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Live From the Golden...YVR...LA...HI

ccrain

By ccrain,
in Princess Cruises

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spingal

spingal

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Spinning bikes are Star Trac Spinner Pros. There is a place for a clip. Clip are not provided, but toe cages are.

 

THANK YOU SO MUCH for researching this!! :D That is great news!!! Those are the bikes I love! And I can use my spinning shoes so those will be packed with me. Typically the other side of the clips can accomodate SPD shoes.

 

I look forward to all of your posts over the next 2+ weeks. Thanks for taking the time to do this. :D

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ccrain

ccrain

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Can you ask Jean Paul if he is going to be on the Golden, October 25th? Thanks. He is an old friend.

 

Spoke with him last night at dinner. He's not sure. He knows he is leaving within the next few months, but he won't know the schedule until possibly next cruise. I'll keep checking with him.

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ccrain

ccrain

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Pretty foggy and dreary day yesterday.

 

We chilled. The entire day. Turns out Judy's handy, dandy pedometer clocked us for 18 klicks on tuesday between the Victoria walk and all the dancing during the night.

 

Lots of activities on a sea day, but dinner was Italian, so I skipped lunch. For those of you who don't know, I'm also an Eggplant Parmegian junkie.

 

We did the ballroom class with Vian, Cha-cha. We like Vian. He's a pro instructor that isn't teaching us to be pro's, just to have fun.

 

I have to say, the Vines area in the Piazza was a brilliant marketing idea by somebody. With wines becoming more and more popular, what better place to sell more wine than offer a wide selection by the glass with free tapas or sushi. From what I can tell they essentially took away from crew space, and reduced the size of the old Pattissiere, to make more room for the Piazza. There's much more space in the "atrium" area now. With more seating, a more efficient layout and I just can't get over the decor, the flooring, the woodwork, the way everything goes together so well. Its a treat to the pallette and the eyes at the same time.

 

We also checked out the new machines in the gym. All are new Precors, including their new elliptical with the individual TV screen. Love that machine. I want one when my old Precor wears out.

 

Service has been excellent as well, the buffet food pretty good, the drinks, well, what can go wrong there.

 

So after the obligatory power nap, an important part of every cruise, we did the Italian Dinner - a very special benchmark for every cruise we go on. The Eggplant Parmegian did not disappoint. A little milder and sweeter than the grand in April, but every bit as good. I was able to resist licking the bowl clean. Judy had the seafood salad appetizer sans the mayo. It was actually very good as well. Clean, fresh, almost an Italian ceviche, but with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had to try the red beam Fagioli soup. As usual, rich, thick and tasty.

 

Then Mario, our head waiter, delivers his pasta. We had talked to him the night before about Gino, our first head waiter on our first cruise who cooked pasta for us on the Ocean Princess, and Albuquerque's pasta with jalapeno on the Star (twice). I guess he decided he should take up the Top Pasta Head Waiter challenge. So he delivered Rigattoni, with a cherry tomato sauce that contained garlic, olive oil and jalapenos.

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ccrain

ccrain

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Judy was in heaven. I was simply enjoying a fantastic sauce. The cherry tomatoes were sweet, perfectly acidic with just the right amount of garlic. Could have used a bit more jalapenos, we like things a bit spicier than others, but otherwise excellente.

 

(Who's ahead in the Top Pasta Head Waiter competition? I think we need at least a couple more cruises and many more bowls of pasta to figure that out.)

 

The main course arrived. Judy had the chicken and I had the vegetarian course of stuffed zuchinni. The cheese on the chicken was a bit strong, but still pretty good. The Zuchinni was really different, not "interesting", and very good. Its new on the menu and really tasty. Try it, don't let the Vegetarian scare you off.

 

Anyway, dinner was so good, we just skipped dessert. (Don't fall out of your chair, it happens to the best of us.) Besides, I needed room for a Dirty Banana later on in the evening.

 

We ended up in the Wheelhouse, dancing to canned music. Now this I have to whine about a little bit. 2 1/2 hours of canned music, but they just have 3 CD's which the bartender has to rush over and change out every 30-40 minutes. I know Princess is trying to cut costs. Over the past 8 years I have seen the bands reduce in size and in fact on the Grand in April I said, you should just go to canned music instead of trying to dance to a soloist guitarist. So they went to canned music. Ok, I'll live with it. But at least leave a good selection of dance tunes, or an MP3 with a couple of hundred on it, in place. That can't be too much to ask.

