Hamburg - Day 3 / Cruise Day 1

Hamburg

Our last day in Hamburg began with a mission. With our friends arrived from getting stuck in London for two days without their luggage, they have to go on a shopping spree in order to survive the next ten days on the cruise. Unlike in the city where you can replace items as they become necessary, there will be nowhere to get many of the basic necessities. One can argue that you can get anything on the cruise ship, you would have to pay heavily for them.

We asked for help at the hotel to give us some ideas about where to get stuff. Thankfully they sent us to the shopping mall next to Rathaus. Thankful because that is a place that we have gone to using public transportation. Thankful because that is an area that I have checked out on the internet before the trip and so I can go with some confidence that that we should be able to get what we need. Also thankful that it is a tourist attraction so our friends can at least visit one important point of interest while in Hamburg before going aboard the cruise ship. 

Before we reached Rathaus, we stopped by Rindermarkthalle, the market with a few supermarkets. One of them is like a drugstore at home that sells necessity like toothpastes and shaving needs, etc. There we got most of the simple items and left clothings to the downtown mall. 

We went downtown via the U-Bahn (subway is always an experience in any city), spent a couple of hours for enough clothes. With a little of time before we have to get to the ship, we did our touristy thing by visiting the Rathaus, going inside the building which we did not get to do the day before. 

We also took a side trip on our way back to visit Landungsbrucken (the piers), had a look at the harbour and even took a short hop on the ferry as our impromptu brief boat tour. All these were made so easy by Hamburg's group transit ticket that costs 11. 8 Euro for unlimited travel on public transportation for up to 5 persons. Back to the hotel, it is a short taxi ride to the cruise terminal. 

Cruise

A few surprises​ await us on the cruise ship. The check-in process went through smoothly until when we have our pictures taken. I noticed that they scan my ticket when they took Gigi's picture and told them so. They hesitated and then said that it didn't matter. As it turns out, it did matter. With the primary function of the pictures being the identification of the person when they scan the cruise card coming on and off the ship, my face shows up when they scan Gigi's card and vice versa. Good thing we found out during the immigration process for Scotland, otherwise we would have trouble leaving the ship when we reach port.

The other surprise is the level of service on board. There are so many things that we didn't like it would take too long to write. The most annoying one is the fact that no beverage is provided during dinner unless you buy a beverage package. Not even tap water. And no coffee or tea after dinner. More on that saga later...