Photos from our embarkation in the commercial pier

[sail7seas]

Ugh, that line looks dreadful, and talk about starting off a cruise on the wrong foot. I was going to ask if Volendam got stuck with the boon-dock because she's smaller than some of the other Lauderdale-based ships, thinking that a port official might have been trying to inconvenience the smallest number of people possible (still 1400 people, but less than the 3100 on Caribbean Princess). That explanation would only hold if all the good berths were taken, though--if a better spot was avaliable and not being used, that's pretty bad. Hopefully the berth-availability problem won't get worse after Carnival Liberty jumps into the fray this winter.

 

 

This post makes me speculate that maybe HAL was being "punished" by the Port Everglades Port Authority for some reason. IF it is true that there was a more suitable berth that remained unused while Volendam pax suffered that horrible situation.......the question remains, why wasn't Volendam directed to use that berth?