Cruise Begins
Note: I've returned safe and sound from my first cruise. I found it nice and I hope to take another next year. As I'd like to share with my readers what it was like, I'll be blogging for the next week or so what all happened. I hope you find my entries and possibly useful if you ever go on a Royal Caribbean cruise yourself.
The drive from the hotel to the Pan American pier was short and uneventful. The taxi driver had previously worked for Royal Caribbean and told me I could’ve checked in as early as 9 a.m. The reservation booklet said to show up at 2 p.m. When we arrived at the check-in terminal, there was a long line but, it was moving well. In about 10 minutes, I reached the part where I could check-in my luggage. After that, I had to show proof of identity and that I had a reservation. Then, I entered another line. This line was to get my SeaPass. The SeaPass is the most important card you’ll have on the cruise. It gets you into your cabin, allows you to pay for drinks, food and items from any of the ship’s stores book, pay for excursions and it enables you to get on and off the ship when it is in port. It took about 4 minutes to get my SeaPass.
From there, I joined another line. This line was to get my photo taken for the ship. After that, I walked up various walkways to the ramp on deck 4. Just before boarding, a photographer was taking photos of people that would show them joining a Royal Caribbean cruise. If the passenger liked the photo, they could buy it later in the photo shop on-board. This would be the first of many opportunities to buy a cruise photo. I thought it annoying.
I skipped the photo and boarded. I made my way to my cabin and found the gifts I ordered for myself waiting. The cabin was decent size and comfortable. The balcony featured nice views. I was pleased with the cabin.
As the last things I’d eaten were some pastries at the Normandie Hotel, I was starved. I decided to find one of the ship’s restaurants and get something to eat. I found out the Windjammer Café was open on deck 11. I found an elevator, went to deck 11 and managed to find the café. They were selling unlimited glasses of soda for the cruise with a bonus of a glass that you could keep and was less likely to slide. The cost with tax was $48. As I didn’t want a bunch of charges for sodas, I decided to get the unlimited drinks. I used my SeaPass to pay for it. Then, I got to experience for the first time the renowned cruise ship buffet. The Windjammer offered at least 9 main entrees, vegetables, salads, rolls and desserts. You could go back as many times as you wanted without having to pay a penny. As the food was pretty good, I could understand how people could manage to put on a few pounds while on a cruise.
After lunch, I decided to see if I could find my friend Harvey. I had one problem though. I wasn’t sure what cabin he was in. I had the operator put me through to his cabin and twice he wasn’t there. Finally, I did get a hold of him. It’d been 6 months since I’d last seen him. He’s a good bloke and it was nice to catch up on the chit chat. After talking for a bit, we found out about an exercise where everyone has to put on their lifejackets and stand by their lifeboat. Some people were blasé about the exercise but, I was fervently hoping I wouldn’t have to do this stuff in real life. I didn’t want my cruise that exciting!
The exercise went all right and was ended. I returned my lifejacket to its spot in my cabin. I decided to find the dive shop on board and make sure all was well with my planned dive trips. The folks at the dive shop were very nice. They tipped me off that I would have problems with the dive knives I’d brought. You weren’t allowed to have such knives on board. Security would keep my knives during the cruise. When I needed them for diving, I’d check them out from security. When I returned from diving, I’d turn them back into security. It was to be a major hassle during the cruise and I’m resolved to not take dive knives ever again on a cruise.
My travel agent arranged for Harvey and I to eat at the second seating. That meant that dinner didn’t start until 8:30 p.m. I wasn’t thrilled with eating that late. Our table was in the Mozart dining room. It was a very impressive dining room with a crystal chandelier and uniformed waiters and waitresses. The food turned out to be good average food. That would be the case throughout the cruise.
After dinner, I returned to my cabin and found out I had a voicemail. Security had the predicted problem with my dive knives. I turned them over to them and they wrote me a receipt for them. Then, I hauled my dive bag to my cabin and finally crashed around 11:30 p.m. Tomorrow, we would have a full day at sea. Stay tuned.
From there, I joined another line. This line was to get my photo taken for the ship. After that, I walked up various walkways to the ramp on deck 4. Just before boarding, a photographer was taking photos of people that would show them joining a Royal Caribbean cruise. If the passenger liked the photo, they could buy it later in the photo shop on-board. This would be the first of many opportunities to buy a cruise photo. I thought it annoying.
I skipped the photo and boarded. I made my way to my cabin and found the gifts I ordered for myself waiting. The cabin was decent size and comfortable. The balcony featured nice views. I was pleased with the cabin.
As the last things I’d eaten were some pastries at the Normandie Hotel, I was starved. I decided to find one of the ship’s restaurants and get something to eat. I found out the Windjammer Café was open on deck 11. I found an elevator, went to deck 11 and managed to find the café. They were selling unlimited glasses of soda for the cruise with a bonus of a glass that you could keep and was less likely to slide. The cost with tax was $48. As I didn’t want a bunch of charges for sodas, I decided to get the unlimited drinks. I used my SeaPass to pay for it. Then, I got to experience for the first time the renowned cruise ship buffet. The Windjammer offered at least 9 main entrees, vegetables, salads, rolls and desserts. You could go back as many times as you wanted without having to pay a penny. As the food was pretty good, I could understand how people could manage to put on a few pounds while on a cruise.
After lunch, I decided to see if I could find my friend Harvey. I had one problem though. I wasn’t sure what cabin he was in. I had the operator put me through to his cabin and twice he wasn’t there. Finally, I did get a hold of him. It’d been 6 months since I’d last seen him. He’s a good bloke and it was nice to catch up on the chit chat. After talking for a bit, we found out about an exercise where everyone has to put on their lifejackets and stand by their lifeboat. Some people were blasé about the exercise but, I was fervently hoping I wouldn’t have to do this stuff in real life. I didn’t want my cruise that exciting!
The exercise went all right and was ended. I returned my lifejacket to its spot in my cabin. I decided to find the dive shop on board and make sure all was well with my planned dive trips. The folks at the dive shop were very nice. They tipped me off that I would have problems with the dive knives I’d brought. You weren’t allowed to have such knives on board. Security would keep my knives during the cruise. When I needed them for diving, I’d check them out from security. When I returned from diving, I’d turn them back into security. It was to be a major hassle during the cruise and I’m resolved to not take dive knives ever again on a cruise.
My travel agent arranged for Harvey and I to eat at the second seating. That meant that dinner didn’t start until 8:30 p.m. I wasn’t thrilled with eating that late. Our table was in the Mozart dining room. It was a very impressive dining room with a crystal chandelier and uniformed waiters and waitresses. The food turned out to be good average food. That would be the case throughout the cruise.
After dinner, I returned to my cabin and found out I had a voicemail. Security had the predicted problem with my dive knives. I turned them over to them and they wrote me a receipt for them. Then, I hauled my dive bag to my cabin and finally crashed around 11:30 p.m. Tomorrow, we would have a full day at sea. Stay tuned.
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