Sailing Away on the Veendam

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

There was a coffee maker (and fridge and microwave) in our room at the Holiday Inn Express, but I didn't want to wake Bob trying to brew my own coffee. Letting him sleep was my gesture of kindness after he was willing to be on that super early morning shuttle the day before without complaining.

I quietly got dressed in the dark and found my way to where the free breakfast was being served. On the way I detoured to the front desk to beg for some toothpaste. I was positive I had packed mine, but the night before it was no where to be found. The nice lady gave me a couple of small tubes when I mentioned we were leaving on a two week cruise. (Note: Turns out I had put the toothpaste in my "liquids bag" in my carry on and had forgotten.) 

The time zone change for us made it feel earlier than it really was and I was surprised at how many people were already up and eating breakfast. Looking around the room I would wager that over 90% of the folks were staying at the hotel prior to boarding a cruise ship. Somehow the age and dress just labeled them as "cruisers".

As I was eating, I logged into my Facebook account on my phone and began seeing quite a few photos of the snow back home. It was definitely more than a "dusting". I texted my neighbor who responded and said she would take care of shoveling our sidewalks. A very generous offer from someone who is in their 70's!

Bob was awake when I returned to our room. He went down and grabbed a bowl of cereal and brought it back to the room to eat. After he ate he went out for a walk and explore the area while I showered and got ready for the day. 

When we checked out around 10:30 am there were many people waiting for the hotel shuttle. Instead, we used the Lyft app and called for a ride. Our cost was less for the two of us than the price of one on the shuttle and it would be much quicker.

I was following online as our driver made his way to the hotel so we were aware that he had turned into the driveway at the hotel next door by mistake (probably due to the construction that made it confusing on where to enter the HI-Express.) I caught his attention and motioned for him to come to where we were waiting. The car was a small, older model. With some creative cramming, he was finally able to get our luggage into the trunk but it took multiple slams before the lid would actually latch...not a good situation for my already wounded luggage. Our receipt shows we were picked up at 10:50 am.

It was a short drive to the port, but the driver got lost. In hindsight, I think it was my fault for putting in "Port Everglades" as our destination rather than Terminal 26 where the Veendam was docked. He also admitted it was his first time dropping someone off at the port so maybe I will share the blame. At the check point going into the port entrance, the inspector asked to look in the trunk. Once again, it took many tries to get it closed. Our round-about route cost us a little over a dollar extra on the bill, but we eventually got to the ship with Bob doing most of the navigating. Time of arrival: 11:07 am.

Map of our Lyft ride. 

Check in was easy and swift. I checked my watch as we were seated in the waiting area and it was 11:15! Boarding began promptly at 11:30. We were in boarding group 8 and were walking onto the ship at 11:45 am. Not bad!

But...things went downhill from there. When we got to our room, the key cards didn't work. At first I thought it was "operator error", but the women in the room across the hall couldn't get their cards to work either. Bob and I went up to guest services and waited in line to have new cards made. 

Back to the room but the new cards didn't work. Ugh. Bob agreed to sit in the hallway by our cabin with the luggage so I could go back to the front desk without dragging my carry-on. The waiting line had grown quite long and from overheard conversations we weren't the only ones having issues with our cards. I positioned myself in the back of the line expecting a long wait, but luckily the gal that had helped me before noticed me and called me up to the desk. She made yet another set of cards and promised me that they would work...which they did.

Our home for the next two weeks was cabin #400 in the aft section of the Lower Promenade deck of the Veendam (Deck 6). I have no idea why the decks and cabins were numbered as they were on this ship...but it didn't make any sense to me. Our two previous cruises had been on the Zaandam which is very similar in layout but a totally different numbering system for cabins and decks.

Our room was almost identical in appearance to the ocean view cabins we had on the Zaandam except...no window. This time we had taken the cheapest option and booked an inside cabin. However, just a few steps away from our room was a door leading outside to the public deck that goes all the way around the ship. It was "almost" like having a huge balcony!

It was near 1 pm by the time we finally got into our room and I was hot and sweaty from running back and forth to deal with the key issues. And...we were hungry and ready for some lunch. We dropped off our carry on bags and went up to the Lido buffet. As we were eating, we were texting back and forth with our good friends, Jon and Michelle, who were en route by car to the port to join us for the cruise. They arrived shortly after and met us at the buffet.

After lunch, the four of us went to the Shore Excursions desk. To use our onboard credits, we had to wait until we were on the ship to book any tours rather than booking in advance. I had suggested we all take a river tubing tour in Jamaica and the guys wanted to book a scuba dive for Grand Turk. Since we weren't going to be in Grand Turk until the second week (which was technically considered a different cruise) the guys had to wait on booking their dive but we were able to get tickets for the tubing trip. As Jon was looking through the booklet of excursions, he found a catamaran snorkeling tour for the next day in Key West that he thought looked fun so we booked it as well.

One of my first priorities on the first day of a cruise was to get settled in so we went back to our room and were mostly done unpacking by the time the muster drill began at 4 pm. During the drill we watched as the Caribbean Princess, Island Princess and the Majesty of the Seas cruise ships sailed out of the channel from Port Everglades.

Watching as crew members do some touch up work on the back of the ship.

Jon and Michelle had an oceanview cabin on deck 5 midship...one deck below us. Jon had some business to take care of while he still had internet so after the muster drill Michelle met up with us by the back pool on the Lido deck for the sail away. 

I had sent a link for the online port webcam to family members. My sister got the following screen shot when the webcam zoomed in on us!

The webcam is located in this building.

Following the Caribbean Princess out to sea.

As soon as the ship cleared the channel, it got very windy and a big gust blew my hat off. It happened so quickly all I could do was watched as it sailed through the air behind the ship and into the water. To get away from the wind, we moved down to the promenade deck (our big balcony!) and watched as the sun set over the skyline of Ft. Lauderdale.

Michelle met us back at our room when it was time to go to dinner, but had no idea where Jon was. His luggage hadn't been delivered and she had concluded that they found his diving knife in his luggage and he was in trouble. He had just finished his scuba certification the week before and had forgotten the knife was in with all of his scuba gear. Funny thing was...she didn't seem concerned about the knife or Jon!

We put a sticky note on our door and Bob also ran down and put one on their door telling Jon we had gone to the dining room. We were seated right away on the lower level of the dining room (for open seating) and sent a message to Jon through the Navigator app so he would know where we were sitting. The three of us went ahead and ordered and were almost finished with dessert before Jon arrived! He had gone back to the cabin and taken a nap. He swore he never saw the note! And...the knife HAD been confiscated from his luggage and would be held until the end of the cruise.

Since we had finished eating, we went with Jon to the buffet where he could get dinner...and Bob got his 2nd dinner.  We had a great time just visiting and catching up until it was time to go to the welcome show in the theater. (Jon & Michelle live in Georgia so we don't see them often.) The show was a nice introduction to the singers, dancers and Veendam show band. It didn't begin until 9:00 pm and by the time the show was over we were tired enough that we called it a night and went to bed.

When & Where for November 6