We choose this cruise because it left from NYC. Who wants to fly during holiday madness time? We live in the Catskill Mountains of N.Y.S., two hours from N.Y.C., so we did not need a hotel. We knew our ports and did not expect warm weather. After all, it was December. Even so, it was colder than we expected. The intrepid young drinkers built a snow man on deck the evening we left and we took our pictures with it. We got great photos of the Verrazano and the Statue of Liberty in the December 19th snow storm.

Our previous cruise experience was on Royal Caribbean and we had no special needs at the time , so I can't compare the lines. I did have the foresight to have my physician prescribe the sea sick patch. I took it the day before we sailed. I needed it, especially in the gale leaving New York.

We are both disabled seniors, I use a walker and my husband a cane. We ordered wheel chairs to help us aboard. This eased the process and we were taken directly to our room at 2:00. We left our baggage and proceeded to the Garden Cafe. It was a mad house with people jostling for seats. I parked my husband at a table and proceeded to get a plate of food on the seat of my rolling walker. A dining room waitress with a tray noticed me and helped me, I tipped her a few dollars. The selection was wonderful. We moved my walker and invited a Russian man and his eleven year old daughter to join us. Meeting someone born in another country added to our meal. Read more