Cactus527

Disembarkation was easy peasy. They called self-assist at 7:25, and then I was already heading down towards the gangway on Deck 4 when they called for the first five groups to disembark at 7:40. Once I left my room, I literally did not stop walking until I got to the pickup point for the Uber/Lyft. 10 minutes for that journey! See? Giant gray marshmallow building on the left for luggage and boarding. These are the kind of lines I like to see for disembarkation! Was literally the second person in line when I got up there. Lyft ride was interesting- I got a notification through the app before he arrived that he was deaf. The app actually offered to teach me a few signs to be able to communicate with him, including hello, goodbye, and thank you. I thought that was rather clever. Had no issues getting all my stuff into his Tesla except I didn't know how the door handles worked. Took 30 minutes to get to the LAX area, and traffic was nominally normal. It can see all the traffic around it? That's brilliant! Got dropped off at the H Hotel, which is connected to the Homewood Suites right beside LAX. I literally have a view of all of the Southwest ramps at the airport, including mine for later today. I can hear and see all the planes taking off/landing on both runways. It's pretty spectacular. The room itself is very fancy, and I love that there is plenty of space for me to spread out, do my workout, refresh, and chill out. It cost me $99 plus taxes/fees (so about $120 total) to have this place from 8:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. With my flight being at 4:15 p.m., I thought this was perfect. I would definitely stay here on a return trip to LA. Currently DoorDashing lunch, then a nap, and then to the airport to go HOME. I'll have probably a few follow-up posts on final thoughts and some random photos to include later.

Our household calls at the grocery store. The food store. It makes me think that there's a chain of stores waiting to happen.

Good morning from LA! We are currently docking and I'm having my final breakfast on board. Also, in case anyone was interested, there's a drink menu in the Windjammer with prices listed.

I'm exhausted and ready for bed, but let me backtrack a little bit. I *did* end up going back up to the Windjammer for more lunch. This time, just a burger and a few other things. It was perfect (THAT'S KETCHUP IN THE DISH, NOT STRAWBERRIES ). Also seen in the Windjammer today - 10 drink card. I spent quite a bit of time packing up my stuff. Since I have an Uber picking me up at 8:00 a.m., I managed to get bag tag #3 to ensure they are ready when I get off and then I can skedaddle immediately to my awaiting vehicle. I also decided to forgo the MDR and go do my workout this afternoon/evening. Thanks for the recommendation on time, @FionaMG! I discovered that you can also do sudoku while you work out on the treadmills. This definitely helped! It was about 6:30 when I finished, and I realized that the show I wanted to see was at 7:15, so I hurried back to the cabin, showered, dressed, and popped by guest services really quick to get the FCC letter. I think I have bugged them 2-3 times already about getting this letter, and they kept saying it would come today. Well, when it's 7:00 p.m. and I don't have it, I don't think I'm going to be getting it unless I go to you. Bonus - the letter says that I'm actually getting 25% (not 20%) of my cruise cost for FCC! After that, I scampered off to the theater to watch Ballroom Fever. I realized halfway through it that I probably should have done my evening in a different order - workout, eat, show - instead of workout, show, eat, because I started nodding off in the middle of the show. Definitely felt bad about it, but it also wasn't incredibly interesting. Decent enough though, there are some fabulous dancers there. After that, DINNER. I did a 100% Windjammer day on accident. Got my chicken korma! They were serving apple pie. THIS is the way to serve apple pie. #bighonkinscooper I also liked the chocolate fountain for dessert! As I was coming up to the Windjammer, I found a new friend on the Deck 10 stairwell. Super cute, but I decided to put him back where I found him after I took his photo so that way maybe a child would find it to enjoy it. Then, as I was headed back to my cabin, I found *another* duck! I am having ducky luck this cruise, after not finding one for probably three or four cruises now. This one I'm keeping! It's so tiny. Came back to finish packing and I found that Mr. Cactus had made a new friend. Too bad he has to leave his new friend. So, the suitcases are in the hallway, everything is packed up except my toothbrush and other morning things, and I guess I'm ready to go home. Checked in for my Southwest flight and got B5! Looking forward to going to the DayUse hotel for a few hours before actually being in LAX tomorrow. I'm ready to go home.

5:45pm - Alpha Alpha Alpha to the sports deck.

