Pre-Retirement
Cruise
Oosterdam Coastal 2017
It was
supposed to be my retirement cruise. I was told my last day would more than
likely be April 21st. A cruise starting on April 25th
would give me plenty of time to pack and get down to San Diego and board the
ship. I even talked my brother and wife into going with me to help me
celebrate. To my horror, the company decided to keep me for another month. No retirement! I had already paid my final payment,
so there was no backing out. My brother had booked and we were going. It was
now my pre-retirement cruise. It was a little silly to take off work three
weeks before leaving the company, though.
Friday
The day
finally arrived. The arrangement was simple; take a taxi to the Airporter Shuttle,
take the shuttle to the Seattle airport, take the plane to San Diego, stay 4
days, take the ship up the coast to Vancouver, take Amtrak back and then a taxi
ride home. One has to get creative with these repositioning cruises.
It didn’t
start out so well. I thought the shuttle left at 2:15AM. I booked the taxi
accordingly. So we’re standing on the curb, with suitcases in hand, 1:30 in the
morning, waiting for the taxi. I get a call from the driver saying he isn’t
going to pick us up that early. I argue with him for a minute. Turns out he was
right. The shuttle left at 2:50. The place won’t be open until 2:35. So back
inside the house. A half an hour later, we’re back outside again and the taxi
picks us up.
The ride to
the airport was uneventful, mainly because it was three in the morning and I’m
fading in and out of consciousness. The driver would turn on the interior
lights at every stop, this would jar me awake, but it was momentary. Luckily
there were only two stops in the hour and
forty-five minute drive.
Did you know
there’s a difference between Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America? Standing in
the wrong line helps you figure that out quickly. Wisely the desk agents at
Virgin America, the right line, were still asleep and we had to wait for them
to show up.
When we get
up to the counter, I see our flight number, but it says San Francisco, not San
Diego. My heart sinks. Had I booked the wrong flights? I checked my tickets,
Seattle to San Diego, nonstop. The board still says San Francisco. How can it
be a nonstop flight, if it stops in San Francisco?
Apparently
my definition of non-stop and the airline's
definition of non-stop differ by one stop. Everything is sorted out, we checked
our luggage and waited for Brent and Ann to appear. We were both getting
hungry, so we went in search for breakfast. I find a sausage and egg sandwich
and the wife finds a bagel. It wasn’t enough for me and I was on my second
search of food when Brent and Ann arrived.
Luckily she
had double checked her tickets, because she thought that the flight was at
eight instead of seven. I didn’t get second breakfast, I spent too much time
looking for the first.
Deb and I
booked an aisle and a window seat in hopes that no one would book the seat
between us. That didn’t work. At least both flights had shorter women on them
and not some large football player with massive shoulders. When I say both
flights, I mean the long “non-stop” flight that took off and landed twice.
Deb sleeps
most of the flight, but I’m glued to the window. I saw the Golden Gate Bridge
as we were coming in for a landing. I also saw the Bay Bridge, which is longer
than the Golden Gate by about three times, and was built around the same time,
but gets no glory whatsoever.
They say we
can stay in the plane in San Francisco, or we can wander around. I’m having low
blood sugar problems at this point, because I didn’t have second breakfast, so
we wonder around the airport in search of a snack.
Having done
this, we re-board the plane. Deb is worried that I didn’t have any protein in
the snack and orders me a boxed lunch. It arrives, and it’s hummus, tuna fish,
and crackers. The tuna is dry, so I pitch it. That has me eating the hummus. I
hate the stuff, but I down it anyway. It makes me sick, literally, and I spend
the rest of the flight hoping the pilot doesn’t make any sudden moves.
By the time
we land the second time, I’m feeling okay. After deplaning, we get the bus to
the rental car place. (What’s wrong with having rental cars at the airport like
they do in so many cities?) Then it’s a drive through Friday traffic to get to
the condo. Brent and Ann have a timeshare, so they provided the housing in San
Diego and I provided the car.
