We had purchased valet parking online from the Port of Tampa, and I am so glad we did. We pulled up, the porter took our luggage. I thanked and tipped him. The valet scanned our parking pass that we printed out, and we got in line for security. The extra $20 for valet was well worth it – plus the fact that the car will be brought back to us at the end of the trip. Saved us a lot of time and walking!
Going though security was mostly easy. They didn’t tell me to take anything out of my pockets, though. It was assumed that I knew do do it, no signs or verbal directions. I haven’t gone through security for travel since the 1990’s so it didn’t even dawn on me. Once I took out my wallet and cell phone, and went though the metal detector, my suspenders set it off, and they had to ‘wand’ and pat me down, but since I didn’t have any illicit items or weapons I was clear to go.
Since we had checked in through the app, check in was easy. They had to retake a picture as one was too dark that we had uploaded. They verified our ID’s, birth certificates, wedding licences and our negative covid test papers. We then headed down the gangway and on to the ship.
We boarded on deck 4, which was where our room was located. It was about 12:30 so of course rooms were not ready yet and they directed us to go to deck 11 for the buffet, but we knew better than that. We had purchased the Specialty Dining Package and the Refreshment Package, so we had unlimited meals at all the restaurants and all the non-alcoholic drinks and coffee.
We headed to deck 6 to Chops Grill for Lunch and avoided the crowd that was sure to be at the buffet. There were only a handful of people at Chops grill and after a disappointing breakfast, we were ready for lunch!
After a fantastic lunch, we explored the ship, got our first of many Coffees from Lattetudes, and played putt-putt. We were originally booked on Brilliance of the Seas, also a radiance class vessel, and it was docked next to us. Because of Covid, it was not back in operation for paying customers and I was surprised to see it here.
We played billiards on the self-leveling tables, watched a sunset at sea and had a great dinner at Izumis.
