Cruisers from the LEFT COAST of the USA- let's talk about our CRUISES..

[Desert Cruizers]

Now that I think of it, I think we had 3 formal nights on our 11 Day E Caribbean. During the 2nd week of our Hawaii Cruise, we had the 2nd formal after leaving Kona then the 3rd formal night before arriving home, so they were close together. I generally plan one of the formal nights wearing dressy slacks and top. I have a dress always for one. last cruise, one of the ladies had told us about the One Soles ( Shoes) where you buy the sole and then can snap on differant styled tops. They are expensive intially, but you can buy tops to match your outfit so really have one pair of shoes.

http://www.onesole.com/soles.htm

There is a store locator, and noticed there is a store in Temecula and 3 stores here in Palm Desert. It is best to go find a store, that way you can know the size top you will ned, ( S, M, L ). Wow got lucky, the one in Temecula is on Ynez but further down from where we are eating, about 4 miles

 

Gay

[cctn]

Carol we had 3 formal Nights on our 15 day Hawaii Cruise. I think a cruise under 14 days has 2 formal nights.

 

Gay

 

 

Both of our 12 nights on the Explorer had 3 formal nights - oh well, I will prep for 3 for our 11 nighter on the Infinity - cuz if we go to the specialty restaurants, we like to dress up - my formals are not that fancy - plain, black - basic... thanx You Melodyand Gay ...

 

Melody - Your trip will come soon enough !! I am so excited for you!

 

Carol

[cctn]

Now that I think of it, I think we had 3 formal nights on our 11 Day E Caribbean. During the 2nd week of our Hawaii Cruise, we had the 2nd formal after leaving Kona then the 3rd formal night before arriving home, so they were close together. I generally plan one of the formal nights wearing dressy slacks and top. I have a dress always for one. last cruise, one of the ladies had told us about the One Soles ( Shoes) where you buy the sole and then can snap on differant styled tops. They are expensive intially, but you can buy tops to match your outfit so really have one pair of shoes.

http://www.onesole.com/soles.htm

There is a store locator, and noticed there is a store in Temecula and 3 stores here in Palm Desert. It is best to go find a store, that way you can know the size top you will ned, ( S, M, L ). Wow got lucky, the one in Temecula is on Ynez but further down from where we are eating, about 4 miles

 

Gay

 

Thanx Gay - I am looking forward to discovering Temecula - and the onesole source!! Carol

[Desert Cruizers]

Carol I bought a pair here in Palm Desert with 2 extra tops. Like I said the shoe part itself is expensive, something like $125, and the tops can be up to $30 I think, but then once you have the tops you want, you don't need to pack alot of shoes, just the extra tops. Our last cruise I had two pairs of heels, along with my everyday shoes.

 

Gay

[mountainhouse]

They are expensive intially, but you can buy tops to match your outfit so really have one pair of shoes.

http://www.onesole.com/soles.htm

 

What? No men's shoes? :confused: ;)

[Desert Cruizers]

Afraid not, these are womens, thats not saying , men can't buy them.:D

 

Gay

[cctn]

Afraid not, these are womens, thats not saying , men can't buy them.:D

 

Gay

 

 

Good one Gay!! maybe some have! Carol

[cctn]

What? No men's shoes? :confused: ;)

 

 

Went to Manteca today - Delicato Winery - bought some wine for our occasional "happy hr" here at home when we enjoy a glass of wine before dinner --

sure was hot out there! had a nice time - then went on to Modesto at Fresh Choice for lunch -

Carol

[mountainhouse]

Good one Gay!! maybe some have! Carol

 

:eek: Not me! LOL

 

I actually have a pair of leather driving shoes. Very comfortable. Kind of like athletic shoes - all black. I wear those to dinner whether it's formal or not. I've not had anyone staring downward at my feet yet. My dress pants drape down a bit and they're barely visible. :)

[mountainhouse]

Went to Manteca today - Delicato Winery - bought some wine for our occasional "happy hr" here at home when we enjoy a glass of wine before dinner --

 

sure was hot out there! had a nice time - then went on to Modesto at Fresh Choice for lunch -

 

Carol

 

Wish we'd known. We're 1 mile from Delicato. If the wind is right, you can smell the wine at our house. I really like going up to Lodi, and cruising to wineries. Favorites are St. Amant, Berghold and D'Art.

