Getting on the Sapphire Princess – January 31, 2009

I am not sure I can adequately describe our first time meeting Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick. We found them down in the lobby and Nancy quickly ushered us all over to the shuttle. Thankfully she had made a reservation for us the day before and so we could all go over together. Within the first few minutes we heard about their adventures the night before which consisted of Ally biting into glass when she took a bite of the hotel’s complementary cookie and the whole group getting pulled over for speeding on the way back from picking up Ally and Rich at the airport. They were all so animated and gregarious; I knew we were in for great, amusing week.

Once we got to the sapphire, Karen was stunned by the sheer size of the ship. It is pretty impressive to see this huge vessel, our home for the next week.

We stayed with the group as we moved through the check in process, and then went over to a waiting area for our group to be called. Nancy and Rick were giving a lower number then the rest of us. When they were called they had us come with them so that we could stay together as a group. We made our way through the building, stopping to get the obligatory pictures taken and then onto the ship.

The first thing you do when boarding the ship is get your “mug shot” taken for security. As you enter the ship they take your room key card and digitally embed your picture so that they have a visual reference of you when you get back on the ship in the different ports. It is reassuring to know that Princess takes security that seriously.

After we got through security we went to the Emerald deck, down to cabin 107 and entered our cabin. It was so funny how the little things can make such a big difference. Our cabin was on the odd side of the ship or starboard side. On the Alaskan cruise we were on the port side, so basically the room was the exact opposite and I will be honest, I never got used to it the entire week. Once we got to our room we decided to take some pictures of it. One question I kept getting over and over again after the last cruise was how small are the rooms? So I took lots of pictures to show the room.

Here are the beds and nightstands. The desk/vanity/TV area. The desk area showing the hall with me standing in it looking at the pictures I just took.The closet. The cupboard with shelves – there is lots of storage space. The bathroom – which is admittedly pretty small. The sink/counter with some nice shelves for stuff. To get a really good idea of how small the shower is, I thought I would demonstrate by standing in it. And here I am in the shower with my foot on the toilet. After we checked out the room we went to go explore the ship before the muster drill.

LA/San Pedro - January 30-31, 2009

We left Detroit at 5:40 pm and flew to Phoenix where we had a short layover. While we were in Phoenix I got a phone call. As soon as we booked the cruise I checked out the roll call on Cruise Critic to “get to know” some of the people taking the cruise with us before we left. At one point Ally asked if anyone was interested in taking a sail boat, whale watching tour in Mazatlan. Karen and I decided that is sounded like fun and joined Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick on the tour. Prior to leaving we all emailed to start to get to know each other. Nancy had offered to pick us up from LAX. Anyone who knows me at all, knows I like to be in control of things, especially things as important as getting myself to where I need to be. So many of my friends were very surprised to hear that I had agreed to let someone I did not know pick me up from the airport. Well, as we were sitting in the phoenix airport Nancy called and told me she had misjudged the time and now could not pick us up. Now normally something like this would totally freak me out… But thanks to another trait of my, obsessive planning for every possible scenario, I had a back up plan of a shuttle that you did not need reservations for at the airport that would take us to the hotel. Karen was so surprised I was not freaking out.

Our flight from Phoenix left at 8:08 pm and we were just an hour away from LA. Flying into Los Angeles in the dark was an interesting experience. I have flown into big cities before, New York and London, but I was blown away by the size of the LA area, the lights from the city when on and on and on. It was like there was no end. I was really surprised about it. After another smooth landing we were here!! We got off the plane, collected our luggage and found the shuttle.

I had to commemorate my arrival.
Here are Karen and I outside the airport.
Originally we were going to stay in a hotel near the airport, but after talking to Nancy I decided to try my luck at priceline to get a room close to the pier in San Pedro. I was able to get a super deal on priceline and a room at the San Pedro Double tree was cheaper then one right by the hotel and it was much nicer. So we got into the shuttle and took about a 20 minute ride to the hotel.

We checked into the hotel with no problem and went up to our room.

Here is the room. The nice “sweet dreams” pillow. The other side of the room. The view of the marina in the dark. By the time we got into our room it was getting late – it was probably only midnight California time, but since we were still on Eastern time, it was 3 am. So we went to sleep.

Karen woke up much earlier then I did and took some pictures of the sun rising over the marina.
Look at all those boats. I’ll take that one. Or any of these. We decided not to eat breakfast at the hotel, but to walk up to town to find a place to eat. We were recommended a place called Rex. It was really good and a great value.Look at the size of Karen’s pancake! After we left Rex we ran into the convenience store across the street to pick a couple things up. Well Karen grabbed a few things, I chatted on the phone. I needed to get my fix in before I was phoneless for a week.

Here are some palm trees we walked past on our way to town. Here I am standing by the palm tree. Look at all these lush, green plants – such a site for a Michiganders eyes in January.

Here is our hotel.
A fun little fountain. Here I am on a bench, still on the phone – big surprise. :) After our walk into town we went back to our room to gather our things and meet up with Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick to take the shuttle to the ship.

