Day of Delirium #84 - Embarkation Day

We woke up at 5:30 am, not because we had to but because we couldn't sleep any more. To our bodies it was 11:30 am and we were just up. So we got up and leisurely got ourselves ready for our day.

First we headed down to check in for the boat at the hotel - HUGE time saver! They go over all your paperwork and take your pictures for your key cards that you receive at the pier. And while there we received our gorgeous fresh flower leis.

Our Marriott balcony - city view one way

Our Marriott balcony - ocean view the other way

Then we went out for a walk around Waikiki. It was wonderful! We crossed the street to the beach and I was blown away by the water, the sky, the sand and the people. Just amazing.

We even walked to a small organic eatery that had gluten free items, so we picked up some bread for the boat, just in case.

I definitely want to come back to Waikiki and spend some time there. And the Marriott is where I would stay. There is shopping, eating, a pool and a beach all within steps of each other. It truly does not get better than that for me.


Then it was time to head to the boat!!!! We had a transfer from the hotel to the pier through NCL so we loaded the bus with our carry ons only along with a bus load of other cruisers and headed out.

 There she is: Pride of America as viewed from the bus on our way to their pier.

Another benefit of staying at the Marriott is your have your own special check in lines at the pier. We missed the first one but inside after the pictures,

 He looked like the Rock so I made sure to get in his line. *fans self*

we had a nice short, quick line that had us on the boat in 20 minutes.

Welcome aboard! We've been expecting you... The Love Boat... ooops sorry ;)

And then on to our room....

looking in from just past the closet inside the main door.

to DangrMomma's right, our left was a sofa (pull out bed for a 3rd person) and table.

 This would be to DangrMomma's left and our right from the pic above.

A TV that played a few channels, most showing ship topics. 

But there was a desk, a hair dryer, a mini-bar/fridge and storage.

 Our balcony - highly recommend spending the money for it. WELL WORTH IT!!!

Who knew that such a tiny bathroom would need two pictures :)

There actually was tons of room in there.

Great water pressure in the shower and tons of storage.

 Our beds - pretty comfy actually.

And all the way to the back of the pic to our left was the HUGE closet with tons of storage in it. 

More than enough hangers and lots of baskets/shelves/drawers/hooks/floor space to hold all our stuff.

And suitcases fit right under the beds with tons of space left over.

Coffee maker, ice (that they fill each day) and storage for all our food we brought back each day.

It wasn't huge BUT once we out all our stuff away we had no problems moving around and the shower was great actually. The room had all the little touches Mom and I like when we stay somewhere and there was more the enough space for all our clothes and things - we even had an empty drawer and tons of space in the bathroom left over! Room 9596 come highly recommended! Middle of the boat, near the elevators, port side (watch all the sunrises), clean and quiet.

My only complaint and there is nothing we could do about it - our neighbor was a smoker and they are allowed to smoke on the balcony. So if he were out there when we were, the smoke blew right on to our balcony. Nothing at all we could do but luckily we had many times when he wasn't around. Still would get a balcony every time :)

Mom and I headed out to eat at the buffet (where I had carved chicken and mashed potatoes mmmmmm - no gluten worries so far) and while we were out, Mom's luggage showed up. Then when we went to walk around the ship a little, my luggage showed up. For us, it worked because it meant just one person was unpacking at a time and the other could stay out of the way. It was perfect.

Then it was time to pull away from the dock and head into the sunset. With a loud blast of the ship's horn we were on our way! We were headed out to sea and to our next island Maui!!

Next up - Maui Day 1