Tag: Embarkation

Embarkation Day

Wednesday, August 6, 2025

So I slept better than I did the night before. I was up before 6:30. About 7:30, Chuck went across the street to a Dunkin Donuts. He brought back their excellent coffees and some breakfast sandwiches. After breakfast, I got all the bags repacked and tagged for the ship.

While Chuck was out and about this morning, he saw a man in a ballgown enjoying a leisurely morning stroll and a man in only his underwear singing and dancing down the sidewalk. Life in the big city. When we went out a little later just to kill some time before we had to checkout, we sat in the hotel swing and only saw some joggers and dog walkers.

At 10:45 we went to the lobby to meet with the HAL representative. The bus was supposed to be there at 11:00. At 11:15, the rep said “The bus is on its way. It’s just around the corner.” At 11:25, the rep said, “Oh, the bus just got hit by a car. Another bus is coming.” At 11:45, we were finally on a bus with the luggage. We pulled away from the curb, went one block, and were stuck in a huge traffic jam. It was stop and go all the way to the port. I knew it wouldn’t get any better once we were at the terminal. Serenity Now!

I enjoy sailing out of Boston because it is scenic and not usually too hot. I do not like Boston embarkations. The lines are typically long and slow. Today was no different. Not as bad as last year (see photo below) but long. The security screening is the worse. You would think they would at least follow the airports, but it is way stricter. I can’t think of another embarkation port that we have encountered that is worse.

September 2024 embarkation line in Boston

We had been notified that each person would also have to complete a Canadian declaration form while in the terminal. But, I guess the lines were slow enough, so they decided to put them in our stateroom instead. Thankful for small favors.

Once we finally made it out of the terminal, I thought we were home free. Nope. Not today. Once we got up the ramp, we were stopped on the promenade deck to do the final check-in to the ship. Typically, they do the final check-in once you are inside the ship.

There were two lines but one line was held up with a couple who had a small service dog. The couple was looking for all their paperwork while the HAL officer left to find someone higher up in rank to help. I wondered if they would end up getting on the ship or not.

I thought our line was moving okay until two people had to show their passports. They were waved on but then another HAL official saw something on the screen and pointed while saying “Passport Denied!” and took off after the people. The other HAL person seemed shook up. I thought she was going to stop the line, but she scanned our boarding passes and just let us keep going. Finally, we were onboard the Volendam.

We found our cabin easily and almost immediately one piece of luggage showed up. We went to brave the Lido for a lite lunch. It wasn’t too crowded. Afterwards, I went to the dining kiosk and made our specialty dining reservations.

We went back to the room and found our 2nd piece of luggage had arrived. We were able to get everything put away before the sailaway at 3:00. I met our room steward and inquired about the small refrigerator I had requested to rent for our room. He said it would be delivered before the end of the evening.

On some of the ships, like the Volendam, only refrigerators are available in verandas and above. On some of the newer ships, refrigerators are available in all of the rooms. I was glad to be able to rent one. We like to keep water and soft drinks in there.

I dropped off the Canadian Declaration form to Guest Services and then met up with Chuck at the sailaway party. It was a lot of fun as usual.

The Cruise Director and his team were very energetic. I left at 4:00 to go attend the Cruise Director’s port talk about Portland. I found out during the talk that all his talks would be recorded, and we could watch them in our cabin. Good to know.

Soon the Casino opened. It was very small but had some of our favorite machines. Chuck made sure that his free play was loaded on his card. We met the Casino host who remembered Chuck from one of the sailings on the Zuiderdam.

For dinner, we went to the Lido for their steak dinner.

We then went to the show in the World Stage – Ventriloquist Mike Robinson. He was very funny.

Once the show was over, we went to the last two sets of the Ocean Bar band. They were okay but I missed the Rolling Stone Rock bands on the larger ships.

We were ready to call it a night.

Tomorrow: Portland, Maine

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Saturday, April 5, 2025

Today was disembarkation for some, embarkation for others. For us, it was an in-transit day.

It was a bright sunny day but still chilly. We had no plans to leave the ship today so after a Lido breakfast, we made our way to the world stage so that all in-transit guests would be taken off the ship in a group – have our passports verified, and then you could either leave the ship or go back to the ship.

Once I was back on the ship, I took the time to go to the Specialty Dining Reservation booth to make a couple of reservations. I also had to go to Guest Services to show them that we were charged for our dinner last night at the Tamarind when we should have had it comped. I had tried taking care of it using the HAL Navigator app but the charge stayed on, so I had to go in person.

We had a pleasant afternoon chatting with new guests on the Sea View and enjoying the sun. We had to go to our muster station at 2:00, but we only had to have our cards scanned.

The sail-away party was at 3:30.

The Casino party was at 4:00. We received another Casino gift.

