

I recommend dinner at the Met before the performance. Just like the QE2 and to a lesser extent enjoy a decent level of attire on board, the Met also deserves such. You will feel like you fit rather than taking society to a lower level. Please grace the hall with a dark suit and tie and your lady in a fine dress. You will see those in full formal attire (always nice) and those who think jeans in the best of seats is acceptable. I always wear a dark suit and tie and would expect a lady to wear a dress. The Metropolitan Opera hall is very elegant and deserves a nice level of attire. Public transport, incidentally, is really not an option since the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is nowhere near any public transport.

New York cabs are not as bad as people like to make out - they are not on the level of, say, Copenhagen cabs (which are spectacular) but they are still pretty cheap and pretty clean and they usually get you where you want to go. So you will probably not get any more luggage space by booking a car service than a cab. This is a fancy Crown Victoria and while the rear seat has more room (longer car), the trunk is the same. If you book a car service, it will almost certainly be a Lincoln Town Car. Not as big as a minivan, of course, but still lots of space. One of the reasons these have traditionally been used as cabs has been that they have a large trunk (boot). Probably 90% of the cabs are still regular sedan (saloon) cars, in particular Ford Crown Victorias. We have some minivan cabs today (a minivan is like a British MPV, but much bigger) and those should be able to handle just about anything you could throw at them. It depends - they are not all the same size.
