We met the Stokers at our hotel's breakfast area & enjoyed chatting about the previous day & discussing how we were going to get to our ship. Once that was decided, we packed up & headed out with 4 VERY large suitcases & 4 smaller ones...walking 2 blocks to the train station. Buying the tickets was easy but finding the right platform was a little confusing. Between the 4 of us & some "helpful" (meaning they wanted money) Italians, we found the correct train. Have I mentioned how perfect the weather has been? We all commented how nice it was to haul all that luggage & not break a sweat. :) The train was a double decker, so of course, we rode on the upper level. The train ride was quick, only about an hour or so & then we caught a taxi that took us right to the luggage drop off for the cruise.

We all got very excited when we caught sight of our ship--it's enormous!! Checking in went really smoothly & only took a few minutes. We headed straight for our rooms & were very pleased with them--perhaps it had something to do with the tiny rooms we had in Rome, but could've been that they are just very nice. We explored the ship, unpacked & took advantage of the buffet...now I know why people gain weight on cruises! We broke open a bottle of wine & toasted our cruise while sitting on our balcony.

After a mandatory demonstration on how to put on our lifesavers, we freshened up & had dinner at one of the specialty restaurants that overlooks the water, The Crown Grill. Brian & Rich had steaks & lobster while Teena & I had Chilean Sea Bass with Tiger Prawns...to name just a few of the selections we enjoyed. We waddled back to our rooms & collapsed. All this eating just takes it out of you! LOL