Saturday, January 25, 2020; Embarkation San Pedro (Los Angeles)
We are back at it once again. This is actually a repeat of our New Year’s Eve cruise that we did with our adult children, but this time, we are going with Ben’s Mother Betty, and brothers Franklin, Dave and George- The same crew that did the Alaska Cruise last May on the Emerald Princess.
Franklin and Betty apparently decided they wanted to go while Ben and his family were on the cruise over the New Year’s holiday. Ben had checked with the ship’s staff and confirmed that there was one ADA accessible wheel chair room left for that itinerary, so Franklin and Betty booked it. But because of the late date, there was no choosing rooms for everyone else other than a balcony guaranty.
George and Dave lucked out and got a nice balcony on the Caribe deck or Deck 10, which is nestled between passenger stateroom decks. These tend to the the quietest rooms. Ben and Janet ended up with a balcony on the Marina deck or Deck 15, which is directly under the Buffett and Pool decks. During the day, you can hear the rumble of thunder overhead whenever a cart is rolled on the floor. We can only hope that will not be going on through the night.
The balconies on the Marina deck are immediately below the wider Lido deck, so they are shaded most of the day. That will prevent the room from getting too hot when the sun is on the starboard side of the ship, but will also prevent anyone from getting direct sun on the balcony too. It is also much higher up off the water than the decks we are more used to.
We had never previously booked staterooms not on the mid decks so this will be a new experience for us. It should prove instructive because two future cruises- a cross Atlantic cruise on the Island Princess for November 2020 and an around Australia cruise for February 2021, had to be booked on balcony guaranties because they are such popular cruises, even more than a year out.
The worst part of any trip is getting to the starting point. For us, that meant getting up at 1:30am to catch an airport shuttle to get us to the airport in time for boarding a 6:30am departure time flight. Franklin and Betty arrived shortly before we had. We checked our luggage and processed through security without issue. Betty’s non-ambulatory status requires a manual pat down. It seems ridiculous to think this extremely frail and non-ambulatory woman could pose any sort of threat to an air crew.
Just when we thought domestic airports could get no worse, we discovered a new D terminal at Sea-Tac airport, which isn’t a terminal at all. It is a bus station disguised as an airport terminal. When boarding is called for a flight at the gate, people walk out the door into the rain and board buses. Fortunately for Betty, they did have manual ramps that an attendant put into place so that she could be wheeled into the bus, but there are no tie downs or a secure place to park a wheel chair. You just had to set the brakes and hope for the best.
The bus drove us around in the heavy rain to an undisclosed area of the airport that was littered with aircraft parked wing-tip to wing-tip. There were manual stairs and ramps for boarding from the tarmac level. These were only partially covered, so we were subjected to wind and rain. Poor Betty was shivering even after Ben and Janet had take their coats off to cover Betty with on the wheelchair. Betty had paid an extra $165 fee for wheelchair assistance, but American Airlines staff did not actively jump in to help us push Betty through the airport, up and down ramps and to find out of the way elevators when stairs blocked our path. They did have a narrow aisle chair to go up the boarding ramp at the side of the plane, and one attendant did help Franklin transfer Betty into her seat, but the American Airlines staff should have been much more pro-active in offering assistance. We had to struggle with the wheel chair and rolling carry on bags while the attendants just looked on. One even shrugged when we suggested that they take the roller bag so we could use both hands to push Betty’s wheelchair. I give American Airlines a D- .
The flight was mercifully only 2-1/2 hours long. We had originally been scattered all over the plane because George had booked basic economy seats. We had to pay extra to get standard seats close enough together to be able to assist Betty. We were the very last ones to deplane because an aisle chair had to be used to get Betty out. We had no trouble recovering our luggage and were greeted by Princess representatives.
The first woman who greeted us had a bit of a sour disposition, asking if Betty could just climb the steps of the bus because they didn’t have wheelchair lifts on their transfer buses. Franklin was ready to manhandle Betty up the steps when Ben stepped in and insisted that when we booked the transfer, we had made it absolutely clear that Betty was non-ambulatory and would require a chair lift, and we were told that one would be available. Well, sour puss got on the radio and then said only one person could accompany Betty in the wheel chair lift van and that we would have to wait until 4pm to check in, blah blah blah.
Fortunately for us, another gal, Ani, stepped in and said she would take care of making sure Betty got to the ship. What a difference a little compassion can make. Ani was cheerful and helpful to the extreme, arranging to have a wheelchair van large enough to accommodate Betty, and the 3 of us (Ben, Janet and Franklin) as well. We ended up with a private wheelchair van transfer to the cruise ship pier in San Pedro at no addition expense to us. The Princess voucher even included the tip for the cab driver, although Franklin also tipped the driver with cash, glad not to have had to man handle Betty up the narrow, steep twisting stairs in the bus.
