Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: The Royal Night
Today’s Weather: sunny, mid 60’s, waves about 2’, winds about 8mph out of the WNW
Internet Speed: 9.22 Mbps down, 3.82 up, connecting out of Los Angeles
Location at Start of Day: At about 9:00A
Location at End of Day: At about 10:00P
Disaster! For some reason my tablet didn’t recharge overnight, so I only have 28% battery. OK, so not the end of the world, but guess I’ll have to carry the battery around for a while today. We both got a good night’s sleep, but E is clearly in the opening stages of her cold, so by the time we get on the plane in about 48 hours we should both be pretty juicy.
Another typical WJ morning. While it is still sunny out, the winds are building. The captain came on around lunch time to advise everyone that it was going to be much colder and partially overcast tomorrow with even higher winds, so anyone wanting deck time in the sun was advised to do it today. Too cool for us – we’re staying indoors. We’re not even doing our “let’s walk the length of the ship on the outside deck” trick today, and certainly don’t expect to do so tomorrow, either.
Morning trivia at Schooner was entertaining, even if not for the politically correct reasons. The staffer doing the quiz was Chinese and had a VERY heavy accent, so part one of the quiz was trying to figure out exactly what she was saying, followed by part two, which was trying to answer the question. We failed a couple of times at part one, so our final score was poor. Oh well!
After trivia we went to Family Friendly Feud in the theater. They run it as (essentially) three different 15 minute games, cycling 6 groups of 5 up to stage to answer questions. The crowd wasn’t the highest energy – at the least, WE weren’t the highest energy. I spent most of the show working on my tablet games. From there we went back to Schooner for Elton John Name that Tune. Given how bad we (usually) are with Name That Tune, we were quite pleased to get 13/20 – if we answered it, we got it right!
Quick stop of Café Prom for restock of napkins/kleenix and a pause to watch kids launching paper airplanes from the bridge across the Promenade, we made our way to WJ for a pedestrian lunch, and then back to the cabin for rest. We even chose to skip the Simpson trivia event at 2:00P in favor of napping.
We were back out, this time to the Star Lounge for (visual) Disney trivia, where the goal was to ID, from a closeup, what character and movie was being shown. With an additional bonus point available, we got 16/31, which we knew was poor. That was confirmed when something like eight teams got 31/31 and had to do a rock-scissors-paper playoff. Guess it helps when you have kids on your team.
We stopped again at Café Prom – this time for actual snacks – before passing time at Schooner (with drinks) for the 5:00P general trivia. Another good (i.e. challenging) quiz where our 12/20 was actually good enough for 2nd highest score, although no prize opportunity because two other teams where ahead of us with 13/20.
Tonight is our 3rd/last time in the MDR, for “Dress Your Best” on Royal Night, so we came back to the cabin around 5:45p to change before our 6:45P reservation. Once we were seated we were informed that our normal waiter (Renee) was “tired” (we assume this means sick) and that our waiter that night would be Miller, instead. While I don’t think it was this change that responsible, the pacing of tonight’s meal was markedly slower than prior nights. From sit down to appetizer was a little over 15 minutes – but that seemed to be true of the tables around us served by other waiters, too. Perhaps “Royal Night”, which is a formal night, is intentionally paced slower?
Anyway, since we didn’t get out of dinner until about 7:50P we were unable to find seating in the Star Lounge for the 8:00P “Finish the Lyric” show, so we instead sat outside the English pub where the guitarist was providing music. He turned out to be pretty good and we killed an hour there before heading over to the theater for the dance show. I thought the show was pretty MEH, but I think E liked it better than me. Upon exit we checked the schedule and there was really nothing going on in the 10P hour – and we were more than OK with returning to the cabin to wind down the rest of the evening.
One thing I noted today. I’d forgotten to download the Cruise Compass in the morning and didn’t do it until 2:00P. It was then I noted that they were advising folks to use the app to update their departure info by noon today (i.e. 2 hours prior to my seeing it). I checked the app and saw they’d assigned us to departure group 14, scheduled to leave at 8:30A. Since we plan to self-debark earlier in order to catch our 10:30A flight out of LGB our exit group doesn’t matter. However, I was surprised at how little info there was around this step of the process. The only reason we know Royal queries us about departure plans is because we’ve been on prior cruises. I’m not sure how a first-time cruiser would have known anything about this process.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: A Taste of Italy
Today’s Weather: High 70s, wind only about 2mph out of ENE.
