Two months and a day after we left Miami, Michele and I were back in the USA, and we made good use of our time back home, if being three thousand miles from Pennsylvania can be considered home. No excursions today, as we had other priorities (along with many of our shipmates).
Today was the first opportunity we had to stock up on basic supplies to carry us through the remaining seven months of the cruise, and Royal Caribbean clearly understood that we weren’t alone, because the company set up an all day shuttle to take passengers to Walmart, Target, and a giant mall. Walmart was the first stop on the route, and it was almost comical to see so many familiar faces as we went up and down the aisles.
We were amazingly successful in filling our shopping lists at Walmart, enough so that we didn’t even need to continue on to Target. So, two full day packs and a large shopping bag later we set off on foot for the mall, which was within sight of Walmart. And this is where the story gets even better.
By chance my cousin Kevin Chadwick and his wife Debby, who live in Phoenix, were in LA for a getaway weekend, and we were able to meet them for lunch at a restaurant right at the entrance to the mall. We had a great time catching up and even shared some genealogy tidbits with each other. One thing I learned is that I need to visit a cemetery in Cameron County when we get home to pay my respects to some ancestors.
And talk about convenience. The mall stop for our shuttle back to the ship was right outside the door of the restaurant, making it super easy to lug our loot onto the bus and return to our home away from home.
Back on the ship, it was time for the Super Bowl, which started at 3:30, west coast time. There were lots of options for viewing, as the game was on the big screen on the pool deck, the bigger screen in the main theater, the TVs in the pub, and of course the TVs in our stateroom. The ship also provided game snacks in the buffet dining room. Hopefully your team won. Mine wasn’t playing, as usual.
I should mention that today marked a milestone or two for the cruise. First, Los Angeles was the final port of segment one, the first one four big chunks the cruise was broken into. As such we saw more than 300 passengers who had been with us since Miami disembark, since they had only booked passage on segment one. The cruise is also divided into seventeen shorter mini-segments, and another 400+ passengers who had only been aboard since Valparaiso, Chile also got off today. Those 700+ passengers who departed have been replaced by 700+ new passengers who have booked either the full segment two to Dubai or the next mini-segment to Brisbane, Australia. To the best of our knowledge the full ship’s complement of passengers is a little over 1500, so we’ve seen a nearly fifty percent turnover today. It should be interesting to see how they integrate with the full world cruisers.
That’s it for now. We’re on our way to Hawaii, which we won’t reach until the 17th, so tomorrow will be the first of five consecutive sea days. That’s fine with me, as I never have a problem filling our time on the ship. I have a couple ideas for non-port blog posts, so this will be a good opportunity to put something out between now and our arrival in Hilo. Stay tuned…
Two full day packs and a large shopping bag. Between us and our fellow world cruisers we pretty much cleaned out this Walmart. From toothpaste and shampoo to Kind Bars and Hershey Kisses, we took full advantage of our first day on US soil in two months to replenish the essentials. Now if we can just figure out where to put all this stuff in our stateroom.
We were surprised to see snow on the mountains of the Angeles National Forest, clearly visible from our ship in Long Beach Harbor. You may have read in the news that Los Angeles had torrential rains last week, and up high in the mountains it came down as snow.
Timing is everything. By chance my cousin Kevin Chadwick and his wife Debby, who live in Phoenix, were in LA on a getaway weekend, and we were able to meet them for lunch. We had a great time catching up and sharing family news.
The Super Bowl was showing on the big screen on the pool deck, but it was chilly and breezy, so almost everyone was watching on the even bigger screen in the main theater.
Sailing out at sunset. We were docked just around the corner from the battleship Iowa, which appears to be in beautiful condition. The large white tent on the stern was where several people were watching the game on a large TV. I took this shot from deck 12 on our ship, and from up there you can’t see the TV, but from down on deck 5 it was clearly visible.
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