Cruises

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Four Day Cruise

I got away with it. My wife, who normally has everything planned to the nth degree, was so busy she didn’t even look at the cruise deck plans. Yes, the ship is big. Very big. The Explorer of the Seas leaves out of Seattle on a four-day, round-trip cruise. She’s not a fan of large ships.

It wasn’t the cruise we had planned on at all. That was canceled. I had asked for the month of May off from work. The boss choked and complained. Then the people I was going with had a sick family member. I didn’t want to go without them, so I canceled too.

We were planning on visiting my wife’s mother in Tampa for 5 days, then leaving on the 14 day transatlantic cruise. Then a week in Italy, an overnight in Paris then another in Reykjavik Iceland, then home. That will have to happen next year instead.

I wanted to go on a cruise anyway. This one was cheap and it involved no airfare, so I booked it. My wife had been swamped so she didn’t ask what ship or anything, just, “Go ahead, I need the break.”

Seattle was only an hour and a half drive, even in heavy traffic. We parked at the pier then shuttled over to the ship. Boarding went very smoothly. It was the easiest I’ve ever seen. No lines and we breezed through in fifteen minutes. That was awesome.

When we arrived at the promenade deck was when she realized what size ship this was. We had taken the Navigator of the Seas out of Galveston a few years back. It’s around the same size. We walked around, after grabbing lunch, carrying the backpacks because the rooms weren’t ready yet. The first thing I learned is the food in the Windjammer Café isn’t the same in each line. The stuff at the back of the ship is better. Unfortunately, we had already eaten before we figured this out.

The lifeboat drill is never fun. We stood on deck waiting for the stragglers to arrive. The announcement finally came and they showed us how to put on life vests for the thirty-second time.

The voice of the cruise director came over the loudspeakers. “Now a word from our Captain.”

“Welcome to the beautiful… (Pause) (Whispers) “What ship are we on?”

(Whispers back) “Explorer of the Seas.”

“The beautiful Explorer of the Seas.”

Of course everyone on the ship heard it. Roars of laughter echoed around the deck.

“He’s new,” one of the crew commented. “Just back from vacation.”

The crowd marched into the promenade area, clogged up the elevators for the next hour.

Just a word about the elevators. They’re hot and they’re not big enough. This cruise has the largest collection of wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers I’ve ever seen on a ship. Only one will fit in an elevator at a time. Only a couple of people can fit in with it. There’s a collection of wheelchairs and scooters on every floor waiting for an empty elevator. There are very few empty elevators.

We then made our way to the sail away party. Really only looked down at it a couple of times, mostly we were looking over the ship’s side to see if we were on our way yet. A few minutes after 6:00 pm the ship pulled out of the dock and traveled north.

Seattle from the Sea

The coast was beautiful as we glided by. Saw a seal attack a bird. Not sure what type of bird it was though. It was thrashing it back and forth.

We ate at Chops Grill. That was an interesting experience. It was like the waiter resented us for being there. He took a long time to take our order. Food took a long time in arriving. He poured my water with his back to me. Then he took my wife’s key card and not mine. It was at least a half hour between servings and some of our food came out cold.

The food, when it was warm, was good, though. I was really frustrated that it took over two hours to eat and wanted out of there. I almost walked out at one point, but Deb told me I had to wait for the check. That took ten minutes between when he said he would bring it, and when it arrived.

My wife was exhausted by this point, so I went to the movie by myself. Our Darkest Hour. I love Winston Churchill and hadn’t seen the movie yet. I went to the 9:30 showing. It was a little breezy so I grabbed a blanket. Had to use my keycard to get it and when I went to return it after the movie, they were gone. I didn’t want to get charged for it, so I took it back to the stateroom with me.

I enjoyed the movie. I forgot to bring a jacket on the cruise because it was an unusually warm day for Western Washington when we left the house. The weather became colder and colder and the wind picked up. I clutched my blanket around me. More and more people were giving up. In the end I think there were only two of us die-hards left. I was freezing.

It was lucky there were subtitles because a jet passed over us at one point, low and loud. Fog started rolling over the ship and the fog horn blared out on regular intervals.

