Nov 24

Nov 24 Day One and Embarkation in Port Everglades

Embarkation

My flight from DFW to Fort Lauderdale arrived about 30 minutes late. But, not to worry, I have plenty of time to get to the pier before the ship begins embarkation at 1:00pm, or so it would seem. It took more than 20 minutes for my Uber ride to arrive at the pick-up area located between terminals 3 and 4. As is typical on weekends, the Fort Lauderdale airport is a madhouse, with tens of thousands of cruise passengers arriving and departing.

Once my Uber driver arrived, we loaded the luggage and off we went toward Port Everglades, only a few miles from the airport. Traffic was insane, but I was dropped off at Terminal 26 at exactly 12 noon. There was already a line forming when I arrived.

Terminal 26 is one of my least favorite terminals. Once inside, I recall Rickee and me waiting in long lines here to board a much smaller ship than Nieuw Statendam. After weaving through the zig-zag queue lines for what seemed like an eternity, I finally was able to put my carry-on luggage through the metal detectors and move to the check-in counter. The whole process took exactly 40 minutes, so it was far from the longest embarkation process I have experienced. By 12:40, I was stepping on board Nieuw Statendam.

Surprisingly, I had no trouble getting an elevator to my deck and I was the only one on the elevator! I can’t ever recall that happening on embarkation day. I had no trouble finding my Verandah Stateroom (5074) on Deck 5 midship. When I arrived, there were already a bunch of flyers stuffed into my stateroom number sign.

After setting my luggage in the closet of my stateroom, I wanted to get some lunch. The best place for a quick, light lunch on embarkation day is the Lido Market on Deck 9, the ship’s buffet (I will cover the Lido Market in more detail in a future blog). I found a serving station with Tri-Tip steak and grilled zucchini squash, so that was my choice. Today the staff is serving the food from behind the buffet line, as opposed to guests serving themselves. Even though this slows down the serving process, I actually prefer it. I am not crazy about handling utensils that 1,000 other people have handled before me.

After lunch, I went back to my stateroom to shoot my stateroom walk-through video for our YouTube channel (@Cruisereport).

After shooting my video, I had enough time to go to the Restaurant Reservations desk on Deck 2 to change a couple of my specialty restaurant reservations.

At 3:45 the ship conducted the mandatory muster drill. This was one of the strangest muster drills I have attended. First, there was a series of announcements to let guests know about the upcoming drill and that everyone should go to their stateroom to watch a safety video when the alarm sounded. I was in my stateroom when the alarm sounded and I never could find the safety video on the TV. Then, another announcement said we were to go to our muster station printed on our stateroom key card. My card says “Muster Station C2, Section L”. So we all head out into the hallways having no idea where we are supposed to go. They did tell us that the number on the muster station indicates the deck number, so I knew I needed to go to Deck 2 (Muster Station C2), which I did. But, once on Deck 2, there are hundreds of people all shouting at the crew members, “Where is C2? Where is D2? Where is B2?”, and crew members would point the way. It seemed a little chaotic.

As it turned out, my muster station was in BB King’s Blues Club on Deck 2 (seems like it would have been easier just to say that up front). I should also mention that we were asked NOT to bring our life vests from the stateroom for this drill. That is smart since there is a long history of guests tripping over the straps hanging from the life vests while going up or down the stairs. Once we were situated at the muster station, crew members demonstrated how to put on the life vests. The rest of the drill was pretty straightforward.

As soon as the Muster Drill ended, I headed directly to Deck 9 where the Dallas Cowboys/New England Patriots game was being shown poolside on the big screen.

I sat in one of the pool loungers to watch the game. There are small tables in between the loungers, each with buttons to press should you want beverage service. I was desperate for my embarkation imbibement, but alas, it was not to be. In spite of several presses of the button, no bar waiter appeared to take a drink order. After enduring 45 minutes of poor Dallas Cowboys performance, it was time for me to go to my 6:00pm dinner reservation at Tamarind.

Tamarind is Holland America’s Asian-Fusion restaurant and is one of the many specialty restaurants on board. The cost to dine in Tamarind is $25 per person plus gratuity. I will cover my meal at Tamarind with a separate video review and entry in the Cruise Ship Dining Reviews section of CruiseReport.com. We have dined at Tamarind on Eurodam and Nieuw Amsterdam and always found the food and service to be exceptional. Tonight’s meal did not disappoint.

After dinner, I visited the Internet Services Desk on Deck 1 to get some assistance with the WiFi system on board. I was having trouble figuring out how to log out of the system on my phone. I purchased the top-of-the-line “Premium” WiFi package for the entire week ($139) which will allow streaming services, like phone calls (hopefully) through WhatsApp and maybe even access to YouTube. That remains to be seen. I will talk more about the Internet packages and services in upcoming blogs and vlogs.

We were able to get my issues sorted out and I can now log out on my phone when I want to use my laptop. The rest of the evening was spent wandering the ship, taking photos and video. Tomorrow, the ship will be visiting Half Moon Cay, Holland America’s private island.