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Woke up on the Queen Mary Hotel, Deck A, Room 128. Did not sleep too well. Bed was comfortable, but the walls were thin and sound traveled well. Also, the room was haunted. None of the above combined made for a good, solid night's sleep.
There was a man with binoculars looking out the porthole in our room all night! I was sleeping on that side of the bed, so he was only about 3 feet away from me. Clay never saw him. I don't think Clay even rolled over on his right side to face that direction all night! Maybe Clay did sleep well all night! Before we went to bed, Clay went to the ice machine and refilled our travel water bottles. They had neoprene covers on them, so we can easily carry them around. Clay put mine in a wooden cup holder on my bedside table. I thought that was so thoughtful and courteous of him! The first 2 times I woke up in the night and saw a man beside the bed holding something up to his face, I thought it was Clay drinking my water. He did eat a lot of ribs, but I was amazed that he had drunk all his own water and was now drinking mine! The third time I woke up, I sat up and I reached over to his side of the bed and he was there! I looked and it was him. I looked more closely at the drinking man and realized my water bottle was in place and he was actually holding a pair of binoculars up to his face! I thought about it and decided NOT to freak out. I was too tired and the man was not bothering anyone, so I should try not to disturb him in return. The 4th time, I woke up really needing to pee, but I really did not want to have to deal with binoculars man, and was very disappointed and much more freaked out to find he was real and still there! I rolled over so as not to have to see him, and I held it! I have no idea if this is a documented Queen Mary haunting. Apparently there are a lot of them documented, but I did not check and really didn't want to find out that the hauntings were real! We were both wide awake about 4am, probably due to the time zone difference and fortunately binoculars man was gone. We listened to the neighbors coughing and whispered about what to do. Clay did not believe me about binoculars man! I was for getting up and getting on with the day while binoculars man was gone! We did. We showered and dressed and finished touring the ship. We had it all to ourselves. It seemed big. Then, we noticed the Carnival ship docked behind the QMH and it seemed small. The QM literature said they started serving light breakfast onboard at 6:30am, but there was a long and cranky line of people still waiting for coffee then, so we decided to leave the ship/hotel for breakfast and wine/beer shopping and come back well before noon for checkout. We had done DCL online check in and had a noon to 12:30pm arrival time scheduled.
We went out to the bus stop and the first bus to arrive was signed C - downtown. We got on and she was starting a 15 minute break. Lucky for us, since we talked about our plans and she set us straight. With the bicycle race going on today, the routes were altered. Also, her bus C was changing over to B route about 4 stops into the ride! I don't know how you would know this in advance if you got on a C - downtown bus at the QMH. I guess you would do what we did every time we got on a bus, ask the driver if you they are going to your destination! So, we took Passport C/B to Elm and 4th and walked about a block to a market center with Albertson's, CVS, Walgreens, Wal-mart, Denny's, McDonald's, etc. We went to Denny's first and got the AARP discount on coffee with breakfast. We got some small wine cartons and a Guinness 8 pack of cans at Albertson's. (I will go ahead and report now, that Clay was hard pressed to drink his beers. He had planned to have one every afternoon on the balcony, but most days it was too windy and cold for him to enjoy sitting out there sipping a Guinness. He wound up having 1 left over. On the wines, we bought too much for our small glass of wine routine. Clay was rarely in the mood for a glass at all, so that reduced our need even more. I felt too unwell or heavily seasickness medicated to chance alcohol on top a few too many nights as well. Then there were our choices, we had never purchased wine that wasn't in bottles before so we weren't familiar with the brands and there were not a lot of choices anyway. We chose the small milk carton type instead of the big boxes and that was a good decision. We bought a Vendage and Bota Box Pinot Grigio and dumped both out after a first glass as they were not drinkable and we aren't really all that picky! We bought a Bandit Riesling and a Bandit Pinot Grigio and both were drinkable. The 2 boxes we dumped contained 3 glasses each and the 2 boxes we drank contained 5 glasses each and that still wound up being too much wine for us.) We walked back to the corner with the Passport bus stops and got on the B bus which turned into C. Again, we asked if we could ride to the Queen Mary Hotel when the driver stopped and opened the door and he said yes.
