Saturday, October 6, 2012

Back in San Francisco!

We are scheduled to go under the Golden Gate at 6 am but it will still be dark and really I don’t care to get up that early to see it.  Plus This will be the fourth time under it this year alone.


We are woken around 7 by the thrusters pulling into port though.  We are meeting up with friends today at the Ferry Building for Brunch.  We sailed with them quite awhile ago and try to see them when we come into San Francisco.

We are off the ship around 8:20, we were one of the first off and so it wasn’t too bad but I know disembarkation too awhile though cause there were still some coming off around 10:30.  We got off and walked to the Ferry building and passed the new pier being built.




We met with Angelique and Simon for a lovely brunch at Market Bar and had a wonderful meal. 



After brunch we walked towards the Safeway to pick up a few essentials we needed, like wine!  And a few other things – sounds like we drink a lot, well we do usually enjoy a bottle every evening at least.  We bought seven bottles two of which were champagne.  No issue bringing them onboard either.

We come back to the pier around 12:30 and we flashed our in transit tickets and bypassed the lines but still had to line up to go thru the security scanning.  But all said and done we were back on board within 15 minutes.  But I believe it was longer for those boarding today.

Back in the room and we are tired and have a nap for about an hour but want to head up on deck soon so we can watch the festivities of fleet week.  And boy oh boy we are not disappointed.  From 2 to 4:30 we don’t miss a beat!  Amazing, Fantastic, Out of This World, enough adjectives but enough to say we are glad we got to experience again.  First time was on the Dawn a few years ago.  Felt bad for those boarding today as they had to go to muster drill at 1520 till around 1600 and missed quite a bit.




No sail away party cause our departure has been delayed until 1800 and in reality we don’t leave until 1830 and the traffic in the bay is crazy.  Coast Guard are all over and directing us and warning boats to stay away.

Another great thing is we find out we can move to a new cabin!  Yes!  We are moved to A322 which is a balcony cabin, which is lovely and appreciated.  We wouldn’t normally pick this cabin as you do have to listen to all the chairs being dragged around above us but it sure beats the heck out of listening to the shows/movies in the Princess Theater.




Housekeeping helps us move our stuff and we get settled in relatively quickly.  We will miss our wonderful cabin steward Lovida but Ivonne from Mexico seems lovely too.  We notice that the large pillows are NOT standard but have asked for the large pillows.

2 comments:

  1. We are doing a similar trip in Jan 2014 on Sapphire from LA. Two back-to-back Calif coastals and then Hawaii. Want to see Hawaii from the sea after many land trips there. We are not fans of all those sea days, but NCL Hawaii cruises definitely not an option! Will be interested hearing about the nighttime sailings around the Big Island and views of Kilauea.

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  2. Hi Vickie!
    I've been so busy, I'm just now catching up with you. Sounds like a wonderful time thus far, enjoy the crossing and the islands. I was excited to see you mention Douw - please tell him Sharon and Bruce say hello. Hi to Bernie too!
    Safe travels,
    Sharon

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