We made it to Los Angles without any drama. It was so nice to have a 2 hour flight to the boat, no jet lag here.
We arrived at our hotel about 4:00 pm and I had arranged with my grandkids to meet up at a local sports bar to watch Sunday Night Football at 5:15. Kim was happy to enjoy the quiet evening without me in the hotel.
My grandson gave me a ride from the hotel to the sports bar where I was met by my son and 3 more grandchildren.
It was your typical sports bar, noisy, crowded, and huge TVs everywhere. The only odd thing was there was no wait staff. You were to scan a “QR” code to place your order. So, as the old guy, I tasked my grandson with placing the order. By the time each of us had given him our orders, we were well into the first quarter of the game. I gave him my credit card and it was declined. All I could think about was Kim’s suggestion that I call the bank and let them know we were going to be traveling. You would think after 23 years of such grounded suggestions I would finally learn. But, in my defense I say, “hey, I’m me”, I’ll never learn.
So, I give him another card, same thing. Now I’m getting a bit angery, not to mention thirsty and hungry. My son took the hint and grabbed a worker that had just delivered food to the table next door, obvousily they knew the drill. After explaining that we had been trying for over a half an hour to order, he said that there was a way he could take our order for us. Finally at the end of first quarter, the food arrives, we are about half way though our dinner when I realize we didn’t have any drinks. Once again, Curt, to the rescue and our somehow lost drink order shows up.
Okay, so I’m not “in touch “ with new ways of the world. The food was great and so was the game. I was happy for the family time. They didn’t hesitate to add an automatic 22% tip to the bill, by the way, for what?
My son took me back to the hotel, Kim asked me to bring her a Dr Pepper. We stopped at a 76 gas convience store, they only had Mr Pibb. We went to Walgren’s, they were out. Oh well, forget it, right. Well, we saw a Ralph’s (Safeway), and tried a third time. They only had two 20 ounce bottles in the store. We snagged them both, life should not be so diffecult.
Back at the hotel, I too was enjoying the quiet time, however I was looking around and asking myself why this room goes for over $600 per night, I’d never pay that. What? Wait, i think you did. My answer is two nights in this room was part of the whole “World Cruise “ package. Still I can’t see what makes this so much better than the Hyatt Gardens we stayed at last night at the Portland airport for $116. I guess I just don’t have that classeiness in me, thank the lord.
Yes, it’s time for season 3 of Pool Chronicles, you just can’t make this shit up.
Our assigned seats on the plane from Portland to LA were row 2 A and B. But when we boarded, there was already a couple sitting there. A quick investigation found that they were supposed to be in 2 C and D. We told them that we would just sit in 2 C and D, no worries.
We got off the plane in Los Angeles and headed to baggage claim where we met by a representative from Seaborn, she explained that we were waiting for one other couple and then they would take us to our the hotel. Don’t get ahead of me here. Okay, you’re right, We were waiting on another World Cruise couple from, who knows where. What are the odds of that couple that stole our seats on the plane from Portland were also going on our world cruise? Yep, it was them! In 2024 there were a total of 84 passengers on the World Cruise, I except that will be true again this year, plus or minus. So, to even have 4 of those come from Portland Oregon is a one in a million chance, but to have them sit in our seats? Wait, I just shot my chance of ever winning a billion dollars on the power ball lottery. I just got my one in a trillion events unfold infront of my eyes.. What could the odds of either of those events ever happening.
This might look like a going away party, but it’s just our Friday “emergency” meeting.
Our friend Richard will pick us up at our house at noon tomorrow and take us to the airport. We will stop at Billigan’s Road House for a steak lunch in Vancouver. It might be the last good meal we have for a while. Haha. Well it might be the last meal we pay for for a while.
My friends were truly expressing their feelings about how they would miss me, and I have to say, I will miss them too.
We will stay Saturday night at the airport Hyatt Place, where I will watch the Seahawks beat the 49ers to win the the NFL west title and a bye for the first round of the playoffs.
