Coastal Cruise Fall 2017
It was a bad day at work. No, bad wasn’t a big enough word,
it was a terrible day at work. I started selling cars part time after I retired
and this couple came in. The man was playing mind games with me and had me very
upset, then left without buying. It left a sour taste in my mouth.
I came home and started the cruise booking process. The wife
asked what I was doing, but I didn’t answer, just kept going. It wasn’t that we
hadn’t discussed booking a cruise, it was just that I needed something to wash
the awful taste of a dreadful day out of my mind. A couple of clicks later, the
deed was done.
A fellow author and friend of Deb’s called her and asked to
come over and talk about cruises. They had an anniversary coming up and wanted
to go. She had never been on a cruise, and since Deb was a cruise travel book
author, she was the perfect person to ask.
We admitted that we had just booked a cruise for October.
“That would be perfect,” they said. Made sense to me, might as well go with someone
with experience. The four of us were now booked and going on the same ship. Deb
and Donna would use it as a writer’s retreat.
Day 1 (Vancouver)
Oct 1st finally arrived. The Hatches picked us up
at 8:30 and we drove together to the train station. They asked for directions.
The station is one of those buildings in town
that they’ve seen a thousand times, but didn’t know what it was. As we drove up
they both said, “Oh, okay.”
Kyle drove the car back home. When his mom handed him the
cinnamon rolls Deb had made, he went from sleepy Kyle to happy Kyle.
The train to Vancouver arrived at the station a little
early. The problem is, there are two Vancouvers,
one in British Columbia and the other in Vancouver Washington. After loading,
the train pulled out of the station, only to stop a minute later. Two people
came off. An older gentlemen came up to
me. “Are you waiting for the northbound train?”
“Yes.” I had just been telling Tom how people get confused
all the time about which train to take.
The lady, sheepishly, stood against the building.
We were put on the lower level of the train. I sat in a spot
where four seats faced each other. A gentleman tried to sit across from me and
I mentioned there were four of us and we wanted to sit together. He looked down
his nose at me like, Who are you to talk
to me, but then, without a word, sat across the aisle from us.
The scenery was amazing. It was a bright sunshiny day, not
the rain they had predicted. We saw herons searching for food and seagulls
flying around. This is a great way to get there because you don’t have to fight
the border crossing, no one has to drive, they have bathrooms on the train, and
you can walk around all you want.
Arriving at Pacific Grand Station in Vancouver, we
disembarked the train. It always takes a while to get off there, but this time
was faster. We made it through Canadian Customs.
There had been a debate on the way up whether to take the Skytrain or a cab. I had voted for a cab, but I
was the only one, so we took the Skytrain.
At the station, there was a man helping people out. He
directed them to the shorter lines, he helped them purchase their tickets. I
wondered if he was an employee of the transit system, but I doubted it, since his
clothes were dirty and he had no insignia on his shirt.
After helping us, he
held out his hand, showing me some coins. Ah, he’s the unofficial
self-appointed helper. I didn’t have any coins so I gave him a dollar.
The train sped through the city. I stood holding my bag
against the back of the seat to make sure it didn’t roll into anyone. A stop before our final
destination, we were the only ones left in the train car. I’ve never seen that
before.
We took some pictures of us with the ship in the background when
we arrived at Canada Place. They’ve really improved the boarding process. After
three short lines through security, customs, and check in, we had our key cards and we were on the ship.
As we walked through
the line, a woman was handing out health questionnaires. She would ask, “How
many?” and then give the appropriate number of papers to the people.
She asked that to the lady next to us, and the lady froze.
“I’m not sure. There’s me, but then there’s three more behind me. Should I get
some for them or maybe they could get their own when they get up here?”
The woman shook her head and said to the next group, “If you
can figure out how many you are, please move forward.”
Normally we like eating at the main dining room on the first
day, but we boarded so late, we had to settle for the buffet. Both Tom and I remarked at the distinct lack of meat at
lunch. I was hoping this wasn’t a precursor for things to come. They had a lot
of stir-fry and some stuff I can’t
pronounce. Then there was a roast, but the guy behind
the counter cut such a small little piece that it was more like a taste than a
meal.
Tom wanted a nap, but he was overruled and we toured the
ship. We didn’t make it through the whole ship before it was time to do the lifeboat drill. Deb and I went down and grabbed
our life jackets, then rushed downstairs so we could stand against the wall for
the drill. Other lines have stopped bringing the life jackets to the drill as
passengers trail the straps from them and trip up other passengers, causing
injuries. This line still does though, and I saw people dragging straps across
the deck despite the warnings not to.
