Embarkation & At Sea Day

            Sunday, 12 May 2013 – After starting the day with the hotel’s German-style breakfast, packing up, and checking out right before noon, we walked to the bus stop with our luggage in tow.  According to the information we were given at the hotel and had found online, either bus numbers 41 or 42 would take us to the cruise terminal; however, everyone on the Internet insisted that it was only a short distance away and recommended that one walk the 1500 meters (a short distance for Germans!).  When bus 42 arrived, the driver spoke no English.  Although Sally tried to communicate with him, the only word that we could understand was “hier” (here), as he pointed down with his index finger.  We understood this to mean that this bus did not stop at the cruise terminal and we would have to wait here for another bus.  (Later, we wondered if he meant that we should board the bus.  However, he had not tried very hard to help us.)  After realizing that the next bus wouldn’t arrive for 45 minutes, we gave up and walked about 30 minutes to the [most distant] cruise terminal, where we checked our luggage about 1:15 PM and waited for our turn to board the ship.

By 3:15 PM, we were in our cabin.  Sally was ready for a nap, but there was no time.  Instead of waiting until the second day to conduct the life boat drill as Costa used to do, the drill was conducted 30 minutes prior to the ship’s departure at 4:30 PM.  Also, we were each given a bar coded “life boat drill” card, which the staff collected during the drill to ensure that EVERYONE received the training – a good policy after the Costa Concordia disaster!

Sally Relaxing after Embarkation

Although our requested early seating for dinner had never been confirmed, we were assigned a table at the 6:00 PM seating in the New York dining room.  On our way into the restaurant, we ran into Susan and Chris, from England/Scotland.  Sally had connected with Susan through the CruiseCritics.com website two weeks earlier, but they were assigned to a different table.  We sat at a table with York and Gabi, from San Francisco (but originally from Germany); Suzanne and Lois (Suzanne from Vermont, Lois from Washington, DC); Christine (from Melbourne, Australia), and Alan (from South Carolina).  Alan was with us only this night; he will be joining the rest of his family at another table.

Very soon we learned that Costa charges for coffee and tea with dinner, so everyone at our table drank tap water, which the waiter brought in a pitcher.  (By far the majority of passengers on this cruise are Europeans, and Europeans don’t drink tap water.  This waiter might have had an awakening.)   Most cruise lines do charge for alcoholic beverages, bottled water, soft drinks, cappuccino, etc, but Costa has gone a little overboard with charging for coffee and tea!  Complain, complain!

After dinner, we attended a 7:45 PM Mass (today was the day of Ascension) in the Amadeus Lounge.  (Our last Costa Cruise had a priest onboard, also.)  Although Mass was conducted in Italian, we were provided a handout with the readings written in English so that we could follow along.  Having grown up hearing Mass in Latin, Jesse thought it all seemed normal.

Then we danced to Katy’s Duo in the Grand Bar Rhapsody for a few songs.  (Only one other couple was dancing.)  When we returned to our cabin, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the Jimmy Fallon TV show was on CNBC – the “other” English TV Channel.  Sally was in bed by 10:00 PM, while Jesse stayed up and waited for the rest of our luggage.  We received a call from Guest Services around 10:30 PM.  Apparently, Costa had impounded two of our suitcases after finding a bottle of wine in each of them.  In our experience, both Princess and Carnival Cruise Lines have allowed one bottle of wine person to be brought onboard.  There were several other suitcases in Guest Services and lots of confiscated wine bottles on the shelves.  They promised to return our wine during debarkation.  But why did they wait until 10:30 to call us?  Enough complaining; we probably wouldn’t have had time to drink the wine anyway.  We’ll have it in Hamburg before we leave for home.

            Monday was an “at sea” day, as we cruised from Kiel to Stockholm, Sweden.  We awoke around 10:00 AM.  Going for a late breakfast, we were pleased to find “free” coffee and juice at the buffet.  Afterwards, we explored a few decks of the ship (the top deck was loaded with sun worshippers in lounge chairs) and registered our credit card for the ship’s account.  This was done prior to boarding on all of our previous cruises.  Then, we return to our cabin for an afternoon of relaxation and BBC TV.

            At 4:00 PM, we met at Rick’s Piano Bar for an “English Speaking Guests Let’s Get Together, where about 20 guests showed up.  One man named Mike was originally from northwest Iowa, but now lives in Greece with his wife Anastasia who is Greek; Peter and Karen from near London; Christine from Australia (who sat at our dinner table last night); a couple from Paris, France (she is originally from the UK and he is French); Mike and Sarah from Minneapolis, MN; Molly and her daughter Gabriella, also from Minneapolis, MN (Sarah and Molly are sisters and Molly is currently with the military and stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany; and others.  The group leader from Costa Cruises was not very organized, so the meeting could have gone a lot better.
 

            We were afraid that we might be eating dinner alone tonight.  The single women at the table last night have all moved to a table next to the window to get away from the noise.  Finally, Gabi and York showed up.  It turned out that they had forgotten our table number and had sat at the wrong table.  After dinner, we danced to the La Dee Dee Smith Band, who played very good ballroom dance music.  Unlike last night, the dance floor was crowded tonight.