BEAV

Bunch of waffle haters!

Beautiful Northern California May afternoon following a long, wet and soggy winter!

GASP! 😱😱😱

Really glad to see this thread. I’ve long wanted to sail up the Columbia into Portland. I recall one of the smaller HAL ships (Statendam maybe?) made a rare call here in the early 2000’s. And a Silversea or Seabourn ship as @ijkh mentioned in the not-too-distant past. I’ve definitely got to check out this sailing!

Hope Abercrombie & Kent will recognize their Crystal Society status…👍

Mmmmmmmm….pretty zippy there for only a Tuesday night. I’m beyond ready for summer BBQ season after our long, sloshy California winter… 🍔🌭🥩 🌽 🍺

I’m not sure how my sister originally discovered her a few years ago, but she recently (finally) appeared on our tree.

My sister’s a big ancestry buff. Her percentages of Euro-mixes often change up/down as more info in our blood line becomes known. As a side note, a few years ago my sister discovered our maternal grandfather had a sister we’d never heard of. She was in an asylum in LA not far from where our Grandfather was born/raised. Neither he, or our Mom and her siblings ever mentioned her. Then a couple of months ago, she appeared on Ancestry for the first time as our Grandfather’s sister.

The OP has for a number of years posted threads exactly like this on the HAL and Celebrity boards. So don’t let the topic get to anyone too much! Just today the media reports 500,000 people per week are applying for passports (or passport renewals). I submitted my passport for renewal on January 8. It’s remained in “received” status until yesterday, and is now finally “in process”. So it’s sat dormant for nearly 3 months because of the huge backlog. Staffing shortages only add to the equation. We knew this day would come post-Covid where everyone would want to get back to traveling. It’s nothing more than the age-old theory of supply and demand at work (and add inflation to boot). I can’t blame cruise lines for increasing prices as demand rises. As I said to the OP a few years ago, cruise lines (and travel suppliers) are not non-profit community service organizations. Do i enjoy paying more? Of course not!

2 if you live in 49 of the 50 states. 3 if you live in California. We excel here.

.

I’m reading this thread for the first time, but just this morning saw an ad on FB from Level advertising their SFO-BCN service. I wondered who the heck they were, so started Googling them, and yes, saw they’re operated by Iberia, using their certificate, etc. If you haven’t already, there are several reviews of them on YouTube, if you’re interested. There’s even a BCN-LAX report, but it’s from a flight 5 years ago. I completely feel your pain dealing with code shares such as this, 3rd party cruise air, and call center agents who only know what their computer screens spit in front of them. 🙄

@Keith1010, you were my first thought when I saw this. I hope you’ll get to enjoy “spinning” one of these days on New Crystal!

As far as I know, the annual Stockton Asparagus Festival is still on. That is, if California doesn’t first float away from all the rain (that’s one way to non-politically secede! 🤔). The dairy farmers are nervous, however. And nervous farmers make for nervous cows. https://www.khq.com/news/massive-flooding-in-california-impacts-agriculture-dairy-farmers/video_e6884518-c72c-11ed-9faa-8b8a5a14f93b.html https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/local-news/tulare-dairy-farmers-share-concerns-on-tule-river-flooding/amp/

Here’s an ongoing discussion…

You're correct, since SF is your first port of entry in the US after Ensenada. It's unfortunate, and hopefully SF will be staffed to make the procedure quick and painless. The "prize" will be no immigration upon arrival back in San Pedro!

Good to see you around these parts, @Rally 😉

Speaking of “left coast”, we have to enjoy these rare “in-between-storms” days this winter here in Northern California. Photo taken 10 minutes ago!

Have stayed there pre-cruise and enjoyed very much, as well as close/convenient.

GMT played a role with Old Crystal crew repatriations last year. https://www.flygmt.com/news/gmt-plays-critical-role-in-crew-repatriations-for-crystal-cruises/

If both are organic I pick W. If both are non-organic I pick W.

I seem to recall Andre Soltner being aboard one of my Crystal cruises. And my not-of-sound mind is telling me Harmony 2005, the sailing I first became acquainted with you? 🤔 Mary Lou Retton was also aboard that sailing. No, not a culinary icon in Crystal’s history, but now I’m guilty of straying off topic on an off topic forum. 🤦 If you had to Google Carl, then I think you need to spend some more time west of the Continental Divide. You’ve got Sheetz and Stuckey’s. We’ve got Carl’s and In-N-Out.

How on earth could you forget Anaheim’s own Carl Karcher? 🤦🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

Can’t wait. Searching the world wide Interweb for front row tickets…