We woke up on Pittsburgh time, naturally.
We got our large suitcases ready for pick-up and went to breakfast just before 8am. While we ate, the hotel staff collected our bags and took them out to where the buses would pick us up for the trip to the cruise terminal.
After verifying that they had collected our bags, Janice and I went for a walk around the hotel area—very uninspiring commercial/airport area.
Embarkation followed the usual routine of traveling on the bus with our carry-ons bags with us and our large suitcases in the luggage hold of the bus. Arriving at Pier 93 in San Pedro,
- San Pedro Cruise Terminal
we headed to check in while the staff transferred the luggage. We filled out a recent health form to make sure we weren’t bringing any communicable diseases on board. Then we went upstairs in the cruise terminal to check in. Because John was in his wheel chair, we went to the head of a line. Handing in our passports, vaccination record, and Internet-completed boarding passes, we were photographed and given our room key/ID/ship-board credit card.
- Agent Taking Picture of John
On our way to the ship, we were greeted by a string quartet!
- String Greeting
Just before boarding the ship, we passed through the first of what will be many photograph points where the ship’s photographers take pictures they hope to sell at inflated prices.
- First HAL Photo
Once on board, we were ushered to the Lido deck since the rooms were not made up. Typically the last people from the previous cruise (or segment on a multi-segment cruise like ours) debark by 9 or 10 am and embarkation begins at 11 am or noon. On most HAL ships the Lido deck has the gym and spa, the main swimming pool and hot tubs, and the cafeteria. The staff had set up a luggage check area for large carry-on bags, freeing us to get lunch.
We went to our rooms about 1:30 and the official announcement that the rooms were ready came about 2pm. In our room we found a complementary welcome bottle of champaign, welcome letters and announcements, the daily schedule of events, the excursion tickets that we had pre-ordered, but no luggage yet.
At 2:30pm there was a champaign welcome party in the Queens Lounge, the theater. (I’ll talk more about the ship in my at-sea entries.) to help everyone get oriented. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring the ship and changing our dinner seating so we could eat early and at the same table with John.
Sailing was scheduled for 5pm, but delayed apparently so they could evict a mentally unfit passenger (her husband wanted to stay and made himself hard to find). Shortly before sailing, we had the obligatory safety drill
- First Safety Drill
(find your muster station and figure out how to put on the life vest) followed by the traditional sail-away cocktail party
- Sail Away Reception
leading up to dinner.
Our table, assigned for the duration of the cruise, is an eight-top. So there are five other people, all singles who booked with the same travel company, but a different company than the one we used.
After dinner, our suitcases had been delivered to our room, so we unpacked and went to bed.
We’ve been on several cruises before so most of what we experienced today was expected. What wasn’t expected was how many of the other travelers have been on world cruises before: probably 15%! For example, the man across the hall from us is on his fourth. We’ve heard of some passengers who have been one ten or more.