Following the normal life boat drill, passengers were strongly encouraged to join the party on decks 11 and 12. Nobody needed to be encouraged.  People had been looking forward to the ship entering the harbor all day.  The Liberty of the Seas was given permission to sail north to the Statue of Liberty, which isn’t always afforded to departing ships.  This alone made going on this cruise worth the time and effort.

Being on the boat deck, surrounded by the big gray city on one side, a working port on another, and the bay everyplace else, is surreal.  The ship contrasts so sharply it is like being in a waking dream.  And as it starts to edge forward from the pier it almost feels like you are at an amusement park that has just slipped into the water and is floating out to sea.

If you are familiar with Royal Caribbean ships, you know the Viking Crown lounge is where you can get the best view on the ship.  True enough, on Liberty of the Seas, the view was stunning.

Below, you can see the passenger parking lot, which for this cruise, was directly across from the ship.  For those disembarking, can be a great advantage.  In the distance, you can see the massive golf course and new clubhouse being built at the summit of the course.

The USS Growler (SSG-577) a Grayback class guided nuclear missle submarine currently sits along the pier at Cape Liberty.  She was one of four ships built to carry and launch Regulus cruise missles, one of which can be seen on her deck here.

The Growler will return to her pier along with USS Intrepid as soon as she completes renovations in 2008.

To appreciate the size of a ship such as Liberty of the Seas, consider that I took these photos from a lounge so high in the air, that I am looking DOWN on the top of the ships radar mast.

I have no idea what this is a memorial too.  The statue is nice, but I can not say as to what connection, if any, there is with the mural on the building behind it.

So it went that Liberty was free of the pier and on her way.  Tomorrow it is onto the Statue of Liberty.

Embarkation at Cape Liberty Cruise Port is not as you might expect it. If you are well versed in travel out of the Port of Miami, there are really few common elements I found. To start with, getting onto a ship requires a few steps, rides on a bus or two, and takes place in a location very much unlike what you have seen before.

The port, such as it is, has been located at a former military facility in Bayonne, New Jersey. It is a matter of a few miles away from Newark airport, and affords a sweeping view of New York City, and the waters leading to the Atlantic.

The area itself is spartan.  This is going to change, and quickly it seems, as condo and shopping centers are constructed in the being cleared at the port itself.  The entire area seems to buzz with economic potential.  It may be a blank canvas at the moment.  However it does seem to be the best location for a cruise port.  The classic ocean liner piers on Manhattan and the Carnival facility in Brooklyn are attractive to an extent.  But as cruise traffic grows, Cape Liberty will surly prove its worth.

In the picture above, you can see two of the massive warehouses that appear to have a future as cruise facilities.  The wide open, flat space in the port, provides for exceptionally easy ingress and egress of cargo, passengers, and people driving to the port themselves.  At the top of the picture, you can see the USS Intrepid, which at the time was undergoing 6 million in renovations.

A small shuttle bus’ can be seen to the lower left.  These proceed to the awnings on the one story warehouse to the north. It is there that most of the processing takes place.  Also note the awnings, just visible here, on the east half of the building.  It is here the transfer bus’ let passengers off.  Once inside, you have an extremely wide-open space.  This has allowed Royal Caribbean to spread people out, and eliminate some of the crowded feel the Port of Miami can have when Customs is delaying things.

One can not help but be taken by the sights.  There may not be any port in America, which can boast of having so much to constantly look at.  The sites are enough to really extend the excitement of departure day.  Normally it is over in an hour, leaving Cape Liberty, it lasts hours.

Next post, I’ll start into casting off from the pier.  Always a highlight of any cruise, traveling from Cape Liberty becomes a mix of history, patriotism, and beach party!

When I was invited to take a short cruise on Liberty of the Seas I had the choice of flying into Newark and LaGuardia airports.  Royal Caribbean sails out of the Cape Liberty cruise port in Bayonne, New Jersey.  It is only a few miles away from Newark airport.  LaGuardia is located on the far side of Manhattan in New York proper.  Not having been to New York City before, I choose to fly into LaGuardia.  Experienced passengers of recent RCI and other departures from Bayonne, indicated the transfers from LaGuardia afforded a modest tour of Manhattan.  The tour, Combined with saving $60 flying into the lesser of the major area airports, made LaGuardia my first choice.
Having said that, don’t confuse “first choice” with a comment as to the nature of flying into LaGuardia.  The runways are small and cross each other.  The terminals are ancient, and their exteriors are staggeringly decrepit and ugly.  Never the less, my flight from Port Columbus Airport (Ohio,) was short and uneventful.  I did get to see a great view of the early morning skyline of New York City, and crowds were sparse at every point.  Liberty of the Seas was clearly visible from the plane.  The entire area looks far smaller than you would expect it too.  My small Canadair Regional Jet, flown by Delta Eagle, made liberal use of its breaks before pulling off the runway.

