Embarkation Day

Today we woke about 7 am  - I had awoken a few times in the night. With my last few hours of wifi available I decided to check to see if flights were available for our family Christmas vacation and they were!  So I proceeded to check two airlines in particular and check prices & times. After calling home to speak to J to confer, we decided to go ahead and book the flights. That chewed up about 90 minutes in the mornng and we didn't head to breakfast u til about 8:30 or 9 am. 

Breakfast was busy but not extraordinarily so. After packing up our bags and heading back down to the lobby at 11 am - it was extraordinarily busy at the front desk!  We called an uber XL car and got a speedy, courteous lift to terminal 19 for $15, rather than $27 through the hotel shuttle service. 

After leaving our bags withy the porters outside the terminal we had a minor delay waiting for a wheelchair for Mom. Once we got the wheelchair and the Holland America wheelchair escort we raced through the lines - through security and check in and thanks to LC's 4 star mariner status straight through to the embarkation photo area. The whole process couldn't have been mor than 15 minutes. It was at that point that Mom said, "Where is my carry-on bag?"  I thought, "Uh-oh - I pushed that from the outside porter area, but I don't remember pushing it after that."

Mom and LC stayed in chairs by the photo station and I backtracked throughout the terminal - back to the check-in desk (for wheelchair guests so they remembered me from 5 minutes previous).  No bag was there. Back to security where a HAL employee went to check for my bag.  At that point our wheelchair porter spotted me and offered to go outside of security to check at the wheelchair check-in desk.  Three trips later by staffers and the lost at was found!  Thank you HAL staff!

Still managed to board the ship within 30 minutes of arrival to the terminal, even with all the commotion in recovering the lost bag!

I have an inside room and LC and Mom are across the hall in a verandah room.   My inside stateroom is pretty tight so I took the advice of more experience cruisers than I and moved the furniture. I moved a night table to inside the closet and that allowed me open the three desk drawers. 

LC and I took advantage of a tour of the Koningsdam ship offered by Nathan - the assistant Cruise Director. Great way to orient ourselves to the ship!

After packing away my clothes and attending a fairly high tech muster drill, Mom and I visited the sail away party on decks 9 and 10. Mom and I stood port side for sail away and enjoyed seeing waving pedestrians as we pulled out of the port. With a quick return trip to the room, I changed clothes and we all headed to dinner at 5:15. A very early dining time but that generally suits us better than later!

For dinner I had two sea scallops for an appetizer and shrimp and grits for the main course with chocolate cake for dessert. We headed to the World Stage to hear comedian, Erin Jackson. She had a good clean act but the response was rather lacklustre. The Lincoln Centre Stage offers the music of a quintet that was top notch. Five young women played - a viola, two violins, a cello and a pianist. We will seek them out again. 

I am reminded that I need to start typing this blog a little earlier in the day as it is 10:21 now and I am tired. 

It has been a good day. :)