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Bruin Steve

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  • Location
    Calabasas, CA, USA
  • Interests
    Cruising!
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Celebrity
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Mediterranean

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  1. Okay...I'm a "local"... I love the Doubletree...AND I have stayed there pre-cruise (We now live a little over an hour from the port, so, often, we extend our holiday and stay nearby for a night pre-cruise. The area is very safe. And, visually, attractive. It is a little removed from the port and from most area restaurants --Though the 22nd Street Landing--Seafood restaurant--is walking distance around the marina. For any of the nice restaurants in Downtown San Pedro (San Pedro Brewing Co,. the Green Onion-Mexican, Rafaello's, Niko's. etc.), the Doubletree will shuttle you there and back for free. There are a few things to see and do in the area...or a short Uber ride into Long Beach to see the Queen Mary or the Aquarium...But after a long flight, you may just want to relax...and the Doubletree is good for that. Here are some photos from our last stay there--the room itself ...and the view from our room:
  2. I've been cruising BOTH lines from back in the late 80s...I'm Diamond Plus AND Elite Plus (without any benefit from "reciprocity"...by the time that began, I was already beyond Diamond and Elite independently)...and I have NEVER received a single point or credit on one line from having cruised on the other. They changed the system from one point per cruise on both lines around 2014-2015...But that change only affected how points were awarded (per night on both lines with Celebrity going to higher multipliers for cabin categories) but NOT for which cruise line you were on. Levels up to Diamond/Elite became reciprocal, but points were NEVER accounted to a line other than the one sailed.
  3. Actually, I didn't have old paper tags. It was a file on my computer. When the tags are available, I save them to a file so I can type in my name in the blank space provided, then print out the file and insert them into my plastic tag holders. Every now and then, I clean out the old, no longer needed files...but I still had this one from December--it's less than 90 days old.
  4. We are on that same B2B--March 28 to April 9 and April 9 to April 21. I'm not worried about the luggage getting there...just curious about the inconsistency. I don't know what good it does for them to print "Captains Club" on the tags. Everyone gets to be a member of Captains Club after one cruise...Seems like the overwhelming majority of passengers will have Captains Club on their tags...Unless they are just wildly inconsistent on the same cruise.
  5. We recently printed out our luggage tags for our Millennium cruise coming up in a couple of weeks... I noticed that these tags, along with the ship/sailing/cabin number, said "Captains Club". I thought, I could swear, they used to be worded differently...So, luckily, I found I still had a tag from my December Eclipse cruise. And, lo and behold, that one didn't say "Captains Club". The Eclipse tags, in that spot, said "Concierge Class"... Just to add specifics, we are, and have been for both of these cruises, ELITE PLUS Captains Club...and for BOTH of these cruises, we are in Concierge Class cabins...So, nothing has really changed. So, who knows why the change in the tag format? Or, is it just lack of consistency?
  6. Only two good hotels in San Pedro: The Crowne Plaza: In the heart of Downtown San Pedro. Walking distance (about 3 blocks) to the pier...though they also have a shuttle (for a fee) or you can do a quick, cheap Uber. LOTS of good, casual, local restaurants withing two blocks of the hotel (Try the San Pedro Brewing Co. or the Green Onion-Mexican- within less than a block. Also a couple of good Italian restaurants very close. The Doubletree: A couple of miles from the pier in a very pretty setting on the small boat marina. Only one restaurant on my list in walking distance--the 22nd Street Landing (seafood) but the hotel will shuttle you to restaurants in Downtown San Pedro for free. Also free shuttle to the pier. I have personally stayed in both for various pre-cruise nights (both offer Cruise and Park options which I have used).
  7. First, the LAX-it thing is not that bad. When they discontinue it, it probably gets worse, not better. With LAX-it, the shuttles are continuous--one after the other...very little waiting. Only thing we don't like is dragging our luggage up and down the bus steps. At the lot itself, things are organized well for finding your ride. And, if you arrive at terminal 1 or even 2 or 8, you don't really even need the bus...You can walk--it's right across a small street from Terminal 1. But, as to getting rid of it, the idea is they will do that when the planned Peoplemover is done with construction...and, then, if I read between the lines, you will need to take the peoplemover to a new off-airport multi-story parking facility, farther from the terminals, which will have an area for Uber/Lyft/Taxi. And you will compete for space on the peoplemover with everyone parking at these off-airport structures or heading to the off-airport car rental center. They really want to move as much traffic as they can away from the inner terminal loop.
