[12/28/2015 Monday]
The first night on the ship is relaxing for me thanks to champagne and the travel tablet, Harry could not sleep so well. Today we have a sea day and will thus look at the ship in peace.
We only get up at 8:30 am, as the first time change has already taken place during the night and we are therefore missing an hour. The breakfast is excellent, the choice is between 3 buffet restaurants with all kinds of fruit, egg in all variations, fish smoked, cheese and sausage and ham and riesen Cerialienauswahl plus various drinks, such as the smoothie of the day.
At the Theatrium we attend the info session about tomorrow’s destination Santo Domingo at 10am, then pick up our booked vouchers for excursions and listen to a talk from DFB Fitness Couch Dr. Gonzalez about fitness & nutrition.
After lunch we strolled around the ship, for people who have never been on such a large cruiser, it is fascinating to use the elevators and stairs that connect all 12 decks. Deck 1-3 is for the crew with engine room, administration and also a hospital, on deck 4-9 are mostly the passengers’ rooms. The bars, theatrium, restaurants, casino, wellness and sports area, pool deck etc. are on decks 9-12.
The age range of fellow passengers is mixed, the youngest passenger is 9 months old! There are many families with small children, but also many young people from 15-20 years who seem to make mainly party on the pool deck. Partly the parents do not have their children under control, we have a very strongly increased risk of infection because of a gastrointestinal virus on board, there are extra announcements and the hygiene regulations are increased to a maximum, nevertheless the little kiddies reach with their hands into the food and the parents do not mind…
The fitness area is surprisingly large with equipment training, several cardio machines, and class offerings, is open 24/7, and is also well used.
At the reception we exchange our last euros into dollars for tomorrow, in case we need a bit of money, unfortunately this is only possible with cash.
At 7 p.m. we watch the musical Queen show “I want it all” in the Theatrium – the show with 14 singers and dancers is very well done and we like it very much.
After the entertaining captain from Dresden has introduced himself, we stop by the casino, discover a pinball machine and so I play pinball for the first time in my life, it’s a lot of fun, Harry is a pro and gets many free spinsJ
After an interesting day on the ship with waves of up to 4 meters and wind force 6-7, we slowly get used to the ship life, however, the fluctuations are already very clear, especially in the restaurants, so that you really sway slightly when walking. Meanwhile, I am glad that we are on the lowest deck, here the ship movements are less.
Tomorrow is the first stop in the capital of the Dominican Republic, we do not have a guided tour and discover the city on our own.