Supper time rolled around and it was left up to me to
arrange a table together. All I had to do was walked down to Botticelli dining
room and talked to the Maître d’ I didn’t know you can’t get from the forward
part of the ship to the aft on deck six. It took me a while to figure that out.
After running around, I made it down there, only the Hatches weren’t there. I
talked to the Maître d’ and he said I
couldn’t add two more people because he had no room for them, so I changed us
to anytime dining.
I waited for Tom and Donna, but then figured they would have
come and gone by then. Deb had stayed on the upper deck in a vain hope of
seeing us sail away. When I arrived at the top deck and told Deb that they
weren’t there, she insisted we go look again. They still weren’t there so we
went to search at the other dining room. They
had been looking for us too, Donna was in line when we arrived and Tom was
searching the room for us.
The ship was delayed while they took off a sick passenger.
As we sat down to eat, the captain notified us that the ship was about to sail.
Deb leaned over to Donna and asked if she wanted to see that. I’m like, “Let’s
not.”
I was overruled and we stood up and left. We hadn’t ordered
yet, and we were polite enough to tell the other people and the waiter what we
were doing. He laughed at us, but it didn’t stop us.
Even though it was a bit of an embarrassment, I’m glad we
did. We rushed out to the promenade deck, but the view wasn’t that great there,
so all four of us went up to our balcony and watched from there.
It wasn’t a good place for watching us sail under the Lion’s
Gate Bridge though, so we went up on the top deck. There were people waving flags at us on the
bridge. We waved back.
Going back down to get in line at the dining room, we had a
long wait, not to get into the restaurant, but to get a pager. After which we were
told the bad news that it will be another forty-five minutes before they seat
us. Donna had the great idea to go get an appetizer at the buffet and then head
back to the dining room when the buzzer went off.
We had no more gotten to the top of the ship when the pager
went off. I thought it was odd that it went off so soon, but everyone was really hungry at this point, so we headed back
down. They were surprised to see us so soon, nor could we prove the thing had
gone off as it had stopped by this point.
Asked three times, by three different people if the blasted
buzzer really had gone off, we all promised it had. They didn’t want to call us
liars, but ours had gone off before all the people’s buzzers ahead of us. At
this point they gave up and put us at a table. The only thing I could figure is
that it had gotten too far from its
connection, freaked out and went off. It probably thought we were kidnapping it
because we didn’t quietly sit outside the restaurant patiently waiting our
turn, like all its previous borrowers had. Didn’t matter at that point, we were
ordering. And that was a good thing, because being hungry on a cruise ship is a
crime against the universe and all that’s good in the world.
The show was Magic To
Do. I was going to complain about the show, how the costumes were weird,
how the sound system made all the singers sound pitchy, and how the storyline
wasn’t cohesive, but Deb came out of the theater saying, “Boy, Princess has
really stepped up their game.” I must have missed something while I was nodding
off near the end of the performance.
Day 2 (Astoria)
After seeing some whales’ spouts in the morning, we made our
way to the main dining room for breakfast. It was slow service this morning,
but the line wasn’t bad getting in there. Not compared to yesterday anyway. I
ordered the Mexican omelet. I wouldn’t recommend it. It had taco meat and
refried beans. It wasn’t the best flavors, but I ate it anyway.
Deb and I watched the ship cross the Colombia River Bar.
It’s one of the most dangerous places for a ship on the planet. Today was calm
and relaxing, so no adventures. We watched as the pilot boat headed out before
we came in. We saw a lighthouse in the distance.
It was fun.
We met up with Donna and Tom in time to watch the ship dock.
They had to throw the line to the shore workers three times. I could imagine the
other crew chiding the guy who missed. Finally, on the third try, the lines
were pulled out, and the ship tied up nice and neat. Then we watched as they
set the gangway in place. I enjoyed Donna’s enthusiasm. She was standing on the
bottom of the railing, leaning way over to get a better view of what they were
doing. I was worried that she was going to tumble over the rail, but Tom was
next to her. I figured he would stop her, if she lost her balance.
At Astoria there is a huge bridge over the Columbia, but the
cruise ships dock on the sea side of the bridge, so we didn’t get to go under
it like we did in Vancouver. There are
thousands of logs at the pier awaiting export. Normally there a couple of Coast
Guard cutters there too, but not this time.
