Santa Barbara, California

Hello from a cool, drizzly, dreary and kind of depressing looking day in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara is a tender port, meaning we anchor offshore and use the lifeboats to send passengers back and forth. 

Since I’ve been here plenty of times and done all I care to do (Ed and I even walked 7.5 miles here once), I had already decided to stay on the ship today. 

After a highly unsatisfying breakfast (bad food, bad service) I went straight across the deck over to the gym. I realized I really wasn’t feeling it so I turned around, went to the elevator, and headed right back to my cabin. Kicked off my shoes, cracked open the balcony door for cool fresh air (and sea lion singing from the buoy), covered up with a blanket, and watched a selection of movies for the day. Dirty Dancing, My Penguin Friend, Barbie, Back to Black. Princess has a large variety of free on demand movies you can watch in your cabin.

I don’t know how many they have but I’m guessing it’s over 100.

I skipped lunch because I knew I was having a bigger dinner at Crown Grill tonight. (Technically I didn’t skip lunch. I had a cup of M&Ms while watching movies. What was I thinking?!)

Also I should have thought through my choice of food at Crown Grill a little better. 

Shrimp cocktail appetizer

More shrimp and Seabass just like I had yesterday at lunch

Keylime pie bar for dessert was a little too citrusy
when paired with my lemon drop martini

Every time I cruise for a long period of time, at some point I hit a wall. The combination of the last three days, along with the weather, may have made today the wall day. Tomorrow we’re in LA (technically San Pedro) where I’ll see if I can break out of this funk. See you there.

Sea Day

Welcome to the first sea day of just two on this seven day cruise. It’s a cool and cloudy one as we slowly sail our way towards Santa Barbara.

View from the promenade deck

Since I skipped breakfast my first order of business today was the slot tournament at 9:00 AM. The players with the top 60 scores moved onto the next round and I landed at number 66. Darn. And the top prize for this tournament is $10,000! Oh well.

To kill some time after the tournament, I used the $400 in free play the casino gave me for this cruise. You have to run it through the machine and play the entire $400 but you get to keep the winnings and, lucky me, I walked away with $400.41. Pretty unusual to be able to get back that high of a percentage.

Then to kill some time before the Most Traveled Guest luncheon I sat outside, tucked away from the wind, and watched part of Moana 2.

Lunch was the exact same menu as last cruise and I again chose the sea bass. I didn’t take a picture of the fish this time since I did last time so instead I took a picture of the seafood trio starter and the dessert. I’m not a big fan of chocolate, but it sure was pretty.

Oyster, crab, tuna

Beautiful chocolate

I watched a movie in the afternoon during my phone calls with my daughter and hubby and came away not understanding the movie. Not like I can’t watch it again. Then off pre dinner drinks where I tried a sour apple martini. 

After two sips I wasn’t a fan

Tonight was formal night and I went to dinner at the time I was told, 7 PM. But my table was occupied and the only other table to accommodate me was squished in with another. I don’t do squished so I decided to go up for pizza. Still in my nice clothes, freezing on deck, I had a slice of vegetarian and pepperoni. 

Probably better than formal night dinner 

Not wanting to get any colder, not wanting to go to the casino, and not wanting to be around crowds on formal night I came back to the cabin at 7:30, the earliest I have this entire trip. 

Off to Santa Barbara tomorrow. See you there. 

San Francisco Turnaround Day

Welcome to my turnaround day in San Francisco when one cruise ended and another began. 

A cloudy morning

A sunny afternoon 

And welcome to the day I had a meltdown. 

It started when we were leaving the ship to go through immigration. Just as we left the deck the scooter’s belt started going whack, whack, whack. I had to get off the scooter and push it off the ship, down the line outside the terminal, through immigration, and back onto the ship. I made it all the way to my new cabin and took things apart and found a piece of black rubber imbedded in the grooves of the belt. It could have been a complete disaster but thank goodness it was easily fixable.

While I was in the cabin I noticed something unusual.

