Embarkation

 

My mom and I walked into the Brooklyn cruise terminal out of the sweltering heat of New York.  Surprisingly to me it looked very similar to an airport terminal.  Immediately inside the doors was a glassed off area to separate the security checked from non security checked.   The first security check was a quick glance at our passports and we were through.  The next check was the conveyor were all your belongings were x-rayed as you walked through the metal detector.  We flew through both with no problems and no line up at all. 

We were handed a laminated card with “62” printed in large print and shown to a chair.  There were about 20 other people sitting down in the row with us and as we sat another 40ish came and sat down as well.  In front of us was approx 30 windows each with a computer and camera which we assumed were for check in.

All of this took no more than 15 minutes.  It was now 10:15.  My mom and I weren’t completely sure what we were waiting for.  If we had to wait until our official embarkation time of 1200 or just until there were windows open.  We still had no idea what the number 62 was for. 

We chatted with one of the staff members who was directing people to chairs.  She told us that there were still people disembarking the ship and that’s what we were waiting for.

Another 15-20 minutes passed and staff members were buzzing around the computers.  Very quickly after that they started calling people to the windows.

Once a few of the windows started to open they all were opening and people were being checked in very quickly.  My mom and I were called to a window were she looked at our tickets that we had to print at home (no fancy tickets for us!), took a picture of each of us and registered a credit card to our account for on ship spending.  She then printed a card similar to a credit card/hotel key with our name on it for each of us.  My mom went to hand the girl our “62” but she said no and told us that was our boarding order. 

Hmmm…62 is that a good thing or a bad thing we wondered.  If we are number 62 of the 3,000 ish that are on the ship, then it’s really good!  But what if it means group 62 and all those people we got checked in with were all 62? That means there were a lot of people who were set to board before us.

After checking in at the window we were directed around a corner, to the waiting room.  This is how early we were, almost no one else waiting.

 

 

 

 

All of the chairs were pointed towards these doors.  The doors that would take us to the ship. 

 

 

There was a small group of very well dressed people sitting to the left of the doors.  We found out that they were attending a function aboard the ship that was only on today, they would be disembarking before we left.

 

While waiting we were people watching to pass the time.  I saw this gentleman approach.  Dressed in white from head to toe.  He disappeared through the doors to the elite Princess Grill lounge.  The Princess Grill is the highest class on the ship reserved for those paying the big bucks on the suites.

 

We waited…and waited…Finally at 12 a staff member yelled over the crowd and told us they were delayed and boarding would start at 12:30. 

Pretty close to 12:30 a staff member appeared in front of that roped off area with signs.  They unlocked the doors and the lady called for number 60 to board.  Woohoo!  That meant that it shouldn’t be too too long for us.  She called 60 again, no one responded.  So she moved to 61, about ten people moved towards the door.  This really wasn’t going to be a long wait at all. 

Perched on the edge of our seats we waited for her to call 62.  Once called we walked to her with 10 others, handed her our number and walked through the door.