We rented a car in Astoria. It was my job to go get it so I
ran ahead. The first problem arose when the van sent to pick me up wasn’t
there. I tried to call Enterprise, and got put on hold. “Welcome to Enterprise,
the company that picks you up.” The hold started out. As I navigated through
the menu, I finally reached a real live person. She couldn’t or wouldn’t help
me. I had to call the local company.
It wasn’t easy to get through to them either because it
started out the exact same. “Welcome to Enterprise, the company that picks you
up.” Same phone menu except for one extra selection to talk to a local agent.
Only the local agents were too busy to pick up the phone.
The worst was yet to come. Luke finally pulled into the
parking lot. Somehow the person next to me had gotten through. “Are you Luke?”
she asked.
“Are you from Enterprise?” I asked.
“Yes and yes.”
We arrived at the office to a long line. I had a lot of time
to calculate it out. They were taking two people every five minutes and I had thirty-six people ahead of me. That meant,
mathematically speaking, I was in for a long wait.
Deb, Tom, and Donna waved as they walked by. They had made
if from the ship to the Enterprise office and I was only halfway through the line at this point. So much
for running ahead. After an hour, I finally got a car. A Chevy Tahoe. It was a
beast compared to what I normally drive and I kept worrying about sideswiping
cars on the way through the narrow streets. It didn’t help my confidence when
Deb kept saying, “You’re awfully close on this side.”
Expecting clouds to start rolling in at any minute, we drove
up to the column first. We all bought the balsa wood airplanes. And walked up
to the top. Donna was getting claustrophobic and Deb had vertigo, but they both
were so brave and made it.
We flew the airplanes into the wind, but they shot right
back at us. Deb’s hit the deck by our feet so she flew it off the other side.
It was a long flight and so much fun. Makes me wish I had a dozen or so
airplanes to try all different wing configurations and angles. The lady at the gift
shop told us to fly them into the wind, but Deb shot hers with the wind the
second time, and it did better than Tom’s and mine.
Then we went to the Maritime Museum. They seemed to love it.
Our schedule was turned inside out by the waiting for the car so we skipped
lunch. The place I had wanted to eat at was closed anyway, so we grabbed some
stuff from Burger King and drove out to the shipwreck. The Peter Iredale crashed into
the shore in the late 1800s. The skeleton of the ship is still there. We climbed
around it then drove to a park along the river. Group after group of seals swam
passed the park on their way to the ocean. I’ve never seen anything like it. Getting
back to town we turned the car back in. It was so much easier than checking it
out. I just dropped the key in the drop box and walked away. One lady, with the
side of her car crunched, walked sheepishly into the office.
We took the walkway that went along the waterfront back
towards town for a bit, then turned back and retreated to the ship. Few days
have been as nice as this one.
Once on board, we went to dinner. The cruise line calls it,
“Anytime Dining.” I call it, “Wait in Line Dining.” It wasn’t bad today though, because a lot of people weren’t back on
the ship yet. We were seated at a table for eight. Two other couples, both
nice, joined us.
The conversation
turned to the two authors in the group, Deb and Donna. One lady said she had
read one of Donna’s books. That was kinda fun. Then it turned to marriage and
respecting each other in the long run.
The dinners have been good on this trip, a lot better than
the last time I cruised Princess. I’m even getting chocolates on the pillow at
night. That doesn’t happen with some of the cruise lines anymore. I think it’s awesome.
Deb and I went to the Yes or No Game Show. It was fun, but we were tired so we
didn’t stay for the whole thing.
Day 3
The shower and I aren’t getting along. It doesn’t drain
properly and after a few minutes I find myself in an ever-growing pond. Luckily the edge of the basin is a little
higher than the inch and a half of water at my feet. Today I figured out, if I
stop the water while I’m shaving, then it drains off and I don’t overflow the
basin and flood the bathroom. The problem there was, now my hands were soapy
and I couldn’t turn the water back on.
I have no fresh water to wash the soap off my hands and I
can’t turn on the water, because of the soap on my hands. Finally wiping them
off on my chest, I get it so I can turn on the water enough to finish the
shower.
I hate to complain, so
I didn’t. I saw a workman headed down the hall on my floor so I had high hopes
that other staterooms in the area had the same problem and he was coming to fix
it. No such luck, I found out later on.
We braved the buffet for breakfast. We didn’t like the
breakfast food in the dining room yesterday, so we’re trying a different
option. It was okay. My egg white was a little runny and I think it was the
reason I had an upset stomach later on that day.
The meet and mingle was in the Skywalker’s Lounge. We
finally met some of the people we’ve been talking to for weeks and weeks. It
was a fun crowd and well attended. I counted five officers from the ship there
also. Nice that Princess supports us.
