Sept 23 – Los Angeles. Today started out at 7AM with Diana and I up and finishing our last minute packing duties. All those items you need to use to get yourself together in the morning still need to be packed.
At 10AM our friends, Shirley and Ken, picked us up at the house, loaded our luggage and took us to the port. The drive could have been really bad. For some reason the San Diego freeway was stopped even at that late hour. Fortunately Ken is one of those people who likes scenic routes, not necessarily the big roads. He took us off the freeway and through all the little beach cities, Seal Beach, Belmont Shores, Long Beach, San Pedro, etc. all the way World Cruise Port in Los Angeles Harbor. It was the first time I’d been along the coast in that area in at least 20 years. Since I attended college in Long Beach it was a little nostalgic to be back in the area. Ken and Shirley had just returned from a cruise to Alaska so we talked about our travels on the ride down. That was great because we hadn’t gotten together since last Feb. I met them both working at May Co. Department Store in Redondo Beach when I was going to El Camino College in 1969, yikes, that’s 44 years ago.
We arrived at Pier 91 at a little after 11AM, dropped off the larger luggage that the stevedores will use as medicine balls to get their morning workout. Anything critical, computers, cameras, medicines (including supplements) I keep with me and carry on myself. We really only had one large suitcase because we shipped 3 suitcases and one box to the ship a little under two weeks ago. I love that freebie they throw in if you book early enough on a Grand Cruise. That, and the fact that they also prepay all your onboard tips, makes it worth booking early. Since they pay the standard tips it leaves me free to reward those crew members that go the extra mile. I always did that anyway, now it just costs me way less because HAL covers the basics for me.
Check in was very smooth, no line, and after getting our room cards and turning in our passports we only had to wait about 10 minutes for boarding to begin. On board we went directly to our room and then to lunch in the dining room. I’m usually don’t like to eat breakfast or lunch in the dining room because it takes too long and the menu is more set. At the Lido buffet you can take only the things you want and that makes for a better meal and more ability to avoid stuff I don’t want to eat.
When you pick an entrée in the dining room you can ask the waiter to leave this or that off and add this or that but it makes his job harder and often the details get lost in translation (that is between the waiter and the assistant waiter and the chef in the galley, not from one language to another). In the Lido you watch as they put it on your plate and you can ask for less or more with very little hassle for anyone. I avoid starches and love green vegetables. So easy to deal with at the buffet.
After lunch we went back to the room to discover that all our bags where delivered, both those we shipped and those we brought today. I unpacked in about 35 minutes and got out of the way so Diana could unpack. It’s much easier that way.
I walked around the ship to see who I knew from prior trips and found that I had quite a few friends aboard both staff and passengers. It’s fun to see people you’ve sailed with before, especially those you like. Our travel agent, Cruise Specialists, has two hosts aboard. I’ve sailed with Tom Mullen many times. He’s a very funny Englishman and always adds to my enjoyment of sea days. I’ve never met Bill Krupa but I’m sure I’ll see him tomorrow.
They only had one show this evening, an introduction special hosted by Gene Nelson the Cruise Director. He introduced his staff and had each of the bands from the various lounges play a song for us. The jazz combo is excellent and the orchestra is good too. It’s getting harder and harder to think of the showroom group as an orchestra. They are now down to 5 members, piano, drums, sax, bass and guitar, about half of the compliment they had just 10 years ago. The latest casualty is the keyboard player they added when the dropped the brass and the second woodwind player. Since a brass chart is important to almost any type of music, rock and roll, big band, show tunes, etc. I don’t know who’s going to play that part for the on board acts that use live music. They used to let the keyboard player do it, not ideal but at least the notes were there. Sometimes they make the saxophonist fill in for the brass and while they usually have an excellent one, it’s far too mellow and not immediate enough to adequately reproduce the effect of the brass line.
While I’m talking about reductions in staff, there are a few more worth mentioning. The string trio that plays in the Explorer’s Lounge in the evenings is now a duet of piano and violin. A couple of years ago it was usually a quartet, last year it was a trio, piano, violin and bass. To be fair, the violinist is the best I’ve ever heard in the Explorer’s Lounge on any ship so the quality of the music has not suffered at all. It’s just a change.
I love cruising and for the most part the changes over the years have not really affected my enjoyment. In fact, the price of cruising is actually less now than it was in the early 80s, if you adjust for inflation it’s actually less expensive. I just like to catalogue the changes that I notice so I can remember when they happened.
For the first time ever when I’ve been on a ship they are having an on deck BBQ the first night out. I always go to the dinner BBQs. The food is great and you get to eat outdoors, in this case as we were sailing past Catalina Island at sunset. Georgeous.
It will take four sea days to get to our first port, Hilo, Hawaii and I’m going to enjoy each one of them.
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