Our marathon day began very early at about 3am for a pick up time of 4:30am. It never fails. When you know you will have to get up in the wee hours of the night, you never sleep that well, or not at all. There were reports of possible delays with night road repairs and closed exits in downtown SF. Something else to worry about.
As it turned out, our driver arrived early, and we were on our way with hardly no traffic all the way to the airport. Checking in was easy, but the real test was going through the security check. About three months ago, one of us (Mary Ann) had surgery for a total knee replacement. So it was no surprise that the buzzer went off while going through the portal. They did not take my word that I had surgery, but they did check the entire left side with a pat down. And that was it….free to proceed. Even though we did not get the TSA free pass, we did not have to take our shoes off.
There was time for a light breakfast with much needed coffee. The closer it got to boarding time, the busier the terminal got. Of course it was a weekend, and people are traveling a lot more these days. And we have to add that everyone wore their masks as required.
The flight left on time and was less than 2 hours. But there was a problem when we went to go to the baggage pick up. The escalators and stairs had been blocked off by security officers. We were going nowhere. This lasted for at least 15 minutes, and there was no apparent explanation. Finally the tape was dropped, and we overheard someone say there was a security breach. There is a first time for everything we say.
Many of the passengers on our flight had gotten through earlier, so when we went to look for our luggage, it was not coming down the chutes. Upon asking, we discovered someone had off-loaded it and it waiting there against a wall. These days, it seems that most travelers carry on their smaller bags to avoid the charges, so there is far less luggage at the carousel.
If memory serves us correctly, we recall that our luggage used to be taken from the carousel and dropped off at an HAL desk. We did not have to schlep it to the waiting buses, which is quite a walk. They no longer do this.
Following directions given to us by an HAL rep, we made our way to the bus terminal for cruisers dragging the bags. Today we were mixed with NCL folks. There was a bit of a wait before we loaded onto the coach for a 45 minute ride through town. Our luggage was taken to trucks to be delivered to the pier.
A few days ago, we were contacted by Gerald Bernhoft, the Director of the Mariner Society. He invited us to meet with him at the pier for a quick hello and a speedy embarkation. Not having a cell phone to touch bases with him, we figured this may not happen. But lo and behold, there he was, waiting for us at the entrance. And he did just as he promised. With the proper paper work (passports, Covid vaccination cards, Covid tests results, and our boarding passes), we were most of the way there. We had to pass through their security xray, where the new knee did not set off the alarms….go figure? The final thing left to do was have our passports scanned and our photos taken.
At this point, Gerald introduced us to Mark, the Hotel Director and Joanne, the Guest Relations Manager, who personally escorted us on the ship. We thanked Gerald for his kind jester, and promised that we would see him in 2023 when the GWV resumes. What a reception…it could not have been nicer. Once we were at our room, we had more head staff come to see what else they could do for us. On the desk, we had gifts of champagne on ice, no less, several envelopes of shipboard credit, and bottles of whisky and scotch. These days, we do not drink as much, and in 7 days, finishing 2 bottles would be impossible. So we asked for Cokes and flowers instead. No rush. Believe it or not, that was done within the hour. Beautiful bouquet of flowers and all the Coke we wanted. Wow………..
One thing that surprised us was the fact you need to use the room key to activate the lights in the cabin. Much the same as you do in most of the hotels these days. Must be a huge energy-saving effort to have everything off when you are not in the room. In addition, the night light we brought for the bathroom did not fit in the plug.
This was a good time to check out the Lido for lunch. The first station we came across was the salad bar with three servers waiting to take our orders. Both of us had small cobb salads with ranch dressing. Beverages were served and refilled by several waiters. Then we went on a search for the recommended prime rib, however, we could not find it at the station. Guess it was so popular that it was consumed as fast as they brought it out. So we substituted sliced roast beef submarine sandwiches on fresh torpedo rolls, equally as delicious.
Remembering the advice of previous bloggers, we headed for the Pinnacle to make reservations in the Pinnacle Grill and Tamarind restaurants. Good thing we did as most of the reservations were full at the time we requested. We did manage to get three Pinnacles and two Tamarind dates. And we may try lunch in the Pinnacle one afternoon. The nice thing is that they will all be complimentary for being members of the President's Club. We discovered that the specialty restaurants, with the exception of Sel De Mer, are included in our perks now.
Another important task was locating the muster station and log our keycards into their system. So much better than the standard drill, we simply watched the video of the drill in our room to satisfy this requirement.
One piece of luggage had arrived, so we unloaded it. Our particular room really has a lack of storage space compared to our room on the Amsterdam. Obviously, these ships were not designed for really long cruises, but OK for shorter itineraries. Eventually, we came across our second bag which was in a pile at the nearest elevator lobby. Instead of waiting for it to be delivered, we pulled it to our room. By the way, our head room steward, Jas, introduced himself, and also went the mile to make sure we had everything we needed. We did ask him to remove the drink set-up (we did not purchase the Have-It-All package), and remove the robes, and send out some shirts for pressing….no rush, we added. By 6pm, all was done. We have yet to meet Natan, his assistant.
One job we needed to do was figure out the internet packages, using our 100 minutes credits each of us was gifted. Having difficulty doing this in our room, we headed to the front desk for help. Access to WIFI was much better there, but we discovered only one of the credits was allowed to be used for the one device we had….our computer. The minutes had been converted to $55, so the second credit was put back on our account to be used for other things. We purchased the premium package ($139.99) with no worries about minutes ticking away like we used to have on the Amsterdam.
At one point, the captain, Jeroen Baijens, came on with an important announcement. Our itinerary was changing due to adverse weather conditions. The calls to Sitka and Icy Straight Point had to be cancelled, but the good news, was that Skagway was to be substituted. We were quite happy with the changes, since it has been a long time since we visited Skagway. Now we hope that the town has not closed up for the season. One of the best pizzas we had was in a hotel there, so that will be a priority.
Normally, we attend the sail away at the aft pool deck. But having a nice veranda facing the aft, we opted to stay there as the ship left the pier. At least it was the perfect time to elevate the knee on the chaise lounge while taking in the heat of the sun. And we could hear the music from deck nine as the sail away was proceeding. It was then that we heard our names yelled out by a very special friend who is also on this trip…….our treasured travel agent Debra. She is here with her lovely daughter, Brie. Since we were halfway through our chilled bottle of champagne, we finished it off, and headed up to deck nine. Searching for the girls, we could not find them, but we did come across the pizza station and decided to share a freshly-baked custom pizza. It was perfect….crispy crust and hot as ever. Yep, this will be one of our favorite spots. Eventually, the girls found us in our room, where we spent at least an hour visiting while enjoying the sailing out of the bay. On the lookout for whales, we did spot one rather large seal lion and a few birds.
Before we knew it, the time for dinner had arrived….7:30pm in the Pinnacle. Many of the staff there recognized us, although we were at a disadvantage since everyone is masked. We were escorted to a table at the window, and taken care of royally. We ordered Caesar salads, candied bacon, the 7 ounce filet with a side of shared French fries. Sadly, there are no more cheesy rolls, but they served warm slices of a rye bread….equally as good. Adding a dessert of key lime pie, we finished our meal by 9:30pm.
It had been such a busy, long day, we headed back to our room, hoping for a very restful night. The sea motion had picked up and literally rocked us to sleep. Today's mostly sunny skies might be last we see for the upcoming week………..
Bill & Mary Ann
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Report # 3 Boarding Day September 25, 2021 Saturday Partly cloudy and sunny in Seattle 77 degrees
