with our cabin. Not to mention the shower was one of the biggest I have ever seen on a cruiseship.

After settling in we changed into our bathing suits. Even though it is October, it was a balmy 80+ degrees, so the pool area was a bit crowded. We made our way in and were pleasantly surprised to find the pool heated. But beware, it is salt water (as with any cruiseline I have been on) so you can just float away without realizing it. LOL. After our swim, we decided to watch the sailaway. What a sight to see us going right past all of the sky scrapers. I have lived in NJ my whole life, but have never seen NY by water. After passing the Statue of Liberty (don't take pics now, wait until the AM when the lighting is better), and going under the Verazanno Bridge we headed back to the room to get changed for our dinner at Cagneys. We made a reservation immediately upon boarding and there was already a line and seatings were filled. Luckily we wanted to eat early so we could catch the show and got in a 6. Read more