We awoke with the sunrise, docked in Los Angeles cruise port. The port looked quiet but strangely welcoming in the early morning golden glow and long shadows. Strangely welcoming? Well, this was Los Angeles, America. We’d not visited this coast of America before but our experiences of flying into the east of the country on several occasions had not left us with the greatest of impressions of the country – surliness, huge queues, casual racism towards other travellers and our friend; that sort of thing – and, of course, this was 2019, Trump’s America, a place that absolutely hates every foreigner who’s not a white supremacist with more money than sense. We were not particularly looking forward to clearing either the port customs and security or the airport customs and security later on in the day but sandwiched between those events was a debark tour we could hopefully enjoy.

So how was getting through customs and security at Los Angeles cruise port?

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Couldn’t have been better. I know you might be tempted to switch on your Sarcasm-O-Meter there just to scan this paragraph but, really, there’s no need. Deadly serious. It was great.

Thanks to our morning debark tour and desire for Princess Cruises to get us off as quickly as possible, see the sights without hitting too much traffic, and dump us at the airport without running into problems they’d need to resolve (because we booked the tour and flights with them) we were not just amongst the first people off the ship but my wife and I were literally the first passengers off Star Princess. Down the gangway to the port we were greeted by a friendly port worker who made sure we were careful of the forklifts buzzing around before we headed into the tented area for customs and security. Here was another smiling face, quick question or two, short chat and a laugh, and we were done. Found our cases, found the bus for the tour, and just waited for the rest of our group to file in behind us. We were impressed with our first minutes in Los Angeles.

Venice Canals, Los Angeles, California

It was an uneventful, not terribly interesting drive from the port to the first of our stops with hardly any of that famous Los Angeles traffic to mention either, a benefit of this debark tour taking place on a Saturday morning. Our guide offered to simply stop and tell us about the area of Venice Canals – where we were – or we could go for a quick walk through it and meet up with the bus at the end. There seemed to be a distinct look of shock and disappointment on the guide’s face when we all said we wanted the walk. I’m not sure exactly what she was expecting or what the response to that offer had been on previous tours she’d led but she certainly seemed crestfallen to discover she’d have to get off and walk with us too. We didn’t pay the money for a tour just to gaze at sights from a bus and even had everyone else been content to stay where they were we’d have gotten off and made them all wait for us regardless. We’re like that, you know.

There followed a fairly brisk walk around the canals which started out as one big group and rapidly became one long line as those of us with cameras kept stopping to take pictures. It was hard not to; the clear blue sky of the morning, no wind, and subsequent mirror-like surface of the water produced too many opportunities for pleasing-looking photos to pass up.

It’s entirely possible that our guide was talking a little more about the area while she walked ahead with the leaders in our group but none of that drifted back to where I was. Here, then, is what the internet says about the Venice Canals of Los Angeles: the canals, obviously, are artificial, having been built early in the twentieth century as part of a plan to recreate the look and feel of the canals associated with Venice in Italy. We’ve never been to Venice in Italy but we have seen photos and can honestly say that the attempt to recreate that look and feel here in America was an abject failure. But they’re still nice. Okay, that’s not fair. The canals in Los Angeles these days are only really connected with the ones of the early 1900s by name alone. The originals may once have resembled their Italian counterparts but the canals fell into disrepair and many were filled in and turned into roads as Americans rejected boating and gentle walks in favour of a love affair with traffic jams. It takes all sorts.

After a lot of dealing and double-dealing and committees (and probably threats with weaponry if American TV has taught us anything) new canals were opened in the 1990s and the area became a tourist attraction and a very desirable location to live for the insanely rich who don’t mind strangers walking past their windows and photographing them at all hours of the day and night. It takes all sorts.