Internet Speed: 8.86 Mbps down, 3.71 Mbps up, connecting via Mexico City
Location at Start of Day
Location at End of Day: about 8:30P
Another tough night for me sleep-wise, with the NyQuil not helping, so not sure how much sleep I got…but it wasn’t a lot. We dragged out of bed at 9:30A, having lost another hour due to time zone change this time, and had a small WJ breakfast before wandering over to Schooner for this morning’s general trivia (14 of 20, with the winner at 16). I grabbed a bunch of napkins from Café Prom to serve as today’s kleenix, as I’d been limited to toilet tissue up until now. We then spent some time on a random outside deck chair on Deck 4 before I decided to try to get a small nap pre-lunch. Made arrangements to meet E in the Solarium when I was ready and was back in the room at 11:00A for about a 45 minute nap. While we had been out they’d power-washed the balcony. I spent about 15 minutes catching up with these notes and then left the room just after noon to go find E.
It being a nice day on the pool deck and the ship being pretty quiet due to everyone being onshore, we followed the lead of several of the crew members and ate at Johnny Rocket’s, following which we made our mandatory circuit of Navigator Dunes and then returned to our balcony for quiet time. We were about to head off to 3:00P trivia when we both decided a nap sounded much more inviting, so that’s what we did!
Went down for the 5:00P general trivia, and the staffer running it (Edena) has been making the afternoon quiz progressively more difficult each day, and today’s was a good workout. We got 12/20 and were pretty happy. The winner had 15/20.
Tonight was a WJ dinner. The MDR menu was Italian night and looked poor (and, coming right after our night at Jamie’s, repetitive). Sadly, the WJ was basically serving exactly the same stuff, including all the same entrees and desserts. There were additional choices, but, again, not the variety we’d hoped to find. We took our time lounging at the table before finally heading over for the 7:30P headliner show with a comedy juggler (Jason Garfield) who, interestingly enough, has developed several shows for ESPN Ocho (such as Combat Juggling and Dodge Juggling, among others). He was a pretty low-key guy – we had a good time but, again, not appointment TV.
Although it was only 8:30P we were both ready to call it a night and benefit from the extra hour of sleep available to us as we’ll be setting the clocks BACK an hour tonight due to once again changing time zones. So, after a quick stop of Café Prom to pickup more napkins (i.e. “kleenix”) for me we came back to the room to put up our feet, read, relax, and eventually sleep.
Monday, March 10, 2025
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: A Taste of the Caribbean
Today’s Weather: about 72, winds 10mph from the NE
Internet Speed: 8.88 Mbps down, 3.37 Mpbs up, connected via Mexico City
Location at Start of Day: About 8:00A
Thanks to the magic of NyQuil tabs I passed the night in oblivion. Work up dopey and a bit congested, but the sore throat is mostly gone so I’ll take that tradeoff! We were already docked when we woke up a 8:00A. The Mazatlan cityscape isn’t much to look at – and unless we breakdown and decide to buy some cold medication we’re staying on the ship today,
Very quick breakfast at WJ, where I tried the cinnamon sugar donuts. I think I have a new “go to” for breakfast! We cooled our heels at Schooner before doing the 10:00A general trivia. Our 18/20 was actually good to tie for first, but as we always sit in the aisles next to Schooner instead of inside the actual seating area the staffer never saw our raised hands and, of course, I’m not going to push for a “valuable prize”, so our talent were recognized only by the women sitting next to us. We stuck around for tri-bonds and then came back upstairs at 11:30A so I could catch up with this diary and we figured we’d balcony sit for while before lunch. It was a bit too toasty on the balcony, however, so we relaxed in the room for about 45 minutes before grabbing WJ lunch.
Today’s lunch was Honey Stung Chicken + Pork Belly w/BBQ sauce + mashed potatoes + salad for me, and sausage + salad for E. All was fine. We tested out their carrot cake and blueberry tart for dessert. The carrot cake is a poor excuse for carrot cake, but was actually a decent cake. The blueberry thing was a very gelatinous filling, but E said it tasted more like blueberries than last night’s dessert tasted like cherries. We each grabbed 2 cookies for the cabin and then went back to nap. I got in about a 45 minute snooze and felt a bit more refreshed upon awakening. We spent the next hour out on the balcony reading.
