A Grand Adventure! Grand Princess California Coastal Complete Photo Review 9/18-9/25

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Yeah, growing up, I was the only one into that

stuff of people I knew, so it's fun to connect with others on CC.

 

 

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I get to spend time around like minded people who are into that same sort of stuff nowadays so I guess I am lucky in that regard. Still, most people look at me sideways when I start talking about cruise ships and planes. Most of those people are folks who have never cruised and love to talk smack about my cruise addiction. I tell them maybe they should try cruising a few times and see how they feel about it then. lol But yes, CC is really a nice venue for people who are into this cruising thing.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Interesting fact about the Mexican flag in Ensenada weighing 500 lbs. DH and I have commented on that being just about the biggest display of patriotism we have ever seen in our port visits. We need some that size in the U.S.!

 

 

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Yes, that flag is yuuuuugggggeeeee. I remember noticing that when I was there a few years ago, but Lilia our tour guide told us the factoids about it. We do need a few flags like that here in the USA though. I know there used to be a similar one up on Roosevelt Blvd in Philadelphia, near an old beer distributor but I do not know if it is still there. Sadly, too many people here don't even know how to handle or fold a flag. I see people improperly handling flags all the time and it does irk me some. The flag that this particular ship flies during the day is folded up correctly at night by the crew and stored in a safe place and I know this because I watched them do it as we sailed out from Long Beach. Respect.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Great pictures of Ensenada and your excursion. Thanks for sharing.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

Thanks, glad you are enjoying. I tried to capture the spirit of our unique excursion and some of the city the best I could for this review. It is my pleasure to share my experiences with fellow cruise fans.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Being a wine buff, I was aware of the industry around Ensenada. I think that the L.A. Cetto wine that you mentioned won the award, and I don't recall which competition, was a Nebbiolo, and this was 5 or 6 years ago.

 

My brother-in-law likes to go fishing off Santo Tomas (south of Ensenada). He often stops off in Valle Guadalupe, visits a winery and brings back a bottle for me. Never great, but always drinkable, and, certainly, unusual.

 

For interested readers who live in Southern California, I have consistently seen Baja California wines in Total Wines stores. Even with the 40% tarriff, of which I had no knowledge before reading this post, they are reasonably priced--my recollection is in the low teens.

 

Now that I think of it, I think they also said that some of their olive oil won a few awards up in California a few years ago also. We would have bought some at the gift shop but the bottles were big and heavy and we already had a hard enough time getting the two complimentary bottles of wine into our suitcases to take home.

 

I believe our guide also said that there were many wineries but LA Cetto produced the most wine in that region. It is pretty good. I didn't open it until just this past week but it is a good wine to have with dinner. I will check my local Total Wine next time I am there to see if they have any as well. They have a seriously big collection of wines from everywhere so they very well might, even all the way out on the east coast. I thought our guide told us that the tariff was 40 percent and that is why most of the product stays in Mexico, but I could have erroneous information. It was a neat experience though.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

No Curtis Stone on the MDR menu?

 

I think there might have been a few times, don't recall. I remember seeing the video about it and how it is being rolled out throughout the fleet on the cabin TV but I do not remember if they offered any of the stuff on the menu. Perhaps they did, on a few nights but it didn't really make an impression on me either way. The cooking demonstration that I got to see in the theater on the morning of the next sea day was a lot of fun though. I will get into that when I get around to writing the next day up. I don't think I will have time tonight but hopefully I will in the next few days.

[jsiegel]

No Curtis Stone on the MDR menu?

 

Happily the Curtis Stone items are gone from the Always Available section. Each day at dinner there was one Curtis Stone entree but it was placed at the very bottom of the menu in a very understated way, easy to miss. None of the CS entrees were appealing to me at all.

 

Regarding an earlier question about the Midway in San Diego, it's definitely worth touring. My husband and I spent the entire day there on our coastal cruise. We were there when they opened, got our hand stamped to exit and grab a quick lunch back at Horizon Court, and returned to continue our tour until close to sail-away. One of the best parts of the Midway experience is talking to all the docents who have had experience on aircraft carriers.

