Hello again, welcome back to our story. Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, January
21
st, while we were at home in Pahrump. Wednesday we began our long awaited cruise
vacation. About 1:00 we loaded our two
big suitcases and our two backpack carry-on bags into the car and headed over
the hill to Las Vegas. As a part of the
cruise, Norwegian Cruise Lines (NCL) set up the airline flights, both from Las
Vegas to Los Angeles to board, and Miami to Las Vegas after the cruise. Of course, they shop the cheapest flights, so
we have a flight out of Las Vegas at 6:11 a.m. tomorrow morning. This means we have to be at the airport
around 5:00 a.m. As a result, we
arranged for a hotel room at the Silver Sevens Casino, which is only a mile or
so from the airport. We also made
arrangements to park our car in the hotel’s parking garage for the 17 days we
will be gone. We also have a reservation
in the same hotel for the day we get off the cruise since our flight from Miami
to Las Vegas doesn’t get in until midnight and we don’t want to drive over the
hill in the dark while tired and jet lagged.
As we were driving over the Spring Mountain pass to Vegas we
were happy that we had set up the overnight as both yesterday and today it was
very cold and we were getting snow flurries in Pahrump and the pass on Highway
160, the one we were currently on, was closed overnight because of snow. The pass is over 5,000 feet elevation. We had on and off snow all the way into Las
Vegas, although it was light and the road over the pass was in good shape. When we pulled into the hotel to check in,
about 3:00 or so, the snow in Las Vegas was coming down hard enough to actually
start to accumulate on the ground. We
got checked into the hotel, got the car parked in the garage, and just relaxed. We got some dinner and gamed for a little
while, then went up to the room and went to bed early.
Thursday, February 23rd, we were up early, about
4:30 a.m. early. We had arranged for a
Lyft ride share car to pick us up at the hotel at 5:00 a.m. We have never used a ride share before, but
he was there on time with a nice car and got us to the Las Vegas airport in
just a few minutes for only about $20 plus tip.
We checked our bags and got our boarding passes and joined the rest of
our group at the gate. There are ten
people from our park going on this cruise and all but two of them were on the
same flight to Los Angeles, and all of us were spending the night in the same downtown
hotel. The plane boarded on time and the
flight to Los Angeles was uneventful. When
we got to Los Angeles we were met by a representative of NCL in the baggage
claim area who, after we had all claimed our bags, directed us to a bus for
transport to the Hilton Checkers Hotel. The
hotel was downtown and with traffic and the rainy weather it took almost an
hour to get to the hotel. Of course, we
got there about 10:00 in the morning, way before the hotel’s 4:00 check-in
time, but most of us were assigned rooms anyway. I think only one couple had to wait until
late afternoon to get into their room.
The rooms were nice, but small since this is an old hotel that has been
renovated. Most of the our group went
out in the rain to walk a couple of blocks to a restaurant for lunch since
nothing in the hotel was open. We had a
nice lunch then headed back to the hotel and just hung around in our rooms for
the rest of the day.
Friday, February 24th, embarkation day. We had all been told to have all of our bags,
except for small carry-ons, down in the lobby of the hotel by 9:00. Since the hotel was essentially completely
full of NCL passengers the small lobby was a complete zoo. They wanted the bags by 9:00 because NCL was
having them loaded on trucks at the hotel and driven to the ship to be
loaded. This was good because it meant
we didn’t have to try to move our own big bags around. The bus to take us to the ship came about
10:30 or so and we all loaded on and headed to the port, another hour drive in
the rain. Once we got to the port and
off the bus the whole process went to hell in a hand basket. The cruise port building is on one end of the
port of Los Angeles, but our ship, the Norwegian Joy, was too big for the dock
adjacent to the building. The ship was
docked at a pier on the far end of the port, about a mile away. NCL had originally planned to do all the
check in and customs and security checks at the pier by the ship under a big
tent. However, the storms moving through
LA the last week or so blew the tent down and they knew that it was going to be
pouring rain today and that they couldn’t process 4,000 passengers onto the
ship while standing out in the rain. As
a result, they set up to process everyone through the regular cruise port
building and then once they were done with check-in, customs and security, bus
them to the other end of the port to get on the ship. Problem was, the Royal Caribbean ship that
usually uses the building on Friday for it’s four day coastal cruise was also
in port trying to process their 2,500 passengers in the same place at the same
time. It was a disaster. There were not enough staff to herd people to
the right place and things were chaotic as hell. We ended up going through the security
process twice because we missed the first part of the process because we got
swept along with a mob of people and thought we were going the right way. Wrong.
We finally got processed and onto the ship about 1:30 or so. The only good thing was by the time we got on
the ship they had already released the cabins so we could go right to our cabin
rather than have to wander around the ship for hours with our carry-on bags.
When we got to our cabin our bags were also there, so we
took some time to unpack and get organized in the cabin. Our good friend Peggy Bullock and her friend
Rita were in the cabin right next to us, which was nice because we could talk
back and forth on our balconies. Most of
the rest of our group were on the same deck, deck 15, as us, but they were on
the other side of the ship. One of our
ten couples were on deck 10 because they needed a handicap room. Once we got underway we spent the evening
exploring the ship, having some dinner and hanging out in the casino.
Saturday, February 25th, our first full day on
the ship and a day at sea. The Joy is a
huge ship and we spent the day relaxing.
Our favorite places in the ship are the Observation Lounge, which is in
the front of the ship on the same deck as our cabin, and the casino. The Observation lounge is a huge two story
room with glass all around with wonderful views and lots of tables and chairs,
and a bar, of course. Our cruise
included the beverage package which includes all of our drinks at no extra
cost. We alternated between the cabin,
the lounge and the casino most of the day.
