We sailed out of New York on March 1st, on our first cruise ever. Here's our trip report!

Embarkation

We were a little worried about the embarkation process, since I'd heard about some negative experiences here on the boards, but it all went very smoothly. We woke up before the crack of dawn on Saturday 3/1 to catch a 6am flight to NYC--given that it was March in Rochester, I wanted to leave us lots of room for unexpected delays. But the weather cooperated, and our flight arrived at JFK at 8am (only a few minutes late). We'd made arrangements with Carmel car service ($60 + toll + tips for a minivan), and were picked up five minutes after we got our bags. There was very little traffic going to the port, and we were there before 9am, sleepy, hungry, and a little worried about how early we were. In retrospect, we should have grabbed food at JFK before heading to the port! As it was, we settled in by the windows overlooking the Gem, and my husband and son went off to forage for food, finding drinks and bagels at a nearby H&H. Read more