Travels And Tribulations: April 2015

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

April 28, 2015 ON BOARD THE QUEEN

I never saw a purple tree. I never hope to see one.

The Queen Mary (there is a Russian Submarine to the left)

The Promenade

On the Life Boat Deck

The Bridge

Here in San Pedro, with no organized tours at hand, your intrepid cruisers Googled it. And we found we were 7 miles away from the Queen Mary, a vessel I visited more than 40 years ago. It was my second Evangelical Press Association convention while I was editorial assistant to the editor in chief of Church of God Publications (and I didn’t remember a thing about the Grand Old Queen).

We secured a ride in a checkered cab, for $27 including tip, and were pleasantly surprised when the young lady told us our tour was free because we were off of the Grand Princess. We did a self-guided tour for a couple hours, then hired a ride back to the ship (a limo ride for $30). There is a lot that hasn’t changed in 80 or so years since Cunard launched the Queen – lots of polished wood, shiny brass, and stately staterooms. There were three play areas on board for the children. A variety of dining rooms (per class). I did not see the quarters for the guest lecturer. Oh well.

Back on the Grand Princess we had lunch in the International Café, and then the participated in the First On Board Sisler Rummy Tournament (FOBSRT – that’s pronounced Fob-Sert). Bonnie finished second. I finished next to last. To celebrate her achievement, she is napping.

Well, it’s anchors aweigh (no idea how much, but it is heavy) in an hour and I went to get this note and pictures up, so ...

TTFN

April 28, 2015 NO PREHOONDEY SAN PEDRO

April 28, 2015

NO PREHOONDEY SAN PEDRO

Well, this is going to be a different day. Long Beach dock is broken, so we are tying up in San Pedro – a container terminal – out in the middle of no where surrounded by lots of nothing to do. Two of our table mates, Brian and Elizabeth – very frequent cruisers – say that there is nothing in the area to explore. I’ll let you know.

I am told I have been remiss in my blogging duties, not giving you details about our table mates, nor our waiters, so I will attempt to correct that.

From conversation, I do not believe that either of the ladies worked outside of the home. Brian was in management, and Ron was a graphic artist. Ron said he and his partner worked with felt tipped pens and eventually hired two young computer savvy guys who did all the electronic stuff and then they sold the company to them.

All four have known each other for years in the Vancouver Victoria area. Brian and Elizabeth are native Canadians. Ron and Ann are Brits who moved to British Columbia more than 20 years ago – they still carry British passports, speak with refined accents, and eat with the backs of their forks.

Ciara is our waitress and Gustavo is our junior waiter. They are both very good and very friendly. Saturday morning Gustavo waited on us at breakfast in the dining room, and told me his fiancé was meeting the ship and they would get to spend the day together. He had Saturday night off, so Sunday night I asked him if she had gotten to come and he said they had a great time, and said that “Today is my birthday.” I secretly asked Ciara if she could get a cake so we could sing to him, she did – it came with two lighted candles – and when we did I thought the boy would cry. Good stuff!

Well, I am going to go set off the smoke detector. Every morning when I am showering, or when She Who Must Be Obeyed is showering (whoever goes first) we get a call from the Bridge saying the smoke detector signal has come on. The smoke detector in our cabin is 5 feet from the shower door, but when the hot, steamy air comes out it activates the alarm on the Bridge (Captain there is an anomaly on my sensors) and we get a phone call. Glad they keep an eye on it. We’ve tried leaving the door all the way open, partly open, or completely closed and then opening it. All three set off the alarm. The only way that it doesn’t go ringy-dingy is to leave the door closed and dry off in a steam cabinet. Bonnie did that once. She was not pleased.

I’m going to post this, and if there is any excitement after the poker game, I’ll be back with more. If not WiFi from Vancouver on Friday.

Bonnie’s Turn: We went to the show last night after supper. It was a long haired hippie comedian about 60 years old. He played an old fashioned guitar, sang and told jokes. He did not have any back up orchestra. He was hilarious. We laughed so hard we cried. And his jokes were not vulgar but just funny. He sang Beach Boys stuff (he used to sing with the Beach Boys), B J Thomas, Neil Diamond, and others. He had the audience do sing along on parts. It was a really fun time. He had one of the longest shows so far. Most shows have only been about 30 minutes but his was 45. He is a rather short rotund guy and he told jokes about showering in his cabin. Very funny.

