From Canada…to Canada: Discovering Liberty, Eh? – LB 08/24/23 – 09/02/23

[SweetPea]

Newark: the armpit of NJ. This is a test.  How is Newark pronounced?

A) new-ARK

B) New-ark

C) Nork

Glad you made it safely! Enjoy the weather. We're in for a bit of rain tomorrow, but we're west NJ. I will say a novena the rain stays out west for a sunny embarkation for you!

[OCSC Mike]

28 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Newark: the armpit of NJ.

Too many jokes come to mind as a native of the Philly burbs but I have many fond memories of summers at the Jersey shore(s) so I'll leave you guys alone.

[Xaa]

Happy Birthday @DDaley

[Lovetocruise2002]

2 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Newark: the armpit of NJ. This is a test.  How is Newark pronounced?

A) new-ARK

B) New-ark

C) Nork

B? Lol

[asquared17]

5 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Newark: the armpit of NJ.

sometimes i think of how terrible it is that when you fly in, all you see are factories and smokestacks and endless traffic. people are like.... 'new jersey. you're kidding. it's beautiful?'

to which i say... no no it's terrible, please don't visit

i like to think of it as the gatekeeper of the state; we want to make sure you reeeeeeeally want to be here

[Lovetocruise2002]

We are so tired! Going to try and backtrack the day from when we checked into the hotel and then head to bed. 

Staying at the Intercontinental Times Square. We like this property. It’s close to Times Square and once here, we can easily walk to pretty much wherever in midtown/Manhattan. This Intercontinental is not quite up to par with the Intercontinental Miami, also no club lounge, but for the prime location, it works well for us. 

Today we have a King Corner Suite. Kids are sharing the sofa bed tonight.

Because it’s a corner room, views from 3 windows.

[Lovetocruise2002]

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to do something totally free, but something the kids have always wanted to do. Don’t laugh. If you watched the IG stories, you already know, our “loose plans” today was the New York Public Library. 

On our way to the library, we stopped by Times Square. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

NYPL

[SweetPea]

2 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

B? Lol

Incorrect. (I think you're thinking of Newark, DE).   But we're still friends!

C) Nork!

[Lovetocruise2002]

The main reason we wanted to come here was for the Treasures collection. It was well worth it. Inside there is a nice collection of “first works” from Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Euclid, various aspects of US History, and much more. We found this both interesting and we learned quite a lot too. 
 

[Lovetocruise2002]

After spending about two hours in the library, most of the time spent going through the Treasures collection, we headed around the corner to Grand Central Terminal. We had never been here either in all our trips to NYC. It reminded us of King’s Cross station in London.

[Lovetocruise2002]

After we were done going through Grand Central Terminal, we were losing steam big time. There was a restaurant (Mad Dog & Beans) that I had discovered online a few weeks ago. They have fried ice cream on their menu and you all know that we cannot resist places that have that on their menus. We headed over there for an early dinner. 

Dinner was good but still not my beloved La Bamba. I feel like we will forever be chasing and looking for a La Bamba replacement. 

Took another wander through Times Square on the way back to the hotel. 

No energy to do anything else. It’s been a long day and tomorrow is cruise day! 

[Ampurp85]

Wow your daughters look so much like a perfect mixture of you and your husband. There is a running joke that when my brother and I travel with our mother and grandmother, people get confused. They think our grandmother is the mother and the three of us are siblings. I can see people saying the same to you, that your children could be younger siblings .

Also, who would laugh???? I love a good museum and library. That view is amazing, and I love the water bottles in little bags like they are a gift. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

What an incredible choice of things to do.  I’m impressed.  Big day tomorrow !

[Xaa]

5 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Wow your daughters look so much like a perfect mixture of you and your husband

I had that exact same thought as I looked at the closeups.  I would look at one and @Lovetocruise2002 and see great resemblance and then I would look at Mr. Lovetocruise2002 and also see the resemblance.  Happened with both of the girls.  It was beautiful and freaky at the same time.

I endorse the choice of the library.  Very good call!

[Sweety]

23 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Today’s travelling essentials:

I have one. I love it.

[Lovetocruise2002]

10 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Wow your daughters look so much like a perfect mixture of you and your husband. There is a running joke that when my brother and I travel with our mother and grandmother, people get confused. They think our grandmother is the mother and the three of us are siblings. I can see people saying the same to you, that your children could be younger siblings .

