Rock and Roll - The Ship, Not the Music

At Sea
February 28, 2015

Our first day out from San Francisco is VERY rough. Not extremely rough, but very rough. If the swells were 8 to 12 feet on the way back from Mexico, they must be 12 to 16 feet today. When I was in the dining room on Deck 5 playing bridge, we would periodically see a big wave cover the window completely. The mood on the ship is: subdued. I must be getting to be a better sailor because I was okay.

There is a naturalist on board giving two lectures a day (on sea days). I went to the first one, about Kaua'i, and it was pretty good. I learned some things I hadn't known. For example, several hundred years before the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii, the Marquesans settled there (circa 800 AD). They built fish ponds which can still be seen. Kaua'i is the rainiest place on earth, with 460 inches per year. 

Hurricane Iniki pretty much flattened the island in 1992. There was no power for three months. According to the lecturer, a nuclear submarine hooked up to the power grid and supplied power for several more months. I tried to verify this unlikely story. A quick Google search turned up some references to this, but nothing reliable. The nuclear-sub-to-the-rescue idea was mentioned in connection with Hurricane Iwa, 10 years before Iniki. It was mentioned as something that had been discussed but not implemented. It was mentioned as providing power only to the airport, and only for 4 days. It was mentioned by bloggers with particular agendas regarding energy.  There is a discussion on Snopes that is fairly skeptical. I really couldn't find anything to convince me that it happened.Guess I did more fact-checking than the lecturer.

One unexpected result of Iniki was that all the domestic chickens got loose and became feral. They can now be seen all over the island - in parking lots, on the roads, even in stores.

We went to another lecture titled The RMS Queen Mary and Film and Music of the Big Band Era. If you know me you would know that that is not really my thing, but we went as a favor to the lecturer. He was a good lecturer, but it's still not my thing. The quality of the video was very poor - PowerPoint doesn't always translate well to a big screen in a not very dark room.

I didn't have time for lunch because they had scheduled bridge during lunchtime so we went to afternoon tea. Very nice. I love the scones.

The yin: At tea we sat at a table for 4 with another woman who seemed pleasant enough and introduced herself to us. She was waiting for her friend. Her friend arrived and completely ignored us - did not introduce herself, did not say hello, did not even look at us. I tried to make eye contact and acknowledge her presence but she was so busy talking to friend #1 that it was clear that she didn't understand the basics of polite behavior. We decided to leave rather than endure an entire tea service with people who wanted to pretend we weren't there. You can't introduce yourself to and make polite conversation with someone who won't look at you.

The yang: We enjoyed a pleasant and interesting dinner with a couple from the Isle of Mann and an Iranian couple now living in California. The Iranians were a little bit older. They left after (during?) the revolution. He is a retired economics professor. She was an opera singer and had studied in Vienna and other places. The Brits were very well-informed as to current events. They travel a lot and they did not come across as provincial. They noticed every detail.

We also watched the bartenders demonstrate their martini-making skills. It was fun and lively and I wish alcohol didn't give me a migraine.

Rice-A-Roni

San Francisco, CA

February 27, 2015

I can't help it. Being in San Francisco makes that old Rice-A-Roni jingle loop through my brain. I can even hear the cable car go clang-clang at the end of each verse.

Watch Vintage Rice-A-Roni Commercial 

It's a turnaround day for the ship and a shore day for us. We started out with a walk along the windy Embarcadero.

Coit Tower

Along the Embarcadero

Alcatraz under the rainbow

Scale model of Alcatraz

Cable Cars

Ghir-ar-tourist-i

After switching direction we walked along a street parallel to the Embarcadero. We decided to stop at the famous, "must see" Ghirardelli Square to get a cup of coffee. Honestly, I have to say "Don't bother going to Ghirardelli Square." There is nothing there worth seeing, the directory of shops is useless, and if there was a coffee shop there, we couldn't find it.

 As we headed down the street in the direction of the financial district we continued our quest for coffee. We did find a Starbucks, but it only had 3 tables, all taken by people using the free wi-fi and drinking coffee not so much. The counter for ordering coffee was right behind a pillar and people came around the other side of the pillar and cut in front of me. There were two or three other people behind the counter not doing much and not taking orders. It was my worst Starbucks experience ever and we left without coffee. We never came to another coffee shop. 

