Unlike Fort Lauderdale where the cruise terminals are in a port zone or Miami where they are on Dodge Island, or even New York where ships now leave from Red Hook in Brooklyn, San Diego’s pier is downtown, right at the end of B Street.  As we approached the pier in our Uber from the Gas Lamp Quarter, we saw groups of people dragging wheeled suitcases toward the pier and the ship. 

When we got to the ship the Cruise Director came on the horn to tell us this was our lucky day.  Since the pandemic the lifeboat drill has become virtual.  You go to your life boat stations at your leisure, have your key card scanned, watch the video in your room (they can tell if it ran) and you are done.  But the Coast Guard requires a real, in person, emergency muster every 180 days.  Our number came up, so we had an actual, in person, everyone on deck, muster.  I did not at all feel nostalgic but fortunately, this time, there was not the single holdout that held us all in place until they showed up.

Both in the security line getting on board and at the boat drill people were talking about how excited they were to be on a “long cruise,” 22 days.  Suzi and I looked at each other.  For us this is a short cruise.  Even our last two truncated attempts at a world cruise were three times or more longer than this one.  We were trying our hand at a short cruise on Holland America.  One conversation went like this:

“We are retired and now can afford the time to take this long 22 day cruise.”

Our response: “We came out of retirement and are working so don’t have the time for a long cruise, so we are taking this short 22 day cruise.”  Perspective is everything.

The sail out from San Diego gave took us past two aircraft carriers, one the historic USS Midway, and several other navy ships, plus a three masted East India trader. 

As we left the harbor the ship started rocking and rolling.  There WAS a high surf warning (See Gas Lamp Post above.)

We settled into our cabin.  I chose deck 4 (Beethoven Deck, more on that in a later post).  Deck 4 is the lowest deck with balconies, and the lower the deck the less rocking.  Deck 4 also has larger balconies because the decks above terrace inward.  I chose a stateroom that is at a point where the ship bulges outward a little bit so we have a view both to the port and forward.  I will like this cabin.

The rocking helped me get my first good night’s sleep in more than a week. 

I woke up the next morning to a sunrise with the moon just heading toward new. The new moon will bring the eclipse. The rest of the day was smooth sailing.