We fly to Los Angeles from Portland at noon. We arrive in LAX at 2:30, where we be whisked by private limousine to our Beverly Hills Hotel, the Fairmont Century Plaza, where our “lifestyles of the rich and famous” journey begins. Sunday night we will find a sports bar with my son Curt and 5 of my grandkids to watch the SNF game with Baltimore and Pittsburg.
Monday night is the Gala event that kicks off the cruise at Spago, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.
Tuesday, they transfer us to the ship. We are on the same ship as season one and in the same room.
We docked in Darwin at 7 AM and were off the ship by 7:30 AM for immigration. Everyone had to remove everything and do a face-to-face inspection, even the crew. After the inspection was done we had to leave our luggage with them and get back on the ship. We will be on the ship until 10 PM, when we board a bus and go to the airport. Our first flight leaves Darwin at 1:55 AM and lands in Singapore. We arrive in Singapore 4 hours and 45 minutes later at 5:10 AM and leave for Seattle at 9:00 AM. We arrive in Seattle 14 hours and 45 minutes later at 8:45 AM. Yes, we do arrive in Seattle 15 minutes before we leave Singapore. From Seattle we fly to Portland arriving at 12:20 where Richard and Joan are picking us up around 1:00 P M Saturday. It will be a long flight for sure.
We went straight to breakfast when we got on and Kim said, “look at you eating at 8:13 AM”. Yes, it was pretty early, for me.
One of the expedition leaders is a professional photographer and he puts together a set of pictures he took and some that guests took. At the end of this blog, I plan to put several of these pictures for your visual entertainment.
But first, a few funny things I heard. Keep in mind, guests have been aboard for at least 2 weeks now and I got in the elevator on deck 4, I asked for deck 7 and another guy asked for deck 5. The guy pushing the buttons says, “deck 5 has no bar on it why would anyone want off there”? I told him that Deck 5 was the pool deck and there is the pool bar, and the restaurant has a bar too. I then asked him if he somehow got on board yesterday, it was a sea day, which got a laugh. Kim came back on board with a joke she had read about 2 guys preparing to open a new store front. They had had enough of people knocking on the door and asking what kind of store is it going to be. Well, this elderly lady knocks on the door and asks what are you selling? He replies, idiots. She says well business must be good, I see you only have 2 left. Today at lunch I saw the captain, so I walked up to him to thank him for a great trip and inviting us to dinner earlier in the trip. Then I added that I was glad his navigator does all the math for the ship, because last night at the Fairwell reception you stated some people have been on almost 5 1/2 weeks. Those he was referring to have been on board for 55 days. 56 days would be 8 weeks. He laughed, but his fellow officers at the table laughed harder.
Enjoy the beautiful pictures, I plan to write one more time next week so I can add some short videos that you will enjoy watching and tell about our long travel day.
Well, 47 people signed on to the hike in the dark to see the Bird of Paradice, I never heard if all 47 got up and went. I heard that they did NOT see any birds. During lunch, the captain moved the ship to the other side of the Island where there was some fantastic snorkeling.
I made the mistake of asking a German lady if she enjoyed snorkeling and about a half hour later, she excused herself because her champagne was getting warn. Basically, there were too many people, a lot of whom were using swim noodles, and bumping into her. She said, “I felt like I was swimming in noodle soup”. When she and her swim mate tried to get away from the crowd, the expedition leaders made them go back and stay in the group. I told her that’s what the feedback button on her Seabourn app was for. The next day at lunch she thanked me for reminding her that feedback was available. She complained and they listened. The next day, they separated the groups by about a half hour each so there would not be as many people in the same place at the same time.
Now, we have 2 sea days before we get to Darwin. Our flight leaves at 2 AM Saturday evening. We will stay aboard the ship until 10 PM Friday night then they have a bus to take us to the Airport, there are others on that flight. It’s hard to believe we will have been onboard 55 nights, it seems more like a couple of weeks.
Here are some pictures of Wayag Island, Indonesia.
Our route from Soloman Islands to Darwin Australia.
I’ll be the first to admit that I use creative editing from time to time, but the statement above is all truth. The boat feels like it’s on dry land and we are surrounded by a 3D movie screen. I have some beautiful pictures, but no pictures can exhibit the absolute beauty of this area.
