Last Day and Disembarkation

The last day is always sad.  Especially after such an amazing trip.  

It is hard to believe we left home and have been to three countries and three very different types of holidays. Peruvian journey, Disneyland, and Mexican Cruise.

The last day is spent first sleeping in!  Bernie and I head to Horizon Court for lunch and again the buffet is exactly the same as the day prior.  I have never seen this before like it is on the Ruby.  This happens only during lunch and there is still a lot of options to choose from but it surprises me.

We make the rounds of the ship stopping to chat with people we know - passengers and crew.  

Bernie is feeling quite melancholy as he knows that some we will never see again and those that we will see again won't be for a long time.

Barb and Craig have us over for drinks and we sit and chat for quite a long time.  Great cruise friends that I have a lot of respect for.

Tonight is Mongolian Stir Fry at the Cafe Caribe tonight.  Each week this theme has gotten more popular.  Tonight it doesn't disappoint.

Be warned though that they obviously don't clean the fry pan between each person's dish as I got corn kernels when I did not put in any on my plate, also got two pieces of chicken but I wanted vegetarian.  So if you have an allergy to something make sure to let them know.   

After dinner we consider going to see Magic to Do again tonight but we are both a little sad and just want to go back to the cabin and pack up.  

Note they did Magic to Do the last night mainly because the new singers and dancers required more time to rehearse, but normally it is not on the last night.

We are doing walk off - group one tomorrow and our meeting time is 8 am.  We already have one bag packed with our Peruvian clothes.  We pack up the other two bags quite efficiently.  All bags are way underweight (surprise).

The next morning we dock at 7 am and we are cleared around 7:30.  As soon as we head down (7:45) to deck 7 to go to our lounge they have already called our group so we just join the queue to get off.

There is a couple in front of us who clearly are not doing walk off as they have no bags at all.  I am sure they are sneaking off early.  We comment wow you sure packed light. The guys says yeah they accidently took our bags last night.  

Right I think.... I tell him you know they won't have your bags out ready for you when you get off you know.  His wife is telling him "i told you"!  The security asks them what group they are and they can't answer and when they finally confess Aqua 2 security tells them they can't get off yet. They are directed back on.  

We are off quickly, thru customs within 5 minutes and outside by 8:15.

We are heading to LAX and we see a PrimeTime Shuttle that needs two so we join the group for $17 per person to the airport.  Effortless.

Our flight with Air Canada is noon and we arrive in plenty of time.  We splurged with air miles and are flying back business class.  

Once in Vancouver we quickly clear customs and the wait for the bags begins.  Vancouver is really bad a baggage delivery - I know they don't have enough staff.  Our bags are tagged priority but it still took almost a half hour just for the bags to arrive at the carousel.

We are home by 3:45 and unpacking begins.

Stay tuned.  I will be tweaking the blog posts and adding more pictures from the Ruby now that I have my computer and free wifi.  But work comes first so will try to do a bit each night.

Thanks for following.

Travel Day to Anaheim

I am HERE!  Apparently this is the happiest place on earth, and I sure feel happy.

Both of us worked yesterday, and since we work very early we were up at our usual 3 am to start work at 4 am.  Although we had a shorter work day and we both ended at 10 am. 

We gathered our stuff at home, tied up some loose ends and we were on the road.  Our first stop was our recreation center to vote in our advance polls for our municipal elections.  We are just relieved that they started today cause if it didn’t we would not of been able to vote (I guess we could of done mail in votes) as the election is while we are away.

Voting done – and Vickie wearing her proud sticker saying “I voted today” we were on our way to the airport.

Flight was at 4 pm with Westjet directly to Los Angeles.  Even though the flight was delayed a bit due to connecting flights and someone who was not feeling well on board we were up in the air about 30 minutes after 4 pm.

LAX – what is there to say about that airport.  It is not one of my favorites, it certainly is busy.  But it seems to be in constant renovation, there is never enough space there, everything feels crammed in with people everywhere.  It is an airport I dread going to and would of preferred flying into one of the other airports but this time it was not possible.

