Underway

 The transfer to the ship was an hour from leaving the hotel to going aboard.

In the upper left quadrant of the picture, a red circle indicates the location of our stateroom.  The room is pleasant.  The veranda has something extra. Like the starboard bridge wing above it, the front end of the veranda sticks out over the water, giving us an unusual perspective, especially when looking aft.

A pleasant surprise was that the muster at the lifeboats wearing lifejackets is no longer part of leaving port. There is still an emergency drill process, but it requires checking in at your muster station and then watching a video and listening to an announcement.

At 6:13 PM, RIVIERA cast off its lines, backing down along Terminal Island until there was room to turn around.

About an hour later, we slipped between South Beach and Fisher Island. The ship followed the deep water channel until well offshore, then turned south on its passage to Mexico.