Rare misguy Posted January 30 #1 Share Posted January 30 This post was recognized by LauraS! "And another from misguy! Thank you for generously sharing your time at sea with everyone at Cruise Critic! See your post featured on our: Click: . . When you return, please consider submitting it to the site for publication as well: Click: Write a Review" misguy was awarded the badge '"Live from...."' and 8 points. We are at the Hilton Homewood Suites, and this a great choice, we woke up and in the breakfast room we could see the Koningsdam in Port. We will walk/roll, my wife is using a Whill Model F from Scootaround. We normally travel with a Whill Ci2, but since there are tender ports, we are using a lighter folding power chair. The receptionist at the hotel this morning said it was a 10 minute walk, we will see. Since this cruise has so many sea days I hope to keep this post mostly daily in real time. Our port days may be a little more difficult since those days will be full of activities. 11 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Haljo1935 Posted January 30 #2 Share Posted January 30 Have a great time - looking forward to your thoughts on K'dam and the ports. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mtn2Sea Posted January 30 #3 Share Posted January 30 Bon Voyage! Hope you have a great cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat shepard Posted January 30 #4 Share Posted January 30 Bon Voyage. Enjoy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJSULIBRARIAN Posted January 30 #5 Share Posted January 30 Sail Away out of San Diego is one of the best there is! Enjoy your cruise. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeh10641 Posted January 30 #6 Share Posted January 30 I will be watching your reports as I am on this cruise in 2025 (01/28). Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Niagarawine Posted January 30 #7 Share Posted January 30 Bon voyage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LouChamp Posted January 30 #8 Share Posted January 30 Aloha. Have a wonderful voyage! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BermudaBound2014 Posted January 30 #9 Share Posted January 30 (edited) Aloha- thanks for the live. I’ll be boarding when you return. Will wave 🙂 Edited January 30 by BermudaBound2014 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmcfad2 Posted January 30 #10 Share Posted January 30 (edited) Looking forward to your posts. We board the day you get off. 😁 Edited January 30 by dmcfad2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisin'teach Posted January 31 #11 Share Posted January 31 Looking forward to your posts. Have a friend sailing with you. We will be on Konigsdam for the eclipse in April so it will be fun to get your reports of what to see and do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #12 Share Posted January 31 So we are at sea now, the ship sailed late, not sure why, but it was right at sunset that we moved away from the dock. We wanted to see the presentations - Origins, which is the Holland America Story, and it was very entertaining. The walk over from the hotel was easy, 1 block downhill to the waterfront and about three blocks of so to the cruise terminal. Cheryl stopped and shot some video and took pictures as we went along. We passed the San Diego Maritime Museum, which looked interesting and at least partly accessible. Check-in and boarding were a mixed bag. For those like us who were not 4 or 5 star Mariners were directed into a line that wasn't moving, you had to wait to drop your bags. The waiting area was on the street side of the terminal, in the bright sun and hot pretty quickly. That lasted about 45 minutes and then the line started moving, I dropped the bags and Cheryl went inside the terminal to wait for me in the shade. Once you are inside then you have a couple of those long Disneyland queues that snaked back and forth, The line moved quickly and soon we were boarding the ship. We were on-board a little after 12, And the rooms were ready, so we went and dropped our back packs then on to the dining room for lunch. The meal was good, and we shared a table with some nice people, so that made things good. In the afternoon, I was working in the room, I did sign up for the high speed package of internet, and the bandwidth was less than 1 meg down and less up. I switched to my Google Fi connection and had plenty of bandwidth. We talked about what we wanted to do about specialty dining, and there will be several that we will enjoy. Cheryl is not a seafood fan, so I will do the seafood boil by myself late this week. I am not sure what else we will do. After the Origins presentation, we stopped and listened to Dueling Pianos for a few minutes and then came back to the room. Cheryl is putting up the clothes, and setting things aside for the laundry. My bandwidth on the Starlink is good now 15.2 meg down and 25.6 meg up, One way to save some money is to get on internet device, use your phone as wifi hotspot, and then everyone in the cabin can piggy back off that one connection. 14 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruinboy20 Posted January 31 #13 Share Posted January 31 Thanks for taking us along. I will be boarding with @BermudaBound2014 , well not together exactly, when you return. Hopefully, depending on my boarding time we can exchange high fives as we embark and you disembark. Look for the guy whose wife keeps saying, "Calm Down" to him as he is so excited to be boarding the ship at long last. It will be our first cruise since covid. DW and I are staying across the street at the Wyndham Bayside so should be pretty easy for us to board. Since we are not 4 or 5s and since we are not in a suite or Club Orange, it looks like the fun Disneylike Queue for us. I look forward to your future posts. Have a great cruise. 