Mexico Riviera Cruise - the beginning

So how did I end up on a cruise to Mexico a mere 4 months after the Alaska cruise?
I am still not sure I have an answer for that. When I returned from the Alaskan cruise I was totally and completely bitten by the cruise bug. I was ready to go work on a cruise ship and even send in a resume to Princess within a few weeks of returning. As the weeks went by the more I began to question whither my desires were based just on the emotional response from the Alaskan cruise or something I really wanted to pursue.

I also spent a lot of time looking at different cruises on Princess’ site and daydreaming about going on another one. Then I found a 7 day, Mexican Riviera cruise from January 31 – February 7, 2009 for ridiculously cheap, like $400. I kept an eye on that cruise as well as airfare out to Los Angeles. Tickets from Detroit and Chicago kept going down in price to around $200, so I decided I could totally afford it and began looking for someone to go. Shannon was, of course, the first person I asked. She could not go since she had to be in a wedding in CA in March and could not swing two trips out there with in a few months of each other. So then I pretty much asked everyone I knew if they wanted to go. After thinking about it for a few weeks, my friend Karen, who I had meet through the bike tour I worked on in 2007-2008, decided she wanted to go. After we got through the holidays I asked for the time off from work and five weeks before the cruise we booked the cruise and got great airfare from Detroit to LAX.

I am not why, but in the weeks between the time we booked and when we sailed away, I became increasingly more nervous about this trip. I was concerned about setting expectations for this trip based on the amazing time I had in Alaska. I knew there was no comparison between the two; they were two completely different types of trips, but with Alaska so fresh I did not want to set myself up to be disappointed. I had been on one other cruise, back in 2001 Shannon and I went on a 3 day Carnival cruise, and I hated it. In all fairness, I was sick, not sea sick, but just hours into the 24 drive down to Florida I started to crash and by the time we boarded the ship I was full fledge sick (when I got home I went to the Dr and had bronchitis, a sinus infection and a secondary infection in my lungs.) So while a part of me knows that tainted my impression of that trip, I still was batting .500 – hated one cruise, totally loved the other. I was nervous about not having enough time to fully plan for this trip, about traveling with someone I had not traveled before, not knowing where some crew members were, and nervous that this would show that I was so wrong about my desire to work on a cruise ship. In the few days before we left I was a complete wreak. I even resorted to mass email updates to friends which is something I have not had to do for years and years. It was all quite distressing.

The ship set sail on Saturday, January 31st, out of San Pedro pier in the Los Angeles area. I was excited about this since I had not been to California before and could add another state to my list – number 37. We decided to fly out Friday afternoon to play it safe instead of going the morning the ship sailed. Karen, who lives in the Toronto area, decided to drive to my house first and then we would drive down to Detroit together. Since it was winter and weather can be a factor, Karen wanted to give herself plenty of time, so she drove over on Wednesday. That also gave her time to run some errands in the states and take advantage of the cheaper prices/exchange rate. Thankfully the weather was nice (for January) and Karen had no issues on the drive over. She arrived Wednesday afternoon, while I was at work and made herself at home. I had to work on Thursday as well. While I was working Karen decided to start documenting the trip by taking pictures of the cold snowy weather we were leaving.

Outside my front window

My deck and backyard

Karen's car - look at the snow!! After work on Thursday I ran a few errands and then came home to pack. Due to my lack of planning and state of totally and complete basketcase, packing was more of an issue then it normally is, and I ended up throwing a bunch of extra stuff in. Sometime late that night I went to bed.

We left Grand Rapids mid-morning for our flight that left at 5:40 pm. Detroit is only about 2 – 2 ½ hours away, but we wanted to give ourselves extra time so that we could stop at the outlet mall on the way down. Again the weather turned out to be fine and we were soon at the outlet mall. I did not get anything, but made Karen try on a bunch of stuff and she bought several tops.

One thing we were not able to find at the outlet mall was a wrap for Karen. So we had to make a second side trip in Brighton to find a store. We found a Marshall’s ran in and got a wrap and continued on our way. But by this time we were behind schedule. I was beginning to get a little nervous because I did not want to miss our plan. It is one thing to cut it close in Grand Rapids, but Detroit is a whole other matter.

In my planning for this trip I found an off site location to park for the time we were gone. This lot was significantly cheaper then the airport’s lots. The lot, Park N Go was located a short drive from the airport and offered a shuttle. Thankfully we found a spot close to the entrance and quickly began gathering all our things. The shuttle was there with a couple minutes and we striped off our winter clothes to keep in the car while we were gone, grabbed our luggage and were on our way.

Thankfully once when we got to the airport the lines at the ticket counter was short and we checked in before the cut off time. We then proceeded through security and to our gate, just as they began boarding the plane. I was very relieved when we were finally on the plane. I really did not like cutting it that close.

Once we left the gate and began taxiing towards the run way the pilot announced the plane needed to be deiced and we had to wait our turn. I have been on countless flights, and this was the first time I had ever experienced a deicing. So I took some pictures.

Here are some small planes being deiced The airport. Our plane being deiced. Another view. Once the deicing was completed we headed out to the runway for a smooth take off. Just after take off we witnessed a beautiful sunset. We were then on our way to sunny California and a crazy adventure.