by Bob Sparrow
You regular blog readers may remember that we took a cruise last November to countries that neither of us had ever been to, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong – Very Exciting! And in July we did a family cruise to nowhere, the boat went from L.A. to Ensenada, but we never got off, so we really didn’t go anywhere – Family Fun! Now, as I write this, we are on a cruise to places that I’ve not only been to, but have lived around – Why?
To be honest, I’m not sure. Other than the excuse my wife gives that while I was looking at our yearly calendar last January, I said, “Doesn’t look like we have much going on in September?” Apparently, that was her cue to find a cruise for us. She knew I wouldn’t mind traveling . . . anywhere! However, ‘anywhere’ this time turned out to be a ‘West Coast Wine Cruise’. When she told me, I was a bit surprised, as I was born and have lived on the West Coast most of my life, and have consumed a good deal of West Coast wine most of my life. And while I have enjoyed both, I really didn’t see a point in cruising to places that I was very familiar with and drinking wine, that I was even more familiar with. But I think I figured out why Linda even considered this trip; it’s on Princess Cruise Lines and she has plays a lot of Princess slot machines, so Princess wants us, well, not so much me as her, to come back. So, we got a deal on the cruise to familiar places, drinking familiar wine.
By the way, the photo at the top was not put in to show you how few people there were lounging by the ship’s pool, but rather to show you the first time, in three days, that we saw a little blue in the sky.
We started our journey by flying from Orange County to Vancouver, Canada, a place we started our Alaskan cruise not that long ago ago – in fact, we stayed in the same hotel this time as we did then – just keeping everything familiar! What we were not familiar with was the rain. But what did we expect in the northwest in late September/October? We boarded the Royal Princess on Saturday and while we found the ship’s main gathering areas nice, it was all a bit ‘tired’ as the ship was first launched in 2012. There were several inconveniences like not having an electrical or USB connection next to the bed or in the bathroom! Yes, nowhere to plug in anything in the bathroom! Additionally, our small balcony would be crowded if we were both on it. But hey, we were cruising and damn happy about it.
We spent most of our time on Saturday in the sports bar watching college football and the Ryder Cup. By Sunday, we had made it all the way to Victoria Island (about 60 miles) and decided that the only thing we would want to see there was Butchart Gardens, but we’d already seen it, so we stayed on board watching NFL football and the Ryder Cup. So, to summarize the trip thus far, we had not seen the sun, the ship was just OK, Linda’s Vikings and my 49ers both lost as well as the U.S. Ryder team – not a great start, but we figured that the further south we go, the better!
We then had two days at sea to make the one-day trip to San Francisco. I guess they just circle around in the ocean or maybe the captain is fishing off the back of the boat, who knows? I think they just make it longer so we can drink more California wine.
The rest of the story on Thursday . . . if I haven’t jumped overboard by then!