Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Waves, Wine & Warmth (2018)
Another princess awaits
Tuesday
started in a similar manner to Monday: Bruce had already been at
work for some time when I woke up. Once I got myself organised, we
both went for breakfast at local coffee shop The Village Grind.
I then set out for a walk along West Ocean Blvd, as far as the
Hilton hotel that I had stayed in during my last visit to Long
Beach, in November 2013. After that, I amused myself for a while by
watching circuits of the Grand Prix racetrack being driven by both
racing cars and rally cars, in connection with what I think was a
'press day' for the event.
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I
made sure I was back at the Westin in good time to pack and make
final preparations for our transfer to our latest cruise ship,
Star Princess. We used Uber for the fairly short ride to San
Pedro; it worked well enough despite our progress being initially
hindered by Grand Prix traffic. Soon enough, we were pulling up at
the appropriate berth for our ship. A delightfully easy boarding
process awaited us, and in no time at all we were settling into
stateroom B201 and meeting our friendly cabin steward, Randell from
the Philippines. (I double-checked the spelling, as I had not
previously encountered this variation.)
The next priority was to grab some lunch at Horizon Court, the main buffet-style restaurant. Sometimes this venue can be surprisingly good on the first day, but we both agreed that today was not one of those occasions. Lunch was okay, but in no sense memorable.
We had plenty of time to make a photographic tour of the ship, the results of which can be seen on the 'Cruise Ship' page (see black menu bar above). As ever, the obligatory safety briefing took place in the Princess Theater prior to departure. This time, a new format had been adopted: it was no longer necessary for us to make our way there carrying our lifejackets. Overall, I thought that the changes were an improvement, with one glaring exception. The briefing now contained some truly cringeworthy sections that had been set to music. Who on earth thought that was a good idea, and who signed off on it? I think we should be told!
We returned to our stateroom to discover that our usual order of shrimp and canapés had been delivered together with a bucket of ice for one of the two bottles of west-coast sparkling wine that we had brought on board. The ship left its berth some 15 minutes ahead of schedule, without any kind of send-off due to the heavily industrial nature of the port. This mattered not one whit, as we simply proceeded with our own traditional departure celebration, consuming the finger food and a suitably chilled bottle of fizz. What's more, the beautiful afternoon sunshine meant that we were able to do so on our private balcony, while observing the ship's stately progress out through the breakwater, continuing almost as far as the island of Santa Catalina before turning northwards.
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After
a spell of relaxation, we headed out to continue the departure
celebrations in a more public way. Our favourite onboard watering
hole had always been the Wheelhouse Bar, but on our last joint
cruise in 2016, we had both been disappointed to see that this bar
had been gutted on Royal Princess, with the insertion of a
steakhouse into the heart of the venue. We were therefore delighted
to find that here on Star Princess, the original concept
survived intact. We enjoyed a cocktail while some remarkably
sprightly seventy-somethings graced the dance floor with
impressively accomplished and almost theatrical moves.
We
decided to move on to another favourite, Crooners, for
round two. We were discussing differences of detail that the latest
ship refurbishment had brought when, with typically American
openness and friendliness, a couple asked if they could join us at
our table. They were generally quite chatty and pleasant, but as
time passed we were to learn that while Jesus is Love, building 'the
wall' was absolutely essential in order to keep out undesirables.
Hmmm ... go figure, as they say in these parts. In retrospect,
perhaps a red flag should have been raised when they introduced
themselves as "Christians from Orange County". Bruce reckoned that
the home of John Wayne Airport was probably the most fiercely
Republican enclave on the entire west coast.
Eventually, we sought out a light supper of pizza slices and a sweet treat before turning in for the first night on the ship.