2014-4-11  Embarkation day:

 Our daughter dropped us off at Port Everglades in Ft. Lauderdale about noon.  Check in went fairly quickly.  Then we waited for our number to be called and were able to go straight to our room.  We didn't leave port until about 5pm---which we celebrated with some Moscoto our daughter gave us to bring onboard.  Nice that HAL allows you to bring 2 bottles of wine on board per cabin.

Even got a sail-away wave from people in a nearby building.

See ya in 10 days Fort Lauderdale!

 Up on the Lido deck, they were set up for a Caribbean Festival---live music and snacks.

Ice sculpture

 Decor by the dessert table

More decor.

 Our Pinnacle dinner happened to be assigned for that night, which was fine with us, so we started off dining in style.

 Dinner was excellent: caesar salad, fillet mignon, mashed potatoes---

 and 3 flavors of creme brulee.  That was the first of many great desserts we had on board.  In the past, we found cruise desserts to be sub par, but they were actually quite good on the Maasdam.

 After dinner, we made it to the Showroom at Sea for the welcome aboard show.

 Back at our room, our first towel animal welcomed us.