The Oosterdam, Our Stateroom, On Deck and In Public Areas
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This will be the first time that Fred and I have cruised on Holland America. Our previous cruises were on Royal Caribbean and Celebrity. And my one cruise before that, in 1991, was on the Costa line. Greg seems to have been pleased with Holland America in the past, so we are looking forward to a new experience.

As do all the cruise ships, the Oosterdam was sailing from Port Everglades. The logistics of getting all of us there were a little complicated. Greg and Paul took a shuttle from their hotel, while Fred and I went to pick up Bud and Chet from their guesthouse and take them over to the port. Then we returned to the condo and got our own stuff.

I drove back over to the port and dropped Fred off along with all our luggage and he waited for me while I drove a short distance off the port to the car rental place and returned the car. Then I called a cab and it took me back to the port where Fred was waiting for me.

We went through the check-in process and got our ship cards and then headed over to the escalator up to the gangway level. Just before going up, Fred took a picture of me looking out at the bow of the ship. The picture didn't turn out too well because Fred was using the wrong light setting, but you can take a look at the picture anyway here.

We got on board about three o'clock, and the ship wasn't scheduled to sail until about six. (As it turned out, it didn't get underway until almost 6:45.) Almost immediately after we'd gotten settled into our stateroom (more on it later), there was the mandatory life boat drill on the Promenade Deck, four decks below us. Once we got back from that, we headed up to the Lido Restaurant- the ship's buffet breakfast and lunch place- for something to eat. We also hooked up with Greg, Paul, Bud and Chet (henceforth to be known collectively as "we," "our friends" or "all of us"- depending on the context). Then we had plenty of time to do a little exploring around the ship. We went up on deck and took a few pictures of Everglades Inlet, the area where the cruise ships dock, and we stayed on deck as the ship undocked and sailed (well, "steamed" is a better term, but "sailing" sounds so nautical) out the inlet. So our pictures spanned late afternoon into evening, as it was dark when we finally passed the condos that line the inlet and headed out to the open sea. This gave Fred a chance to experiment with his new camera, and he got what I thought was a particularly good shot of moonrise over the Atlantic.

If you will click on the thumbnails below, you'll be able to see some of the other pictures that we took before and as the MS Oosterdam sailed out of Everglades Inlet on Monday evening, November 2nd:

Use the links below to continue to another album page.

	The Oosterdam, Our Stateroom, On Deck and In Public Areas
	Return to the Index for Our Panama Canal Cruise