A crowd of crabs at Fisherman's Wharf

We came to a building marked "Safeway" and we thought we could find a coffee shop there. We were on a corner, but we didn't see an entrance in either direction. Looking through spaces between the bricks we saw that there was a parking garage inside. At the other end of the block we finally came to an entrance and found ourselves in an uninteresting mall reminiscent of the Northway Mall or the Sears Mall in Anchorage.  At the very end of the mall concourse was the Safeway - sans coffee shop.You would think that in such a touristy part of town there would be a coffee shop on every block. You would think that I could go without coffee for a few hours without becoming grumpy.

After two hours of walking we still weren't too close to Chinatown, so we caught a cab to a dim sum restaurant called City View. It's not the name you would expect for a Chinese restaurant, but the food exceeded expectations. There was a medium-sized line, but it moved very quickly. We checked in with the hostess/expediter and within 15 minutes we had a table.

The place was starkly decorated, with white walls and white tablecloths on every table. It looked vaguely Scandinavian. There were patrons from the financial district, tourists, and Chinese families. It was noisy in a cheerful sort of way, and servers were rushing around everywhere with carts of dim sum. Each cart had a selection of small plates with two or three "bites" on each. We exceeded our ability to eat before we had tried everything. All of it was fantastic. If I go back to San Francisco I WILL return to City View.

Some dim sum. Yum!

The pyramidical Transamerica Tower

When we returned to the ship we encountered a new set of passengers in the process of boarding. We ate dinner with four of them. They were boring but refreshing. None of them were from California. They were not jaded. They loved Fisherman's Wharf and did not experience it as a kitschy tourist trap. 

Although Shabbat services were not listed in the Patter, a small group of us managed to make our way there. I met a man who came from the same city in the Ukraine as my grandfather.

After dinner I watched most of The Fault in Our Stars. While I thought the movie was actually better than the book, I didn't feel the need to watch it all the way to the end.

Not Packing Today - Forward Art Tour

Ninety-five percent of our fellow passengers have to pack today because they are getting off the ship tomorrow. We are fortunate that we get to stay on!

Cruise cards # 5 and 6:

My cruise card didn't work in the machine that prints out a copy of your bill. Passenger services fixed it. (Ken's card worked.) At night my card did not work in the door to our room. Passenger services gave me a new card.

To take advantage of a quiet sea day, we took a self- guided art tour of the forward part of the ship.The ship supposeddly has over $1 million worth of art. I m talking about the ship's permanent art collection, not the art auction schlock.  The art auctions are (apparently, and to my continuing surprise) a profit center for the ship. That is another ball of wax entirely.

The art that we saw today is mostly located in the stairwells. This means it is fairly hard to photograph, due to lighting issues and bad camera angles. But we did our best and snapped photos of a few of our favorites. Today we viewed the art in the forward stairwells, plus some in the Piazza.

Artist Unknown

Terraza by Didier Lourenco of Spain. We have seen his work on other ships - we always like what he does.

California #99 & 126, by Morris, USA. This was one of a set of three - not sure if it is 99 or 126, or if that is the name of the set.

Adrift, by Gugielmo Di Mauro of Italy

My favorite, in the Piazza - Untitled, by Don Li-Leger of Canada

The book club met to discuss The Fault in Our Stars. It was a small group but we had a nice discussion. I suggested that they not choose books from the Young Adult genre.

The water got rougher as the day went by. Eight to ten foot swells:

In the evening we saw a second show by Steve Moris. He is very polished as both a comedian and a musician. His timing and delivery of jokes is perfect. It is easy to see why he has been selected as a Princess Cruises Entertainer of the Year.

The final show (on every cruise) is the International Crew Show. It starts out with the distribution of balloons (lots and lots) to the audience. People start blowing them up and batting them around. This is when you see 70-year-olds acting like 5-year-olds and having a lot of fun. What a brilliant way to get the audience warmed up. Then four guys from the cruise director's staff come out and lead the audience in YMCA. If the show had stopped here, it would have been a good time, but the best was coming up. One by one some very talented crew members came out and performed. Mostly it was singing, but some of them accompanied themselves on an instrument. The best was a man from the Philippines who sang a song that he composed and played along on the guitar. With a little professional voice coaching I think he would have a commercial hit.

