We arrived at Del Webb at 6:15 in the morning...and it was cold! Fortunately most of us had brought a jacket which we hoped we would not wear for the rest of the week. The Yankee Trails bus got in at 7. The driver was nice; he told us we could contact Yankee Trails if we had any medical or traveling issues. Good to know. He was also did a quick game of "Cash Cab", or in this case "Cash Bus". He offered cash prizes for right answers (anywhere between $10 and $50) and said he wrong-answer prize was getting tossed off the bus! Fortunately he didn't toss anyone off because nobody got a right answer except Erin, who snagged the $50 price.
We were making good time so the driver made a short stop at Turkey Lake rest area, so we could avoid spending too much time waiting to get on the ship. As we pulled up, it looked like we were headed for a multi-story office building but that was, in fact, the ship. This is a really big one.
Getting through security was easy - they do facial recognition now. Soon we were onboard and ready to relax. We couldn't get into the rooms yet so we settled into a bar area for free antipasto and not-free drinks. Then we walked around, snacking on a turkey burger, fries. and cookies before heading to the upper outside levels. This ship is so big they have an onboard surfing machine!
The Abyss looked interesting but we weren't ready for that yet.
Randy did decide to try the zip-line He got harnessed up by a lovely blond,
before zipping across the open section.
It wasn't a long zip ride, but it was a long way down!
At the other end of the zip another lovely blond got him unharnessed. I think zip-lining is going to be a very popular ride.
Back inside we stopped to watch a robot bar tender make drinks. The bottles hang upside down from the ceiling with a stoppered seal that the robot can pierce. The robot arm fills the cup, shakes it up, and pours the drink into a serving glass. Pretty neat! Randy didn't get a drink here but he did buy a bottle of alcohol at a nearby sales venue.
We got settled into our room, where we found that in order to turn on the lights, we had to put our sea-pass card into a card-reader by the door. Next we went to our muster station for the "in case of emergency' talk. I met Carol and Bob, who have been on a lot of cruises. They gave us some helpful hints about how to operate the shower, recommended we see the ice show, and told us we could use a standard business card in the light-card-reader, which makes it a lot easier.
Time for dinner! Our waiter was Ijero (E-jero) and Mohammad was the assistant. Mohammad didn't stand out but we all liked Ijero right away. Most of us ordered the famous escargot - one of Royal Carribean's best dishes. It's hot and cheesy and rich...
Well, usually it's hot. Not tonight though. Barely warm. We mentioned it to Ijero and ate it anyway - still good. The calamari was also good but not very warm. What's going on? Randy had prime rib and I wanted the sole but not the rice it came with. So I asked Ijero to plate up the carrots, broccoli, potato and gravy that goes with the prime rib, and just put in sole instead of prime rib. He did, and it was really good. For dessert I had a cheese plate with blue cheese, cheddar, swiss and brie. Love that brie! This is a good start, if they can just serve the dishes hotter.
After dinner we all 6 went out to walk around, and found a guy doing booze tasting. Our crew was up for challenge.
We didn't buy alcohol that night, but Linda, Erin and I bought some very bling-y lanyards. Then we all went to see the ice show. I ran into new friends Elaine and Judy for the 3rd time there! We had already met at the muster drill and the dinner line. In a huge ship with over 6,400 guests, I was surprised how easy it was to run into keep running into someone. The ice show was great; the arena was a big ice rink that was transformed by lights into rivers and fire, and the backdrop was a set of great steampunk doors. The costumes, representing different historical periods, were wonderful.
By now we were ready to turn in, but Gary's luggage still hadn't been delivered. Around 10 pm he went searching and discovered his luggage had been retained because he had a type of outlet-plug that wasn't allowed. But nobody told him anything about where his luggage was or why it wasn't delivered!
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