December 2018 I took my daughter on her first cruise. She was 17 at the time. We sailed out of Galveston, TX, on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas. This is the first of her thoughts on cruising. This first blog has to do with embarkation day.
While the line was long (I guess we got there at the wrong time), once through that line, the boarding process went quickly and smoothly.
Since the staterooms weren’t ready for us yet, as soon as we boarded, we went to the buffet. It had a variety of foods like seafood, Asian, Mexican, to plain ole mashed potatoes (not the instant type either). We kept our carry on bags with us at the table.
After we ate, the staterooms were ready, so we settled down in the room and looked at the list of activities for the day. We then explored the ship so we would be familiar with the locations the activities we were interested in were being held.
The last thing before setting sail was the muster drill. Everyone must attend. It was very crowded at our station, but we got there early enough to get chairs to sit in. When we set sail, we couldn’t tell, aside from looking outside, because even in the deep waters it was smooth sailing all week.
At 8:00 pm, after dinner, I went to the teen group. At first it seemed like everyone was a fish looking out at the other fish in bowls. But, after a while, everyone was connecting and even some old friends reunited from a cruise two years earlier.
After the teen area was closed for the night, most of us stayed up in the Promenade getting cookies and talking until curfew at midnight.