This is a summary of the blog entries that follow.
The Ship: The Golden Princess, 109,000 tons. Original Cost 405 million dollars 18 passenger decks
Our stateroom: L252 (Lido) or deck 14.
Embarkation:Port of Los Angeles
Disembarkation: Port of Los Angeles
Sailing Date: October 26,2011
Sailing Time: 4 pm
All passengers onboard by 3:00 pm
Arrived Home: November 9th, 2011
Night before cruise: The Westin Long Beach (Hot Wire)
Length of cruise: 14 nights
Itinerary for Cruise:
Wednesday: Los Angeles Pier 93 (October 26,2011)
Day 1 Thursday: At Sea (October 27,2011)
Day 2: Friday: At Sea (October 28,2011)
Day3: Saturday At Sea (October 29,2011)
Day 4: Sunday At Sea (October 30,2011)
Day 5: Monday Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii (October 31,2011)
Day 6: Tuesday, Honolulu,Oahu, Hawaii (November 1,2011)
Day 7: Wednesday, Naniliwili, Kaui, Hawaii (November2, 2011)
Day8: Thursday, Lanhania, Maui, Hawaii (November3,2011)
Day9: Friday, At Sea (November 4,2011)
Day10: Saturday: At Sea (November5,2011)
Day11: Sunday: At Sea (November 6,2011)
Day 12: Monday: At Sea (November 7,2011)
Day 13: Tuesday: Ensenada, Mx (November8,2011) (4 hours docked)
Day 14: Wednesday: Los Angeles (November 9,2011) disembark.. by 9:30am)
Tues: We left Merced at 3:35. We waited 2 hours to make sure that we could see both cats were inside before we left. Georgie, the white manx cat hid out in the garage for two hours in protest. Nigel was out too, but came right in after waiting on the front patio while I read the newspaper.
At 5:30 we were at the base of the grapevine pass. We had traveled over to Los Banos and whistled down Interstate 5 mostly at 70mph. The cheveron on top of grapevine had a subway sandwich shop. The manager was bemoaning the lack of business.. hoping that it would pick up. We filled up and headed into the basin after dark.
Tuesday night we arrived at the Westin Long Beach for the bed that Sue wanted to take home it was so perfect. The Westin would accommodate her whishes for $4200.
It was almost 10pm when Sue sent me out for "something to eat" Around the corner from the Westin was a crepe house.
The manager said that since it was 10 minutes from closing time, all that I could order was "take out." He offered up the whole menu for take out however. I ordered a scallop and shrimp filled crepe and a vegetarian crepe. 16 for the seafood, 14 for the vegetarian. The seafood one had a delicate lemon sauce. The veggie had potatoes and mushrooms. Both of them were great choices. Sue choose the specialize in the seafood one.. but there was plenty for both of us to share, and we did.
Embarkation Day Wednesday, October 26.
I was up in the morning at 6:30. I tried to capture in digital photos the public art in Long Beach. What was cool was the art deco like mosiac tile art in a couple of blocks around downtown.
The last time we were Long Beach I ran across a restaurant on Atlantic that claimed that it had the best burgers in town, also serving lunch and breakfast. It had a drive through and a blue collar look about it. It looked like a prime spot for a stack of hot cakes, my latest obsession. I was not disappointed. 5 dinner plate sized cakes were delivered to my booth, along with 2 tubs of butter and 2 tubs of syrup. The very thought of syrup would bring Sue a negative reaction.
Back at the hotel room Sue opted for a "naked" coconut/pinapple smoothie and a cinnamon/raisin bagel from the coffee nook across from the hotel.
Sue needed a "hat" for the trip, so after checking out (I checked out for the guy one floor below us first before Sue pointed out my mistake), we fired up the Expedition and hauled over to the nearby Albertson's and then the CVS pharmacy. the hat was found and we made our way across the two bridges from Long Beach to the Port of Los Angeles. Our embarkation was simple and characteristic of Princess form for its preferred customers. It was the easiest of any ship we had traveled upon. Plenty of time to unload the the power chair and the wheelchair and two of the largest suitcases you can buy, a backpack and a carry on. Don't forget the purse too.