The two
bedroom condo is nice. The car, an SUV, isn’t as nice. It’s too small and hard
to get in and out of. I let Brent do the driving because he’s from a city and
I’m from a small town. I was thankful, many, many times, that I made that
decision over the course of our stay in San Diego.
We drove to
the local mall to find some dinner. I suggested P. F. Changs. This was met with
surprise as I am not known as a Chinese food eater. It was okay food, but
expensive with small portion sizes. I will not be going back.
We drove out
to the Hotel del Coronado to look. We were surprised at the prices. $30 an hour
for parking seemed very steep. Maybe it was for non-guests, I don’t know. After
driving around and getting stuck for a few minutes in the valet line, we
managed to escape back onto the roads.
Stopping at a grocery store on the way back from the hotel, we bought food for
the next few days. Condo renting is different than I’m used to. I don’t go
grocery shopping while I’m in a hotel.
Back at the
Condo, we snacked on cheese and crackers while we played card games.
Saturday
Getting up,
we ate cold cereal so we could head out the door faster.
We drove out
to the LDS temple, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen, inside
and out. After spending some time there, we went to lunch, this time Mexican
food. I figured it must be pretty authentic, this close to the border. The
place was packed, even at lunch time, we had to wait for a table. Even Deb
liked the food and she isn’t a fan of Mexican cuisine.
While we
were in old town, we visited the shops in the old buildings. Sadly, the candy
store was closed. Looking in the window, I saw people milling around inside. I
tapped on the door, and a girl opened it enough to talk to me.
“Our air
conditioning is out,” she said.
“What if we
don’t care how hot it is?”
She didn’t
have an answer for that so she let us in. A couple behind us also managed to
get in before the door was shut again. After buying our fudge and candy, we
headed out. Deb said she’d meet me at the candle store. I went in to look for
her but was quickly driven back by the overpowering smell of perfumed candles.
She wasn’t in there anyway. She had moved on.
Our next
stop was the Mormon Battalion Museum. My great-grandfather
on my dad’s side and my great great grandfather on my mom’s side both served in
the battalion, so I was particularly interested. Instead of walking around
looking at old artifacts, it’s an interactive experience. Really cute how they
did it. It was one of the longest marches of infantry in the history of the
United States. From Iowa to Southern California, ending in San Diego. While we
are talking to one of the tour guides, Deb notices her name plate, Koapua. She’s the daughter of our old dentist
back home. It is a small world.
On the way
back, we find a model railroad store, so Brent and I go in to check it out. We
had planned to visit the Model Railroad Museum in Balboa Park, but this was
good enough, I figure. Lionel train track took up two entire store fronts.
Dinner was leftover lunch for Deb and Ann. Brent and I
bought chicken sandwiches from Jack in the Box down the way. We played games
until bedtime.
Sunday
I cooked
breakfast for the group. I like cooking so it wasn’t a big deal. Hash browns,
scrambled eggs, sausage, and English muffins. They seemed to like it as all the
plates were bare when clean up time came.
We went to a
local church then made our way to Balboa Park to hear the outdoor organ. It
landed us in the middle of Earth Day celebrations. There were tens of thousands
of people in the park. Most of the roads were closed, and police guided traffic
at every intersection that was still open. Our first attempt into the park
ended in failure. We found ourselves back out of the park, trying to find a way
in. On our second try, Brent stopped and asked an officer a question. She
pointed to a car and told him the car was pulling out soon. It was a great
parking spot, so we took it.
The park was
amazing, even though it was very crowded. We made our way to the organ. The sun
was beating down on us, so we found someplace to sit on the side. Deb found a
guy with umbrellas to rent for two bucks so we got two. They were enough to
cover all of us and we were able to sit in the front row without getting fried.
Spreckels
Organ was built in 1915. It was donated to the city with the agreement that it
would always be a free venue. So every Sunday, and sometimes in between, there
is a free concert in Balboa Park, a tradition that has lasted over a hundred
years.
Sunday’s
organist was Russ Peck. He was amazing. The program lasted an hour, then we
meandered back out of the park. Then making our way to Mission Beach, we
touched the Pacific Ocean just to say we had.