Where are my clothes and suitcase and bags?

When you’re in transit and change cabins they move your things from one cabin to another while you do immigration. (So my clothes should be here in this picture.) Giving them the benefit of the doubt of maybe a running late situation, I cleaned out my scooter belt, reassembled all the pieces and headed to get some sun before lunch.  

A beautiful day for an outdoor concert 

Embarkation day lunch is typically the same for me, salmon and orange soufflé. 

 

I had an invitation for a slot tournament so I went straight from lunch to the casino where I got my tournament time - 9 AM tomorrow - and a nice gift. 

I returned to my cabin and found the closet still empty. So I spoke to a supervisor about the missing things. And a supervisor. And a supervisor. And guest services and guest services. No one could find my things. In all of our days sailing with Princess - 1,000 days for me this week - we have never had our things not get transferred. 

The meltdown then began.

I almost thought someone was playing a joke on me but it sure wasn’t funny. I stewed in my cabin (yeah there were tears, too) throughout the afternoon until everything arrived. They had been delivered to a completely different cabin. Thank goodness a cabin steward reported my things in one of his cabins (not even close to my cabin). I tipped him $20 in some ones and fives I had on hand and gave him some things from my mini bar. Boy, that was a big mess up by someone. 

Honey, I’m home

At the exact moment the clothes and bags were being delivered the future cruise consultant was calling me on the phone making sure I was coming to tomorrow’s Most Traveled Guest Luncheon. Umm…I didn’t get an invitation? She insisted it was supposed to have already been delivered to me. Another mess up by someone. (Later I asked my cabin steward about the missing invite and he said he has a bunch of VIPs in his section and has been too busy taking care of them to deliver the invitations.)

I’m trying hard to clear my head but it’s, well, hard. So happy to be back in a balcony cabin to clear my head with fresh air.

I was in no mood to attend the sailaway party so I sat on my balcony instead. 

The seagulls loved water stirred up by the ship as we left the dock. 

Alcatraz

And the Golden Gate Bridge on the way out

If fresh air wasn’t going to clear my head it was going to be lemon drop martinis. I planned on cutting back on them this cruise but I don’t think tonight’s the night to start. Yellow is an Easter color anyway. 

Being Easter and all I chose the ham for dinner. It really was good.

I turned in early so I’ll be ready to start pushing buttons during the slot tournament right after breakfast. Tomorrow’s a sea day so I’ll see you then!

Sea Day #10

Hello from our last sea day of the Hawaiian cruise! As I’ve told people before, if you want to sail from the mainland to Hawaii you better love sea days and be okay with a bumpy ride and cold temperatures. I would not recommend a cruise to Hawaii for your first one.

Seas may be smooth now but they weren’t for most of the voyage. 

This morning we had a meeting for all the in transits, the people who will be on board for the next voyage. They provided mimosas and some breakfast snacks for the meeting but I did not partake in either one. Go me! There are 50 of us who will be staying on to go south to Santa Barbara, LA (San Pedro), San Diego, and Ensenada, Mexico for a seven day cruise.

After the meeting I needed to use the comp I received from the casino. I had a choice of specialty dinners, spa treatments, or credit to use for shopping. I didn’t need any more dinners, I’m not a fan of the spa here onboard, but I knew from past experience I could buy snacks for the crew in one of the shops. I bought a couple things for myself, and for crew members I bought multiple packages of overpriced Ferrero Rochers and Kinder Buenos.

Only one person watching Movies Under the Stars.
It’s just too darn cold out there for anything. 

This evening I had my usual pre dinner Lemon Drop Martini along with some chicken dumplings from the Elite Lounge. 

I also tried something new I heard about, peanut butter whiskey. I’ve never had whiskey before and I’m not sure how I feel about what I drank tonight. It smelled like peanut butter and did taste like peanut butter and what I would think whiskey would taste like. Glad I tried it but won’t do it again. 

