Tammy Trip Reports | Day 2 – Embarkation Day!

14 Oct

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Day 2 – Embarkation Day!

Embarkation day today! Official check-in time was 3:00, but you can drop your bags off early and explore the town, or relax in the lounge. We decided most of our day’s activities were around the hotel, so we left our bags there and went walking.

The town was super cute!

We walked down to the Rhine and we could see our ship wayyyy down there. As an avid ocean cruiser, I was so excited to get on a completely new type of ship! It was so little! But so long!

I took my traveling droid – SD-14 out of the backpack and explained to my parents that he would be making an appearance for pictures from time to time, but I would try not to embarrass anyone. I would try!

We crossed over and walked along the Rhine to the next bridge before heading back.

At some point I was reminded of the guy who was flying his drone and the batteries were going out above a river, so I told everyone about it and we stopped so I could find it on Youtube and show them.

Here it is!

I mean, that guy had impeccable timing. Or horrible timing because he flew it over a river at exactly the wrong time? But if he had hesitated at all he wouldn’t have made it! So funny!

We’re back! There’s our hotel!

We walked back and across the street to a grocery store to get some Cokes for the ship, as well as some snacks. We rested (read – napped) in the room for about two hours and headed for the ship a little after noon.

We took a train which was super convenient!

There she is! The AmaKristina!

Unlike ocean cruises, river cruise ships will stack at docks. Sometimes you have to walk across another ship to get to yours, or others will walk across yours to get to theirs! Super interesting!

We gave our bags to the porters and checked in. After we were done, we went to the lounge to sit for a little while.

There was food! This was a good sign of things to come!

Our rooms weren’t quite ready, so Stephen and I decided to get off and explore some more. But when we got back to the lobby, Matt and Debbie and parents were there! We all hugged and went right back to our chairs.

They ate, and before they even finished we started hearing announcements that our rooms were done!

Woohoo!

We made a plan to meet in an hour and get off, and we went to see our room. We were in a category BB, with a French balcony and standard balcony. I loved it!! It was super small! But still fully functional.

I had planned on videoing and taking a bazillion pictures – but – our side of the ship was stacked with another. So our room was pretty dark. I decided we could do pictures the next morning, and only took bathroom pictures:

I loved our robes!

And here is what our current view off the balcony was.

Is that crazy or what?

SD-14 came out for a look:

We unpacked, and then it was about time to meet up, so we found everyone and walked back into town.

We walked for a couple of hours and then headed back.

When we returned, we explored the ship a little bit! Here’s the top deck full of chairs to watch the gorgeous scenery.

The umbrellas and shaded areas were all down on our ship because we had some low bridges to go through the first evening and morning. Then they came up and stayed.

I took a couple of pictures on my phone that I don’t know if I ever got on my camera, so here they are.

The hallway:

The lobby:

Here’s our first Daily Cruiser!

Then we changed for a welcome reception followed by our first dinner onboard! The welcome reception was basically a safety drill and an intro to the crew, but it was interesting.

We ended up in a private room for dinner which was nice. I felt awkward about taking out my camera at dinner, so here’s a couple of phone pics. The menu is a little frou frou for basic eaters, but they have an Always Available section every night which has the basics.

Salad!

Palate cleanser.

Amusingly enough, they didn’t recommend the Always Available steak the first night because it would take too long the first night while they were getting ready. It’s basically Always Available BUT the first night. So I ordered of the main menu, but still got the fries!

Dessert:

We sailed out during dinner and were able to watch the ship going through the first lock from the dining room.

After dinner we went to the lounge for a little while to relax and listen to the pianist. The lounge has late night snacks in the evening for anyone that was still hungry! Sunset!