Report # 136 Stuff to do at home.......May 18, 2014 Sunday Warm, in the low 80's

It's funny, but even though we have only been home less than a week, it seems like we have been here for weeks. That is because there is SO much to catch up on, it is overwhelming. We find it easier to do a little, then go out for a long walk and lunch. We have been blessed with very warm weather that has gradually returned to comfortable temperatures in the low 80's. For us, it is much nicer to be outside on days like these.

But the good news is that our seven pieces of shipped luggage arrived, pretty much in one piece, on Thursday, the 15th, in the late afternoon. Frankly, it would have been nice not to have to deal with it for a week or so, but at least it is here, and not lost in space. Since we had taken out some extra insurance on the four duffels, we did have to sign for them. Good thing we were home, because that could get complicated re-scheduling to our advantage.

Last year, our entire shipment was on a pallet and shrink-wrapped. The Fed Ex driver had a small fork lift to bring the pallet to the garage doors, which is a long ways down our driveway. This time, the driver asked if he could drive his truck to the garage doors, instead of lugging each bag one at a time. He realized that after hauling one suitcase, they probably weighed more than he did. Of course, we said yes, and we even helped him take them off of his truck, which did not have a lift gate.

Now if it were up to me, Mary Ann, the luggage would have remained in the living room until tomorrow, or even later since I tend to be the procrastinator (not always good). But......one of us was more interested in knowing if the Sri Lankan elephant, the Papua New Guinea and Fiji masks and baskets, and the Guatemalan giraffe made it home in tact. Since we never did keep tabs on which bag had what, we ended up opening all of them to find these treasures. Lo and behold, all of the souveniers made it in one piece. The only casualty was the $4.00 wall clock, which had broken glass. Kind of expected that.

So the rest of the contents are now spread in neat pile all over the floor, furniture, chairs, and piano. Notice, we said NEAT. We can tackle this chore a little at a time. One nice thing is that most every piece of clothing is clean, thanks to the efficient free laundry service onboard the ship. Towards the end of the Panama cruise, the bag of laundry that was sent out in the morning, arrived back that same evening.

Our new rooster, Foghorn, has only three girlfriends left. Our hens were really on the elderly side, so perhaps this summer, we will look for some younger chicks for him. He is still strutting and doing his thing, even defensive with us, since he really doesn't know us yet. We did have an out-dated bag of corn chips in the pantry, which we fed them when we got back. That is the best way to make friends with him. Our roaming peacock, who our neighbor named Anthony, has been following Bill around as he mows the weeds. Guess that disturbs the many insects hiding in the grasses, which gives him plenty of fresh snacks as he tags behind.

The only one missing in action is our feral cat. Not that he was ever "ours", he just made the rounds when the feeder dispensed the dry cat food twice a day. We have no idea how old he was, or even if he may have belonged to someone out here. Our guess is that if we have not seen him for five days now, he must have found a new home, or is in "cat heaven".

So that's a wrap for this world cruise. As always, we did notice some subtle differences, small cutbacks that would probably go unnoticed by the first-time world cruisers. Perhaps we are becoming part of the crowd that does not like change, especially with age-old traditions. Like we said previously, nothing stays the same forever. Will that keep us from coming back for another Grand Voyage? Well, probably not.

Our next trip will be in the fall, when we join the Statendam for one week in Alaska, then 35 days in the South Pacific. Then we hope to be back on the Amsterdam next January for her 114 day Grand World Voyage.

Wishing you all a wonderful summer.............

Report # 135 San Diego, California May 13, 2014 Tuesday Warm, 89 degrees

Finally landed at our final destination

The last lily

Debarkation day is never easy, or as smooth as you think it should be. Even the best laid out plans can go astray, despite the best efforts put forward by the staff and crew. We would find that out around 9:30 am, when debarkation should have begun.

Beautiful San Diego harbor

Calm and warm today

Local vessels

Boat harbor

Hotels

Naval ships

Naval Museum

San Diego skyline

The pier was busy

Hotels

Gangway extended to the terminal

Important stop

Guests waiting to debark on the promenade deck

Sante Fe Railroad

Highrise

Amsterdam docked

A classic way to sail

The dining room was almost empty of guests when we went this morning at 7 am. It was open for service from 6:30 to 8 am for those who chose not to go to the Lido. Service was excellent, but also sad, as many of our everyday waiters came by to say goodbye. Some of them are also going home like us, after a 9 or 10 month contract with the cruise line. You can bet they were extremely happy this morning.