 

So after the canned music, we hopped over to the Baby Dolls. (I think Equinox thinks we don't like them, they come back and we leave.) They're just fine, but the Baby Dolls are better. So we danced with them for the rest of the night, through the 50's and 60's tribute and off to bed.

 

Today is San Fran. Time to do a little more hiking, less than 9 klicks I hope, and a little shopping. I want some sourdough bread. Hard to beat San Fran sourdough bread.

 

That's it for now from the Golden. Hope I answered all your questions!

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ccrain

ccrain

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Morning all.

 

San Fran. Nice town. Learned something about San Fran sourdough. Did you know its only flour, salt and water? Plus the 140+ year old mother? No oils, no seasonings, no eggs, nada. The perfect vegan food. Seems that there is a certain bacillus in the air in San Fran that makes the unique sourdough flavor. (Several other analogies and comments come to mind, but let's keep this on the up and up.) So we bought, yes, MORE FOOD. We are going to go to the movies and have sourdough instead of popcorn. YUM.

 

We saw the sea lions. Holy smokey frijoles! Have they taken over or what? Its pretty incredible. What are they eating, besides every living thing in the bay? And loud! And smelly! Anyone who hasn't seen this has just got to go down there.

 

Needed a new SD card for the camera. Boy did we pick the right port. On board a 2GB is $34.95. An 8GB was $49, + $149.65 in CA sales tax (just kidding) on shore. Yeah, I know more than Amazon, but we simply didn't have time to wait for FedEx.

 

So we walked up and down the Embarcadero looking at all the shops. After buying the sourdough we headed back to the ship to do our workouts in an empty gym. The precors are nice. They have therapy balls, free weights, half balls, treadmills, ellipticals, and a host of targeted Precor toning machines.

 

We went to Vian's ballroom class. Foxtrot and Rhumba. We already know the Rhumba, but have never learned the Foxtrot. Nice to start a new dance so that we don't just sit around during Sinatra.

 

Yesterday was my B-Day. So we planned the UBD. Now this was a real treat. Combine fantastic food, one on one service, great company, a romantic setting and you have a memory for a lifetime. Our waiter was Magdalena and assistant waiter Alla. It was a pleasure to talk to them, interact with them, hear about their countries, how they got into cruising, contracts, the company, just great dinner conversation without the noises or interuptions from the dining room.

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ccrain

ccrain

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So where were we, ah yes, the UBD.

 

We started with cocktails, moved to champagne, canapes, a crab cake, a salad, and for the main course a lobster tail and filet with drawn butter for the tail and a wine/mushroom sauce for the filet. Dessert was a duo of chocolate mousses with a chocolate fruit cup and mixed berries.

 

Everything was simply superb. The highlight was the lobster and filet. (Putting on my Gail Simmons hat.) The lobster was sweet, succulent and perfectly cooked, the filet a perfect medium rare, very tasty, the sauce an excellent complement, not overpowering, but tied the elements of dish together quite well. (The chef is safe through to the next round.)

 

If you've never done the UBD, do it. If you have, do it again. Unfortunately Magda is leaving the ship in LA, but I'm sure they will find another partner for Alla that is as fun and entertaining. And yes, I did tip the girls extra because they are room service personnel.

 

We actually did not dance last night. It was one of those nights that there was too much to do. We wanted to do it all. We failed. Star Trek and sourdough bread was calling us from MUTS, Motor City was playing and we promised Vian we would watch it, the Newlywed game was on as well, Ballroom Blitz and Kevin Jordan. Some nights you can't win for losing.

 

Anyway, we started the UBD promptly at 6pm exactly. (These girls are precise.) And finished about 830. We went to Motor City, then to the newlywed game and then to see Kevin Jordan.

 

Motor City was good. Two sequences are our favorites. Judy liked the black light sequence to "Superstition" and I really like "Heard it Through the Grapevine" in which all the ladies are dressed in men's zuit suit jackets and hats, no pants. What is it about a woman dressed in a man's suit jacket or long sleeved shirt? Especially a dancer with legs all the way...but I digress.