There is an unwritten rule about eating in the main dining room: Don't talk about politics or religion. Most people figure this out intuitively. We shared a table with three couples from Northern California. They spent the first 10 minutes talking about getting their propane tanks filled up. Then they switched to the topic of water and the "known fact" that people in LA wasted water and took 15-minute showers, while people where they lived only took 2 or 3-minute showers and how much they resented people in LA and didn't want to have to share "their" water. (Although they did ask us to build a pipeline down to California so they could have some of Alaska's water.) 

After they had exhausted these topics (actually, long after) they spontaneously launched into a tirade which made it clear that we did not share their political affiliation. (Have you ever had an experience where you are talking to someone who assumes that because you are white you share their prejudices and so they start saying bigoted things as though you are part of the old boys' club? I have - more than once - and this was that kind of experience.) After they declared that they didn't know who voted for "him" it was time for us to leave, and we did - before the main course had been served. It was either leave or get into a very uncomfortable confrontation. Since it was the last night of the cruise we didn't have to worry about running into them again. The maite d' was very helpful and found us a new table far away.

Thank you for putting up with my venting. I find it really helps to write it down. It's much easier to let go of it after putting it out there into the blogosphere. Living in a "community" is quite a different experience from living at home.

Time to lighten up . . .

Seen on a t-shirt: "I don't need Google - my wife knows everything."

Seen on another t-shirt: [It was unprintable and offensive.] The wearer had a physical age of 60+ but a mental age of 15. What is with people? Oh, that's not lightening up, is it?

Who's on Board

Cruise card #4!!!! Somehow my card became de-magnetized . . .?? They reprogrammed it for me.

Demographics

There are about 2600 passengers on board the Star Princess. There are 1100 crew members.

There are 600+ Gold level passengers. This means they are on their 2nd or 3rd Princess cruise. The 300+ Ruby level passengers are on cruises 4 or 5. Platinum level, 6th through 15th Princess cruise, also comes in at 600+. Finally, there are 200+ Elite passengers with 16+ cruises. That would be us. The name "Elite" is a little embarrassing. It sounds arrogant to say "I'm Elite," but I didn't make up the names for the categories.

About 100 passengers will be staying on board for the next cruise.

The vast majority of passengers are from the Bay Area or the Sacramento area. At least 80% is my guess. That's not surprising since it is so easy for them to get to the ship. I have met two other "passenger units" from Alaska. After California, the next largest groups seem to be Washington state and Vancouver, BC.

I have heard a number of languages being spoken by passengers - French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, and Chinese - a lot of Chinese. We ate dinner with a Polish woman one night and she told us there were one or two other Polish-speakers on board.

There are quite a lot of Chinese-speaking passengers. The ones that I have met all seem to live in the Bay Area. However, I think there are quite a few who actually live in China. I suspect they don't speak a lot of English and I am not likely to meet them. The Chinese speakers seem to be much more social than the English speakers. They love doing things in large groups. You will see them sitting at tables for 10 or 12 in the dining room. They eagerly join in the shipboard activities - especially Zumba and line-dancing. They take a lot of pictures, especially pictures of themselves line-dancing.

At the Drop of an Egg

Speaking of Chinese, today they had egg drop soup for lunch. I don't know if it was a coincidence or if they were being cute, because they also had the Egg Drop Challenge today. You form a team and think of a clever name for your team. Then you build a container for a raw egg and think of a name for your contraption (many names were in Chinese). At the time appointed for the challenge, the teams drop the eggs (in their highly-engineered contraptions) off the top balcony of the atrium, a drop from Level 7 to Level 5. Your egg package must hit a target. Then you open the package to see if the egg is intact. If it is broken you are disqualified. If it is not within the target, you are out. Then the audience votes on the successful eggs. This event always draws a big crowd. I would like to try it some time. I think the trick is to build an egg container that is well-cushioned, but also aerodynamic, so that it will hit the target. Then you need to have a very clever team name plus a cool-looking egg holder - something more original than a rocket ship. Hmmmm.

British Invasion

Tonight is formal night. Here is what arrived in our room while we were getting ready:

After dinner we went to a production show called British Invasion. Other than a really long segment on Queen, it was a good show with music I knew by heart.  
  