Having arrived at 8 a.m. I had to wait until 12 noon to get a transfer to Bayonne, which was my own doing.

The bus took the Holland Tunnel to Manhattan, before providing a ground level view of the Big Apple.

You instinctively expect everybody around you to walk around, staring at the sights.  Then you remember that people actually live in this place.  NYC had been an ominous sounding abstraction to me prior to this cruise. I have never had any ambition to travel there, and will not feel deprived if I never see the place again.  But this incidental travel did make the nearly mythical city look and feel more human.  The earth won’t open and swallow you if you were to travel there for some other reason.

The shadows were hard to get used to.  For obvious reasons, you can not avoid them, but it still was a bit disconcerting to seem constantly moving into pitched shadows.

You can see the Empire State Building from most all the points on a cruise from and back from Bayonne.  What strikes you, much like the rest of the city, is how drab and brownish all things seem.  You expect darker shades, more contrast, not a washed out hazy look to everything.

Crossing into New Jersey, you start to gain views of the Statue of Liberty.  You only occasionally lose sight of it as the bus approaches the port.  The area starts to look more and more like a middle-class suburb as you near the port.  Still a bit dirty, but there is clearly a great deal of major development going on near the port.  Finally, the bus pulls into the port complex.  It is spartan, with little to be seen, save for a lot of soon to be built on land, converted warehouses, and space that seems to almost buzz with the potential the site has.

Overall the trip was smooth and enjoyable.  For some people, a trip to New York City can seem intimidating I’m sure.  I am a fairly veteran traveler by air and sea, but even I wondered if there wouldn’t be something really different about this trip.  But if this example of corn-feed Midwestern stock can survive travel through “that city,” it surly isn’t a big deal.  Cliche as it is to say, if you can make it “there” you can make it anywhere.

As such, I would say that if you have never been to New York City before, it is not a bad thing if you arrive on an early flight and use LaGuardia.  The incidental sight seeing is more than worth the extra few hours of travel time.  However, if you have the means, as always, I recommend coming into the area the night before at least, regardless of which airport you use.  If you can manage an extra day before your cruise, I would strongly recommend using Newark, a New Jersey hotel near the port, and using the many ways to take a day trip in order to see the Big Apple.

I’ll talk a bit more about the port and embarkation in Tuesdays post.  If you have questions, comments, or jokes, join the message board and let me know!

I may need a week to recover the sleep I didn’t get this week.  However, without question the two days I enjoyed aboard Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas proved worth the sacrifice.

The first photos will go up here on the blog Saturday afternoon, and I expect to have several weeks worth of daily posts with photos and details from RCI’s newest and finest ship.  Needless to say there many interesting stories to be told.

Truly the world must be near an end, if this mid-western boy has traveled to New York city.

On some level, my need to assure an early arrival, I was mad enough to book a flight out of Columbus, Ohio, which required me to wake at 4 a.m.  That said, the lack of human life I had to deal with in leaving Cow-lumbus was worth avoiding.

I arrived in New York at just shy of 8 a.m.  The plane approached LaGuardia from the south, affording a stunning view of Bayonne where the Liberty of the Seas loomed large.  Great view of the city, Empire State building, etc.  Basically clear sky.  I will say the talk about LaGuardia being a hairy approach are dead-on.  I could pick out strips on the ties of the people I was flying over as the dinky regional jet approached the runway.

I will say the city was not nearly as impressive as I was expecting.  Indeed, the vast and flat landscape that surrounds it in every direction took some of the awe people seem to express when seeing it.  The city looks drab, cramped, dirty, like some version of the opening of Barney Miller.  Still, morning haze must have something to do with that.

As for not having flown since 1999, it didn’t strike me as much different, aside from the abject stupidity of taking my shoes off and the farce that is the increased security.  Granted, at this stage, I’ve only see what it is like leaving Columbus.  I’m more curious as to what it will be like leaving by way of NYC.  If what they call security is as bad, I’ll truly question what all the money is being blown for.
 
In a couple of hours RCI will be toting me across the city to the port for the promotional cruise I was invited on.  My spouse denies that it counts, but I will indeed physically be inside the heart of New York for a half hour or so.  This was why I choose to fly into LaGuardia above all else.  I did see how close Newark was by air, but the extra $60 and lesser sight-seeing opportunity isn€™t worth the shorter drive to a spartan port.

I’m stuck in the US Airways baggage claim area until the RCI transportation arrive.  I’ve only been asked three times if I need a taxi by men that look like enforcers from the Sopranos.  It is interesting to see the world of taxies at work here.  I€™m sure I€™ll never touch this computer again until I€™m off of Liberty of the Seas later this week.  However, when and if I do, you€™ll know about it here.

For now, I see an amazingly over-priced hotdog wrapped in a some kind of roll.