ATSEAMYLIFE

Small consolation for us flying Jan-Feb-Mar-Apr. Luckily I'm doing Maui from Sacramento.

The port is open for business. Both the Radiance and Koningsdam are currently there.

Can't be that bad both the Koningsdam and Radiance are currently there.

I have seen that happen when they can't get an agreement with the tour operator. Maybe somebody want's more money?

Catalina hands down. The total Mediterranean vibe and walkability does it for me. Santa Barbara is OK, but seems to touristy and nothing worth seeing is walkable. Astoria is very pretty and depending on the time of the year can be nice. Weather on the Pacific northwest can change minute to minute. I have been to Astoria for work and it's very small. I can't imagine what the ship could offer for an excursion.

I just saw this article on SFGATE regarding planned "hours" long delays at SFO next year due to construction on the "sinking" runways. If flying in/out of SFO next year you might want to plan accordingly. https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/sfo-announces-2024-runway-project-18561498.php

Probably not a Texas state law. But TABC allows local governments to enact more restrictive regulations. Just be thankful it wasn’t a dry locality.

I do live in Texas and just haven’t tried to purchase before noon in a long time. But I see it’s still true just not before 1000 hrs. I guess since you can’t board before then it’s sort of a moot point.

Mason Jar was probably one of our fav on Wonder.

Wouldn't be suite only on that deck. There's one huge glass wall hot tub on the suite sun deck on 18. I spent a considerable amount of time there Thanksgiving 2022.

No liquor sales on Sunday before noon in Texas. If you sail on a Sunday I'm sure that applies. We sailed from Galveston a few years ago and the only draft beer was a local TX brew while we were in port.

Wow, I hope they change that back.

We just did the Rhone and stayed pre-cruise in Paris. I can't see the river levels there being an issue. As pointed out I would be more concerned about July temps. We lucked out in September as the temps had just dropped from the week before when they were in the 90's. We felt lucky to have 80's during the day. Avalon doesn't offer a "drink package" like the ocean ships. But we drank our fair share during the not included hours. The drinks from the bar (not top shelf) were very reasonable. As I recall most were around $6-$8 and there was happy hour special just prior to when the "free" stuff started. All in all our alcohol bill was cheap. We loved the staff, ship was awesome, and excursions were excellent. Our only complaint was the food seemed very bland for being in the gastronomical center of France. Nothing was bad, but nothing was great as you would expect.

We did our own thing in Paris. Mostly because two days wasn't enough in fact three nights wasn't enough. We had a great hotel in the St Germaine district. Hôtel d'Angleterre was just short walk to Louve and little longer walk to Eiffel tower. Many small cafes nearby.

Not our Rhone Poetry II in September we turned them in when we came back onboard.

If you have the ship's WiFi you will go to airplane mode and then turn on WiFi and log into the ships WiFi. It's best to enable WiFi calling at home just to make sure it works. You should be able to do everything (text, call, surf web, etc) using just the ship's WiFi. We have done it many times and other than being slow to upload photos attached to text it works fine. Not sure how Verizon works on land in MX. We have ATT and it works the same as in the US.

Alberto Fierro I usually contact him via FB messenger. Tell him I recommended.

I believe that's the same place our DIL goes to in Cabo and gets her RetA. I know she just went to the Farmacias Similares in Rosarito two weeks ago when they visited to get some stuff to take back to LA.

Can't speak to Latisse, but Retin-A and the generic is available all over the place. The further away you walk from the port the cheaper it gets. I just bought some in Rosarito and the .1 was $40. I think the generic is about 1/2 that.

It will be. You will be in the car and on the road within 15 minutes of exiting the terminal. Again, even faster if you snag a porter when you get to the terminal main floor. We probably saved 30 minutes by using a porter.

Believe it or Not the City of San Diego and the harbor authority is not cruise ship friendly. They do nothing to encourage a smooth operation. Several years ago all the cruise lines stopped coming to SD as they were charging the highest port fees on the west coast and had terrible facilities. Basically, the city doesn't need the cruise lines income or at least they didn't until COVID. Now let's talk about the airport on cruise day; even worse than the port.

We did the Doubletree Park & Stay and it's a real toss up as to saving money and/or parking at the cruise terminal. We got to the hotel mid-afternoon prior to cruise day and the hotel shuttle was already sold out (it's first come first serve). I had to scramble to get an UberXL to the port. I did an UberXL RSVP for when we came back and I'm glad I did as there were people standing at the curb looking for their Uber they called 30 minutes ago. If I did it again I would just park at the cruise port. The lot is a short walk from the terminal and in a few minutes you are on the road home. Otherwise you have to wait for your shuttle/Uber back to the hotel. BTW: when you debark get a porter they will get you out of the terminal quicker than doing it on your own.

Wow that doesn't happen often. I would guess two at the cruise pier and one at the Broadway pier. I recall the Broadway pier was the cruise pier before the port built the fancy cruise terminal. If it were me I wouldn't be in a hurry to board. I would arrive later and hopefully avoid the morning crush.

Honestly, we seldom go to Ensenada itself, just to touristy and traffic sucks. We normally only go to the fish markets but have found a place in Rosarito that's just as good if not better. If we go to the area we do wine tasting. The places we go are probably a little more inland and further from the cruise port than you might want to risk. The wine excursions from the ship probably go to the more "commercial" places, which are very nice. They rival anything in Napa Valley for the venues. Prior to moving to TX we lived not far from Napa Valley and belonged to a wine club. Most of the Valle wines can't match a good Napa or even Paso Robles wine. We haven't made it to Fredericksburg yet so I can't comment on that comparison.

Weather is hard to predict as the forecast can change from day to day. We live just an hour north of Ensenada and also in San Antonio. The weather forecasting reliability is about the same for both places. Any forecast more than 3-4 days out is a total guess. However, January in Ensenada and the Valle should be nice. Ensenada in the AM could be foggy and overcast or it could be bright blue sky and sunny. Going inland to the Valle will always be warmer.