"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report # 6 Embarkation Day January 5, 2016 Tuesday Overcast, rainy, and windy 30 Pictures

Sent: Wednesday, January 6, 2016 4:29:19 PM
Subject: FW: Report # 6 Embarkation Day January 5, 2016 Tuesday Overcast, rainy, and windy 30 Pictures

Report # 6 Embarkation Day January 5, 2016 Tuesday Overcast, rainy, and windy 30 Pictures

Knowing that today would turn out to be a marathon one, we began the morning with a good breakfast, but not where we had planned. Wouldn't you know it, rain greeted us when we went to leave the hotel to walk to the café. A light rain, but when you don't have umbrellas, we would have gotten soaked.

So we went back into the hotel's restaurant, Bin 595, and were seated at a table for two. Thank goodness, most of the guests were not up yet. The service was swift and the food was great. Lots of coffee too.

By the time we got back to the room, our two pieces of luggage had been picked up. We would not see these until later in the day in our cabin on the ship.

Our private limo bus was on time at 10am. There were only 16 of us riding to the pier early, so there was plenty of room. The ride took about ½ hour, and lucky for us, there was little traffic. Our destination was Pier 26. From that area, we could only see one other ship docked nearby, a Silverseas vessel.

Since the official check-in time was more like 1pm, there were few passengers at the terminal. It was a breeze getting into the terminal building, going through the xray check, then filling out the health forms stating that we were not ill. Also, we had to let them know if we had recently traveled in ebola areas. Answering NO to all of the questions got us a pass to the embarkation desk.

They had it split between President Club members, suites, veranda rooms, and five star and down Mariner members. At this point, there were no lines anywhere. Gerald was waiting for our bus, so he took care of each and every one of us. Everything was ready within minutes, and after the credit card was registered, we were free to board.

Henk M, the Hotel Director, met us, and led us to the elevator to the second level. There we met up with more PC friends, where we waited to have our photos taken with Captain Mercer, Henk Mensink, Gerald, and Gene Young, the Cruise Director.

Better yet, our room keys worked upon entering the ship. Last time, our photos were switched, and we had to go to the front desk to have new pictures taken. Actually, it happened again, but the HAL rep took new photos at her desk, and fixed them before we embarked.

A couple of weeks before this trip, we had been given a room assignment on the lower promenade deck. We really don't like that location, so we recently upgraded back to our old room, which was still available. So we expected to see the huge flower arrangement, champagne, a fruit plate, and our bottles of alcohol. Only a bottle of Knob Creek was there, and the Molton Brown amenities from Housekeeping. Nothing else. Not even a daily newsletter.

We met our room steward, who happened to be the same fellow we had on the Tales of the South Pacific, Denny. His assistant, Prio, is new to us. We did not want to bother him with the missing items, since they have enough to do on boarding day. We really thought it would all show up later in the day.

Since no luggage had arrived, we went off to have lunch in the Lido. There was no Mariner lunch in the dining room……not even a regular lunch, as it was closed. But the sandwich maker was there in the Lido with a full array of sandwich makings. Hurray. He will probably see a lot of us on this cruise, because he did a good job.

We got a table in the Lido pool area, and were soon joined by good buddies, Barbie, Bill, Leta, Ellen and Aart, who surprised us by coming back onboard for a visit. They had been on the holiday cruise, which ended today. We will see them in Singapore, when they join the ship for the rest of the cruise back to Ft. Lauderdale.

From 1:30 to 3pm, the waiters served wine and champagne. Manny, our favorite bar waiter, kept our glasses full the entire time. At this rate, we might end up spending the late afternoon napping, something we never do. Except that there would be no room, due to luggage delivery…….all of it.

But first, we had to attend the muster drill at 4:15pm. Even though we will not be leaving the port until 11pm, they get the drill over earlier, well before sunset. Even though it looked and felt like rain was coming, it never did. The wind was blowing at 33 knots however. And cool. This is the first time in a long time, that we did not bake in the sun for the mandatory drill.

Well, this would be a good time to start the dreaded unpacking. At least the two suitcases from the hotel. It took six weeks to gather and bag all of the stuff, so to finish this task in one afternoon was impossible. It did appear that the wire coat hangers we bought with the 12 hooks will work on the existing wall hooks.

So with two pieces of luggage and one duffel bag unloaded, it was time for dinner. Yep, it was 8pm already. We have stuck with the fixed late dining seating, except not on deck five. Tom G, the Dining Room Manager, kindly let us keep our table for 10 (311) on deck four. So until we get to Sydney, where we begin to gather more friends, we are sharing the table with Barb, of course, and another couple from Texas, Bonnie and Paul. This is their first world cruise, although they have traveled on many cruises in the past on different lines. The conversation flowed as we all enjoyed our first tasty meal. It was strange to enter the room, and find that many folks were already eating, and almost done. It is the first time we have open-seating dining on a grand voyage, so it will be interesting to see how it works. Maybe it was due to people being wiped out after such a long day, but there were not many folks eating in the dining room tonight. This seemed to work well for us, as our waiters only had our table to attend. Service was excellent, and the food was hot. Our waiters by the way, are Wahyu and Randy. Our waiter from the Tales of the South Pacific, Lucky, was working nearby, so he came over to visit with us. It would have been nice to have gotten him, but it is a matter of luck, since they are moved around between cruises.

Before we realized it, 10pm had arrived, and so did bedtime. We would not stay up for the sail out of the harbor. Thought we better call the gals at the front desk to ask what happened to all of our welcome onboard package, including the daily newsletter. They were horrified to find out it was mostly missing in action. She promised that it would be delivered tomorrow, and profusely apologized. Someone else is probably enjoying our flowers and the bottle of scotch in our assigned cabin that we gave up on the lower promenade deck. Oh well, bet those things happen all of the time.

Once the ship left, we hit the winds that made the ship list on her side. Felt like we needed seatbelts in the bed, although it was not rough. Not expecting the greatest of weather for tomorrow. Doesn't matter, since we will be room-bound, completing the unpacking job. Be glad when that is done………

Bill & Mary Ann

Check-in at the cruise terminal