Day 2 – Los Angles (Wednesday 2012-01-04)
This is the day we get on board our first ever Cruise Vacation, here are the details:
Line: Crystal
Ship: Crystal Symphony Built in 1995, refurbished in 2005 and 2009
Size: 52,000 tons
Passengers: 800
Crew: 560
This is considered a “mid size” ship which is just fine by me, I was not planning to travel with 2,500+ passengers as I have an inversion to crowds.
The plan was to return to the airport and meet up with the Crystal agents and be transferred to the ship. There was another couple from St. Catharines on the cruise as well, Neil and Rosemary. Neil had left his reading glasses behind at the hotel, so with a quick cell call back to the hotel for them they were dispatched on the next hotel shuttle bus to the airport. Anyway I am sure we will see them again on the voyage.
Karen and I were on the first shuttle bus, the Canadian bus, as this was maily the group that came in on the first flight from Toronto at 10:20am.
The cruise terminal is South LA (San Pedro), it too was a massive operation, with our ship and two more in dock. One was the Golden Princess with 3,000 on board and the Cunard Queen Victoria (a smaller ship, maybe smaller then ours).
You go through a similar process like at an airport, baggage is x-rayed and you go through a metal detector. Once on board you get a photo-id card which is a replacement for one's passport and money, novel idea.
We had lunch on board on the Lido deck, you have to wait to 3pm before you can get to your stateroom. Our room is on deck 9 right at the bow of the ship on Starboard side, with a very nice large balcony, I chose this room for the best photo opportunity for the Panama Canal passage. We had a late dinner in the Crystal Dining Room, and they had a number off vegetarian options on the menu.
Tonight we will change time zones, moving from Pacific time to US Mountain time or -7 off GMT.
We are doing a spot check-in every day around the noon hour local time so check on our location them.
More (now at sea)
Sounds like you are past the hard part, getting on board the ship. We are waiting for lots of pics to show up on the blog!
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ReplyDeleteDavid