We had prearranged a ride with PrimeTime Shuttles at a cost of $15 per person to Anaheim.  We easily found the meeting spot and checked in and about ten minutes later a van pulled up and it already h

ad four people in it, we loaded in with another guy and now we are 7, we stop two more times and in the end had 9 people. 

The ride took about 45 minutes (thankfully little traffic due to the hour) and we are arrived at our hotel (The Red Lion) and the front desk attendant Mellissa checked us in and gave us a room on the 7^th floor that faces the park and doesn’t have an adjoining door to another room.  We are happy!

I wish we could saw we did something exciting but we didn’t.  The time is almost 10 pm and we have been up since 3 am and we are tired.  We settle in a bit and Bernie attempts to watch some TV but he can’t keep his eyes open. 

I had a nice bath to relax and calm myself – as you may have guess I get a little over excited.  But the bath does the trick and as I read some of the local guide information I lay my head down and dream about Mickey and Minnie and being at Disneyland.

Next Cruise - Grand Princess - Mexican Riviera

We are just a few days from heading out on our next voyage.  But this time things are really crazy at home.  You see we started a bathroom renovation a few weeks ago.  

So our goal was to have some of the work done while we are away and not have to deal with dust and construction noise.  But because of this we have things from the ensuite bathroom all over the condo.  I tried to pack the bathroom up with the thought of putting stuff I may need on the cruise in a different box, but of course as I start to pack I am searching thru boxes looking for things.

Okay back to the cruise.  

We leave on Wednesday night after work out of Vancouver on Westjet to Los Angeles.  Westjet at the time of booking allowed us one free bag each, but as of tickets booked now you have to pay for all bags.  We love flying Westjet and the crew on board so we are actually looking forward to the trip. 

This week I booked Prime Time Shuttle from the airport to our hotel in Anaheim.  After doing a lot of research on what was the best option to get to Anaheim it appeared that Prime Time had the best option at $15 per person one way. Although it is a shared ride and will probably take a while to fill the van and get to the hotel the price difference was worth it.  

I did look at the option of the Disney Express but that was not cheap $30 per person one way, or $48 return but we only need one way.  I also contacted a private car but they quoted me $98 one way (oh that is not in my budget, but a good option for a family).

We booked our hotel quite a while ago thru Priceline and asked for a three star near Disneyland and got the Red Lion Anaheim for $80 per night.  We will be there for four nights.

Our friends are flying in from Sacramento on Friday morning to join us at Disneyland and show us the ropes as it has been 45 years since I was at Disneyland and I am quite excited.

We board the Grand Princess on Sunday for a ten night Mexican Riviera Cruise.  The ports we will be visiting are San Diego, Cabo San Lucas, La Paz, Loreto, and Puerto Vallarta.  We are quite excited to get on board the Grand. 

We haven't been on her since before she had her major retrofit.  Also our good friends Paul and Yvonne will be on board.

The biggest obstacle will be handling the bathroom reno from the ship.  We will be in constant contact with our contractor and hope it will run smoothly... fingers crossed.

So follow along on our trip as I will once again be blogging this amazing adventure.

March 9 - Off to Los Angeles

Since we wanted to head to Los Angeles the day prior to our cruise we had to arrange for a flight after our work today.  We managed to get a flight that left at 16:25 out of Vancouver with Air Canada.  So after getting up at 3:30 am for work!  Yup I start work at 4:44 am every day but I am finished by 12:30.  

Friends picked us up and drove us to the airport (thanks Dave and Yvonne).  With only carryons we quickly cleared security and then US Customs and we had about an hour to kill prior to boarding.  Let the mini break start.

We landed on time and made our way to the shuttle pick up area at LAX.  We had reserved a shared ride with Prime Time Shuttle to our hotel in San Pedro.  Our shuttle arrived at 19:30, right on time and we shared the van with four other people.  Unfortunately with a shared ride we had to head all over and it took an hour and a half to get to our hotel after making two stops prior to ours.  Traffic wasn't bad but having to travel on non highways to make the stops slowed us down.  I laughed saying "heck this shuttle is going to take just as long as the flight here took".  I will also comment that this driver was very nice and helpful but his driving was crazy and when you are a professional driver like we are you really sit uneasy when you know you are being driven by someone taking chances.   

