Day 16 - Board cruise in Civitavecchia

Finally it’s cruise day! We got up, got packed and then waited for noon when we were allowed to inprocess the ship. Our ship was Holland America’s Noordam. Getting on the boat was pretty easy and once on board we checked out our room first and then wandered around to see what all the ship had to offer. Originally we had a regular/small stateroom booked on the first level of the ship with just a small porthole window. About three weeks before the cruise Shelby got an email saying they were offering reduced rates to upgrade rooms and we ended up getting a verandah room that was much bigger and had a balcony for a lot less than it was originally supposed to be. It was much nicer to be up near the top of the boat and I think we’re spoiled now for all future cruises!
Here is when you enter our room, bathroom is immediate left and closets to the right.

Better shot of our room.


Shelby took Colin to the pool to swim off some energy while I unpacked our room and got our “home for the next ten days” set up. Later on it was dinner time. We opted for the buffet type thing since it’s just easier with Colin, and I was shocked at how good the buffet food was. It really was more like I had ordered from a nice restaurant than picked up seafood off a buffet line. I could get used to this! After dinner we tried to take Colin to the kids club on board and had to ask about when they would accept him because the age for care is 3-7 years old. Technically Colin is still 2 until he turns three in four days, so we didn’t know if they would allow him to start tonight since he turns three during the cruise, or if he would have to wait until his actual birthday. After some checking around it was decided that he had to officially be three before he could be left in the care of the club, so we’d have to wait a few more days. He was SO excited to see kids his age and play with other kids we couldn’t make him leave right after getting there, so we asked if it was ok if we stayed there and kept an eye while he played for a little bit. The staff was ok with that so he got to have a little bit of interaction with the kids and make a couple new friends. When we got back to our room our steward had turned down our bed, left us a nice towel sculpture of a penguin and some chocolates. Colin was excited to see chocolate when he realized what it was.