Day 1 - Leaving Tampa

And we’re off. Here’s a timeline of how our day went (for those of you doing this cruise later) and also a summary of key items from the Compass.

We boarded at 10:30, which was supposed to be set aside for Diamond and above members of the loyalty program and anybody on deck 10. My wife and I are Diamond members…who also happened to be on deck 10.

The Windjammer Café was open. Our room was available at 1 PM and luggage arrived at 1:15, the earliest ever for us.

Muster drill was at 3:15 and we pulled out of Tampa at 4:45.

Dinner was casual. I’m writing this before we ate so I’ll have more on that later. We’re doing My Time dining all week in the main dining room, with a couple of trips to the specialty restaurants mixed in.

The show is comedian Robbie Printz. Only one show at 7:45.

The cruise director is Clodagh O’Connor from Ireland. My mother will be pleased to hear that.

If you have specific things from the Compass you’d like to know, post a comment and I’ll try to get to it. If not during the trip, then when we get home.

Here are the pics (I’m not a pro photographer, as you’ll quickly find out):

Pool deck sail-away party.

Pool during sail-away.

Only in Florida can you have a manatee-themed oil tank with the shadow of a cruise ship moving across it.

Leaving Tampa behind...for now.

 

 

Tomorrow is at sea so I'll have lots of photos of the ship. Plus the beginning of the food reviews.