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Check in opened right at 9:30am. Ten minutes later and we are through security, checked in, and part of boarding group 1!

The walk from the hotel to the port took 11 minutes (with a picture stop). Check in isn’t open yet so they have us lined up in the tent to wait. After this we will go inside through security, check in, and wait some more!

Ok! Seems the consensus is “ditch the drink”…. Thanks all!

Cruise day and I’ve been up pretty much the whole night. No joy in getting my teen rebooked on a flight today. She is officially stuck in Amsterdam until tomorrow afternoon. They gave her a hotel voucher but she can’t check in as she’s under 18, and I’m not really up for having her navigate Amsterdam alone. So, she is stuck at the airport. At least she had wifi! I’m freaking out a little in case they end up cancelling tomorrow as well…I’ll be on a ship and of little use to her if they do! Anyways, I’m up, packed, and enjoying my keurig coffee. Happy to report that there were no shower olympics today - water was perfect temperature and stayed that way. Thinking of heading out around 9:00ish and walking to the port. Not raining right now! I have an unopened bottle of soda - I can’t remember if NCL allows us to take that on or if I should ditch it beforehand?

It’s cruise day! I was woken at 2am by texts from my teen who flies home from Europe today. Ten minutes before boarding her first flight she gets notified that her connecting flight has been cancelled. But no worries, she has been rebooked on another leaving tomorrow!!! Meaning that an unaccompanied 16 year old has to stay overnight in Amsterdam. Uh no. I don’t think so! Needless to say she was freaking out.Hopefully she can get something resolved

We love the Crowne Plaza for one night pre cruise. It ticks all the boxes. I would not stay more than one night - just not enough in the area to warrant it! I also would never pay the “rack rate” currently- last I checked it was $350 a night. Nope. I always use trivago and wait for a deal - this trip we paid $220 for one night. I would not go higher than $250 for this hotel - at that price I would rather stay in long beach or double tree!

Here’s an aside… when we came in to Hollywood, across the street from our hotel was a really cool looking building called The Magic Castle. I assumed it was a hotel and decided to research it. Turns out that it’s a nightclub for magicians! DS informed me that this place was in the Ricky, Nicky, Dicky and Dawn show,

Yes! We have done Happy Diner on previous visits! This time it was San Pedro Brewing and no time for anything else!

Hotel bar has a happy hour from 4pm to 6pm. Don’t mind if I do…

These past 5 days have reminded me why I choose to cruise rather than do land vacations. The entire time has been “what should we eat for lunch?” “where should we go for dinner?” “Oh. It’s 3pm and forgot to have lunch. But it’s too early for dinner.” I really like not having to think about this kind of thing on a ship! Today was a prime example. We got to the hotel around 11:30am and just chilled. DS wasn’t hungry at lunchtime but then around 2pm decided he was ready to eat. Uhhh. No. I wanted to go to San Pedro brewing and knew that if he ate at 2pm there was no way he would want to eat dinner (or at least not a dinner I’m paying for). Instead we compromised and went for linner at 3pm. San Pedro Brewing is as great as ever. Each time I get something different - and this is tough because each time I enjoy what I got and want to get it again! They had a fish taco special today and I love fish tacos but I also wanted to to try the tri tip sandwich… so I opted for the sandwich. DS went for the southwestern Mac n cheese. For beers I tried the blonde and the Hefeweizen. Nothing disappointing to report!

Lyft from Hollywood to San Pedro was $60 and took about 40 minutes door to door. The highway was slow moving and the rain made for a hair raising trip, but we made it in one piece. The front desk clerk recognized DS from previous trips and made a fuss of him. It’s the little things that keep us coming back. They had a room available so we were able to check in immediately and currently chilling and enjoying the coffee maker! Shuttle to the port is $5.50 per person and runs every half hour beginning at 9am. We are still planning on walking so hopefully it’s not torrential rain! Some room pics

Bye Bye Hollywood, Hello San Pedro… Parting Thoughts: I’m glad we chose to stay in Hollywood as a base as it was the closest place to all of the attractions we wanted to visit. That being said, I think our biggest expense while here has been Lyft rides to and from each place. Hotel: I don’t foresee us ever having to stay in the Hollywood area again but if we did I would definitely consider staying here. It’s literally around the corner from Loews Hotel so very central and safe (for this area). The hotel was clean and quiet and the staff were wonderful. The breakfast is very basic but this was one of the few places that even offered breakfast. My only complaint would be the lack of coffee throughout the day. Once breakfast is over the coffee is taken away. Even though we had a room with a kitchen, there was no coffee maker or kettle so no ability to make your own. Still a solid 8/10 for the hotel though! Area: As you can imagine, the place is packed with tourists and everyone wants those tourist dollars. I’m savvy enough to know not to accept those offers of “free” photos, or take those cards being thrust in your face as you navigate the walk of fame. This was all too much for my nervous 12 year old and he was in full sensory overload the whole time. I loved the energy but he was not comfortable in this environment at all. Food: Lots of options to get food but it was definitely higher priced than I’m used to in the U.S. it was more akin to Vancouver pricing! Even Target and CVS were way over priced…and why is laundry detergent and deodorant locked away??? Things that made me smile: On our hike in the hills, the guide pointed out a big 3 bedroom, beautiful house with stunning views that just sold for $2 million. Everyone was horrified. Living in Vancouver and knowing you wouldn’t even buy a 2 bedroom crummy apartment for that price…I smiled. Maybe it’s time to move!

