Another Adventure - March 10, 2013

This time we're escaping Oregon winter on a cruise through the Panama Canal.  Yes, I know we've done it before (twice!).  But this time it's the opposite direction.  And it's stopping in a couple of places we've never been before, plus it was super cheap.  So...  here we go.

We left Salem on the Coast Starlight, arriving in Los Angeles at 8:30 p.m. on the 11th.  We took an Amtrak bus to San Pedro, where we stayed in the San Pedro Inn.

The following day we rented a car and set out to do a little birding.  We went to Bolsa Chica, a wildlife preserve near Newport, and then to Balboa Island where we just walked and window shopped.

We boarded the Queen Elizabeth at 4:00.  The Goodyear blimp flew over us with a bon voyage message.

In the evening, after we pulled out, we sailed up to Long Beach, where the old Queen Mary is permanently located.  As it started to get dark there was a fireworks ceremony.  This was the first meeting of the two queens, and Cunard has this thing about meeting ceremonies.  After the show we headed out into open waters.


Our cabin was nice, although nothing like the one we had on the Queen Victoria.  But we did have a balcony, which we used a lot.

We had a fun group of servers.  Our senior waiter was Aleksander, from Macedonia.  He told us he had learned English from watching movies and television.  Hmm... I guess that's why he sounded like Boris Badenov on Rocky and Bullwinkle.  Our junior waiter was Dimitri, from Russia.  His English wasn't as good, but he was a real charmer.  He giggled constantly and kept us well supplied with desserts.  Our sommelier was Lloyd, from India.  We kept him busy finding interesting wines for us to try.  He did a great job, and we learned a lot.  We had a table for two, but there was another table for two right next to us with a German couple.  Their English was a bit shaky, but we enjoyed their company.

Because of an outbreak of norovirus, we were under very strict health precautions.  Every time we turned around someone was squirting our hands with sanitizer.  It was a nuisance, but necessary.  We were also unable to serve ourselves in the buffet, which was cumbersome.

We were at sea for two full days.  It was partly cloudy, and a bit foggy at times.  We spent most of our time looking for interesting things in the water.  We saw several whales and lots of schools of dolphins.  At night we could see lots of fish in the lights below our balcony.  On to Puerta Vallarta.