A problem
arose with Brent’s driving at that point. Ann told him to turn left, Deb told
him to turn right and I, since left and right were already taken, I told him to
go straight ahead, not knowing where it would lead, but not wanting to be left
out of the discussion.
He went
straight ahead. Ann fussed at him, Deb fussed at him and I sat back and smiled.
Brent pulled over and started explaining to all of us, he couldn’t go three
different directions at the same time. Deb was laid off as a self-assigned,
assistant navigator. I was fired outright. It was decided that Ann would do all
the navigating from here on out, with a lot of input from google maps on her cell
phone.
Having
straightened out the driving problem, we drove to La Jolla to find the seals.
Anyone who says being out in nature where the air is sweet and unpolluted has
never smelled a seal. There was a whole group of them, about fifty in all and
they were resting, fighting with each other or chasing away tourists. The smell
was foul. I didn’t get close, but Deb stood about four feet from them.
I saw one
surfing. There is no other way to describe it. He caught a wave and took it all
the way into shore. You could see others playing in the distance.
We came home
and Brent cooked some pork steaks out on the grill.
Monday
The goal
this day was the Maritime Museum. Deb, Brent and I went in. We left Ann in the
car as she didn’t want to go.
I loved how they did this. Instead of in a separate building the displays were on the ships. The big ferry boat had the most, along with the gift shop. The Star of India was the main attraction. It had been built a hundred and fifty years ago. We were able to go down inside her.
The hardest
one to get through was the Russian sub. It had small round hatches that you had
to crawl through. Three of them. At least there was a warning sign about that.
It had a cutout of the hatch size so you could practice and see if you could
fit through. Unfortunately, we found it on our way out. The sub was also in the
worst shape. The hull is rusting and cracked.
There was place up top I was afraid to
step thinking I might break through. It was patched like someone already had.
The Galleon San Salvador had been loaned to the
local yacht club for the weekend, but heavy winds prevented them from bringing
it back.
The ferry boat seemed to be the best preserved. I went on the upper deck to look around and found a young family having lunch at one of the tables. I thought it was a fun idea and no one seemed to mind. Deb and I went down in the engine room and an old World War Two veteran told us how it worked, then started it up for us.
There was a three-masted frigate, the HMS Surprise, a sailing ship over there also. I saw at least five
youth groups on it. Each group had a pirate teaching them how to run the ship.
The kids were pulling on ropes and working the gear. It looked like a great
field trip.
We were so
close to the cruise ship dock that we could hear the announcements. The Eurodam
was in port. We calculated our arrival time for the next day by listening to
them and figuring out about when the last passenger would be off the ship by.
We went out
to a lighthouse, with Ann and her google
maps navigating. Brent was getting frustrated at the google maps. He took turns
that it didn’t tell him to because he didn’t believe it. Finally, it got back at him. The lighthouse
was straight down the road from where we were. It told him to turn. It wasn’t
like he could think about it because it waited until
the last second to tell him. He hit the brakes and turned the wheel and ended
up fifty feet from a Navy guard shack. The guard came out and demanded Brent’s driver’s
license. Then while the first guard was looking at that, the second one had us
do a U-turn. I figure the guy that had Brent’s license was notifying the NSA,
FBI, CIA, and WEMC (whoever else might care) while the other guard turned us
around.
With an evil
smile, the first guard handed Brent his license back. “Go that way,” he grunted
as he pointed back up to the road we had just gotten off of. I sure hope they
didn’t put my brother on the no-fly list. I might want to travel with him again
sometime. Trying to invade a Navy base is a serious offense these days, though.
I figured we
were asking too many questions to google maps so it was trying to get us
arrested so we would stop.
Afterward we headed
to the lighthouse. They really could have
put a sign at the bottom of the stairs to let us know that the top was caged
off and you couldn’t get up there. I wouldn’t have had to climb three sets of
stairs if they would have.
We then went
down to the tide pools. Not an easy place to get to. I saw a lot of families
pointing out the different sea creatures to their kids. What a wonderful way to
learn, touching it instead of looking at it in a book.