There was a quirkiness to the historic Venice Canals area that seemed a little forced to my cynical mind, but artificial quirkiness is okay too and it all added to the pleasing character present. This was evident in the architecture of the buildings – that uniformity you associate with American housing was nowhere to be seen, but that’s probably a privilege of the almighty dollar at work – and with artwork in places, the presence of bird-shaped boats, and a book exchange. An upturned boat in poor condition was potentially a damning statement about society from the residents – Behold! We, the wealthy owners of houses in the Venice Canals area of Los Angeles, see this sign of decay and do nothing! Nothing! – or an artistic homage to the classic half-submerged shopping trolley you’d find in a British canal or maybe simply the victim of gang warfare between the humans and cormorants, the latter group of which was casually flaunting their victory as we strolled through.

The weather conditions were perfect for a 10-minute morning walk around the Venice Canals. Its appeal as a tourist destination if we were staying in Los Angeles seemed a little limited but it made for some pleasing views.

Santa Monica Pier

Our bus then took us along the coastline and deposited us at the place where we would have free time to explore. Our guide told us what time to be back and pointed out the two main attractions of the area: a pedestrianised shopping area running parallel to the beach a few roads back or Santa Monica Pier. I know we all have different priorities in life but for us this Los Angeles debark tour was a chance to see some of the sights of the city ahead of our flight back to the UK so it was to the pier we headed first. Besides, we are quite fond of a pier, in case you didn’t know.

Santa Monica Pier is really two piers with the narrower one being the longest and oldest, opening in 1909, and the shorter, wider one with the funfair on it opening seven years later. Being sited in the heart of movie-making in America it’s unsurprising to learn that the pier has featured in a huge range of films and TV shows, with the Forrest Gump-inspired restaurant chain of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company taking advantage of its connection to the location and having a venue there. That and the marker to signify the western end of Route 66 made for a lot of photo opportunities for other tourists to the spot during our visit.

The funfair is called Pacific Park and is mostly notable for its ferris wheel which is solar-powered. We don’t do amusement rides half as much as we should typically because we only tend to visit these sorts of places when I’m laden with camera equipment and I have a natural aversion to leaving it in the hands of the thieving carnies who run amusement parks in my mind while we’re off on a roller coaster ride. That is a terrible slur against carnies but luckily for me no carnies can read or use the internet so they’ll never learn of it.

We headed down to the farthest end of the pier for the views out to sea and back towards land because that’s what piers are for. If you’re after the toilet and don’t have time to strip down and pretend you’re wading in the sea while you release your bodily fluids into it then you’ll be pleased to know that there are public conveniences on the pier here.

Heading back along the pier we were intrigued by a crowd gathering so joined them for a look. This turned out to be one of those street troupes performing acrobatics then dragging members of the public in to keep them from leaving before they’d been fleeced of money. We stayed on the fringes of the entertained audience where we could ensure no participation and keep an eye out for anything untowards that may be taking place (there wasn’t; 99% of those warnings you receive about people working crowds when they’re distracted are just garbage).

That marked the end of our short time on Santa Monica Pier so we left it and headed inland a few blocks in order to see what we could find in the Third Street Promenade.

Third Street Promenade

The very first part of Third Street Promenade we walked through was a circular mall that, because there were very few people around and because it was fairly enclosed, I didn’t take any photos within. I wished I had taken pictures and paid a little more attention to the space because I hadn’t realised that this was Santa Monica Place, originally one of Frank Gehry‘s designs although subsequently renovated by another architectural firm.

The Third Street Promenade dates back to the 1960s when three blocks were pedestrianised and named the Santa Monica Mall. The present day incarnation with its new name follows modernisation and redevelopment in the late 1980s. There were some fabulous-looking styles of building along its length with some art deco designs standing out.

The most obvious attraction for the eyes was a public art piece titled The Dinosaurs Of Santa Monica. Added as part of the late 80s redesign of the area, this artwork consists of topiary-covered, stainless steel and copper fountains in the shapes of dinosaurs and we could see that they were a hit with young children as we walked the promenade. And me. Who doesn’t like dinosaurs vomiting out water?

We didn’t see any shops along the Third Street Promenade interesting enough to entice us inside but I dare say that there was plenty there for certain types of shoppers and if we’d had more time then we might have forced some browsing time upon ourselves. We reached the end of the promenade and the marker pole indicating we were on Wilshere Boulevard, having passed some more public art pieces along the way, so we decided to loop back towards Santa Monica Beach in order to return to our meeting point for the bus.

