New York to Miami - Embarkation and Sail Away on Oceania Insignia

Next morning we shopped for take aboard cruise wine (3 bottles allowed per cabin for in-cabin consumption :)) and called Uber with our package and bags in tow. 15 minutes later, we were at Pier 88 and walking through the smoothest cruise ship embark we’ve ever experienced.  

Once on board, we went up to the 9th deck and ate lunch in the Terrace Cafe while we waited for our room to be ready. Included in our Welcome Aboard package was a letter detailing among other things, that our room would be ready for us at 1pm.  It was really nice to have the early boarding option (11am) since that meant we weren't twiddling our thumbs after having to check out of our hotel.  We went right from Check Out to Check In if you will...  And in addition to this convenience was being able to eat lunch and have a glass of wine while waiting for your room to be ready.

Our lunch in the Terrace Cafe was our first Oceania "buffet" experience - hmmm - they cook risotto to order in a buffet line?  Are those lobster tails? Yes, we were learning to readjust our buffet "grazing" expectations.

Our room was ready as promised at 1pm.  Once we were in, we were unpacked in 30 minutes flat. Walking in with your luggage eliminates the wait for your bags to arrive. 

Our cabin was my first "Suite" experience aboard any cruise ship - #8043 - officially designated as "Penthouse Suite" but in actuality the lowest of the three suite categories aboard Oceania - plenty of room and closet space but a single sink bathroom.

Live Orchid and Complimentary AMEX Champagne

View towards our balcony

Couch and Make up Table

Beautiful Bed with the best sheets ever

The skyline of New York City and Manhattan for our sail away was beautiful - a great back drop to the start of our cruise.

Manhattan Skyline

Once we were unpacked, we did a “walk about” top to bottom, end to end (fore and aft) of Insignia. Really nice size, not too big, not too small. Our cabin on 8 deck two doors down from the aft (rear) stairway was perfect.  9 deck is home to the Terrace Cafe, Waves, and the pool deck.  Meanwhile, the Grand Dining Room was three decks down aft on deck 5.  After we were unpacked and before sailaway, we met our Butler Rony for the first time.  

Butler?  What's a butler do on a cruise ship?  As Rony would explain over the next few days, he serves as our advocate and counselor on services aboard the ship to make our cruise memorable.  We'll get used to this but we don't really want to get too spoiled, do we?

We left Dock 88 about 5:30pm - pretty windy still - but the sky was mostly clear and the temperature was beautiful.  Our cabin was on the starboard side so we knew we'd be passing the Statue of Liberty as we sailed down the Hudson - the sun setting and providing a back light just as her lights came on - absolutely beautiful; night falling as we passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and out into the Atlantic enroute Bermuda.

New Jersey Shoreline

Her lights came on as we sailed by

Verrazano Narrows Bridge

Our first dinner in the Grand Dining room was excellent - even the arrangements for eating in the dining room were a new experience for us.  There aren't set dining times on Oceania Insignia - you go down to dinner when you feel like eating and they cook your food when you order it so it really is a "when you want it" experience rather than having "Anytime" dining on the regular cruise lines we travel.  When you select or are given "Anytime" rather than Early or Late seating, this usually means you wait, "every time", so we never recommend this selection when folks are traveling most cruise lines.  As we would find out over the next few days, we had to reset a few expectations with respect to dining on cruise ships.

We went to sleep on our first evening to the gentle rocking of pretty good Atlantic seas - 10-12' - but even though Insignia is a bit smaller than the ships we've cruised on over the past several years, her stabilizers do a great job of attenuating the motion.  Dreaming of sea days and golf in Bermuda...

New York to Miami aboard Oceania Insignia - Getting to NYC despite TS Phillipe

If one storm is good, why not have another?  Our annual summer RV trip across the USA was cut short by Hurricane Irma - now that we’re leaving on our fall trip, why not thrown another storm induced monkey wrench in things - Tropical Storm Philippe.  

Anticipating getting our last minute preps done, I’d awakened a bit earlier than planned this am. Thank goodness, because at the top of my in-box was a flight cancellation from Jet Blue (sent at 2:47am - who checks email at that time?). Our non-stop from Naples to New York City (JFK) was being replaced by a late night sleepover in Logan Airport - arrive at midnight and leave for NYC at 5:35am - who thinks of these things?  At least we would still have made our cruise on Monday but we would have missed dinner at Osteria al Doge and “Beautiful” on Broadway. Argh - what to do and what kind of last minute flight booking extortion were we going to have to deal with?

Delta non-stop into LaGuardia. $800 for two first class tickets. Why first class? We were traveling all carry-on our original Jet Blue jet; now we’re on a CRJ which basically has no carry-on space for roller bags.  The other factor was that we have no “status” on non-Star alliance flights so if we’d gone coach, we wouldn’t  have had room to stow our cell phone by the time we could board. 

Arrival at LGA scheduled for 4:28 after ATC delays - more stress until Valerie says, “Why don’t we eat dinner after the play?” On to Open Table, dinner res at Osteria al Doge moved from 5:30 to 9:45... Girls are so smart....

Getting Uber from Laguardia Terminal C  - after departing baggage pickup, walk across the street to the median, Passenger Pickup Point #1 is to your left.  It was about a 30 minute ride into mid-town Manhattan with fair amount of traffic in the rain. Arrived at the Best Western Premier Herald Square - our second stay at a BW Premier. 

Really love our location - a block off of Broadway - great reception and a modern, European decor in room.  Room not expansive but efficient and clean.  I am liking these BW Premiers - great locations in the middle of the action.   By the way, Keen - a steak house and rated very highly on Trip Advisor is on the same block, same side of the street as the BW Herald Square. 

BWP - Herald Square

BWP - Herald Square Room

View from our room

Walking to the Stephen Sondheim and stopping along the way for a drink.  Destination - The Knickerbocker Hotel St Cloud roof top bar. Sticker shock - $17 and $22 for a glass of wine.  But nice setting and if the weather had been better the view from the rooftop would have been awesome.  All together I think we may have walked 8 blocks from our hotel to the theater - easy walk even though it was raining and windy.

The Knickerbocker - right across the street from Sondheim

Orchestra Pit Front Row Seats

The theater was lovely - the seats were impeccable thanks to our American Express card - Row A 107 and 108 in the Orchestra - basically front row center - the orchestra conductor’s head was right in front of us.  Beautiful was amazing - the lead who played Carole King (Chilina Kennedy) brought an empathy and energy to the part that just blossomed on stage in front of us.  

Our Playbill

After the play it was time to head to Osteria al Doge - and best of all, since it was raining cats and dogs, we found a short cut right across the street from the theater through a parking garage breezeway that kept us dry most of the way.  On the far side of the garage, we made a quick right and there was Osteria al Doge.

Meyers Parking shortcut to Osteria Al Doge

Caprese - Osteria al Doge

Osteria al Doge gave us a perfect table up front where we could see folks walking by under their umbrellas and getting a feel for the rhythm of NY streets on a rainy Sunday night.  By the time we finished dinner, the rain had left up quite a bit so it was a pretty dry 8 block walk back to our hotel.

Osteria al Doge