In the future we will not make prior reservations but will wait till we arrive and then weigh the options between Prime Time and Quick Shuttle to see who offers the best routing/fastest time.  Because we booked ahead of time we were stuck with Prime Time and their routing.

We booked our hotel - the Crowne Plaza LA Harbour at San Pedro - thru Priceline about two weeks prior for $78 for one night (Thursday night).  

When we finally arrived we were greeted by a friendly front desk person who quickly checked us in and gave us a room on the seventh floor.  

Since we hadn't really eaten anything since around 2 pm we dropped the bags and crossed the street to eat at the Green Onion - A Mexican Restaurant that really feels odd, sort of a pub atmosphere/restaurant.  We shared a combination meal and Bernie had a beer.  Although I had to return the glass I was given cause it was dirty, then the plate I was given was also dirty and had to get that replaced.  The food was okay, the taco was very good and also the enchilada too, but the Chili Rilenos was blah and mushy certainly premade and then re heat.  But the price was very reasonable.  Would I go again, probably not but it met our needs for the night.

I will add that the next morning when we had a chance to explore the area of San Pedro we came across numerous restaurants that we could of eaten at and would definitely go to the next time.

Back at the room we curl into a very comfortable bed and crash.  We both commented after waking up relatively early that we slept like a baby and found the room to be very quiet.  Other things we liked about the room was the size was good.  Loved the toiletries and have to comment on the water pressure which was amazing and a great way to start the day.  The restaurant served a very nice breakfast with great service the next morning and reasonably priced.  We would definitely stay here again.

Like I mentioned above we strolled around the area a bit on Friday and were pleasantly surprised at the lovely area we encountered.  Travelling along 6th Street we came across a street market with tables set up selling various items, fruits, vegetables, crafts, food, flowers, oils, and other things.

We stopped at Off the Vine (link to their facebook page) wine store which came highly recommended on the Cruise Critic site.  The owner assisted us by suggesting a few bottles.  Make sure you check out their page and tell them you learned about them from Vickie.

We made our way back to the hotel to grab our bags and even though the ship offers a free shuttle we both agreed with very little bags to drag we could easily walk to the ship and we did.  It was a lovely walk along the harbour to the ship, about 15 minutes.

hard to see but our hotel is the higher building on the right

Check it was very smooth and we were going up the gangway within 10 minutes but that is where the line up started.  On the Promenade deck they had a queue of about 100 waiting to board and scan your card and have your picture taken by security.  When we made it to the front of the line we noticed they only had two scanners and really felt Princess should of accessed the situation and added another scanner.  In the end it took 10 minutes to board, then another half hour lining up for security picture.

Now about boarding with wine - when we went thru the security scanner with our carry on bags which had a knapsack with two bottles in it.  The person reviewing the screen commented that there was wine and directed us to a table nearby.  We carried our bag there where we were asked to show them the bottles.  I am guessing to confirm that they were wine/champagne and not hard liquor.  They asked for our cabin number and our cruise card and they took our folio number down and that was it.  We did not sign anything and I just assumed that they had charged us the $15 corkage but was not sure.  Read more later to find out how it all played out.  

Our cabin E712 a balcony near the aft on Emerald deck was quick to get to and was ready and everything was set up, including our mini bar.  Our cabin steward Nate introduced himself and we put in our request for extra towels, two extra pillows and two more pillows (really wish Princess would change those skimpy little pillows for better/bigger ones, or at least offer a choice).

Officers are as follows:  Captain Marian Manfuso, Staff Captain Goran Favro, Hotel General Manager Richard Harry, Cruise Director Richard Joseph, Customer Services Director Paolo Rellini, Executive Chef Joel Directo, and Maitre d'Hotel Jacques Ghennai.  We are excited to see Richard Joseph - CD and Chef Joel Directo again.