Palisades Park

Along the sandstone clifftop overlooking the Pacific Coast Highway and Pacific Ocean, between Santa Monica Pier and Wilshere Boulevard (and many more blocks beyond that) lies Palisades Park. It was through this area that we slowly wound our way back. The very first thing to photograph was a statue of the person from whom Santa Monica gained its name. My Catholic upbringing and education by monks hadn’t furnished me with any background information on Saint Monica at all but the internet tells me she was also known as Monica of Hippo and I think that gives me everything I need.

In addition to the lovely views out to sea there was an abundance of flora and fauna although I couldn’t possibly tell you what most of them were. Palm trees and squirrels is about as good as you’re going to get from me.

A memorial to veterans of the army, navy, marines, air force, and coast guard was simple but highly effective.

And so we finally found some shade under a tree near where other passengers on our debark tour were gathering and waited for our bus to return. Joggers jogged past, homeless people slept on the grass, helicopters scanned the waters off the beach in search of kaiju.

Obviously, we only saw a small part of Los Angeles and a pretty affluent part at that, and for a short amount of time too, but we’d not expected to like what we saw as much as we did. Our experiences of big cities in America to this point has been that they are okay to visit but we wouldn’t want to live there, but Los Angeles felt far more welcoming and far more appealing.

Departure

With everyone back on board and nobody late – cruise ships might wait for you but airplanes certainly won’t so that probably accounts for that – we were then driven to Los Angeles International Airport. The first terminal at which the bus pulled up at was the one for us and, it turned out, only us. We were apparently the only people flying with Virgin. We grabbed our cases and headed inside with that tiny little grip inside the stomach as we waited to see what hell would await us in our attempt to leave the country.

So how was getting through check-in and security at Los Angeles airport?

Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Couldn’t have been better. I know you might be tempted to pick up your Sarcasm-O-Meter from where you’ve dropped it in shock earlier just to scan this paragraph but, really, again, there’s no need. Deadly serious. It was great.

Check-in people were smiling, happy, wonderfully efficient. Security people were joking, having a laugh and a chat with everyone. And despite the large amount of people trying to get through what was a rather cramped pre-security area it was all organised as well as possible, processed incredibly quickly, and we came through into the duty-free and restaurants area with grins on our faces. A chalk-and-cheese comparison with our experiences in Washington D.C. and New York.

With a while until our flight we decided to grab something to eat before we finally headed home and an establishment called Barney’s Beanery seemed to fit our tastes best. It’s an airport restaurant so, yes, the prices aren’t great, but we couldn’t fault the quality, loved the fact that they had locally-brewed ales available, and our waitress Uneeda was absolutely fabulous. On top of all that, as we were shown to our table we discovered we were sitting next to Patricia, a solo traveller with whom we’d been on excursions with aboard Star Princess and with whom we’d shared many drinks with in bars on the ship during the cruise. She was overjoyed to see us too and it was a lovely finish to our time in America and our trip as a whole.

We try to get debark tours if we can when we take cruises as it extends the holiday just that little bit more and if it’s a place we’ve not visited before then it makes sense to get a feel for the location for future planning. This Venice Canals and Santa Monica disembarkation excursion did a fantastic job of giving us a final, positive memory of both the trip as a whole and of Los Angeles specifically. We saw some attractive areas and there was plenty of time for shopping if that’s the sort of thing that appeals to you as a traveller.

This concludes the cruise travelogues for our Star Princess cruise from Chile to Los Angeles in March 2019.

This first post will be brief – for me – and simply cover a few details of the hotels we stayed in each side of the Atlantic along with some photos from the plane window flying over America just to break up the imagery of beds and shower units. You might be surprised to learn that the number of people looking for nothing but pictures of beds and shower units on articles about travelling from London to San Francisco is actually quite small.

We flew out of Heathrow so we drove up the night before and booked into the Renaissance Hotel, conveniently close to the long stay parking we’d be making use of the day afterwards. Hotels are more-or-less the same the world over and this one was perfectly fine, with a large and clean bedroom and bathroom.