We were surprised to see that they had changed the times of the world stage performances from 7:30 and 9:30 to 6:00 and 8:00. We don’t know if this is a permanent change or just for tonight.

The comedian Jose Sarduy was performing his same show from last week, so we skipped it. We ate dinner in the Lido.

We went to the BB King Lounge to listen to the band. They started with a moment of silence for their friend. We stayed for the entire first set. I know it must have been hard for them to muster the energy to play.

We then went to the Rolling Stone Lounge to listen to their last two sets.

We decided not to wait up for the Casino to open and called it a night. When I hung up my jacket, I found that I managed to lose one of my gloves. Glad we are headed to Hawaii instead of Alaska. Will try lost and found at Guest Services tomorrow.

Also, Nathan the gnat is still with us. He has managed to elude our room stewards so far. I admire his spunk.

Tomorrow – Sea Days

Embarkation

Saturday, March 29, 2025

According to my Apple watch, I slept nine hours. I knew I was exhausted. I also woke up with a headache but luckily it went away after coffee.

The shower flow was terrible. Felt more like a rinse than a shower. At least the water was hot.

This hotel only offers a Grab-and-Go breakfast. They used to have a restaurant but the pandemic put an end to it. There were three choices of your to-go bag: an egg and sausage biscuit bag, a fruit and yogurt bag, and an egg and cheese wrap bag. They all came with water and juice and two granola bars. We both chose the biscuit bag. We heated them up in the room’s microwave.

While we were eating, I received a text from HAL letting us know that the ship was late coming into port due to wind and high sea swells. Our embarkation was pushed back to 1:30. This was a problem since our check-out was 11:00. The hotel graciously extended our check-out to 12:30 with no cost.

We checked out at 12:00 and got an Uber. We decided if it was chaos at the port, we’d drop our luggage with the porters and find a restaurant along the waterfront for lunch. We arrived at the port at 12:20. We were directed into the port building, went through security and were in our room by 1:00. No chaos whatsoever.

In our room, we found a gift from the Casino, an invitation to a Casino meet and greet party, and an itinerary for the weeks Casino drawings, etc.

As I mentioned in a previous post, even though we had never sailed the Koningsdam, we knew the layout because of our trips on its sister ship the Rotterdam. Because of this knowledge, we knew exactly where we want to go for lunch – The New York Deli and Pizza. I had the Manhattan Treat – a turkey, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing on rye bread. Chuck had the Reuben Rye – a hot corned beef, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing on rye bread. Each order came with potato chips. Sadly, we scarfed them down before I thought to get a photo.

I checked on our luggage and two of the suitcases had arrived in our room.

We went to the Sea View area on the back of the ship and immediately met a staff member who recognized us from our South Pacific cruise in 2022. He told us about two other staff members who were on that same cruise so that we could find them. Looking forward to seeing them.

We soon had to attend a full muster drill instead of just having our cards scanned and watching the video. At least we were able to go to the dining room (our muster station) for the information instead of standing out by the lifeboats.

After the muster drill, we went back to the Sea View for the sailaway party. It was fun with music, dancing, drinks, and appetizers. Thus begins our first leg of our B2B cruise – seven days up the Pacific Coast.

On the way to the Casino meet and greet, we stopped by the room again and our third piece of luggage had arrived. At the party, we talked to several people and met the casino hosts. The casino activities on this cruise are not as elaborate as the last one we attended but it was advertised as an “Ultra” Casino cruise and this one was advertised as a “VIP” Casino cruise.

We came back to the room and got all the luggage unpacked and stored under the bed. I never think we are going to find space for everything but somehow we do.

We decided to eat the steak dinner in the Lido. So did a lot of people. It was hard to find a spot to sit. A couple from Nevada invited us to eat at their table. We had a pleasant conversation. It wasn’t long before the casino opened.

Wow! The casino was so crowded. Being a Casino VIP cruise, I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I guess people had staked out their favorite machines early. I think it is going to be the tone for the next seven days.

Chuck made sure he had been credited with his promised “free play” money, and he had. We ended up playing an unfamiliar machine. We just “weren’t feeling it” so we headed to the BB King Lounge to listen to the Band.

I think the two singers are pretty good, but the backup band just overpowered their voices. The band also dragged out each song with unnecessary riffs. We stayed for the whole set but moved on to the Rolling Stone Lounge to listen to the Band’s last set.

They were good and played so you could hear the singers. They also didn’t talk a lot between songs like the last Rolling Stone band we had on the Rotterdam.

Once the set was over, it was after 11:00 pm and I was fading fast. Back to the room we went. It had been a good embarkation day.

There is a tiny gnat flitting about in our room. I have named him Nathan.

Tomorrow – Sea Day

Sailing Away

Sunday, February 2, 2025

So Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. If you believe in the groundhog weather prognosticator, we have six more weeks of Winter. I really don’t think South Floridians care what the rodent predicted – it’s 80 degrees this morning in Ft Lauderdale.

