Cruise Boat Orientation

Cruise Day 1, Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Written July 5, 2018

We made it to the big, big boat (I mean “ship”) in Copenhagen yesterday.  I mean Big-Big-Big boat! Oops! I mean “ship." First we flew from Manchester to London's Heathrow, changed planes, and then flew on to Copenhagen.  There we met our cruise guide.  I thought I had purchased a private transfer from airport to boat, but there was nothing private about it. All passengers for the cruise were herded together like cattle and with suitcases rolling behind us we were led some distance to a "holding pen" where suitcases were taken and we were tagged with a sticker to indicate which bus we were to board.  After a half hour of waiting, sixty-nine of us were once again herded together (according to our sticker number) and led some distance away to a bus.  The bus took us through the city of Copenhagen to the ship, about an hour’s journey.  At the port we stepped out of the bus and went through security and then stood in line for nearly an hour with hundreds of other passengers, waiting our turn to get our onboard ID and other documents checked out.

Then we boarded our floating hotel with nearly 4,000 other guests and 1,700 employees (crew members).  Our stateroom was on the 9th deck (midway--there are 18 decks). The staterooms were very nicely furnished and decorated.  Our suitcases were delivered within an hour to our stateroom.  The orientation program, however, was not quite over.  At 4 PM we were herded again into various stations for a mandatory Life Boat Drill.  This was followed by a "Sail Away" celebration up on the 15th deck as we set sail at 5 PM for Warnemunde, Germany.

Our first day of a nine-day cruise began at 3:30 a.m. in Manchester, England.  We arrived in Copenhagen at 12:55 p.m. By the time we were onboard and "tucked in,” so to speak, we were reaching the point of starvation.  Rather than checking-out the ship and its amenities we simply went to the 24/7 restaurant and enjoyed a prime rib dinner as we sailed away on our Baltic Sea voyage. The first day of our nine-day cruise (we were onboard for about 4 hours) came to a close when we were unable to stay awake any longer and went to bed exhausted. 

The Norwegian Breakaway is 146,600 GT in  size, and
has the capacity for 3,963 passengers, double occupancy.
The ship has a total of 1,024 staterooms and 238 suites.
She is a Big, Big, Big, Boat! (I mean "ship").