Another reason for booking this hotel was that it was close to a pub. We can and do eat or drink in hotels but if there is a nearby pub then we like to spread our spending a bit whenever we travel. This was The Three Magpies and we stayed for several.

It was nice to have a reasonably late flight – just after midday – because a lot of flights we take for some reason usually mean we have to set alarms for unearthly hours of the morning. We didn’t have breakfast in the hotel but simply parked our car in the long stay parking for terminals 2 and 3 then hopped on the shuttle bus to the airport. This took a while because there’d been an accident on the only road to the airport but we’d left in plenty of time so didn’t panic overly.

The check-in process took a long time at the airport too because it appeared everyone ahead of us in the queue had some issue or another. When we got to the counter the woman there scanned our passports, looked, checked again, then said “Oh, you’ve filled in everything you needed to do already. I wish everyone was like you.” The world would be a better place, that’s for sure.

We grabbed a breakfast and some pre-flight drinks after security in the airport because that’s travelling law.

Our flight from London to San Francisco was with Virgin. It was a comfortable flight – I did make notes that there were annoying people around us but I can’t remember the details of that – but the food was pretty dire and the windows were the sort that can be tinted dark blue by the crew. They duly did this for part of the flight, stuffing up some otherwise lovely views over Greenland and Canada, but they did return us to normality towards the final stretch of the trip.

There was quite a slow-moving queue at customs in San Francisco but the agent who dealt with us was very friendly. By the time we’d chatted with him and done all the usual security things like take fingerprints and photos we found our luggage already on the carousel at baggage claim.

We stepped out of the doors of the terminal with every intention of looking for signs to taxis but there was a man standing there who said “Taxi?” to us, grabbed our cases, and took them to his limousine. We had no idea how legal this was but the drive to our hotel was great and we enjoyed a long talk with the driver about the local area and his life, got tourist suggestions from him, talked about sport, etc. We were still concerned that the price of the taxi might be extortionate and we might need to engage the use of hotel staff at the destination to sort things out but it was about what we’d been led to expect from looking online so that was fine, and we were happy – well, happy enough given that this is America and expected for arcane worker-exploitation reasons – to tip on top of the job done.

Our day of long delays to get things done continued at the hotel. We walked into the Riu Plaza Fisherman’s Wharf while they were training a new member of staff to use the booking-in system and things didn’t go as planned. We genuinely didn’t mind this, though, because everyone’s got to learn sometimes. We were patient, we smiled, we encouraged, we told the new staff member not to panic and to take his time, and we got a room upgrade either as a result or just because.

In the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll head off for a look around the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco in the evening and enjoy some very good drinks in the hotel bar.

In the previous post in this Ruby Princess cruise travelogue series I covered the largely uneventful flight to San Francisco and our taxi ride from the airport to the hotel we’d picked. We’d selected a hotel in the Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco as it would be walkable from there to the cruise port in the morning.

After a lengthy check-in and after our long day of travelling already we made sure to shower first then head out to see what was nearby. Neither of us were hungry but we headed to a CVS store near the hotel to start with because my wife was on a mission for a particularly large bag of sweets she’d once brought back from another trip to the US. We could see the spot on the shelves where they should have been but they were out of stock so that wasn’t to be.

It was a lovely warm evening to be walking around down by the waterfront and there were plenty of other people milling about the area. The first thing we encountered was a group of street entertainers – the sort who dance and crack jokes – and we made sure to stand well back from the onlookers because we’re very familiar with these sorts of things and how soon the hat comes around for tips. We’re not against that, by any means, but our problem was not actually having any cash on us at this point, it all being back in our hotel room, and us not wanting to appear unappreciative of the entertainment being provided. We’d figured on just strolling to take photos and using our cards or phones to pay if we had to.

We enjoyed the sunset views and seeing such sights as Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge just minutes from our hotel, and we knew we’d see them both again because the pier from where our cruise ship would be leaving the next day was right in this area too. We were also pleased to see the famous sea lions that haul themselves onto Pier 39. One in particular was very vocal.

