All Aboard

22^nd – 28^th September, 2014

I am so sorry that I haven’t written for the past week, 7 days on board the Radiance of the Seas.

It all started on Monday morning of the 22^nd when we were required to have our bags ready for collection by 10.30 am with our luggage tags for the ship attached. Mum had laminated ours. Although I hadn’t hole punched them, so off I went down to reception who happily did it for me.

We had breakfast at the hotel’s restaurant, which was included in our package for the entire stay. Oh my, do they serve big meals, we had a choice of five different breakfast meals there was one I didn’t try (the healthy one).

We went back to our room and waited for our bags to be collected and then went down to check out, painless and easy. The pain was waiting for our transfer along with a lot of other passengers that were also heading to the ship.

Finally the coach came and once our bags had been loaded into the undercarriage we hopped on board, but had to nurse our carryons, as they were too large for the overhead.

The driver got into his seat and we headed off, although he jokingly told us we were going to the airport, there were lots of NO, and we are going to the ship. He stopped and said he had forgotten to do a head count and collect the tickets. He told us it would be 15 Hawaiian minutes, and asked how long we thought that would be.

“As long as it takes”

It wasn’t long and we were at Pier 2, unloading our cases and standing in line in order to put them through the scanner and then customs before going inside to receive our Sea Pass and boarding the ship.

I will admit the rest of that first day went in a blur, even though it is my third cruise I still got excited. We did have lunch in the Windjammer (buffet style).

Mum and I also went to Headliner ShowTime which in our honest opinion was lacklustre and we did notice others leave.

Then came Tuesday and our first full day at sea of five, there was something for each of us to do and I won’t bore you with step by step details, but it did include food, wandering around and getting lost on the ship, and more food.

Mum and I have been going to the restaurant which is called Cascades and we have my time dining (which means anytime that suits us, usually between 5.30 – 6.00) Apart from the first night we have been at table 517 a table for 2 by the window. Our server is Elaenora and her assistant is Franc.

We have also been going to Headliner ShowTime each night, and the type of act has been different each night. I can honestly say I have enjoyed the majority of them.

The music in the Centrum and around the ship has been pretty good in general for our first week.

There is also an interview session held in the Centrum where the Cruise Director: Mike Hunnerup interviews a Manager of a department of the ship. It is called Behind the Stripes and I have found it to be very interesting. The following have been interviewed

Staff Captain – Wendy Williams

HR Manager – Laurence Chee

Captain – Goran Peterson

Hotel Director – Marios Georgiadis

On Friday we celebrated crossing the Equator with a ceremony, there were a lot of people pushing others to even get a view, I moved away but did get a glimpse of what was happening. I will say there was kissing of a fish, ewww. Eggs and Flour before spaghetti and what looked like pasta sauce.

There was also a wedding celebrated on board yesterday, with the veil flying off.

There has also been some shopping done, not very hard to do when you are on board a ship at Sea, especially when your cabin is forward and the restaurants/food at the Aft and you don’t necessarily want to walk down past all the cabins which can get boring.