6/8/23
We were so excited to go on this vacation! We cruised on Royal Caribbean out of Baltimore a few years ago, and it was a great experience. The pricing for this specific date and itinerary was excellent and we couldn’t resist.
It was my mom, myself, and my two daughters (17 and 15), and we were booked in an inside cabin. I personally do not mind an inside cabin. We are basically only there to sleep and shower, and I’d rather have extra money to use on excursions, etc. My cousin and her daughter were also traveling with us as a high school graduation celebration.
We live about two and a half hours from Baltimore, so my husband dropped us off at the port. Our port arrival time was 11:00 a.m., so we left home around 8:30 a.m. We arrived right on time. This was the line for those with the arrival window of 11:00-11:30 a.m. There was a separate line behind where I was standing to take this photo, for those who had a later arrival time. There were many more people in that queue. I *think* they had arrived prior to their port arrival time, and were not allowed to board immediately. If there was space within the terminal, I *think* they were letting them in a few at a time.
You can see we walked right in because there was no line!
There was a very short line to get through security once inside.
This is the view once we were all checked in. You can see the check in desks to the left here.
After check in, you walk outside the main building and head towards the ship.
I would say from the time we entered the building to get in line for security, until we were on the ship, was about 20ish minutes.
Our plan is always to get the earliest boarding group we can. Why not start the vacation as soon as possible??!! Something new post-Covid (this was my first cruise since), is the whole muster drill situation. For this particular ship, on this particular date, all we had to do was go check in with a person at our assigned muster station. There is a video that you can watch ahead of time through the app. We did not have to wait for everyone else who was assigned to arrive. There was no group drill. It was awesome!
Each day we were given a Cruise Compass, which was the daily events guide. It had everything you needed to know about what was going on on the ship.
This is Day 1:
Once we finished checking into our muster station, we went directly up top Deck 9 to find a table and hit the Windjammer buffet for lunch. The pool deck (Deck 9) was empty! Another reason I like boarding early…
It was kind of cool, which was perfect for me for a sailaway day. We found a table outside right near the pool and took turns going to get food. I had no idea what the buffet would look like post-Covid!
Here are just some of the foods that were offered on the lunch buffet:
They typically had a salad bar at lunch every day.
They also always had a few ethnic dishes, which ended up being my absolute fave.
So many desserts…
This was my plate:
It was all so delicious!
The cabins were not going to be ready until about 1:30-2:00 p.m., so we still had some time to spare. There was a giveaway going on at the spa, so we decided to take a little tour and enter the giveaway. It was actually much bigger than I imagined it would be on this ship!
The fitness center was above the spa, so we checked that out too.
After the tour, we found a spot and just sat by the pool until our cabins were ready. There was a DJ playing some music. It still was pretty empty and we had no problem finding some chairs!
Once our cabins were ready, we headed there to drop off all of our carry ons before the Sail Away Celebration started at 3:15 p.m.
We found a spot up top on the 10th deck so we could look over the railing.
The water sailing out of Baltimore is definitely different than sailing from somewhere in Florida!
There was a party going on at the pool deck with live music and different line dances.
Sailing from Baltimore, you go under the Key Bridge, under the Bay Bridge, and then over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel before making it out into the Atlantic Ocean. Here is one of the bridges:
My kids thought thought it was freezing!
Next up will be our dinner and evening on the ship!
Taryn's Mad Hatter Adventures 