We stopped to buy some soap from a store that was open on a pier, but otherwise most of what was open at this time were either restaurants or bars, and we didn’t need the former and didn’t really want to battle the crowds for the latter, so we ended up making our way back to the hotel with a quick drop back into CVS to pick up some water.

We were a little tired, even though it wasn’t that late – but, of course, we’d been up for over twenty four hours at this point – and thought that an early night might be sensible, but we had to pass the hotel bar on the way through to reception and we decided to see what it was like. Well, it was fabulous. Or rather, the barman was. After our first couple of very nice themed drinks (it was nearing Halloween) I thought I’d see how he did with an Old Fashioned and my wife asked if he knew how to make a Kentucky Kiss. He did, and went off to hunt down a strawberry to garnish it, and it was enormous. The drinks were great – not the best Old Fashioned I’ve ever had; that honour belongs to a bar in Crawley; but top three easily – and so we had to stay for just one more as well with my wife having another of her cocktails with mutant strawberry once more while I tried a Vodka Martini. We were pleased to see three olives. The mark of a barman who knows what he’s doing. Despite being British and despising the American “tradition” and expectation regardless of service, we did the honours and tipped accordingly and willingly when paying.

In the next post in this series we’ll actually walk down to the pier again, only this time with bags in tow in order to board Ruby Princess and begin a new cruise.

The evening in Fisherman’s Wharf had been warm and dry and… absolutely nothing like the morning that greeted us. The hotel lobby was busy with people who were clearly looking to board the ship too given the luggage tags on their bags, but they were also all sitting around and waiting for taxis. It was a ten minute walk to the port so we didn’t want to waste money on calling a cab, but we also weren’t keen on getting soaked and the rain was persistent, if not too heavy. Decisions, decisions.

We ended up hanging around for perhaps half an hour, hoping for a break in the rain, and one eventually came so we risked it and started walking. Faster than we’d have liked, but not too fast as we had cases and this was America, where cars are king and pedestrians are an afterthought.

We were getting a little damp but it wasn’t too bad until suddenly it started to tip it down again. At this point we were walking along the waterfront but still a few minutes from the pier we needed. Fortunately, there was an overhang we could scoot under so we did and it was nice to at least take a breather from our quick pace. It wouldn’t do to twist an ankle right at the start of a cruise, after all. We saw that we weren’t the only idiots wheeling luggage around in the San Francisco rain so that made us feel slightly better.

The rain eased off again and we started walking. We’d been able to see the ship for a while – cruise ships are not small things – and now we could make out the pier entrance as there were coaches unloading passengers and taking cases down to be brought aboard.

As we got close to where cases needed to be handed over to the pier workers we saw one of those workers wheel a cart loaded with passengers’ cases from a bus towards the dock area. As it bumped over a bit of paving the top case came loose and dropped into a shallow puddle. I shouted and waved, another guy shouted. The worker stopped, looked back at the case, then turned around and carried on walking with his cart, leaving the bag there in the water. That was utterly shocking to us and it didn’t put us in a good frame of mind with the workers there.

Fortunately, when a worker came to take our bags and held out his hand for a tip only for me to say “Sorry, we aren’t carrying any cash” we got a look of disgust that evened things up a bit. I mean, it’s actually true; we weren’t carrying cash to tip someone just for doing their job because we live in a civilised part of the world that pays its employees properly so it’s simply not something we think of doing.

There was a bit of a queue inside the building which gave us a little bit of time to dry to dry out but we were soon aboard and, because the ship had come straight from dry dock, the rooms were all ready for us already. We unpacked our hand luggage, freshened up a little, then did the first important thing: stepped onto the balcony to post a photo of the view and boast to those back home and on social media. Okay, the view was a bit grey but we were on a cruise ship, and a Grand-class cruise ship at that (the best class), and on the C deck (the one with the double-sized, half-covered balconies), so we were very, very happy.

It was nice to see Alcatraz from our balcony. We’d seen it the night before, but obviously it had been a little darker. That is the nature of night. Were we to do another cruise out of San Francisco in the future we might consider a day or two earlier to include some tourist activities including a visit to the island.

