Sea Days Departing

We began the cruise in New York City at the refurbished Pier 88 and the check-in went smoothly  Our ship. the Gem, is the newest in the Norwegian line and has all the latest amenities such as Internet in your cabin, interactive TV as well as the best entertainment and staff for her inaugural season. 
This cruise was starting on a great note as we were quite happy to not have the stroller, diapers, baby food, room monitor, Disney Princess night-light and baby bottles along for this trip.  I did, however, bring DiPiro's Pharmacotherapy: A pathophysiologic approach (it weighs a mere nine pounds...).

We had two adjoining ocean view cabin rooms and while we missed our balcony, it was nice to have some privacy from the kids. They had their own room and settled in quite nicely.

Abby, and even Ben, adored the Kid's Club and Bruce and I were able to attend shows, have romantic dinners and generally enjoy ourselves.  The weather was spectacular and the beaches were fantastic.  We logged in a lot of snorkeling time and built many, many sand castles.