Embarkation

We flew to NY on a direct flight with no problems and had a car and driver waiting for us on the ground so we were able to go straight from the airport to the pier. We got there about 10:30, they were right there to take our luggage.

I heard some complaints about embarkation from people who hadn’t gone out of NY before BUT I’ll tell you it was a big improvement on last year. The VIP section is still up front and not really what people expect but the people running things had a better grasp of where they should send people and preventing people from jumping lines, etc. The ship was late getting those before us off the ship so people were straggling out for quite some time. It was as organized as any of these things tend to be. They had added more chairs, more employees from NY and more computers to get people checked in. They had also worked out their issue with having you fill out the same documents at the pier that you had already completed with your funpass so that sped things up considerably. We had 3 huge wedding parties plus a couple of large groups including a “touring” TA group that was only there to tour the ship before getting off so even if you were VIP you had to wait for them all to get on.

One improvement would be if they had big signs in appropriate places so people would know where to go at the beginning instead of having to ask, etc. Even with the last passengers debarking late, we were onboard and having lunch by 12:15. They had changed the time to get into rooms until 2pm so we had a nice relaxing lunch at Horatio’s, double checked our Nick and Nora’s reservations we had made online which were perfect and then headed to our room.

Cabin 8273, category 11, aft wraparound

There is nothing more that I can say about this cabin other than perfection! OMG! The view from this enormous balcony was amazing! I’ll be posting tons of pictures of it and even a narrated video of both the cabin and balcony as soon as I can get everything done I’m working on from this cruise for our cruise website so I’ll let you know. It’s divided into areas. It has a living room area, a separate bedroom, a vanity room area, walk in closet and bathroom. Our deck had 3 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a table on it already but you could easily put 5 or 6 lounge chairs out there with no problem. We were on the 8th deck so our deck only had total shade on the left wrap part. The larger section facing aft had a smaller overhang making it hard to be out there in the rain unless you’re sitting in chairs on the side that‘s totally covered but great for laying out in the sun. Looking straight down from our deck, you have the slant of the ship but you can only see those on other decks beneath you IF they are leaning on their railing looking out. You can not see the balcony itself. The dividers are the frosted plexi-glass dividers and there are large lights on these balconies for sitting out at night.

The bathroom has the double sinks, Jacuzzi tub with detachable shower head. There are 4 shelves on either end of the sinks and to doors, one under each sink area with 2 shelves. There are hooks on the back of the door for bathrobes, etc. Yes, there’s shampoo and liquid body wash in dispensers in the tub area. They provide the little bowel with complimentary items in the bathroom but we don’t use them since I bring things. Items such as razors, tide pen, etc. On the wall is also a 2 way pull out make up mirror.

There are 2 TV’s and 2 VCR’s in this cabin, one in the bedroom and one in the living room area as well as 2 phones. The bedroom has the 2 twin beds which make into a queen with that great bedding, a chair and a dresser with 4 drawers. Over the dresser is the area with a door behind which is the safe. There is also a lamp on either side of the bed on a bedside table which also has 3 smaller drawers in them. The area under the bed will handle 4 large suitcases easily and even more if they fit inside each other. The extra chair is in the corner and the room has 3 large windows from the floor to the ceiling that look out on the deck and the ocean.