We booked this on the last day of the cruise. We had inquired about it on the second to last day but were told that all of the post-cruise excursions had been cancelled due to lack of interest. We were told that they needed a minimum of 15 people to book it, in order to run it. I told them that we were a party of 4, and if other cruisers asked about it, that we'd be interested in any of the 3 NYC excursions, so they put us on a waiting list.
They called us on the last day to say that they had 8 other people interested, and asked which airport we were going to. I told them we were going to Newark, and apparently so were the other 8, so they opened the excursion afterall. One of the women from the Port Adventures desk joined us as well.
They delivered our excursion tickets, special luggage tags, and written instructions to our cabin on the last evening.
We were to meet in Sessions at 7:45am. Then we were taken off the ship separately and taken to the VIP section to claim our luggage. We were taken right through Customs and on to the bus. 13 of us, plus the driver, and the tour guide. This was nice, we had a big comfy touring bus all to ourselves.
At first it was very cloudy and rainy out as we boarded the bus. We made our way through midtown Manhattan and by the time we got to Central Park, the sun came out!
Our excursion wasn't supposed to include a stop at Central Park but because we were running early and were a small group, we spent a little time there. It was really nice and made me miss my mom who grew up in Manhattan and always talked about Central Park.
From there we made our way to Rockefeller Plaza and we were dropped off and led inside where our tickets to the Observation Deck were ready for us. These tickets had been pre-purchased, because if we had just shown up without them, our return time would've been much later in the day. The tickets were sort of like having 'FastPass' tickets. lol
The view from the top of Rockefeller Center was magnificent. I was really surprised and impressed at just how awesome the view was from up there. We climbed a flight of stairs to the top-most section of the roof. The weather could not have been more beautiful, and there was a nice breeze blowing too. I could've stayed there for a long time, looking at the views. That high up, NYC seemed actually peaceful. You could clearly see the Statue of Liberty from there, as well as the Empire State Building, and the building of the new World Trade Center towers.
After that we went to Grand Central Terminal where the tour guide told us the history of the beautiful historic building. Then we went down a level to where there was a food court type of area and we had about 25 minutes to grab a bite to eat if we wanted.
All during the bus rides the tour guide was pointing out different buildings and spots of interest.
After Grand Central Station we headed for Newark Airport and we were dropped off right in front of our airline check-in area.
The driver got our luggage out from under the bus, and off we went. That was the official end to our cruise.
Something I just thought of: Guest Services said that they aren't able to offer airline check-in like they do when sailing out of Port Canaveral. Whether this is something that they'll work out for the next NYC cruises or not, I don't know. Since we were going on the bus tour anyway, it really didn't matter to us. In fact, I liked knowing that we had our luggage with us, until we checked it in at the airport.
It cost $129 per person (adult price), and while it wasn't cheap, it ended up to be a really nice way to end our trip, and to spend time waiting for our flight that wasn't until 5:30pm that day.
Any questions, just ask and I'll do my best to answer.
) when we get back.
