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One Small Step

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It snowed this morning and the forecast for the next day or so is “cold”. After that the next two weeks seem moderate. Still, not a bad time to head for the sun. Long Beach is forecasting some sun and high teens temperatures. Hawaii is in the high 20s with the occasional rain shower, as usual.

Well we only traveled 55 km today, but it’s one small step and every trip begins with a first step. We could have waited until the morning of the flight but that would have required a drive in morning rush hour traffic. Yech! (or some similar epithet) We prefer a less stressful beginning.

I have placed a link in the menu bar called Itinerary 2019 the purpose of which should be somewhat apparent. Should you wish to get a preview of our journey click on the link here or on the home page menu.

We checked into the Airport Hilton about 3 PM and I then dropped the car at Park’n’Fly for a couple of weeks rest. The walk back to the hotel was not particularly cold. As usual, we needed to open one of the bags that we thought wouldn’t need to be opened but of course there was something that should have been in the overnight bag that was not. Hopefully, everything is now perfectly organized for tomorrow.

Just after 5 PM we went down to the restaurant for a drink. We got back to the room just before 8:30. It began with a beer and a glass of wine. We began to chat with a woman near us, Gayle from New Jersey, and that continued for over 3 enjoyable hours.

The first day ends quietly.

Today’s photos are in the sidebar.

Hawaii 2019 (again)

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Star Princess

We are traveling again. Just a reminder that the complete post is not visible in the email. To see the full post and any photo albums you should  click on the Blue “Read The Post” button.

Hawaii Cruise Map

We are once again getting ready to take our private yacht to Hawaii for Christmas and New Year celebrations. We have invited about 2600 of our friends to join us for the 15 day round trip from Los Angeles. We have taken this voyage several times and at least twice aboard this ship. Although we won’t know all of the passengers but there will doubtless be several with whom we have previously shared this voyage. 

The Star Princess was our ship for a 2006 Caribbean cruise and a 2011 cruise from Rome to Venice. She was launched in 2002 and had a minor refit in 2017. Like many cruise lines, Princess appears to have a fondness for ever larger ships. Many of the smaller ships have been given a major refurbishment and a new name with a different cruise line. Golden Princess is next to go to P&O Cruises in 2020 and the Star Princess will follow in 2021, so this will probably be our last cruise aboard Star Princess. Four new large ships are expected to enter service in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2025. 

In previous years we have arrived in Los Angeles the day before sailing and stayed at a hotel near the airport. This year we will spend that night in Long Beach for a change. We do this for two reasons. Firstly, because winter air travel can be unpredictable so the extra day allows some time for delays and secondly, because Princess makes luggage handling simple. They take us and luggage from the airport to the hotel then from the hotel to our shipboard stateroom. In Toronto we also stay near the airport on the night before our flight. We have to handle our own luggage at this end.

I have added a few new pages to the site which you should find under the menu item “Ships, Past and Present“. The page “Cruise History” catalogs our cruise history by ship. The page “Ship History” documents the life history of those ships which are no longer sailing under the Princess Cruises brand. The page “Basic Ship Specifications” provides basic data describing the vessels on which we have sailed.

This will serve as journal post number one for this tour. Having done this trip several times it will be hard not to duplicate some photos. I am going to try to provide some new scenes so keep watching. The most recent photos should appear in the sidebar to the right of the post. All of the years photos can be found under the “Photo Gallery” menu in the “Christmas Cruise 2019” page. There is a group of historical photos from our Toronto departures at the end of this post.

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We’re Home

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The photo above is what greeted us as the Emerald Princess arrived in San Pedro harbour, AKA Port of Los Angeles, at about 6 AM with all aboard. Disembarkation day is always a bit of a zoo. Passengers are asked to place luggage outside of staterooms for transport ashore around dinner time on the evening before arrival and then vacate staterooms by 8 AM the next morning. Almost everyone complies so every food service, buffet, cafe and dining room is busier than normal. There are always a few passengers who are able to disembark with all their luggage so they are the first to leave, some live only a few minutes from the port. The remainder of us proceed to various lounges and common rooms to await our departure. They use a colour and number system to tag luggage and schedule departure. We were Yellow 7 scheduled for a 10:10 AM departure but that meant a two hour wait.

