On Saturday afternoon our cousins Deb & Pete delivered us to Pier 91 for our embarkation. The ms Amsterdam will be our home away from home until December 2nd, and we were really anticipating seeing our stateroom.
The embarkation process was the quickest and easiest we’ve ever experienced, partly because we didn’t arrive exactly at the scheduled time, and partly because so many people had opted to embark on the cruise in L.A. on the 30th. We sailed through the process (no pun intended) and were escorted aboard the ship and to our stateroom. A few minutes later our luggage began to arrive. With five large suitcases and three small ones, we were in a complete state of upheaval for the entire first day, which was only interrupted by the mandatory lifeboat drill and dinner. After two days, we’ve finally pretty much found places for everything and sort of know where things are now.
We spent a marvelous day Sunday in Vancouver. We’d booked a tour with a private company which would show us the venues for the upcoming Olympic Winter Games. Much to our surprise, a van pulled up, and the driver indicated that we were the only people booked for the tour. So we had a private tour of the city, which was adapted to suit what we wanted to see. We couldn’t have been happier with our very knowledgeable Hungarian-born tour guide, who kept up a steady stream of information about Vancouver and its environs. He was quite obviously very proud of his adopted home and loved to show it off! Especially interesting was the Richmond Olympic Oval, site of the speed and figure skating events, where we had the opportunity to view the interior of the facility. We also visited the Cypress Bowl, which will be the location of the snowboarding and freestyle skiing events, and we were rewarded with a spectacular view of Vancouver on the way up. Distance prevented us from getting to Whistler Mountain, which will host the alpine events. When we watch the games in February, I’m sure they will mean even more after having seen the various venues.
Monday was our first day at sea, and we had a chance to do some exploring of the ship in greater detail. We’ve checked out the shops, and we’ve also been up to the fitness center. Angie will be pleased to know that I did some time on the treadmill and the bike. When we went to the dining room for lunch, we discovered that Deris, our dining steward from our Norway cruise, was here. We’d seen him last year on the Zuiderdam, so we were quite surprised to cross paths with him once again! We’ve also met some very nice people, but are still sorry that our friends Al & Carol had to cancel out. It would have been so much fun to share the experience with them!
Many thanks to Deb and Pete for a fantastic stay with them in Seattle! It was great fun to spend some time together and see a little bit of the Northwest.
Barb
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