About us My husband and I are in our mid 50's and have been cruising since 1981. This was our 39th cruise. Our first and only experience with HALwas our very cruise in 1981 on the old Volendam out of NYC to Bermuda. We live in central NJ and love sailing out of the NY area. It saves time, money and the aggravation of air travel.
Embarkation Note: If you've never sailed from the NYC piers, be forewarned that the traffic is horrific and it's very chaotic. Getting to and from the pier is the worst part of the trip. It doesn't matter which ship or cruise line you're sailing on. The pier facilities are antiquated. They were built when ships carried a few hundred passengers not a few thousand. Traffic flow is terrible as passenger traffic competes with regular Manhattan traffic congestion on a main thoroughfare. This is not the case when sailing out of the Brooklyn terminal on Princess and Cunard or Cape Liberty, NJ, on RCI and Celebrity. Those facilities are new and located where traffic can be controlled more easily.
Once we arrived at the pier at about 11:00 and checked our luggage with the porter, everything went very smoothly. We were given a number and asked to wait until it was called before proceeding to security and check in. There is ample room for everyone to sit while they wait. Our number was 10 and they had just called 3 when we arrived, but it took no more than 15 minutes for our number to be called. We were on board by 11:30 and asked to go to the Lido for lunch as cabins weren't ready. An announcement was made by about 12:30 that cabins were ready for passengers.