Our cabbie drove us onto the straightway that had all the cruise loading buildings to the right. Each building had a sign in front of it that aid the building letter and the ship name so if you don’t know which building is yours, don’t worry, you will find it quit easily once you are there. The driver continued down to our sign, pulled over, and then we grabbed our luggage.
The area where you get off is just to the left of the building you will need to go into. The reason for this is because you meet the porter to give them your bag so make sure you have them tagged before you get there. Once there, the porter will take your bag and either sort it with others waiting for a baggage trolley or they will load it right there.
With your baggage dropped off you will head to the building, join a line, and then go through airport like security where they also check your passports. After getting through the X-ray machine and collecting our stuff we were sent up a flight of stairs where we were sorted into lines depending on your class (ex. Suite, concierge, standard, etc). There was a table handing out water while you waited until it was your turn to come up to the counter.
At the counter they checked our passports again, took a photo of us, before getting our room keys before directing us onto the ship. To prevent any issues, check your key card as any drink packages will be printed on your card (if you are sailing on celeb rite: CAL = classic drink package, PAL = premium). Ours had the wrong package but we didn’t know until we went to get our first drink.
With key cards in hand we walked down a few hallways and onto the ship where they scanned our key card, checked the photo, and then waved us through. There were glasses of rose bubbly on two small tables as we headed towards the elevator. Once here we had to decide if we wanted to go to the buffet or as a concierge class we could go to the main dining room. Seeing how many people were headed to the buffet (nothing else was open) we decided on the email dining room.
At the main dining room there was no one at the entrance so we found the luggage storage area (just inside to the right) and then went inside further until a server sat us down at a six person table before giving us a pre-set menu; soup or salad, two types of meat or pasta, and apple pie or brownie. For drinks they gave water but you could ask for something else and your room card is then taken. If you have a drink package with the drinks included then you won’t see a charge but if it’s not included then your card will be charged.
You can stay here until your room is ready and all rooms will be roughly ready about the same time. There will be an announcement when the rooms are ready and pretty much everyone will head to the elevators so just wait before rushing to join them. When you eventually get to your room, don’t fall asleep as you do need to go down for the safety drill. There will be an announcement for this and it will be listed in your daily planner that should be sitting on your bed when you get there. Read the planner during this time as it will be really handy to know what is going on during the first day as exploring the ship can get boring so it’s good to see if there is something going on you might be interested in.
