Embarkation & Cabin: We traveled to the port of New York by private car because we live only an hour away & parked at the pier ($240). Embarkation was a breeze. We were in the terminal at about 12:15 and were on the ship within 30 minutes. We did have priority embarkation, so that probably helped.

Because we couldn't get into our cabin yet we had a welcome aboard drink at the lobby bar where many people were doing the same thing, and then proceeded to our cabin to drop off the carry-on bags. Our cabin steward was actually there washing the balcony plexiglass railing & made us welcome. The cabin, 8200, was very close to the atrium & atrium elevators and extremely convenient to everything. It had 2 nice size closets and plenty of drawer space. The bathroom was more than adequate. The balcony was average size but big enough for the 2 of us. I would caution fellow cruisers however that this was probably the noisiest cabin we've ever had...alot of banging & thumping from above us (Horatio's - Lido buffet) even well into the night when I was trying to fall asleep...probably in the 1AM to 2AM range. I thought that was kind of odd because we generally book on the deck under the Lido & never had as much as a peep before. Law of averages I guess!

We then went up a flight to the buffet for lunch. They had many choices...deli or italian or salads and more. After lunch we returned to our cabin & found that 3 of 4 pieces of luggage had been delivered so we unpacked just in time for the muster drill. The muster drill went smoothly & we returned to the cabin to find the last piece of luggage & made quick work of that. Read more