Glitch number who knows. My Kindle decided to not play my games last night. The last time it did this I had to uninstall them and reinstall them. There is supposedly a wifi spot on this container dock and we are going to go off and maybe I can get my kindle working or else the trip home is going to be very boring!! Remember we have a long flight home from Vancouver.

Supper last night was the Italian night. I finally had some spaghetti with marinara sauce. They had meat balls but I didn’t eat those.

If we get off, we are 7 miles from anything worthwhile and to walk to something you have to walk along a busy highway. So we will go to the terminal and back on. There are no shops at the terminal or anything of interest except thousands of containers.

I think this is going to be a 2 times ice cream day or more!!!

TTFN

Monday, April 27, 2015

California Pictures

Finally! The Rock!

The Golden Gate Bridge Coming

The Golden Gate Bridge Going

Santa Barbara from the Lido Deck

Out on the wharf

The Beach. I Came. I Saw. I Left.

April 25, 2015 THE CASE OF THE MISSING SOCK

April 25, 2015

THE CASE OF THE MISSING SOCK

This morning my beloved wife, the bride of my youth, the mother of my children, the lover of my heart was frantically tearing the bed apart, looking for a lost sock! In the night sometime she took them off – brand new, softies – and lost one. I was sound asleep and missed everything but the search. She finally found it – after totally destroying the bed – folded neatly inside her pajamas.

Clad in other new socks, and the new pants she bought yesterday, Bonnie went off by herself to shop. Now she is back showing her trophies. She can tell you.

I have been rehearsing this morning for my next to last talk. The Princess Patter has never had the right one listed, but I have told the audience what was coming next. Somebody has been dropping the ball. But there is only one more – our last sea day – so they still have a chance to bat .250 (shoot, you can do that in the Major Leagues and make a million bucks).

One day later and one port more – it’s now the 26th, and we are anchored off of Santa Barbara.

This is a tender port, no dock big enough to receive a cruise ship, so 4 or 5 of the life boats are used as tenders to get us ashore and back. The weather was rough this morning and the Captain got permission to move us to a different anchorage to continue the tendering. Getting 2800 people (or those who wanted to go) ashore 100 at a time took some time. We got off somewhere around noon – we had not purchased a shore excursion, and were in no hurry. Once we got off we ate at a restaurant called “Sambos.” They had pictures up from the classic children’s story that has now been outlawed as racist (and it’s not about a Negro, it’s about a boy in India). A little boy (for those of you who don’t remember it) tricks a tiger to run around a tree and he turns into pancake batter – the tiger, not the boy. We didn’t eat pancakes, but I had a cheese burger and Bonnie had chicken tacos. Then we walked out to a touristy peer where we looked around, and walked back. We are two exciting tourists!

I have napped. She is napping. And then we will go to supper and a production show. Next stop, Catalina Island and another tender day.

From Bonnie: Now you would think if a cruise ship with 2800 people plus crew were in dock that the stores would be open. Not so. I left the ship around 8:15 and walked about 30 minutes to pier 39 from pier 27. The only thing open was the restaurants and those shops selling tours. Rats. So I popped into McDonalds and had a diet coke and a hot apple pie. I asked the young lady who waited on me what time the shops would open. She said 9 or 9:30. So I sat down drank my coke and ate my pie. At 9:15 I again ventured out to complete my shopping list. First I found the t-shirt I was looking for. Next I finally found the chocolate factory so I could get some chocolate covered pretzels. Next I went looking to get another pair of long pants (sweats actually) I found a pair. You know if you ask for a bag when you buy something they charge you 10 cents. After purchasing said sweats I headed to CVS to complete my shopping. One diet coke, Q-tips, a razor for me and a bag of combos (I was hungry for a salty snack). It wasn’t as cold yesterday and my hat didn’t fly off. I had a good time but was really dragging by the time I started back. It took a little longer but I made it back in time to meet David at 11:30 for a little bit of lunch. After eating a tuna sandwich, I went to the Vista lounge to watch sail away and wait for David’s talk. The hour before his talk was the Zumba class and I did about 20 minutes before my legs said STOP!