On the topic of Queen I have this to say: Bohemian Rhapsody is so dark, and, really, Queen is not part of the "British Invasion" of the 60's. They came along about 10 years later. I would have preferred more Beatles and Rolling Stones in place of Queen. But this is a British cruise line, and the Brits do love their Freddie Mercury, as we saw on our cruises out of Southampton last year.

I Should Have Had the RED Wine . . .

At Sea
February 24, 2015

It's four days later and I am trying to catch up on my blogging. Let's see what I can remember . . .

The 24th was a day at sea. We were invited to a special lunch for the 40 Most Traveled Passengers on the ship, (based on the number of days one has been on previous Princess cruises). Each of seven tables is hosted (in theory) by an officer, in descending order. The top MTP's sit with the captain, etc.

We sat with the Staff Engineer and two other couples. This was the worst of these lunches we have been to. I was seated next to an elderly gentleman, Max, who told me he didn't put his hearing aid in because it was hard to hear in large noisy rooms. (Isn't it hard to hear without your hearing aid?) I can say that it was hard to talk to him. He was also not interested in being social - he didn't even look at me when I sat down.  

Max's wife, Jill, sat on the other side of him. She was next to the Staff Engineer. They immediately engaged in a tête-à-tête that lasted for the entire lunch. The Staff Engineer never spoke to anyone else at our table. He and Jill just spoke softly to each other the whole time. You would think they were a couple. In fact, the Staff Engineer was turned slightly toward to Jill so that his back was turned to Bill, the passenger on his other side. Rude, rude, rude. 
 
Indeed it was hard to hear in this room because the officers at other tables were speaking loudly enough so that their entire tables could hear them and participate in the conversation and the MTP's at the other tables were speaking loudly because they were having a jolly old time. And you do need to speak up a bit when you are at an 8-top.

The food at these MTP lunches is supposed to be a couple of notches above the regular dining room food. Not this time (except for the wonderful dessert). Our halibut was overcooked. Our coffee was burnt. We had the worst waiters we have had on the entire cruise. I had asked for just a small pour of white wine to taste it. After I emptied my glass, the waiter came by and asked if I wanted any wine. I assumed he meant any more wine. I said no thanks, then watched him take my glass, turn it upside down, and put it on a tray of clean glasses. I told him I had used the glass and he took it out and put it the dirty dish bin (but the rim of my glass had been on the tray, and a new glass would probably be placed there, rim down). Having gone there once already, I decided not to go there again. I'm not contagious, as far as I know. 

After dessert, the waiter forgot (!) to serve us the chocolate covered strawberries that the other tables were getting. He had already cleared Ken's plate and mine when we asked about it, and then he tried to serve us without plates. Then he realized and brought me a tiny plate. He put my strawberry and a cookie on the plate and then offered some to Ken. Then he tried to put Ken's strawberry on the same plate. There were other problems with the waiter.

I am listing all of these "grievances" to tell a story, and not so much as a litany of complaints. I can let the food and the service go. But I did say something to the Captain's Circle hostess about the Staff Engineer in the hope that this could be remedied before the next MTP lunch. When I believe that saying something might prevent the problem from recurring I will say something.

We went to see Steve Moris in the evening. He is a comedian who used to be in the Beach Boys' backup band. We've seen him before, but he is worth seeing again.  One of his new jokes was that in the future comedians would just be texting their jokes and the audience would be texting back "LOL." Yeah, that could happen. 

At the end of his show he does a hilarious shadow puppet bit. His shadow puppet is a dog coughing up a hairball to the tune of "Day-O".

Watch Steve Moris

Tacos and More

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
February 23, 2015

We were escorted into the Puerto Vallarta harbor by dolphins. Another beautiful day - sunny and warm, but not too hot.

Tia and Larry arranged a food tour with Vallarta Eats and we joined them. We got a taxi to Insurgentes Bridge, where we met our guide, Star, and two other couples. Star had a beach bag and a cold water bottle for each of us.  Our walking tour began with a walk along verdant Isla Cuale. We crossed a crazy suspension bridge that swayed so much it was almost impossible to walk, and then we arrived in a neighborhood in the old part of PV.

