Embarkation

First impressions of RCI weren't that great. Upon arriving at the Pan-American pier, there was a long line to first wait for porters to take your checkin bags. The staff was friendly once we eventually reached the front of the line. After leaving your big bags with them you enter in to a large hall and aimlessly follow signs. There's a line per deck (our room was on deck 8). So that was another line to wait in. We thought this is where we'd also be told about drink packages and what not, but that was not the case. You just sort of check in and get your sea pass (credit card equivalent and ID for the entire trip). Then we actually stopped by at this duty free shop and someone suggested that we buy coke and water here now and that it would be a good idea for the cruise. Turned out to be true, I think. It was like $8 or so for a 12 pack, which was very useful as compared to paying $45 on the ship for unlimited soft drinks. We put the cans in the fridge in our room, so it turned out well. So you walk around and up on to the ship and there was another line where they checked our passes and ID's (actually there were like 3 such checkpoints, which got to be ridiculous). Especially now with these coke 12-packs and bottle of water, my hands were killing me through all this. Then you get on the ship and..... . Not a single person is there to tell you where you are or where you need to go. We eventually figured it out and got to our room, but I thought that was kind of strange.

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