TTFN

Friday, April 24, 2015

April 24, 2015

THE CITY BY THE BAY

Another very different day for your Friendly Neighborhood Cruisers. Because we came into San Francisco from Canada, the whole ship’s compliment – passengers and crew – had to go through U.S. Customs and Immigrations. And what a situation that was. Bonnie and I were supposed to go off at 9:30 and it was almost 11. But all was well – we had no plans, so we just waited our turn and then did some exploring.

Basically we stuck to the street where the Docks are (ask the Bro what the name of the street is). We walked from Pier 27, where we are docked, to Pier 39 for shopping, lunch, souvenirs, and some picture taking. Got some decent shots of Alcatraz, the tower on the Embarcadero, and one of the Oakland Bay Bridge. We were not close enough to the Golden Gate Bridge. Talked about taking a boat ride out past Alcatraz and the GGB, but it was so windy, we did not. We were going to take a tour of Alcatraz, but they are sold out until April 27 (when we will be at Catalina Island). Oh well.

Our main goal of the day was to buy Bonnie a pair of long pants. Other than dress pants for on board, she brought only shorts, and it was a very windy 55 degrees out today. We found a place and she asked the sales girl if she could try them on. The girl said, “Sure. But we don’t have a dressing room. But right here is okay. This is San Francisco.” She told us she went to dinner one time and one of the patrons was naked. So I stood beside of a rack of sweatshirts and in front of Bonnie while she changed clothes. People have more fun than anybody!

We ate lunch at Eagle Café. Bonnie had a hamburger with bacon, cheese, and lots of stuff – and she ate the whole thing (first full meal she’s eaten in days). I had a cup of fantastic Clam Chowder and then two dozen fried oysters. Oh my goodness! On the way back to the ship we stopped for ice cream and had a double waffle cone each. They had FroYo, but we sinned and had the real thing!

Oh yeah. We stopped at CVS, and brought Mountain Dew, and chips for on board snacks.

Side note from Bonnie: We also stopped at a chocolate store where they made their own chocolate. They had all kinds of caramels, chocolate covered nuts or pretzels or fruits. I bought 2 of these and 3 of those and etc, and I got one truffle for David. It was $5.95 a pound and by the time I finished I had $10 worth. Oh my!! Haven’t eaten any yet. But I will later. I feel sure I will have consumed it all before I get home. Sorry!! We saw some hilarious t-shirts but resisted buying any. We saw a Darth Vader that said “Who’s your Daddy?” We saw lots of Minions t-shirts and some that were too indescribable. Stacey Amerson if you are reading this we saw one just for you. Ask me later! The wind blew my hat off 3 times!! Once I got it, once David got it and the third time a kind gentleman on the street got it for me. I finally took it off. Though the air was very cold!!

Sail away tomorrow is at 1 p.m., and my talk is at 2:30, so we’ll blog again on Sunday from Santa Barbara.

TTFN

April 23, 2015

EMBARKATION FROM HELJ

As you regular readers of these traveling ramblings know, we never know where our cabin is (other than it is on board ship) until we reach the dock. There we go the passenger manifest, sometimes the crew manifest, and there we are! And there is our cabin number, and our bags are tagged, and off we go.

Not so this time!

There were two passenger lists – no idea why – one for passengers fore, and another for passengers aft (that’s up front and in the back for you landlubbers). And the Traveling Sislers weren’t on either list.

Well, it goes down hill from there!

One of the luggage handlers directed us to a Princess office, where “They will be able to help you.” His faith was greater than their ability to produce!

Two calls later we were told that Cindy was on the way and that she would take care of us. Keep in mind that we still have our luggage with us (fortunately we packed lighter this time, because we kept it with us the whole time and eventually carried it to our room by ourselves).

We get to check in where a young fellow finds ME. Gives me two envelopes with our stateroom number (same Fleet Cabin we had five years ago on the Grand Princess) and instructions, and one cruise card with my name on it. Nothing for Bonnie.

Four Princess people later we have a card for Bonnie and we go on board. When I asked why they didn’t have one for Bonnie ready, I was told that they were told Bonnie wasn’t coming. I want to know right now, which one of you did that, because she was not happy! And you know how it goes if Mama ain’t happy!

