Cruise Newbies
First of all, I've been saying this to EP since we left on this trip and now it's finally true [beware of the swears]:
-DAY 1, Departing Venice, Italy-
Man, there are some good tunes on the cruise ship TV station! It's a live feed of the front of the ship with music, currently "Lookin' Out My Backdoor" by CCR.
This morning we got to sleep in and have breakfast in our room, the terrace was closed because of rain the night before. At check out we met Francesca and she gave us some sage advice on how to easily get to the cruise port. Along the way we met some nice Australian folks who followed us all the way onto the ship, they are frequent cruisers but not with RC [Royal Caribbean] so technically they're cruise newbies too!
We were the first stateroom on our floor to receive all our luggage! It felt pretty gratifying to know we must have done something right to aid in that process.
Taking advantage of our drink package was priority number one, especially since we arrived early to the port and staterooms wouldn't be ready for another hour or two. We got some brochures for shore excursions and have decided on two, one in Turkey and one in Rhodes.
The emergency preparedness drill, or whatever you'd like to call it, was annoying albeit necessary, but i remember it being more fun when I was a kid because you actually got to wear your life jacket and now you don't have to.
Dinner for us is at whatever time we choose and we can either make a reservation or just show up. Tonight it worked out to just show up and we got seated right away. Our waiter was really awesome, he was from Mauritius which he explained, "you've seen the movie Madagascar? It's right next to that." I love that all of the people who work here have name tags with their names and where they're from. We each ordered a drink.. and discovered that our package doesn't actually cover everything. I'm pretty miffed because I'm almost certain I read something about RC being the only line that DOESN'T limit the price if you get an unlimited package. It's all good though, you travel and you learn! And you drink drink drink!
And eat, eat, eat.. The vegetarian options today were not that impressive so I asked Raj, our waiter, what to get of the two and he said the pasta.. but brought me some Indian food! I was really excited but I don't ever eat Indian food so I didn't know what to do.. it was rice, a piece of pita, and a bowl of something. I asked EP and she wasn't sure how to eat it either, the couple next to us overheard us talking and told me how to eat my "dashi" through chuckles. It was the bomb! We rounded out our three course meal with some okay desserts and have been taking the stairs everywhere to help maintain our girlish figures.
Wandering around the ship was fun, a lot different from when I was younger! We caught a welcome show where they found a couple here for their anniversary, married 61 years and from Australia. They were so cute and they got a free bottle of champagne! Afterwards we wandered through the shops and got lanyards to carry our cruise cards, that's what all the cool cruisers do. We caught the end of International Trivia and then watched a movie on the deck by the pool. It was 'The Intern' with Robert DeNiro and Anne Hathaway, great movie! It was very chilly and windy but they provided blankets!
Now we're getting some rest before a day at sea tomorrow, can't wait to be POOLSIDE!
Ciao! ✌