Everything proceeded right on schedule and our departure was very quick. Homeland Security just checked our passports and said “have a nice day”. Once outside we were directed to our bus transportation to LAX. The trip to the airport took about 20 minutes, from the time we passed the big LAX sign until we arrived at terminal 6 took another 40 minutes. If you had to drive through LAX airport you’d think Toronto airport traffic a breeze. Check-in and luggage drop, 10 minutes. TSA Pre-check, another 10 minutes, then we wait, again. Flight time, 3:40 PM.

Our Airbus 320-200 delivered us to Toronto Pearson airport on schedule at about 11:15. Thanks again to Nexus and a bit of luck at the luggage carousel we were out of the airport, picked up the car at Park’nFly and arrived home before 1 AM. There was a couple of centimetres of snow on the car but it was gone by the time we reached Burlington.

With access to home internet I have finished uploading the remainder of the photos. Some are in the sidebar, the whole trip is in the slideshow below.

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Wrap-up entry

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This wrap-up post is much later than I had planned it to be. During our trip north up the coast the application I use to minimize use of shipboard internet time became unusable for some reason and I simply postponed composing. Since returning I simply haven’t completed the task, but finally, here it is.

The trip back from San Francisco to Vancouver was two days of smooth sailing. We managed to dance our way back to the music of the Sun Shine Duo whom we got to know a little and learned they will be entertaining us again in December on our Christmas Hawaii cruise. We knew we were home as we passed under the Lions Gate bridge before dawn.

Our approach to finding a musical group on board is to determine which group plays music best for us to dance. The second criteria is the size and nature of the dance floor. A third criteria is how crowded the floor becomes. 

On this ship there are four entertainment venues where dancing is possible. The Wheelhouse bar has a small floor typically with solo or duo entertainers. The Explorers lounge has a larger floor where they frequently locate a “party band” of four or five musicians. Club Fusion has the largest dance floor which is only rarely used for dancing, sometimes with a live band and occasionally with a DJ. These three venues have wood floors. More recently dancing has been encouraged in the ship’s Atrium often referred to as the Piazza which has a ceramic floor that is harder on the feet. On this cruise the Sun Shine Duo began performing in the Piazza and  later in the Wheelhouse.

The party band and one duo played a variety of music but mostly rock and roll. We are versatile enough to dance to their music but the dance floors became overcrowded and while we enjoy dancing we do not enjoy overcrowded floors or being stepped on. The Sun Shine Duo played electronic violins, and when in the piazza tended to play more of a chamber music style. However, before dinner one evening, while entertaining in the piazza, they played a tango which Gail and I couldn’t resist. After talking with the ladies to thank them for the tango I told them that should they play “Lady in Red” we might be persuaded to dance a bolero. Later in the evening while we were listening to their music they did just that. From that time onward whenever they saw us in their audience they would play tangos or boleros for us. Fortunately for us we were almost the only couple  who danced to their music whether in the Piazza or the Wheelhouse.

Toward the end of the cruise as we were sitting in the Wheelhouse enjoying the music and dancing with the Sun Shine Duo there was a gentleman with his four year old daughter. The little girl was literally fixated on the two violinists. Occasionally, she would attempt to get her father to take her onto the dance floor but her efforts ended mostly in excited bouncing around. She also found our dancing of interest and she approached us. When I asked her name she replied: “Charmaine, with a C,” and she formed a “C” with her fingers. I offered to hold her hands and let her dance but she refused until the next evening when she was able to get approval from her Mom, after that she was good to go and here is a video clip to prove it.

Charmaine Dancing

The return flight from Kelowna to Hamilton was relatively easy. I had my first flight on a Bombardier Q400. A smaller airplane than the 737 with two seats either side of the isle and I got to sit beside one of the turboprop engines hanging below the high wing. The Rockies were clearly visible and snow covered as we approached Calgary. As we began the second segment of the return there appeared to be a brown haze over the prairie. Otherwise, the flight was uneventful until we approached Hamilton airport and found it shrouded in fog.  The pilot tried from the east and had to go around. The second try was from the west with the same result. We then took a leisurely circuit and made a third attempt, this time successful, from the west. Luggage was quickly off the plane but on the drive home I took a route to avoid most of the fog so arrival time at home was about 2 AM. Unfortunately, body was still on Pacific time. Next trip December.

  • Rockies West of Calgary
  • Prairies East of Calgary

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