kruisin_kt

Sad to be missing this one, but we’ll have another siblings cruise soon. Hope you and mom have fun!

We think around 50 were booze. So 25/person over 3 days… roughly 8 drinks per person per day. We’re no amateurs at this “cruise” thing.

Officially home from the cruise! After debarkation we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. It was a lot of fun, if a little pricey at $45/adult. Our favorite animal was the Giant Pacific Octopus, which was the most active aquarium octopus I’ve ever seen.

Beth’s right, the St Patrick’s pub party was super lame. I think they had some family stuff in the afternoon, but for a drinking holiday, they really phoned it in on evening stuff.

After putting on some green, we headed to a great last dinner. For pre-dinner cocktails, I had an espresso martini and Beth had a Dirty Shirley, which was more like a “wanted for felonies in multiple states” Shirley - it was about 2/3 vodka. Dinner was good and our tablemates shared some nasi goreng - it was fun to try some Indonesian food! I’m on my second green beer if the evening and we’re ready for the St Patrick’s Day party!

Today was also a lot of fun! I slept through breakfast but made up for it with a double lunch - Blue Iguana burrito and a Guy’s burger. Both were great! I did an Advanced Cruising Manuever and had some DIY nacho fries with Guy’s fries and Blue Iguana salsa bar toppings. I spent most of the day at the aft pool, hanging out with new friends in the hot tub. I missed the big towel animal display today, but there were some impressive stragglers at the towel stand. The peacock was my favorite! The towel elephant also apparently went shopping in Ensenada, because he had acquired an adorable mini sombrero when I walked by later.

I’m behind on updates too! after lunch yesterday we got in the hot tub for a while. I was brave enough to get in the pool and it was COLD! Still fun though! we had another great dinner with our fun tablemates and wonderful serving team. We split up for a bit after dinner, and then met up for the Elton John tribute in the piano bar. The pianist was tons of fun! The piano bar itself is a very small space - a lot more people than seats. There’s also not an actual bar in the room, but there was one very hardworking drink waitress. Staff and the pianist are doing a great job making it work in a space that just isn’t big enough for its own popularity. we had a drink in the Heroes Tribute sports bar, which was surprisingly quiet and uncrowned. after that, we split up again. I was too tired for the club so I had one drink at the atrium bar and went back to the cabin. Definitely a fun day at sea!

Day 2 drink 4! A dirty Shirley for Beth (with cherry vodka, which is “a game changer”) and a Long Island for me. I had the Shaq chicken for lunch. It was INSANELY GOOD.

Seuss breakfast was cute! I had the roast beast omelette (which was GOOD) and the Grinch pancakes, which looked better than they tasted. Beth had regular gf pancakes, which weren’t great. We had a good time overall though! The Cat in the Hat ice sculpture looked better than the picture - he was melting by the time I managed to get the pic.

We didn’t make it to the piano bar last night - probably going for Elton John tribute tonight though so I’ll try to post pics. It’s called Piano Bar 88 and from a quick glance thru the door it looked a lot like other carnival piano bars I’ve seen.

I also wanna give a MASSIVE shoutout to our head server, Eka from Indonesia 🇮🇩. Gluten free can be a bit hit or miss with whether Beth gets bread, whether they can find the preorder easily, etc. Last night was definitely a hit!

It was duck spring rolls! Beth liked them but thought they were pretty spicy.

Did I have trouble loading cruise critic on the WiFi last night? Did I get a little too CHEERS-ful to post? It’s a mystery! Early dinner in Sunrise MDR was great! I had another The Cruiser to drink. I started with a Caesar salad - it was mid, but highly appropriate since yesterday was the Ides of March. For main course, we both had the striploin steak. We’re Okies so we are PICKY about steaks, and we were both very impressed. We both finished with the chocolate melting cake. It goes without saying that it was delicious. After dinner, we headed to Alchemy for the LGBTQ+ meetup. For drink 8, I had the Purple Sunset - delicious and SO PRETTY. Beth had (I think) the Old Fashioned. I had another Purple Sunset for #9 and Beth had a whiskey and blackberry drink that I think was off menu. We split up for a bit to hang out with new friends. I went to Tides Bar (aft deck bar). I got 2 great drinks made by Ampapang from Thailand 🇹🇭 and she taught me how to say thank you in Thai! We met back up at Limelight Lounge, the nightclub. We had one drink there with a new friend, and then we were all pretty tired so we called it a night around 11:45. Beth fell asleep so fast. I had some thoughts of going back out, but somehow I ended up at the buffet instead of the club 😅 The late night snack buffet had enough chicken tenders and fries to impress even the most discerning drunk. I headed back to the cabin at about 12:30 and went to sleep soon after. Overall, it was a great first day to our sibling getaway!

Classing it up a bit (by our standards, at least) for drink #6 from Alchemy! For pre-dinner cocktails, I have a Hearts on Fire (raspberry martini) and Beth has the Alchemist’s Sidecar. we’re actually sitting at Red Frog rather than Alchemy. So far a little girl has been a standout karaoke performer. The adult performers…. certainly had fun up there, lol.

Drink #5! Despite looking exactly the same, they are different. I have The Cruiser and Beth has the Pirate Punch. ship’s horn just blew and we are pulling away from the pier!

Managed to survive the bar closure. Enjoying some frozen margs and incredible harbor views now!

We’re unpacked and settled in! the cabin (2201) is nice and huge for the category. We think it might have been an accessible or partially accessible room at some point. It’s not fully wheelchair accessible but it’s much larger than most cabins and it has some accessibility features. As much as Long Beach embarkation blew me away, I have to say I’m a bit underwhelmed with the Radiance so far. The ship isn’t particularly clean in either staterooms or public areas. Deck bars have been a little crowded, but when are they not! Red Frog Pub was great and we’ll definitely be spending plenty of time there this cruise. Guy’s Burgers staff were great, especially for Beth’s allergies. currently waiting for bars to reopen after muster!

And I have a Blue’s Patron Margarita (featuring my BYO reusable straw, lol)

Our group (C3) was called at 10:52. All groups were called at 10:54. We stepped on board at exactly 11:00, finished muster check in at 11:04, and sat down at Guy’s at 11:08. 53 minutes curb to ship, 61 min curb to fun. Long Beach continues to impress.

As Beth said, we are in the terminal and waiting to board! Left home (close to Sepulveda and Venice, if you’re local and wondering) at 9:30. I was expecting about an hour to the port based on Google maps, but we got insanely lucky on traffic. Even with a quick ATM stop, it was 35 min door to door. My lovely girlfriend was kind enough to drive us so we didn’t have to mess with parking. Check in and security was <20 min including a quick bathroom stop. We also got great views of the Queen Mary on the short, pleasant walk from the car to the terminal. So far, we are both insanely impressed with embarkation in Long Beach!

Hey everyone! I’m Beth‘s sister and I’m super excited to be going on this cruise! We’re cruising out of Long Beach and I live in LA, so luckily no travel chaos for me. Beth’s staying with me tonight and then we’re heading to the port first thing tomorrow!

Made it to hotel south of Houston. Miraculously, we will be seeing everyone on board tomorrow!

Finally on the road! hopefully this vacation takes a turn for the better!

Thank you for your prayers. God willing and the creek don’t rise, we’ll be on the ship and chilling out by this time tomorrow!

450 miles. Google Maps estimate is 7 hours straight through to our hotel in League City, probably 9ish with stops. The advantage of leaving so late is we will have very little traffic passing through Dallas and Houston.