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We drove from Sarasota to Tampa, arriving at 11:00 AM. The ship was at terminal 3 and I was directed to where the valet and porters were standing. The parking was in an open lot at this location, but was surrounded with a fence.
The porter unloaded the luggage and my Go Go scooter and we were directed to an elevator up to the embarkation lounge. There was no line and no waiting and were on the ship within 15 minutes. The cabins were not ready until 1:00 PM, so we took the elevator to deck 9 to the Windjammer for lunch.
We were in a handicap cabin 2103 and it was a good size. The cabin would accomodate 4 people with 2 beds coming out of the ceiling. There were only 3 of us, so my grand daughter chose the bed that was over the sofa rather than over another bed. This way she could still have a place to sit when her bed was not down.
The ship was decorated for Christmas and Hanukkah and the centrum was just beautiful with a big tree, gingerbread village and poinsettas.
The music in centrum was just amazing, and the way the ship is designed you could stand on several decks and look down on the entertainers and dancers. All of the entertainment was outstanding, as was the cruise director and his staff.
The crew were all happy and content and showed it. It seems RCI has 6 month contracts rather than 9 month on most ships. The dining room service was a bit slow in our area of the dining room, but the waiters tried very hard to keep up.
We docked at all ports, San Juan, St.Kitts, St. Maarten, St.John, and Tortola. I rode my scooter off the ship in all ports except San Juan and Tortola. There was shopping close to the ship in all ports except Tortola. One of my tablemates took her scooter off in Tortola and went into the town, but she got stuck on the cobblestones and had to be pushed. I used my rollator in San Juan, but I could have used the scooter there as there were curb cuts and shopping right at the end of the pier. We did not take any excursions.
Debarkation was painless. We were given numbers and colors and they had called all the colors and we were off the ship by 9:00 AM
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