Embarkation day. It's one of the 2, 3 or 4 most stressful days of a cruise vacation, the others being Disembarkation day, and the days one flies to a cruise port or returns home from a cruise port. Today, RQS boarded the Ruby Princess for our cruise through Alaska's Inside Passage. And, as expected, we encountered a long line to drop our bags off with the porters and another long line to make it onto the ship.
Nob Hill is a ritzy neighborhood in San Francisco/ When one stays at a hotel on Nob Hill, one has limited choices for breakfast, as there are no easily affordable places where one can find a bite to eat, or find snacks to munch on. To sate one's hunger, one could choose the hotel's restaurant and pay through the nose for a nice breakfast. Or, one could take the cable car to a district where affordable dining is possible. Or, one could use a service such as GrubHub or DoorDash to have breakfast delivered to the hotel. We chose the latter and saved ourselves some effort and maybe a few dollars in the process. Mickey D's is usually predictable, but today it was terrible - we both got spicy (read: HOT) breakfast sandwiches by accident. At least, this would calm any hunger pangs we might have until we were on the ship.
Around 11 am, the bellman picked up our bags, and we went to the lobby to wait for our cab to come. After loading our bags into the back of the taxi, we were off to the cruise terminal. It took us a while to drop our bags off with the porters, and then to snake through the line to get on the ship. Yet, we were in our cabin by 12:45 pm, and in the restaurant for lunch by 1 pm. Although there were two disjointed lines for luggage drop and for boarding the ship,it felt much easier to board the ship here than in some ports I've cruised from. Hopefully, this will be a sign that we'll have a pleasant cruise.
After a little bit of unpacking and resting, we went on the balcony to watch the view as we crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge. And then, it was off to the lounge to have a drink or two. Given that I didn't want to hang out in the lounge and keep drinking, I suggested that we look at the buffet and see how appetizing it looks. So, we went to the Lido Deck, and sat down and had some tea.
While killing time before dinner, I noticed some islands to the side of our ship. We weren't sure of what islands these were until I remembered that the Farallon Islands were somewhere off the California coast, West of San Francisco. Looking at the islands in the distance and photos taken by others, I figured that the Farallon Islands were what we were seeing in the hazy distance. Although I can say that I've seen these islands, I can guarantee that I'll never visit them.
Around 7 pm, we went to one of the main dining rooms for dinner where were served by a talented and experienced waiter named Marco. It was a pleasure to have him serve us, as he kept us entertained from appetizers to dessert. Dinner ended, and it was time to go back to the room to rest. It was a long day, and we wanted to be fresh for the morning's activities.