Also, who would laugh???? I love a good museum and library. That view is amazing, and I love the water bottles in little bags like they are a gift. 

Haha! I think they both look like Hubby. But then there are times when D17 looks like my sisters and I. Also, there is some resemblance between my girls and my nieces. So I guess there are traces of me in them lol

9 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

What an incredible choice of things to do.  I’m impressed.  Big day tomorrow !

The girls loved it. Especially D15. 

4 hours ago, Xaa said:

I had that exact same thought as I looked at the closeups.  I would look at one and @Lovetocruise2002 and see great resemblance and then I would look at Mr. Lovetocruise2002 and also see the resemblance.  Happened with both of the girls.  It was beautiful and freaky at the same time.

I endorse the choice of the library.  Very good call!

As far as looks go, I still think they look more like Hubby. However, personality wise, D17 is pretty much all me with Hubby’s goofiness/extrovert nature added in. D15 is pretty much all Hubby, with a dose of my introvert nature. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

It’s cruise day! Trying get the kids moving right now so we can get out of here. The plan is to head to the port around 9:30am. 

[LandstromCruise]

13 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It’s cruise day! Trying get the kids moving right now so we can get out of here. The plan is to head to the port around 9:30am. 

How can they not be so excited to get to the ship that they are jumping out of bed???  On my cruise day I barely sleep and can’t wait to get up and get going. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

16 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

How can they not be so excited to get to the ship that they are jumping out of bed???  On my cruise day I barely sleep and can’t wait to get up and get going. 

They are classic teenagers, need I say more? Lol

[SweetPea]

Bon Voyage!

[bellemiche]

Enjoy your trip! Excited to follow along!

[ellcee]

13 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to do something totally free, but something the kids have always wanted to do. Don’t laugh. If you watched the IG stories, you already know, our “loose plans” today was the New York Public Library. 

On our way to the library, we stopped by Times Square. 

I love this. I work across the street from Madison Square Garden  and worked in Times Square before that and never have been. I go nowhere. lol. Occasionally I'll go in for a show but only when a friend wants to drive in. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Happening now lol

[SweetPea]

i had to do it! Windjammer, Garden Cafe (Norwegian's WJ) = cruise hell for me! 

Are you doing ok?!

[WAAAYTOOO]

So, no [good] news for RoyalUp ?

[OCSC Mike]

29 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

i had to do it! Windjammer, Garden Cafe (Norwegian's WJ) = cruise hell for me! 

Are you doing ok?!

Oh it's not so bad... you just have to go at the right times. If I do a semi-live report for our next few cruises it will be filled with WJ info, lol.

[LandstromCruise]

Starting the cruise off at the windjammer is a ritual for me. Usually basically head straight there which is great because it’s not that busy yet. 

[OCSC Mike]

3 minutes ago, LandstromCruise said:

Starting the cruise off at the windjammer is a ritual for me. Usually basically head straight there which is great because it’s not that busy yet. 

Exactly! When it first opens, it can be fairly empty. People haven't boarded yet, new cruisers are exploring, etc.

Now if they would just bring the paella back!

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

Are you doing ok?!

Let’s just say that food coma has not set in yet

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

So, no [good] news for RoyalUp ?

Nope. Even if we did win, that would not really change our dining situation.

49 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Oh it's not so bad... you just have to go at the right times. If I do a semi-live report for our next few cruises it will be filled with WJ info, lol.

 

29 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

Exactly! When it first opens, it can be fairly empty. People haven't boarded yet, new cruisers are exploring, etc.

It was pretty quite when we first showed up. We were even one of the first ones in line before they opened

By 11:30am it was a zoo.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Waiting for rooms to open. Kids have already disappeared. We are stuck babysitting the luggage

[OCSC Mike]

Just now, Lovetocruise2002 said:

It was pretty quite when we first showed up. We were even one of the first ones in line before they opened

By 11:30am it was a zoo.

In line before it opened... now we're talking! I approve.

It will eventually get busy on any ship but the other options on Oasis class may help on those ships. We did go to WJ on Wonder on embarkation day (only time my extended family would step foot in there, lol) and it was pretty calm for quite a while. Wonder's WJ is also pretty well designed.

[Neesa]

6 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Waiting for rooms to open. Kids have already disappeared. We are stuck babysitting the luggage

Babysitting the luggage, that's always my job. They plant me somewhere and disappear to explore. I actually love sitting in quiet by myself to start. 

