Sent: Monday, May 16, 2016 8:19:56 AM
Subject: Report # 135 Sailing Towards San Diego, California May 14, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 84 degrees...but not for long.....
Subject: Report # 135 Sailing Towards San Diego, California May 14, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 84 degrees...but not for long.....
Report # 135 Sailing Towards San Diego, California May 14, 2016 Saturday Partly cloudy & 84 degrees…but not for long…..
Today was a reminder that eventually everything has to come to an end. Especially when it involves packing……not our most favorite of activities. Thank goodness, we began doing this over a week ago, as it is a pain. But it could be worse, we understand. If we lived in Canada for instance, we would be restricted to the size and weight of our luggage needed to be shipped. Every single thing put in each suitcase has to be itemized on a form for customs and immigrations. In one respect, we would definitely bring far less stuff, especially clothes. This is not a bad idea to keep in mind for our next trip. We know, we say that every time, but less is better.
Boy, did the temperature change or what this morning? Looking out the dining room windows at breakfast, we expected hot and steamy like yesterday. But once outside on the promenade deck, we found the worst of the humidity had disappeared. It was much more pleasant. Too bad we did not have the time to enjoy any outside time, because we needed to do the final packing.
It would have been great to be able to watch some news on the TV, but the reception has been spotty much of the day. For some unknown reason, this seems to be a pattern in this part of the Pacific Ocean. Good time to go to lunch in the dining room.
There was a special "Fresh Fish on Deck" lunch in the Lido pool area at 11:30 to 1:30pm. The chefs prepared fresh red snapper along with refreshing Caesar salad. Now that is different from the occasional Mongolian Cookouts that they had on the world cruise. And considering the BBQ set up they successfully held just yesterday, we appreciate the effort into today's special meal.
But it was the dining room for us as they offered a hero sandwich on a sourdough roll with chips or fries. We both had small salads with green goddess dressing first, then ended the meal with sweet desserts of ice cream. Always a treat to dine in here as the waiters are all wonderful.
Around 2pm, we went up to deck nine to see if we were close to Cabo San Lucas, our missed port of the day. The Captain had brought the ship within five miles of the Baja Peninsula, and right past Cabo. And as we had expected, the seas became rougher with swells and white caps. The temperature had dropped another 10 degrees at least. And the wind had a chill in it. Every time we leave Cabo, we hit winds that have always blown towels and hats overboard. Quite a contrast from the sheltered bay in Cabo. Sure would have been nice to have stopped here, but with the tender landings inoperable, they had no choice but to skip it.
Shipboard life went on with the usual activities which included one lecture from Valerie Mock who spoke about the exchange of plants and animals between the Old World and the New World in the 15th and 16th centuries. Interesting how lives could be changed with the introduction of new species. We have searched for these talks to be televised, but so far we have not found them repeated during the day. Too bad, we hate when these talks are not broadcasted for everyone to enjoy. We sure are going to have a lot of suggestions when we get the survey for this cruise when we get home. Some of these changes do not make sense to us.
This afternoon, we thought it might be a good idea to get a copy of our shipboard account. We did find one discrepancy with a charge for a Pinnacle Grill dinner. This happens sometimes, when someone other than the manager does the accounting. Yes, we were given the half-off discount, but for us, it should have been for free. Every cruise as President's Club members give us 10 complimentary dinners each, so we had 10 dinners this cruise of 16 days. We had 10 dinners for the 115 day world cruise, and managed to use every one of them. Now we could have used one free dinner for two lunches in the Pinnacle Grill, but it seemed that the restaurant was closed many afternoons. So we did not go there for lunch on this shorter cruise. Anyway, it is always a good idea to go over your account, because small mistakes do happen, and they are always corrected when they are brought to their attention.
Dinner for us tonight was in the Pinnacle Grill, our last chance to savor their wonderful grilled veal chop that Tina promised to have for our entrees. Sure enough, when we went to order, the chops were ready to go, seasoned and salted perfectly. We thanked Tina when she came by to check on our meal. Since these chops are not on the menu, we would not have known we could order them.
We watched a movie after dinner called The Perfect Man, we think. Far from perfect, it turned out to be a stalker film, very well acted with a theme that could have been like the Michael Douglas movie years ago that sent chills up your spine (the title escapes us). No wonder one of us stays up past midnight.
We had another hour back on the clock tonight, so now we are back where we started……Pacific Time. One more day at sea, and we will be pulling into the harbor at San Diego.
Bill & Mary Ann
