My husband, his parents, and our two boys ages 14 and 16, headed out from Northern Indiana the day prior to the cruise. Our destination for the night was the Westin hotel in Jersey City, New Jersey, approx 20 min from the Cape Liberty (Bayonne New Jersey) departure port. We had never cruised from this location before, and being winter time were concerned about travel conditions. Unfortunately we were right to be concerned. We left at 4 a.m planning on arriving at our hotel around 4 pm. About 1 hour into our drive, it started to snow and sleet and got progressively worse. We crawled along at 45 mph almost the whole way! The entire way through Pennsylvania there were semi trucks jacknifed and cars off the road and flipped over , etc. Amazingly we never got stopped in lines of traffic for more than 5 min at a time. Just had to keep that excruciatingly slow pace of driving in order to stay on the road. Thank the Lord we did finally make it to the Westin at 8 pm,very stressed out but very thankful.

We had prior planned to take the Path train (which is a short walk from this hotel) into NYC for dinner and to see the 911 Memorial, as we had prior ordered the online mandatory free tickets , but arrived too late and too stressed to do so. Instead we ordered yummy Italian food into our rooms, and then enjoyed the beautiful pool and hottub and fitness area at the hotel. This is a beautiful hotel in a safe, wonderful location. We did bundle up after dinner and walk across the street from the hotel to the end of a pier/walkway, and view the beautiful NYC skyline. It was very very cold and windy, but this was alot of fun.

The next morning we left the hotel around 10 a.m and headed to Hoboken to have breakfast and go to Carlos Bakery (Cake Boss!). Hoboken is literally 5 min or 1.5 miles from the Westin in Jersey City. Such a cute little town-it was a nice relaxing morning. We then drove 10 min more and we were at the Bayonne cruise port. Read more