When we got back to our room from breakfast, our final statement was in the mail slot. How did we know that the final complimentary Pinnacle dinner would be charged to our account? They did give us the 50% off, but it should have been free. Luckily, there were only two people at the desk disputing their bills. It only took 10 minutes to get it verified through Tina, the manager of the PG. Funny thing, another couple we know was doing the very same thing....getting the charge taken off of their bill. Guess they think we have nothing else better to do. Worse yet, we could have missed it and been out the money. Not the best way to end your epic voyage.

The time for our exit was about 9:45 am, but this did not look like that would happen, because some of the non-US citizens had not responded to the call for the customs officials. There were a total of 30 passengers missing or still sleeping. By 9:30 am, Gene began calling these folks by room number and name, until they finally showed up by 9:45am or so.

Now this is where things got squirrely. Gene called the expedited guests first, or those who chose to take all of the luggage off by themselves. This group began lining up at the kiosk on deck two, but for some unknown reason, were going nowhere fast. OK, now the suite guests holding pink # 1, which included us, were called to exit. So we got in line behind the expedited group, going nowhere fast. More of our group were trying to get out of the forward elevators, but could not because the lobby was full of people and suitcases.

As if that was not bad enough, the shore excursion manager let the tour folks go from the Queens Lounge to get off to go to their buses. Now the stairwell was plugged, and none of us were going anywhere soon. That 's when Gene appeared at the end of the line, with a puzzled look on his face, obviously not aware this was happening. He made his way upstream to the security guard at the kiosk to find out what was up. Whatever he did or said, the line began to move slowly. However, he quickly announced to the rest of the remaining guests NOT to come to deck two until it was cleared.

And that is one good reason not to book a flight early out of a debarking port. You never know what to expect. Come to think of it, more stuff happened this morning that we did not see coming as well. Once in the terminal building, we asked where our luggage was stacked. Usually, our group has their bags separated from the crowd, because ours goes Fed Ex. Well, the HAL rep said he believed that our luggage had already been picked up and was gone. That would be too easy. So we checked to see if that was right, and it was not. We found 6 of our bags, but one was missing. One of the smaller ones had been placed in the wrong pile. So we gathered them all together, and the agent said to leave them there....we did not have to lug them through customs. Satisfied that this was OK now, we breezed through the official's line, handed off our customs form, and located a taxi right outside the terminal.

Boy, was it going to be a hot day or what? Every time we have landed here, it has been foggy. Not today, since the temperatures were already climbing to the high 80's. It was nice to be at the airport, where it was cooler, and we would have time to relax before our flight at 1:30pm. Yesterday, our travel agent had confirmed our flight to San Francisco, and nothing had changed. But guess what? Upon logging in our number, we found our flight had been changed to 4:30pm. What's with that? So we went over to an agent at the end desk, who told us our flight had been cancelled due to the fact the plane never arrived. Darn.

Heading towards the airport

But.....we were early enough to search for an earlier flight. Just by sheer luck, there were two seats available, not together, but who cares, on a flight leaving at 1:30pm. Great, we took the seats, and figured we had about 1/2 hour to make it to the gate. Ahhh, not so fast. One of us got the TSA free sign on their ticket, but one of us had to go through regular security. Having been really careful about packing, it should have been a breeze. Guess what....it was NOT.

My small HAL duffel, packed full of leftover prescriptions, some delicate costume jewelry, documents, and laundry would not pass inspection. The screener called for a bag check, which took a few minutes. I was taken to a table, where another screener began taking stuff out of the bag piece by piece. I did not ask what they were looking for, because you never know how they are going to interpret your inquiry. So silence is best in this case. Except, the time was ticking away, and I was afraid of missing the flight at this point. Anyway, she took a tub full of my jewelry in containers to the screener, who ran it again. Then came back and repeated the process with more stuff. Turned out the problem was with a small tin that I saved that had cookies in it, figuring it was good to take the shell jewelry home in. Not a good idea, because it was the metal that set off the xray machine. Learn something new every time we fly.