At least she wasn't yelling "DIAMOND!" How do people not understand that you have to pay for services? Glad you flew back safely!

Lunch! It was a Cafe Promenade kind of day, though I may go find something else because I'm starting to feel peckish. Egg salad sandwich and pepperoni pizza.

The ketchup was in the tiny dish, not on the waffles! That would be super gross!!!!

Breakfast in the Windjammer. It's bustling at 10am on a port day! There's a crew member doing balloon animals/shapes that is very popular with the younger ones, though I did see an Asian grandmother walking around with a balloon sword. Biscuits and gravy Pastry station Sugar options in the Windjammer My breakie Balloon Man!

Bookworm marches to the beat of her own drum. She also doesn't take crap from anybody, a trait I strongly admire. When I suggested that for a t-shirt, she was so excited. She actually still wears it to school occasionally.

Luckily for me, they have kept the West Coast release date the same. I'm just looking to do a short RC cruise in early 2027, as Bookworm is graduating that spring and wants to do a land tour in Greece and Italy. #byebyecruisemoney

Good morning from Ensenada, Mexico! I feel like I was just here... Viking Neptune is here in port with us today. The best part is I slept through the night again! These four night cruises are definitely a completely different crowd than the three night weekend ones. Day 7 and my last day of this B2B. I think I'm probably going to be packing on and off all day so that way I can go and see the Ballroom Fever show tonight. No plans to actually get off the ship. Day 7 cruise shirt. Nostalgia. I had this one, Bookworm had one that said "most likely to start a mutiny," and DQ had one that said "most likely to be friends with everyone" on our July 2023 Allure cruise. Now we have to get one for Spouse for our Alaska cruise. I'm thinking something like " most likely to hate matching shirts."

This is good to know! I was thinking about going again this evening, maybe I might try dinner time then. WHAT. I was excited to see the bowls with all of the extra veggies and such, because I thought, wow, it's going to make the ramen that much better! People are dumb.

Safe travels back!

Dinner was...lazy. After my Mexican late lunch, I decided to swing by Cafe Promenade and work on my free pizza game. Then, I realized I wanted more to go with the pizza then just that, so I went to the Windjammer right when they opened at 5:30. Picked up a few things, and I've been just kind of nibbling at it all evening. Decided to make it a movie night and just hang out here. It's been excellent. No real plans for tomorrow other than starting to pack up to go home on Friday. Random observations: I have never been on a cruise where it's been so cold. I'm literally freezing outside of my room. Inside my room, it is definitely a cave suite - heat, food, entertainment, comfort. People can't read. Signs are there for a reason. Follow them, moron. If it says stay seated, stay seated, don't start cursing at someone when you almost fall over because it said to stay seated and the vehicle you were in started moving while you were standing. People also seem to fail at being able to get in an orderly line. I feel like my room attendant is doing the bare minimum he can to make my room okay. I have felt like that for the last couple of cruises. Am I just expecting too much? I want clean towels without having to ask! I have avoided elevators as much as possible. The times that I have had to take them, no one has ever been on them with me. It's kind of eerie. The station tonight at the Windjammer was for ramen! I thought that was very unique. Didn't take advantage of it, but many people were excited to see it too. It was labeled as being Asian night. Seems appropriate for Chinese New Year too!

They were making me laugh so much that I took a picture of the entire display. EDIT: Found their website! Now I'm laughing hysterically at their listings over there. https://www.whiskeyriversoap.com/collections/wtf-soap

I'm glad to be able to provide! We also did the ropes course that's over near Descanso Beach when we were here last time. It was fun, I'd recommend it for active people, but I remember my hands were really sore for the next two days. It's adorable! Apparently, Catalina Island has never actually been connected to another continent, so everything that lives there came there on its own or was brought many years ago. Foxes were brought over many years ago, and apparently with the way the island evolution works, dwarfism and gigantism are fairly common. So, foxes went from their normal size to the dwarf size that's in the photo! I remember the tour guide had an example of a regular size plant that became gigantic on Catalina Island, but I can't remember what it was. I guess the bison that are on the island are also smaller than usual?

Are they trying to one up Orlando?

All the positive vibes for your mother's husband and that he can get better. I'm realizing more and more that it's hard for older people to ask for help because they're so used to being able to do it all themselves. I hope he learns soon that asking for help is not showing weakness; rather, it shows understanding that you aren't able to do everything.