Pre-dinner we enjoyed a couple of drinks at Schooner while doing riddles, Cher music (not out 0 out of 15, but not even a single GUESS), and then general trivia before dinner at Jamie’s Italian, where we ate a TON of food. We shared garlic buns, fried calamari, and their antipasti platter, then E had their carbonora (which she liked but said was more like an alfredo) while I had the penna arrabiata – which was pretty good. We were too stuffed to even bother with dessert.
From dinner we headed off to the ice show, which started off with a cool drone show before going into the high energy skating. Fun stuff! Then we trekked over to the theater for….MO5IAC. Yes, the same group we saw on the Oasis in 2014…doing the same show we saw in 2014. Nevertheless, still a crowd pleaser and time passed quickly. A quick stop at Café Prom for some cookies and a chocolate bar and then back to the cabin to eat, read, and hit the pillows.
Sunday, March 9, 2025
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: A Taste of Mexico
Today’s Weather: about 64, winds 17 mph from the north, waves about 2’
Internet Speed: 9.44 Mbps down, 1.96 Mbps up, connected to Los Angeles
Location at Start of Day: 9:00A
We work up around 8:30A DST, having both slept pretty well. Unfortunately, I had a sore throat which I’d felt creeping up on me at the end of last night. At least, as I write this around 9:00A, it is JUST a sore throat. Hoping it doesn’t get worse!
Today’s Cabo stop turns out to be little more than a whistle stop. Tendering isn’t expected to start until around 1:00P and the last returning tender is at 7:15P. Given that we have a 5:30P dinner at Hooked, plus my sore throat, we doubt we’ll go ashore at all.
Quick breakfast at WJ with just basic eggs and side meat for both of us before heading over to Schooner for General Trivia. We got 18/21 – which put us in a group for 4th place. We popped to the outside deck to see if it was good reading weather, but it was a bit too windy for us so we instead had our first trip to the Solarium, where we stretched out on a couple of window-side loungers and read. We then made a quick stop at the cabin to refresh drugs, then back down to Schooner for Dingbats. It was non-competitive, but we managed to get 22 of 24 of the puzzles.
Next we walked back out on the pool deck and decided to get our lunch at the (new to us) El Loco Fresh. We both built our own tortilla-based snack, plus I got a beef burrito (too dry) while E had a cheese quesadilla (which she liked). We both liked our tortilla “thing” and also shared a bowl of nachos. I added a couple of Lava Flows and we had quite a nice lunch outdoors while the tenders started departing for shore beneath our pool-side table. Another quick cabin stop (this time for E’s drugs) and then back down to Schooner, this time for Classic Rock trivia – where we got 9 of 20. Pathetic!
Back to the cabin for balcony time on a lovely afternoon, with boats and jet skis passing underneath us, and then at 4:00P we once again head back to Schooner for movie charades and then stick around for the 5:00P general trivia before our 5:30P dinner at Hooked.
Dinner was better than we were expecting. Our appetizers (clam chowder for me, crab cake for E) were both particularly good. E had the grilled catch of the day (salmon) while I had the Fisherman’s Plate (or the non-deep fried version of that if I remembered the name wrong) with fish (halibut), grilled shrimp, and lobster tail. The grilled shrimp was particularly good. Our desserts were fine, but nothing special (brownie for me, cherry pie for E).
From there, we went up to the Star Lounge for Rock-a-Oke, which is essentially karaoke but with the live band. That was fun – and the band’s usual lead singer was really great at helping out the (many) clueless folks who got lost in the music. We then stayed for Majority Rules (which MAYBE we did on the Alaska cruise, although I don’t think we paid a lot of attention since we had so much family present and there was a lot of talking). Glad we did it, but certainly NOT appointment TV.
We ended the night with The Love and Marriage Show in the theater. We had 9-day newlyweds (although they looked to be in their 40s) along with 24-year and 48-year couple. As expected, the oldest couple were charming and took away the top prize.
Saturday, March 8, 2025
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: A Taste of France
Today’s Weather: About 60, w/16 mph winds from the N, waves of 8-9’
Internet Speed: 9.74 Mbps down, 0.08 Mbps up, 24 ms, connection out of Los Angeles
Location at Start of Day: around 8:00A
Slept really well overnight. Although we’d started with the bathroom light on a nightlight, it turned out there was a motion-sensitive light just outside the bathroom door that would glow nicely when you got close to it, so was able to turn off the bathroom light and keep the cabin in darkness.
