Background info - I am 25 years old traveling with my husband, also 25 years old. Purpose of our trip? Honeymoon...(applause) thank you. thank you. We are from Los Angeles and had always wanted to see New York. Being young and even younger in the financial department, believe it or not, the two week long trip to New York and cruise was cheaper than one week well, anywhere. So we flew to New York, landing in EWR Newark (cuz it'd be closer for us from port on our way back, and only 40 min from Manhattan) and planned to stay 4 days visiting the city. I'm glad we didn't arrive the day of the cruise, cuz NY traffic is crazy and I didn't wanna catch a redeye for my honeymoon to make the 12:00pm embarkation. Lastly, this is our 2nd cruise ever, last was also on Carnival 3-night L.A. to Ensenada.

Embarkation - We arrived at Pier 90 on Monday morn around 11:40am. Thinking we had plenty of time, the cruise terminal was already packed with early birds. By the time we got in there, we were in the section of guests that had to stand to wait in line. There was also a massive section for seating, probably for 500pp worth, but filled. Getting on was quick and smooth once they opened the doors. There were at least 25 registration booths, and they separated the lines by cabin floor. We weren't greeted enthusiastically, business as usual, but the receptionist looked tired. Anyway, we were excited enough for the whole ship!

On board for the first time - We were on the boat around 12:45pm and headed straight for our cabin. We bumped into Tennyson, our steward, who was wonderful by the way, and he sincerely apologized for the room not being ready. I thought he was so sweet, of course the room wasn't ready, he's not superman! He told us to put our carry-ons into the closet cuz he needed to vacuum so it wouldn't get dusty. We thanked him and headed for the dining room to verify our requested couple's table (2pp only). Thank god, cuz we were going to be seated at a table for 6. Um, the maitre'd looked a little annoyed when he saw us coming and let out a big sigh when we asked him for a different table, but I guess he must've put a lot of work into seating arrangements only to have us mess it all up. Still, he got us our table and brushed us off without a blessing. We went up to lido deck for food, more on that later, and then headed off to the first scheduled activity - ship tour. If you are a newbie, I recommend this highly, because we were able to tour the ship's rooms on our own but got a lot of tips and advice from Josh, aka Big Sexy, activity's director. Read more