It was nice this morning to be picked up at 9:30am instead of Deadofnightam as we would have been tomorrow. A much more peaceable way to start a trip. The roads were dry and the day was sunny and, yes, the airport was a zoo, but we expected that during this holiday week. We swung by the USO to make a donation and, as always, left with a couple of snacks for the plane. The volunteers there are the nicest people. We arrived at LGB right on time and took that long 2-minute walk to baggage claim. Our suitcases arrived nearly immediately, and we were at the Crown Plaza by 4pm.
We would have still been waiting for our luggage if we had flown into LAX. 😉
I should take a minute to talk about our luggage situation for this cruise. We will be changing cabins between each of our cruises, the result of booking them so late, so I was determined to pack as minimally as possible to make our relocations easier. It’s not hard to push a single suitcase from one deck to another while carrying a backpack on my back; add a roll aboard to that and the level of difficulty seems to increase dramatically. So we each brought just our large suitcases with minimal clothing, two extra pairs of shoes and, in my case, a plethora of health- and self-care items and toiletries. Cruising with us and need a foam roller? I’ve got you covered. Heated eye mask? Ditto. A lacrosse ball, red light therapy, 200 individual antibacterial Wet Ones packets, 104 vials of preservative-free eye drops, two packs of makeup remover cloths, eye makeup remover pads, large disposable washcloths (believe it or not, every ship we’ve been on this year has had a washcloth shortage. What’s up with that?)…I could stock a Walgreens with the items in my suitcase. Still, it weighed in at a fairly respectable 39 pounds. 39 pounds, almost eight weeks of cruising. No shame in that.
We were able to check in at the Crown Plaza when we arrived, They did have a reservation for us (yay), and we are tucked into a standard king room in excellent condition. We dumped our suitcases in the room and walked around the corner to the Subway we frequent every time we overnight in San Pedro. We managed to get there before sunset, and the walk back after dark was well lit with street lights and the strings of overhead patio lights. We arranged a 9:30am transfer to the ship tomorrow ($10pp, the later shuttles were already full). It’s nice to fall asleep knowing we are here.
I’ll leave you with some pics from the plane. The western US is absolutely gorgeous, and we had clear skies all the way to California. This was the third time we’ve flown this route in the past month, and we never tire of it.