4 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare BermudaBound2014 Posted January 31 #14 Share Posted January 31 @misguywhat time did you arrive at the pier? I’m a low priority gal and thinking of just waiting until after 1 to arrive. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJSULIBRARIAN Posted January 31 #15 Share Posted January 31 Isn't that first snaking line for security which everyone has to go through? And if there is more than one ship in port, everyone goes through the same security line and then you split off for ship checkin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #16 Share Posted January 31 20 minutes ago, SJSULIBRARIAN said: Isn't that first snaking line for security which everyone has to go through? And if there is more than one ship in port, everyone goes through the same security line and then you split off for ship checkin. The line is for security, but it was only for those boarding Hal. The biggest issue was having to wait out side in the line, with no protection from the sun. We got there very early, and if we had waited till later it might have been less of an issue. We like to get on as soon as possible. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollie Posted January 31 #17 Share Posted January 31 Did you walk from your hotel to the dock with all your luggage? Looking forward to more of your posts. Thanks Rollie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruise47 Posted January 31 #18 Share Posted January 31 (edited) What are the total number of days for this cruise ? Will a suite guest travler be directive to a difference line for boarding? Yes, I'm new to the Holland America Line. We have only sailed with Royal Caribbean, Disney and Celebrity Cruise Lines. Edited January 31 by cruise47 Missed spell words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anniegb Posted January 31 #19 Share Posted January 31 47 minutes ago, misguy said: The line is for security, but it was only for those boarding Hal. The biggest issue was having to wait out side in the line, with no protection from the sun. We got there very early, and if we had waited till later it might have been less of an issue. We like to get on as soon as possible. You may not know the answer but is it suspected that many arrived ahead of their booking slot? TIA 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #20 Share Posted January 31 Last night we had a 7:45 seating for dinner and we agreed to share a table and were seated with 2 very nice couples and had a very enjoyable meal. There are pictures of the food and menu below. I tried the Mahi Mahi Diabolo and the Habanero shrimp, and while the flavor was nice, the food was bland. Cheryl had the Salmon with Dill and Capers, and the corn chowder. She thought the Salmon was very good, and the chowder was good. I ordered the desert and Cheryl tasted it. It was very good, but thankfully not oversweet. Then after dinner we stopped and watched dueling pianos for a while, and then Cheryl went to put together a puzzle, and I thought I was going to work, but I was wrong the bed kept calling my name, and finally I answered. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #21 Share Posted January 31 9 minutes ago, rollie said: Did you walk from your hotel to the dock with all your luggage? Looking forward to more of your posts. Thanks Rollie We did, we had two big roller bags, and 2 backpacks. I hung the heaviest back pack on the back of Chery's power chair, and wore the other one. It was very easy to roll the bags, and carry the small backpack. If I cruised from this port again, I would do the same again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClippyJoe Posted January 31 #22 Share Posted January 31 This is one of our favorite cruises. We were at the Wyndhamboth times. Its so easy to just walk across the street plus you can spot when the line starts to diminish and go then. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare SonuvaBeach Posted January 31 #23 Share Posted January 31 Following! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #24 Share Posted January 31 It is just after dawn on day 2, our first full sea day. The seas are not bad, but it is a grey cloudy morning, no sunrise to speak off. Looking at the navigation information, it is going to be windy on deck. We have a 12 knot head wind, and the ship is making 19 knots, so that make about 31 knot wind across the deck. We are on deck 1 with an ocean view accessible balcony, and we can feel the ship moving, but it is not bad, the Captain told yesterday to expect significant seas by this evening. If it gets rough tonight, we will be glad to have a deck one cabin and it is right by the mid-ship elevator, so the best possible location to cope with rocking and rolling. The Starlink connection is not so good now. I am getting about 100 K down and 380 K up, I purchased the highest bandwidth connection they offer. I hope it improves, or I am going to be very disappointed. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare misguy Posted January 31 Author #25 Share Posted January 31 1 hour ago, cruise47 said: What are the total number of days for this cruise ? Will a suite guest travler be directive to a difference line for boarding? Yes, I'm new to the Holland America Line. We have only sailed with Royal Caribbean, Disney and Celebrity Cruise Lines. They were checking for 4 star, 5 star and Club Orange guests and they went first. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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