Breakfast at WJ. The variety here was much better than yesterday’s lunch. I had a couple of Eggs Benedicts (which were pre-prepped and available at the cooking station), bacon, and a hash brown. E had the challah-like bread with some fruit. Post breakfast we walked out to the pool deck to locate the various food and drink places, passed through the Solarium (that already had several people in the hot tub at 8:45A) and then wandered over to Schooner – but our first even wasn’t until 9:30A, so realizing we had more time we went back to the room to grab our tablets so we could return and do our morning games. We’ll likely bring our tablets with us to breakfast from now on so we can find a quiet place to sit post-food before morning trivia.
Back down to the Schooner to get in our tablet games before doing the morning Schooner puzzles (a word search and crossword puzzle used as an excuse to give everyone keychains), followed by cartoon music trivia (16 of 26, which seemed to place us in the top 25% - winner had 20), and finally movie quote trivia (19 of 20, winner with 20). LOTS of folks playing at all events. It was like Harry Potter trivia for everything. Speaking (obliquely) about kids, there’s a ton of them onboard. Clearly must be Spring Break in a lot of places, because the ~3200 pax include roughly 700 kids.
Post-trivia it was noon and time to head to WJ for lunch. This confirms the whole new approach to reducing variety to reduce costs and food waste. I ended up having a thin (and tough) pork chop with BBQ sauce plus potatoes and gravy, while E, not finding much to her liking, constructed a small sandwich to go with a bean and corn salad she built. We polished off with a sampling of chocolate bar (OK, but the chocolate cream portion was quite gelatinous), red velvet cake (pretty good), and an oatmeal raisin cook that I thought was excellent.
We decided to head back for our balcony for some post-lunch reading with the thought our returning to Deck 11’s pool at 1:00P for the belly flop competition. We first poked out head out to the pool area and walked by the now bustling El Loco Fresh, which frankly looked really tasty. We’re DEFINITELY going to be trying that, probably tomorrow. Once at the room we decided that the belly flop wasn’t a “must see”, however, so we spent about 15 on the balcony before deciding it was just a touch too chilly, even in our fleeces, so we came back inside to read and naps. Around 2:30P we headed down to Deck 5’s Star Lounge, catching the end of Next Cruise’s trivia re: Royal’s fleet. We grabbed a couple of drinks (today’s drink of the day: Blue Wave) and then settled in for The Yes No Game….which is stupid. Pairs of players face off for timed conversations and try to avoid saying “yes” or “no”. Probably better when everyone is drunk, but mostly a snoozefest.
Stopped at Café Prom at 3:30P on the way back to the room for snacks. We each had a jerk chicken wrap that was pretty good. I added a slice of cheese pizza (since the pepperoni was five minutes from completion) while E tried their turkey club (boring) and had a pear. We relaxed with our tablets until 5:00P when it was time for afternoon general trivia at Schooner followed by a cocktail and then Big Bang trivia back at Star Lounge at 6:00P for Big Bang trivia…at which we sucked.
Then over to the MDR for dinner. The Taste of France menu turned out to be kind MEH. I had the iceberg wedge salad (fine), beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes in some kind of green peppercorn sauce (the meat was flavorless and tenderized to within an inch of its life) and the apple crisp with ice cream (MEH). E had the French Onion soup (which she once again said wasn’t very oniony), the spring peas w/risotto (pretty good), and the crème brule (more like flan).
Our busy night continued by popping over to Studio B for the Battle of the Sexes game. Two teams of six men/six women competed in 5 tasks, with the women ultimately winning three to two. Boo hoo! Finally, over to the theater for their big “Showgirls: Past, Present, and Future” show. It was pretty good, with tremendously strong dancing and some many complex costume quick changes that E was getting distracted thinking through all the work they had been doing backstage.
Finally, back to the cabin at 10:00P to unwind a bit before hitting bed. Last task to take care of before lights out was changing our watches – DST was kicking in at 2:00A and we were moving ahead one hour.
Cruise Compass
MDR Menu: Welcome Aboard
Today’s Weather: A nice clear day today, with temps in the upper 50s. Should be about 60 for sail away.
