Just back from the NCL Dawn 12/30/04 through 1/9/05. There were 7 of us total (2 adults 5 young adults aged 17-25) in the Horizon Villa suite 14000. This was our first time in a Villa but our second time on the Dawn -- we sailed the same New Year's Cruise last year, so we had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

We drove to NYC one day early and stayed at the Sheraton on the Hudson in Weehawken, New Jersey. We got the skyline view so we could see the outline of NYC over the river -- I love that. We hired a limo and went to dinner, Caroline's Comedy Club and sightseeing. Because there were 7 of us and we only wanted to bring one vehicle we rented a U-Haul trailer for our 20 pieces of luggage.

The port was very easy to find. We dropped off all the bags with a porter (longshoreman) very easy. It was eerily quiet when we dropped off the bags. Nobody was there except hundreds of taxis. I thought this was odd because it was around 10 a.m. We returned the trailer to a local U-Haul which is close to the port and parked on the roof next to the pier. That is when we were told the ship had not yet disembarked, it was held up in customs, so the wait began. We were given a number (1) and every now and then a dock worker would yell the status and tell us how much longer we had to wait. I did not mind waiting, I had my book and my vacation had begun. NYC is a trip with all the longshoremen yelling, and thousands of people trying to leave while thousands more are just arriving. I enjoyed it. Read more