After checking in our luggage, we headed for the embarkation terminal.
First look at the cruise ship – Splendour of the Seas.
Following the signs…
Up the escalator to the embarkation terminal.
Upon entering the embarkation terminal, we saw some signs announcing that we were on the right track – posters for Royal Caribbean International cruises. We went up to the counter and proceeded to check-in. After checking in, we received our SeaPass card, which doubles as an identification card to board the ship (as well as to leave it) and as our room key. It is also used as a card to make purchases on board the ship (which will be paid off at the end of the trip).
Once the checking in was done, we had to go through another room where a security screening was held. It was very much like going through airport security – no coins, metal objects, and the like in pockets… all that jazz. Passed with flying colours, of course. Haha.
Time to board the ship!
Had to walk through the white passageway to board the ship. There’s a line up to enter the ship…
Some rooms had a balcony.. Our room wasn’t one of them. Haha.
More of the ship.
Upon boarding the ship, we decided to head to our room to see if our luggage were there yet. Arriving at our room, we saw that the luggage my friends had checked in earlier had been delivered to our room (that was pretty fast and efficient!) – they were placed outside our room, like all the other luggage for the other passengers, which were also placed outside their rooms. However, mine wasn’t there.
It was also at that time I realized that apparently, I suffer from seasickness. I felt nauseous and my head throbbed with pain. The longest I had been on a ship previously was maybe an hour to an hour and half so I never really noticed if being on a rocking vessel would cause me such pain.
I decided to go in search of a staff member and headed down to the front desk / reception / guest relations area. There was quite a bit of a line up as other guests needed help too. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long as one of the guest services staff was walking down the line, doing a pre-help (not sure what to call it…) – asking questions to see if the guests’ problems were easily fixed or if they needed the help of the front desk staff. Most of them needed the help of the guest services staff at the counter, so he quickly made his way down the line. When he got to me, I asked him about my luggage. He helped me check the logs and said that my luggage should have been delivered to the room. I also asked him for help regarding my seasickness. He brought me down to the sick bay. It’s the first, and only time, I’ve been there. At the time, it was dark as nobody was there; it was actually kind of creepy being down there. LOL. Anyways, he found some pills and told me to take them once a day. The pills came in these little packages that kinda look like those alcohol wipes packaging. There were two pills in a package.
I went back to the room and entered it. Turns out my luggage was actually placed inside the room (not outside like all the other luggage). My clothes! My sweet, clean clothes! And all my other stuff. Yay!
It was at this time that I took the first of the pills. The pill worked quickly and I felt much better. Or maybe it was the placebo effect. XP
Our home sweet home for the next 7 days.
The door leading out. On the left is the door to the washroom and on the right is a closet.
Our teeny washroom with a shower.
V and I shared the one big bed in the room. While C took the third bed, which was actually a bunk bed-like thing that folded down from the wall / ceiling. It was pretty cool how it was built into the room like that.
Grabbed my camera and went out to explore the rest of the ship.
Looking through my photos, it turns out I’m missing quite a lot of photos from this day. Over 100 of my photos (taken that one day) were mysteriously gone. Only two photos (out of maybe 10 photos) of the ship interior survived.
Looking down from the level our room was located.
Looking up.
Before leaving the port, all the guests had to attend a compulsory muster drill.
At the pier.
The sun was setting as we set sail! The view was beautiful with the setting sun. We went up to the top deck and took some awesome photos while the wind whipped our hair about. Unfortunately, these were part of the missing photos. 🙁
Setting sail! The little boat that guided us out of the pier.
After we got bored (and cold) standing on the top deck and watching the scenery – we actually watched until there was no scenery to be seen, the sun had set and it was pitch black – we headed down to the dining room for our dinner. Dinner is served at two different time slots, and you chose which time slot you wanted to have dinner when you booked the cruise. We chose the later time slot as that would give us more time exploring the destinations before having to head back the ship. It will also give us some time to rest before having to head to dinner. We were seated with seven other strangers (a group of three girl friends from the States, a brother and sister from the States, and a party of two friends from Canada) who will be our table-mates for dinner for the rest of our trip. Dinner was a really yummy 3-course meal. There were several options for each course; you could choose one, or all them, if you were feeling ravenous. It tasted so good!
After dinner, we decided to head straight to bed as we were tired and also because we planned to wake up early the next morning.
Next stop: Split, Croatia
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