Finally joining up with my better half, who was stroking out on the side lines, we figured we had 15 minutes to make it to the gate in time for boarding. If it wasn't for this flight also being delayed by 1/2 hour, we would have missed it. So, it did end up being our lucky day after all. We boarded, and took our seats in the back of the plane. Glad this was not a 5 hour flight, but for one hour, it was fine. We left by 12:20pm and landed before 1:30pm in sunny San Francisco.

Calling our son from a pay phone in the baggage area, he arrived within the hour after getting our message. Sure was nice to see his truck coming, and even better to be on the freeway before the worst of the commute traffic hit. There was a backup downtown, but it gave us lots of time to catch up on family news.

We arrived home around 3:30pm, and soon saw what the spring rains had left for us..........6 to 8 foot tall weeds in the back pasture. The bird pens looked like a jungle surrounded them. We will have our work cut out for us for the following weeks, but secretly, we enjoy every minute of it. Except for the stickers and the pollen. We did not miss that.

Will let you all know when our luggage arrives VIA Fed Ex and how much of it makes it through in one piece.

Report # 134 Sailing Towards San Diego, California May 12, 2014 Monday Partly cloudy, a chilly 66 degrees

Well, we never thought we would be able to say it was a chilly day, but when we went outside on this fine, sunny morning, we were chilled in no time. Even though we are sailing in a northwesterly direction off of the coast of Baja California, we must have picked up a different current that carries cooler waters. Gone are the balmy days and nights with high humidity that makes us hot and sticky. That part, we will miss somewhat. Where we live, we can still get hot days, but the evenings usually cool off for comfortable nights.

Not a whole lot was happening today, except the regular activities that keep most folks busy during the day. Since all of our luggage will go out in the hall before midnight, we had to finish up the last of the packing. We had decided a long time ago that we would not take anything but our hand carrys on the plane. So it was necessary to separate the liquids and sharp items to be stashed in the Fed Ex bags. Most all of the toiletries we had originally brought with us are gone. It has taken several of these long trips and many lists to get it close to correct.

Hoping to get some fresh air and sun, we went to the aft deck for a short time. Short, because it was windy and cool. If you wanted to stay on the lounges, you needed to use many towels under you. The wind blew right through the mesh, so it did not work for long. The few folks that were out there with swimsuits on were in denial for sure. We went back to the room, and watched a good movie, about a little boy who mysteriously appeared to a childless couple with some strange qualities.

At 3pm, there was another Indonesian Crew Show held in the Queens Lounge. We don't think anyone missed it. And it was just as good as the one they performed on the world cruise. Nice to see the pride in their culture from these gals and guys we have come to know so well. Of course, a special drink, a Rasa Sayang, was served in a souvenier glass for $9.75 during the performance.

Our cruise director, Gene, gave a disembarkation farewell reception in the Queens Lounge at 7pm for those of us who are headed home tomorrow. Even though we did not go, we suspect it was like all other disembark talks we have attended in the past. Basically, he tells you all the same things that the detailed letter sent to us says......only with some humor mixed in for good measure. The most important thing is that everyone needs to attend the Border Protection Inspection beginning at 7am. All the non-US citizens will be seen on the ship, while the US citizens will be checked in the cruise terminal. Once that is done, if everyone co-operates, then disembarkation should begin by 9:30am. A few years ago, some passengers did not respond to the urgent calls to see the officials, thus delaying the departure of guests who had early flights. Very frustrating when you are waiting to leave. It has been mentioned that there should be a fine for not responding as required, but so far, it has not happened. We simply hope that the message for this inspection has been delivered so everyone can understand the importance.

Dinnertime was good as usual. Some of our favorite items were on the menu, as well as roasted chicken. Noticing that another entree had tempura onion rings, we added a plate of those to our order. The best part of dinner, however, was the apple strudel with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side. Bet we will be thinking about this dessert tomorrow when we are at home with no dessert. Darn......

The Dancing with the Stars at Sea had their finale tonight at 9:30pm. Six finalists were competing for the one spot that may or may not earn them a free cruise if chosen the winner. It is a fleet-wide contest, so the competition probably gets extreme at that point. We could have gone to see the show, but we knew we had those heavy pieces of luggage to haul out of the room. We did not want to wait too long, because there may not be a lot of room outside to leave it. Our neighbors on both sides of us are also leaving, so space may be limited.

