First some information: Travelers: Dean (53) Karina (50) Weather: It was perfect throughout. Hot, of course, St. Thomas had a lot of humidity and seemed hottest. Apparently, it did rain once or twice, but not for long and I missed it. That is until the last morning. At the very least, it was raining at 2a.m. and continued throughout the day. What fun. Note: This review along with pictures and cruise compass and kids activities scans can also be found at www.cafekarina.org/ Day 1 (Sail Away Day) Arrived @11:30. The procedure if you are driving is that you drive to the baggage drop-off. If you have tags, you just dump your suitcases, if you don't, it takes them about a minute to print them out for you and attach them, then you drive over to the Long Term parking lot, pay your $15/day via cash or credit card and either walk or take the courtesy shuttle back to the terminal. You then check in, get your first picture taken, and head out for the busses that will take you to the ship. Note: Junior Suites do get Priority Check-in along with upper grade suites, Diamonds and D+s&they have a check off list at the entrance to the check-in area.
There are 4-5 stations in here. While this may not be as much help at the 11:30 when arrivals are still pretty sparse, I could see it being really helpful as the day wears on and the 2000 people who do not meet the qualifications arrive.
In Windjammer (after checking cabin readiness (not yet)) at 12:30 (this is when I realized that the hot dogs are boiled in Island Grill and cooked on the rolly thing in the Windjammer proper).