So we get to Room 7125, and go in (the door uses a regular key, not an electronic key card) and there is one key on the desk. They didn’t know Bonnie was coming, so why bother we two keys! A trip to Customer Service and a call to the Deputy Cruise Director and 6 hours later, we have a key for Bonnie. Oh my goodness!

The first time we went off ship (in Victoria) Bonnie’s cruise card didn’t work. They had to manually scan her off and manually scan her back on and then she had to get a new cruise card made. The good folks at Princess have been very sweet, but there sure have been a large portion of goof ups.

Oh, there is no hair dryer in our stateroom. One of us doesn’t need it, but one of us does. I talked to our cabin steward who said there are none in “Accommodations” and I just moments ago talked to a member of the Cruise director’s staff who said there are some in the crew’s shop, so I will look there (addendum: they had one – bought same).

Double Oh (or Double Oyi as Myron Cope used to say), our toilet is on a time delay. I think. If you’ve cruised, you know you put the lid down, push the button, and a loud suction sound cleanse the waste and puts fresh water in. With ours, you put the lid down, push the button, and five seconds later it sucjs the stuff out). No idea why. No clue if it’s supposed to be that way, or one day, we’ll push it and the gunk will just sit there). Oh my goodness.

Well, anyway. We have a great table with two couples from British Columbia, folks who have known each other for years and we are a companionable group. Good wait staff. Gustavo, and What’s Her Name (sorry, I will do better).

Closed circuit for Luke, Mac, and Tate’s Mama: the Creme Bruelle (or however it is speeled) is fantastic! Great blow torched topping!

This ship does an English Pub lunch on select days, and we went to it yesterday, and had fish and chips (Yes, Bonnie ate fish) and bread pudding (Yes, David ate bread pudding). And we enjoyed it all.

My talks are in the Vista lounge, a small venue, and we had about 50 for the first talk (which was improperly advertised so that it looked like a cooking show). And the blurb in the Princess Patter for today’s talk is about yesterday’s talk on Water, not today’s talk on Salt. But the beat goes on.

Last night’s entertainer was Donny Ray Evins, doing “Unforgettable” a tribute to Nat King Cole, and it was fantastic. You thought you were singing the late singing legend. Great show!

After all the goof ups, it is easy not to have a good time, but we are getting over it and there is much good stuff on board. I’ll blog more about that later, and tell you what we do tomorrow in San Francisco.

Side note from Bonnie: All right. The bed is built into the back wall and enclosed at top and bottom by a wall. The only way to get to the back of the bed where I am sleeping is to get into the front and roll over to the wall. Consequently when David rolls my nose is against the wall. The mattress is about 6 inches thick and on a board. The pillows must be at least 30 years old. VERY lumpy and thin!! So far it has been a good temp and the air from the window is pretty cold. I am not sleeping well. My CPaP machine is sitting in the window. Oh well.

If it is only 16 degrees Celsius in San Francisco, I am finding a store and buying long pants. I bought shorts!! It was only in the 40's and 50's in Victoria and while we have been at sea. But we shall survive!!

TTFN

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

This one was written by Bonnie. Another point of view

It is 9:30am Augusta time and 6:30am Vancouver time on Tuesday, April 21. I thought I would send a note from the Empire Landmark Hotel downtown Vancouver before we get on the Grand Princess.

Well, yesterday was fun!! We got up at 2:15. Ivy arrived at 3. We loaded the car and headed to Atlanta. Arrived at the International airport about 5:30. Got out and waved Ivy goodbye. Shouldn't have done that!! Our flight was out of Domestic!! Kind lady told us how to go to the end of the building, down 2 flights and out the glass doors to find a shuttle that would take us to Domestic Terminal. After a 20-30 minutes ride we arrived. Found the check in kiosk for United, checked in printed our boarding passes and headed to security (my favorite place!!). It was very busy.

David told the lady I had a artificial knee so she got me an escort and took me to a scanner. I thought this is going to be good. Wrong. Went through scanner and she still patted me down. I guess she didn't believe the picture. Plus David got picked for additional scanning. Oh my GOD!!

