First evening on board (still Friday)

Our room is lovely. It's very small, but there's two twin sized beds pushed together and a little sofa. There's also a mirror all along one wall which makes it look bigger so the feel is very spacious. The outside wall is mostly a sliding door, so there's lots of light. We have a really nice sized veranda with two chairs and a table. It feels very private. A bottle of champagne (a Bon voyage gift from Costco) was on ice in our room. We also had fruit, a bottle of wine and a few fresh flowers. Very lovely. Our luggage wasn't there yet.

After checking out the room, we went upstairs to the buffet to get something to eat. We had eaten sandwiches we brought on the bus, but we were hungry, so we went to check it out. There were too many choices and too many people! We got some tandoori chicken and other things, but had trouble finding a place to sit down. We finally discovered some seats in a grill further aft. The food was tasty and spicy.

After that, we explored the ship some. We found the pools. They're relatively small and won't be good for lap swimming. They're outside in the middle of the top of the ship. There are a lot of whirlpool tubs around, too. There is an indoor pool we can see, but we couldn't figure out how to get there. There's a helipad on the very front of the ship we can see down below.

Next we had to do the abandon ship drill. We have an assembly place where several hundred people were to meet. They checked our room numbers and made sure everyone showed up. Then they showed us how to use the life jackets. And told us they would tell us what to do in an emergency.

After the drill we went to the side of the ship to watch as we left the dock. We're off!

After that, we went to find out what all the coupons we had from Costco were good for. The info printed on the coupons was a little sketchy. The customer representative was charmed with Sandra's Italian last name. She said she was from Spain and they were practically neighbors.

We went back to our room and our chocolate covered strawberries (another Costco gift) and, more importantly, our luggage had arrived. That (the luggage arriving) was a huge relief. We've learned that we need to lock our door and/or put out the do not disturb sign when we don't want the steward to come in. Igusti Yadnya, our steward, knocks, but then walks right in. We feel like we're in Downton Abbey.

We had champagne on our veranda. We're on the starboard side of the ship so we can see the coast in the distance. The water is very smooth. Only a few times have we been able to tell that the ship was moving unless we look out the window.

We didn't have to dress for dinner on the first night since apparently not everyone would have their luggage by then. We went to the main dining room to our assigned table with two other couples, both retired, one from Orlando, Florida and one from Austin, Texas. The dining room seemed appropriately grandiose, with ornate two story columns and a huge window out the stern. Dinner was delicious. We both had shrimp Louie and haddock with veggies. We skipped dessert since we had already had dessert for lunch and we had chocolate covered strawberries back in our room.

After strawberries, we spent some time reviewing the reams of papers we've been given explaining everything before we went to bed. We keep trying to remember stuff, but can't remember where we read it! This cruising can be complicated!