Embarkation Day

July 28
We had one last breakfast in Copenhagen - this time at the sister hotel, Kong Arthur.  It had a little more variety than Ibsen's Hotel did, plus some hot items.  Bob appreciated that.  We finished packing, paid up our incidentals at the hotel, and waited out on the street for our van pickup.  It was too hot to wait in our rooms.  All of Europe was having unusually warm weather during our whole trip, and of course nothing is air conditioned.  We did a lot of sweating and came to appreciate all the ac back home.

Our room at Ibsens Hotel

European style bathroom

Our same 2 drivers picked us up early, but we were all ready and we were wisked off to our ship, the Emerald Princess.  What a huge ship!  The embarkation process was very swift. We hardly got sat down to wait when they called our group number to get on board.  We had got our cruise cards, pictures taken and then we were on.  It was before noon and we didn't sail until 6:30.

Bob is awed by the size of the ship!

We all found our staterooms on Caribe Deck.  We were all in a block together on the starboard side near the aft of the ship.  We all had balconies that connected.  We didn't have to go out in the hall to go visit each other.  Marlene had stickers for our balcony doors and wrote our names with dry erase markers so we would know who was in each cabin. Quite deluxe accommodations.   Our luggage wasn't delivered yet, so we went to find some lunch in the Horizon Court.  Afterwards we explored the ship and found what was to become one of our favorite hangouts on the ship, Crooners Bar.  We had Alesky as our waiter there and taught him what a South Dakota martini was.  He remembered all our drink preferences the next day when we went back!

Our stateroom

Our cute little bathroom.

Went back to our cabin to unpack.  We found room for everything and the suitcases fit nicely under the bed.  Still quite warm in the room, so we sat out on the balcony.  Nice to have that option.  We had our mandatory muster drill and then went for supper. The Goheens had arranged for all of us to eat at the Botticelli dining room.  We had decided to sign up for "anytime dining", but we wanted to eat together each evening if we could.  Tried to convey this to the head waiter, but as we found out the next day didn't quite make ourselves clear.

After supper we went to the Welcome Aboard show, which was mostly a sales pitch for all the amenities on the ship.  Then Bob and I went to the casino.  I lost money in the machines and he lost at blackjack.  He had his first taste of playing with foreigners with lots of money who didn't know how to play the game.  They continued to frustrate him most of the time he was in the casino the rest of the trip.