Sail-Away Day

I had a hard time getting to sleep last night and the last time I looked at the clock it was a few minutes after 2 am. Because of this I was able to sleep until about 8 am.

Bags were being picked up starting at 8:30 so I quickly packed everything up and had them waiting.  They picked them up about 9.  I went down to the lobby about 9:20 and once again it was packed.  Cruise Specialist had reserved two meeting rooms in which we could wait but when I checked them there was not one person in either, so I went back to the lobby to wait with everyone else.

Promptly at 9:45 they called the first bus (which I was assigned - it was alphabetical).  It took a few minutes for us to load and about 15 minutes to get to the port and unload the hand luggage. 

We were the first group to arrive and the Captain (Jonathan Mercer) and the president of Holland America, Orlando Ashford, were there to greet us.  Most of the people on the cruise are 4 or 5 Star Mariners or members of the President’s Club (part of the HAL loyalty program) which means they had a special line dedicated to them.  In this case it worked to my benefit to be a 2-star Mariner because my line was much shorter.  I walked straight up and was checked in in a matter of moments.  Then it was upstairs to sit and wait but it wasn’t long and I was on the ship quickly.  I went to my cabin and then to drop off the invitations to the Cruise Critic Meet and Greet for the officers.

By then it was after noon and time for lunch in the Lido.  I had some very good roast beef and fruit and blueberry bread pudding for dessert.  Once I had my meal I needed to explore the ship.  The other Holland America ships I have been on were laid out very similarly to the Queen Elizabeth so I very quickly learned my way around.  This ship, being a totally different class and being smaller, has things on different floors and in different places and in some cases there are dead ends.

After walking around for awhile I went back to my cabin and one of my suitcases had arrived.  I decided to do something totally different and start unpacking (I am terrible about procrastinating when it comes to unpacking).  I was very pleased that I completed one suitcase on the first day. 

Time to do more exploring.  I finally found the library and had a hot chocolate (still haven’t warmed up completely from the cold weather at home).  It was then time to get ready for the muster drill.  I always like to find my muster area in advance.  There were many people sitting nearby waiting for the drill so I sat with them.  About that time the captain came on to explain the three-part drill.  First two parts are basically to alert the crew and the third part is for the passengers.  When he went over it he did not mention about going back to our cabins (I had hoped that maybe HAL had done away with it since my last cruise).  So, I continued to sit.  When the announcement was made to go back to your cabins, most people continued to sit.  I went to the elevators (I knew I couldn’t climb a number of flights of stairs) and waited.  An elevator never came so I was a very bad girl.  I went outside with the others.  Of course, nobody said anything because by that time there were at least 30 people at each of the stations.  Muster drill dragged on and on.  Since your keycards are now scanned (instead of them calling roll), I hoped it would be much shorter but it ended up only about 5 minutes shorter.

Back to my cabin after the drill and another of my suitcases had shown up.  Trying to atone for my misdeed in the muster drill, I unpacked that one as well.

By then I needed to do some more exploring before coming back to get ready for the evening.  Shortly after I returned my room steward, Wayan, knocked at the door with my third suitcase in hand.  Since he placed it on my bed it was either unpack it or sleep around it, so I unpacked it.  Never have I ever had all my luggage unpacked on the first day!

We were scheduled to leave at 8 pm and the sail-away party was from 7:30-8:30.  I decided to go to the party and skip dinner in the dining room.  The party had appetizers and (free) drinks.  I had a margarita and a rum punch!  In my defense, they were small and fairly weak (the way I like them).  At 8 pm I went out by the Sea View pool to watch the sail-away from Port Everglades.  This was the first time since 2013 that the Amsterdam left on her world cruise on time.  It was a tad chilly so there were only about seven of us out on deck.

I then had dinner in the Lido (really good pork ribs) and returned to my cabin to work on the blog.  There was no show tonight just a movie.  There was also no trivia.

Tomorrow is a sea day and our first Cruise Critic Meet and Greet.

I took lots of photos around the ship but I will start with my cabin.

the closets (rather tiny)

the bathroom

the desk is almost unusable unless sitting on the bed - I am using the table as my desk

this is the power strip HAL supplied (I thought surge protectors were a no-no??)

Smooth sailing until next time!