Tired and cold, I headed back to the stateroom.

Day 2 Sea Day

We didn’t get up till nine. That’s the problem with having an inside cabin is you have no natural sunlight to let you know what time of day it is. We took the customs form down to the front desk, returned the blanket from last night and headed to breakfast.

There was a line and we were worried that the main dining room would close its doors right at 9:30. Luckily they didn’t. We shared a table with a newlywed couple. It was their first cruise and Sailor Deb was all sorts of helpful to them in telling them what to do and what not to miss.

I wasn’t impressed. The food seemed to be the exact same stuff you can get in the buffet, only they make you wait while they bring it to you. My pancakes were dried out like they had been under a heat lamp a long time.

The captain’s noon announcement included the joke of the day. “What’s trembling at the bottom of the ocean? A nervous wreck.”

We played miniature golf. The wind was strong, but not like the last ship we played on where the balls were getting blown around in the wind.

I ate at Johnny Rockets today. I ate alone since Deb didn’t want to. The guy next to me complained that he was getting a hernia trying to get his milkshake through a straw. But then he spilled it. Some of it hit his lap, the rest hit the floor. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to clean it up. Someone finally put paper towels over the mess. It’s a start, I guess.

I really enjoyed it. Note to self. The shakes are fifty cents cheaper at the Promenade Café and don’t come with a ten dollar surcharge.

The place to hang out was the Schooner Bar. It had trivia and wordplay games. It was fun. We dashed out of there to go to the meet and mingle. Royal Caribbean will host the party on seven days or longer cruise, but not four-day cruises so we did our own. It was held in a suite on deck ten. Nice room. Our stateroom wasn’t much bigger than their bathroom.

Finally we made it to the main dining room. All our tablemates were women. I feel very outnumbered. I just sat there and listened to the conversations while drinking my five, or was it six, glasses of water and eating my dinner. Food is good. I enjoyed it.

The production show Fast Forward was also very good. The one woman singer was outstanding, I have to say, the other singers and dancers were above par of what I’ve seen on cruise ships in the past. The show was fun and fast moving. I really enjoyed it.

Sailor Deb went out to the movies under the stars to watch The Greatest Showman. At least the last half of it. She’s seen it before so catching up wouldn’t be a problem. Staying warm was though.

Nanaimo

I was starving, but it was only four or five in the morning. Couldn’t sleep, so I headed down to the Promenade Café to grab a bite to eat. They still had some sandwiches so I asked for one. A few minutes later they took the rest of them off the shelf and threw them away. I’m hoping I don’t get food poisoning from a too old sandwich. After that they put the pastries on the shelf, so I asked for one of them. I was told they didn’t open till six, but I was given one anyway. Stomach now satisfied, I headed back to bed.

Slept till around 8. I could hear the captain announce something, but couldn’t make it out. I suppose it was that Bingo was starting. What else would you announce on a cruise ship? We had a leisurely breakfast then headed down to the gangway There is a free bus that takes the ship’s passengers all over Nanaimo. The line for the bus was very long and a lot of people gave up and walked into town. It’s about a mile or so. Not that we haven’t done walks into town that far, it’s just a lot of times I live to regret it. Since the ship is so large and forces so much walking anyway, we took the bus.

Stopped by and watched the cannons fire at noon, and then again at one. In between we walked over the bridge and out to the yacht club and then back. Did some shopping in old town. Learned about a ship named the Oscar that exploded in the harbor and took out all the windows in the historic church, except one. I’ll have to look that up when I get home.

We did a little shopping but didn’t buy anything. We were people in the crowd on a movie set. It’s a Hallmark movie, Chesapeake Harbor. We were trying to get out of the way, but still wanted to watch. The actors were across the street from us, but the camera was pointed in our direction. So I’ll have to watch that episode to see if I’m in it.

I did get to eat a Nanaimo bar in Nanaimo. That was my great accomplishment of the day. They did straight across on the exchange rate. I didn’t like that. It’s .78 to a dollar, so I’m paying 22% more than I should have.

