English Tim

With reference to storage space for clothes there are three large drawers underneath the TV, which you may not have found.

Sorry, the above post should’ve said 390, with another 10 due to arrive today.

What a great first day on board, but we did make the mistake of arriving at the port too early and having to wait until 1130 to board. We immediately met our old cruising friend, Heike, and I’m sure that she will do a brilliant job for the company and the passengers. Sadly, I am a little under the weather this morning, something that happens to me occasionally due to a weakness my throat. a lovely young lady in the Emporium made me some honey, lemon and hot water. I enjoyed a lovely crêpe with chocolate sauce and trimmings, yesterday lunchtime and we experienced the conservatory with and without its roof. I felt the temperature in there this morning was a little cool and I’ve made an enquiry to find out whether this is normal. I have no doubt that when the weather warms up in the next day or so the roof will be open and it will be very hot in there. Last night we had a Marble Grill dinner, which was really good, although at the beginning I felt there was a desire to upsell the wine. I am disappointed that they no longer provide my Moët champagne, but I had read about it on here so expected it to be the case. There are only 400 passengers on board, but they expect from Miami onwards that the numbers will increase dramatically. The crew are absolutely wonderful, being genuinely friendly and have a great desire to be helpful. One thing I miss, being an early riser, is the ability to help myself to a coffee in one of the lounges, which would then allow me to use my computer without disturbing my wife. Possibly, I could use room service and ask them to bring it to the lounge. My wife would like to know if we can order caviar with our champagne, so maybe one of you guys reading this can help us with this question? Today we are going to rent electric bikes and will need to keep moving to keep warm as the weather is a little bit cool and grey. Please ask any questions and I will do my best to go an answer to them.

No, we’re getting off in Miami, then flying to Washington to visit my sister in law.

Embarkation day has finally arrived and I watched the ship arriving and docking on the WebCam. As yesterday, the weather is cool and grey, but the forecast is very good for this afternoon. See y’all on board. ps the Carnival Venezia has recently docked at Long Beach cruise port. It looks quite ridiculous with the Costa funnel.

Yesterday, after our long flight from the UK, we were very tired, but remembered the instructions for getting an Uber and after a 5 minute wait, we were on our way. Traffic was heavy and it took about an hour for the ride to Residence Inn LB Downtown, well we were quickly checked in to a lovely room overlooking the harbour. It has a large fridge and even a dishwasher, which we don’t expect to use. We had a good night sleep and then a nice breakfast, all be it on plastic plates. This morning we rented electric bikes and cycled back across the harbour to have a look at the Queen Mary and Carnival Panorama, which we couldn’t get very close to due to the thousands of people milling around. Some seemed to be towing their baggage a long way. we then cycled back over the harbour and then around Shoreline Village before heading up the beach and having lunch and coffee at a very nice coffee shop, just off the beach. When we set out this morning, the weather was cool but this afternoon it had got very warm and sunny, which will hope will be the case tomorrow when we leave on our cruise. An Uber should take about 15 minutes and cost around $20. The pictures below show Rosy in her warm coat this morning and me by the coffee shop after the Sun had come out.

We are now at London Heathrow waiting for our flight to Los Angeles. We had an okay breakfast in the Concord room, but the booth was very tight for space and for someone of my height I found it challenging. A beautiful morning and we hope for more of the same when we land in Los Angeles.

Well, we are getting ever closer and this morning we complete online check-in for the flight and leave home very early tomorrow morning so will have to have finished packing tonight, as I find it very easy to forget things. It’s not packed the night before. I put all my electricals, like iPad and power leads in my backpack on the day of Travel and then it should be fairly easy to load them into the Taxi. I am a volunteer guide at the local hospital, so this should keep me busy this morning, which is a good thing as I tend to get a little bit excited, even at my grand old retirement plus age! Later I have to pick up all my medicines from the chemist, which I tried to do yesterday but the doctors had forgotten to order them. I said what am I supposed to do for my diabetes, If I run out of medicine and they didn’t have an answer to that. We have checked in for our Hotel in Long Beach and they promised an upgrade if available at check in , so will report on that tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone. ps I really don’t know why, when I dictate my posts, they never put a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence, which I find really frustrating.

Exciting news to have Heike back on board and the ship leaves Vancouver today, ready for us in Los Angeles on Sunday. Now, we have another ‘live from’ thread, which will give all of us excited people lots more to look forward to.

Started to look at the weather forecast for LA and it’s looking good, especially with the disappointing stuff in south west England. The left-hand image is of my son Luke and myself after a 50 km cycle ride last week and the second image is of my wife, Rosy.

Could you upgrade using Avios?

in order to utilise this upgrade, one must book an Amex 2-4-1 fare in business class and then hope that seats in First become available nearer to travel, indeed using Seat Spy, as Adrian noted. We look forward to meeting you.

All of those useful travel tools. 😉

Did anyone from the UK receive any documents prior to the cruise or is everything online? Did anyone wear sneakers or sandals for dinner?