Getting on the ship

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We slept in a little today. Then got up, got ready and went downstairs for breakfast. The hotel had a hot breakfast available. After breakfast we had a little bit of time to just relax so we watched TV before heading out to go to the ship. I knew where the National car return was so I made a left out of the hotel parking lot and soon my GPS was having me turn around. So, I followed the GPS and lo and behold we discovered that National/Alamo/Enterprise have moved to a location at the port. We returned our car and waited a little while for the shuttle to take us to the cruise terminal just a mile away.

After going through security and checking in, we had about a 20 wait until they started calling boarding groups. We were in an early boarding group so we were on the ship by 11:30. Our first stop was to make arrangements for our Specialty Dining evenings. We had purchased a 4 night dining package and wanted to make sure we got the restaurants and times we wanted.

We then headed upstairs to Windjammer Cafe for a lunch. There was a line but they were seating people pretty quickly so we only waited about 10 minutes. Lunch had a whole bunch of options and we tried quite a bit of it.

After lunch we wandered the ship looking at the pool decks, Central Park, the Boardwalk before heading down to our room. We have a stateroom with a balcony that faces the ocean on deck 10 port toward the aft of the ship.

I was feeling a little "off" so I took a nap and Nik watched TV for a while and then napped herself. Soon it was time for the muster drill. We met in the restaurant on Deck 4 which was nice to be able to sit for the drill. This ship has all the lift vests in the meeting locations so you dont have to grab your life jacket in the event of an emergency.

By the time we got back to the stateroom, we had already pulled away from the dock so we sat on the balcony and watched the ship sail down the channel out into the open water.

Then it was time to get ready for dinner. We were assigned 5:30 dining in The Grande and we arrived and were the only people at a table for 13. Our waiter arrived and told us that the table was for a family of 11 and we would have to be moved. He left and another couple joined us at the table. The were about our age and it turns out they are from Alpine, UT (small world). Our waiter came back and said that we would sit there for the night but may have to be moved tomorrow. Then, another couple joined us. He just turned 91 last week and she appears to be in her mid 70's. We had a nice conversation at dinner at a table for 13 with only 6 of us sitting in it.

After dinner we hurried to the Aqua Theater to watch Oasis of Dreams acrobatic and diving show. It is amazing what people are able to do. The show was really cool. Then, we took our normal post-dinner cruise walk, did a little shopping and then headed up to the room to call it a night.

It was a great day.

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