 

The newlywed game. Now you have to hear about this. The host, the deputy cruise director, apparently had never had a gay couple in the game. It was a whole series of exchanging one foot for the other. If he was faking it, he was very good. Everyone lost track of the score, it didn't matter. For those of you familiar with the game and the questions, now put yourself into a host position asking those questions and you can see what I mean.

 

Kevin Jordan is the comic, ex LAPD, with the flashlight. We'd forgotten his schtick but it came back quickly. Turns out the audience had the perfect setup. A brother and sister (22 and 23), no jobs, on the cruise with their parents. That, 4 ladies traveling together, 2 guys in tuxes in the baclony seats and 2 guys in very casual clothes in the front section and you have a recipe for a lot of situational and improv comedy.

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ccrain

ccrain

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So we hit the highlights of the night, turned in about midnight and did our first room service breakfast on the balcony this morning. Our first ever actually.

 

The sun has finally come out and we are booking it to Catalina. We probably won't get off the ship. I know we can black card it to the head of the line, but why tick off a ship load of people. Catalina is a hard tender port. The entire ship is awake and everyone wants off NOW. Best to stay low, do our workouts and prep for the evening.

 

Tonight is Country and Western night. We just spent the last four months learning the Tush Push so we could participate in the Tush Push challenge - hey, everyone has to have a hobby! Let's just hope its the same Tush Push!

 

Once again we just can't do it all. We have to go to country night, but I wanted to do the movie and sourdough as well. Tonight is Ghosts of Girlfriends past. Yeah, I know, the sacrifices I make for my wife. She loves movies, especially MUTS. Hopefully they will replay on the next cruise, and we did buy enough sourdough.

 

Judy's girlfriend of 50+ years will be joining us on the next cruise. We called them from San Fran to give them packing tips. If they follow them all, they should be easy to spot with the roll around dump truck carrying their luggage.

 

That's it today from the Golden. For those of you joining us on Sunday, safe travels, see you at the M&G at Sailaway.

 

Now off the ballroom class and the TANGO!

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Lynda90

Lynda90

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Judy's girlfriend of 50+ years will be joining us on the next cruise. We called them from San Fran to give them packing tips. If they follow them all, they should be easy to spot with the roll around dump truck carrying their luggage.

LMAO Paints quite the picture! :D:D:D

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bjcanady

bjcanady

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So we hit the highlights of the night, turned in about midnight and did our first room service breakfast on the balcony this morning. Our first ever actually.

 

The sun has finally come out and we are booking it to Catalina. We probably won't get off the ship. I know we can black card it to the head of the line, but why tick off a ship load of people. Catalina is a hard tender port. The entire ship is awake and everyone wants off NOW. Best to stay low, do our workouts and prep for the evening.

 

Tonight is Country and Western night. We just spent the last four months learning the Tush Push so we could participate in the Tush Push challenge - hey, everyone has to have a hobby! Let's just hope its the same Tush Push!

 

Once again we just can't do it all. We have to go to country night, but I wanted to do the movie and sourdough as well. Tonight is Ghosts of Girlfriends past. Yeah, I know, the sacrifices I make for my wife. She loves movies, especially MUTS. Hopefully they will replay on the next cruise, and we did buy enough sourdough.

 

Judy's girlfriend of 50+ years will be joining us on the next cruise. We called them from San Fran to give them packing tips. If they follow them all, they should be easy to spot with the roll around dump truck carrying their luggage.

 

That's it today from the Golden. For those of you joining us on Sunday, safe travels, see you at the M&G at Sailaway.

 

Now off the ballroom class and the TANGO!

 

Since dancing is your passion i thought i would tell you that you are in for a treat, Dave and Faline (Elua) will be boarding in LA, altho they will be the pool duo you might get lucky and have them a time or two in Wheelhouse, wonderful kids and great musicans........we miss them very much.........have a wonderful Aloha cruise.....

 

Barbara and Kelvin (the dancers)

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cruznliz

cruznliz

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I'm surprised Ccrain hasn't posted again. I'm sure he'll be back. We are also on this cruise and having a wonderful time. Just wanted to mention that we missed Catalina due to foggy conditions :( and then there was a medical emergency and the LA Fire Department boats came out to take the patient.:eek: Lots of excitement. Many people disappointed in missing Catalina, but haven't heard any real griping.:rolleyes:

 

Tomorrow is San Diego! I'm sure the weather will cooperate there!;)

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