Day 1 Embarkation

...or as we say, "gettin' on the ship".  Princess has a progressive check-in by deck.  Ours was at 1:30, but the check in and registration was smooth... no problems

After leaving the hotel around 11 a.m., we finally got on the ship around 12:30…lines, but registration was quick and easy.    Proceeded to find our room, BUT was rerouted to Deck 16 because the rooms were not ready….first time for that to ever happen.  But, the Horizon Court (huge, huge buffet) was on 16, so we got a small lunch to pass the time.  Fortunately, for us, Ronnie had only a backpack and I had a pursey-type carryon….that’s all we had to carry around…others had pushed the limit with carry-ons and now had to wag all that luggage around, find a place to park it while they ate….

We walked around a bit, tried to find the webcam, but wasn’t successful in getting it located and once we did, they turned it to point out to sea, so unless we jump overboard….picture us waving.  We did locate the important places….the dining room, the theater and the Piazza (beautiful!!)  

The elevators were packed with people and luggage all afternoon—so we took to the stairs.  We must have walked 30 stories up and down and from one end of the ship to the other….many, many times.  We are becoming more familiar with the decks and where things are located.

We are on Deck 14 and our cabin is located under the Skywalk.  We chose it knowing that there would be people walking on the Skywalk and that didn’t bother us…we don’t do anything on the balcony that we don’t want people to see…lol And we’ve been on a lot more open balconies before.  So that’s not a problem.   At night the SW has blue lights along the bottom and sides…gives a nice glow to our balcony, but Ronnie likes a dark balcony so he can look at the sky….Doesn’t bother me….The room is super nice….we got a mini-suite considering how long we have to share space….plenty of room and more storage space than we needed…have drawers empty.

The Piazza

 We joined Cruise Critic several years ago (cruisecritic.com) and it has been an invaluable source of information on every cruise we've taken.  Reviews of ships, ports, tour companies in various ports and a roll call for people going on the same cruise as you.  We found several tours that we joined via cruise critic.  After our August Alaska Cruisetour, we vowed to each other to never ever do a ship's tour again.  They all involve a motorcoach (every tour description leads with: "embark on your a/c motorcoach....") and after 7 days of motorcoaches in Alaska with 45-50 other people, we will never do it again.  The tours we chose are a maximum of 26 people with most at 16.   One has 8.  And they are much cheaper than the ship's tours.

When we aren't with an organized tour, we just DIY and have had very good luck with that.  From getting a car rental on an overnight ship stop in Hawaii at 3 a.m. and driving up to Kilauea for sunrise to driving on the left in St. Croix and making a right hand turn....never had a problem.

Also, someone on Cruise Critic roll call always sets up a Meet & Greet on the first day at sea for CC members....we have over 270 that will meet up on Thursday a.m.  It's an unusually large group and Princess had to find a bigger venue for the M&G.  We'll meet some of the people that we'll be touring with there, I hope.

We learned a trick from Cruise Critic that worked out great.  –magnetic clips that you can stick anywhere on the walls to hold papers, etc to keep the clutter at a minimum.  There is NO scarcity of papers on a cruise, for sure.

We left port right at 4 p.m. (after a hot, boring, crowded muster—hate those things) and about 5 we came to room to get freshened up for dinner.  Just at 5:30, an announcement came over speakers that a medical evacuation was causing us to return to Ft. Lauderdale…So, we did a u-turn and headed back to port.  By the time we got near the port and stopped to wait on the pilot to board the ship, we were at dinner.  By 6:30 or so, we were docked and there was an ambulance and Fire & Rescue trucks waiting.  Don’t know any of the details, but it was just so sad.  I know how excited they must have been and to have their cruise end like this is just heartbreaking.

Dinner:  We had asked for a table for two when we booked this in August.  And that’s what we got.  In a little nook at the back of the Concerto Dining Room there is a bench along the wall with 3 tables for 2 nestled right by a window.  So we have a wonderful view (and watched us return to port).  We are in the middle table with the table right beside the window empty.  A very nice couple from Kentucky are next to us.  Well, they live in Kentucky, but they are not FROM Kentucky.  She’s Asian and he had a difinite accent.  Found out that they have lived in KY for 10 years but lived in Australia for 35 years.  And he’s originally from Copenhagen, Denmark.  They will leave the ship in Copenhagen and visit his mother who still lives there.    So very lucky to get such a nice table with nice people next to us.

The table for 2 was important to us for one reason….We had Anytime Dining on a previous cruise (New England to NYC) which means we walked in anytime we wanted and sat with whoever they put us with.  Has worked out in the past, but on this particular cruise, on this particular night, we sat with another couple and two ladies.  Near the end of the main course, the man (who had been just stuffing his spaghetti in) all of a sudden threw up right in his plate.  I was talking to the lady next to me, but Ronnie was looking right at him.  Just destroyed what was left of any appetite…the ladies left really quick and we left as soon as we could.  From that night on, we didn’t go back to the dining room…went to the Horizon Court and had a nice table for just the two of us.  So now, we insist on just a two-seat table!!!

After dinner, we walked down to the Princess Theater and watched the show …a comedian who was hilarous.  It was good to sit down and laugh.  After the show, we decided to call it a night.  We are beat and will shower and read or watch a movie (one of our favorite things to do)  Regal Princess has a large selection of On Demand movies and we’ve got 2 32” TV’s in the room….

Oh, we met Henry, our cabin steward,….very nice young man from the Phillipines.  We visited with  him a bit tonight while he turned down the bed, brought robes and more papers.

Tomorrow is first full day at sea.  Going to Meet and Greet in the a.m. and then to gym, maybe.

Posted from our stateroom via Princess@Sea....