Day 2 – At Sea

The sea was much calmer today and I felt better.

I woke up around 6:30 am (but we had to move our clock forward by an hour, so it was actually 5:30 am) and went to breakfast in Pinnacle Grill at 8. Pinnacle Grill is one of the specialty restaurants on Westerdam, and it’s an extra charge restaurant at night, but in the morning, it’s open for breakfast for the suite passengers only. It was great. Quiet and more private than the main dining room. However, I still wasn’t feeling the greatest, so I only had a light breakfast.

After breakfast, I attended the get together with the Cruise Critic roll call members. It was nice to see the people that we chatted on the online forum in person.

After lunch in the main dining room, we watched the team trivia for a bit (we didn’t participate) and attended a presentation for new Holland America passengers, but other than that, we pretty much chilled.

In the evening, it was a Gala Night (formal night) so we dressed up and got our portraits taken. After the dinner, we attended the captain’s welcome toast, then a song and dance show in the main theater.

It was a nice, mellow day. We enjoyed it.

Tomorrow is another sea day, and I expect it to be another mellow day.

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 😛

In San Diego now!

We’re staying at Springhill Suites across the street from the cruise port. Very nice new hotel. We booked a corner suite. When I made the reservation, I requested the “good view of our cruise ship,” and they honored it. Our ship is not there now, but we have a good view of the cruise terminal 🙂

 

We’ll board the Westerdam tomorrow, but the embarkation is going to be a mess, with the women’s march going on right on the street between the hotel and the cruise terminal.

We heard that the cruise terminal will be open early tomorrow at 9, so we plan on walking over there before the march gets here.

But the other passengers driving to the port won’t be able to get here until the street reopens at 1 or 2 pm (we actually received email from Holland America, advising us not to arrive before 2 pm), so I expect we’ll be departing late tomorrow.

On January 20, 2018, my husband and I will be going on 15-day Panama Canal cruise aboard Holland America’s ms Westerdam. This will be our second cruise (our first was an Alaska cruise on NCL Pearl, 10 years ago) and we’ll be celebrating our 30th anniversary on board!

I’ll officially start this blog on Jan. 19, 2018, when we fly to San Diego, where we’ll board the ship.