We dawdled around the hotel in the morning and made a quick walk over to McDonald's for some breakfast before our Uber driver arrived to take us to Southampton City Terminal. Bag drop-off was quick and easy and we walked quickly into the terminal. We hit our first snafu because the Xpress Pass on our phones showed the wrong date for the cruise (June 5 instead of June 6). The agent did not want to let us through but another agent said to check the manifest. Meanwhile, J. R. brought up the app and refreshed it and the date was correct so we were able to walk in. Our new Royal One Plus credit card allowed us to walk right on with suite guests so we headed to our room, met Jayson, our room steward for the week, and dropped off our bags.

Usually we head right to the buffet but we decided to mix it up and do our muster drill and go to the Martini Bar, where we met Putu, who we had cruised with on the Ascent. He was great then and continued to provide excellent service all week. After a couple of martinis, we went to Craft Social, hoping to find Anush, who had told us earlier in the year he would be on this cruise, but, alas, his schedule must have changed and he was not there. We had a quick drink, then went upstairs to get some food and then down to our room to unpack for the two weeks and watch sailaway from our Infinite Verandah before returning to the Martini Bar for drinks before dinner.

We had made a low bid for an Aqua Class room and were surprised when it came through, so that meant we would be dining in Blu instead of the main dining room. We met our dining staff and then had a wonderful filet mignon for dinner, which was a great way to kick off the first night. The evening show did not really appeal to us so we went back to the Martini Bar to hang out with Putu, Huns, Tata and Aron and watch them perform their nightly chandelier show.

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