After reading many reviews on this ship we were somewhat concerned about our selection of this ship. This is my 5th cruise but first on HAL. I have been on Royal Caribean, NCL and Celebrity. This by far has been my favorite cruise for many reasons. I will review the areas individually. We wanted to make sure that others would also know this ship was great. Clean, a few MINOR things that need attention but these did not affect our vacation at all. My vacation didnt matter if a tile was missing on deck. Our windows were cleaned one day in port.

We arrived on Friday evening and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Lower Manhatten to tour around prior to our cruise. The hotel was fantastic and only a 15min taxi ride. $12+tip. I would highly recommend this locations for a pre/post cruise hotel.

Embarkation: We arrived at 1pm and quickly unloaded our bags and checked in. We were on the ship within 15minutes. Went to the front desk to ask about the cooking classes and was told there is only one we can sign up for on Friday and to watch the bulliten. I was disappointed this was hyped alot in the ads but didnt really pan out. Really appreciated the safety muster did not require wearing the jackets out. we were instructed to keep them in the rooms. So nice!! Read more