December 14, 2014: Embarkation Day

We were up bright and early and waiting for the restaurant to open.  Courtyards have replaced the restaurant with a Bistro where you order at a counter and the food is brought to your table.  It's overpriced and not all made on site.  Unfortunately there weren't any breakfast restaurants we could see so we had breakfast there and it was good enough to take care of our hunger.

The shuttle was ready right on time and after dropping a group off at the Nieuw Amsterdam it was our turn to drop luggage and head into the cruise terminal.

Waiting to board the Eurodam

There was no line and after filling out our health questionnaire, we went straight to a check-in person.  Our boarding group number was three.

It was a pleasant nearly 90 minute wait and I enjoyed looking at the other ships and people watching.  After 45 minutes or so, they started serving cookies, water and lemonade which we enjoyed.

We already were saying a phrase which was often repeated throughout the vacation "what took us so long to come back to HAL?".

We were called on-board shortly before noon and headed straight to our stateroom.  The room was made up as twin beds as requested and our room steward arrived soon after to introduce himself.  

After enjoying the view of the Celebrity Solstice from our balcony we headed to the lido deck for lunch.  We knew the dining room was available for mariners but  At this point, there was no line and we all enjoyed our first Eurodam meal.  I had a salad, buttermilk fried chicken, green beans, quinoa sweet potato cake (so-so), baklava and fruit tart.

This fruit tart was the first of many desserts enjoyed during the cruise.

We then toured the rest of the Lido deck (including the spa) and decks 1-3.   The ship is beautiful and we especially oohed and ahhed over the holiday decorations.

Before we knew it, it was time to go to the muster drill. Afterwards, I got ready for dinner so I could enjoy watch the Chargers-Broncos game in the sports bar from 4 until first eating.

It took me a while to find the sports bar as it was not labeled as such anywhere except the daily program.  It turned out to be the casino bar which doubles as the sports bar.

The drink of the day today is the Mojito and I needed a couple of those to watch the poor play of my beloved team.  My sister joined me until the casino opened up and then she was gone.  We enjoyed the nuts served with the drinks.  These little things will add up over the course of the week.

We were assigned table 4 and our assistant waiter was Barry (not spelled correctly) and the waiter was Agung.

My appetizers were the tomato and goat cheese tart and the Bahamian seafood stew.

I enjoyed them both but there was not one piece of seafood in my soup!  Other selections at the table included Caesar salad, french onion soup and shrimp cocktail.

We all had the prime rib for the entrees and enjoyed it very much.

Dessert selections were creme brulee and apple strudel.

I went back to the sports bar and saw the score was 22-10 with less than four minutes left in the game and decided to join the others in the casino.  It was an early night as we all were tired.

Here's the On Location for embarkation day.  Click the image for the PDF.