The morning of the cruise was thankfully clear and sunny. So I started looking for a ride to the cruise port. I really hate the Brooklyn cruise terminal. It's expensive and inconvenient to get to if you don't have someone to drive you there. I first tried a New York City rideshare app that everyone was touting, and that was a resounding fail. So I started looking at Uber and Lyft. Lyft was about $20 cheaper than Uber so that's who I went with, and the ride was $55 plus tip and took half an hour.
Revel Rideshare was a big Fail
The QM2 allows pet cats & dogs. They have to stay in kennels and I think they only have 24 of them.
I was apparently the only person that thought this was a good idea. But I wasn't interested in starting off three months in Europe with a cold or Covid.
The boarding process was miserable, and took forever. It was not an auspicious start to the cruise.
My cabin, 6293, was a category BY sheltered balcony.
One design fail was that the containers for the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were on the counter by the toilet. The shelf in the shower was only large enough for one of them.
Having the light was nice, but the metal enclosure of the balcony meant that there was no way to see the ocean from the room when you were sitting down. And for me, it was hard even when standing up.
There were UK and US outlets.
Bed made up for the evening.
Thai Fish Cakes
Salmon
This was the watermelon appetizer. I saw it on other peoples tables and it looked really good. So I actually ordered it for dessert. It was really good.
Great coffee
After dinner petit fours
We couldn't sail until after 9 PM as it needed to be low tide in order for us to fit under the Verrazano bridge.
I walked around the ship and checked out some of the areas. There were some nice places on deck two and three where tables were set up next to the windows and some of them had games and puzzles.
There was a nice computer center. You don't see that on many ships these days.
I told myself I would need to remember to come back and check this out in the daytime. They are very strict about no stray light pollution into the bridge. The light blocking curtains are drawn on the library and other forward facing lounges etc. Forward facing cabins are also required to have the curtains drawn at night.
The laundry rooms are complementary, and even included free detergent sheets.
The library is wonderful.
Google posted some of these photos out of order, and really resisted my efforts to move them, so I left them where they are. :-)