I had a TERRIBLE night. Did not get a wink of sleep, so dragging a bit. Also worried a bit that this could become a flop-sweat day as a result, so packing a spare shirt (and a tee shirt to use as a sweat rag) if needed. Finger crossed I won’t need them! (Thankfully, did not!) What I WILL need, unfortunately, is new deodorant. My travel stick was on its last legs and I didn’t notice it until today. The hotel doesn’t have any, so I’ll likely have to buy overpriced stuff onboard – although I MIGHT be able to survive by careful application of what’s still left. We’ll see.
I had chosen Homewood over Hampton mostly for the breakfast, but I believe we accidentally used the Hampton breakfast section because it was pretty pathetic. We had noticed a breakfast room with a keycard entry, but assumed that it was eating space that was accessible from the section we went to – but now we think that might have been the “good” breakfast. Sigh.
Anyway, after choking down a bagel around 830A we came back to the room and repacked. We hadn’t unpacked at all upon arrival, saving that for the ship, so we were mostly pulling stuff out of packing cubes last night and then stuff things back into the bag this morning. Did conclude that, as part of our UK trip dry run, we’ve already recognized the need to pack the cubes more strategically. We both packed each cube with similar stuff (i.e. this is the “shirts cube” and that is the “underwear cube”). What we really would have benefited from was “this is the 1st night cube” or similar.
After packing up everything, we sat around my phone and watched the safety videos, which is supposed to streamline our muster drill process. At the end of the main video, which is about how to put on your life jacket, we had an opportunity to check off who had watched the video, so both E and I got credit for our shared viewing.
Just after we completed, I also got a text from Royal, reminding us NOT to show up prior to our scheduled boarding time due to limited terminal space. This is the first time we’ve gotten something like this and I guess is indicative of the state of affairs at the LGB cruise terminal. Our scheduled time is 1130A, but I still plan to call Lyft right around 1030A, figuring that should get us there right around 1105A or so – which should be fine. Our plan is to board, go to the muster station, then to a specialty restaurant to see if we can book our three specialty dinners. If there’s still time before lunch we’ll check out the MDR – but if our MDR 2-top request wasn’t honored and we don’t find out until dinner time we’re OK letting it ride for opening night. We can always go to Windjammer if we don’t want to share our table.
Around 1030A we got a Lyft to the cruise terminal. The driver arrived at the hotel in about 4 minutes, and we got to the terminal right around 11:05A. We walked about 10’ to drop our pre-tagged bags with the porter, then walked another 50’ to the pre-security checkin, where they checked our boarding docs and passport before we went through the security scanner. No one cared about our boarding time. From there, we walked to someone who confirmed we’d completed the health questionnaire and then took Eileen’s photo (deeming my selfie to be already valid), and from there we were up the escalator and boarding the ship. We were onboard before 11:15A!
We immediately went to our muster station and got checked in there (5 minutes, tops), then went to Hooked – the nearest specialty restaurant – where we made reservations for Hooked, Jamie’s and Izumi. Again, couldn’t have taken more than five minutes. Finally, we went down to the MDR intending to find our dinner table for early seating. We first stood in a line that was actually seating folks for lunch – I believe it was folks with The Key along with consecutive cruisers – before being directed to another podium a bit farther in. And here we discovered that they had us assigned to MTD, which was an unexpected shock. The podium guy suggested it was likely because they couldn’t find a 2-top during earlier dining. Not exactly what we wanted, but we rolled with the punches and setup a standing 6:45P MTD 2-top. The actual table will vary each night, depending on what’s available when we show up.
With all our administrative tasks complete, we went up to WJ for lunch. Without question, the variety of food is significantly pared down from prior years. In past cruises, the 6 main stations in the back of the room were generally the grill, desserts + 4 different islands of stuff, but the 4 islands are now basically just 2 islands, duplicated port and starboard Among things I didn’t see that were previously always there: fried chicken, fried fish, more than one carved meat, and several other things. We both ended up getting DIY salad and burger/fries (me), hot dog (E). E also tried a lemon cookie at the end that was awful. At the entrance to the WJ they'd setup a table where you could buy spun-on-demand pink or blue cotton candy on your way out. I was really tempted, but the size was HUGE - like basketball sized - so I kept walking. (I think it was $3.25 for each one.)
