My teenage daughter and I took this cruise because she was on school break. We like to cruise out of NYC because it's only a four hour drive from our house. Driving in and out of NYC was no problem. Traffic is not bad at all on Sunday mornings. We parked a few blocks away from the cruise terminal, thus cutting our parking costs in half (relative to parking at the terminal). Embarkation was easy. But, if they are going to assign boarding numbers, they should follow these numbers. It seems like lots of people were getting aboard well before their number was called.

The first thing we did on board was go to the box office to make our show reservations. I highly recommend doing this. I'd prefer to make all the reservation online before the trip. But, since this isn't possible, it's best to take care of reservations as soon as you get on board. The process was very quick. There was a handout at the box office listing all the show times and we got to the front of the line even before we had decided what shows we wanted to see (and when). Also, make sure to ask about the "Escape from the Big Top" show. There's a sheet to sign up, but the show wasn't listed on the handout.

We avoided the hassle of eating at the Garden Cafe the first day by going to O-Sheenan's instead. The hostess told us the wait would be 20-30 minutes. But, it turned out to be only a few minutes before we were seated. The food at this Irish pub was pretty good and there were so many items that looked good on the menu that I had a lot of difficulty deciding what to order. Read more