This was our third trip out of NY with Carnival. The other two were with Miracle, a ship we prefer. We caught a direct bus out of Newburgh, as we live North of NY. The bus is run by Yankee Trails and is highly recommended and reasonably priced. Certainly cheaper then parking at the NY Dock.

Sailing out of NY was wonderful as always. It is a thrilling sail away. How foolish for the spa to run their, must be present lottery for spa credit during sail away. I left.

We booked a spa cabin for access to the spa steam,sauna,hot pool, and easy access to the serenity area with it's padded lounge chairs. This turned out to be a waste of extra money. We love spas and use them frequently. This spa was ridiculously overpriced (and we're New Yorkers who travel). They certainly had spa sales where the prices became reasonable ie $60 for a massage, but the offered times for good prices were not. So we went without. As to access to the thallasotherapy pool, they couldn't have made it harder. You had to trade your sail away card for a spa card and get a band around your wrist every single time you wanted to use the pool as it was kept locked. Why not have my sail away card automatically keyed for the spa areas, since I was in a spa cabin? Very inconvenient. Anyway the thallasotherapy pool was empty on various days for " maintenance". And closes at 10 for the night, just when we would have wanted to go in. The cabin itself was standard but had a slightly larger balcony then the others. The Elemis toiletries were lovely. Our steward was perfect. Kept us in ice and emptied the fried so we could use it for our own soda. We brought plastic cups and made ourselves sodas in the room to take out to sit in the sun with. Read more