Lunch completed, we took the stairs down, figuring we’d try to find a likely bar for our sailaway drink order. We meandered through the Library/Card Room, Next Cruise, the Star Lounge, and Theater before emerging finally on Deck 5/Royal Prom and eventually making our way forward to Schooner 12:30P and parking there for an Ultimate Mai Tai for each of us plus a nice chat with a woman named Coleen, for very pleasant D+ cruising solo (on a cruise comp’ed casino point) from Wisconsin.
Finally, right at 1:00P the staterooms opened and we made our way to Deck 9 and our very spacious room. I was hoping to snag our suitcases, some of which had already been set out in the hallway, but despite checking again at 1:30P and 2:00P ours hadn’t yet shown up in the halls, so had to wait until they officially got delivered by our stateroom attendant. I instead wrestled with the mechanics of getting internet connected. The secret was: 1) connect to the ship’s guest Wifi. 2) On the connection page, create a new login that we’d both share. 3) On the device to be used, connect to the ship’s guest Wifi. 4) Go to login.com and use the just-created login. If/when all purchased connections are in use the next device that logs in will kick out the oldest connected device.
Our stateroom attendant, Elizabeth from Brazil stopped by around 330P and introduced herself. I requested a mattress pad (for which she will return later with a 2nd person to help her) and another set of towels for the shower. She seems very pleasant. Surprisingly, she says that she’ll be in our room twice per day, just like old times. I think perhaps the once per day service must apply to cabins below Junior Suite. About 10 minutes later, Elizabeth was back with our two suitcases. Yaay!
With the time now about 3:45P we decided to hold off on unpacking and instead went down to Deck 5 to grab some snacks at Café Prom – we got a selection of small sandwiches which were mostly MEH, plus E got a couple of coconut cookies. Again, variety was very limited compared to prior experiences. We then asked one of the staff standing outside the English Pub where we could get E’s drink cup. Turns out that any bar can hand them out, and he still had some available, so we followed him into the almost empty pub and got a cup. Since we were there we decided that we’d get the Drink of the Day (Bahama Mama) right there since there was no waiting. We got chatted up by an older couple – probably late 70s? – who were on their first cruise and trying to figure out what was included and what wasn’t, so ended up pointing out Café Prom to them (since we had the plate of food with us). They were very endearing.
Returned to the cabin just in time to sit on the balcony for sail away. It was a pretty straight shot down the channel and through the breakwater. Once out on open ocean the pilot boat came up and kissed the side of the ship DIRECTLY underneath our balcony, and we watched as the pilot stepped off Navigator and onto the pilot boat before it turned back around and went back to wherever it lives. Having sat outside for about 30 minutes we were ready to come back inside and unpack all our stuff, settling in nicely. The captain had mentioned something about 1-2’ waves tonight (and MAYBE 3-4’ tomorrow?), and we definitely could feel the rolling of the ship as we relaxed in our cabin pre-dinner.
For dinner we had our first My Time Dining experience. We went downstairs around 6:20P and there was a minor madhouse – we were instructed that, since we had reservatiions already (having made them earlier in the afternoon), we should stand in the line to the right of the entry. At that time, we were third in line. Around 640P they began processing the line, and we were seated at a table for two very quickly. We had a nice window seat in a corner, so pretty private (although the neighboring table of two was only about 18” away from us. In the window seat our server team (Renee and Joseph) always came to us first, which was nice.
Lots of “first time” dishes for us. E had vegan roasted tomato soup (mostly just “red soup”), pan roasted fish filet, which she enjoyed, and vegan peanut-caramel bar (which she liked, I did not). I had dual starters of escargot and the crispy crab cake (which was not at ALL crispy and was dull w/o being bad), southern fried chicken (which I liked and is by far the biggest entrée I’ve had on Royal), and the royal cheesecake. We decided to stay at that table for future nights we’re in MDR.
If tonight’s schedule is any indication, we may find that the 6:45P dining time is all wrong for entertainment. There wasn’t any or post-dinner music playing anywhere in the hour pre- and post-dinner, and we got out of the MDR around 7:50PM, too late to take in any of the 7:30P shows. We’ll have to see how the next several days go.
We did end the evening with the 9:30-10:15P Headliner show featuring a comedian name Mike Pace in the Royal Theater. Hard to tell what he’s like, as there was a 20-year female snowflake in the front row who was determined to be the center of attention and Mike basically hated her, so things were a bit uncomfortable.
