calicakes

We arrived at the porch at 12:45. They paid no attention to our 130 check in time. It was basically a free for all. Our room is 9221. The balcony is larger than I expected. We made a trip to the library. However, a good majority of books were already taken. We are now at ocean view grabbing a late lunch.

My breakfast burrito.

Rex's cafe looks delicious. We might have to eat there when we debark!! Off to bookmark in Yelp.

The lasagna had meat. My wife said it was good. My chicken was dry. When Julie went home this morning, she was able to grab our sea sickness patches. The sea sickness pill make me too sleepy. I took a bonine before a cruise from Ft. Meyers to Key West and I felt drugged when I got off in Key West.

Well, I was awake at 3:45, stress out about Julie driving back home to pick up the meds. We also forgot our sea sickness patches.( I hope we won't need them, we had a very rough journey back to NY from Bermuda last month). Julie left here at 5:15 and was back by 7:45am. She picked me up and we drove to Long Beach for breakfast. I lived in Long Beach for 9yrs and attended CSULB before I moved to Ontario Canada and then back to California after my divorce from a Canadian woman. The Coffee Cup cafe has my favorite breakfast burrito of all times. I could only eat half. Begin Rant: After breakfast, we ran around LB looking for a micro USB cord. I left mine at home, Its for my makeup mirror. We went to one dollar tree and the store looked like a hurricane swept through. No cords. The sales gal told me that they steal them, "they" steal everything. Driving around LB felt like I was in a 3rd world country. It might be 100 degrees all summer where I live, but at least I feel safe. End of my rant. Our check out is noon, we're on the 12:30 shuttle bus to the port. Our check in time is not until 1:30. Julie is going to take a nap and I'm going to do some work, answering emails, etc.

Not going to lie, I am probably a bit pickier than your average cruiser. I'm a baker( I've worked as a pastry chef) so none of the desserts are up to my standards. I've stopped trying any of them at the buffet. I might get a smidge of bread pudding as a dessert or I tend to make a float with coke zero and vanilla ice cream. I usually come home a couple pounds lighter.

Dinner last night. The portions were huge. Lasagna for Julie, I had chicken marsala. The potatoes and vegetables were freezing cold, I had to send it back for reheating. The restaurant is called Raffaello Ristorante.

We're boarding today. I started a live thread.

That was one of the best ships excursions we've ever done. They picked us up right at the dock. The crew were so passionate about the ocean, the coral and Bonaire.

Hi Welcome to our live blog, a cruise of many firsts. We're Randi and Julie and we live in Santa Clarita, 40 miles from the port. This is the first time we've take a cruise from a port in California, and the first time we'll be in a regular balcony cabin( we booked OV and I did a move up offer of 185PP). I must say, it was really nice not to have to take a flight anywhere for this cruise. This will also be our first time on Eclipse. I booked this over the summer I believe, or maybe it was Spring after reading a blog by someone who did the same itinerary. We've take 6 cruises on X and all have been in Aqua except last years Reflection cruise was in a Suite. This will be our first time eating in the MDR!! We booked a room at the Doubletree in San Pedro with a park and stay package. We arrived around 4pm, checked in and then walked to dinner. The ocean breeze felt great!! Unfortunately, Julie is going to have to drive home early tomorrow morning as she( we???) forgot her medication. That sucks, but it is what it is. Our check in time is not until 1:30 and we have a noon checkout. We do plan on going to breakfast at my fave breakfast place in Long Beach where I lived for 10 years. Another first, we have no excursions booked. Because we originally booked an OV, we only received 50 in OBC. I used that to upgrade the internet. We also have a classic bev package and PPG included. This is our 8th trip this year( and second cruise, we were in Bermuda last month on Oceania). and we have 1 more trip next month. This trip is more about relaxation than anything else. Julie retired from LAPD last year and we have a very busy pet sitting business. We're looking forward to really just relaxing. See you tomorrow.

Thanks for blogging. We'll be getting on tomorrow. This review makes me a bit nervous.

I hope it stays that way for our trip.

Well look for us in board. It doesn't take a lot of land.we have a small backyard, But we take the dogs to the dog park daily.

We have a gal staying at the house with them, we watch her dog on tuesday and thursday for day care and I just keep a running tab and deduct that from when she stays with our boys. We use packing cubes so it's easy to bring them outside.

On our recent Oceania cruise, I was served warm milk, straight from the carton. I asked for cold milk, a glass was poured for me. It was absolutely disgusting. The milk they use is boxed, UHT milk, made to last for a year or more. I never drank milk again and when we docked in Bermuda, I hightailed it to the grocery store and bought a carton of real half and half. I'm bringing half and half and real milk when we depart on Eclipse this Saturday. Since we're driving to the port, I feel ok with doing that.

@binro01 Cute dogs. We also have 2 dogs( standard poodles) and we run a very busy pet sitting business( in our home). After the last 2 weeks, we need this trip!! With that being said, we miss our boys so, so much while we're gone. We'll be packing our clothes in the garage. We don't let them see our suitcases.

Not sure if Charla answered, but its EatingEurope.com and Its the Twilight Trastevere tour. Use code Travelmore for 10 percent off( they gave me the code after our tour)

@GenerationX We did that same food tour in September(2022). We had some different stops than you did, but our guide( Walter) was amazing and we had a great time. I loved that company so much, we did another food tour in London last January. Going to book something in Paris for December too.

We're on the Oct 28th Eclipse and I can't see any menus.

@Jim_Iain thanks. I wonder why x canceled the excursions for cabo

I hope we make it to Cabo. Someone in our FB cruise group said that X cancelled their booked shore excursions for both days in Cabo. I don't think the current cruise is going due to an impending hurricane.

We're also on your cruise. My wife is retired military( Senior Master Sgt) AND she retired as a Sgt from LAPD last year. We live 40 miles from the port and we're spending the night at the Doubletree, we booked the stay and park package. I also plan on live blogging as I've done for all our cruises. We were originally booked into an OV( first time) as we usually sail in Aqua or Suites. We've taken 8 trips this year( with 2 more to go) so I wanted to save a bit of $$$. We did the move up offer and for 185PP, we now have a Veranda. We're also going to dress up in Costumes. Look for Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks on Oct 31st!! I hope we'll get to Cabo( we've never been). It will be interesting to see where this itinerary ends up.

One of the most, if not the most inexpensive fish you could buy. Also, farmed in Vietnam and or China. No Thanks. I'd rather eat dal from the buffet.

Well, you should have been on our cruise last month on Oceania( their tag line is " Finest cuisine at sea" or something like that). I live blogged and posted about the food and of course I was told I was wrong and don't cruise again. I thought " Hey, there is more to cruising than the food". Not on this cruise. The entertainment was a movie that I could have watched on the airplane( the same movie) and not much else. We missed one port ( it was a 2 port Bermuda cruise) so we spent 3 days in Hamilton with not much to do since all stores were closed on a Sunday. We had a very different experience on this O cruise than our first in Feb 2022. I cancelled our next booked O cruise while we were on that cruise. We have 2 more X cruises booked( Oct 28th on Eclipse) and Feb 2024 on Edge from Sydney. I'm going to cancel the other X cruise we have booked for next Sept and I replaced it with a 4 day Virgin cruise since everyone says great things about their food.

Polenta fries are leftover polenta( a corn product that is served loose with Osco Bucco( maybe its leftover from Tuscan grill?) They pour it into a pan, cut it into "Fry shapes" and either bake or fry it.