We were up early – earlier than we planned – but as a bonus got to watch our home for the next month sail into port.  From our 13^th floor perch we could even zero in on our exact room at the aft end of deck 7.  Lovely!

One cup of coffee later and we headed to the gym through the virtually empty Sunday morning streets of Yokohama.  Then back to the hotel to shower, re-pack and generally just hang around until a little before 11am, check-out time.

Besides being a fabulous hotel, the location can’t be beat.  Close to everything we needed or wanted and only a 15 minute walk to the pier – which we accomplish quite easily in the gorgeous, cool Sunday morning air.  Bags dropped, we barely sit down before we are called to check in and board the Westerdam.  Seriously the best, fastest, easiest embarkation ever:  literally 9 minutes from the time we sat down in the waiting area to being seated in our favorite place on Deck 9 aft in the Lido, eating our salad lunch.  Crazy fast and great.

Then, added bonus!  The rooms were ready at 11:30.  No way.  Smooth as silk – and voila! Just like that we are getting organized in our great little balcony cabin on Deck 7, now taking pictures of the Hotel New Grand and our room on the 13^th floor there. 

Luggage arrives, unpacked and settled, we hit the gym early to avoid the raffle hoo-ha, shower and go see Ian, the travel advisor, with his presentation on Omaezaki, Kobe and Kochi.  Not that we really need all that much info as we know what we are doing in each port, but it is still nice and fun to go see his presentations.  Plus he has a whole bunch of new added info presentations we are looking forward to seeing.

Then it’s Oceans Bar for a bit, dinner in the dining room where we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table.  Excellent first meal of Pork Tonkatsu and Seabream.  Then back to Oceans Bar for Mark, the “regional” soloist, who is quite good –  and on to the Welcome Aboard show where there are actually singers and dancers.  Yes!  Production shows are back.  Probably smaller, more ala Azamara style, but we couldn’t be happier.

Last stop of the evening is The Rolling Stone lounge where the band is quite good and the place is packed with dancers – not necessarily sober dancers, but dancers nonetheless. 

An overall enjoyable first day aboard.