 

Jackie

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Happily the Curtis Stone items are gone from the Always Available section. Each day at dinner there was one Curtis Stone entree but it was placed at the very bottom of the menu in a very understated way, easy to miss. None of the CS entrees were appealing to me at all.

 

Regarding an earlier question about the Midway in San Diego, it's definitely worth touring. My husband and I spent the entire day there on our coastal cruise. We were there when they opened, got our hand stamped to exit and grab a quick lunch back at Horizon Court, and returned to continue our tour until close to sail-away. One of the best parts of the Midway experience is talking to all the docents who have had experience on aircraft carriers.

 

Jackie

 

Sounds about right about the Curtis Stone thing. I know I never went out of my way to ask about it at dinner and I don't remember anyone at our table doing so either.

 

The Midway looked awesome from where we were on our own ship, wonder how much stuff there is to see when you are on it. Just wasn't enough time in the day to do the city tour and that. Maybe if I got up crack of dawn we could have seen more but I would rather have slept as I was under the weather some and didn't want to get up too early in the day. I will definitely check it out if I get to San Diego again in the future.

 

Anyway, I am about to finally get on with the review. Just 2 more days to go, a sea day and debark day. Figure I have kept everyone waiting long enough, lol.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I figure I have kept everyone waiting long enough to see this thing through to the end, so here goes. Again, my apologies for taking so long to get to this. The last thing I shared here was my wrap up of our Ensenada experience, and it was surely unique. We had one more full day to go on this cruise, and it featured a sea day as we made our way back to San Francisco.

 

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY

Yes, things were beginning to wind down. No more port visits, just one more day at sea to look forward to as we made our way back to San Francisco. We had some great experiences in Santa Barbara, Long Beach, San Diego and Ensenada on this cruise and that was the aim of this trip - see stuff I have never seen before and may never see again. Anyway....

 

I was up around 1000, today was kind of one of those sleep until you feel like it kind of days. You know things are beginning to come to an end when you begin to pack your stuff back into the suitcase that you happily unpacked just a few days before. Looking out the window, it was a fairly calm sea with nice skies and a breeze with somewhat cooler temperatures on deck as I found out later on. We were moving faster than we had on the southbound trip, as it was an express ride going north and it was a local going south, haha.

 

I figured there must be plenty to do on this sea day however, and there was. I got out of bed and made my way to the theater, to see the cooking demonstration that was scheduled for 1030. It featured the head chef and the maitre'd that had been everywhere on this cruise, and I do mean everywhere, or so it seemed. It was neat. It was a sort of comedy cooking routine, they first made some salmon dish, then pesto pasta and finally, tiramisu. Figure the bottle of vodka that they were using to add flavor to the food was a constant point of reference. That kind of comedy. But it was fun. Went about an hour with a decent crowd. They talked about the kitchen process, how the culinary experience is delivered so flawlessly onboard, etc. They bake the bread at dinner right before seating so it comes out with that nice crust. It really is a well-oiled machine how they make everything work for the thousands of passengers and hundreds of crewmembers. They also introduced some of the kitchen and wait staff at the demo and they came up on stage.

 

 

 

After the cooking demo came the galley tour part of the experience. Obviously, with hundreds of people at the show, it wasn't going to be an intimate experience that you would get if you booked something like a behind the scenes tour (which I have done on Carnival and not sure if they had something like this available on this ship - but if they do and you are a ship geek, they are worth it) but it could have been a little more extensive. We went in through the dining room doors, saw part of the kitchen in action, got a factoid sheet about how much stuff is used on a cruise and that kind of thing, and made our way past the managers offices and back out through the Botticelli dining room and into a madhouse, aka the 'clearance rack' "sale" that they had. Which consisted of people milling all around, looking at cheap stuff to buy that is strewn all over the place. Not all that appealing. Perhaps there was a charity benefit to it, I cannot remember.

