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!