The Cruise Log was waiting for us on our bed tonight. It stated that the total distance we have traveled since leaving Ft. Lauderdale will be 5203 statute miles when we land in San Diego tomorrow. Added to the 40,000 plus miles we have already traveled, well, it's a long, long ways. And will surely give us plenty to talk about for the remainder of this year......at least until our next adventure.

Thanks for following along with us. It has been a pleasure, and when we get home and somewhat settled, we will give our final thoughts about this world cruise. So stay tuned, and adios for now.

Report # 133 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico May 11, 2014 Sunday Sunny, 72 degrees Happy Mother's Day !

Los Arcos

The final port of call for this cruise was Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. By the time we woke up, Los Arcos was looming in our window, big as life. This would be the best time to photograph these natural rock formations, since the sun was hitting it just right. 

Can only see the hole from a center angle 

Los Arcos

Natural rock formations

Los Arcos

The good thing is that we were anchored here by 8am, but sadly, our departure time was 3pm.....way too early unfortunately. That's the way it is, so we made the best of our time here.

By the time we finished breakfast, most of the tour groups had gone over by tenderboat. There was a total of 18 tours today. Some were site-seeing, but most were adventure tours. This is the first time we noticed parasailing as one of the options. 

The surf was cool

Paragliding

Usually that is something you have to "sign your life away" to do. Other active excursions were ziplining, snorkeling, swim with dolphins, 4x4 jeep ride, helmet diving, and sportsfishing. If we heard correctly while listening to the tour descriptions on TV, there was an age limit of 69 on some of these excursions. Hey, that is getting a little too close for comfort. This was not spelled out in the tour book, and what about all the folks who booked these tours online? How do they check your age there? Oh well, since we did not book anything in Cabo, we need not worry.

We headed to the tenderboat before 10am. Using our 5 star status, we were able to get on without getting tender tickets. It was surprising to see that the Coral Princess was not in the bay like we had suspected. It is not unusual to have two or more ships here in one day. Anyway, we would have the city to ourselves. Maybe because it was Sunday morning, the town was slow in waking up. 

Not too busy yet.....it is Sunday morning

Only half of the shops were opened, but the scores of vendors and guys offering to sell boat trips to Los Arcos made up for it. This is another place that the "no thank you" t-shirt might be helpful. With the amount of boats in this marina, we guess that the locals get a lot of business, which is fine.

We took our time walking past the numerous souvenier shops and restaurants getting ready for 2 for 1 margeritas and beers. Of course, we would do this later, but first, we made our way towards the Medano Beach. 

Medano Beach

Medano beach

Hotels on Medano Beach

Hillside condos above the harbor

Along the marina walkway, we were able to get some great photos of a sealion begging fish food from a local fisherman. 

Sealion

Sealion

Pelicans were also fighting over the scraps he was throwing them. 

Pelicans fighting for the catch

An adult pelican

Several pelicans out today

Pelicans guarding the boats

Enjoying their Sunday morning

A full pelican

Fish were swimming in schools in the marina as well.

Marina fish

Food for the seals

Colorful

Marina fish

The water was clear and clean today, enough so that we could see pufferfish blimping around the rocks. Nothing seems to bother them, since they are poisonous.

A pufferfish

A pufferfish in the marina

Another puffer

They are poisonous

We made our way to the Puerto Paraiso Mall, the high end shopping complex in Cabo. It is a great place to stop for a restroom break. 

A very nice mall.....Puerto Paraiso

A rooster fish

Signature lighthouse at the marina

A marlin statue

Hotels and resorts closer to town

Wyndham is a big name in town

Marina walkway

A fun ride

Palm-lined streets

Hard Rock Cafe

Street was closed for Sunday

Many tourists

Fountain at Puerto Paraiso Mall

Fountain near Baja Brewing Co.

Very nice and cooling

Had to take this picture

One of many shop fronts

Lobster at Lorenzillo's

Need clothes?

Boats in the marina

Some expensive vessels in this marina

Many, many nice boats

Shop-lined marina

Seals like this marina

So do the crabs

Red crab

A local linnet

Thinks he is a duck

Then we headed along the rest of the marina walk to the beach.