Didn’t sleep great last night but I usually don’t in hotels. The free hotel breakfast was decent – serving both hot and cold food choices. I was very pleased with the taste of the all-important coffee. There were a number of guests taking advantage of the meal and seemed happy with it (except the one toddler who showed his distaste for the fruit loops by dumping his bowl on the floor). There’s always a food critic in every crowd.

At 10:45 we went to the lobby to get an Uber to the port. There were six cruise ships in port today. It took about 15 minutes for our Uber to arrive. I knew the traffic to the port would be heavy. It was. Once we got within a mile of the port, we crawled along at a snail’s pace.

However, by the time we reached the gate, we were ready with our passports to show and to answer “No” to their inevitable question “Are you carrying any firearms?”

There are several gated entrances into the port and the informational signage is good, but it never ceases to amaze me to look over at cars at the gates where people are obviously searching for their passports and holding up the queue. Read the signs people, Read.

I also wondered what would happen if someone in the car answered “Yes, I am fully armed.” Nothing good I imagine.

As soon as the Uber driver let us out at our terminal, porters were out in force ready to take our luggage and the tips. Once they had our luggage loaded on the carts, I looked in dismay at the embarkation line that stretched down the sidewalk and around the corner. Started walking toward it when I finally spotted the priority line. It was much shorter. Yay for being a long-time HAL cruiser!

Everything was going smoothly until I reached the point where they scan your passport and match it with your photo in their file. Chuck’s scanner immediately dinged success! My scanner stayed silent and flashed red. My passport and file photo didn’t match. ??? It matched in October but not now? What? – I have a few more wrinkles and I’m now unrecognizable? Rude. They took another photo of me and the passport scanner gave its ding of approval.

Finally on the ship but people were crowding the middle set of elevators that you see when you step onto the ship from the gangway. We walked down the hallway to the back of the ship and took those elevators. No waiting. There is also a bank of elevators in the front of the ship. I bet there wasn’t waiting for those elevators either.

We were assigned cabin 6158. It was not the one we chose. This one had a connecting door to the cabin next door. I’m not a fan of this type of cabin unless I know the person in the other cabin.

If you have a very noisy person in the cabin next door, the conversations, music, TV, etc. will seep through the door area as you lose that part of an insulated wall.

On one Carnival cruise, we heard a guy fight with his girlfriend back home every night over the phone. Each night, he would end the conversation with “It’s over! Go to Hell!” Next night – same thing. Always wondered what happened to them when he got back home.

The cabin that we chose could sleep 3 and the fine print in the ship contract does say that HAL has the right to move you to a comparable or better cabin if you don’t have the maximum number of people in the cabin and they need it for some family that does. We were moved to the same category cabin just down the hall from the one we chose. I could argue until I was blue in the face that getting a connecting room is not comparable, but I would just end up blue in the face and still be in the connecting cabin. I’m just hoping for the best.

We are primarily on this cruise because Chuck got invited to be a participant in this “Ultimate Gaming Cruise.” Since the cruise also coincided with my birthday, we decided to go for it. We were greeted in our room with a bottle of champagne, special lanyards, an invitation to the opening party, and a list of the special activities the casino would be hosting for the 12 days. We were also happy to note that two people we met on an earlier cruise would also be on this cruise.

I was very glad to hear that we were not going to have the traditional muster drill of standing shoulder to shoulder at the lifeboats – especially in the heat and humidity. Every ship has to do one of those types of drills periodically but today was not the day.

After we had our key cards scanned at our muster station and watched the safety video, we decided to avoid the Lido for lunch and just go to the NY Deli and Pizza area one deck above the Lido deck. Good choice. Neither the bar nor the deli area was busy, and we had our sandwiches and beverages quickly. Chuck was even recognized by one of the bar staff who remembered him from an earlier cruise.

After we ate, I went to the dining kiosk and made our specialty restaurant reservations. We then went back to the cabin to see if the luggage had arrived. Nope. No worries – we unpacked the carry-on and the backpacks.

At 3:00, we went to the sailaway party. It was fun with music, food, and beverages. Afterwards, we went back to the cabin to see if the luggage had arrived. Nope. Hmmm. We’ve usually gotten our luggage by sailaway. But I know the ship is sailing full so trying not to worry.

At 4:00, we went to the Casino party with our friends from the previous cruise. It was fun with food, beverages, introductions to the casino staff, and giveaways (our name was not called). Afterwards, we trekked back to the cabin to see if the luggage had arrived. Yay! – my piece of luggage had arrived. Boo! Chuck’s luggage was still missing in action. We got my bag unpacked and stored under the bed.

We played some slots before the Casino became very crowded. Once it did become packed with players (I did mention that this was an Ultimate Gaming Cruise – we weren’t the only ones invited. 😊), we went to the Lido for their “Welcome Aboard” steak dinner.

