PelicanBill

I would get straight over there by taxi as soon as you can. All aboard is 1:00pm if your sail time is 3:00!

I am shooting to drive in at 10:00am myself. I figure that's check in about 10:30 and wait a little bit before boarding starts.

You read more about this on the Getaway because it is one of the new ships sailing the open North Atlantic waters all the time. These seas are very variable and will be rougher on average than the caribbean. On some days it is real rough. The ship cannot slow down and deploy stabilizers as often as other ships might because it needs to make time when enroute to/from NYC.

So yes, you will get more potential for movement. Pack seabands and dramamine. We sailed RCL Explorer of the Seas and Voyager of the Seas when they sailed out of Bayonne. THose itineraries were 9 days with 2 days transit each direction. That gave more leeway for slowing in rough seas. And we saw some super rough seas... so much the dining rooms were empty and once the open decks were all closed!

Yup, Bobolink Bar by the lagoon. See you there.

wow. Well, sounds the same as Ocho Rios and a few other ports. Gotta be steel to walk around I guess!

We are doing the Athos Boat tour and snorkel, since my wife does not snorkel but my daughter and I do. Just $39pp.

You won't see many small or medium boats out these days because ice is a danger. The big ships have to move carefully and slowly. You don't want your prop to act like the world's largest fruity drink maker.

If you watch the NYC port and harbor cams, you can actually see the ice flow back and forth with the tides.

Thanks for these awesome instructions. Convinced me to drive in and park at the pier and THEN to stay at a downtown hotel the night before.

I have been using Google streetview to navigate the way in (you can't go up to the ship terminal, but you can see the ramp in the pictures.)

My hotel will be on W 54th st just past 7th ave so I will be able to follow these instructions but turn L onto W 55th. Down to the garage at my hotel, then back on 55th, cross over the west side highway, and turn left, and resume these instructions. Easy.

And I figure leaving in my own car from the port saves me almost 2 hours getting home when we get back (instead of waiting for a pickup, getting to our car, etc.)

We are on the NCL Breakaway at the end of March and plan to spend Saturday in Manhattan before the cruise starts on Sunday.

We looked at our options and decided to stay at a hotel in the (expensive - $350 with tax is a "bargain") and parking at $60 for 24 hours after deciding the time and cost to get in and out of the city would have quickly counted up toward that extra $200. It will be worth it for the convenience of being right there in the theater district. Also it means a slow Sunday morning breakfast rather than a rush to getup and drive in.

We chose the London NYC Hotel on 54th st which has valet parking or a garage directly across the street.

We also chose to park at the pier because - good parking rate, and, no waiting for a car or shuttle to pick us up, get to our car, and then start our drive home. We'll save 2 hours time getting home this way. Again, worth the parking cost to us. We know that pick up is a madhouse at the pier - hard to spot your driver, hard for them to get to you.

Not sure I see what port you are driving to! Hunt around here there are usually references to hotels that will do this... but feel free to call a hotel and ask to speak with the manager to ask if they'd allow it. Question is do they have a shuttle that will drop off and pick up... pick ups are such a hassle...s tie up the shuttle a long time so many won't and you'll have to get a taxi.

Others are just too far away and you have to get a car service any way - that often negates the parking savings.

And in vacations, all that money is discretionary spend. So the best way to part my money from me is to create a good value - then I am happy to spend it.

I like the unlimited beverage and dining packages - if those are of interest then they are a great value. A single watered down drink at 8.95 going up to 9.95 is NOT a good value and I won't buy more than a few of those!

I don't care for NCL's nickel and diming at bakery, ince cream, pizza, coffee, etc. Royal Carribean and Carnival both give you more basics and are a little more free-style in that regard.

Getting a decent cup of coffee was such a challenge in the past that for my next cruise in 4 weeks on the Breakaway I will be bringing a Melita carafe with pourover top and my favorite ground beans, even if they are over-roasted.

I will order hot water from room service.

Now I am wondering what sort of whitener I will find on NCL.... dare I hope for real half-n-half?

I'd like to think the Breakaway and Gem are serving only Soda at this time, however, that would mean they are serving NY Pizza too.

I get the $5 fee for a whole pizza delivered "anywhere anytime." Is there really no place to just get a slice of pizza? On other ships I would often go get a slice for a snack... my whole family may not want to share my late night craving!

Thanks to both of you!

Where exactly is the parking at the pier? on the pier or nearby? My wife has a bad knee and I see you cannot drop off before you park. That alone might make me want to park elsewhere and get dropped off by taxi or car service.

You see a lot of progress now comparing to that white flashing light! A good 5 degrees over the last 2 hours.

The water seems to be getting a bit rougher. Hope that doesn't cause to many problems

Somewhere I read a storm is coming in during the night but that it will not affect operations.

What journal format are you using?

One year we got scrapbook pages, and I did Internet searches for small maps of the countries/islands we were visiting, flags, and some activity pictures and we pasted those in and wrote around them.

Our daughter is 8 now and we just use a spiral bound journal book and she writes and draws in it.