Served on the rocks

Earlier I pulled tonight’s dinner menu from the app. Unfortunately, it’s the same last night dinner that you’ll find on about every Princess ship. You’d think with prime rib as a choice it would be my favorite but the prime rib isn’t the greatest and when you have the same choices on the same last night of a cruise week after week, months at a time, it becomes uninspiring.

    

Thankfully the special meal in my section of the dining room was a pork chop. I had the double pork chop earlier in the cruise but this one was so much better. I almost ate the whole thing and had no room for dessert. 

Oh. My. Goodness.

When I got back to my cabin I had received another comp from the casino. It was a good one. I was hoping to use this one on another Hawaiian cruise on this ship, but the Ruby Princess doesn’t go back to Hawaii until after the expiration date so I may have to choose a different ship. 

Princess has solid casino offers but they make it difficult to redeem them  

We’ll be going under the Golden Gate Bridge around 5 AM tomorrow and I doubt I’ll be awake for it. But I will be out of my cabin by 8 AM, and if it looks to be a nice day I’ll be off the ship and down to Fisherman’s Wharf. Otherwise I’ll be at the Wheelhouse Bar with all the other in transits who will go through the terminal together for immigration. See you tomorrow!

Ensenada, Mexico

Hello from Ensenada, Mexico!

We’re in port with the Carnival Panorama today.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to go out because (surprise!) I had more middle of the night, early morning, and midmorning texts and calls because a certain dog had another emergency visit. Poor fella. Once he was back home again with a new treatment plan I felt it safe to venture outside the cabin. It was a little after 11 AM which meant I missed breakfast again. I went to the buffet to grab a bite for lunch, but I guess breakfast is until 11:30 because those gross liquid egg dishes were everywhere. Desperate for any food resembling a lunch in my tummy I probably picked about the worst thing I could. Chorizo, rice, pound cake. 

Bad eating self report #1 
Didn’t eat it all so that’s a plus

Feeling highly unsatisfied with my attempt at a meal I decided to be adventurous. When I saw the white tents up at the base of the flagpole I knew I needed to go visit.

No flag up but yes on the white tents

Many times when we’ve been here the promenade area hasn’t been busy. Today with two ships in port, it being a Friday, and Easter coming up not only was it busy with ship passengers but with locals. It makes for the best time to visit. Scooter and I rolled our way to the tents but once there I decided to go farther to the fish market. I didn’t go on the wet, fish-smelling floors but did get some pictures on my way to the next place. 

Down by the fish market there’s a place Ed and I have eaten several times before, Tacos Lucero. It’s a locals place, tucked away from the cruise ship crowds. In all our visits we’ve never seen another passenger there.

Not easy for cruise passengers to find

I was there for one thing only, the fish tacos. Hands down, the best in the world with no other even coming close. The cost for one fish taco? $2. And I splurged for two!

Think of the best, crispiest fried fish you’ve ever had.
Add it to a tortilla and top it with a little bit of salsa.

Crunchy yet melts in your mouth

They also have a collection of sauces and vegetables you can add. 

Since they’re right next door to the fish market their fish is fresh. They even have a whole fish on the menu if you’re interested.

Now that’s a big fish!

On my way back after lunch I wandered the white tent area, but really stuff is stuff is stuff so I didn’t buy anything. Once back to the ship I grabbed some iced tea and some sweets.

Bad eating self report #2

I then went up to deck 16 to watch the Rolling Stones concert at Movies Under the Stars.

A glorious day for an outdoor concert

Had pre-dinner drinks. 

Bad eating drinking self report #3
Two lemon drop martinis and one Diet Coke.
Which is worse, alcohol or caffeine at 6:00 at night?

Drinks were supposed to roll into a dinner with a friend at Crown Grill but she got sick and had to cancel last minute. I already told my servers in the dining room to give my table away tonight so the buffet it was. 

Bad eating self report #4 
Lukewarm brisket with BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes with butter,
and focaccia bread

Up tomorrow will be our last sea day as we’re now heading north towards San Francisco. See you tomorrow when I hope I won’t have any bad eating to self report!