Boarding a cruise ship is always an amazing process: seeing those endless carts with thousands of suitcases piled up high, it is a miracle that just a few hours later you have your luggage in your room!

Watching the logistics of food deliveries, truckloads full of everything a few thousand people eat and drink every day: there is only one day to get everything on board and stow it away so you remember where things are – amazing!

Deep clean a ship, bathrooms, bedrooms, think about towels, bed linens etc etc etc. How many people do you need for all this? And do you outsource those tasks or is everything cleaned on board? How many washing machines and dryers do you need?

And here we are, checking in is smooth and easy, like the Uber drive to the terminal. We officially board the ship, walk around, check the pool area, race tracks, the Casino, some restaurants, etc. It is a huge ship, and I’m sure we’re going to have fun here!

Our room is great! A nice size balcony will allow us to sit outside and enjoy a glass of wine, read a book, play with Harold, …

We immediately make some reservations to a few restaurant visits and entertainment options. Everything is included in the price, but it is recommended to reserve seats for popular shows. So we sign up for a comedy show with Dylan at 7pm and he turns out to be so funny! Fortunately we have signed up for his adult show too, which will be the next day!

When we left the port in Miami we had a spectacular sunset! We sailed straight south towards Cuba!