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| Our Home Away From Home - Holland America's Oosterdam |
Our embarkation was extremely smooth - we arived at the cruise terminal at 10:30 am, and our wait in line to process boarding passes, take photos and aquire room keys was no more than 5 minutes. The terminal itself is quite comfortable and in Holland America style, they had complimentary water, coffee, mixed drinks and pastries available both in and outside on a shaded veranda overlooking the sea. After a short wait, our group number was called for boarding and by 11:30, we were in our cabin and unpacking.
The evening before was a nightmare - technically, that is. After dinner, I started an update on our blog, writing commentary for & processing Barcelona photos. What should've taken only a few minutes to upload and post, turned into a 6-hour marathon. Long story short... I was unable to log-in to our blog, and it took several hours to remedy. Google, for some unknown reason, couldn't recognize my credentials, and it was only after I changed passwords a few times and processed Google updates that I was finally able gain access. Cheryl was a huge help and actually, had it not been for her making remedial suggestions, I'd still be locked out of our account. Finally, and at 2:00 am, it worked...and I was able to post to both our travel blog and Facebook. Obviously, a very short night for both of us!
We spent much of our first afternoon unpacking. At 3pm, we had our mandatory lifeboat drill and at 4pm, we set sail for Cadiz, Spain. Our sailaway party was typical but still fun. We miss the staff & crew from the Amsterdam, but particularly all of the repeat passengers we've come to know so well. I'm hopeful we'll meet many new folks along this somewhat short journey - short compared with our past cruises of 120+ days. The passengers here seem younger than the world cruisers, so they're closer to our ages and fewer wheelchairs are present. It's sad to see someone physically handicapped trying to participate in shore excursions and other strenuous activities - many just waited too long to take these trips which is why Cheryl and I are trying to see and do everything while we're still healthy enough to do so without assistance. With that said, we still both go out of our way to help the handicapped navigate the ship and assist with some land activities. Why not...they're someones mother, father, sister or brother, and no different than the rest of us.
With our first dinner at 5:30, Cheryl and I both had anxiety about meeting our impending tablemates - would they speak English, would they be decent, nice folks?? Always a concern for us but we've been so fortunate on past cruises - I can share with you that the folks we met last evening were/are wonderful...and in fact, we were among the last couples to leave the dining room - we had such a good time together! One couple from San Diego - the other from Portland, Oregon. Both in our age group - well...MY age group! As most of you know, Cheryl's a couple years younger than I am. OK...she's 10 years younger...satisfied?! But remember, we've been together for 31 years...so there!
We were in bed last night shortly after dinner - around 7:30 - exhausted. I was up this morning at my usual 4am ready to begin updating our blog, only to discover that our laptop crashed - totally! I tried for a few hours to fix it on my own, but it wasn't until (you guessed it) Cheryl got up and inserted a recovery disk that it started working again. Whew! She's so good - knew exactly what to do. I swear, I'd have a hard time tieing my own shoes if it weren't for her - she's saved me many times! I'm so fortunate...
That's it - sailing toward Cadiz - the sea is like glass - very boring for us as we like rolling ocean waves. Weather remains beautiful - mid-70's. We're off now to explore the ship more thoroughly - first time on the Oosterdam (what a name, huh)...but a beautiful ship, and very friendly crew.
We spent much of our first afternoon unpacking. At 3pm, we had our mandatory lifeboat drill and at 4pm, we set sail for Cadiz, Spain. Our sailaway party was typical but still fun. We miss the staff & crew from the Amsterdam, but particularly all of the repeat passengers we've come to know so well. I'm hopeful we'll meet many new folks along this somewhat short journey - short compared with our past cruises of 120+ days. The passengers here seem younger than the world cruisers, so they're closer to our ages and fewer wheelchairs are present. It's sad to see someone physically handicapped trying to participate in shore excursions and other strenuous activities - many just waited too long to take these trips which is why Cheryl and I are trying to see and do everything while we're still healthy enough to do so without assistance. With that said, we still both go out of our way to help the handicapped navigate the ship and assist with some land activities. Why not...they're someones mother, father, sister or brother, and no different than the rest of us. 
With our first dinner at 5:30, Cheryl and I both had anxiety about meeting our impending tablemates - would they speak English, would they be decent, nice folks?? Always a concern for us but we've been so fortunate on past cruises - I can share with you that the folks we met last evening were/are wonderful...and in fact, we were among the last couples to leave the dining room - we had such a good time together! One couple from San Diego - the other from Portland, Oregon. Both in our age group - well...MY age group! As most of you know, Cheryl's a couple years younger than I am. OK...she's 10 years younger...satisfied?! But remember, we've been together for 31 years...so there!We were in bed last night shortly after dinner - around 7:30 - exhausted. I was up this morning at my usual 4am ready to begin updating our blog, only to discover that our laptop crashed - totally! I tried for a few hours to fix it on my own, but it wasn't until (you guessed it) Cheryl got up and inserted a recovery disk that it started working again. Whew! She's so good - knew exactly what to do. I swear, I'd have a hard time tieing my own shoes if it weren't for her - she's saved me many times! I'm so fortunate...
That's it - sailing toward Cadiz - the sea is like glass - very boring for us as we like rolling ocean waves. Weather remains beautiful - mid-70's. We're off now to explore the ship more thoroughly - first time on the Oosterdam (what a name, huh)...but a beautiful ship, and very friendly crew.
She's slightly larger than our 'home' ship (the Amsterdam) but at maximum capacity, it only carries 1800 passengers - still small by new industry standards, but just the way we like it! Easy on, easy off. Few long lines to speak of, with the exception of food stations, of course. You'd think people were starving, or someone was going to come and take it away from them. Back off!
| Sailaway Party |
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