Isla Cuale

Our tour would consist of visiting around 10 street food vendors, eating (not small) samples, and learning about the local food culture.  First we stopped for a breakfast taco. Eggs are not used in breakfast tacos here. The first tacos were called carnitas and they were filled with chopped up pork. There were several sauces that could be added. At the next place we had birra. They had beef in them, and they were a little spicier.

Carnitas: Make sure your plate has a plastic bag over it. Street food vendors don't have any way to wash dishes.

Birria

In addition to food-sampling we went to an herb seller, a butcher, a produce a shop, a bakery, a market, and a couple of tortillerias - tortilla factories. We walked all over the neighborood in the course of visitng these places, and got a feel for the local lifestyle. Everything is made fresh every day.

Herb cart

We also learned about limes - there are many kinds - and dried peppers.

Making tortillas

As we visited other food stands we tried two kinds of pork rinds (well, I didn't - deep-fried pig skin does not appeal), and numerous types of "lunch tacos." My favorites were the fish taco and the shrimp taco.

I passed on the one that had octopus in it. It probably tastes good, but the thought of it makes me gag. We also had ceviche, PV style, and some really good food from the Yucatan.

Shrimp brochette taco

Yucatan-style tacos

We were served agua fresca at several places. It is a very refreshing drink made with water, pureed fruit, and sugar. We had tamarind, soursop, and guava. We stopped at a popsicle shop and enjoyed wonderful homemade popsicles. The flavors were enticing. I had toasted coconut and Ken had passionfruit.

We also had a dessert that reminded me of bread pudding. Our final stop was a candy store. We sampled several local specialties and a drink called rumpopa before our tour wrapped up. Star offered to take us to one or two more places but we were all too stuffed to go on after 3 1/2 hours of eating.

Kids (at heart) in a candy shop

What a fun afternoon! I highly recommend Vallarta Eats if you are visiting PV. After your tour you will get an e-mail listing the food you ate and where you ate it, along with some photos.

A partial listing of our stops:
Birria Chanfay – birria taco dorado
Juan – coconut man
Carnicería Colin – bakery and butcher
Marisma's – fish taco
Tortillera – fresh tortillas of the press
El Cólera – ceviche
Mariscos Cisneros – seafood chile relleno and shrimp brochette
          Calle Aguacate 271 - 11 am-8pm
Yucateco – Panucho, conchinita pibil and salbut tacos
La Michoacana – passion fruit or guanábana sorbet
Azteca – candy shop

29 Years

La Paz, Mexico
February 22, 2015

Happy Anniversary to us! Twenty-nine terrific years! When we woke up there were balloons on our doorway, and a poster, and we got a Happy Anniversary card "from the Captain and Crew."

No photos of La Paz today. Our camera broke. This is our 4th or 5th camera in the last 5 years. There are some black zig-zaggy pieces that cover the lens when the camera is turned off and they are supposed to retract when you turn the camera on. Now they won't retract all the way.

We docked at Pichilingue at 7 am. The ship will be sailing at 2 pm, so we'll have to be back by 1:30. Pichilingue is the port for La Paz, more or less. It is 10+ miles from La Paz. There is NOTHING at the port. It is industrial and it is the ugliest port we have ever been in. Most ports have some place where you can walk around. This one has about a 50-foot walkway with maybe 4 booths on each side selling touristy junk.

Even though La Paz didn't sound all that interesting, we don't want to be the ugly Americans who make a snap judgment that a place isn't worth seeing. We don't want to be the kind who don't even bother to get off the ship. There must be some reason why the ship stops here, right?

Princess provides a free shuttle into town. It is an older motorcoach with bad shocks and minimal air conditioning. It takes us 35 minutes to get to La Paz. There are lots of speed bumps along the way. When we get to the main highway we fall in behind a lengthy caravan of gigantic motorhomes heading south. Most of them are towing cars behind them. Americanos!

In La Paz we are dropped off by the central square. La Paz is bigger than Loreto, more of a desert, and not as nice - by a longshot. I think the "broken windows" theory may be at work here. Broken-Window-Theory There is a lot of trash and graffiti. Many of the buildings need a lot more than a coat of paint.

