Day 1--Embarkation

Day 1--Embarkation

The vacation begins!  The flight from Las Vegas to Los Angeles was uneventful and all my luggage arrived in Los Angeles.  I, along with several other folks from Las Vegas who were on the same cruise, were met by a Princess representative at baggage claim.  We turned over our luggage to them and were assured they would be delivered to our cabin, then got on the bus. 

I thought the bus was taking us to the port, but since we arrived at 9:30 in the morning and ship was not ready for us to board, the bus took us to a Sheraton hotel.  Princess had contracted with the Sheraton to provide us with pastries and coffee in the Mezzanine.  Tables were set up and we were provided our health forms to fill out.  We were then taken to a meeting room where Princess employees check us in.  I was given an orange card showing that I was already checked in along with a green card showing which bus I was on going to the port.  Spent time talking with the folks at my table while we waited for the bus.  All of them had been several Princess cruises, and one couple had been on over 100! 

My bus left the Sheraton at 11:30 and it was a 40 minute drive to the port.  When we got to the port, we were directed to a table to pick up our room keys and didn’t have to go through the check-in process at the port.  We were then directed straight to security and onto the ship.  The whole embarkation process at the port took only 10 minutes.

The rooms were ready so I went straight to my room to drop off my carry on.  I spent the afternoon exploring the ship and signing up for the “Ship’s Ultimate Tour.”  Only 12 people are allowed on this tour and Princess draws names of those who signed up to see would be allowed to go.  I’ll find out in a few days if I’m selected—sure hope so since it sounds interesting.  It is a behind-the-scenes look at the ship operations.

The Sapphire Princess is a much larger ship than the Zaandam and it appeared to be much newer.  My room was on the Lido Deck, Deck 14 (the Zaandam only had 10 decks, and half the number of passengers).  It was a good thing I didn’t have to be anywhere in particular since most of the afternoon I was pretty much “lost” and constantly consulted the deck plans to see where I was.

The ship left Los Angeles at 4:00.  Either the waters were calm or the ship is really stable since even all the way forward on Deck 14, I could hardly feel the ship move—just a very gentle, almost imperceptible slow rocking.

At 5:00, I got dressed for dinner and went to the International Dining Room to meet my tablemates.  I had Traditional early seating, which means I had a set time (5:30 pm) and set table for dinner each night.  I was seated at a table for 8 and only 4 other people showed up.  Those four were single women travelling together.  They were all sharing a room and all worked for Walmart.  Not sure how they all fit in the cabin since the cabins are all pretty small.  Plenty of room for me, but how four women fit is beyond imagination.

I ordered a bottle of red wine and had a glass with dinner.  The dining room caps the wine, puts your room number on it and will save it for you until it’s gone.  The bottle will probably last me the entire cruise since I’ll only have one glass at dinner.

The food was good.  I had the tortellini and spinach soup, then the prime rib with baked potato and grilled tomato.  After dinner, I had my usual cappuccino.  On Holland America, cappuccino in the dining room was free.  On Princess you have to pay for it.  Luckily, I knew this ahead of time and purchased a “coffee card” for $29.00 which will allow me to have the specialty coffees.

After dinner, I wandered over to the Princess Theater for the welcome aboard show.  Unfortunately, it was so packed that there was standing room only.  Since I didn’t really care about the show, I didn’t stay.  I did go to the Wheelhouse Bar where Phoenix Rising was playing.  A friend of mine knows the guitar player, Jerry, in Phoenix Rising and said I should introduce myself and tell him hello.  The music was pretty good and I recognized every song they played (which tells you what era music they were playing—definitely not Rap or current hits).  It had been a long day, so at 9:30 I headed back to my room.  Didn’t get a chance to say hello to Jerry since the band was playing the entire time I was there—but I’ll make a point of doing that at some point on the cruise.