Well here we are on our first day at sea and I haven't even posted anything for getting here. So let me catch you up.
Saturday morning we were picked up by our Villages Airport Van at our house and taken to the transportation area to catch the shuttle for the airport in Orlando.
Our driver was great and gave us little Village history and future plans information on our way to the airport. Just a standard hour and a half and we were there. No problems getting though security. We were TSA pre check so it was really easy.
Got to our gate checked things out and then went to Burger King for lunch. Nothing to interesting. Then we boarded our plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico. You may not know, as Donald didn't know, that Puerto Rico is actually an island!!! Who knew?!?!?! 😎
Well once we got to San Juan, we took a cab to our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard in Miramar. Once there we were upgraded to a suite (because of my Platinum Elite status) and gave our friends Mike and Steve a call.
We made arrangements to go to dinner in Old San Juan district. Steve had gotten a recommendation for a restaurant that the 'locals' eat in. The name of the restaurant was Riaces. We took an Uber there and were seated outside on the street so we could people watch. The specialty of the house was Mofongo. This is a dish made of fried, unripened plantains. After frying them, they mash them in a Pestle with pork rinds and garlic. Then they serve it topped with a marinated meat, pork, beef, seafood. Mike and Steve go that, Bill got beans and rice and I got crab salad served in fried plantain cups. The food was great and after dinner we walked around Old San Juan. Very pretty and quaint. Lots of street music. We'd walk and then stop and listen to one band and then move on and listen to another.
We Uber'd back to our hotel and slept in until 8:30 in the morning. At 9am on Sunday we met Mike and Steve in the hotel restaurant for breakfast. The guys had Caribbean Cherry juice and thought it was really tasty. The coffee they served was incredibly good and the eggs and link sausage with the best I 've ever had. Enough about breakfast.
We headed to the ship around 1pm so we would miss all the early arrivals. We dropped our luggage and headed on board. Check in was quick and painless.
On the ship we headed to our stateroom on deck 7. We have a balcony room and the balcony is very spacious. We walked around the ship for a half an hour or so and headed back to our room to see if our luggage had been delivered. There was a card in our door telling us that one of our bags had 'failed' the X-ray inspection and we had to go down to claim it. When we got down to security, I figured the bag had been identified as having a steamer in it. And indeed that was what caused it to fail. We opened the bag and showed them the steamer. They were satisfied that it didn't have any metal pieces that would cause it to be a fire hazard, so we were able to keep the steamer and take our bag up to our room. While we were in security, there were lots of people down there opening their bags for security and the security people we confiscating the bottles of booze the people we sneaking on.
Headed back up to our room with Bill's bag and hoped my bag was delivered. But it wasn't. So it gave Bill time to unpack his bag and I went out on the balcony and watched them throw off the lines and prepare for pushing away from the dock. By the time Bill finished unpacking, I looked out of our door to see if my bag had arrived and I ran into our cabin steward, Gierrmo. He said he would go look for my bag, after I described it to him, and he was back in minutes with my bag. So then I got to unpack and get situated before we had to go down to the theater for the mandatory muster drill.
Our muster coordinator is Devin, one of the productions dancers. He looks like he is 12, and he is from Nebraska. He was very nice and we talked about performing on the ship and how he went through the audition process.
After the drill we went back to our stateroom and watched the 'sail away' from our balcony. Then it was time for dinner! We ate in the Main dining room, Tides. Tides is two stories high. The lower floor is for the Early/Late Dinner Seating and the upper floor is for the My Time Dining. We were doing My Time Dining so that's were we headed. We told them when we checked in that we had friends who had chosen Late Seating Dining and wanted to change to eat with us at the My Time Dining. They said they could accommodate them that night but we would have to talk to the restaurant manager to change the rest of the cruise.
We sat down, order wine and started to unwind. Dinner was good. I had a shrimp cocktail and Prime Rib. Bill had baked Cod and French Onion soup. After dinner we wandered around until it was time to go see the Welcome Aboard show in the main theater. The Cruise Director on the ship is Andrea and he is Italian from Genoa. During his welcome he spoke at least seven different languages, welcoming everyone.
The show was great, the band played and the production dancers and singers came out and did a tease for the coming shows. Then the comedian, Landry came on and he was hilarious. He is a Canadian living in Atlanta. He is mixed race. He said his father was Jamaican and his mother was redneck! He said they got together over weed and moonshine. He really was a hoot. Can't wait to see him again. Of course we were in the front row and he asked my name. When I told him, Deni, he asked like the restaurant? I said yes. So he motioned to Bill and asked, so is his name IHOP? So now people on the ship are calling us Deni and IHOP.
We wandered around again after the show and found a piano bar we want to go back to during the cruise. It is all the way aft on deck 6. So then we figured it was time for bed and back to our cabin we went. Once we hit the big open water we had seas of 5-6ft. So sleeping was like being rock to sleep.
We both got up and went to exercise bright and early Monday morning. Bill went up before me to do his own thing and joined him at 7am for the stretching class. While laying on the floor doing the stretching, I started feeling queasy. So after the stretching class I went back to the cabin and enjoyed the dry heaves while Bill continued to the abs class. So I took a shower and got ready for breakfast.
When Bill got back, he got ready for breakfast and we headed back to the Tides restaurant. We both had eggs and bacon/sausage. Not nearly as good as what we got in San Juan.
After breakfast we met up with Mike and Steve to say hi and talk about dinner times and such. After that we headed to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet. Royal Caribbean had ten gifts that they raffled off. From pens and t-shirts to bottles of wine. We didn't win anything but there was a gift exchange that we were involved in so we did walk away with something. Both of us got gifts from a couple who live in Mexico. I got a hand made shawl and Bill got hand blown drinking glasses. So very cool. after that we headed to our cabin as I was again queasy. I'm going to need to find a way to get rid of this. The seas are now about 8-9ft swells so It won't be going away, I need to get some drugs. I've never been sea sick before, so I didn't bring anything with me.
Well I'll end for now here mid-day on Sea Day 1. Talk you to tomorrow.
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