J awoke early and decided to walk back out to Stanley Park to watch our ship pull into port - and take a picture with his little waterproof camera!
Holland America’s Zuiderdam arriving at and settling into port at Canada Place.
While talking on the phone with my very knowledgeable sister, LC, we discovered that we had a room change! Well that is good news that we have been upgraded from an oceanview room to a Verandah. The fresh air will be appreciated - especially in these times of COVID.
J has returned with a simple breakfast of boiled eggs and an apple. We will call an UBER and get to the port now. More details to follow….but I thought I would start the day and post while I knew I had wifi!
…Nine hours later…
So we have now boarded and are somewhat settled into a room - it may be our room for the duration - but certainly ours for the next few days.
I will back up and say we took an Uber to Canada Place. We had a knowledgeable driver who took us to the port in 10 minutes and dropped us off immediately outside embarkation area. We zipped through the check in and security process in 18 minutes! And that even counts J going through his bag for security pulling out his scissors (they proved to be too long) and his pocket knife (they let him keep that). But the scissors will be returned perhaps during the cruise if the captain approves them - or at the end of it, if he doesn’t like the look of them!
We then sat in a waiting hall for less than 30 minutes, making friends, especially with the seamstress who is onboard to adjust costumes for the performers.
We then walked on the ship. As soon as we were scanned in here, we were escorted by a an official looking officer to the front of the “Club Orange” guest services line. There they said “Congratulations you have been upgraded” and gave us keys to a verandah room. Excellent. Thank you very much!!
As John was carrying his own heavy bag, we were anxious to leave our bags in the room. So upon walking to said verandah room - we found it was beyond a wall that forbid entrance to that section of rooms. Thinking it was closed just for crew doing work in that section - we went around to the other hallway and approached the room from the opposite side. That is when we saw more cordoning off and a stool directly in front of the door to our room. We just wanted to drop our bags and go eat lunch so we pondered what to do. I found a room steward nearby who helped us. That is when we learned this was the isolation wing for guests with COVID and in fact we needed to go back to guest services to change our room.
So back we went to talk with guest services. The Front Desk Manager was very kind and concerned about providing us with a room so she gave us an ocean view room temporarily and is on the hunt for a verandah room for us. Most passengers are boarding on this ship in five days in San Diego so inventory will be known once those people have been accounted for. In the meantime, we are enjoying the location and the room steward of this room. The room is a lovely room and we would be happy to stay here, but a verandah and fresh air would be nice too!! A bonus that my family would love is that is comes with a bathtub as well as a shower!!
We met a lovely couple at lunch and another wonderful couple in the Crowsnest Lounge so we are making friends!
We have been assigned a table for two for dinner on the third floor of the dining room. J
is very happy learn we have a great view out the dining room windows for our next 50 days worth of suppers!
The MainStage entertainment was a professional presentation about the history of the Holland America line.
Now I must finish this blog and finish unpacking!!
Stay well.
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