Lunch was in Little Italy. I had spaghetti, Deb and Ann had the chicken and Brent had a calzone that was big enough to feed the seventh cavalry for a week. He was nice enough to share though. We came out of there full, unlike the Chinese place where I was looking for lunch right after I ate it.
Having seen
all the sights we set out to see and about double besides, we headed back to
the condo for a dip in the pool and then card games into the night.
Tuesday
The day of
the cruise had finally arrived. We ate up all the leftovers, packed up and headed for the cruise ship. I dropped the
three of them off at the port and made my way to the car rental place. At least
the map said it was the car rental place, but the map lied. I drove past,
turned around and then drove past again.
This time
there were signs for the real car rental car returns, so I followed them.
Glancing at the map, I found another car rental place on it. It looked like it
was on the east side of the road, but I couldn’t tell for sure, so I drove in
the center lane of the three-lane road.
That didn’t work, as I couldn’t get over when the time came. No problem, I’ll
just turn around. The road I was on turned into a freeway right then, however.
I took the first exit, turned around as soon as I could and headed back.
Turning in
the car was an easy process. I collected Brent’s sunglasses, which he had dropped, and headed for a taxi.
There were
four cabs waiting, so I signaled them. The guy in the yellow cab, instead of
driving forward to pick me up, signaled me over. When I was close, the guy in
the orange cab opened his door and said, “I’ll take you.”
The guy in
the yellow cab stood between me and the open door and said, “Sir, do not get in
this cab.” He then pointed to a green cab and said, “that is your cab.”
“What?”
The two
drivers then proceeded to yell, threaten, and swear at each other. The guy in
the yellow cab kept pointing at the green cab and saying, “He’s the first one
in line.” The guy in the green cab would
calmly shrug his shoulders every time I looked over.
I thought
this was odd because the orange cab was in front of him. Not wanting to ride
with either of the hot-heads, I hopped in the green cab. This presented a
problem, because the green cab was boxed in by the yellow and orange cabs, and
they were still arguing.
The orange
guy looked around, finally, and said, “Where did he go?” Then looking in the
green cab, saw me sitting there. The two hot-heads then began arguing about who was going to move to let us
out.
Finally, the
orange cab relented, and we were on our way. The driver asked, “So, how is your
day going?” All I could do was laugh,
which caused him to laugh also. “That’s not typical,” he reassured me.
“I should
hope not.”
What happens
is, the drivers sign up their taxi number, then go across the street to another
lot to wait their turn, since parking is limited in that lot. When their turn
comes up, they drive across the street and pick up passengers. Well, the orange
cab, seeing no one there, stopped. The others, who turn it was, drove across the street to find the orange
guy waiting.
The green
guy tried to explain how the system worked, but the orange guy, for convenience
I think, didn’t understand. He kept yelling, “There were no other cabs here
when I drove up.” That’s because they were across the street waiting their
turn.
My driver
had shrugged his shoulders and said, “Life’s too short.”
The guy who
was second in line, however, wasn’t going to allow the orange guy to cut the
line.
Adventure
over, I met Deb in front of the cruise terminal and we headed off towards the
ship.
The line
wasn’t long. We passed Brent and Ann along the way. They had already checked
in. By the time I checked in and had a bathroom break, the ship was boarding.
Poor Brent
messed up his hip at the tide pools. Now he’s barely walking. I told him that
we could take the elevator to the ship instead of the stairs, but he wanted to
be macho. He instantly regretted it. As the day progressed his hip was worse
and worse.
Getting on
and grabbing some lunch, we waited in vain for an announcement that the
staterooms were ready. I thought I heard it while we were still at the buffet,
but was told no.
After a
while I went down and checked. The guy I asked acted like I was out of touch
and they had been ready for hours. So we put our stuff away and went out to
explore the ship.
It’s not as
fancy as Royal Caribbean. The things that stuck out at me were the jigsaw
puzzles in the crow’s nest lounge. I’ve never seen that on a cruise ship
before. There are no super glitzy areas. Everything is sedate with low lighting. The room stewards did know our names,
though. Everyone seems friendly enough. Even the guy who told me my room was
ready, did it with a smile.
