MSC1 Day 1: Embarkation

The day began with final chores: finishing the packing, loading the bags into the truck, shutting windows, turning on the air conditioning, turning off the water and hot water heater, locking up. Then a short drive to the hotel to fetch Jett’s sisters and their luggage. It all fit. Barely. A stop at Starbucks then two boring hours on I-75 traversing “Alligator Alley” where no alligators are ever seen. The final 20 minutes was spent in a traffic mess at the Port of Miami, but the luggage and sisters were deposited at the ship by 11:15am.

Parking the truck was a breeze. A 15-minute drive to the Crowne Plaza hotel, a few minutes to pay the bill (just $7.50 per day – a bargain) then into the hotel to figure out how to get back to the ship. As I was discussing taxi and Uber options with a receptionist, a couple overheard me and offered me a ride in their Uber. They were on their way to a Norwegian Cruise Lines ship that was departing at the same time. I accepted their kind offer and had a lovely chat with them during the 40-minute trip back to the port (very heavy traffic and the tunnel was closed). They were from Lake Elsinore CA, near Temecula which was my home away from home the first winter on the road, way back in 2013. The Uber cost $15 and I gave the driver a $10 tip.

During that Uber ride I learned that Jett and her sisters were afforded “priority boarding” thanks to their use of wheelchair and walker. There may not be many advantages to having limited mobility, but this was one.

So far things had gone swimmingly, but that was about to change. The Uber driver let me out at the entrance to Terminal F and there was a line out the door. That, in my cruise experience, was a first. I have never had to stand in line outside a terminal before. But I had no limited mobility, so I used my perfectly fine legs to walk to the end of the line. Which was down the sidewalk, across two driveways and around the corner. At least a tenth of a mile. And it kept growing. By the time I had moved up to within a hundred yards of the entrance the line had snaked around, turned back on itself twice and was stretching into the parking lot.

No one was happy with the situation. The weather was fine, if a little cool, but if it had been a hot day people would have been collapsing. There were very few places to sit so it was an ordeal. I can only imagine how unpleasant it would have been if it had been raining. I chatted with my fellow sufferers and one of my line companions was getting agitated at people “cutting the line” or somehow, in his eyes, misbehaving. I figured that I already had my cabin reserved and there was no way the ship was going to leave without me, so I just had to endure the interminable wait.

I was optimistic that once I got through the doors to the terminal (after waiting outside about 90 minutes) that it would get better. Wrong. Getting through the door just allowed me to enter a zig-zag line approaching security. Another 45 minutes in line. Another 45 minutes listening to my line-mate harping about the situation. When I finally got to the passport checkpoint (just 2 people checking the 4.500 passengers) I was amazed to discover that they were manually comparing everyone’s passport against a printed list of numbers. The list looked to be at least 10 pages of very small print. Don’t they have an app for that? The passport checkers, not surprisingly, seemed to be uninterested in their tedious jobs and felt no urgency. Annoying.

I lost my line buddies at the passport control. They got hung up there – I don’t know why – but they were still at passport control when I was through the X-ray machine and on my way up to the check-in. I don’t know if they ever made it onto the ship. Haven’t seen them yet.

Check-in and the health screening took another 45 minutes. Total wait time before I actually stepped aboard the ship: 3 hours. I was tired and very hungry when I finally got to my cabin around 4pm. The hunger was sated with a quick trip to the buffet but the tiredness would have to wait.

We were late to the muster drill because we had to assist Sybil down 4 flights of stairs and along a stretch of the promenade. But we made it and were underway, about an hour late due to the long line at security, just at the sun was setting.

That, however, was not the end of the bad news. The balcony cabin turned out to be distressingly small and our assigned dinner time was 5:15pm – not the 7:30 seating that we requested. I spoke to the maître ‘d who took down our cabin numbers and request but made it clear that because we had chosen the “Fantastica” experience (less than the Aureal experience), we were not guaranteed a dinner seating of our choice. Seems that Fantastica might not guarantee a fantastica experience on board the ship. Nothing could be done until the next day, if then, so we had to dine at the buffet restaurant.

But that was pretty much the end of the bad news for the night. The buffet food was quite good and the ship carried the Super Bowl at several venues, including on the very large and very high resolution screen on the pool deck. It was a chilly night, but it was a pleasure being able to watch the game under the stars. Good game, too. Congratulations, KC.

We played some Hand, Knee and Foot in the buffet restaurant and took advantage of the table bar service there several times. A good time was had by all.

We were all in bed – quite comfortable – before 11pm.