"Treasures of Cruising the World" with Bill & Mary Ann: Report #132 San Francisco, California May 11, 2017 Thursday Partly cloudy & 60 degrees Part #1 Of 2 80 Pictures

What a welcoming sight to see……the Golden Gate Bridge appearing off the coast of San Francisco very early this morning. Captain Fred had announced that he would be picking up the pilot around 6am, then proceeding under the Golden Gate Bridge around 7am. He would not promise that anyone would be able to see it, because it is not unusual this time of year, to have a low fog, where you cannot even see the upright sections where they connect to the bay's floor. So many passengers were excited about seeing the bridge, that we were happy to have overcast, and no fog.

The bow was already full of early risers by the time we woke up and joined them. Always good to have a few photos of the end of our long trip. Once the ship cleared the bridge, we went down to breakfast in the dining room, which had opened at the regular sea day time of 7:30am. Since only 500 guests were disembarking today, they kept the time the same. Except for the Lido, which we believe opened up at 6am. We never did dine up there, but have heard many positive comments from friends that had personalized and excellent service there every day, just like we did in the dining room.

The time for us to get off was estimated from 9 to 10:15am. By then, the whole ship should have been cleared. The Amsterdam was docked by 8:10am, and the first group of expedited guests were called by 8:40am. There must have been many of them, because there was a long time that elapsed before the next groups were announced.

We always like to watch the actin on the pier, and being that this was the very first time we have docked in the new Terminal 27, we were curious to see how well they performed. One good sign was seeing all of our luggage going off in a ship's bin. There were several of us from the world cruise that we getting off today, but we are unsure of the number. We had seven bags, while some other folks could have had many more.

We had expected things to be quite organized in San Francisco, new terminal and all. However, it was not. The customs and immigrations area was fine. Actually better than fine, since the agent we saw was pleasant. The lines were moving swiftly and well defined like a Disneyland ride.

Not so when we went down to the lower level, and had to gather our bags to go through the final checkpoint. With four large and heavy duffels, and three suitcases, we needed a porter. Now in Ft. Lauderdale, people lined up to wait their turn for the next available porter with a trolley. Not so here. No line was forming anywhere, and the HAL reps did little to help the passengers needing one. It was whoever could yell the loudest, and grab the porters first. And that did happen. We had time, which was a good thing, because we were not under pressure to get to the airport for instance.

When we informed one HAL rep that we had luggage to be shipped Fed Ex, she referred to her list, which showed the ship had no people getting off needing that service. It had been crossed off on her list. So we quickly informed her that there would be several of us that needed to place our things in an area for the Fed Ex guys to pick it up. Eventually, we found one lady who seemed to know where we needed to take the bags. Even the porter seemed to know where they would be stored. This was not a good feeling at this point, but when more folks showed up with their trolleys full of Fed Ex tagged luggage, we felt better that it was going to work out OK. With Bill's help, the porter lugged all seven bags into a room. As we left the area, we hoped we would see the luggage again.

By the way, it was much easier in San Diego, where we simply pointed out all of our tagged luggage to be shipped, and left it in place. They moved it later, and it always got delivered to our home a few days later. Simple.

Saying goodbye is the hard part, and so many of the crew wished us well as we left the ship for the final time. The good thing is that we will be back in early July for a two week Alaskan voyage, and many of the crew will still be onboard. Made leaving a little easier.

We were free to go, so we walked the embarcadero with our new small HAL world cruise rolled duffels with camera and computer stuff in one, and other treasures, costume jewelry, and let over meds from the trip in the other. We slowly headed for Pier 39, which turned 39 this year. Gosh, it is hard to imagine that this fun complex was completed in 1978. We remember it well when this attraction offered dining, bay cruises, shopping, events, and the best views ever.

One attraction here that keeps the folks coming are the rafts in the marina that hold the famous sea lions, that are drawn here to dine on the rich sea life. They are fun to watch as they fight over spaces on these floating rafts, or chase each other which appears that it is springtime here, and the seals are frisky.

One other attraction for us happens to be the Hard Rock Café, where we went for an early lunch. We had over an hour to enjoy one of the signature cheeseburgers and fries. Recently, this café underwent a remodeling, and it sure looks nice. There is a larger new shop, where we did buy a couple of new city t-shirts. The café itself has been enlarged as well, so now, they have many more chairs and round table tops in the bar area.

Around 1pm, our youngest son picked us up right outside the HRC, and with traffic still light, we were on the Bay Bridge within minutes. It was sad to see the ship getting smaller as we drove away from the bay. We heard that 540 new guests will board this afternoon, and will sail out at 11pm. Our friends, Alene and Don, stayed on to Seattle, about four more days. They will stop in Vancouver next, where most of the passengers will go home, then there will be a one day, one night cruise to Seattle. That should be a "party" night, and our buddies will let us know how that worked out.

We were home within the hour, around 2:30pm. Now we finally got to see the slide or the earth movement, that closed our road down for many long weeks. Right now, there is a temporary stop light with a five minute wait for one-way traffic to pass. It is anybody's guess when this will be permanently fixed, as it is possible the hill is still moving. As long as it doesn't move while we are driving across it.

Our work is cut out for us. With all the extra rain this winter, the weeds are incredibly high. And they are not all the grassy weeds. We have a big crop of sticky, thorny stuff that will need to be taken out soon, before it blooms and re-seeds for the next season. Good thing we love gardening. And the best thing we look forward to is seeing our kids and grandkids. Four and ½ months of being away is a long time, and takes us at least that long to catch up on everyone's news during that time.

We were kind of hoping that our luggage would arrive in a couple of days, but we got a call that it would be delivered tomorrow, signature required. So much for all the chores we had planned. Whatever, it sure will be nice to sleep in our own bed tonight!

Bill & Mary Ann

PS Stayed tuned for more…..

The bow of the Amsterdam got crowded early this morning