 

 

 

 

 

After that, it was time to mill around on the ship for a while until lunchtime and check out some of the stuff that I had not really paid much attention to so far during the cruise. It wasn't even noon yet after all.

 

More on that in a moment....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED.....

I found something to compare the cooking show to - The Chew, a TV show that airs in the early afternoon in my area and has stars like Michael Symon and Mario Batali. Dunno if anyone here knows of it but same kind of thing. Also, they mentioned that anytime a waiter leaves the kitchen, they have to wash their hands again before touching anything in the kitchen when they re-enter. Germs and all that. They also only open the fridges that hold meats and all that twice a day if possible so they can keep the temperatures consistent. Everything is made from scratch.

 

But on we go. I walked around and got some more pictures of stuff around the ship. They were doing some grand unveiling of a jewelry line called EFFY, which was something special I guess. They made a big deal about it all cruise long and it was heavily promoted, the shop was in the atrium area, like Deck 7 I think. Near the other high end shops. I never did go into any of them. I stopped in the regular gift shop once but did not buy any ship mugs or anything like that.

 

 

I went back past the Crown Grill as I made my way back to the cabin to meet my mom who was packing before lunch, this was the menu if you are interested.

 

 

This was the excursions desk - not that crowded and we had bought everything ahead of time, so no need to go here during the cruise.

 

 

A look at the calm seas, off the right side of the ship. You can see land from here, we were not that far out but no cell phone reception.

 

This was the gym. I never actually worked out here but lots of equipment and good views. It is right near the spa, forward, next to the forward pool and hot tub and right below the Sanctuary. The first officer (I think) did his daily weather and position announcement around noon as well.

 

 

Walking back toward the midship area, got this view of the main lido deck area and the wide open ocean we were sailing across. Lots of sun loungers everywhere and you could find areas that were more secluded than others if that is your thing.

 

More in a minute...

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED.....

There was a giant chess board, on the deck above lido I think, towards the back of the ship Nobody playing as it was pretty windy today.

 

 

This was the sports court I talked about before. Very top deck, near the aft. Windy here and nobody but me dared to even go up there. It is a steep walk up some stairs to get to it but it is a hybrid soccer and basketball and whatever else court. Enclosed in netting. I shot a few baskets up here. They may do some tournaments during the course of the cruise as well, not sure.

 

 

My mom and I went to lunch after this, in the horizon court dining room and I passed the ice carving sculpture, positioned right outside of the buffet line. We didn't think they did a public carving like they do on most lines but maybe they did and I just missed it. But here it is......

 

 

Dim sum, chicken and pork and BBQ meatballs with pasta were on the lunch menu for today. OK. BBQ meatballs were something new to me though. The white bean soup was good as well. Next to the main food lines was always a salad and nuts/fruits line. Soup was all the way at the end of the line, right before the exit. Dessert was some good strawberry shortcake and this is what the dessert and late afternoon snacks line looked like.

 

 

By now it was after 1300, and we stopped back at the cabin to pack some more and for me to get a shower before the 1400 wine tasting event in the Botticelli. I lined up all the magnets and goodies that I got at the gift shops at our ports, here they all are. We also made sure our debarkation paperwork was filled out right and turned in and that we got confirmation that we would be in the earliest possible self-assist debarkation group for the next morning.

 

 

The seas outside of our cabin window. We were moving at a pretty good pace as you can see the white caps coming up as we move along.

 

 

With that done and us being a good part of the way packed for the end of the journey, it was time to head to the dining room for our second wine tasting seminar of the cruise. More on that shortly....

Edited November 7, 2016 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED....

We passed through the photo gallery one more time as we had to do in order to get to dinner every night, the photos still were not worth buying. But I do like this system over some lines like Norwegian, as you can still have fun with finding your pictures and then deciding to buy them right there or not.