We typically choose the Lido on the first night as the main dining room always seems disorganized on the first night. I was happy to see the Lido was offering mussels along with the steaks. Chuck also got a steak but did a “hard pass” on the mussels. Just more for me.

We then went to the first set of the band in the Rolling Stone Rock Lounge. They are very good musicians but are more of a show band than a dance band. Maybe we will have better luck with the BB King band.

Once the set was over, Chuck was eager to play cards. I stopped by the Grand Dutch Cafe and got a piece of Dutch apple pie for me and a Bossche Bol (giant chocolate creme puff) for Chuck. I took them both back to the cabin. Yay! His suitcase had arrived. Whew! Once I got it unpacked, I was ready to listen to the waves from the balcony, eat my dessert, and call it a night.

Tomorrow – Half Moon Cay.

B2B: Embarkation Day

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Ended up getting up at 5:30 again. The air conditioner was loud and woke me up every time it kicked on, but it did have cold air. Our bathroom walk-in shower had a rain shower type of shower head. I am not a fan. I just can’t get the water pressure strong enough. It also did not have a safety bar or bathmat. Have to be cautious.

We had our luggage tagged with the cruise tags and the color dots given to us at the hotel and ready to be picked up. We were instructed to keep the luggage just inside the room. Not wanting a huge breakfast buffet at the hotel (or the big bill), I found a Chik-fil-A that was just a few minutes from the hotel (in the opposite direction of where we walked yesterday).

It was a cool morning but sunny. We ordered at the counter and had planned to eat in their upstairs dining room, but it was closed for cleaning. We could have taken our coffees and chicken biscuits back to the hotel but just decided to eat at the outdoor tables. It was a busy place with people in and out with their orders.

Our luggage was being picked up as we returned to the room. Our instructions said to come down to the lobby area at 10:30 to ensure that our luggage had arrived in the Ballroom. Okay. At 10:30, I did that and found our 3 pieces in the Blue section as promised.

We had already been told that embarkation would be delayed today because of a mandatory Coast Guard inspection of the ship so we knew our arrival was going to be later than usual. All of us assembled in the Ballroom at 11:15 to wait for our busses. One bus came (not ours), and the rest were stuck in traffic (of course).

Once our bus came and the luggage started to be rolled out on carts and loaded, I could see that one of our bags was not with the others. Chuck brought it to the attention of the representative who assured him that all were on. My Apple airtag said otherwise. We insisted it was not and he said he would double-check the hotel ballroom. A few minutes later my airtag locator said the last bag was with me. Wonder if the other people who also had luggage on that last cart knew how close we came to leaving without it.

We got to the terminal about 1:00 and were faced with a very long line. We also had to wait for porters to get our luggage off the bus. (Tip – flash some cash and your luggage will get grabbed by the porters first). Obviously, the inspection was taking far longer than expected. It took another hour for us to get on the ship and there were many people behind us. Not a great start and we weren’t going to be leaving at 3:00.

We are in the turn of the line – people with their backs to us are in front of us – people facing us are behind us.

We had a very small inside cabin for these two trips. Since these cruises were casino-comped, we would make do. We could have taken some upsell offers but because the cruise was full, the offers were not worth the money they wanted (in our opinion).

We left our backpacks in the room, and we went to our muster station to be checked in. Very quick. Just don’t know why people wait until the last minute to get it done. I would be embarrassed if my name had to be called over the loudspeaker.

We went to the Sea View area. None of the sailaway activities had started so I went to the Dining Reservation desk to make our complimentary Pinnacle Grill and Canaletto dinner reservations. I met back up with Chuck and we went back to the room to check on luggage arrival. The bags had been delivered so we got those unpacked while watching the safety video on the TV (your TV won’t work unless you watch the video first). Also got to meet our room stewards – Raja and Joshem – and complete the Canadian customs form.

By the time we got back to the Sea View area, the sailaway activities had started.

Because we had such an early breakfast and didn’t really eat lunch due to the crowded Lido Buffet (HAL has stopped the sit-down embarkation Mariner lunch which is a big disappointment to me), we were ready for an early dinner. We opted for the steak dinner in the Lido. We got there early enough that they would grill your steak to your specifications. Later in the evening, you would have to choose among the ones that were ready. Both of our steaks were excellent.

By the time we finished, the Casino was open. Chuck was supposed to get some free casino play money on this first leg of the cruise but, according to their paperwork, “he wasn’t on the list.” However, according to my paperwork, he most definitely was supposed to be on the list. He got his free play money.

We had some slot fun playing old favorites “Wonder Woman” and “Devil’s Lock” and some new ones “Dancing Drums” and “Fortune Harmony.”

After listening and dancing to three sets of the Rolling Stone Lounge Band, we called it a night.

Tomorrow – Bar Harbor