Question, what did you do for transportation from the airport to your hotel and then this morning to the port? Also, would you recommend? Have a great time, enjoying this adventure so far!

[Ampurp85]

Glad you are onboard and that this has been a relatively drama/problem-free experience. 

That WJ looks dated, and I don't know.......how was the food? I mean obviously not good enough to elicit a food coma but what about selection and temps?

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, Neesa said:

Question, what did you do for transportation from the airport to your hotel and then this morning to the port? Also, would you recommend? Have a great time, enjoying this adventure so far!

We did Lyft the entire time. From airport to hotel and from hotel to port. We will do Lyft to go back to Newark as well next Saturday. It’s the easiest option. No real need for car service to sail out of NJ. 

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

Glad you are onboard and that this has been a relatively drama/problem-free experience. 

That WJ looks dated, and I don't know.......how was the food? I mean obviously not good enough to elicit a food coma but what about selection and temps?

Yes, everything has been very smooth so far. 

I am going to be blunt. This ship is dated. Or at least it feels dated. Especially coming from HM and WN as our last two sailings, this takes some getting used to. But we also picked this ship purely for its itinerary so trying to keep it in perspective. WJ for lunch was ok. Selection I would say was typical. Temps were mid. And taste, Hubby said it was typical, I thought it was not great. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

We carried on most of our luggage today. The only thing we left at the curb was our large 29 inch bag. We were in our room by 1:00pm and pretty much unpacked and settled by 2:00pm. Not sure what happens on other smaller ships but luggage that you leave on the curb doesn’t seem to be getting delivered. They were all just in a giant like near the service door in the hallway and people were all going to pick it up themselves. Maybe it’s a NJ thing? Lol But yeah, we had to go grab our own luggage from the mass pile

[Lovetocruise2002]

Backtracking a bit…

When we got the port, Hubby was leading the way. I had a major headache this morning and was not 100%. Well, no genie, and no home genie leading him, he did not look for the suites signs and walked us into general boarding. So here’s the pics from that lol.

By the time I realized what was happening, there was no point turning around. We checked in here and then walked around the the suites area. No pics though cause literally as soon as we walked up to that area, everyone was getting up already to board. 

[OCSC Mike]

2 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am going to be blunt. This ship is dated. Or at least it feels dated. Especially coming from HM and WN as our last two sailings, this takes some getting used to.

We felt the same way about Indy last year although Indy was at least updated with Playmakers. It definitely took some getting used to given that we were on nothing but Oasis class since 2015 other than one Alaska cruise that I frequently say "doesn't count" b/c it was part of such a longer, unique, special 18-day trip.

4 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Not sure what happens on other smaller ships but luggage that you leave on the curb doesn’t seem to be getting delivered. They were all just in a giant like near the service door in the hallway and people were all going to pick it up themselves. Maybe it’s a NJ thing? Lol But yeah, we had to go grab our own luggage from the mass pile

That's so funny to me... we go out of our way to FIND the pile because we like to unpack as early as possible so I'd rather roll our one suitcase each down the hall than wait for delivery.

I think I mentioned this somewhere before but when we went to do that on Wonder a crew member just about yelled at us and told us to go relax, it would be delivered, lol. And that was deck 17 where there are only the two hallways with not a ton of GS's. It was really strange that she wouldn't let us grab our luggage.

[Lovetocruise2002]

Our home for the next 9 nights is a Two Bedroom Grand Suite on Deck 8.

Kids love their space. This room is great for allowing the 4 of us to spread out but if you look closely at the pics, it is a bit worn in some areas. 

Not much opportunity to enjoy the balcony yet as it has been raining for the most part since we got on board. 

Photo dump ahead….

Entrance to the room

Second bedroom right as you enter 

Bathroom for the second bedroom. This is located inside the the room. 

Closet in the hallway for the second bedroom. The safe in this closet is the only safe in the whole room. I found this odd for a room of this type. 

Living area 

Master bedroom 

Master Bathroom 

Balcony. You can also see from these photos that there is not 100% privacy on this balcony. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

19 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

We felt the same way about Indy last year although Indy was at least updated with Playmakers.

We sailed Freedom last July but that felt different because that ship was amped. And we had the Ultimate Dining package. Before that, it was all OA/QN class. Not counting Freedom, the last non OA/QN was Indy back in 2018.