Embark day!
Siena and Brian grabbed Starbucks breakfast and walked on the Jersey City riverwalk for a bit. Rowan slept until the absolute last minute while the rest of us watched Olympics gymnastics and killed time until our noon departure.
Our Uber from Jersey City to Bayonne was smooth, same as our 5am one from our house to RDU. Our understanding was that it was a full cruise (they were even offering some people 150% future cruise credit to cancel!) so I expected chaos at the terminal but it was super-chill. Rolled right up, handed off the bags, walked through security, checked in, then right up to the ship. Once onboard, we found those crowds at the buffet.
We did the standard eat-and-explore-while-waiting-for-luggage day one routine. After awhile we were able to get into our stateroom.
Sailaway was at 4:00pm. There was an exceptional thunderstorm gathered around the NYC area, which lent an ominous backdrop to our voyage around and out of New York Harbor. Without getting rained on too much we were able to capture photos of the Statue of Liberty, lower Manhattan, and Verrazano Bridge as we were leaving.
The rest of the day was rainy and foggy, conditions that would continue the next few days. The clouds did break enough for us to capture a sunset, though, a theme that would recur multiple times through the cruise.
We found our way to the main dining room at 8:30, apparently 15 minutes late. The dining room food is… okay. There is a noticeable difference between Disney and Celebrity, with Disney providing the superior food and dining experience, but not so much of a difference where it’s a bad experience.