Thursday, March 6, 2025
Internet Speed: 9259 Kbps down, 9666 Kbps up, NordVPN on
Location at End of Day
Finally, we’re on our way! We packed yesterday (Wednesday) and are trying some new things this trip, including: new USB fans for the bedroom side tables; new Kylmit inflatable mats for the bad (in case our mattress is really awful and/or we can’t get a mattress pad from our stateroom attendant; magnets for the shower curtain; and compression packing cubes. With the mattress pads still boxed, it really ruled out taking our carry-on bags, so we both ended up with full-sized suitcases. Even w/o the mattress pads we probably would have been hard-pressed to fit into the smaller cases, however. As a dress rehearsal for our long UK+TA in August this is helping to give us confidence that we’ll be OK with 2 full-size cases plus our travel backpack for that trip.
The compression packing cubes certainly make for easier packing. I’m not certain whether or not they saved significant space – but the ability to move around a bunch of rectangles without accidentally unfolding/unrolling already-packed stuff in order to optimize how the suitcase is loaded was really nice. I think I’m a fan.
Our trip started later in the day than usual for a domestic trip. We chose to arrive in Long Beach in the late afternoon rather than early afternoon. Our thought was to land, get to the hotel, walk somewhere for dinner (probably in the LBX Mall), and end the day. As such, our flight didn’t leave San Jose until 3:30P, so we left the house around 12:30P and stopped to have lunch at Popeye’s before dropping our car off at Spring Park Indoor Garage just after 1PM. We first tried Spring Park at Thanksgiving, when we’d flown to Denver for family dinner. It was a new experience and turned out to be so much better than our experience with AM Airport Parking over on Martin Ave. AM was “meh” in that it was cramped, uncovered, outdoor parking and the shuttle always took at least 15 minutes to arrive after landing back at SJC. At Spring Park we got indoor self-parking, a very quick shuttle trip, and shuttle pickup was just a few minutes of waiting upon our return. After a short wait for the parking shuttle to load up, we were in the terminal by about 1:15P at at the gate by 1:30P.
We were going out of gate 25, which is one of the 4 gates just at the front of Terminal A, so no long walks – nice. I stopped to fill up our water bottles and then we grabbed a couple of seats at the gate and passed time reading and playing on our tablets. Boarding started around 3:00P, as expected. I’d checked into the flight within seconds of it opening up and we were in boarding group A (A56, A56), so we had lots of choices for a pair of seats. We tried our normal strategy of E at the window and me at the aisle, with an empty seat between us, in hopes that no one would occupy the middle. If someone does target our row then I move to the middle so E and I are next to each other…but sometimes we end up having the row to ourselves - and that was the case this time.
The flight from SJC to LGB is quick – just 55 minutes in the air. As quickly as the crew passed out snacks and drinks they were snatching them up again so they could sit down for landing. LGB is really a throwback kind of place. Feels very 1958, featuring ramps rather than jetways, art deco design, and an open palm tree court between the ramp area and baggage claim. It does run pretty efficiently, however, as our luggage was off the plane with about 10 minutes. When deplaning, they rolled ramps up to both the front and back doors of the plane. We were essentially dead center – the rows just in front of us and behind us emptied at the same time, and I was the last passenger (save one) to plane. As I came up to the front of the plane the purser asked me to tell someone that they needed one wheelchair on the plane, which I dutifully told to some dude lounging around outside the plane. He asked if I was the last passenger off and I confirmed that was the case, so I assumed he then got a wheelchair.
As soon as we got our bags I called the hotel and in less than 10 minutes their shuttle arrived. The hotel was just 3 stop lights and about 7 minutes away, so we were at the hotel in no time at all. Unusually, it was gold (about 50 degrees) with a very light drizzle when we arrived.
At the hotel, following check-in, we decided that we’d take our chances that our fleeces and travel umbrellas would be good enough to allow us to walk over to The Hangar at LGX, which is a food court that we could see from our 5th floor window. Couldn’t have been more than 0.2 miles away. The walk was easy. Having just had Popeye's at lunch it seemed like the soul food place I had been eye-balling during the planning stages would be redundant tonight. I had a sandwich from Ike’s – disappointing, as usual – while Eileen had some kind of pot roast sandwich from another place. It was crowded but we lucked into a table. Upon return to the hotel we grabbed some snacks from the small hotel shop and came back to the room to read and watch TV.