 

The wine tasting was crowded yet again, and was not as expensive as the first time around. Of course, this was because the wine was not of as high quality as before and the snacks were not as high quality either. But it was still fun. Still 6 wines, with stories behind each, told by different crew members. Still had them try to sell the wine package and again, a few people bought it but not us. I think this tasting costs like $10-15 or close to that per person. Having a very bad cold (still) and drinking wine was interesting but I wasn't going to miss out just because I wasn't feeling well. Our wine table setup.

 

 

Me with a glass of some red wine, forget what it was but it was OK. Lots and lots of science goes into making good wine and there are tons and tons of different kinds of wine across the world.

 

 

After wine, they had a photo opportunity session with Indy and Jeff Peterson, from the comedy show on 6, Crooners bar (I think) but not far from the atrium. I think it ran from like 1500-1600. Decent line for it but the dog was cute and it was fun to do.

 

 

Me, with Indy.

 

 

After the photo-op, it was back to do some more exploring. Got this picture of an empty Sabbatini's,, which was the Italian restaurant onboard, and which we thought about going to, but ended up not going to after all.

 

 

More in a second....

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED...

More Sabbatini's

 

Throughout the ship and in the cabins on the TV, they have screens that show our ship progress, speed, seas, winds, etc. Useful tool to see where you are and where you are going, and how far you have gone so far.

 

 

The arcade basketball game I talked about before. Fun. Don't have to pay to play so to speak either. Right next to the ping pong tables and near the indoor pool and hot tub, midship one deck above. Easy access to outside decks also, for sunset pictures.

 

 

Those ping pong tables. Often had players, they had a tournament on the last sea day morning, I am no good at that so I don't play but it looked like fun.

 

 

There was also a machine in the public area where you could check your spending account and print it out so you don't have to hit the guest services desk and wait in line to do so.

 

 

This was a ship directory, they are posted all around the ship near the elevators. A good guide to never get lost onboard. They also have diagrams that have "your are here" markings on them, in the shape of the ship so you can figure out where you are in relation to where you exactly want to go. But as I said, that Princess at sea website you can get to on your phone or tablet is good as well, so if you cannot find one of these diagrams, you can still never get lost.

 

 

More coming...

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED.....

I took a nap around 1600, and got up around 1800 to take one last trip to the hot tub and see one last sunset. I hung out and relaxed in the hot tub and pool some and got some nice sunset pictures. Off the left side of the ship tonight.....

 

 

 

 

I got back to the cabin around 1930, we thanked Grace for her good service, gave her a nice tip and got ready for dinner one last time. We got to the MDR around 2000, and got our dinner from our waiters Mirabel and Marlon. I did want to make it to the last seating at dinner. We made sure Mirabel and Marlon got good tips for their hard work and enjoyed the last show that the staff put on for us in the dining room. They did a conga line around the room and we got a nice speech from the maitre'd. Good ending to the dining experience.

 

I got a strip steak, cooked medium, linguine and salmon off the everyday menu. All was pretty good. Got some ice cream and apple pie for dessert. I thought Marlon did a better job in terms of being personable and service wise, but Mirabel did OK also, she did her job adequately.

 

 

 

 

More dinner stuff in a second...

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

DAY 9: LAST SEA DAY CONTINUED....

 

Apple pie and rum raisin ice cream. I think they had a make your own sundae option for dessert, this was a good dessert.

 

We were done in the dining room around 2130, exchanged info with our tablemates (if you get to read this, hopefully you enjoy it and it gave a really good perspective of the vacation and helps you re-live the cruise some - it did take forever to do though, lol) and were on our way. The crew talent show was the last major event scheduled for this cruise. It was scheduled for 2200 in the theater. We had one free drink coupon left that we had gotten at the captain's welcome show on the first sea day, and we each used ours to get drinks before the show.

 

I got a Beverly Hills Iced Tea (forget what was in it but it was good, strong) and my mom got a Pina Colada. The show featured a nice house band of crewmembers from the Philippines and they were good. One of the ship security officers did a singing routine. The maitre'd played a musical instrument routine. That and a few funny things with the cruise director and other crew members dressing up and doing skits. The show was over by 2300, and with that, the entertainment was over for the cruise pretty much.

 

This was one of the aft lounges - they should have done the comedy routine here.

 

 

Before the crew member talent show with my drink in hand....

 

 

Talent show

 

 

 

So, my mom went back to the cabin after the show to get everything ready for an early exit in the morning and I walked around upstairs a little more where I got one more soda and checked out what was going on around the ship one last time. Not much going on so it was back to the cabin and bed at midnight, as we had an early 0730 debarkation scheduled for the next morning. I will talk all about that when I get to talking about debarkation day and the craziness of all that, that will be the final part of this adventure.

 

Hopefully, you have enjoyed my review and I am glad you were patient enough with me to wait it out as I found the time to get to updating it periodically. I will get to the last part hopefully very soon, lots to talk about there as well. So, happy cruising, and whatever you do, make sure you VOTE tomorrow if you have not already. Have a good one and happy cruising.

[Sacto Rick]

I've enjoyed your review, thanks for all the great pictures too!

[JustJoy]

I have really enjoyed your review, thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

[Kauai Kid]

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY

 

Well, a few months of planning and planning and more planning had finally passed and it was time for the cruise. Well, seeing that we live on the east coast and that is thousands of miles away from the west coast, we still had to fly to get out to the west coast. Duh. My mom is quite a planner, and although I like to sort of just go with the flow sometimes, I do like to have an idea of what is going to happen once the vacation begins. I have noticed that the more I preplan and anticipate what I am going to do, I am sometimes disappointed in the experience moreso than if I just go ahead and do whatever grabs my attention so there does have to be that happy medium somewhere. I will talk more about that as we go in, but we really did plan out much of what we ended up doing ahead of time.

So, cruise plans done. Checkin done, travel documents in hand. Flight plans made. Hotel plans made. Pre-cruise day in San Francisco pretty much planned out. Travel to the port planned out. Everything taken care of at home, so it was time to begin the vacation on this Friday morning. It was a nice September day that we would be traveling out on, so that is always a good thing. Means on-time flights and all that. September is my favorite month of the year, starts summer-ish and ends up fall-ish weatherwise. Anyway....

 

The closest airport to me is Philadelphia International (KPHL), and with the most flight options to the west coast of airports nearby me. I also have to note that I am a huge aviation geek along with a cruise geek, so I will be talking a bit about that in this day's review and again later when we got to visit San Diego. Our flight routing took us to Phoenix Sky Harbor International, then to San Diego Lindbergh Field (KSAN) and then finally, to San Francisco International (KSFO) late in the afternoon. Our day started out roughly 0900, and we finally ended up at the hotel in San Francisco by around 1800 local time (with the 3 hour time change), so quite a long day flying. Always fun though. Oh, I do all my reviews in 24-hour military time format because it is easier to follow along and not confuse AM with PM.

 

Nice September day to fly. Looking down at center city Philadelphia after a quick departure from PHL Runway 9L, a view you don't normally get, lol.

 

 

Close to 10,000 feet, nice bird's eye view of PHL as we climb out to the west. Crystal clear day.

 

 

Out over the mountains of southern New Mexico, I think. We were late getting to PHX because of a reroute around some pretty heavy thunderstorms over our planned route through the midwest and Rocky Mountains (looking at the tracking map on my phone that I was following using the plane's free wifi), but we made up some time in PHX and were soon on our way off I think Runway 25L, destination SAN.

 

 

Landing over downtown Phoenix, guessing Runway 7R. Nice views. Been here a couple times, nice this time of year, too hot in the summertime for me though.

 

 

Enroute PHX to SAN. Lot of nice scenery down below in this great land we call the USA. Who needs inflight entertainment when you have that kind of view out the window?

 

 

Landing over Balboa Park, downtown San Diego. Great approach with a huge hill before the displaced threshold runway 27, awesome view on the way in and great views of the airport from all around the city. More on that when I talk all about our port day in San Diego. Really thrilling experience flying into that airport and a preview of what we would see later that week.

 

More in a second, including an arrival in San Francisco, and our early evening once we got settled in. Hope you like the preview so far.....

 

I'm enjoying your review. I'm looking forward to the rest of it. Love your aviation terminology, I flew for 40 years.

Keep up the good work.

[waverley7]

Great review! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.

 

I love reading stories and seeing the photo's. This helps others so much in planning.

 

Good Job!

[schwesterellibelli]

Thank you for the great review and the pictures. I loved it.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I've enjoyed your review, thanks for all the great pictures too!

 

Glad you enjoyed, thanks for the kind words. I got a lot of compliments from people back home about my pictures when I showed them to everyone along with a little story behind each pic. I am not a photographer but I feel I can capture a moment well enough through pictures so I go about it as an amateur. I have debarkation day to talk about still, and then a ship rating and some comments on the overall experience. Then it will finally be done, only like 7 weeks after getting home. LOL.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I have really enjoyed your review, thanks so much for taking the time to do this!

 

It's totally been my pleasure. I love doing these reviews and I am glad people like reading them. They do take tons and tons of time but it is all worth it in the end. I am still going to talk about my long debarkation day and then do an overall ship and vacation rating and general commentary, so check that out. :cool: Besides, I have to finish this as my next cruise is only about 2 weeks away, haha.

Edited November 11, 2016 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I'm enjoying your review. I'm looking forward to the rest of it. Love your aviation terminology, I flew for 40 years.

Keep up the good work.

 

Yeah, I am kind of a geek where that is concerned. Glad you enjoy the terminology. It sets up the overall vacation review nicely. I will talk a bit about my flight home after our early debarkation day on Sunday, so be sure to check that out. Possibly of a nice exotic plane picture or two in there, :D. Glad you are reading the review, hope you enjoy the entire thing, I had a good time writing it although it took a long time to get done.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Great review! Thanks so much for taking the time to do this.

 

I love reading stories and seeing the photo's. This helps others so much in planning.

 

Good Job!

 

Thanks, I am really happy that you and others have enjoyed it so much. It did take a long time to do (still have to write about my debark and travel home but that won't be too lengthy) but it was worth it and like I said early on, I don't want to rush it as then it just won't be of as good quality. But yes, I have learned tons and tons about ships, ports, transit to the ports and excursions from reading reviews on this site, so whenever I can help others out it is a good thing. For example, I booked an ocean suite on the Carnival Victory for a couple weeks from now and I already know exactly what to expect because others have posted extensive reviews of that cabin type and that has helped me prepare for it just that much better. Happy cruising!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thank you for the great review and the pictures. I loved it.

 

You are very welcome and thanks for taking the time to read. I tried to make it entertaining, informative and to give people a unique experience of everything that happens before, during and after a cruise like this. I am glad you enjoyed it. I have another shorter cruise booked on the Carnival Victory out of Miami for the week after Thanksgiving (booked a suite for the first time ever), and will be coming shortly after with a review, so be sure to check that out. Have a good one!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

And, we are back with the final part of this Grand Princess cruise vacation review. I thank everyone for their kind comments and conversation and thanks for your patience with how long it took me to get this done. I still have one more day to write about - debarkation day, which will feature the whole process of getting off the ship and our trip home. Afterwards I will write about my general rating of the ship, ports, excursions, and commentary on certain aspects of the whole experience. Here we go.

 

DAY 10: DEBARKATION DAY AND TRAVEL HOME

So, debarkation day was finally here. It is a somber thing, but it happens on every cruise and this was that day. I had said before that we had a relatively early flight home and were unsure about how long the debarkation process and ride back to the airport would take, so we elected to do self-assist debarkation.

 

We arrived back in port early, probably before 0700 and unfortunately I was not awake to see us pass back under the Golden Gate Bridge on our way back to port. I usually am not up early on the last day. But, we got up around 0700, got all ready to leave the cabin, and checked one last time to make sure we did not leave anything behind (I have left such things as phone chargers and gift cards that I had been using for safe access and to put in the light switch slot on newer ships) and made our way to the aft (Viking) lounge on deck 6 with our credentials for self-assist debarkation and waited in a fast-moving line to get off the ship. I will mention that they give you a cool newsletter on the last day, naming the ship officers, giving our route during the trip, weather, ports visited, etc, a nice keepsake from your trip.

 

I have to mention that no matter where, when, it always seems dark, dreary, misty and chilly when you look out the window on the last day of the cruise. I know it is San Francisco and it is often foggy there (but it was still forecast to be 80 and sunny that day when the fog burned off as was confirmed by our dinnermates as I talked to them later in the week and they had stayed an extra day in the city to do some sightseeing) but even in Miami, it seems to look like that on debarkation day all the time. Maybe it is psychological but yeah, it is always dreary at the end of a cruise.

 

The look out our window, see what I mean?

 

 

Being in a hurry we skipped breakfast (no real loss here) and headed to the lounge to exit with our 3 big suitcases and a few carry bags. Not fun but it was necessary to get off early. We dragged our stuff to the lounge and were off the ship by 0745, as we were cleared quickly by US Customs and Immigration and everyone was allowed to exit. You get the card dinged one more time, walk out on one of the outside decks and make your way back down through the boarding bridge and through Customs and out to the street. Our Customs wait was not long and we were outside by 0800. I would say many, many people did self-assist here as we were the first ones allowed off and there was a line to exit which did move fairly quickly.[[

 

 

 

We got outside at 0800 and since we were off early, no madness outside and we were guided over to the taxi stand, where we flagged down a cab and got a ride back to SFO. My mom was concerned about traffic and all that as far as delays getting off the ship, so she insisted on a cab and the first shared van ride and Princess transfer wasn't until 0900 I think. We were quickly out of the port area and back through downtown and back on the highway and to the airport with little traffic by 0830 and through security by 0900. I have never gotten from the ship to the airport as quickly as we did on this day, not even in Tampa or Fort Lauderdale or Boston. And we were worried about getting back to the airport late. But I am usually in a hurry to get back to the airport for our flight home in time, so not having to rush was a nice change. The cab ride cost like $80 IIRC, so when you think about it, that was not that much more than a shared van ride or the Princess bus shuttle would have been and it was much more convenient.

 

Our flight was not until 1100-ish so we had plenty of time to figure out what we were going to do to pass the time. The airport has good free wifi, so I spent some time getting caught up on that. There was also a good Asian-American diner bistro-type place along the corridor to the gates at Terminal 1, so we stopped there for breakfast as we missed it on the ship. I got some nice fried wontons and pork potstickers I think and some fried rice and my mom got a traditional breakfast platter. We watched the day's MLB games on replay on the TV in the restaurant (the Giants were still in playoff contention after all) and by 1000, we were headed to the gates. Our flight to Denver International (KDEN) boarded and left on time and we had a nice flight to DEN, where we would be getting a connecting flight to PHL later on in the day. I had never been to DEN, so it would be cool to spend some time there later on in the afternoon.

 

 

As we taxied out to takeoff in SFO, got this nice shot of a Qantas 747-400 parked at the international terminal. I am telling you, SFO has to be the world capital for 747 passenger service these days. Even more than New York or Los Angeles. Maybe somewhere in Asia has more but doubtful. Every major international airline flies the queens of the skies there it seems, and they are becoming more and more rare as the days pass. Anyway, for a geek like me, that was really neat to see. For the fellow geeks reading this, hope you enjoy and maybe if you get a chance to spot out there, you can get some great photos for yourself if you ever have the chance.

 

Anyway, we had a quick an uneventful flight to DEN, and spent the next few hours hanging out in the terminal and watching TV and for me, surfing the web on the airport's free wifi. That airport is huge by the way.

 

I still have a few more pictures and story to go, so just one more post coming up......

Edited November 11, 2016 by FlyingCruiserNJ