  8. I'm accustomed to driving in from the other direction--down the 110...but it's the same exit either direction--Exit 1C--HARBOR BLVD...if you're coming down the 710 through Long Beach, you'd cross Terminal Island, then the Vincent Thomas Bridge...it's the FIRST exit after crossing the bridge...At the end of the offramp, you will cross Harbor Blvd. and you will be facing the terminal...the loop road parallels Harbor Blvd...You can turn into the lot...or continue around and first drop off passengers and luggage if you like, then circle around again and enter the parking lot.
  9. You could drop off your luggage at the pier, return the car and walk back to the pier...it's only about 3-4 blocks... Or, you could call an Uber...The CP charges $5.95 pp...An Uber to take you that less than 3/4 mile won't cost that much. Or ask Enterprise if they'll drop you back at the pier. They may do it as an accommodation.
  10. We've done a few Northern Europe cruises over the years...So, we've been to the major ports several times each--Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Tallinn...We're fairly comfortable visiting these on our own if we don't have a tour. But, this July/August, we're doing a couple of legs on Royal Caribbean's World Cruise...and there are a lot of smaller ports that will be new to us. Here's our itinerary: Fri., 26 July Southampton, England Departs 7:00 PM Sat., 27 July Bruges/Zeebrugge, Belgium 9:00 AM - 7:00 PM Sun., 28 July at sea Mon., 29 July Skagen, Denmark 7:00 AM - 3:00 PM Tues., 30 July Warnemunde, Germany 8:00 AM - 10:00 PM Wed., 31 July at sea Thurs.,1 August Riga, Latvia 7:00 AM - 4:00 PM Fri., 2 August Tallinn, Estonia 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM Sat., 3 August Helsinki, Finland 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Sun., 4 August Stockholm, Sweden Arrives 9:00 AM Mon., 5 August Stockholm, Sweden Departs 6:00 PM Tues., 6 August Visby, Sweden 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Wed., 7 August Klaipeda, Lithuania 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Thurs., 8 August Ronne, Denmark 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Fri., 9 August Kiel, Germany 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Sat., 10 August Copenhagen, Denmark 6:00 AM - 5:00 PM Sun., 11 August Aarhus, Denmark 7:00 AM - 5:00 PM Mon., 12 August Oslo, Norway 10:30 AM - 8:00 PM Tues., 13 August Kristiansand, Norway 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM Wed., 14 August Haugesund, Norway 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Thurs., 15 August Olden, Norway 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM Fri., 16 August Alesund, Norway 8:00 AM - 7:00 PM Sat., 17 August Bergen, Norway 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Sun., 18 August At Sea Mon., 19 August Amsterdam, Netherlands Arrives 6:00 AM Now, the ports new to us are: Skagen, Visby, Ronne, Kiel, Aarhus, Kristiansand and Haugesund. We've been to Olden and Alesund before, but only once each and it's been a while. We already have tours booked for Bruges, Warnemunde, Riga and Klaipeda. Royal Caribbean's shorexes seem awfully expensive and, since they started selling the full World Cruise quite a while ago, many shorexes are already sold out. Others, even though they keep running "sales", they haven't been discounting most of their shorexes. The ones they do are like 5% off. Usually, if we haven't been to a port before, we'll book some sort of tour...but $300-$400 for a 3 or 4 hour shorex seems excessive. So, for the above list of new, unplanned ports, I'm wondering: 1) For which of these ports does the ship dock close enough that you can just walk into town and visit easily on your own? 2) Is there anything in these ports that we just should not miss? 3) Are there any nearby towns worth finding transportation to that are worth the extra journey...better than staying in the port town? 4) Any providers worth using either prearranged via internet...or do any just set up near the port and offer group tours? Thanks.
