There was a lot of new construction near the port as they are reclaiming the land and adding to the industry near the port. The cruise terminal looked to be brand new and was very nice. Porters took our luggage and we were directed to a security check area then to Chinese immigrations. For some reason we had to make 3 copies of our passports before being processed. The immigration check was very thorough! After that we proceeded to board the ship and was directed into the theatre for check-in. It was did not take long for that. By now it was 2:00pm and were told our suites would not be available until 2:30 so we went up the have a bite of lunch.
Our suite was ready right on time and our luggage showed up with 30 minutes. So now the big job of unpacking began. Think we dislike this more than packing. Our suite stewardess and steward came in to introduce themselves, Jane (from Philippines) and Jacob (from Indonesia). They skipped their normal briefing as we have heard it many times now. I had a list of requests from them, the main one being for 40 more hangers. It took us until after 6:00pm to finish unpacking. Our bathroom has both a shower and bath tub. We ask for them to put plywood over the tub so we could sit an open suitcase on it to use a clothes drawer. They also added a rod so we could hang more clothes over tub. We did this on our world cruise also and it works great.
I had earlier made an 8:30pm reservation at the steakhouse, Prime 7. It was after 7 before we were ready to leave the suite and head up to the Observation Bar for pre-dinner cocktails. Rebecca likes St Francis chardonnay so she asked for it and I asked for a gin martini. I don't usually drink martinis but my first drink on the ship was to honor our Australian friend, Peter. We met Peter & Maureen (they live in Sydney) last year on our South American cruise. He is fighting cancer now and praying a lot for him. I learned one thing on that cruise. NEVER try to out drink an Assie!! Lillia, the bartender from Ukraine, had to call wine cellar for the chardonnay. They told her there was none. I told her we had our travel agent request special for us so she called down again. Boris, the head Sommelier, came up carrying a bottle of St Francis. He informed us there was only 50 bottles on board and were reserved for only us. That will not last us 78 days.
There was a headline (comedy pianist) entertainer show at 9:30 but we had not finished our steak dinner
by then. We had a smooth night of sailing in the Yellow Sea between China and South Korea.
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