Day 1 – San Diego

Westerdam arrived in San Diego at around 5:30 am. I was hoping to see it come in, but when I woke up, it was just docking.

Because there was going to be a women’s march right on the street between our hotel and the ship, I was expecting a nightmare embarkation, but it actually went very smoothly.

A kind person on Cruise Critic forum (I believe he works for city of San Diego or something) informed us that the pier will open early at 9 am, but we saw people being let in at around 8:30 am (though later we found that those were crew members,) we started heading over there. In the elevator, we met another couple, also going on Westerdam. They also saw that the people were being let in and decided to go.

The street had some traffic cones lined up, but no restrictions yet, and there were no crowds yet either. When we arrived at the pier, we were let right in. Inside the pier, we were told to be seated and wait while the crew members were checkking in, and. We probably waited there for about an hour, then we went through the security and check-in (no lines) then to the waiting area. After that, we had to wait a while for 11:30 am boarding. Since Holland America sent us an email, informing us not to come to the port until after 2 pm, I expected we’d be the only ones there, but the waiting area was fairly packed.

At about 11:30 am, they started boarding us, and because we are in a suite, we were in the first group to go on board.

They said our rooms were not yet ready, so we went to Neptune Lounge, the suite lounge. They had snacks there, so we had some sandwiches and sushi. Those filled us up, so we didn’t bother going to the buffet for lunch. Once our room was ready, we went to our Neptune Suite 7151. It’s one of the aft-corner suites that has a huge wrap-around balcony (that wraps around the side and stern). It’s a GREAT room and we love it!

We left our carry-on luggage in our room and went out to explore the ship. This is the first time we were able to see the outside since going into the port building, and we saw the women’s march on the street in front of the port. We were so glad that we were already on board and didn’t get caught up in that!

Many people seemed to have listened to HAL’s warning to arrive late, so it took some time for everyone to board. We did the life boat drill at about 4, and we finally sailed away at 5 pm, about an hour later than the original schedule. But really, it wasn’t bad at all. I thought we’d depart much later than that.

So embarkation was MUCH smoother than we anticipated, but the trouble began after we were underway. The water was calm while we were in the bay, but as soon as we exited the bay, the ship started rocking and rolling, and I got really seasick. I could only eat a roll for dinner and went straight to bed.

And that’s why I’m writing this blog entry on the next day 😛