The
stateroom is another matter. It’s the smallest balcony room we’ve had. Storage
is funky. There is no large chest of
drawers, just a drawer here or there. The bed is close to the wall so only one
person can pass at a time and my shoulder keeps hitting the flat screen
television as I passed. It’s on the wall at the foot of the bed.
The two
drawers under the bed are unusable as there is little room and you would have
to be at the side of the drawer to pull it out. There is more storage at the
seat cushion of the desk, but if someone is at the desk, then you can’t get
your stuff until they move.
The shelf to
the side of the desk is piled high and wide with all the stuff we would have
put somewhere else, but can’t.
There is a
short tub in the bathroom, but I’m six foot four and it isn’t. I use it as a
shower, but then I have to step high to get up and over the edge of the tub, so
it doesn’t do me much good. I’ve never had a tub at sea before, though. The
idea is kinda fun, not so much for the application.
We told
Brent and Ann we would meet them for dinner in the hopes that Brent would rest
his hip. It wasn’t the case. They were up and around the ship and when we did
meet for dinner, his limp was decidedly worse.
Everyone
enjoyed their dinner. I had Wiener Schnitzel. I joked about it being a hot dog.
Ann looked at it when it arrived. “That’s it?”
“Yes, it’s
actually veal.”
The show was
a juggler/comedian. We usually don’t go to jugglers, but he was good. Funny
too.
Wednesday
Sea princess
didn’t want to get out of bed, so I went to breakfast by myself. I found an
omelet station. They make it to order.
This time I tried black olives in my omelet and found that I really like them.
It was funny, when I arrived the one omelet station had five people waiting and
no one serving them. I went to the other station, it had four people waiting
and two omelets with one omeletier, if
that’s a word. He was smiling, and singing under his breath as he fried the omelets. Great to find someone
enjoying himself, even while working, especially that early in the morning.
When I arrived
back at the cabin, I brought Sailor Deb some juice and a couple of pastries. She
was up, telling me that Brent and Ann called and they were looking for me in
the buffet. I ran back up, but they weren’t there.
Brent was in
a Windows 10 class, so I joined him. It was about editing pictures in Microsoft
Photo. I wasn’t keen on using it, but now I am.
Deb and I
went to trivia. We did okay, but not great. Then I went to a class on Microsoft
Movie Maker. I made a movie. It was fun and not that hard. I’m excited about
using it when I get back home. Microsoft has put a person on the ship to teach
and promote their products. It’s a good idea, and a fun gig for the person
doing it also.
The grand
shuffleboard tournament was today. The wind was howling past the court,
however. I got there on the hour, but no one was around. I was about to declare
myself the winner, when Brent showed up. Another couple soon followed. The
other couple was scoring lots of points in their game. Brent and I weren’t
scoring any.
It was ten minutes
after the hour before the person hosting the event showed up. I guess she was
hoping that no one would be there. She was shivering. Brent, I, and the other
couple started the game. The host was just too cold, she gave up after five
minutes, handed all four of us a prize and took off. Brent and I came in
second. I can use the excuse that the game was cut short due to weather, but I
was freezing by this point, too, so I wasn’t complaining. The woman on the
other team resorted to standing behind me and using me as a wind break. The
wind was so strong, if you pushed the puck too hard, the wind would catch the
edge and it would become airborne. A couple of times, the puck took to the air,
landed on the edge, and rolled back to us. One time, her puck hit one of mine.
It was half-airborne at the time, so it didn’t move my puck. It then rolled on
its edge in a circle and ended up on top of the puck it hit.
Lunch was
the buffet, but I wanted to try something different. The food doesn’t change
much from day to day. At dinner, I had the Chicken Kiev. Okay but not
wonderful. The serving size was very small. Deb shared her steak and baked
potato with me. Usually, New York strip isn’t tender, but hers was good.
