I set the alarm last night so we would be sure to get up in time for our transfer to Southampton.  I am glad I did as I think we could have slept much later.  So we had one more hotel buffet breakfast then back to the room for final packing.  I’d scheduled our Blacklane driver to arrive at 10:00.  At 9:30, we got a text and an email that the driver was parked nearby and to let him know when we were ready to go.  There is no place to park in front of the hotel just a loading zone marked in front of the door that is in the far left lane of traffic.  

We were ready, so we went downstairs, checked out, texted the driver, and waited on the curb.  The street in front of the hotel is one way to the east.  Somehow the driver drove up in a lane on the far side of the street, did a u-turn, and pulled up and stopped facing west.  We hurried to verify that he’s our driver, gave him the bags, and got situated in the car.  He was friendly and seemed okay so I asked him if that was legal to park backwards.   He said it was fine since he was picking up.  I’m still skeptical, but he was an overall safe driver and got us to Southampton just fine.  

Our embarkation was the easiest one I can remember ever having.  There was no wait to drop our luggage and go inside the terminal.  We moved constantly as we went through the steps for embarkation: drop luggage, health check, passport check, medallion pick-up, security in the terminal and on the ship, and on to the Estrella dining room for lunch.  

The announcement saying the rooms were ready came before we finished lunch.  No wait for that either.  I think this is the biggest ship we have ever cruised on.  It holds 3,660 passengers and 1300 crew.  I’ve heard from other passengers that there are only 2,200 passengers on this voyage.  Perhaps someone official will confirm that.  

We have a mid-forward mini-suite on Baja deck, B327.  It is not in the Club Class.  I originally booked a Club Class mini, but changed that when regular mini-suites were available for $2,000 less than the price I booked.  Our travel agent took care of getting it re-fared in the new category for us.  I like the advantages of Club Class, but it is not worth that much.  

Before the cruise started, I made dinner reservations for us for the entire trip.  It will be easy to cancel any we don’t want.  Not knowing which restaurant will be the best for us, I chose a varied schedule of the three main restaurants and two nights in specialty restaurants.  The medallion app has saved my reservations so we’ll know which place to go to and what time to be there without me having to remember or record the details.  The reservations disappeared from the app for a few days before the cruise, but I had read on a Facebook page that that had happened to other passengers so I was not too surprised.  The reservations reappeared once we were on board.

Tonight, we ate in the Soleil Dining Room.  It’s attractive and the staff is kind yet rather slow.  Don’t know if that’s because of their work though or the kitchen being slow tonight so I’ll wait to reserve judgment until we have more experience here.  The dining room is elegant with shades of black, gray, muted teal, and silver.  Looks so different from other ships that use lots of brass and glass in all the public rooms.