I agree that there was a weird texture to this cheese. It was almost too drippy.

I did have beef steak cubes on there, I think it was just buried underneath everything else. Completely delicious, I should just go get a bowl of that by itself.

Anybody else want to live at @Pooch's house? No? Just me? Good, more sauce for me then!!!!! And if Pooch won't have me, I'm moving to @PPPJJ-GCVAB's place. #sauce4ever

El Loco Fresh!!!! ELF was definitely on fire when I got there because the Windjammer wasn't open. I made my own taco salad. ELF is located on Deck 11 midship, right beside the pool. The sign, along with the hand washing station behind it. Everyone is in line for the deliciousness. Hello, delicious!

I think I have finally thawed out enough that I can post. Don't get me wrong, Catalina Island is stunningly beautiful; however, in the off season (like January), it can get quite cold. I didn't plan for that. I got off the boat in a t-shirt, jeans, and a light jacket. I probably should have gotten off with a parka, warm hat, mittens, and polar pants. They were doing tender tickets until about 10:30 a.m., and then after that anybody who wanted to could get on. I think they went up to number 30. I went and got a tender ticket at about 10:15 a.m. and got number 29. They called for 29 at 10:30, went down to Deck 1, got on the tender boat, and was over on the island by 10:50. Super quick, super easy tender to the pier. While everybody else went to the right to start wandering into Avalon, I went to the left where the marina building is and the Catalina Express lands. I had signed up for a tour through Viator, and the tour operator was Catalina Adventure tours, which is located there. Then I just hung out until 11:30 when they put us all in the vehicle to go on tour. The vehicle was kind of like a modified F-350 with a passenger carrier thing on the back that could carry about 24 people. As soon as we got on, the tour guide said that we were going to all the cold, and I realized at that point that I was going to miss my fleece. We did a quick tour through town, and then we went into the conservancy part of the island that is protected. If you didn't know, many years ago, the Wrigley family bought Catalina Island. They still own 11% of the island, but they donated 88% of it for nature conservancy. Only people that live on the island can go into the interior, and if you want to have an actual vehicle on the island, you have to wait 30 years. That's according to the tour guide. The island is 80% Hispanic, and the tour guy said that is because when the Wrigleys needed to build up the island after they initially bought it after a fire, they hired cheap labor from Mexico. Those families were given plots of land to thank them for their work, and many of them have stayed. Then we started going uphill and into the heart of the island. We got up to 1,500 ft above sea level at one point. It was just over 50° when we left Avalon, and so much colder when we got up there to the top, especially riding in an open truck. I think it actually got even colder by the time we got back to Avalon, but I digress. There were so many beautiful areas and interesting things that the tour guide talked about, but I had chosen to sit on the edge to be able to see better, and I was completely regretting it because of all the wind going by and being so cold. I think by the time we got to the top at the Airport in the Sky, I was shivering so much that I could hardly get up and walk into the building there. It was a little better on the way back down because I used the bag I brought along as a warmer for my hands, but it was also just getting warmer the further we dropped in elevation. I think this tour needs to have a warning on it if you go in the winter! Absolutely a great tour, I definitely recommend it, but I am still just so cold and can't get past that. Avalon, Catalina Island, CA Tendering over Avalon Tour photos, especially of Catalina Island's interior. Dwarf fox! We were promised wildlife, and so we saw a full-grown dwarf Fox native to the island, and a full-grown house cat native to the airport. The airport in the sky, which has a 3,000-ft runway at 1600 ft above sea level. After the tour was done, I puttered around some of the gift shops in town and along the waterfront for souvenirs. I found one shop that had a heat vent blowing straight down, so I made sure to shop that section extra hard and long. Then I popped into line to get back to the ship at 2:40, got on the tender at 3:00, putting me back in my room at 3:15. The rough part about that is that Windjammer was already closed (3pm), so the only options for lunch were ELF or Cafe Promenade. I chose ELF. I had done Catalina Island previously in October 2022. It was much busier at the time, much warmer, and kind of felt overwhelming. Coming now in January when a lot of places are closed and/or remodeling made it feel like a cute small New England town along with seaside. I would definitely recommend a warm coat though!

Seen at the Copper and Clover