I actually arrived in Rome the day before on Alitalia Airline. I spent one night in Rome and on the departure day for the cruise, I took the train from Rome to Civitavecchia. Check in for the cruise at the port took only about 20 minutes. This is because this particular cruise had passengers embarking and departing in Civitavecchia and Barcelona. I think most of the people who boarded in Civitavecchia arrived much earlier. I arrived about 5PM. The ship’s scheduled departure was 8PM but I believe that ‘all aboard’ time was 6:30PM.
I wanted to have a good time and a nice cabin so I splurged a bit and purchased an outside balcony cabin that has an ocean view on deck 11. Now that may seem redundant but the design of the ship allows for cabins with balconies with ocean views and balconies that have a view of an inner courtyard. One inner courtyard is called Boardwalk with overlooking balconies on decks 8 through 14. The other courtyard with overlooking balconies on decks 10 through 14, Central Park.
Boardwalk is on deck 6. It is an area at the aft of the ship that is open at the stern area and above. The balconies look at the courtyard that has a carousel, the end of a giant slide called Ultimate Abyss, Sabor Taqueria and Bar, Starbucks (yes, even on a cruise ship), Boardwalk Arcade, Boardwalk Dog House (hot dogs and sausages), Johnny Rockets (had a bacon cheeseburger and black-and-white shake) and a Royal Caribbean/Harmony of the Seas souvenir shop. It also leads to the Aqua Theater.
Central Park, on deck 8, was like a park with sidewalks, grass, trees and benches to sit. Balconies look out onto Central Park, like they look onto Boardwalk. There are 
the restaurants Park Café, Jamie’s Italian, Chops Grille and 150 Central Park. There is Trellis Bar and Vintages, a wine bar. If one needs some shopping therapy, Bulgari is there too. One day it rained part of the day during the cruise. Just like a real park, there was rain because Central Park is open to the sky.
The Aqua Theater is an amphitheater for water shows and outdoor movies. It seats about 600 people. I did see part of one of the water shows. I thought it was exciting and beautiful. There is singing, dancing, high diving (from up to 55 feet above the deck) and a high wire act. It was great and Esther Williams would be impressed, though the show was very modern and not the synchronized swimming that she was famous for. Two movie screens are used for the water shows and for movies. I saw the new Jungle Book in this outdoor amphitheater. It was nice to see a movie outside, in the fresh air, on the ship’s deck. Sound quality was good.
Anyway, my cabin was pretty nice and decent size with a reasonable bathroom with a nice shower. There was a king sized bed, a sofa, a desk, a cabinet with several drawers and houses a mini-fridge. There are also two armoires for hanging clothes. The desk had several outlets to recharge your electronics as well as two USB charging ports. There was also a flat panel television on the wall. There were two bedside tables and a ship phone. The balcony nicely holds two chairs, with two foot stools and a table to hold drinks. There are dividers separating the balconies from each other for privacy.
My first chore was dinner, not unpacking. I had not eaten all day. I decided to go to my assigned dining room, The Grande Restaurant. Since I did not have a reservation time, I had to wait in a line for people with no reservation. About 15 minutes later, I was sitting at a table. The waiter and assistant assigned to my table were Mariana and Alina from the Ukraine. They were very attentive, friendly and made feel comfortable being at dinner alone. They kept my water glass full also. I ordered steak medium well, that came with asparagus and carrots. Dessert was chocolate cake. The steak was cooked as I like it. The sides were tasty and the dessert was very good (I will eat almost anything that is chocolate). Now if I decided that I wanted something else that was on the menu, I could get that too. You can have as many entrees or as many desserts as you want. If one eats a particular meal in the main dining room, it does not preclude you from going to another eatery to eat there too.
The dining room was very nice with variable sized tables. There were tables for 
two and tables for up to eight people. The lighting was good and background music was not overwhelming. All wait staff seemed very friendly and helpful. At times, there were waiters assisting me that were NOT assigned to my table. The menu had items that were available every day on the right and the daily ‘specials’ on the left. The wine list had significant choices from reasonably priced to somewhat expensive. Some could be bought by the glass, others only by the bottle. Most importantly, you were not rushed to eat. In fact, you were informed that you should allow two hours for dinner. This is NOT because of long waits. Even without a reservation, my longest wait was 15 minutes. Once seated, your waiter/waitress or their assistant were usually at your service in two minutes or less.
As far as eating, there are restaurants that are included in your fare and specialty restaurants that have an additional charge. Included restaurants are Windjammer Marketplace, Solarium Bistro, Park Café, American Icon, Mini Bites, The Grande Restaurant, Silk, Café Promenade, Vitality Café, Boardwalk Dog House and Sorrento’s Pizza. One can eat at as many of the included restaurants, as many times per day, as one wants, WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONAL CHARGE. Places that require an additional charge are Johnny Rockets, Sabor Tequeria & Tequila Bar, Vintages, Jamie’s Italian, Chops Grille, Wonderland, 150 Central Park, Izumi Hibachi & Sushi and Starbucks.
After dinner, I decided to check out some of the evenings activities. I took a walk around and ended up on Deck 15 in an outdoor activities area that I will talk 
about later. There was a jazz quartet, Swing Time Quartet, consisting of keyboard player, drummer, bass guitar and female singer. I am somewhat of a jazz enthusiast. It was a large part of the music heard in our house when I was a small child. I have had the opportunity to hear Dizzy Gillespie in person and meet him twice (first time, November 1979 in a small nightclub in Montreal; second time in about 1984 on the Cook College Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey). The singer was no Ella Fitzgerald and seemed to try to emulate the style of Astrud Gilberto, but she was good. The three musicians were also pretty good. I expected that I would get a chance to see them again later during the cruise.
At about 9PM in the Royal Theater, Decks 4 & 5, there was a magic show, Hector is Magic. Now most people would say, “A magic show?” Yes, and it was good. Hector is combination stand-up comedian and magician from Seville, Spain. The show was in English and Spanish with him translating from English into Spanish. He did card tricks, rope tricks and audience participation tricks, even including children. It was definitely worth seeing and his show was attention getting. Some tricks have been seen before but he made it fun and interesting.
As the evening progressed to night, I decided to check out Red. Red is a nightclub activity on the ship in Studio B, Deck 4. It had a DJ playing new stuff and some oldies. I was surprised at the number of people there with children (I mean down to about age 6) and that was at midnight. There was dancing and it was like a small club with a bar at the edge of the dance floor and stadium style seating three-quarters of the way around the floor. Lighting was club-bish but the number of children made it a bit less appealing.
I decided to go to Sorrento’s Pizza for a couple of slices and soda in my special cup. Pizza is included in your fare and you can eat as much as you want. Sorrento’s opens at 11AM and goes to 3AM. Pizza was not bad but not great. It could be customized in short order. It also has two of those Coca Cola machines like they have at Wendy’s. There was also cold, non-bottled water to drink.
Anyway, I got back to my cabin to find that my bed had been turned down and listing of the next day’s activities was on the bed. I took a look but only briefly because by morning, Friday, we would be at the port of Naples and I had signed up for a shore excursion. I was exhausted. In the past 48 hours, I had traveled from Boston to Rome, had a brief tour of Rome including the Vatican, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and the Colosseum, now I was on the cruise. I was looking forward to some sleep and Friday’s shore excursion.
This ends my first evening on the ship. It was beautiful, shiny and modern. Dinner was not gourmet but very, very good with good service. I was looking forward to the next day of the cruise.
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the-wandering-doc.com
P.S. Beginning today, I will do my best to post every other Friday.
Please comment and follow my travels. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at DrJ@the-wandering-doc.com