Arriving in San Diego

Tuesday September 29, 2009

Land, at last.

First glimpse of wonderful palm trees
(on the point).

We started to see lots of seals, pelicans
and cormorants.

Passing an interesting boat.

Finally we see the San Diego skyline.
Coronado Bridge in distance.

The Star of India at the Maritime Museum.

The jets blast in right over the city.

Since our hotel was so far from downtown, we decided to start off with a trolley tour to get an idea of the city. We were due to dock by 8:00 am, so I figured we should be able to do this and be at our hotel in La Jolla by early afternoon. We even had express tickets to leave the ship early. But, for some reason immigration wouldn't let anyone off the ship until they cleared everyone who wasn't American or Canadian, so we didn't get off until after 10:00 am.

End of cruise

At sea, at sea

Sunday September 27, 2009

We did a few laps around the deck. At least the ocean was calmer.

Previous night's towel animal & program for the day's events.

Of interest was a speaker on digital photography in the Vermeer Lounge. Unfortunately we only got to hear one segment - this ship had come from Alaska and was continuing through the Panama Canal so there would be several. But I did learn something.

There were also hands-on cooking classes but I believe there was a fee. The internet room wasn't nearly as busy as on other cruises we've been on - maybe they've priced themselves out of the market.

This was formal night so we ate in the Lido restaurant and were surprised to see so many people up there. It's just not worth it for us to take formal clothes on such a short cruise. The movies playing in the theatre didn't interest us but in the show lounge that night was a comical juggler.

Monday September 28, 2009

Cloudy. Not much happened today. We passed the Bay of San Francisco later in the morning. From the daily program: "From here we will sail to a position on the navigation chart above Rodriguez Seamount. A seamount is a large isolated underwater elevation characteristically of conical form. The Rodriguez Seamount descends from a depth of 356 fathoms to 2000 fathoms beneath us." Well, I don't even like thinking about being on water that deep. What's a fathom? some (like me) might ask. About 6 feet, I think.

There was a talk on disembarkation. Then, in the movie theater was an engine-room-tour movie and talk. You might think not many people would attend but the room was so full that some people had to stand. The commentator had a Dutch accent, so Glenn missed much of what he said. Right after that was a talk on San Diego in the main theatre. For a travel guide, the guy didn't give much information on San Diego and he had very few photos. We spent some time reading in the library. Glenn had borrowed a book he had to get finished.

We had a nice dinner at a table for two in the dining room and wound up close to a couple at another table for two who we hit it off with. We gabbed through the entire dinner. Later that night the entertainment was a singer with a powerful voice singing 'a tribute to the divas.'