 

Now there's a good activity for Northern Cal cruisers. Just caravan around to 3-4 wineries. Most are free tasting in Lodi. Pot luck munchies for lunch. :D A friend of mine does this twice a year. Sends out an open invitation - all friends of friends are okay. Lots of time of socialize at each winery.

[cctn]

Wish we'd known. We're 1 mile from Delicato. If the wind is right, you can smell the wine at our house. I really like going up to Lodi, and cruising to wineries. Favorites are St. Amant, Berghold and D'Art.

 

Now there's a good activity for Northern Cal cruisers. Just caravan around to 3-4 wineries. Most are free tasting in Lodi. Pot luck munchies for lunch. :D A friend of mine does this twice a year. Sends out an open invitation - all friends of friends are okay. Lots of time of socialize at each winery.

 

 

Now that sounds good - except Narce is now going to be busy starting in Sept - projects plus lots of camping / fishing trips with his nephew.

 

We like St. Amant - our friend gave us a bottle and it's very good -

 

We had a reunion dinner once at Wine and Roses - lots of wineries in that Woodbridge/Woodrige? area -

 

Yes, I was surprised Delicato does not charge cuz most of the wineries in Napa, Sonoma, etc... do.

 

so this sounds like a good suggestion for a get together... gotta' pass it onto Glenda, Jill, etc who live in the area. Carol

[Desert Cruizers]

Carol I am already thinking ahead as to where a 2nd Lunch for us would be nice, if we do a change of location then it might be best to let someone organize the lunch for that area. I really enjoyed handling this one, but if we end up in Orange Co or something then someone who is more familiar with restaurants in the area may be better to run that one.

 

Gay

[cctn]

Frank:

 

I tried to put in the www of the tour group we were on in Mazatlan and nothing comes up - maybe they went belly up !! or down! sorry... Carol

[wizard-of-roz]

Hi All....We're Roz/Morey and Service Dog "Brenda", we'll be driving to Seattle on September 1st to take the Golden Princess to Alaska on September 5th.

We're stopping in Redding, CA. and Tukwila, WA. The thought of staying in dowtown Seattle was such a "turn-off!" I chose a smaller town, about a 45 minute drive [enroute] to the pier. We'll explore Seattle after the cruise. I just didn't want to fight the downtown traffic and pay the extra money to park the SUV for two nights. We'll park it at the pier for the week and that was enough for me!

We live near the San Pedro/Long Beach Ports and, are a two hour drive from the San Diego Port. We live near Los Angeles.

We've done all the local docks and have really enjoyed being so close. It's so much easier to just pack the car and drive to the port.

We buy a large, Rubbermaid container from WalMart or Target and fill it with our favorite drinks/bottled water/Brenda's gear and other misc. items. We tape a luggage tag, with all the pertinent information on it and drop it with a porter, at the pier [we always give an extra tip for their efforts]. After emptying the container and when debarking, we leave the container onboard. [The cost is about $7.00 per container and, it's less to drag off when were leaving!]

In over 18 cruises the container ALWAYS makes it to our cabin, along with our luggage. [so much more convenient than flying and, it allows us to bring EVERYTHING we want].

Of course, this means that we are limited to the venues that these ports offer. We're not bored yet! We'll book cruises just for the fun of the ship! And, we'll stay onboard, during the week or two and, never leave the ship. [it does mean that we may have to change lines, ocassionaly just to change the surroundings!] ;)

We've done the "fly to Florida....wait...wait....wait...cost...cost...cost" thing. I'm pretty much done with cruising from the "wrong coast", the Caribbean doesn't hold anymore interest for us! :rolleyes:

The idea of a "drive-cruise" vacation is actually fun! We plan some interesting stops along the way and give ourselves plenty of time to arrive to each destination (to not allow for the frustration of late arrivals!)

We limit our drive clothing (a few comfortable shirts/pants/underwear and shoes), this is in a separate "hanging bag" so that we don't have to disturb our "cruise attire." Once the cruise attire has been packed, it stays packed until we arrive on the ship. I rarely have to use an iron on anything. [i've turned into a "iron-free genious" when it comes to packing!] It's all about plastic clothing bags and tissue!

Geezzzz! Forgive me....If I've bored you. It's just fun to share adventures with like-minded folks. :)

[cctn]

Not boring at all - thanx Roz for sharing - and hope you'll post more often.

