We awoke in our hotel, repacked our bags and drove to the nearest IHOP for breakfast before beginning the drive to Port Canaveral. With the soundtrack to 'Hamilton' playing on the iPhone, we made good time and were at the Hertz return much earlier than expected. The attendant was dealing with passengers coming off a Disney ship, so he had us just throw him our keys and we were quickly off to the Royal Caribbean terminal with another couple. We got checked in and found a couple of chairs and free Wi-Fi and waited to board. Boarding here was much more organized than Disney at Miami or Vancouver. RCCL employees actually looked at the boarding group numbers and turned people away with later numbers, unlike the mad rush at Disney with no one even looking to see if people were boarding early.
Entry on RCCL was non-eventful. No one greeting you like on Disney or announcing your arrival. We weren't really sure where to go as usually on Disney someone directs you to the buffet or dining rooms. But we knew we had to go up to one of the top decks, so that was what we did. We made use of our 'unlimited drink package' at the pool bar and then had lunch at the buffet. Lunch was passable, but nothing spectacular, which pretty much summed up the dining experience for the entire cruise. We hung out on deck for awhile before going down to our room, which was about the size of a walk-in closet. Janie was tired and decided to take a quick nap, so J. R. went and explored the ship. He found our luggage sitting in a pile in a hallway and claimed it and took it to the room and began unpacking and then it was time for the muster drill. The drill was warm and crowded on an outside deck and we didn't like having to stand around, but soon it was time to go back up top for another drink and relax. We were entertained by the world's dumbest individual, who was telling his friends about how the ship was being pushed out to sea (backwards) by a tug boat (even though you could feel the ship's engines and we were obviously facing the right direction). He also spent a lot of time talking about the SpaceX launch that he said had happened at Port Canaveral that morning which we had 'just missed'. (The launch had taken place at Vandenberg AFB that morning. Which is in California.) Finally he was excited by the supposedly top-secret vessel he saw going by (which was a salvage trawler). We only hoped his date was not that gullible.
We were seated at a six-top table for dinner with one other couple, who pretty much ignored us most of the night, talking to themselves. J. R. tried to engage with them, but they didn't seem to want to talk. This is one area of cruising we don't like -- it's fine if you get engaged tablemates, but otherwise it is weird to sit at a table with people you don't know, each couple only talking to their mate. It would not be hard to separate the tables slightly and it wouldn't impact service. Our server was wonderful, almost Disney quality, and funny. His assistant was useless, taking most of the meal to get Janie her drink and giving J. R. the wrong drink.
We toured the ship and had another drink before going to see the opening night variety show. The singers and dancers performed well, but the 70s-theme was not our thing, and judging from the mostly empty auditorium, it wasn't of interest to many others either. We hung our for awhile and watched "Thor" on deck but J. R. was tired and wanted to turn in, so we headed to bed. Our cruise excursion tickets were waiting for us and J. R. was amused at the notice that guests needed to be able to 'walk approximately' in order to do the Pearl Island tour.