Background: My wife and I have each cruised a number of times before, but this was our first cruise together and our first on HAL. My son lives in San Diego, so we flew out a day early to spend some time with him. We spent Friday night in the Hotel Del Coronado on Coronado Island and took the hotel's shuttle to the cruise ship terminal. We had checked a number of hotels in San Diego and found that most have shuttles to the pier. San Diego is very easy to get around in at times other than rush hour, so it was an easy trip to the pier on Saturday morning.
Embarkation: Embarkation was smooth. Baggage handlers met us as the shuttle arrived on the pier and promptly took our bags off our hands. All bags arrived in our stateroom. The check in procedure was smooth, and we were quickly aboard the ship.
Stateroom: We were extremely pleased with the stateroom. I'm 6'4", and we need a king bed, and we were surprised, but pleased, to find that the advertised "two single beds which make into a queen" actually made close to a king sized bed. The bed was comfortable too. The head was much larger than any other head I've seen on a cruise ship with a double vanity and a shower and a jacuzzi. The room itself was comfortable, but possibly could have been made more comfortable if one or two of the chairs had been removed. The veranda was nice with comfortable patio furniture. The climate control in the room was easy to operate and maintained a pleasant temperature in the room.