Embarkation was really easy on Saturday, January 3, 2009. We had a wonderful breakfast with our son and his family in Pacific Beach and then he dropped us off at the ship. We arrived there at 11:15 and they started boarding about 11:30 am. We were group 14 so we actually got on board about 11:45. We went immediately to the Spa on the Lido deck to sign up for the Thermal Suite for the week. The Thermal Suite is a wonderful value at $250.00 for the two of us for the week. We utilized it almost every day of the cruise. Saturday and Sunday were very chilly and the hot relaxation beds and the steam rooms extra nice. We had lunch in the Lido dining and were in our room by 2:00 o'clock. Kathy and I participated in the Cruise Critic Wave at 3:00 pm and met some really nice folks.
We were really pleased with our suite on deck 6. It had more storage space than we could utilize and lots of space in general. The jetted bath tub in addition to the shower was great. Having two sinks seems like a little thing but when you are used to two sinks at home, it really makes a difference. The balcony was larger that other rooms that we had experienced and we spent a lot of time out on it reading our books.
We were unable to get assigned seating in the dining room so we ended up going when we felt like it and we were usually seated with one other couple. We met some great people and we did not have to worry about rushing to be at our table on time. We loved the two for one cocktails in the Ocean Bar and the great service from Carlos. All of our meals were great. We really enjoyed the Lido dining room with it's different food stations versus the standard buffet style selections. The mediocre food on our previous HAL trip was the biggest reason that we had been reluctant to sail with them again but we were never disappointed with the food on the Oosterdam.