Day 1 Aboard Ship

Day 1 April 5

Today we board our Royal Caribbean Ship, Radiance of the Seas.

By taxi we arrived at the port by 11 AM our luggage, with the exception of our little carryon personal bags was whisked away by porters to security and then much later on they would be delivered to our rooms. We joined the long lines for our check in procedures as we had been directed to by our paperwork. The lines moved quickly and it wasn’t long before we ourselves were in front of the security checkpoint.

I was surprised when they wanted to see my medical card for the pacemaker. Nobody has asked for it in such a long time that I had left it in my other suitcase. But after I offered for him to touch my pacemaker he let me walk through for a hand search. I will definitely carry it with me from now on especially when we leave the ship at ports of call.

Up the very full elevator to deck 11 for lunch at the Windjammer buffet. As they had just opened we were lucky to catch a table by the window with a wonderful view of the Opera House. By 1:00 we were able to find our rooms, of course our bags didn’t arrive until several hours later. But leaving our small bags we were off to explore our home for the next 30 days and to see what changes they have made to it since we were last here in January 2011. Making our way from the bow of the ship where we live on third floor all the way back to the Windjammer Café on deck 11 at the stern of the ship. There on the outer open deck we had a wonderful view of the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Thanks to the help of a lovely German tourist we now have 3 great pictures of us in front of that bridge.

By four my suitcases had arrived but not Phil’s so I was able to get myself all unpacked before we all had to assemble at our lifeguard stations for an emergency drill. By law this has to happen before we leave port. We noticed that a lot of the ships upgrades have been electronics. We have a great flat screen TV in our room, otherwise it’s the same as last time. But in the halls, especially near the elevators we have found touch screen mapping menus to help us find our way about the ship.

We went upstairs to the Fitness Center only to find that they have done away with the scales located in that area. This means that I have to wait until the Spa opens at 8 AM before I can do my early morning weigh in.

Back to the room to find Phil’s cases… unpacked them, changed clothes and were off to the Cascades Dining Room… Dress Code tonight was Casual. Expecting to be seated at a table for two we were nicely surprised to find ourselves at a table for six. Our dinner companions are Bill & Rose from North Carolina and Will & Elsie from Pittsburg PA. They have both already been on this ship for 12 days. Bill & Rose will leave us in Hawaii but Elsie and Will will be with us all the way to Vancouver. Both couple are a bit younger than we but not by too much and seem have done a lot of cruises.

After a good, but not great dinner we were off to the show room for our evening entertainment show starring comedian Ian McLaren along with the Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers. If we weren’t so tired we could have partied the night away. Me I was ready for some sleep time.. Phil on the other hand said that he would like to visit the Casino for about an hour or so…… for me it had been an exciting but long day.