Background: This was a graduation cruise for my college roommate and I. We are both 22 and like to have fun, but are not the huge partiers that cause problems on spring break cruises. This was my 3rd cruise, but my first two were cruises to Canada and I felt like this was a completely different experience from sailing north.

Pre-Cruise: We drove from central Pennsylvania to Hyatt Place in Secaucus, New Jersey the afternoon on the day before the cruise. We booked a great rate at the hotel through Hotwire.com and found the rooms to be very modern and large. It was similar to a junior suite on a ship, but less cramped. The hotel is in an area with some shopping, many restaurants, and two movie theaters. The hotel even had a great continental breakfast.

We left the hotel at 8:30 am and traffic was moving along the main roads but became very heavy just before the Lincoln Tunnel. About 30 minutes later we finally made it over to Manhattan and traffic in the city was not too bad for a Monday morning. There was not line up of cars waiting to get to the Cruise Ship Terminal, so we quickly made our way up the ramp. Read more