  11. Here's the deal: YES, it is a VERY unusual storm for us...That's because the average YEARLY rainfall in Los Angeles is only about 11 inches. And over the past decade or so, about 80% of the years can only be classified as "extreme drought". We've had several years with only 5 or 6 inches of rain. We've been forced to NOT water our lawns...turning them into dead, brownyards. So, THIS much rain IS a major story here. And, yes, there ARE places around here where there is a little "flooding". But it's not like flooding one sees in other parts of the world where whole houses are washed away. And, in a city this large, you can find plenty of places where someone's hillside has been undermined or a normally dry street looks like a river for a small distance. But, again, it's NIT extensive. But, since it's such a big story here, the news stations send reporters and camera crews to the worst instances...and those "stories" have made it to gthe national news. But, for MOST of us...even those like me-who live in the areas with the most rainfall...it's really just rain. No flooding, no mudslides. Just bring an umbrella when you walk outside...and drive a little slower because roads are slick. Normal life for most of the rest of you. But, here in SoCal, people just have no idea what all this wet stuff is or why it appears to be falling from the sky. And, there really is ZERO impact for areas like San Pedro, Long Beach, LAX, LGB...even Burbank has seen just ordinary rain. There's nothing that would keep airplanes from landing or taking off and nothing that would keep your cruise ship from embarking or disembarking. If your travel plans included walking the Venice Beach Boardwalk or doing some hot air ballooning today, you may want to rethink that...maybe visit a museum today and visit Venice Beach tomorrow. Winds have been 10-15 mph. This is NOTHING like, say, hurricanes in Florida. Our worst weather day in SoCal is the equivalent of a good day in Miami!
  12. Here's today's report (with a lot of numbers) from the LA Daily News: Rain map: Here are the wettest spots in Los Angeles County – Daily News The town next to me, Topanga, reported 11.94 inches of rain...BUT, the areas you need to be concerned with? In that same period, LGB Airport reported 2.21 inches of rain...West Long Beach shows (on the map) 2.75 inches...Point Vicente, near San Pedro, shows a mere 1.19 inches of rain... ...And those numbers were all yesterday. The storm looks to be just about passed this morning. By next Monday? According to Accuweather.com ZERO rain: https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/long-beach/90802/daily-weather-forecast/347631?day=7
  13. Flip a coin? Very similar. Do you want to rack up Hilton points? Or Marriott Bonvoy points? Maybe find which restaurant you'll likely eat at and pick the one with the shorter walk? This is a large shopping mall area. The Doubletree is West of the mall across the street, the Marriott is North of the mall across the street. Unless you have a specific liking for one chain or the other, you probably would not see a difference.
  14. A little update: I live in a town that is one of the more susceptible areas to impact from a storm. We are atop the Santa Monica Mountains, inland from the coast at Malibu. Several canyon roads wind through these mountains. During "fire season", this is the area most often impacted from wildfires--so, during the rainy season, it's also where there is the most danger from mudslides, etc. Also, since clouds get stopped by the higher mountains, we might get a little more rain than most. The City just sent out an email to residents with the latest update: "Car v. power pole at Mulholland Highway and Canyon Drive in the Highlands. SCE says the intersection will be closed all night as crews make repairs. Please avoid the area. Close to seven inches of rain has fallen on Calabasas in the last two days. More on the way tonight through tomorrow Partial clearing Wednesday. Some mud and rocks have been cleared from roadways but, so far, no major damage in our city." So, basically, we've been hit with a LOT of rain...and the area in the highest mountain canyons have been hit by a minor amount of rocks and mud --which has been easily cleared away by city crews--as well as being inconvenienced by one stupid driver who hit a power pole. Other than that, yeah, it's been raining...but for me and most of my neighbors, everything is just very normal...but wet. I did have some dead fronds off one of my palm trees fall off and into my pool. And, yes, I've seen tape on some news stations showing a little minor "flooding" in some areas--but realize that those incidents are actually quite rare. Most of the warnings here just tell folks not to drive if you don't need to and consider not driving into the canyons and avoiding driving in areas that look to have a little standing water. Still haven't seen a single story where the harbor areea is impacted or cruise ships have been impacted.
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