Boarding & About Your Cabin

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Boarding

Although every port and company has different boarding methods, all want to load you onboard as painlessly as possible so that your experience is as pleasant as possible. The Cruise Critic web site is probably the best place to keep track of current systems used by the various companies.

We boarded at San Diego at one in the afternoon and it was quite pleasant. We took our hotel shuttle to the terminal and our baggage was loaded from the shuttle onto baggage carts. We simply walked into the terminal with our hand luggage. After less than half an hour, we were on board. Although our bags took an additional two hours to reach our room, we had lunch and went to our cabin.

About Your Cabin

Of course cabins on ervery ship will be different. A good site to check before you book is Deck Plan Genius. It shows rooms with potential poblems. One issue we had was that our cabion only had one electrical plug. If you have computers and electronic devices, be sure to bring an extension. We found the Holland American Veranda room on the Zaadam to be very comfortable with ample space for cloths and storage. We were near the laundry room which was very handy.

However, customers on Decks 2, 4, and 4 might have more of a chance for noise issues since they are closer to the inner workings of the ship.