Back at QMH, we entered our room to find that the camera/electronics bits and pieces Clay had left sitting on the cabinet right inside the door were strewn across the floor towards the bathroom. I said to Clay, told you. I did not disrespect binoculars man and he didn't touch any of my stuff. Clay frowned as we repacked our luggage to make it all easy to carry again. We should have done a better job, since Clay wound up breaking his rolling bag handle as we went down the ramp to Wonder! I was trying to explain to Clay that the bags with liquid in them had to be carried on and put through a standard carry on sized x-ray machine. Somehow that with the fact that we were carrying on all of our bags did not translate and we were awkwardly packed with a duffel of the beer and wine on top of a rolling bag which caused the handle to break on a turn in the zigzagging ramp to Wonder. Something for anyone else trying this to think about.
We were prepaid at the QMH and could keep the keycards as souvenirs, so all checkout required was leaving. We walked to the bus stop again and got back on the free Passport C bus to Long Beach Transit Mall. We got off there and walked one block to Stop A for
Commuter Express bus 142 at $1.50pp fare for the ride to San Pedro. We left Long Beach at 10:30am and saw NCL Pearl and
DCL Wonder as we were crossing the bridge. We got off CE bus 142 at the Ports o Call stop in front of the Maritime Museum around 11am. Facing the museum, we turned left and started up the sidewalk, again construction obstructions made things complicated when they shouldn't have been. But, we could see the ship and we knew we were headed in the right direction. We did see the tracks for a waterfront tram line, but during the hour we were out there, we never saw a tram running. I am not sure if it is not in operation, or just not on Sunday mornings, or if it was related to the construction. The good news was that it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the leisurely stroll once we passed the construction barricades. We both estimated the walk was about one mile North to Wonder. There were water features, dancing waters, and markers and art along the walk way so we had plenty of time to pause and sit and enjoy as we slowly made our way. There was a really impressive water show to recorded classical music right at the entrance to the parking lot for Disney Wonder and we were glad we were on foot so we could stop and enjoy the show. Fortunately, it didn't start really shooting off the jets and cannons until we had gotten to the other side of the fence. Because if we had been right there on the sidewalk when the finale started, we'd have gotten wet! On this subject, I need to thank CopaDave of the
Disboards, who had a post with a bunch satellite images pasted in documenting
Berth 93 at San Pedro and how to get there and around. Unfortunately, the photos have since been lost, otherwise I would post a link here. But, I would suggest using Google satellite or aerial maps to check it out if you plan to go. We found it really helpful to familiarize ourselves with the lay of the land before arriving.
We got to Wonder right about noon. We checked right in and were sent to the big waiting room with 800 or so other guests. We got photos with Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse with little wait. Both nose kissed Bob! We were given boarding group number 15 and they did not starting calling group 1 until after we had been waiting a while. I am still not sure I understanding getting an arrival time by doing the online check in weeks early if they aren't going to let anyone onboard until afternoon anyway.
We got onboard Wonder about 1:30pm. After we were announced, a Cast Member (hereafter CM, which is what DCL calls the people who work aboard their ships) took us aside and prevented us looking up agape at the
Chihuly chandelier as we crossed the atrium lobby we had entered. The CM explained that the buffet restaurant indoors aft on that deck was filled, but that we could walk back that way to put our names on a wait list or take the elevators back there to deck 9 for lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet (hereafter BBB). We found some empty wall space to park our bags and ate indoors at a very crowded BBB and found the food pretty good with a reasonable selection. We walked the ship a bit to find self-service ice cream and drinks and the adult only area. (Which had live amplified music and at least one running child, belying the name Quiet Cove. Disappointment.) We really dislike every CM encounter being a sales opportunity, guess we are spoiled from RSSC!
Hit the link and there are
scanned Navigators from our cabin upon boarding.
By now it was 2:30pm and we went straight to the cabin to unpack. After, we went to Guest Services to drop off for character signatures a DCL tote bag that I had won from
Cruise Critic. We also were hoping for car- sized ship maps like we've gotten on most other cruise ships, but got 2 letter size maps. We also requested ice in our room since we had not seen our steward yet. We did not see Alain, our Filipino cabin steward, until later when he delivered our requested ice. We went by the Promenade Lounge for the 3pm
Disboards Meet & Greet and to pick up a pair of wineglasses. We didn't actually meet anyone. Everyone seemed to already know one another, so after milling through the crowd to and from the bar without anyone making eye contact with us, we moseyed on along. We were wearing our Disboards Hawaiian shirts, as were a number of others. The Disboards Hawaiian shirts were the hit of embarkation day! We got lots of comments and questions about them. They were great shirts! I wish we had located Valbob to thank her for her efforts on the Disboards shirts, but we never did meet her. Still, thanks!
