Cruise Day 1

 Well, today was everything the last two days were not.  Warm, sunny, and dry!

After a quiet morning, we headed to our ship and went through the embarkation process.  They said to arrive after noon and we got there at 12:25.  Overall it went OK,  but they had no luggage porters like we are used to.  It must be a Seattle port thing since people arriving for the Majestic Princess (docked next to us) had the same issue.  Beyond that, it was fairly smooth, but we had to stop 4 times so it was a lilttle less efficient than being Green Line on Princess which has only 1 stop. 

Once on board, we found our cabin and were surprised at how quickly our luggage came.  After lunch in a very crowded buffet, we did a brief ship tour (it's very pretty!).  Mary unpacked while I headed out to confirm our dinner reservations and figure out the internet issues. It turns out that the basic internet only lets you do email and a few social media sites.  I had to upgrade to premium to be able to get to this page to make blog posts and upload pictures.  But  once I got that figured out, all has gone well.  

Dinner had a very nice menu. Mary and I both chose a New York strip steak, but neither of us could finish it!  But we did leave room for dessert. My warm blueberry crumb a la mode is on the right. 

After dinner we walked around and found a pair of pianists who were just starting a set of "Top 100".  They did a great job of playing familiar tunes (Monkees, Billy Joel, Elton John, Beatles, etc) and we stayed for the entire 45 minute set.  Just might hear them another time or two!  Mary had heard that Holland ships had a lot of music on them and this sure proves that point. 

This evening we entered a fog bank with the ships horn sounding every few minutes and tomorrow is a sea day and could be a bit wet.  We've already noticed the temperature dropping quite a bit as we head north.