Embarkation

Thursday, 20 Sep 2012 – After starting the day with the hotel’s continental breakfast, packing up, and checking out, we took a short taxi ride to Pier 35 to the Sea Princess.  Since we arrived about an hour before the scheduled boarding time, there was no line for check-in.  Although usually early boarding would have already started, for some unknown reason this time we and others had to sit and wait in a holding area for almost an hour.

Our Cabin

On board the ship, we found our cabin (D208), an “ocean view” this time (not a balcony) near the front of the ship.  After relaxing for a few minutes, we went to the buffet (Horizon Court) for a quick snack; however, we ran into our Australian friends, Gail and Jim, and ended up visiting for an hour or so.  When we returned to the cabin, our luggage had been delivered, so we unpacked our luggage and stowed everything away in our new home for the next 27 days.  Our cabin is quite a bit smaller than the one on our last cruise, so it was somewhat challenging to fit everything in. (Of course, we always bring too much!)

We participated in a lifeboat drill at 3:15 PM.  This is a change from our previous cruises.  After the Costa Cruise disaster, lifeboat drills must be conducted PRIOR to sailing.  We tried to take the drill seriously this time; however, Jesse still ended up sleeping through half of it.  We were scheduled to set sail at 4:00 PM; however, the ship’s captain announced that our departure would be delayed for at least two hours until they completed loading all of the ships supplies and unloading the garbage from the previous cruise.

Golden Gate Bridge

We were scheduled for dinner at 5:30 PM; however, we decided to skip dinner until later so that we could watch our departure from the deck.  So, we stood on the deck from 6 – 7 PM, braving the cold and wind.  The view was SPECTACULAR as we sailed past Alcatraz and under the Golden Gate Bridge, but we nearly froze.   Afterward, we went to dinner at the Horizon Court.  We were much too tired for further activities tonight.  Already we were instructed to set our clock back one hour (so that give us even more time for sleeping).