We went back to the cabin for the lifeboat drill as instructed at 4pm. We are in cabin 7582 and our muster station is O (oh!) down on deck 4. So, we head aft and starboard, same as our cabin from the lobby. After that I called Mom to say bye. Then we went up to deck 9 again for a sail away party. We got big plastic souvenir Mickey hands to wave! The party was fun with lots of costumed characters! We enjoyed it and DCL really got into it! It really has been a beautiful day!
We were a little late in sailing and the crowds were so thick we couldn't go forward. So, we went aft and wound up on our deck 7 aft's tiny secret outer deck to watch them cast off and sail away with a very few others. Nice. There was another couple out there wearing the Disboards Hawaiian fabric and a woman offered to take a group photo of us, the woman in the Disboards fabric skirt told her that we didn't know each other and she hightailed it out of there! She didn't say it in a mean way, and in fact we didn't know each other. I don't remember their names and I'm sure they don't remember ours and neither of us knew each other by Disboard names either! That was weird. It was amazing the number of people who had never heard of Disboards or Cruise Critic or even understood the concept of meeting people online before a cruise without actually meeting them in person or knowing them.
I saw 2 seals, or sea lions, in our wake as we sailed out of the port but Clay missed them. Our dinner was 5:45pm seating. So, we went straight there before we were out of the port area.
Our first dinner was in Triton's. Our room key card, called a Key to the World card and hereafter KTTW had the following sequence on it: TAAPTAPTAPTAPPT Table:22. DCL has what they call rotational dining. That means that you and your servers move together nightly among 3 restaurants. T was our first, in Triton's. It is the prettiest room, low and midship, off the atrium lobby. A is Animator's Palate, deck 4 and aft. It is all black and white and on one night in your rotation it has a show where it is lit in colors. It is more interesting than it probably sounds. Yet somehow still not as impressive as I had expected though I really enjoyed it and was disappointed when it only happened the one night! P is Parrot Cay on deck 3 and aft. It has a permanent buffet section built at the front of the room, so even with menu service it still feels the most casual of the 3. You enter through a vestibule with parrot pictures and recorded bird sounds. It is very colorful in a Caribbean palate.
Our table was 22, which in each room was just off the wide center aisle at the back of the room. It was a good location. The table was set for 4 and we weren't sure if we had gotten assigned a table alone as requested. By the second night it had been established that the table 22 was ours alone. That was very good! As about 1/3 of the tables were vacant at the early seating, I'd have been upset if we had not gotten the table to ourselves as requested. We hit open ocean before being served, but the stabilizers were soon in use and it was bearable. The food at dinner was better than expected given what I had read online from past cruisers. In hindsight, I don't really think it was low expectations, I think DCL really did a good job with food. Except it seemed to me that the menus the final 2 nights had overtaxed the chefs' imaginations! I think Clay photographed every menu, so I will post them here and if you click to see them full size, you should be able to read most of them and you can be the judge. Tonight, Clay had fried calamari, halibut and a sundae. I had a chicken "bastela" which was like chicken curry in a filo pastry and a yachtsman steak with green peppercorn sauce, a twice baked potato half and steamed broccoli. It was all good and well prepared. I did not like the sound of any of the desserts, so I asked for and got a Mickey head ice cream bar.
Our servers are Hans from South Africa and Desmond from Goa, India and we have Paolo from Portugal over them. Alain, our cabin steward, is from the Philippines. They are all personable and seem ready to please.
We walked to the shops on our way to the Walt Disney Theater (hereafter WDT) for the late show. Hysteria! Long lines for Inaugural Hawaii sailing souvenirs! I think we only saw 15 -20 items and they were imposing a 2 per item per person limit. It was crazy! We didn't even see anything we really liked. Both glad for the excellent and excellently priced Disboard shirts! And glad I had prepurchased Clay one of the t-shirts as that was on the bed when we arrived at the cabin! I will say that they added items over the course of the cruise and we did wind up purchasing more souvenirs. In fact, they must have been moving stock around in both stores more than once a day from what we observed over the course of the 15 nights!
It started getting rough at show time but I made it through and enjoyed "Let the Magic Begin". It was a combination of production show and variety show. We went straight to bed after. We have a had a couple of long days now.
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