NCL is unique as they allow you to bring on as many bottles as you wish, if you take the $21 pp pd package you can bring on as many bottles as you wish for free.
I’ve driven, flown, and trained to Boston from the nyc area, train is my favorite, all take about the same amount of time (including the 2 hours early for airport security). My daughter is in grad school there are she takes the train a lot more than flying (we are 20 minutes from EWR).
Are you new to cruising? You can always cancel and rebook with the lower price before final payment (NCL has refundable deposits), after final payment you get a FCC or maybe an upgrade. They lower prices as a last minute fire sale to unload unsold cabins, if you don’t care about cabin location or can drive to the port, waiting/gambling works for some. They don’t charge you more if prices increase after final payment.
I have a couple of celiac kids, at hibachis on land their food gets prepared in the back, I’d assume it would be prepared in the allergy kitchen on a cruise ship.
There shouldn’t be swim diapers, there are zero pools on any cruise ship designed for non potty trained kids, DCL and some RCCL ships have specially designed small splash pads for diapered-kids, that’s it. As a mom of 5, swim diapers contain no urine, and about 75% of poop.
We once had a horrible disembarkment due to a lack of customs officials, the MCT seemed to struggle a bit on Sundays. Since we couldn’t get off, new passengers couldn’t get on, it was a SS (those escalators are. I trolled by the port authority). We got off at 10:45, we were in the first walk off group, lined up since 7 am.
We make last minute reservations, grab a (free) drink, go to a MDR for lunch, explore the ship. I guess we could sit a few extra hours in our living room before out 30 minute drive.
You should be fine, they haven’t been taking reservations for that long. You will probably park at pier 90 due to fleet week. I personally have never heard of the lots filling up.
I’m sure haven personnel have enough to do on turnover day than hand out water (and I’m pretty sure you can get water at the MCT, but there aren’t enough chairs for all on the big ships).