On the Ship
We were on the ship and in our cabin by 2:00.
The ubiquitous muster occured at 3:15. What a mess! We have a cabin on the 14th deck-Lido. Our muster station along with everyone else is on the 7th deck. Getting there via the elevator was not difficult. Getting back.. oh my. I climbed the 7 floors to our room but Sue was at the mercy of an elevator that had too many people in it and all of them having to jump or wait for her to get out so they could exit at their floor. I walked/climbed the 7 floors and beat Sue to the room. I did this so that the other people that really needed the elevator could use it.
When I arrived, the 2nd big bag was waiting for me in the hall. They collected them when we got on the ship and delivered them later to each cabin so you didn't have to walk your bags up the floors to your cabin. The wheel chair came soon after.
At 6:30 we still could see the Channel Islands as we moved toward Hawaii. Dad said that the ship travels at 18 miles an hour so still seeing the island 36 miles off the shore is kind of unique. Usually when we leave the port of LA we are headed for Mexico. Its usually a later departure too.
We are on the top deck (our stateroom) with the pools, indoor and outdoor, the horizon buffet, is also on this deck.
Our cabin stewardess is Rosalie. She came in our cabin tonight to drop off a pretty blue Princess bag with our chocolates with a reminder to set our clocks back one hour. Its now a quarter to seven, it is in real time tomorrow a quarter to 6pm.
We are very close to the pizza and hamburger stand. A bar separates them. The pool is between the outdoor pizza stand and the buffet court. No stairs, no elevators, that might not be such a good place to encourage shipboard interaction.
The Golden in the Princess line seems large. Even with its size, this time of the year, yields a very aged group. I did not see any kids at the muster. Sue saw a few preschoolers with their families when we were getting on. We also saw a one couple ahead of us in line that had two fortyish people hauling with them 6 thin oxygen tanks each behind their wheelchairs.
Sue and I choose off the buffet for dinner tonight .. pineapple (fresh) honeydew(fresh) and mixed veggies , about 5 hard rolls each . For me I added the borscht, and the cappra (salami) and Sue ate a slice of pork from the carving station. There was also some really yummy sugarless chocolate cake with fresh stawberries on it for desert.
On Princess, at the buffet, you pick a place to sit down, and the waiter serves you with water, and a cloth napkin and silverware. Sue loves the hard rolls that are from the ship. She also had a slice of cheese pizza.
I let Sue rest in the cabin while I brought her the dinner mentioned above in "take out" form.
Our room is really large. Its one of 25 accessible rooms on the ship. The bathroom is large. I bought two extra cords for the charging of the powerchair, my cpap machine and the recharging of our cameras and phones. There are only two outlets for the room and they are way into the corner of the room. Many of the other ships we have been on only have one outlet.
There is a nice writing table and a small flat screen TV over the mini fridge.
Tonight there already has been some mechanic drilling holes in the panel in our hall. This is not a very good sign.
I went to the "Welcome Aboard Show" in the main theatre.
Dancers and Singers (sampler: we are family)
Cruise Director-Introduced Staff
Filmed "fly over" of various parts of the ship video
Black comedian from San Diego, did part of his show
Cruise Director's "gag":
His wife called him to tell him that she bought curtains that were pink.
He asked,"Where are they going?"
She answered,"they had to be big enough to cover the computer monitor.
Why?
They use "Windows"
Everyone groaned on that one.
The slot machines are now using cruise cards to spend gambling and to collect the winnings. What winnings? No one seemed to be winning.
I bought a mojoito at the piano bar. They were running a "fill the card" scam with the completed cards having a chance at having your complete bar bill paid for at the end of the cruise. You need to have the equivalent of 30 beers (the lowest valued) to get your card into the drawing. This bar has olives with mystery fillings as its draw. Some olives are stuffed with garlic cloves, others with pimentos, others with almond slivers. I was assured that they were the only bar on the ship that had them. Mojito was good. Was a little more on the lime side than the mint side in flavor.
I am looking forward to Lox in the morning. They had a start for that on the deck sandwich bar today. No bagels, however.
No comments:
Post a Comment