Getting our toes in the sand

Steep drop off

Cute little dog was afraid of the waves......he was smart

Water sure felt good

Not many swimmers

And strollers

More boaters

Local fishing vessel

Steep, rocky hillsides

Taking off our shoes, we had a nice cooling stroll in the surf. Considering that there was a nice breeze blowing, it was still fairly hot in the sun. A few young local teen girls were actually swimming with jeans and t-shirts on. And here were concerned about getting our shorts wet. That happened anyway, because the waves were unpredictable......gentle at first, then surprise....a big one. 

Watch out....it comes fast

Anyway, it felt great, but we did not have the time to spend much more than 1/2 hour on the beach.

Our favorite restaurant was still there.......Baja Brewing Co. 

Baja Brewing Co......perfect for lunch

Yes, time for lunch

A large variety of beer

So we stopped and ordered two Blonde beers and a margherita pizza with tomatoes and onions on it. Sure was good, just like we remembered it. Must be good, because this place had no empty tables outside on their patio.

Baja Blonde beers

Tomato/onion-topped margherita pizza

We managed to make the long walk back to the tenderboat landing without buying a single thing. Frankly, we have no more room for anything in our seven pieces of luggage.

Beach combers

Spring breakers

Many water sports available

You rent them right on the beach

Several fairly new hotel properties on the beach

Lots to keep you busy

Coming back from deepsea fishing

Easy to fish from shore

Not a bad catch...pretty good prize $

Sailaway was at 2:30pm, and we did not want to miss it. There were a few reason we didn't want to miss it. First, it is a pretty sailaway, leaving the harbor and the beaches, and also passing by Los Arcos. 

Beach of the rocks

Sailboat

A party boat

Leaving Cabo San Lucas Bay

Goodbye hotels

And goodbye boaters

Harbor entrance

Pelican in flight

Frigate

Frigate

Sunning themselves

Frigates on the rope

Clean, cool water of the Pacific Ocean

Just what they need....more hotels

A gull

This would be our last sailaway of the entire cruise, but even better, what we had warned the folks about came true. Once the ship left the calmness of the bay, we hit choppy seas, and wind. A big and cold wind. As Captain Fred turned the ship to head north, the pool swirled around and around, and overflowed. Towels, chair pads, hats, and napkins flew everywhere. We see it every year, and were prepared with warmer clothes to put on. Sure emptied the deck of people in a hurry. Even us eventually.

A ferry

Very pretty place

New construction

Got many offers for boat trips

A Cabo tender and one of ours

Amsterdam anchored

Senor Frogs

Hooters is no longer there

Yo,ho,ho....a pirate ship

Boat landing that is not used

Marina at Cabo San Lucas

Many hotel rooms here

Long stretch of beach

Fishing boat

Another fishing boat

Wave runners with waving riders

Looks like fun

Choppy waters outside the bay

Looking back on the rock formations

Leaving town 

The city of Cabo in the mist

Got really cold

And there comes the wind

There goes the pool

The party did not last long

The rest of the afternoon was spent downloading photos, and doing nothing but watching TV or reading. We considered skipping dinner, because it was the last formal night and one of us was sporting a headache. Good thing we didn't, because Tom G the dining room manager, had a surprise guest for us this evening. Our guest was the future cruise consultant, Joanne. Her husband, Michael, has already gone home, so she was free to join us. We ended up talking for over 2 hours, and barely noticed it when the dining room was almost empty. Actually, with today being a port day, we think a lot of guests chose to eat in the Lido. The folks that are staying onward after San Diego will have one more formal evening, and probably the majority will not dress up for that. For a change, it was not unbearably hot tonight in the upper dining room. Either the air-conditioning has been fixed, or the cooler weather has helped a whole lot. We think it is the weather.

Tonight was supposed to be a Black and White Ball. However, according to Joanne, it had been decided that since so many folks did not seem to have the formal wear to attend this affair, the event was reduced to a Black and White Party in the Crows Nest at 9pm. An added bonus for changing this was that they did not have to decorate the dining room. Truthfully, the over-the-top decorations in La Fontaine have stopped ever since Yamtana, their head decorator and waiter, was not on the world cruise this year. He was very artistic and saw to it that special formal nights had that extra special touch. Of course, we did not attend this party because we were still eating dinner. Would we have gone anyway? Probably not. The entertainment in the Queens Lounge was Irish Soul, an act performed by the singers and dancers.

One more day at sea, and we will be wrapping up this 130 day voyage. Think we are ready.