Heard two funny stories from an officer during the party. 1st
was that a man saw it was time to go back and he thought he had time to walk.
The ship was further than he remembered. They started calling his name after he
missed the all aboard. He had given them the wrong phone number so the ship
couldn’t get a hold of him. It doesn’t do any good to give them your home
number while you’re on a trip. Finally they got a hold of a friend of his on
the ship.
By the time they called the guy, he was in a full run,
hoping the ship wouldn’t leave him.
The next story is, there was a couple from Los Angeles on
the ship that got off in Astoria. Going around town, they decided they loved it
there. Upon arrival back at the ship, they grabbed their bags and went down to
the desk and disembarked.
One of the cruise critic members asked what type of cabin
they had. The ship is fully booked and she was looking for an upgrade. “Sorry,
they had an inside.”
We met Donna and Tom for lunch and dinner. The food was
really good, I have to admit. Lunch and dinner that is, not really impressed with breakfast. We’ll try room
service tomorrow. At lunch we talked to a nice couple from Whiterock BC. The
woman was in her sixties at least, and she was the Canadian Lawn Bowls Champion.
Beat out a nineteen-year-old to win the
title. Now she gets to move on to Australia for the world championship.
The show tonight was a comedian. He was hilarious. Had the
whole crowd in stitches. Before the show,
they gave the usual announcement that there is to be no video recording or
flash photography. This time the announcer added, “Anyone found in violation of
the rules will be taken outside and beaten senseless.” Never heard that before.
It got our attention.
When they introduced the guy, they said, “He’s the best
comedian we could afford at the time.” He was really good though. I hope he has
another appearance.
Deb was tired so I attended the low budget trivia by myself.
They re-enacted scenes from movies and
then asked two trivia questions about them. It was fun.
Day 4 (San Francisco)
I woke up at five in the morning and looked out. A full moon
reflected off the water and seabirds
skimmed the waves. A large freighter passed us going the other way. That ship
was illuminated by many lights. Wondering how close we were to the Golden Gate
Bridge, I turned on the television to the bow cam. I could see the lights of
the city on the horizon.
I went back out onto the balcony, and there it was. Only a
faint glow on the horizon, but looming larger. Deb even came out. The moon
slowly slipped down out of the sky revealing the stars above us. As the bridge grew
ever larger you could see the features of it. Nearly silent, the ship slipped
under her. A hint of fog just touched the top of the bridge. What a wonderful
morning.
We had room service this morning. We wanted to eat out on
the balcony, but it was too cold out there so we ate while sitting on the bed.
It didn’t work out so great so we probably won’t do that again.
After breakfast we had to rush downstairs to get to our
Alcatraz tour in time. Thinking that it was way far away we hailed a cab.
Instead, we took one of the world’s shortest cab rides.
The Park Service operates Alcatraz and the only way to get
there is by boat. They have two boats that shuttle people back and forth, about
every half hour. The ride is a little choppy in places and the unaware could be
knocked off their feet. A lot of pelicans flew by. They fly in a single line.
It’s cool to watch.
We arrived on the island about ten. Alcatraz was originally
a civil war fort. It was built to protect the harbor. Later on it housed
Confederate sympathizers. The army
didn’t want it anymore, so they turned it over to the Feds, who built a prison
out of it.
If you can’t obey the
rules, you go to prison. If you can’t obey the prison rules, you go to
Alcatraz.
Only the worst of the worst were sent to Alcatraz. Machine
Gun Kelly, Al Capone, The Bird Man, were all famous inmates. Cellblock D had five or six cells where the
outer door could be closed. It was used for those prisoners that couldn’t obey
Alcatraz’s rules. The guards were
supposed to leave the light in the cell on, but they always seemed to forget. One
of the inmates, when put in solitary, would tear the top button off his prison
close. He would spin around three times then throw the button over his
shoulder. On his hands and knees, he would feel for it. When he found it, he
would repeat the process.
The guards lived on the island with their families. The
Warden’s house is up on the hill next to the lighthouse. Children played on the
narrow streets. They took the ferry over to San Francisco every day to go to
school.
There were two F-16s flying around the island while we were
there. They flew over five times. Someone said that they were the part of the
Fleet Week celebrations going on. I did see a lot of sailors walking around the
city.
After Alcatraz, we walked to Fisherman’s Wharf, ate some sourdough bread, and then walked up to Ghirardelli
Square. The chocolate there was so expensive, we didn’t end up getting any. We
were so tired on the way back that when a pedicab lady offered to take us back
to the ship, we took her up on it.
