First mainstream cruise, 2 new countries

Photos Saturday

Photos Sunday

Yesterday we drove across the southern end of Florida to Port Everglades by the Fort Lauderdale Airport. It was an easy drive on a toll road that cost $3.25 one way. Exact change not required. We boarded our first mainstream cruise with thousands of others and their children on the hottest day we've had down here. It was still not as painful as we'd imagined. If we'd arrived an hour later, it probably would have been painless. Live and learn. Not having done this before, we built in a cushion for delays. RCI has online check in and that was probably what made all the difference. Our keycards were waiting for us on the mail hook outside our cabin door.

We are on the 5-night Western Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. It is at least 4 times the size of the ships we normally sail. The largest ship we'd been on previously was Disney Wonder and it was half this size with only about 1/4 the kids aboard! I'm with Clay when he looked around bewildered yesterday and pondered why aren't these kids in school!

So once we boarded on deck 4 we were all trapped between the locked doors of the dining room and casino. That was a cluster cuss. There were inadequate elevators and we had our carryon luggage in hand and really didn't want the stairs as hot as sweaty as we were. People just kept pouring into the small area and the stairs it was. Clay carried both bags one flight up to the Royal Promenade. It is like the ship's Main Street or center of commerce. There are 2 places there where you can get fare included food and drinks; Sorrento's Pizza and Cafe Promenade. We were actually looking for another elevator banks but when we saw pizza with almost no line we grabbed a table. It was probably the least busy time we'll ever see on the Promenade! Lucky! The pizza was thin crust and quite good. You can get complimentary glasses of iced water from dispensers but no ice cubes!

After our pizza, we went to the elevators nearby and directly to deck 8 and our central cabin #8304. It has a veranda but is otherwise a standard cabin. Well. I say that but it is an adjoining with an interior door that is presently locked between us and the next cabin aft. It is larger than it appears in Clay's photo as he skipped the entire center seating/desk area. There is a club chair/coffee table plus desk & chair with storage and a cooling box missing from the photos. He was standing in that area shooting in either area. The cabin is in fairly good shape and efficiently laid out with more than adequate storage for a short cruise. Our cabin steward came and introduced himself and was eager to please. He brought our requested bucket of ice quickly. (In bad news, while he said he'd refill it every day for us today he took it empty and did not return it before noon! We'll see when or if it comes back or what we have to do. He called and immediately delivered it at 12:20 pm. I think he was waiting for us to go to lunch.) He saw us returning from the 3:45 pm mandatory boat drill hours later and went to our door and opened it for us. That was impressive as we barely remembered which was ours! The downsides of the cabin are the dirty glass balcony barrier and the rail at seated eye level and the paucity of electrical outlets. There are only 2 at the desk and one above the sink in the bathroom. The one in the bathroom only works when the lights are turned on, so no nightlight. The space under the bed is inaccessible due to being stuffed almost sold with big plastic comforter bags filled with spare linens. That is usually good storage space for suitcases. The cabin appeared clean until we found a used band-aid, a lisinopril tablet, a plastic tag holder and a long red strand of hair among other stuff on the floor. I know they have a quick turnaround, but really.

When we booked this cruise we were automatically give fixed late dining. Early dining wasn't available as it was filled. However, we could make a MyTime dining reservation early every night and we did. We booked all 5 nights online at 6:30 pm, the earliest available. However, onboard the 3rd floor MyTime dining area opens at 5:30pm. We didn't try to change to earlier as we'd had pizza around 2pm. The dining room is 3 stories tall and very noisy. Dinner service was surprisingly efficient and the food tasty. It was a sales opportunity from start to finish. Dress was casual as they said luggage delivery would take until 8 pm. BTW, all aboard was 3 pm, sailaway was announced at 4:30 pm but then at least 3 ships departed before ours and it was probably after 5 pm before we sailed.

You could see rough waves at sea from port. We sailed out into high winds and they continue. IoS is making about 18 knots in a 40 mph headwind today so that is fast. IoS is wobbling some but I expect it would be nausea-inducing conditions for me on our normal sized ships. We can see the coast of Cuba from our starboard balcony.

Today is Sunday so we had a sit down dining room breakfast just after 8 am. I had Eggs Benedict. It said it was classically prepared but they put basil leaves between the egg and the ham. The included coffee was perfectly drinkable to me. I've had much worse on more expensive lines. The dining room had 2 entry lines, one for a la carte which we chose and one for a buffet which surprised us. Again food and service were good. There was a long line to enter when we left!

We attended the shore excursions destination talk this morning at Clay's insistence. It was nearly an hourlong sales spiel for ship tours. I don't know what he expected. We left before the Falmouth port shopping talk began! We got caught in a malfunctioning elevator on our way there with a family of 3. That was a bit scary. We're using a lot of elevators!

Tonight is Formal night. We did not pack formal wear, so we've cancelled our dining reservation for this evening. In good news, the Cruise Compass says that the deck 11 casual buffet will be serving a Mongolian Theme tonight at 6 pm. We'll try that over pizza again unless it is too crowded. We'll see.

I'll post this now. If needed, I'll update it. Clay will probably update the photos. He bought a one device Internet package which means he is having a slow go uploading photos from his phone. Tomorrow is Haiti! A new country for me, #93. The 2nd oldest western hemisphere country after the US.

Photos Saturday

Photos Sunday