Day 1:  The Bayonne pier is a very poor first impression. The entrance streets are overgrown with weeds, the adjacent buildings reflect its Army depot history. The "terminal" entrance is a knot of cars and vans angling for only 2 lanes total for entrance and exit.

If it weren't for the fact that we have a few cruises under our belt, the luggage drop-off would have been very stressful. There were no baggage handlers in sight to take luggage. The passengers were left to load them on the luggage carts ourselves, head for registration, and hope for the best. If a passenger didn't pre-print their luggage tags, they were out of luck, I guess.

Security seemed to be adequate, with our identification and SetSail documents checked no less than 3 times before we got to the metal detectors. The lines to registration moved fairly quickly after the security checkpoint, with our identification and SetSail documents checked twice more. The first RCCL employee we encountered wasn't until registration: all of the previous people seemed to be subcontractors. It was also the first time that we got anything close to a welcome, and not barked orders. Registration was quick, and we didn't have to wait much more than 5 minutes for the shuttle bus to take us to the ship. Read more