It’s funny to be in port so long. The ship didn’t leave until
eleven at night. I went to bed, forgetting completely about sailing back under
the Golden Gate Bridge.
Day 5
It started out cloudy this morning. Even though it wasn’t
raining, it didn’t matter, because it was a sea day, and we would be mostly
inside.
My Princess of the Seas wanted to sleep in, so I headed to
breakfast alone. Feeling fat, I had a simple breakfast of granola and English
muffin. Deb decided she was hungry a little later on, so she soloed the
breakfast buffet and ate up on deck.
We met at the culinary arts demonstration in the theater.
Tom and Donna were there too. The head chef on the ship demonstrated how to
cook three dishes. Even sitting as far away as we did, we could still smell the
wonderful food. He and the Maître d’ were
there. The Maître d’ kept patting the cook’s stomach and saying, “Yummy in the
Chef’s tummy.”
Afterwards, we walked through the galley. It wasn’t a tour,
just a quick jog through. We had lunch and dinner in the main dining room with
Tom and Donna. The food was Italian. All the waiters were dressed like gondoliers.
I thought they were going to break out into
song at any minute, but they refrained. Dinner was really good. In fact all the
food on the ship has been amazing this week. A far cry from the last time I
sailed on the Ruby Princess.
It was funny, when I was standing in line for lunch, a
couple of people came up and asked me what the line was for. “Lunch.” I
replied.
“Oh,” and they walked off. I thought about it afterward, they were probably thinking, Oh, no. I’m missing something.
We went to the comedy show of AJ Jamal again. He’s
hilarious. I really enjoy watching him. Afterwards, we played majority rules
and lost miserably.
Day 6 (Santa Barbara)
I did learn some things. There was a giant squid in one of
the rooms, that’s a lot of calamari. On a wall was a topographical map of the
ocean floor off California. The learning lab had a pleasant, older gentleman there who was very
enthusiastic. All in all a great stop.
The buses didn’t come that far up, so we walked back down to
the courthouse, climbed up the tower and took some great pictures from up there.
We found an ice cream place. We caught the bus down to the beach, and after
getting some sand in our shoes, walked over to the tender pier.
Santa Barbara is a nice town, not large at all. The people
were pleasant.
It such a sad thing to have to pack up after a cruise. When
dinner was over, we went and packed, then went to bed, after packing our
clothes and leaving the suitcase out in the hall with high hopes that we would
see them again.
Day 7 (Los Angeles)
We woke up with the San Pedro pier outside our balcony. I
could look onto the rooftop of the
terminal building in fact.
We ate a light breakfast and then waited in the
disembarkation lounge for them to call our number. They were so far ahead, that
they had already called our number a half an hour ago and we were early. We
waited for Tom and Donna, as they had the same number as us, and went off
together.
It was half-past nine
at this point and we had a lot of hours to kill before our flight at three. The
battleship USS Iowa was nearby, so we
dragged our suitcases through the parking lot. Deb was going to stay with the
luggage, but they had a place to store it so we all went.
It’s half price if you show your cruise card. This isn’t
advertised anywhere that I could see so I’m telling you here and now.
It was fascinating. A lot of up and down stairs but awesome
anyway. We get to go up to the bridge, and down into the berths and all through
the galley. Never been on a battleship before. Every time a service member
stepped onboard, they announced it over the loudspeaker.
After the tour, we grabbed a cab to the airport. The taxi
driver upset me though. He should have gone over the bridge, but he went north
instead. The way he took us was twenty-five miles, it should have only been
sixteen. I wasn’t going to tip him, but he had charge of the credit card
machine and hit the twenty percent tip, before I could stop him. I debated
about disputing the charge, but who has time for that. Oh, well.
We had TSA Precheck, so we breezed through security, grabbed
a quick lunch then headed to the plane. We took Jet Blue, they have a little
more legroom than some of the others. We
arrived home late. It was a great trip all in all.
The Cabin. Plenty of storage, so much so we didn’t even use
all the shelves. The steward hid the ice bucket in the fridge and we couldn’t
find it, so we had to ask. The shower and sink didn’t drain really well. The balcony was huge. The tradeoff
there was that one to four decks above
could see down on us.
The Ship. Having taken this same ship a year ago, we were
familiar with the layout, but still found new places we didn’t find on the three-day
cruise. It's showing a little wear here
and there, but it's nice.
The Food. A+ in my book. Except for breakfast, I didn’t have
anything I didn’t like and I couldn’t have said that last year.
All in All, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
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