Day 03 - Embarkation

Today we got up and had our last breakfast in Barcelona. We caught a taxi with Rob’s parents at 10:45 to take us to the ship. The taxi driver was not interested in sitting in traffic so he zigzagged his way down narrow one way streets until we got to the main road that took us into the port.


We arrived at the port around 11:15 and were on board the ship by 11:30. There were no lines at all. It was the fastest embarking of a cruise ship that we have ever experienced. It helped that Michele had prepared the pre-boarding paperwork and sent in our passport photos a few weeks in advance.


Marcia, Melvin, Jason, and Katlyn joined us on board about 30 minutes later. We sat in the Windjammer Marketplace (huge food buffet area) and had lunch until our rooms were ready. Michele, Katlyn and Jason walked around to explore and found the mini golf, pools, flow rider (surfing), the arcade, zip line and the free ice cream machines.

Around 1pm, our rooms were ready. Our room is on the 9th deck just about mid-ship. When we got to our room, Michele’s bag was already there. Rob’s bag was missing and would not show up until shortly before our 6:30 dinner.
Rob, Michele, Marcia, and Katlyn walked around the ship for a bit to check out some of the attractions. We all took a ride down the Abyss dry slide. It is a spiral tube slide that drops from deck 16 to deck 5! It was faster and a bit more rough than we expected but we were all smiles at the bottom.
After the compulsory muster drill and the accompanying short “action” film to review the safety requirements on board, we all went up to Roy and Gwyn’s room where we had chocolate covered strawberries and champagne to celebrate the start of the cruise.


After dinner, we all headed to the evening’s entertainment in the Royal Theater to watch the 8:30 showing of “Hairspray”.  Well all but Melvin. Brazil was playing Switzerland in their opening match of the group play in the World Cup. The musical was very good with excellent singers, dancers and sets. The quality of the performance was equal to shows we paid for at home. Parts of the theater’s floors would raise and lower. Rob was impressed that none of the performers fell into the holes when the sections of the floor were lowered, amazingly.

After the show we returned to our room for much needed sleep. Tomorrow we will explore Palma de Mallorca.