Day 5!

What an exhausting day! We woke up at the Heritage Marina Hotel and had a quick breakfast then did a load of laundry to make sure we were stocked up on clean clothes for the cruise. Then we hopped in a cab and were on our way to the Port of San Francisco. Traffic near the pier was horrible. Not only were roughly 2000 passengers trying to leave the pier from our boat's previous trip, but there were the 2000 new passengers for this trip, pluuuuus, the Queen Mary II is in port right now and they're loading today to continue on their 'round the world tour. They were loading roughly 2000 passengers from San Francisco as well! That made things, especially traffic, just a tad hectic. Once we were off the cab and had entrusted our checked baggage to a porter, everything went nice and smooth. We arrived just as they were starting to check in customers so we beat the crowd which makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. After about 45 minutes of check-in, security screening, and sitting in a waiting area, we boarded the Princess Dawn from Pier 35. After putting our carry-on's in our stateroom, we headed to the top decks to check out the sights. We took a few pictures of our ship as well as Alcatraz Island and even a few nice pics of the Queen Mary II in its dock just a half mile away. Shortly after all this, it was time to EAT again! We went to the buffet which was already open for the day. I can't even remember what we ate, but it was great and there was lots of it. That should sum it up pretty well. Then we headed back down to our stateroom to find that our checked baggage had already been delivered to our room so we unpacked our bags and hung up clothes, put items in drawers, etc. After this, we had a snack of a few cheeseburgers, not so much because we were already hungry, but because our dinner time was still 5 hours away. Now it was nap time! We slept for about one hour before I went to the gym to workout while Acacia did some reading. Eventually, we end up at dinner time. Awesome. More food. We had a great cocktail called a Tropitini (Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, Creme de Bananna, and a Coconut Rum) at one of the bars just outside the dining room before heading in. The couple which we'll be eating dinner with every night was very nice. Their names are Jim and Joan and they're from a small city between San Francisco and Sacramento. Given their proximity to San Francisco, they assured us that they take advantage and go on cruises quite often. They share our desire to and excitement about travel so that's what we talked about almost the entire evening. They took a trip to China about a year ago which sounded great. That trip will be on the list for us sometime in the near future. Dinner included all sorts of goodies including Prime Rib, cheesecake, and fancy desserts whose names I don't remember. Follow this with a "welcome aboard" show and a stand-up comedy show and you've got a full day! Goooooooood night!

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