The tier level party was next. I drank a fruit punch then listened to them congratulate people for cruising so many times on Royal Caribbean then the Next Cruise person spoke and said, “The way to get to the next level is to come see me!” It felt like a sales pitch with free fruit punch. They did tell us about the ships that are moving in and out of Alaska. The eleven day Alaska cruise sounded interesting. I’ll have to check it out.

Saw people running for the ship because they were late, but no announcements which usually means everyone made it aboard. Went to dinner. None of our tablemates arrived until twenty minutes after they should have been there and it was only the three German women. We finished way before them, I even had a second bowl of the minestrone soup. It was good.

Played cards then played music trivia. We graded the winning team’s paper and they gave us a highlighter they had won, because they didn’t want it. So I got a prize. They had 20 right and we had 12. That was a lot more than I expected to get though. I don’t do well in that category.

The movie under the starts wasn’t great. Deb gave up first. I was going to stick it out, but gave up soon after. Abdul and Victoria, or vice versa. Should have watched the magician, he was indoors where it was warm. Movies under the stars is more of a Caribbean thing.

Victoria

We were in the port and docked before either one of us managed to get out of bed. I don’t know how people can gain weight on a cruise with all the walking you do. My legs are tired.

We opted for the buffet again, and again I had to wait a long time to get my omelette. Tomorrow I think I’ll give up and have breakfast in the dining room if it’s open.

We walked the ten minutes to Fisherman’s Wharf and grabbed a water taxi into the city. They dropped us off in Chinatown. We explored that, then headed down to the harbor, where we went to the Maritime Museum. I have no idea why they moved this nice little museum, but it isn’t worth the fifteen dollar admission fee. There are very few displays compared with what they had before. I was disappointed.

Then we had a milkshake across the street from the Empress Hotel. After that we visited the Royal BC Museum. It was around the same price as the Maritime, but infinitely larger. Three massive stories. It would be great if they could combine the two into one.

After wandering through the Empress, we took the water taxi back to Fisherman’s Wharf. This time the captain was more agreeable to tell us stories of the harbor and how killer whales sometimes come near the mouth of it to hunt seals. Another interesting thing he told us was the houseboats around the wharf cost about 300 to 400 thousand to buy and another ten thousand in moorage a year.

We stepped out of the taxi and were met by a pedicab driver who wanted to take us back to the ship, so I let him.

Back on board we went to lunch. Then we took in the ice skating show. This was very good. I enjoyed it. Then dinner, up to the library to play games and then watched the Las Vegas Tenors. They were very good also. Worth seeing even though they didn’t play any country music.

Home

We decided to do a walk off. We would skip breakfast and rush home at 6:30 in the morning before our stomachs woke up. Being on a cruise, you expect food every hour on the hour. Getting off was a breeze as very few people were up and out at that time.

Overview.

Too short. I think that covers it. I like the longer than seven-day cruises better. I once was okay booking inside cabins, but I think that one was our last.

The food was great. The only things I didn’t like were the ones my wife ordered and then said, “Try this.”

“Yuck, that’s terrible.” I replied.

“Yeah, I didn’t like it either.”

Then why did she feed it to me? My food was good.

The ship, too big for my wife. I was okay with it as it had plenty of things to do.

The organized activities, I thought, were lacking.

Would I do it again? I probably will, but I want to go other places first.

2017 Fall Cruise

Oosterdam to Alaska

Oosterdam Up the Coast

Trans-Atlantic 2019

3-Day Coastal

Western Caribbean Cruise

Cruise Books by Deb Graham

Thursday, October 12, 2017

2017 Fall Coastal Cruise

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 1^st 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. 1^st 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)

We had a full breakfast this morning, something I would regret later. For some reason my stomach and the corn beef hash on the ship don’t get along. We had to tender into the town. It was nice to sit back and view the area from a distance. It gave us an overview. We were going to take the city bus up the hill to the mission, but the line was long and the buses that did arrive were barely making a dent in it. So the four of us took a cab. Twenty bucks including a tip. After touring the mission and the chapel there, we walked further up the road to the museum. It was being remodeled, so it was half price.

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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