The next order of business was to find Starbuck's coffee. The coffee provided in the room offered little solace. We saw a man on the street with a cup, so we knew there was a store somewhere. We could not find it until we returned to our hotel, and there where we exited, was a Starbuck's! The signage was at our backs when we exited the hotel and that was why we did not see it.
Returning to our room, we placed the luggage tags provided by Royal Caribbean on our suitcases, packed our wine and relaxed while Ron continued to get ready. I charged my camera and Earline continued with her ADD crochet project.
View from the Candado Plaza Hilton Hotel, towards the lagoon side.
We checked out of the hotel at noon and decided to go to the ship early as they are providing food for a lunchtime meal. Why go to a local restaurant and spend more when it is part of our cruise price?
After a quick drink at the hotel bar while waiting for a taxi, we all went to the ship and encountered a fairly long line to gain entry to the ship. You first hand off your luggage at the first station and then join another long line to go through security where you present your passport. Next you go into the cruise terminal that is essentially an empty warehouse for people. You join another long line to get to a desk where you present your cruise documents and passport and have your picture taken that will be encoded on your cruise card. You must present this card when entering or leaving the ship. This is how they know who is missing and departure time. If you are fortunate to be a Crown and Anchor member (frequent sailor on Royal Caribbean), you can have access to a shorter line in the warehouse but with decreased number of desk clerks. I am not certain if you save much time and perhaps it is just the appearance of a perk that is important?
A couple of things of importance to you in the cruise terminal that you should be aware of. First, there is no food available to you. Of prime importance, there is a bathroom available to you!
The documents we received from Royal Caribbean mentioned that luggage containing the wine would not be delivered to our room and that we would have to retrieve it from security. This turned out to be nonsense and in fact, the appearance of security checking luggage contents with x-ray was totally bogus. Our entire luggage was transported without question.
The document also said that an announcement would be made when rooms were ready. No announcement was made, so after eating in the Windjammer food area (the common place for breakfast and lunch), we went to our room and met our cabin steward. He was from Indonesia and he presented a name card that was totally unpronounceable by my tongue. He said his name was Maria so that was what we called him. I guess he never heard of the song "A Boy Named Sue."
The room was quite spacious and had a couch in front of the TV, a kind-sized bed and a nice balcony with a table and two chairs. I think in the future, I will upgrade to such a balcony on all cruises, as it was nice to sit out there. There was plenty of storage in the room and closet and you can place your suitcases under the bed. Ron and Nancy were in the adjoining room and Maria opened the locked door between the rooms so we could visit internally after knocking of course. :)
Scheduled for about 4:00 pm was the lifeboat drill that was mandatory for all passengers. You just had to show up at your assigned station but you did not need to wear a life vest. The boat Nazis made you stand in a queue and to be quiet while a loudspeaker nearly ruptured your eardrums even with your fingers fully-inserted in you ear canals. :(
After a dinner in the more formal dining room and drinking some wine with our friends, we watched the ship pull out of port heading for St. Maarten. We all went to bed fairly early to anticipate our arrival in the morning to our first port of call.
