The time has arrived….embarkation day on the N. Amsterdam. We knew it would be one of those marathon days, so we set the alarm for 5:30am. However, we did not need it since one of us was awake around 3am, unable to go back to sleep. Rarely, if ever, has Bill overslept, while, on the other hand, my mom used to wake me up singing "Lazy Mary Will You Get Up" when I was little. It worked……..
Stashing the rest of our stuff, we were glad we had bought some more ziplock bags yesterday. We had been given a letter of instructions from HAL for embarkation day. The luggage had to be locked and tagged, then left inside the room by the door for collection at 9am. We did not have to be present when they did this.
With that done, we headed off to Kristof's Kafe (near Publix) for a hardy breakfast. By 8am when they opened, the café was already half full.
Back at the hotel, we saw our three bags in the pile, then notified the HAL rep who had a desk in the lobby. We thought it was odd that the lobby was full of guests waiting to get the ride to the ship. We asked the rep and she said the bus would be leaving by 10am, not 11:15am as our letter said. Good thing we asked, since no one contacted us with this info.
It's always a good idea to look at your hotel account before checking out. Before we left the room, we had made a call to get our up-to-date credit card info, and discovered the hotel had charged us for internet (it was complimentary) and another $50 holding fee. So we made a stop at the desk, and the gal immediately took the charges off of our account. Then we went to wait with the rest of the group. It took like forever for the luggage to be loaded, but we had to remind ourselves that it was an hour earlier, and we would be to the ship maybe first…...beating the crowd. We realized that not everyone got the early departure message, when one lady questioned the rep about the time. Her husband was still in the shower, and not ready to board. Apologizing, she said they would take the rest of the group to the ship in another shuttle.
We had about a twenty minute ride to Port Everglades and pier 26. Usually, there is someone there to greet us, like Janine, the guest relations officer did on the N. Statendam. Today, there was no one. Showing our boarding passes with the President's Club symbol, we were directed down the right side of the terminal. At a kiosk, a rep checked our boarding passes, Covid test results, Covid vaccination cards, passports, and had us answer four questions regarding our current health status. Good to go.
The xray was next, where I failed to take off my waist purse (forgot I had it on). Of course, the alarm went off, which It would have anyway with my new knee. Putting the purse through, I was wanded, but not patted down.
Then we were good to go to another kiosk, where our photos were taken. We ended around the main desk where people were lined up checking in. Going up the escalator, we sat with another group to board first. We still felt that something had fallen through the cracks with our priority embarkation perk. Asking one of the shoreside reps, he called the Event Coordinator, Teresa, on the ship, who came down to personally escort us onboard. She claimed that the shore people were to inform her of our arrival, but they failed to do so. When we boarded, Captain Jeroen Baijens, and the General Hotel Manager, Ruben Kooiman, greeted us inside the ship. We remembered the captain from an Alaskan sailing we did last fall, even though it was just 7 days. Thanking them for the royal greeting, Teresa took us to our room on deck five, giving us her direct number in case we needed anything. Normally, we don't have a need to call, but that was not the case today.
Our room is laid out similar to the one we just left. Except flip-flopped. The bed is on the opposite wall, not that it matters, just different. This ship is older than the N. Statendam, and is already showing wear and tear. However, we can get into more details later on. Our room stewards introduced themselves…. Ronny and Dodi. What little stuff we had with us, we stashed it away until the luggage arrived. Two bags came and we started to undo them. But we were being prompted to go to our muster station and have our cards scanned. So much better than the actual muster drill we have in the past. Don't remember if we watched the muster info on our TV.
That's when we ran into our boat commander/dining room head waiter, Pandi. He immediately recognized us as we did him, although it has been a few years since he sailed on the Amsterdam's world cruise. Wonderful how the crew can remember faces and names like forever. Anyway, he scanned us into the system. He promised to look for us in the Lido and the dining room. Time to head back and finish the unpacking, hoping bag # 3 was there.
Well, it wasn't there, so we called Teresa and she searched for it. We suspected it had been pulled for further inspection by security. And we were correct when we got the call from Teresa to go to deck A and see the security team. There was nothing new in that bag except a hairdryer and plug strip. And that was the culprit…..a plug strip. Looking closely at it, the officer wanted to know if it had a surge protector. No, it was an older model, one we have used for years on several HAL ships. Never been questioned. And that's what we told the head of security when we asked him to come over. Just doing their job, and not apologizing, he said to be careful and turn it off when not in the room. The alternative was for them to lend us one of theirs, and give ours back at the end of the cruise. We kept it. Then the bag was delivered to our room within 20 minutes.
By now, it was 3pm, and we needed to have some lunch. There was a dining room lunch from noon to 1:30pm, but we had missed it. So it was the Lido for salads and a ham and cheese sandwich on fresh rolls. Pandi greeted us as did another waiter we knew, Faizal. He updated us on many of the waiters we knew and where they are now. Several were here until yesterday, when they went home. Figures….one of them was Gan, a popular fellow on the world cruises.
About the same time we were eating lunch, it began to rain, slowly at first, but then a real thunder and lightning show with massive rain fall. Gosh, we never see this in California. Sitting at a window table in the Lido, we couldn't even see across the street. The terminal work ceased, while the workers took refuge inside the building. The storm lingered for quite a while, dumping a whole lot of water. Out by the Seaview Pool, we found it flooded. Just guessing, we think this delayed our departure by 6pm instead of 4pm.
Tackling the last bag, we had the room shipshape, but still needed to address some things that required fixing. Number one priority was the refrigerator, which was not working well at all. We had bought some cheese spreads, but when we found them warm, and actually sweating from the humidity, we knew it would spoil soon. Another broken thing was the deadbolt on the room door, which was frozen shut, not working at all. Cannot believe that no one reported this. Also the veranda door handle needed tightening up also. Asking our room steward, he said he would report it. When, who knows?
Dinner time came quickly, and we headed for the dining room. We found that the upper dining room was closed, since the total passenger count is 900. We were seated at a nice table by the aft window. Our waiters were most attentive. The dinner menu was a repeat of the N. Statendam's menu, which was OK. The best were the scoops of rocky road ice cream.
One of us was really dead after the long day, so we wrapped it up by 10pm.
More tomorrow….
Bill & Mary Ann
Friday, April 8, 2022
Report #111 Embarkation Day On The Nieuw Amsterdam Fort Lauderdale, Florida Sunny, Rainy And Very Humid 85 Degrees
