{Canadian Cruise Vacation} Day One

The day finally came and this morning around 11:30am, we headed to the Port of San Diego to board Holland America Cruise Line's Westerdam headed to Vancouver, British Columbia. The Westerdam just came out of a dry dock overhaul a few weeks ago, so everything was new, clean and refreshed.

Waiting in line at security inside the cruise ship terminal.

Filling out our health questionnaires. There had been an outbreak of the NoroVirus on the sailing prior to us, so we had to fill out forms. Lucky for us, this meant that the cruise ship had been cleaned better than normal before we boarded.

Lauren with her own Mariner's Card.

Walking around the cruise ship terminal waiting for our turn to board the vessel.

She found the brochure stand...

...and plucked two Mickey Mouse brochures right from it.


The crane loading the luggage in to the belly of the ship.

After about an hour or so, it was our turn to board the ship. I was so thankful that we were on the North Broadway Pier. The South Pier does not have an enclosed catwalk. I hate/fear the water in between a boat and the pier. I am just terrified of falling in, so this made it much easier.




Our room was ready when we boarded so we went straight there, after a quick stop at the front desk because our Mariner Cards were not functioning.


Out on the balcony of our stateroom checking out the views.


Next, we headed to lunch at the Lido where Lauren ate french fries because they were too busy serving people to go over ingredients with us. (ugh!)


Eventually things calmed down and they were able to make Lauren some rotisserie chicken that was safe for her to eat.

We watched a large Hornblower Dinner Cruise leave the pier while we were having lunch.


Then Lauren wanted down to check out all the cool sights.



Before our 4pm sail away, we had to attend a mandatory safety/muster drill. Thankfully, they told us we could leave our life vests in our rooms and we did not have to wear them. It took about 30 minutes to get everyone gathered up and accounted for, and then it was time to sail.






Before we could pull away from the pier, we had to wait for the Celebrity Infinity to back out of its pier and head out in to open waters.

Justin took Lauren back to our stateroom for a nap and I wandered around the ship taking pictures of our sail away.



Goodbye San Diego!

You can see Point Loma Lighthouse up there, almost center of the picture below.

Getting ready to hit open waters, 'rouding Point Loma.

Lauren was too excited to sleep, so she and Justin went out on the balcony to watch.

Lauren looking through the little crack in the glass. It was right around this point were I got very sea sick. Calm waters are not my friend, the boat rocks just enough to throw off my equilibrium. I ran inside and took some medicine...but it did not help too much.

Soon it was time to head to the Main Dining Room for dinner. It was very fancy and the service was slow, but the food was good. The ship was rocking slightly and I was still very nauseous. Not a fun way to start our cruise...and not a good sign for the next 3 days.






My main dish was a Veal Cordon Bleu with vegetables and Justin had a Roasted Turkey with cornbread herb stuffing.


When we arrived back to our stateroom after dinner, our room steward had come in and made up the beds and left this adorable sea lion towel animal for us. He posed Clifford with him. Lauren thought it was so cool and she was squealing with delight.