Sunday, January 6, 2013

The World Cruise has begun

The cruise begins! We arrived at the ship about noon and were surprised to find a fairly long line for check-in. We whined a bit to ourselves as we had to go to the regular check-in line as we are 2 weeks short of being 4 star Mariners and only in a verandah suite instead of a Deluxe veranda suite (full suite). But then we realized that the line for those folks was actually longer than ours – lots of well-traveled folks on this cruise!

We finished check-in in about 30 minutes and went right aboard the ship. Our cabin was ready so we were able to get started with all our Host duties right away. We met with the Front Desk people to verify all the cabin numbers and then Jim delivered all the welcome letters while I met with the Bar Manager and the Pinnacle Grill manager to confirm those arrangements.

All that took a couple hours and then we headed up to the buffet for a quick bite to eat and found our friends (clients), the Jans. After lunch the luggage had been delivered so we started putting everything away and then it was time for the emergency drill. No more wearing the life jackets to the drill; while that is convenient, I'm not sure it is a good idea because there are always a number of people that seem to have no idea how to put it on correctly. After the drill we had a glass of champagne and then back to the cabin to finish putting everything away. I think this is the first time we have ever used all the storage space; but we did get it all put away!

By then I was pooped, we went to the library and got some books, had a bite to eat in the buffet for dinner and then I plopped on the bed with my book and didn't move the rest of the night. Jim watched the football play-off games until about 10:00 when he figured Green Bay wasn't going to lose so he came to bed. It's a pretty good bed, a bit firm but we'll live with that and also pretty good pillows.

This morning we had a rude awakening when our alarm clock started buzzing at 6:30 – something in the suitcase had hit the button to turn it on. Oh well, that's about the time we usually wake up so it was ok. Jim called for our coffee and it was here in about 10 minutes. So... I'm sitting here drinking coffee and writing this. More later...

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