DAY 1---Boarding Grandeur Day

         At long last the day has come!!  We both had a much better night's sleep in adjusting to the time difference between here and the US.  Up at 8am and headed down for breakfast at 9:30.  Eric, bellman, took our luggage down at 11:30 and got us a taxi to take us to the cruise terminal.

        We arrived at the cruise terminal at 12:10 and our luggage was picked up at the taxi.  There was a short long to go through security and the x-ray of our carry-on bags  but no wait to get checked in.  After that we went right onboard.

                                                                    No lines to check-in.

                         Of course we had to pass through duty free shops on the way to the ship.

Here are some photos of our lovely category F1 suite.  Very spacious with lots of closet and drawers space for our "stuff".

         Sitting area.  Table has orchid, bottle house champagne, bottle of the GOOD champagne (Veuve Clicquot), and a box of Leonidas candy.  The last two are part of our "Diamond" status benefits.

                     Regent's beds are sooooo comfy.  Unlike most ships the bed faces the water.

                                              Nice walk in closet with nice big drawers.

                       Nice bathroom with shower and tub.  Rebecca likes the lighting also.

                                                                   Bath and shower.

                                               Our La Crema chardonnay was waiting on us.

                                                                            Balcony

                        They were busy loading lots of provisions below on the pier today.

                                                     View from our suite balcony today.

                              Our suite stewards are Raz and Farod.  Very nice young men.

        We went down to the Reception Desk to request they print a Dallas Morning News paper for us daily.  (another free benefit).   We were elated to see Bernalyn seated at a desk nearby.  She was our favorite waitress on our world cruise earlier this year.  She had tears in her eyes when she saw us.

        Next we went up to La Veranda for a bite of lunch.  Loved this nice table for two facing the window.  I had a few shrimp with cocktail sauce and two slices of pizza.  Rebecca had her usual Atkins meal bar.

                                                                         The buffet

        After lunch we returned to the suite.  It was 2:30 and our luggage had been delivered to the suite.  So we spent an hour putting clothes in drawers and closet.  The empty luggage cases fit nicely under the bed for storage.

        

        We met many old cruise friends during the afternoon.  Will see even more later on during the cruise.  We will be dining with Jim & Pat Bittle tonight in Prime 7, steakhouse.  We have cruised with them several times.  We are meeting at 6pm in the Meridian Lounge for cocktails at 6pm then dinner at 7:00.  There is a welcome onboard show at 9:30 to introduce the officers followed by a performance by the singers and dancers.

        I am having an issue with my phone's photos not uploading from my phone to Google Photos.  Worked great until getting on the ship!  So for the above photos I had to email them to me then download them individually from my email to the blog.  Takes a lot of time but at least I got it done.  Hugo, the internet guy, could not figure out why they would not upload so researching with ship's technical guy. Hope it gets straightened out SOON.