The last leg of our epic adventure begins today. A grumpy Uber driver Jose picked us up from the hotel and took us to Cape Liberty cruise port. We drove straight in, unloaded our bags from the vehicle which were taken by crew and loaded onto trolleys ready to be checked and taken to our rooms later on. We were directed down to a large blue doorway and as soon as we got inside we were guided down the assistance aisle. After having our tickets and passports scanned and searched we were sent on our way.
There was no information on when we could go to the cabins, where to pick up the keys, and in a nutshell we were roaming like lost sheep. We finally asked at the guest services, and were told the cabin key cards were outside the cabin doors. Splendid. We already knew what number our cabin as that was on our tickets, so we decided to go and have a look at it and dump the little backpack there. The lifts are a nightmare, packed, and take along time to arrive, then stop at every floor as more people try to squeeze in. What fresh hell is this????
Our cabin was on deck 12, and it took us a while to find it. There is a door with nothing on it to indicate the cabins were through them and we only found them by accident. Our cabin looked ok, bed, sofa bathroom, basically everything we needed. However Mildred wouldn’t fit through the door. We tried all ways to get her in and in the end had to admit defeat. Back down to guest services to see if they had a cabin with a wider doorway they could put us in. We were told that until everyone was on board we wouldn’t know if they could oblige us with our request. The cruise isn’t full, there are around 500 passengers less than there could be so that is at least 250 spare cabins so we were hopeful! They said they’d call the cabin and let us know if they had a different one, the same cabin we couldn’t get into…
Anyway, as we couldn’t get into the cabin, we had a bit of a recce, and found the coffee shop, restaurants, shops, bars and the entertainment venues. We had a snack in the restaurant and went out on to the deck to make the most of the sunshine. Our departure time from New Jersey was supposed to have been 1500hours, but we were late hoiking up the anchor and didn’t set sail until 1545 hours. The captain announced that as the ship was leaving New York for the last time, he was going to go up the Hudson so we could all get some great photos of the New York Skyline and the Statue of Liberty. We sailed up the Hudson for a good distance which gave lots of opportunities to take photos. We contemplated a river cruise yesterday and were glad now we didn’t do it as we had it as a Brucie bonus today. Turning the ship in the river was a success, and didn’t take as long as I thought it would given the vastness of the ship. As we went back down the river we were able to see New Jersey’s skyline, which I actually prefer to New York’s, and the Statue of Liberty. Now she is significantly smaller than I expected her to be, all the photos and films I’ve seen of her make her appear massive and she’s really not.
We finally hit the open ocean and started our first day of 6, at sea. Yes you heard that right, 6 days at sea. No land, just seriously deep water. Shoot me now. There are plenty of sun loungers to sit on right around the ship on the top two decks, several heated pools, hot tubs and a Lazy river. It also has a solarium that is adults only, no ankle biters allowed, which was nice, and very warm. The very top deck is for people who are in the suites only and they have their own lift so they don’t have to ride with the peasants and their own facilities up there too. Just behind the pools there is a contraption that is a viewing deck and it lifts out over the sea an extra 300m high making it the tallest viewing point of any ship (I think that’s what it said on the blurb). It’s not an included activity, and is $19 per person just to look at the water from 300 metres higher up.
On the back of the ship is a wave machine where you can surf and bodyboard, it seems to be really popular with everyone. Si isn’t up for a go, especially after he read a notice informing that it could cause death. I’m not sure why, but that put him off it big time… back inside the ship and directly behind the wave pool is the activity place which has bumper cars, pickle ball table tennis and Lord knows what else, oh and a hot dog place to eat at.
The windjammer restaurant is on deck 14 of 15 and is a buffet style with different counters offering salads, pasta, hot meats, vegetables, curries, Asian food, desserts and bakery. Also there are the drink stations. I like this eating joint as it has so much choice and looks delicious. The My Time dining room is on deck 3 and I’ve booked dinner at 1700hrs for us for the duration of the cruise. It’s formal with a different menu every night and the same waiting staff. There are 3 sittings and I booked the earlier one as we’d rather eat earlier. The final sitting is at 2100hrs and that’s way too late to eat, besides it’s bedtime!
Deck 4 has shops and they try to sell you expensive shit. It also houses the theatre, some bars, coffee shops, cruise gift shop and a pizza place. It’s pretty noisy there and not too many places to sit in comfort, although there is some nice hot chocolate and cookies…. Deck 4 is also where the muster point is, the safety briefing is on the cruise app that you download and it ticks it off when you’ve done it. ‘Muster point’ made me feel a bit like a cowboy, without the horse.
Deck 5 is a bit quieter than the others, and has some comfortable looking chairs, a bar and a lecture theatre where there are several talks, movies, quizzes and music. It is also where the stretch classes are and tai chi. Which I may or may not attend.
As it was 1700hrs, we went to the Chic restaurant for our dinner. It’s menu operated and has a massive selection. We have two servers Ladylin and Nimesh, both lovely, they make a point to use our names, which is nice. The food was delicious and they even had dairy free icecream.. how happy was I?
After dinner Si went to check out the room situation and as there were two missed calls on the machine we went to Guest services and asked them if there was any update. We were given an alternative room, and they said for us to go and try it and if it was ok to return our original key. It’s on deck 10 and right at the back of the ship and although it wasn’t as close to the lifts at least poor Mildred could fit through the door. It was still a tight squeeze but the door opened towards us which made things easier. The cabin is a bit bigger too, which is always a bonus. Right opposite the door is a live screen of the view from the back of the boat, draw the curtains on that as soon as you like, I don’t want to be seeing that when I’m trying to sleep later. As we fit through the door, Si went to collect our bags from the old room as they had been delivered there earlier, before taking the old keys back. He came back up with new key cards/sea pass with the fresh room number on and what package we’d signed up for.
Now that the room was sorted I had to go on damage limitation to Mildred’s self esteem. It had taken a battering with the door incident and she was constantly asking if her bum looked big, and she’s now refusing to eat….
We decided to go and have a look at the bar downstairs and do some people watching. The bar had soft squishy seats and were a joy to sit in. It was very dark there which was nice, with some mood lighting. I almost jumped out of my skin when the music started, it was so loud. Very good but loud! Si had a beer, and for some reason we had to tip despite having paid the pre tips at the time of booking. Rude.
Leaving there around 2100 because we were both a bit tired we went back to the cabin. I feel I must point out that this boat is VERY wobbly and frankly quite dangerous. There are however handrails down the corridors so that’s something I guess.
Much Love
X
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