The Sail-Away Gang's Westerdam Cruise

San Diego, California

April 27

The announcements for non-US citizens to be processed by Immigration started at 6:33 and woke me up. I opened my door to hear (and my neighbors across the hall did the same - all of us in our nightclothes). Got back in bed but a new announcement happened about every 15 minutes. I gave up trying to go back to sleep around 8:20 and got dressed. I headed up to the Lido hoping to get a muffin or Danish and some juice. Couldn't find anything I wanted to eat (although I tried a bacon and egg biscuit but it wasn't very good) but had some very good orange juice.

My tour met outside the terminal at 9:45. The lines to leave the ship went on for over half the ship and I was worried about making the tour on time. I was almost to the point of getting off the ship when I realized I had not brought my "in transit" card so I had to go back to my cabin to get it.

When I returned the line was much smaller. Once I got into the terminal I only had to show my passport and key card as the line made its way through the terminal. Turned out I was the first person who showed up for the tour.

I had chosen the "San Diego SEAL" tour. We were in a vehicle like a DUKW that goes from land to sea. We went out into the harbor and saw a number of California sea lions (I will leave it up to you to look up the differences between a seal and a sea lion - I can't tell the difference).

Back to the ship about noon and up to the Lido for lunch. Read for awhile and then up to the Crow's Nest and purchased my internet package for the last few days. I did not buy the most expensive package (it was supposed to be up to three times faster so I will see if there is much difference).

Just before 3:00 I returned to my cabin in preparation for the muster drill which took about a half an hour (one young couple showed up in pajamas and bathrobes - newlyweds, perhaps?). Then I headed for the Seaview Pool (deck 9 aft) for sail-away. Lots of people out on deck and partying. Lots of new people and many younger ones - even a couple of babies.

Met up with June and Penny and discussed our day's activities. They had done the San Diego Zoo excursion which was late returning to the ship because one man never returned to the bus. They returned to the ship without him but they thought he must have taken a taxi back because nobody was missing at "all aboard" time.

After getting ready for dinner, I met them for trivia and Connie joined us. We had 14 correct and the winners had 15.
Q. How many hours can an ant survive underwater?
Q. Which country has 297 miles of straight railway?
Q. What is the longest river in Europe?

Off to dinner where once again there was just the five of us. I had chicken and a delicious Strawberries Pavlova for dessert.

Stopped in the photo gallery and looked at some of Patty and Marj's pictures (they bought an unlimited photo package). I purchased a photo of our Master Chef's Dinner.

Only show tonight was the BB King Blues Band (I'd seen them before) so I went back to my cabin to make it an early night.

Two sea days coming up.

Trivia - 48 (who knew?), Australia, Volga

Smooth sailing until next time!