GETTING ON THE SHIP - We arrived at the embarkation dock at 1:30 and crowded on the ship along with 900 other early passengers. By 2:00 we were checked aboard, but our room on deck 9 was not ready. So we sat in the Aloha restaurant and waited to be called. At 3:00 the rooms were ready.

The Room was the smallest balcony stateroom I’ve ever seen on a ship. It was larger than the prison cells at Alcatraz. We moved the table and chair out onto the patio so that we had more room to walk in the room. Our steward, Ceilo was always at our beck and call, always smiling, and always one step ahead of us. Kudos to Ceilo. He made our cruise a pleasure.

Then we waited in our stateroom until 7:00 for out luggage to be delivered. Rumor had it that all luggage was delayed because security was scanning it. And later we met a gentleman that had one of his bags impounded until he showed them that the alcohol that security detected was no more that a bottle of after-shave. Read more