Day 01 - 10/02/22 - Embarkation Day in Seattle

 Finally our embarkation day was here.  Our son drove us to the port and we arrived at 12:20pm for a scheduled 12:40 embarkation time.  There was a brief line outside the terminal, but with our Verifly pass and 5 star status, we were able to circumvent the several hundred people waiting inside.  The one strange question we were asked after our Verifly was checked was, "Do you have travel insurance?" Fortunately, we do.  The security screening was the next hurdle, and the serpentine line was long and followed by another long single file line to another filter point where our 5 star status cleared us to a fast checkin point.  After I was passport checked, the computer system locked up and there was a 10 minute delay before Angela could be checked in.  But soon we were on our way onboard with another slight delay at security as the Navigator APP wanted a WIFI login.  Paper copies came to the rescue.

We quickly found our room 4168 and our luggage had arrived before us.  It was about 40 minutes from arrival at the terminal to arrival at our room which was pretty fast and stress free. The room is postage stamp sized and the beds were still separated.  Also the safe was locked so a call to Guest Services brought an attendant to unlock it.  We watched the safety video and then went to the Lido for some lunch before checking in at our muster station to complete the safety drill and then walking around the deck.  We really like this new method of doing the safety drill where we don't have to gather every passenger at their muster stations.

The sail away was in sunny, blue skies sort of weather at around 3:20pm.  The Westerdam backed out of its berth, rotated counter clockwise 90º and headed north along the east coast of Puget Sound.  We had a sail away meeting with Cruise Critic members in the aft Lido pool area where we also met Erik & Marilyn who are long time cruising friends.  It was loud there with the HAL sailaway party going on.  at 3:30 we adjourned to the Billboard Onboard area for a Mariner reception and chatted with Eric,Marilyn, and some other Cruise Critic folks. I also had the chance to meet Isobelle, the group events coordinator and make arrangements for the Meet & Greet which I am hosting tomorrow.   

Later on as we cruised up Puget Sound and passed by Hanesville, I called our cruise friends, Ann & John and they spotted us as we cruised by.  Dinner was in the Lido.  We attended the interdenominational service and learned that HAL has provided a Protestant Pastor, Dan Bailey, and he led us in singing, presented a brief message, and led us in celebrating communion.  Afterwards, we attended the HAL Origins EXC presentation at 7 with Eric & Marilyn.  Afterwards, it was time to unpack.  For the first time in our cruising history, we brought along a number of magnetic hooks and some Command Strip hooks.  This really helped to put away items.  While we have no drawers except those in our nightstands, we got everything put away.  While doing our unpacking a steward brought our refill of six cans of Coke Zero for our mini fridge.  Unfortunately the billing was wrong, so we have to battle this out with the front desk in the next few days.  This also happened to us on our last cruise and it was a hassle to get fixed.  We even took in the 10:30pm feeding!

And so ended our first cruising day of this long voyage.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.