The show was
from the main production cast. It was strange. No theme that I could tell, just
song and dance after song and dance. The costumes were weird, rope vests and
drab colors. The only pretty part was when they draped sheets over the women
dancers and they twirled. They hadn’t changed out of their other clothes, so it
hampered the effect. I was told later it was to celebrate Earth Day. I guess that
was the reason for the mud-colored costumes.
I do have to
say they all the singers and dancers were very talented. I hated to see their efforts
wasted on that show, however.
After the
show, we caught two piano players in the Billboard Onboard Lounge. Awesome.
Brent’s
getting around a lot better today. I was very worried about him before.
Thursday
King’s Day
King’s day
is celebrated by wearing orange. Or you can dye
your hair orange and that’s acceptable too. Sadly, I didn’t have any orange
hair dye, so I wore a shirt with orange highlights that I had purchased for the
occasion.
Brent showed
up at dinner without any orange on. So I asked the waiter if I was allowed to
pinch him, like not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t know what
country he was from, but I’m pretty sure he was wondering what planet I was
from. He finally said, “Is that a joke?”
Humor
doesn’t always translate.
The menu in
the dining room was expanded for King’s Day. They threw in an extra course. So
that was good.
Deb went to
a cooking class. I had nothing else to do so I joined her. It was kinda fun.
The lady made Asian food, and lucky for me, there were no samples afterward.
We tied for
the win at trivia, but lost the tiebreaker.
It’s okay, because we had asked for one of the answers to a booze question from
the bartender. It wasn’t my idea, but one of the couples we were with. The tie
breaker question was what is the distance, in feet, between the lowest point on
earth to the highest point. Brent calculated it out and was off by only a
couple hundred feet. The other team was off by a mere fifteen feet, though.
After lunch,
the four of us made our way to the observation lounge to play cards. It was
getting close to dinner time so I suggested we cut the last game short. It just
so happened that Ann and I were leading at that point in the game, but I’m sure
it was just a coincidence.
The show was
a pianist and humorist. I’ve never seen that combination before. He joked,
played funny songs he had made up and played serious songs too. It was worth
going. I laughed. Dale Gonyea was his name.
Friday
All sorts of
notices are posted around telling us to pack up and get ready to leave. Sigh.
The cruise wasn’t long enough, especially after the transatlantic we took. It’s
been great being with my brother, though.
Today was
the captain’s reception for returning cruisers. We went with Brent and Ann. Ann
was worried it would be a sales pitch, but it wasn’t in the least. We had a
really nice lunch that was too close to the really nice breakfast we had. At
least walking around town helped.
We also
played games in the lounge. They had a lot of tables set up for a bridge
tournament, only not a lot of bridge people turned up.
We walked
around Victoria. We lost Deb for a moment, twice. But we found her again and
all is well. The bad part was the rest of us headed in three different
directions to find her. When I did find her, then I had to find the other two. Afterward we toured the Parliament building. Brent
and Ann hadn’t been there before.
On the way
back, I heard over the radio in the taxi that the Canadian Lottery was over 34
million. I asked the driver if he’d bought a ticket.
“I buy one
every week,” he responds.
Brent asked
how much money he’d won. I kinda figured he’d never won a jackpot because he
was still driving a cab after all.
“Nothin’,”
he responded.
I told him,
“I’m sure the Canadian government appreciates your contributions.”
Saturday
We had our
bags out in the hall by the required midnight deadline. In the morning, we
watched the ship come into port, then headed down for breakfast. We ate in the
dining room. Sad that the last day of the cruise, we discover the best venue
for breakfast. The selection is better than we have had on other ships.
In
Vancouver, we went to Granville Island. After shopping and getting lunch there,
we headed for the train station.
Grabbing a
table in the dining car, we played cards until it was time to cross the border.
You have to be in your seats with passport and customs form in hand. Afterward, we went back to our table.
The daughter
had dropped off the wife’s car at the train station, so we didn’t have to take
a taxi.
The funny thing is, we are taking this ship again. On our way out the door, the Cruise Director was saying goodbye to the passengers and I said, "See you in three weeks."
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