Setting Sail on the Statendam

The good beginnings continued today.  After a wonderful complimentary breakfast at the hotel, the same shuttle driver took me to the Cruise terminal to go through the check-in/boarding procedures.  Since we arrived around 11:15 that process went quickly and within 45 minutes  I was on board and in my stateroom.

After getting settled in, I took off to explore the ship and have lunch (of course).  Others were doing the same thing…trying to figure out what was …where…which is starboard and port in order to find the “front” of the ship and the “back” so we could find the various bars, shops, offices, theaters,  and, most importantly to me, the library/ computer center known on Holland American ships as the Explorations Café. As on all HAL ships, the Explorations Café is most impressive.  This one is beautiful and stretches across three spacious “rooms”.

 

As you can see, there are comfortable chairs, nice computer tables, and lots of books.  I think this collection has about 4,000 titles. There are tables set-up for jig saw puzzles.
 

 

I had a nice chat with Ian, the librarian, who showed me around and answered my questions.  He is a Ph.D. candidate from Toronto, and he was excited that I photographed him and was going to mention him here.

 

He introduced me to Stefan who is the computer go-to person.  

 

Of course I didn’t tell Ian that I was really more interested in the tech offerings so I can get online to get my blog going.

I continued my exploration of the ship before getting ready for the mandatory emergency drill.

As we finally set sail, it was dark even though it was only 5 p.m.  Here’s my departing  view of San Diego with the Star of India ship’s illuminated mast.  (This is the same ship seen from my hotel room that I  showed you in the previous post.)