Up early – what a surprise – and very happily we can see the Westerdam from our hotel room window.  Always a relief to know your home for the next 2 weeks has arrived. 

So now we have hours to waste before our alleged 3:20pm boarding time.  We have saved the Cup of Noodles museum for just this occasion, knowing we’d have time to kill. It is supposed to be a fabulous homage to Cup of Noodles, so we figure when in Japan….Sadly it is a disappointment. While there are some great displays about the founder, Momofuku Ando who is called the Father of Instant Noodles, and how he created first Chicken Ramen in a little shed (which has been recreated) behind his house in 1958.  He created CupNoodles in 1971 after he visited the US and saw customers breaking up the Ramen noodles from the packaging, putting them in a cup, pouring hot water over them and eating them right out of the cup.  And while a really cool innovation story, there really isn’t much else to see really. As it turns out, it is about making your own cup of noodles, which cost extra. And was pretty booked up.  Oh well, it was cheap enough.

We tried to have lunch there at the Noodle Bazaar, but the restaurant wasn’t opening for another 20 minutes, so we just left, walking down the harbor in what is now a beautiful day, to the Zebra café for another cappuccino.  It was really good, so we figured we might as well since we still have time to burn. This time we splurged on an excellent pastry, and the girl at the register actually remembered us!  So sweet.

Then it was back to the hotel, checked out and in a taxi to the pier for the Westerdam. We figured we’d just drop our bags then walk into Chinatown for lunch, seeing as we’d not made it there yet because of the weather.  But once inside, we dropped the bags and they put us right in the priority line to board, and voila – we were in our cabin by 12:30! 

And what a cabin!  We sprung for a suite upgrade and it’s fab!  Huge living area and equally huge bathroom – oh and that balcony.  It is almost as big as the owner’s suite balcony on Azamara!  So exciting.

We grabbed lunch in the buffet, got our bags, unpacked, made our specialty dining reservations, hit the gym and then to dinner – where we actually got into the restaurant – will miracles ever cease!

There was no show “proper” last night, only that dumb National Geographic nature movie with the orchestra accompaniment. Ick.  We ended up going to see the band in the Rolling Stone Lounge, and they are good.  R&B last night, sort of. Think they just switched over from B.B. Kings, so it is a little bit of a mix.  But regardless, very good. 

Then it was hit the suite and relax for our first night aboard.