We are moving over to San Pedro this morning and have no plans to do anything other than eat dinner at San Pedro brewing. I’m more familiar with Long Beach and San Pedro than with Hollywood but we are just going to chill and decompress today. Tomorrow is cruise day!!!!

I thought of you while at La Brea yesterday and while hiking to the Hollywood sign today. I didn’t think of you when I dragged my reluctant kid to visit Madame Tussaud’s. In a word..creepy! Miss you!

Back at the hotel I did some laundry and need to get packed up as tomorrow we head to San Pedro for our pre cruise tradition of staying the night before at Crown Plaza.

After the movie, DS spotted the Ghirardelli store and decided an ice cream was needed. This is what a $22 sundae looks like..,yes, that’s $22

When we were researching this trip, we decided that we would each choose 2 activities we wanted to do. My two were Warner Brothers Studio and the Hollywood sign. DS chose Universal and going to see a movie at the Chinese Theatre. I’m sure the latter was a form of revenge for my making him hike today. I’m not a movie theatre person at all and I was not thrilled at the thought of going. I was even less thrilled at his choice of movie - King Kong vs Godzilla. What now????? How is this even a thing? I despise made up monster movies such as this. But this was his choice, so off we went. Firstly, the theatre is beautiful and the seats were so comfortable. It’s a much nicer theatre than any I’ve been to previously. On to the movie…I can safely say it was probably the worst movie I have ever seen in my life!!

After lunch we went to Madame Tussaud’s. This is a place I have wanted to visit for as long as I can remember, but it has never quite worked out. DD is literally terrified at the thought of being among people who look real but aren’t, so we have always just not done it. Today, I got to fulfil my wish as DS was more than happy to visit. Let’s just say that I’m glad I went and got it out of my system, but I will never need to return. In a word, it was “creepy”. I expected those figures to just come to life any minute - like when someone is pretending to be a statue and then jumps out at you. I think I set a record for how quickly you can get through that museum. On the plus side, the 4D Marvel movie they showed was very well done and one of the best 4Ds I’ve seen.

After the hike, we got a Lyft back to the hotel and dropped our stuff before going in search of food. Today was DS’s turn to choose where to eat. Much to my dismay, he had his heart set on Johnny Rocketts. We used to have one in Vancouver and it was his favourite place. He was so sad when it closed down, so as soon as he spotted one here he made up his mind to eat there. So, off to Johnny Rockets we went!

Today was our hike to the Hollywood sign with LA Bikes and Hikes. We chose the easy/intermediate hike so knew we wouldn’t be going to the very top. The hike meeting point was Innsdale Trailhead, which was a $20 Lyft fare from our hotel. The group doing the hike was huge - lots of kids and families. Tour guide Sarah mentioned several times that she usually didn’t have such big groups. The hike itself was very easy - I would put it at a walk rather than a hike. Very well defined trails and, for this one at least, you could do it without any kind of guide. Sarah was great for pointing out landmarks and interesting bits of info. She showed us the former homes of Mama Cass, Mick Jagger, and Madonna. I was in my happy place the whole time. I love being in nature (though my first live is the ocean) and seeing the cacti and succulents just filled me with joy. DS was not so thrilled and was counting down the minutes until we were done. We had great views of both the sign and the LA landscape, and I enjoyed every second. The entire hike took just under two hours, so this was perfect for us!

Our hotel has been very quiet at night and in the morning, but this morning (ironically the only morning we weren’t needing to get up at stupid o’clock) we were rudely awakened by yelling, screaming kids playing what appeared to be tag in the hallway outside the door. This was 7am. I mean, come on! I’m a parent. I get it. Kids are excited and having fun. But i would never have let my kids do something like that - heck mine wouldn’t be allowed to run up and down hallways, period. Never mind at 7am. I sometimes wonder about parents…

Ok, so this chip insanity is a thing! I thought I was going crazy. It’s ok though as I did girl math and paid $3.99 for pringles rather than $5.49 for lays. DS was quick to point out that pringles have half the amount of chips. He doesn’t understand girl math,

I’ve done some research into these cute little robots that are everywhere here. Apparently they are used for Uber eats delivery. So now, of course, I want to order Uber eats to get a robot, but you can’t request a robot. It’s random. Today I spent 15 minutes stalking one of them until it got “stuck” as it couldn’t get down from the curb. I wanted to help it. I literally stood there debating if I should do something for a good 5 minutes. It was like the robot just gave up all hope. ***** off its lights, closed its eyes and just shut down. I need one of these in my life!