I try to limit my airplane rides too - it's nice to drive 5 hrs +/- to San Pedro to cruise on the Monarch when it was there, and now we have the Mariner - we have done just one sailing on her and another one booked in two yrs --

We sailed to AK from SF last yr and will do it again next May - we had to fly home from Vancouver but it's a short flight as opposed to the East Coast / Miami / or even Barcelona. I will fly for cruises but trying to limit myself whereas we used to go every yr to cruise from one of the ports located a long flight away.

Have fun in Alaska - and enjoy Seattle too -

Carol

[mountainhouse]

I tried to put in the www of the tour group we were on in Mazatlan and nothing comes up - maybe they went belly up !! or down! sorry... Carol

 

Thanks very much for checking!

 

Hi All....We're Roz/Morey and Service Dog "Brenda", we'll be driving to Seattle on September 1st to take the Golden Princess to Alaska on September 5th.

 

Hi, Roz! It's a California thing, right? ;) Best to always have the car along. If we had the time, we'd definitely pass on the airlines. We did something similar in June. Trying to control the vacation budget, we planned a 2 week drive up the coast to Seattle. Then when the flier from Princess came with the great deal on Alaska, we did that instead. :) Alaska was great, but I do feel we missed out on a fun drive. SO, enjoy the drive to Seattle!

 

Frank

[wizard-of-roz]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. We are truly looking forward to our "journey" to Cruise Alaska.

When we come back I'll let you all know how it went.

[cctn]

They let Brenda on board to cruise? just curious - carol

[wizard-of-roz]

They let Brenda on board to cruise? just curious - carol

 

Yes, she's a Service Dog. Alaska will be her 12th cruise. Amazing. She's been on every major cruiseline out there. She could write her own travel book.

We believe that Princess treats her the best of all the lines, with HAL coming in on a close second.

[cctn]

Yes, she's a Service Dog. Alaska will be her 12th cruise. Amazing. She's been on every major cruiseline out there. She could write her own travel book.

 

We believe that Princess treats her the best of all the lines, with HAL coming in on a close second.

 

 

There was a beautiful lab on our last cruise (March/Explorer 09) - and she was great! got her lady all over the ship - Wow ! Your Brenda is racking up the credits real fast!! Carol

[cctn]

Roz - forgot to tell ya how BEAUTIFUL Brenda is........ our nephew has a choc lab and we've known a couple of golden labs -- two of our friends have Black Labs and they are gorgeous! We had a weimeraner - for 11 yrs and she was our baby - enjoyed her so much. I know these are not service dogs but they are dogs and to me, very much human! Carol

[Desert Cruizers]

Evening Roz & Morey and welcome, do stop by our Calif thread also. click the Calif link below our signatures. We are from Palm Springs, my name is Gay, DH John.

 

Gay

[wizard-of-roz]

Cruise Critic folks are always so welcoming....and, you guys are no exception.

We're leaving on September 2nd for Seattle; we're driving a very big SUV and Brenda only takes-up 3/4 of the back seat. There's room for one more.....anybody ready for a road trip and a cruise? :p

Thanks again for the warm welcomes......

I promise to come back and post about * Pier 91* [there have been so many "goods", "bads" and "uglies" about this dock.....It's really the only trepidation I'm feeling about the entire trip. We'll see.....da..da..da...da!!!!!!!! :(

[cctn]

Hey Roz - that's about 2-1/2 more weeks - you will have fun ! I don't know the different docks in Seattle - last yr on RCCL's Serenade we were right by Ivar's -- not too far from Pike's Market - but not by the space needle. Love Ivar's fish and chips!

 

Brenda sounds so cute! nice to have a dog on these threads too!

 

The one complaint the lady had last yr with her eye seeing dog Agnes was, too many people would actually stop the dog as they were walking down the promenade of the ship - and she would lose her momentum - they would pet Agnes and comment on her -- As cute as Agnes was, I knew better than that, except when they were sitting down and then I would admire her but I asked first before petting.

 

You are more than welcome - these threads are very friendly - there's more of us on the Cruisers From CA as well - you'll find that in my Signature and also on Gay's -

 

Have a good day - looking forward to more of your postings.. Carol

[Desert Cruizers]

Roz a fun thing we love to do is honor everyones BDays and Anniversaries. If you like, all I need are your Month and days and I will add you to our list.

Years ago, I rode with my parents up the coast to BC and really enjoyed that drive. have a wonderful and safe trip.

 

Gay