Day 6: 20230928 Thursday, September 28, 2023- Los Angeles Hull Scrubbing
The ship was at anchor amidst several tankers and freighters several miles off shore from San Pedro when we pulled our drapes aside in the morning. It was calm but the sky was heavily overcast. There was a dive boat tied up along side, and hull cleaning operations were underway. It appeared that the divers used a hydraulically operated scrubbing machine that looked like a scooter with two rotary brushes underneath. We imagine the divers guided it across the hull like a 3D lawn mowing robot. As the machine scrubbed the marine life off the hull, this apparently attracted some fish, which in turn attracted a large sea lion, who presumably was feeding on the fish.
Maintenance crews did some work on the balconies as we had breakfast in the dining room. When we returned to our room, we could see workers coiling hoses and moving down the balconies.
Our morning started off with (what else) general trivia. We didn’t embarrass ourselves coming in only 3 points behind the winning team of 6 while we played as a couple. Did you know the State of Hawaii has 137 islands?
Ben explored the ship and walked the decks while Janet got a workout in the gym.
The ship had a Pub lunch in the Crown Grill. We have had it on other ships, and although the food is semi unique British fare for the ship, there was a huge line, so we opted to head to the main dining room instead. They did have a very good Irish lamb soup, and they also had the same mediocre fish and chips on the main dining room lunch menu. We did get to have some delicious gelato for dessert though, which is a cut above the soft serve on the Lido deck.
The cruise staff did a “What were you thinking USA” trivia after lunch which had a section where you had to guess whether a law was real or not (e.g. Is it illegal to kill a Sasquatch in Washington State, or is it illegal to eat meat with a spoon in Georgia), a section on Roadside Attractions trivia (e.g. The Pikes Place Market in Seattle has a wall entirely covered with what unsavory decoration), a section of What is this TV Ad selling (e.g. Daniel Craig’s Super Bowl ad dancing for Belvedere Vodka) and some general trivia (e.g. There are only 4 buildings in the USA which have their own unique postal Zip Codes. Name them for 1 point each). That was the first time we’ve done that kind of trivia which was challenging and fun. We had a better than average score, but didn’t win.
As we walked around the deck during the morning, we did run into Carolyn from BC, whom we had done some trivia with earlier and recruited her and her brother Dave to join us for the progressive trivia in the afternoon. We felt a lot better and scored better with them joining us. Our team was tied for 6th place after our disastrous first session. Hopefully our standing will improve as the cruise continues.
The Elite lounge did have sushi today, and we are working our way through the drink menus. Janet has discovered she likes the Blue Hawaiian frozen drinks. Ben is partial to their take on a Manhattan.
The ship cast off the scrubbing crew and started on its journey to Hawaii as we had dinner in the main dining room. We were happy to see the creme brûlée had returned to the dessert menu. We also recognized that some of the chocolate journey desserts are still making it onto the menus, but not specifically branded as such. Now that we are assigned a regular private table, we are getting to know our waiters Cassius and Anson, who are both from Goa, a state on the western coast of India. There are lots of dining room staff from India, but there are many different regional languages, so amongst many of the dining room staff from India, the only common languages between them are English and Hindi.
There were two very entertaining shows that we attended during the evening. Kevin Jordan is a comedian from LA who was a former cop, and he did his show with a mag light which he used to point out people in the audience.
Much of his act tonight centered on generational differences between most of the demographic on the ship (adults in their early retirement years) and the much younger generations. His humor did tend to connect with us pretty well. Then we saw Tricia Kelly who is described as a vocal impressionist, who was very talented and entertaining, like a female Weird Al Yankovick. She did some very funny parodies, as well as good impressions.
We finished the night with a Broadway Musicals trivia, playing just as a couple. We did pretty well, but didn’t walk away with the sparkling wine today. However, earlier in the day, Janet did win some wine bottle stoppers and string bag with the Wake Show drawing.
As we head towards Hawaii, we will be. Heading back into the now weakening low pressure system that had caused such rough sea conditions heading south from Vancouver. We also turn our clocks back an hour. Tomorrow is a formal night, and we will start the day with the deluxe balcony breakfast, which is something we have not done before.
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