We had an 11:30am bus pickup time to deliver us to the cruise terminal. The buffet breakfast was good and we had the chance to meet more of our fellow cruisers in the Travel With Alan group. Plus we had a chance to walk around the hotel grounds.
At the pier, we were impressed by the smooth check in! Given that over 5,000 guests were boarding, it went fast. Check in was by ship deck number and there was only a scan of our print at home boarding pass and scan of our passports and we were free to board. It all took less than 1/2 hour. Incidentally, they had us fill out the health questionnaire at the check in desk as compared to HAL's filling it out in advance.
Once on board, we couldn't have access to our stateroom until 1pm, so we wandered around a bit. The ship is huge with multiple malls and lots of shopping. Once we had access to our room, we were impressed that even though it was an inside stateroom with a balcony with an ocean view plus a view of the aft stage. This would work.
After waiting in our room for over an hour for assistance in getting our safe to work, we eventually left to walk around the ship and get a late lunch up in the Windjammer buffet. Back at the room, finally someone showed up and reset the safe electronics.
The ship was delayed in departing until 5:20pm due to weather delays which prevented passengers from landing at the nearby airport. We found a nice viewing location in the solarium up front and watched the sail away including seeing the Nieuw Amsterdam and Carnival Conquest depart in the rain.
We shared a table in the Silk dining room on deck 5 and met another TWA couple from Ottawa. Earlier, we met a couple ladies who are also on our upcoming European river cruise. We ended up watching Grease with the Ottawa couple. The dinner was excellent and the service was prompt and took only 1 1/2 hours.
The evening's main stage show of Grease was superb. Entry to the show was by reservation and a scan of one's Sea Pass. After the show we walked through the huge and smokey casino. We spent the bulk of the rest of the evening watching some really good kareoke in the On Air theatre. And we made it back to the room around midnight totally exhausted. And so ended day 1. Whew!
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