Inca Empire Cruise - Day 1 Embarkation

Today we board the ship and will be on our way.  Our shuttle to the cruise terminal didn’t leave until 10:45 so we slept in, which felt good after our 5:00 AM wakeup call yesterday morning.  After a continental breakfast at the hotel we killed some time in our room and then it was finally time to leave.

Embarkation was quick and painless and we were on the ship and in our room by noon, and since our luggage wouldn’t arrive for a while we decided to have lunch in the Lido Buffet.

After lunch we explored the ship a bit, but we were on this same ship in Alaska earlier this year so we were already familiar with it.  We attended a port orientation by the travel guide Kainoa, and went to the mandatory life boat drill.  By that time our luggage arrived so we were able to get everything settled into our new home for the next 30 days.

We were supposed to leave at 4:00, but it ended up being closer to 5:00.  Val and I went out to the Seaview Pool area for the sail-away party and to take photos as we were leaving the dock, but there wasn’t much going on.  We stayed out there until we left the San Diego harbor and then returned to the room.  San Diego was very warm so getting out on the ocean and feeling the sea breeze was a relief after all the heat.

Val on our balcony as we pull away from the pier.

 

A beautiful day in San Diego.

 

The sea lions found a place to rest on the buoy.

As we have on previous cruises, we decided to schedule ourselves for the late dinner seating (8:00) for the duration of the cruise. This allows us to get back later when we go ashore and have time to shower and dress for dinner.  This evening we had time to head up to the Crow’s Nest, which has windows all around the front of the ship, where we had drinks, read a little and watched the sunset.  After a good dinner, we ended the night in the casino, as is our custom.  We don’t really like the casino very much on the Statendam so we didn’t stay very long.

It’s the end of the first day of our cruise and we are both very excited to finally be on our way. We are looking forward to a great cruise with many interesting and exotic ports.

Sunset behind the Coranado Islands.