A relaxing morning before we head to Baosan Port. We don't leave the hotel until 10.30am so it gives us time to have a leisurely breakfast and then pack our bags and make sure we have all our paperwork ready for the cruise.
We so excited for this part of our trip. We've really enjoyed the China tour, it's been something completely different to anything trip we've done before, now it's time to say goodbye to the tour bus and hello to our beautiful ship The Spectrum of The Seas!
Hans explained what we needed to do once we got to the port and also said his goodbyes as we wouldn't have much time when the bus parked. The bus could only be there for 5 minutes before it had to move on. We all needed to get our suitcases so instead of them taking them off the bus and moving them down towards the front of the bus out of the way as there wasn't much space between our bus and the next one, no this is too sensible. People just pushed bags out of the way to get their suitcase even if that meant pushing them further away. Just as I went to grab my suitcase it got pushed away from me. Manners got out the window when you're on a bus tour. Everyone wants to be first. We were talking with an older couple who said that we always end up at the back but so far we've never missed out on anything so why push and shove. Exactly.
Anyway, we got our bags put our cruise tags on them and dropped them off before making our way into the cruise terminal. This was a lot different to any cruise we'd done before. Boarding took us about 1 1/2hrs. So many checks, so many queues and so many people. After worried for a bit when we got a form explaining what we needed to do and what paperwork we needed which said have a photocopy of our passport (which I have but it was in my suitcase which I'd just dropped off). It did say if we didn't have one there was a photocopier on level 3. In the end we didn't actually need it until we got to Japan, something to remember for next time I guess.
Finally made it on board, our cabin was yet ready they were all due to be ready at 2pm, so we found a comfy chair and I went and got us a cup of tea. I also ended up getting a couple of savoury muffins as I ended up in the Two70 cafe and it's always hard to resist yummy looking forward. The muffins did look yummier than what they were.
After we had our cup of tea we went down to the cafe looking for something sweet. Mum grabbed a pork roll and I grabbed a chocolate mousse, yum.
The announced that all the cabins were now ready so once we'd finished eating we made our way to deck 7 and looked for our obstructed view balcony cabin.
Beautiful room and happily there was no obstruction other than a slight overhang below us which just meant we couldn't look straight down the ship, we were very happy with that.
We love the layout of the RCI cabins. Spacious, airy and light and the balcony is a good size with a chair and foot stool each and a small round table. This would have been much better for the 3 of us when we did the NZ cruise.
Our suitcases hadn't arrived yet but would be there after we went and did our muster. Our muster station was in the Royal Theatre a few decks below our cabin. For the muster they actually showed us a mini movie explaining everything, it must be an Asian thing. Quite funny actually. It was also funny watching the Asians and how they just do what they want and sit wherever they want even with the staff trying to tell them what to do. The Chinese don't believe in queuing or waiting.
We unpacked our suitcases when we got back to our room, lots of storage space and our suitcases fitted under our comfy beds. Our cabin steward introduced himself, Jesman, so we asked if he could get us some English breakfast teabags. The cabin has a kettle in it but they only provide green tea bags. Jesman was lovely and remember our names everytime we saw him. I couldn't remember his name and for awhile there I thought it was Jose (that was the name of the head waiter).
After freshening up we went exploring the ship and checking out the drinks menu to see how much we were in for when buying our wine. We went to Vintages and bought a bottle of Australian chardonnay, the only Sav B was $50 a bit exxy for us, the one we bought was $33US + 18% gratuity so probs $40 aussie. We didn't like this wine so didn't buy it again.
Our dinner time was 7pm each night in the main dining room. This was different to the Ovation as it was a single restaurant over 2 levels where as the Ovation was 4 individual restaurants over the 2 levels. The restaurant was lovely and we did actually have a table for two although they had thought we were with the other couple also being lead to their table so they quickly split the table by about 5cm. The couple we sat near were lovely anyway so it didn't matter anyway.
We had a delicious meal even though we only had about 30 seconds to look at the menu before we ordered. Mum didn't even see what I had ordered on the menu, I had the roast beef, as we had to be so quick. We didn't mind too much as long as it wasn't like that each evening (it wasn't) and we didn't realise but we hadn't been given the every day menu until we saw it the next night. Not a big deal, this stayed the same the whole cruise anyway.
After dinner we headed back to our room for our first sleep on board the Spectrum making our way to Japan. Tomorrow is a sea day.
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