000 Embarkation Day

EMBARKATION DAY

DATE:  January 6, 2012                                                           

Day #: Embarkation

I.                   AGENDA

A.                 MORNING

Anita went down to the hotel lobby and brought back up muffins and yogurt for breakfast.  I surely didn’t want a repeat of an overpriced buffet breakfast again, notwithstanding our thoughts that the lobby bar might be busy with other breakfast hunters.  (There are at least three Holland America ships departing this morning, and we’ve heard there are about eight ships total in port.) 

A porter will pick up our checked bags which will go directly into a truck to be taken to the ship and to our room.  We found a travel program on Vietnam which showed the Chi Chu tunnels, which is one of her excursions, while we waited in our room.  After he arrived, we waited in the lobby for the bus to pick us up and take us to the pier.  It’s the old  “hurry up and wait” (again!).  There does seem to be some order to the chaos, and the bellman did say it was like that every weekend the ships are in port. Excitement and confusion abound.

Around 11:30 am, we boarded the bus for the short drive to the pier.  Upon arriving and going through security, we were given a number and told to wait – a sitting area had been set up against one wall.  The cavernous first floor bounced conversations back and forth, the noise level rising as more passengers piled in.  Attendants passed around fresh cookies and lemonade.  Approximately one hour later, our number was called and we proceeded to the check-in station to have our passports taken (and kept) and our photo taken for our shipboard ID card.

B.                 AFTERNOON

Dragging our carry-on luggage and newly printed shipboard ID, we took the elevator to the second floor for our embarkation photo and gangway walk.  Once on board we went up to our stateroom.  Cautiously opening the door, cameras in hand, we expected to find a mountain of luggage awaiting us.  Not so.  Nothing had been delivered yet!  All the information I had been given indicated our luggage would be picked up by FedEx and would be in our room when we arrived.  Disappointed!! (sorta)

With nothing (really) to unpack right away, we dropped our carry-ons and went up to the Lido Buffet to a quick lunch. I gave Anita a perfunctory tour of the ship and, looking over the side of the Lower Promenade Deck (the walking deck), we saw pallets of luggage in huge open metal boxes waiting to be taken into the bowels of the ship, along with produce, meats, flowers, etc.  That solved the mystery of where our missing luggage was – and everyone else’s, too.

Our luggage arrived in drips and drabs – one or two at a time.  It was still overwhelming, and I dreaded hearing the steward knocking on the door with more!

C.                 EVENING

We had signed up for early dining – 5:30 pm in the Main Dining Room, the LaFontaine, so just left the mess and went upstairs.  Our table, #303, has 10 chairs and we introduced ourselves to our tablemates:

1  Doug and Sharon from near Edmonton, Canada

2.  John and Betty from Kentucky

3.  Douglas and Micah from near Washington DC and Indonesia

4.  Werner and Jutta (pronounced Verna and U-ta) from Germany  

Good conversation and “get to know you” evening – with the same tablemates for the entire voyage, you’d think we’d run out of things to say to each other, but I don’t think so in this case.  Sometimes when groups of people travel together and sit together, it becomes tedious if there is a new person at the table since the conversation usually revolves around the shared “at home” experiences.  None of the couples at our table know each other, so there will always be something new to talk about.  Hooray!

We were late leaving Fort Lauderdale so missed the Sail-Away party since we were already in the dining room  – was it because there was so much more luggage to place onboard? (all mine??? No, of course not).

I didn’t go to the show tonight – early bedtime.  Lots of unpacking to do tomorrow!