We arrived at the cruise ship at 11am, and encountered no lines or waits largely thanks to the efficiencies introduced by the Ocean Medallion system. We just had to show our passports to match our identification with the information in the Ocean Medallion system.
We did end up waiting about a half hour because the ship had to clear customs and immigrations. Apparently there were quite a few passengers who just stay on the ship as it makes repeated trips back and forth to the Mexican Riviera. But everyone must get off the ship to clear customs each time the ship arrives. Apparently, they had to hunt one or two of them down so that the ship could be cleared and boarding allowed.
We were among the first on the ship, so it was pretty easy to find a spot in the buffet to have lunch and wait for everyone else to arrive.
Dave’s flight from the Bay Area was delayed 2 hours because of fog in the LAX basin. We could see the dense fog as we approached the runway, but it had lifted just enough that we were able to land without difficulty on schedule. He took a later Princess bus transfer from LAX to the ship, without incident.
George had flown out a day before everyone else so that he could do a whirlwind tour of Disneyland. He had rented the smallest, cheapest economy car the company offered, but they turned over the keys to a Camaro convertible instead. That was a bit of a free upgrade. Franklin had given George his and Betty’s larger checked luggage because George was able to check them for free with his airlines credit card. George got a bit lost getting to the cruise terminal from Anaheim and found himself stranded by the car’s GPS which directed him from one closed freeway on ramp to the next. He had to resort to old school maps to finally get to the cruise ship port to drop off the bags and then returned the rental car. He got an Uber back to the ship.
The food selection in the buffet on the Royal Princess is very extensive, but there is actually only a very limited selection of mush consistency food that Betty can eat. Franklin had to pack Betty’s portable blender in the checked bags (TSA rules prohibit portable blenders, if you can believe that. I suppose you could modify one to make a fairly menacing weapon). So Franklin had to improvise to come up with something Betty could eat.
Our rooms became available shortly after we had finished lunch. The Ocean Medallion system on the ships does let you track fellow passengers that you grant permission to. While it’s still not possible to get real time text notifications without using paid internet minutes, it is extremely helpful to be able to spot in real time where everyone was on the ship.
Betty and Franklin’s ADA room was huge- the size of a normal suite, and ideally suited for her needs. The bathroom is ideally suited for a wheelchair confined passenger.
The first thing we did was get unpacked and put away our suitcases. Then it was time for the Muster Drill. We have learned that it is best to procrastinate a bit so that you are some of the last to arrive, and therefore the first to leave when the drill is over. We were then able to dash back up to our stateroom and get in a nap before dinner.
We were able to meet with the Dining room manager in advance to arrange a set time and table for our party that would suit Betty’s special requirements. We also traded our minibar set up for specialty coffee cards. Ben had written an email to Jan Schartz, CEO of Princess a few weeks ago to comment about plans for the future fleet, suggesting maintaining a diversified fleet with smaller boutique ships in addition to the mega ships that have been more recently the rage with most cruise lines. In response, we got two specialty dining vouchers to the Crown Grill, so we made reservations for that during our second sea day.
We were so tired from having gotten up so early that morning that we nearly slept through our new dinner time. We managed to get everyone at the table within 15 minutes of our scheduled time. The waiters were very understanding and helpful. We had a nice first dinner, which featured prime rib, basa fillets, and a Curtis Stone Mussels and seafood stew. We were able to blend up a nice dinner for Betty with a very nice salmon fillet and potato soup.
Janet and Ben left early to attend the first Trivia of the cruise. The Welcome trivia was unfortunately, a repeat of one they had seen before. It wasn’t much of a challenge to the memory but to be fair, we had conscripted a total stranger who had come in late to join us. We won easily, scoring a few wine bottle stoppers, but it looks like we’ll be skipping more trivia’s on this cruise. The later evening trivia was a Logo trivia, which we were pretty sure would also be a repeat, so we went instead to hear the vocalist Jennifer Singer. She put on a decent show backed by the Princess stage orchestra. Princess does manage to hire excellent professional musicians for their ship’s stage orchestras and bands.
We finished the evening with a dessert run to the International Cafe and then Karaoke to support Ben’s brother Franklin. There was one gal who did a really great job on songs by Bob Seeger and Janis Joplin. She had the perfect gritty voice and perfect pitch. Franklin managed a rendition of Memories that required a vocal range well beyond his normal capacity, but the audience gave him credit for having the courage to attempt it with shifting octaves and some improvisation.
Our clocks move ahead an hour tonight, so it seems like we start these cruises off on a running pace. We’ll see if we manage to find some time to relax.
