Taking a cruise out of NYC was definitely an economical choice. Even though I work for an airline, I found it would be easier going out of NY than trying to fly standby anywhere else in the country to take a cruise. Our vacation started in CT so we took the Metro North train into Grand Central Station. We then hailed a taxi from the station to the cruiseport ($9 plus tip). We got there quite early, handed over our luggage to the porters and were then seated in a "holding area". It was very soon after arriving that we were boarding the ship. Pretty much a pain-free transition. If arriving into Newark airport it is definitely less expensive to take the airtrain or bus into the city and then a taxi to the port. Carnival wanted to charge us $40 p.p. and I felt that was way too much. So anyone flying into Newark, think about that.

Our first impression upon arriving to the cruise terminal was....wow...we are going to be onboard with 3000 New York/New Jersey'ers.....Not that this is a bad thing, but its definitely different than a Caribbean or Mexico cruise out of somewhere else. People seemed extremely stressed out and LOUD, and complaints everywhere around us. Why??? We were hoping this wasn't the way our entire cruise was going to be like. It really wasn't, but there sure were alot of people from the NY/NJ area and with the economy the way it is, we were definitely not surprised.

We were issued our room keys and then wandered around the ship to get a feel for where everything was, including our cabin, which wasn't quite ready yet. We were onboard before noon and cabins were not ready until 1:30 or so. The buffet lunch was already open on the Lido deck and from a previous comment, I decided to find the deli counter and had a corned beef/pastrami sandwich. Very very good! Hubby had smoked salmon along with his buffet lunch. Who knows what my 15 yr old had, he disappeared and we didn't see him till the room was available. Read more