The first important thing had been to post photos from the cabin. The second important thing, after a quick side quest to complete our muster, was to go and get a drink and post another photo. As it was a bit muggy and we were still a little soggy and the ship’s interior was busy with people boarding we decided for a change to go and grab a drink from around the quiet pool area. A 24K Gold Margarita for me – it’s become one of my go-to drinks to start any Princess Cruises cruise – but my wife’s choice of a Dirty Banana would have to wait as they hadn’t loaded the bananas at this point. She suffered with a Prosecco.

Ruby Princess had just come out of dry dock and we were interested in seeing if there was anything obviously new about her, with the understanding that we hadn’t actually been on her before so this would all be a bit of guesswork. Or it would have been if we hadn’t started having a nice chat with the bar steward who told us all the things that had changed: lowered bar areas for wheelchair users was one, big revamp of the casino, new carpets and furnishings around much of the ship, and some other elements. There’s a little more detail on the post-cruise write-up of immediate thoughts I wrote at the conclusion of the cruise (see: Ruby Princess Dry Dock Changes) but we wanted to check out Skywalkers as we knew we’d be spending a lot of time there. The carpet was clearly new, an obvious big change, and markedly different from any other Skywalkers we’d been in.

Heading down we then popped into Adagio, expecting that to have been freshened up too. No would be the answer there. It was quite jarring how old it all looked in contrast with a lot of the rest of the ship. Then again, we would find out it was a very little-used venue. When we’d cruised on Crown Princess and had an aft balcony for our Baltic cruise in 2017 this had been a great spot in a convenient location to get a drink away from the main drag, especially before hitting the nightclub, but it felt very neglected on this cruise and that’s likely why no money was spent on revamping it.

Next door to Adagio was Sabatini’s Italian restaurant, looking very bright and clean. We would be visiting here on the cruise. We always do.

Time for the sail away and the balcony was the place to be for it. We also had our cases waiting for us by now so we could unpack properly and, of course, with the drinks packages that Princess offer and the ability to order drinks directly to our room that’s precisely what we did.

Are you a cruise line that doesn’t provide any way to order drink directly to a room for no additional charge? Sort that out, won’t you?

We were looking forward to passing a little closer to Alcatraz and we were looking forward to cruising under the Golden Gate Bridge – it’s always nice to cruise under a bridge on a cruise – but the most joy we actually had on the sail out was being accompanied by pelicans flying in formation just off our balcony. Whether they had learned that ships provide a handy updraught to make flying easier or whether they just thought that our ship was one giant pelican, who can say? It was, regardless, utterly fascinating to see us at the head of a line of birds sailing out of San Francisco Bay. An avian honour guard.

The evening aboard Ruby Princess was spent eating and drinking. Don’t believe me? Is this your first time here? Well then…

Naturally, we had to hit Skywalkers once it started up.

First nights are always a bit quiet – not that Skywalkers ever gets that busy anyway – so it was easy to see a few people come in and sit down but not get noticed by the bar staff. In fact, because they weren’t noticed they then left after about ten minutes.

I decided to post on Instagram with a little “Hey, Princess, maybe tell your staff to be a bit more alert in the nightclub!” type of rant. If these were first-time cruisers with Princess then it wasn’t setting a good impression. I was being helpful. Sort of.

Now, the thing about posting messages on Instagram in a dark club, at the end of a long day, with a fair bit of drinking, on your phone, and with an app with a terrible single-line input box is that typos are possible. I published the post, read it back, saw a typo immediately, got annoyed with myself, also realised it was perhaps a bit unfair and maybe a smidge too ranty as this was the first night, so deleted it. That post was visible to the public for less than ten seconds, but I had tagged Princess’s media team in it. This is important. And the reasons I’m mentioning all this is that this event will be making a reappearance in a later post in this cruise travelogue series.

In the next post from this Ruby Princess cruise series I’ll cover a couple of sea days as we head south towards Mexico with some speciality dining and sea activities to describe amongst some photos from around the cruise ship too.