I started the day with the somewhat disappointing breakfast at the hotel. At least it was free, that’s about the only good thing I could say about it.
Since the embarkation time was 2:45 PM I decided to walk north up along South Beach. The skies were threatening, but the weather was still fine. During the walk I even saw a floating electric billboard.
electronic billboard on a ship
I skipped lunch as I thought I would be able to get something shortly after getting on the cruise. I then got one of the worst Uber drivers ever, she almost took us to the container port instead of the cruise terminal. I did manage to take some pictures of a diner and trolley in South Beach and the cruise ships and cruise terminals while in the car.
Here are the instructions sent via email. They seem to instruct you to show up 1 hour before your scheduled embarkation time because of the testing.
However this information was not very reliable as I waited outside for an hour until my embarkation time and there was no need to arrive early. Luckily it wasn’t a very warm day, otherwise it would have been very uncomfortable in the Florida sunshine.
When they finally let my queue into the cruise terminal I went through security (with both of my bottles of wine) and took a COVID test.
After taking the test I went outside and into another terminal to wait for the results.
It took over an hour for the results, but luckily I passed. Note the sample was taken at 15:28 – my embarkation time was 14:45 and I arrived at 13:43 according to my Uber receipt. So this process took 3 hours – and I wasn’t done yet! Of course had I not received the email I would have arrived at 14:45 instead and saved myself an hour.
After getting the email I had to wait in another line to check in. It didn’t seem to take too long, but apparently “The Band” that was mailed doesn’t actually work (signs of things to come) and they gave me a new one that says “Make a Splash”. I managed to keep the one with my name on it.
I went up to my cabin and the cabin steward met me and told me about the safety briefing. I tried to click play on the tablet to play the safety briefing and nothing happened. I asked for the bed to be separated (rotated) and went back downstairs to watch one of the employees put on a life jacket. They weren’t happy I didn’t watch the video, but they overrode the system when I said it didn’t work.
bed before it is split (rotated) the hammock… wish there was more than one black soap bar…. why/.??? both rainfall shower and magic wand decent luggage storage space
By now I am very hungry (almost dinner time), so I went upstairs to deck 15 to the “Galley” which is like a buffet, but worse. You have to get your own drinks (soda machine is free) and sit down, take a picture of a QR code on the table and wait for someone to come over and take your order. The good thing is the food is made to order, the bad thing is that it isn’t an instant gratification. The galley includes “Hot off the Press”, “Noodle Around”, Burger Bar”, “Diner & Dash”, “Let’s Taco Bout It”, and “Bento baby”. I ordered a burger and fries. The burger was good and the fries were excellent.
At this point I think about everyone was not happy about how long it took to get on the ship. Granted it was only their 3rd sailing in the US, but they still had a lot of issues to work through. Apparently they decided to follow in the footsteps of Carnival by giving away free Champagne for a couple of hours before leaving. Luckily they didn’t get stuck on a sandbar like Carnival did with the Mardi Gras….
one pool area. Large area is cool water with air blowers like a hot tub one of many free glasses of chanpagne
I snagged a last free glass of champagne and enjoyed sailing away past the port of Miami. Since the sailaway was quite late everything was already lit up.
I walked back to the room to get ready for dinner and the cabin attendant changed the bed for me. The beds don’t split apart like normal beds, but rotate. They seem to think people will make it into a sofa for the daytime, but I don’t see that happening. The bed is too narrow for two people when you make half into a sofa.
I believe this is when I determined the TV didn’t work. I did contact “sailor services” and they did fix it. But that was the reason why I couldn’t see the safety video. I thought I might watch it later to see the quality, but I never did. I’ve had professional “Sea Survival” training, so I really am not going to learn anything I didn’t already learn already.
Dinner tonight was at the “Test Kitchen”. It was one of the few reservations I could make before the cruise and although the idea seems novel, I really like to pick the food I eat rather than have a set menu of fancy things I could care less for.
Mushroom Egg Scallops Venison Potato Blue Cheese Chocolate
So for the most part the experience and food was good. As you can see the portions were small. And although I don’t care for peas or mushrooms I did try everything. The blue cheese was the only thing I couldn’t eat much of, and I usually enjoy blue cheese.
The entertainment offered in the “Red Room” was called “UNTITLED DANCESHOWPARTYTHING” and well after watching for a half an hour I gave up figuring out what it was and left. It was not entertaining, the guests were not dancing and the multi purpose room reminded me of being in a high school gymnasium with the bleachers folded in.
It was time to call it a day. If it wasn’t for the free champagne I would have been much more critical of the experience so far.
Here’s today’s timeline:
