Cruiser Formerly Known As Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on Odyssey of the Seas Sailing to A Minus B Plus C Plus H Islands

[harryfat1]

The most famous Mark Twain quote SF tour guide like to use is “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”.

 

That’s because as the rest of the US/Europe/Asia is suffocating from oppressive heat this summer, San Francisco on  August 11 was a breezy 62 degrees at 3 PM.  Yeah, you know you have money to burn if you have an air conditioner in your house in SF...

 

 

I spent the first 5 years of my public accounting career working in the financial district in downtown San Francisco and I always chuckled during the summer months whenever I saw tourists on the double-decker buses shivering as they were not dressed appropriately for SF summer (winter per Mark Twain).

 

Folks are thinking of “Sunny California” of beaches and surfing in August so they packed only t-shirts and shorts to come up to San Francisco thinking it’s similar temperature as LA. 

 

As the commercial says, “Not exactly…”

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here's a sign explaining the area:

 

 

 

This is what the 62 degrees “Sunny California” in August looks like

 

 

But first, obligatory visit to the visitor center and say hi to the uncle in prison (aka shopping at the visitor center)

 

 

NYC has the Statue of Liberty souvenir.  SF has Golden Gate...

 

 

You can go down to the water level from here to see the old Bath but we decided to walk the trail because we wanted to see Golden Gate Bridge as a higher priority.

 

 

[harryfat1]

It's a couple of mile hike one way or almost 4 miles doubling back.  Easy pathway

 

 

 

Pacific Ocean

 

[harryfat1]

There’s a clothing company called London Fog.

 

There should be another company called San Francisco Fog as it occurs regularly.  Trust me when I say there’s a top to the Golden Gate Bridge – it’s up there somewhere. 

 

You just can't see it with the fog cover.

 

No, I didn't photoshop the white area over the bridge.  This is the naturally occurring fog in SF in the middle of August

 

 

 

 

Lots of shipwrecks here throughout history due to fog and currents

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As we walked along the trail more, the fog lifted a little bit so you could almost see the entire bridge

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Along the hike, there’s a pathway down to the bottom to see the ocean up close so we walked down

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to swim here either

 

 

 

Note the birds on the top of the big rock

 

[harryfat1]

There was a woman there trying to train her dog to go and fetch the little toy ball from the water and the dog was saying “No way Jose, I’m not going into the cold water to get this dumb useless ball.  You want it, lady, you go into the water…”🤪

 

 

The dog was more interested in digging a hole in the sand to see if there’s anything good underwater instead of running into the water

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Does this sand remind you of Aruba sand?  Not exactly…

 

SF Sand

 

 

Aruba Sand from December

 

 

 

[Coralc]

59 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

You can go down to the water level from here to see the old Bath but we decided to walk the trail because we wanted to see Golden Gate Bridge as a higher priority.

 

 

 

 

I always thought the old Sutro Baths must have been amazing to see in their time. They've always been ruins in our lifetime, but the old photos look really impressive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutro_Baths 

[MJSailors]

@harryfat1 Thank you for your reply.

As to our return to the City, I meant as a visitor. We used to stay one or two days at the Hilton or the Warwick hotel on 6th Ave or The Fitzpatrick near Grand Central Station on E44th Street and go to museums, Central Park, see a Broadway show etc.

We have lived on the Eastern End of LI  for forty years and appreciate the quiet lifestyle surrounded by vineyards,beaches and farms. So we would never relocate to the NYC metro area.

I was pleased to read that you felt safe in NYC .

I have always enjoyed the City since I was a little girl when my mother would take me in on the subway for shopping, lunches and shows at Radio City Music Hall.

Maybe, someday, we will return as visitors to a place we once enjoyed so much.

Also-regarding the TWA hotel- It is located next to the terminal for Jet Blue. If you should fly to JFK on Jet Blue, the hotel would be an easy walk away.

MJ

 

[NHProud]

@Coralc How are you ? Any closer to moving ?  
 

In San Francisco, I was on my own sightseeing and wanted to see the opera house so I’m standing on a street corner looking at a map when a nicely dressed gentleman asked if I was lost and that I should catch a bus out because I was in the tenderloin district . 
 

 

[h20skibum]

Well done Harry.  I am playing catch up on some threads since I have been busy with something else the last couple weeks.  
 

That location has some nice shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We have hiked around the Marin Headlands ares which has some nice views of the bridge.

 

Will be looking forward to your future installments.  Until then, safe travels. 

[Coralc]

14 hours ago, NHProud said:

@Coralc How are you ? Any closer to moving ?  
 

In San Francisco, I was on my own sightseeing and wanted to see the opera house so I’m standing on a street corner looking at a map when a nicely dressed gentleman asked if I was lost and that I should catch a bus out because I was in the tenderloin district . 
 

 

Thanks for asking! Maybe at the end of the month, if I am able to drive by then. We are going to call the realtor next week. Just about everything is packed. ☺️

 

The tenderloin is not a great area. And SF has many, many homeless people. 

[KiwiGal117]

On 7/29/2024 at 6:41 PM, harryfat1 said:

Speaking of dialogue, here’s a question for you International travelers – how do y'all (say it with a Chinese Texas accent) stay connected on Wi-Fi when traveling in Europe? 

 

We will have 4 Verizon phones going to Europe next year.  I rather not pay the daily International fees to VZ phones to access each of the 4 phones.  Don’t think I want to deal with swapping Sim Cards either.

 

For traveling to Japan back in 2019, we rented portable Wi-Fi hotspots and we used those while we were outside of the hotel to access Google Maps and Google Translate.

 

I could do the same for Europe but just checking if there are better options are available nowadays?

 

Thanks in advance for the guidance.

Airolo e-sims.   Easy and reasonably priced.

[NHProud]

3 hours ago, Coralc said:

Thanks for asking! Maybe at the end of the month, if I am able to drive by then. We are going to call the realtor next week. Just about everything is packed. ☺️

 

The tenderloin is not a great area. And SF has many, many homeless people. 

Wishing you an uneventful move and better days ahead .  
 

 

[harryfat1]

18 hours ago, MJSailors said:

@harryfat1 Thank you for your reply.

As to our return to the City, I meant as a visitor. We used to stay one or two days at the Hilton or the Warwick hotel on 6th Ave or The Fitzpatrick near Grand Central Station on E44th Street and go to museums, Central Park, see a Broadway show etc.

We have lived on the Eastern End of LI  for forty years and appreciate the quiet lifestyle surrounded by vineyards,beaches and farms. So we would never relocate to the NYC metro area.

I was pleased to read that you felt safe in NYC .

I have always enjoyed the City since I was a little girl when my mother would take me in on the subway for shopping, lunches and shows at Radio City Music Hall.

Maybe, someday, we will return as visitors to a place we once enjoyed so much.

Also-regarding the TWA hotel- It is located next to the terminal for Jet Blue. If you should fly to JFK on Jet Blue, the hotel would be an easy walk away.

MJ

 

The 2 hotels you mentioned are all very close to where we stayed. 

 

 

The Fitzpatrick by Grand Central is along our walk daily on the way to the subway.

 

The Hilton is just a few blocks from the very busy Adele's Halal food cart we ate from on day 1 and Rockefeller Center.

 

You can see from our photos that there are always a lot of tourists around even at 11 PM.  Especially if on 6th Avenue.

 

I hope you get to go back to NYC to relive some of your fond childhood memories.

 

 

[harryfat1]

18 hours ago, NHProud said:

@Coralc How are you ? Any closer to moving ?  
 

In San Francisco, I was on my own sightseeing and wanted to see the opera house so I’m standing on a street corner looking at a map when a nicely dressed gentleman asked if I was lost and that I should catch a bus out because I was in the tenderloin district . 
 

 

Yes, SF downtown wasn't great 20-plus years ago when I was there and it's gotten worse.  

 

My wife and I commented that we felt much safer in Midtown NYC than in downtown SF

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Well done Harry.  I am playing catch up on some threads since I have been busy with something else the last couple weeks.  
 

That location has some nice shots of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We have hiked around the Marin Headlands ares which has some nice views of the bridge.

 

Will be looking forward to your future installments.  Until then, safe travels. 

Mark,

 

Thanks for the compliment. 

 

Welcome back from your trip to WDW and the new Utopia of the Seas. I might have been one of the few minority readers who enjoyed the WDW part of your vacation more than the cruise part.

 

I saw in your review that you felt the Utopia was too much of a party atmosphere. I had thought of taking a short cruise out of Cape Canaveral the next time we go to WDW but maybe I will need to reconsider.

 

How did your family like WDW?  Does your grandson prefer WDW or Universal more? 

 

You can go with them to Disneyland next time and then take the RCI cruise to Mexico from LA on the Navigator or Ovation of the Seas as RCI has repositioned the Ovation to be in CA going forward.

 

At the latest D23 Disney meeting, they announced a whole slew of Disney park upgrades if your family is interested in going back later on:

 

https://www.travelandleisure.com/disneys-d23-park-announcements-villians-coco-avengers-8693799

 

We are looking to go to the Disney parks overseas to complete the whole set first. Maybe by then, they will have completed most of these park expansions for us to re-visit Disneyland and WDW.

 

For those not familiar with the Bay Area geography, Mark is referencing the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge.  See red arrow so he had a different perspective of the bridge:

 

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, Coralc said:

Thanks for asking! Maybe at the end of the month, if I am able to drive by then. We are going to call the realtor next week. Just about everything is packed. ☺️

 

The tenderloin is not a great area. And SF has many, many homeless people. 

You are moving?  Out of the Bay Area?

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, KiwiGal117 said:

Airolo e-sims.   Easy and reasonably priced.

Thanks for the suggestion.  This name seems to be highly recommended by many people. 

 

I will try them next year in the UK and France.

[harryfat1]

OK, a few more pictures from our hike, and then we are "done, done"

 

 

 

 

You can see the Golden Gate Bridge between the rocks

 

[harryfat1]

Sailboat way out in the distance heading back into the bay

 

 

After resting, it was time to walk back up to the top to get back on the main trail again

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As this is a cruise-related forum, let’s go a full circle and insert some cruise ship-related photos at the end of this supplemental trip report. 

 

As luck have it, we saw the Crown Princess ship sailing right underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on her way to Alaska.

 

Not the best quality pictures as the ship is pretty far away and the foggy condition doesn't help but you don't always see cruise ships sailing out of Golden Gate Bridge often.  Princess is the biggest cruise ship company using SF as a home port

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As we approached the end of the walking trail, the fog was rolling in and it was almost impossible to see the Golden Gate Bridge from a distance. 

 

You will need to use your imagination on the missing sections of the bridge. 

 

London Fog?  That’s nothing compared to SF fog in August…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

33 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

You are moving?  Out of the Bay Area?

We are. Up to the Sierra foothills area with the expensive homeowner's insurance. It was my mom's house. Larger than this house, but unfortunately still sort of full of her stuff. It is going to be challenging. 

Edited August 14 by Coralc