Cruise Control

Hello everybody,

Today we boarded our cruise ship, The Crystal Symphony, in Auckland harbor. Crystal allows you to check in any time between 12 and 5 pm on the day of embarkation. Our initial plan was to do a "walkabout" (as the New Zealanders say) during the morning and early afternoon, but as we set off from the hotel, we happened to walk by the ship and saw the throngs of people already boarding, so we decided to join them and board early. Here is a picture of our ship as it sat in the Auckland harbor.

Backing up for just a moment, let us tell you about our morning. Anyone who knows us knows that it is our sacred mission to find a Starbucks in every possible city we visit. Auckland was no exception!  We were ecstatic when we googled and found that there was one within a 3 minute walk of our hotel, especially since breakfast at the hotel was going to be ridiculously expensive.

This morning, it happened to be pouring rain, which brings up an interesting thing - it must rain a lot here (59 inches a year they say, so not that bad really), because most of the downtown buildings provide these nice covers over the sidewalk to protect pedestrians from the rain. Example picture attached. 

So, we went back to the hotel, collected our bags and boarded the ship through the embarkment terminal. The lines were extremely long as we boarded, But fortunately it all went fairly quickly. The only bottleneck was the screening security, just like at the airport, except that here they were very courteous and laid back, and things went quite smoothly. 

When we finally got on board, we found ourselves in a beautiful, large reception area. 

The staff quickly took our picture to provide us with the picture ID badge we would need every time we entered and exited the ship. They took possession of our passports and sent us on our way. 

Since our cabin wasn't yet ready, we decided to explore the ship. It is absolutely beautiful, and to make it even more pleasant, it is all decorated in our favorite colors - French blue and brown. Just like our home in Hood River, so we feel right at home!

If any of you have cruised before, you are familiar with the many decisions and details that must be handled when you embark. Setting up an Internet account, visiting the library so that you can rent books and movies, checking into classes at the fitness center, arranging your dining so that you're not stuck with a dinner seating time which leaves you starving, etc. So one of the first things we needed to do was to arrange our dining. We had been trying to do this online since April, but were repeatedly told that we would just have to do it onboard. The operative word was "Waitlisted."  The problem was that we were scheduled for the 8PM sitting for dinner, which is just too late for us to eat, and truth be told, not too far from our bedtime!  We wanted the six o'clock seating, but there simply were no seats available at that time. To change it, we had to schedule a meeting (along with a hundred or so of our fellow passengers) with the maitre 'd, a pompous and no-nonsense fellow who seemed to want his palm greased to effect any kind of change. Luckily, David had some success, and we were able to do that fairly quickly. 

We got into our room and found it very comfy and attractive. Pictures to follow tomorrow when it is looking presentable after unpacking!  We went up on deck to take a "King of the World" shot and a view of the Auckland harbor as we sailed out this evening. We also caught a gorgeous sunset. 

Good night everyone!  We'll see you tomorrow in Tauranga!

David and Karen