Category: Los Angeles

The Last Post

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Don’t blame me, the title was Gail’s idea. It will likely be the final post of this trip. In summary, it was the coolest and roughest Pacific crossing ever. Three out of four days in Hawaii were great, only the storm on our second day on the islands caused problems. We skipped the port of Kauai, the Captain opting to wait out the storm in Honolulu. As it turned out the weather was bad on all the islands that day.

It was still a lovely way to enjoy the holidays. The food was good as was the entertainment. We encountered quite a few passengers with whom we knew from previous Christmas cruises. Dancing was good, musically, and better when the floor was staying in one place. It turns out that roller coaster dancing is not so easy.

The disembarkation went smoothly and we were off of the ship, with luggage and on board the bus for our transfer to LAX by 8:15 AM. We arrived at LAX Terminal 2 about 9:00 AM. There was no-one at the Westjet check-in counter and we were not charged for our checked bags. I did not challenge that decision. LAX is under construction, again, and what airport is not? After the check-in process in Terminal 2 we were directed to our boarding gate in Terminal 3. It was not a long trek although we did have to walk outside to pass the construction zone.

Now all we can do is wait. Hope the weather is favourable or our return.

John A. Shedd

A ship in a harbor is safe, but it not what ships are build for.

The second step

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YYZ Snow just before boardingToday was a big step, about 4,000 km and predicted to be nearly six hours. Our departure was scheduled for 0945 Eastern time with a 1237 Pacific time arrival (1537 Eastern time). According to the airline we departed at 1022 Eastern and arrived at 1353 Pacific (1653 Eastern). The details are more fun.

Having avoided the morning traffic rush by staying at the Airport we were still up at 6 AM. That made for an easy shuttle ride to the terminal and a quick trip through check-in, airport security and US border services, leaving time for a leisurely coffee and breakfast.

We boarded the airplane as scheduled just as a reasonably heavy blast of snow hit the airport. The airline employees continued to call for passengers to voluntarily gate check luggage taking care to remind us that the plane was full and there might not be sufficient overhead room for all of our carry-on baggage.

Interestingly, the reason for the initial delay at the gate was that the ground crew was having some difficulty stowing luggage, meanwhile, inside there was still some space available overhead. Although the airline lists departure as 1022 the plane actually pushed back from the gate at 1040. Then from 1110 to 1125 we were at the anti-icing station and it was actually 1144 when the wheels left the ground. The flight was otherwise uneventful and we met our Princess Cruises representative around 1430 and arrived at the Long Beach Hilton by 1525.

LAX traffic protocols have changed. No longer do multitudes of cabs and hotel shuttles plug the road in front of the passenger terminals. Instead there is a fleet of green busses shuttling passengers and luggage to a transfer point where the taxis form long queues and vie with ride sharing vehicles for customers. The worst part of this system is that it creates an extra luggage handling step, on and off the shuttle and it is not particularly easy to throw a 20 kg (45 lb) on and off the shuttle bus. Otherwise it seems to reduce traffic on arrivals. Later we shall see what happens on the return.

During our search for a dinner venue, which we found, we came across the “Waters Edge Winery” right in downtown Long Beach. A short chat with one of their staff was intriguing and we decided to return after having dinner. Gail enjoyed her glass of sauvignon blanc while I tasted five of their offerings and all were very nice. Apparently, they are a group of franchised “mom and pop” micro winery operations. Yet another interesting concept.

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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Embarkation Day

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Ok, so we officially hate time changes—again. I suppose it is the rate of change that’s the real problem. We have travelled across two oceans by ship, no problem. The same distance by plane and it takes one day per hour of change to get back to normal. Despite the difference in time our bodies put us to sleep this night at about the same time as at home. Then we awoke feeling rested only to discover we’re still in the same time zone as we began and now have three hours to wait for 7 AM local time and seven hours until our cruise port transportation is ready.

There are some positives I suppose. Our luggage will depart ahead of us and may be waiting in our stateroom when we arrive. We also have considerable loyalty status with the cruise line so pier side checkin usually happens quickly. In retrospect what does the time change really matter? For the next two weeks we have virtually no time sensitive events on the calendar anyway. Ah yes, I remember now. It’s the reverse trip where we do have things scheduled only now our bodies are working three hours late.

We managed breakfast, cereal purchased at a nearby shop where we also purchased wine, the real reason for visiting the shop. Our suitcases were picked up before 8:30 AM but we had to wait several cups of coffee until 11:45 for our turn to travel to the port. The actual bus trip took 30 minutes, check in was over and done with in 15 minutes, the longest wait was on the gangway where the identity pictures seemed to be taking extra time. Never-the-less, approximately one hour got us from the hotel room to stateroom. Despite the head start our luggage did not beat us to the room, for that we had to wait until 2:30 PM, meanwhile we had our embarkation day cheeseburger…and ice cream. The only minor glitch was the room setup with twin beds rather than queen. The steward fixed that but as it turns out, that was how it was booked and neither of us noticed.

The evening unfolded with a couple more “glitches”. At dinner I presented one of our gift coupons for a bottle of wine. Apparently, the particular item is no longer stocked. I was offered a chardonnay as a replacement for the cab sauvignon. Really? No! When a couple of other suggestions (at least red) failed in my opinion I asked the head waiter to simply refund the value of the gift certificate to my room account. I think I could have asked the head waiter to punch the captain and he would have been less offended. Eventually, he promised he would find a suitable alternative and send it to our room. That was how it was left until about 9 PM. The knock at the door was from room service with a bottle of the Mondavi originally ordered but twice the volume. I both won and lost that battle.

Battle number two occurred a few minutes after the wine arrived when a person arrived to deal with the balky TV remote with only half of the buttons operational. He seemed incapable of understanding why I wanted to disable closed captioning, one of the failed buttons. After a brief “discussion” he ran away and returned in a few minutes with an almost completely working remote—except for the on/off button. Oh well!

Backing up a bit, during the evening we renewed acquaintance with entertainers Dave and Leialoha who are again operating the Hawaiian Cultural program on board. We missed the only performance by the Sun Shine Duo but as we exited the theatre to escape a rather unfunny comedian, we heard a voice call out to us, we turned and it was Anna, one of the two women who are the Sun Shine Duo who made us promise to come and dance with them on Thursday. 

I believe that pretty much finished the day.

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