Across the square is the main cathedral. It is not that impressive from the outside. It is less than 200 years old. It is made of blocks of red coral and probably some other types of coral or stone. The inside was nice. It has a very high vaulted ceiling, made from wood and painted in a cream color with dark highlights. You can look at the cathedral and its ceiling and stained glass windows and read the plaque in 5 minutes. If your camera is not broken it might take as long as 8 minutes.

We decide to walk down to the Malecon and wander along the beach. We walk along crumbling sidewalks spattered with black spots (chewing gum, I think). About a block before we get to the Malecon we notice a carnival ride over the top of a building. When we reach the street running along the beach we are surprised to encounter HUGE crowds. It turns out that it is Carnival week. There are all kinds of booths along the road for several blocks. Today's Carnival is especially for children and there are families everywhere. The booths are selling rides, food, toys, and costumes. A popular toy for boys is a machine gun. They are also selling those blow-up toys on a stick. The airplane version says "Pan Am." How long has it been since Pan Am was around?

It isn't anything like our experience of Carnavale in Brazil; it is much more family oriented. There is some music and lots of hubbub. Some of the kids are really cute.  

We walk down to a large statue of a priest and a bird (no plaque) and sit down for a while watching the endless parade of canivaliers. (I just made up that word.) I watch a man from our ship stub out his cigarette and leave it in the little patch of dirt at the base of the priest statue, right in front. I thought that was very disrespectful, but it's usually better not to start a confrontation, so I'm just venting my disgust here. 

A whale skull at the Whale Museum

Back to the bus for the long ride back. This one has broken seats - permanently reclined, no air conditioning, a window that has separated from its frame, and a microphone that doesn't work very well. A young lady tries to give us a tour on the drive back, but between her accent and the bad microphone, I only get about half of it. The gist of it is that La Paz is a wonderful place to live.

Conclusion:  I'm not sure it was worth the long ride into town. If there had not been a carnival it really would have been disappointing. It was Sunday and a lot of things were closed. It was too early for lunch. It was too early in the day to go to a beach - not warm enough yet. I would not want to come back here.

I understand that there is a wonderful beach called Balandra Beach in the other direction from the town. It is a $20+ taxi ride away. I would be concerned about getting a taxi when we wanted to return to the ship. I don't know what kind of facilities are available at Balandra. There are some good areas for snorkelers and divers at Balandra and at an island nearby, but that doesn't interest me.

One of the reasons we took this particular cruise is that we had never been to Loreto and La Paz and thought it would be fun to visit some new places. If I came to La Paz again, I might try to go to Balandra, but I probably would not get off the ship.

Rhetorical questions that occurred to me when I was back on the ship people-watching again: What looks worse - wearing your fanny pack in front or in back? Where is your camera when you need it?

As I Walked Out in the Streets of Loreto . . .

Loreto, Mexico
February 21, 2015

We were in Loreto, not Laredo, but that song keeps running through my head. You can listen below to Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash singing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSGnXYne8d4
 
I have set a new record! Day 5 of the cruise and I am on my third cruise card. And I haven't even demagnetized one with my iPad yet. When we had to get new cards yesterday, I didn't realize that they deactivated my first card. So, today, I left my 2nd card in the room and used my first card as we were leaving the ship. It beeped, so they wouldn't let me onto the tender. They called up to passenger services, and within minutes a new cruise card had been brought down for me.

Loreto is really charming - just like you would imagine Cabo or Puerto Vallarta used to be before they got all touristy. It's a small town on the Baja Peninsula facing the Sea of Cortez. It is less desert-like than Cabo. Not much less, but it has an abundance of palm trees. It is fairly clean and well cared for.

I am told that some 14,000 ex-pats live here. I think Alaska Airlines flies here. (It doesn't look big enough to have a serious airport.)

We walked a few blocks along the Malecon and then turned up a wide pedestrian street. Upon reaching the zocalo (the town square) we found tourists and locals doing traditional dances while a small band played.

There was a small cathedral in the square and we went inside.

We went to a local spot called Orlando's for lunch.  Cheap margaritas. Two thumbs up for the food.

Should I buy this?

These pelicans are taking their siesta

Loreto is a very pleasant, friendly, slow-moving town. There is not much tourism infrastructure, but I would consider coming here If I wanted to veg out in a warm climate.