We finally got through and found our gate we still had time to grab a croissant and a muffin for me and two drinks for $23. Got to the gate, plane was late of course and it was actually coming from San Francisco and then turning around and going back. It arrived they deplaned, cleaned and loaded a new crew. (Didn't clean real well there was a banana peal in the pocket at my seat!)

We finally took off at about 10. Four hour flight to arrive at 2 our time 1 their time. We only had about 50 minutes between this flight and our flight to Vancouver. We were late getting into San Francisco because of a huge fog and cloud covering. But it turned out the plane we were on was the plane going to Vancouver. So we just had to get off, they cleaned and we got back on. We grabbed two sandwiches (for a mere $20), a ham and cheese and a roast beef and cheese. Finally taking off and settling back for our 2 hour trip to Vancouver. Ate our sandwiches, tried to sleep and watched the scenery.

Arrived at Vancouver airport, declaration form in hand went through security. No we haven't been to Africa, and haven't been in contact with anyone from there. Why are we here and how long are we staying. Picked up our bags headed to ground transportation. To get out of baggage area we had to give them our declaration form which we had put a way. Met first unfriendly Canadian who growled stand over there. We got it out he took it and we left. Found our cab and after our $40 cab ride arrived at the hotel after having been up over 24 hours!!

Checked in, and arrived at our room on the 26th floor .Beautiful view and can see the harbor. Couldn't sleep so after messing with computer and phones headed out for a walk. We were unable to find one of the many gardens but we are really to tired. I am amazed at the number of Asian people in Canada. At least 50% of the people I saw on the street or driving big mercedes and jaguars and other large SUV's were of Asian descent.

Most every place only takes Canadian so we came back to the hotel after about an hour. I was tired and hungry, too.

Our hotel has a revolving restaurant on the 42 floor and it opened at 5 and it was 10 till so we headed up there. Beautiful!! We had a prime rib meal which was one of there specials and included salad and dessert. It was good. The service was very nice and the view was fantastic. Our meal lasted long enough so that we made one complete revolve. It takes 1 hour and 25 minutes. Our waiter said we got a early dinner special of 20 % off so we gave him the 20% off as a tip.

By the time we got back to our room it was 9:30 pm Augusta time and 6:30 pm Vancouver time. I have been up 30 hours or so!! I crashed and went to bed. David followed about an hour later. I slept fairly well. They have not turned the air conditioning on in the hotel yet so we slept with the window of the balcony open all night. They brought us a fan but it didn't help.

I finally got up at 6am Vancouver time. It is probably in the 40's outside but feels good to me. Glad I bought a coat and long pants.

We had met some of the Princess people at the airport and they told us where our hotel was, when to come to the port and etc. So we are only about 5 or 10 minutes cab ride from the port so we will leave for there around 10:30.

Well, I have had my bath. I am dressed and hungry. So we are headed up ( when ever David is ready) to the restaurant for a $18 buffet. It is expensive here. Oh well, I am retired.

David said he will be sending out blogs at every port since we will have access to our Verizon. He isn't buying any internet on board ship.

Hope you are all doing okay. Talk to you later.

Bonnie

Monday, April 20, 2015

In Vancouver

It has been a long day -- we've been up 20 hours, and even though it's only 7 p.m. our time, we are on our way to bed.

The morning started great. Ivy picked us up and drove us to Atlanta where I told her to go to the International terminal, since we were flying to Canada. Well, we were flying domestic first, so we had to relocate ourselves thanks to a kind shuttle bus driver, and then off to San Francisco. The plane was late leaving Atlanta because it was late getting in from San Francisco. But, as fortune favors the foolish, it was the same plane that took us on to Vancouver, so we had no worries making connections. We did have to get off because of security and then get back on.

Once in Canada, we hired a cab for a ride to our hotel. For those of you who have traveled to Russia, you will appreciate this next. The air condition in this hotel is centrally located and centrally controlled, and not turned on yet. So our balcony door is open to let in cool north breezes.

Walked around a little bit and then had a marvelous dinner back in the hotel in their revolving restaurant on the 42nd floor. What great views. And a very good meal of prime rib and all the trimmings.

Now, it's to bed and then off for the Grand Princess tomorrow. We sail at 4, and if I have WiFi I'll send you word of our doings.

Views from our balcony below.

TTFN