Keelung Embarkation Day

Family Reunion Cruise -- 8-Day Roundtrip Keelung, Taiwan on Diamond Princess

Day 1-Keelung Embarkation, November 18, 2018

This is the day we need to board the Diamond Princess. Keelung is the major sea port in Northern Taiwan and it will take us about four hours to get there. Considering there are young (under two years old) and old (90 years old) in our group, it would be much easier to charter a bus to take us from southern Taiwan to Keelung instead of taking the trains. We would make a couple of stops on the way to pick up family members who live in Huwei and Taichung, for a little extra. I always like to get to the port as early as possible so we had the bus driver meeting us at 5:30 in the morning. 

I actually woke up at 2:30 and couldn't go back to sleep. Finished packing and ready to leave the house at 4:00 and walked over to the 7-11 where the bus was going to meet us. After a hot fresh cup of coffee from 7-11, the bus showed up around 5:15 and we were ready to hit the road on time. 

Waiting for our chartered bus at the street corner.

A huge and comfortable coach for the sixteen of us.

Front row seats on this double decker.

Leaving the village early in the morning.

Arriving Huwei to pick up SIL and niece. Very quiet even on the main street at 6:30 in the morning.

SIL bought us breakfast from the local diner to carry us over until lunch on the ship.

Passing by the Grand Hotel in Taipei as we continued our drive to Keelung.

Taipei 101 standing tall but covered by clouds and haze.

Diamond Princess straight ahead as our bus getting off the highway at Keelung.

Arriving Keelung Cruise terminal East at 10:00.

After we dropped off our large luggage at the front of the terminal, we got in line for the check-in. We were early enough to be in the first group of passengers eager to board the ship.

Pretty soon the line got longer and longer with no signs of any activity that would take us upstairs.

Then they moved the line outside, around the building to where the exit is. We waited some more.

It must have been an hour standing in that line before they finally moved us inside the building and lead us to the 2nd floor for check-in.

While getting back inside, before heading up the escalator, I spotted the currency exchange machines at the corner but found out later on our next cruise that it did not work for any of our friends from Britain or Canada. There is a currency exchange station near the entrance which is handled by real person though.

They did have the Priority Guest line set up so it was all good for us since we are Platinum members.

The Priority Line moved rather quickly and soon we were done. I must say that the embarkation procedure was quite orderly handled despite the long wait in line earlier.

Not sure why these people were sitting there waiting instead of being in line. Maybe they were waiting for the tour leaders to help them checking in. There seemed to be many tour groups on this sailing from Taiwan. Once we checked-in we were able to go through security and immigration for boarding.

Our cabins were all ready when we boarded the ship so we dropped off our carry-on before heading up to the Horizon Court for some lunch. It was quite chaotic there because they closed off certain parts of that restaurant for some reason and there were not enough tables for all the passengers as they soon boarded. They also had a new procedure of having everyone wash their hands before entering the buffet, making the lines even longer. We settled at different tables and had a quick lunch. 

We should have gone to the main dining room for a quieter embarkation lunch!

Salad

Seafood soup

Back to our cabin after lunch. This time we had the obstruct ocean-view cabins on deck 8. I was expecting the worst but all our cabins turned out to be quite decent. 

The size of this desk was quite impressive.

Regular bathroom

Teeny tiny shower

Good closet space

Our obstructed ocean-view cabin. Actually not too bad, we could still see out through the top of the tender.

Muster drill was scheduled for 4:15 and our station was at the casino on deck 6. Then after the muster drill we went up on deck to see the sail away.

Some random shots of Keelung and the ship.

Inner harbor. The Keelung train station is on the left of this picture, walking distance away.

Keelung Train Station, the building with the wavy top.

This would be how far the walk would be from the cruise terminal to the train station.

The green building is the EVA Laurel Hotel.

A temple up on the hill not too far away.

The sign of Keelung, very much reminded me of the Hollywood sign.

I was curious about the cross on this building.

Father and sons

It was getting dark and the ship was delayed leaving port for about 20 minutes due to heavy traffic in port.

We were in the dining room for our set time dining at 5:30 when the ship finally left port.

Two tables for the 16 of us at a cozy corner at Pacific Moon.

There was the Japanese dinner set on the menu everyday.

Oh, forgot to take pictures of the menu.

This was an excellent chilled soup.

Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Seafood Stew

Dessert menu

Sugar-free fresh fruit tart

Our favorite--creme brulee

Electric kettle in the room, very handy.

This was the second one we received.

We did not go to the show after dinner and called it a day. It was a long day and we just needed to catch up on some sleep. We will have two sea days before reaching Yokohama.