For dinner we went to one of the specialty dining rooms, a seafood
restaurant called Ocean Blue. The ship
has seven specialty restaurants which are smaller venues with their own kitchen
and staff. Unlike the main dining rooms,
the food in the specialty restaurants is ala carte rather than
complimentary. However, another of our
“extra” packages included with our cruise was that we had five “free” specialty
dining experiences that we could use during the cruise. In the weeks prior to boarding we had made
reservations at five of the restaurants.
We had a very nice meal, I had filet minion and lobster and Jackie had a
seafood combo. The service was excellent
and the food quite tasty. After dinner
we did some gaming in the casino before heading to the cabin for bed.
Sunday, February 26
th, we had our first port of
call. We arrived in Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico, at about 11:00 and anchored off the port as Cabo has no piers big
enough for cruise ships. We had a shore
excursion booked so about noon we got on one of the tenders and went
ashore. We had booked a three hour sail
on a 50 foot sailing yacht which went out and wandered around in the
ocean. We saw a couple of whales and had
a nice sail with a good crew and great drinks.
Two others from our group of twelve were also on the tour, Linda and
Joyce. After the sail was over we walked
around the port area of Cabo San Lucas and met up with several other people
from our group for lunch. I bought the
requisite tee shirt, we tried for a geocache and then caught a tender back to
our ship. We had dinner in one of the
regular dining rooms, then spent some time in the casino after we left port and
were back out on the open sea. All in
all, a relaxing day.
Monday, February 27
th, was another day at
sea. We spent the day wandering around
the ship, enjoying the different areas and visiting with some of our
friends. For dinner tonight we ate at
one of the regular dining rooms and then spent some time in the casino. We went to the 9:00 show in the comedy club,
which was great. The late show in the
comedy club is always a little more edgy than the early show. Since I am writing this blog about three
weeks after the cruise I am a little short on details, but we did have a great
day on the ship. Tuesday was another
port call, with us arriving in Acapulco, Mexico at about 8:00 a.m. We didn’t have any shore excursions booked
for here, so we stayed on the ship until about noon when we went ashore with
Peggy and Rita for some lunch. We were
tied up at a pier for this port, so we could just walk ashore. We went to a local restaurant and had a very
nice Mexican lunch with the four of us. We
went back to the port and shopped in some of the shops there before getting
back onboard the Joy. For dinner tonight
we used another of our specialty dining packages, this time going to Le Bistro,
the French restaurant. Jackie had lamb
and I had lobster thermidor, which was pretty good. We spent some time in the casino and at 9:30
we went to the main theater with Peggy and Rita for a performance of Footloose,
a musical stage presentation that was excellent. After the show we had some drinks and then
went to bed.
Wednesday, March 1
st, another at sea day. We spent the day relaxing at different spaces
on the ship for the entire day. We had
dinner at one of the regular dining rooms and then went to another show in the
main theater at 9:00. This one was Lord
Nil, a magician and escape artist. The
show was OK, not great but still interesting.
We had seen this guy on Americas Got Talent a couple years back. After the show we headed off to bed. Thursday we arrived in Puerto Quetzal,
Guatemala about 8:00. We had bought a
shore excursion for today, a bus tour of central Guatemala and were supposed to
leave about 9:00, but Jackie woke up not feeling well at all, so we didn’t go
on the tour. Around 1:00 or so I went ashore
for a little while. We were again
docked, so it was quick and easy to go on and off the ship. I did some shopping at the port, getting a
tee shirt, and had some lunch. I also
got a geocache so we now have a new country on our caching stats. I spent the rest of the day and evening in
different places on the ship by myself mostly.
Friday, March 3
rd, another sea day. Jackie was still sick. I spent the day around the ship. I spent some time in the hot tub and also
took a drive on the go cart track located on the back of the ship. They have a two level track and electric go
carts that are pretty fast. I had a
great time and did the race with another member of our group, Dale. It was a lot of fun, but the little carts are
a bitch to get in and out of, so it will be my last ride. I had dinner with several of our friends
since Jackie was still feeling yucky. At
7:00 I went to another comedy show with Peggy and Rita, then spent a little
time in the casino before heading to bed.
Saturday was mostly another day at sea, however we did arrive in Panama
City, Panama at about 6:00 in the evening and docked for an overnight stay. Jackie was still sick and spent the day in
the cabin. Several other members of our
group were also sick and in their cabins. I spent the day wandering around and enjoying
the ship.
Sunday, March 5th, we woke up still in Panama
City. We had scheduled another shore
excursion here for today, a train ride to the other side of the isthmus, but I
had turned those tickets in yesterday for a refund because I was pretty sure
Jackie wasn’t going to want to be on a train all day. She was feeling better today, but I was still
glad I turned in the tickets, which were almost $500 for the two of us. She did feel well enough that the two of us
and Peggy and Rita left the ship and went into town for lunch. We had a really nice dinner at a fancy seafood
restaurant in Panama City. We went back
to the ship, which pulled out of port about 7:00 at night to go out to sea and
get in line to go through the Panama Canal tomorrow. We went to the late night comedy show again
and had a good time. Jackie was feeling
better and we spent some time in the casino before going to bed.
Monday, March 6
th, the big highlight of the
cruise, our full transit of the Panama Canal was today. We first entered the canal about 7:30 and it
took about nine hours to go completely across.
We went through the newer, larger locks as our ship would not fit in the
old, original locks. It was three locks
to raise us to the level of the big lake in the middle of Panama, and then
later three locks to lower us back down to sea level to go out into the
Atlantic Ocean. We spent most of the
trip watching from our balcony, but we did go to the Observation Lounge towards
the end of the trip. It was a dream of a
lifetime to go through the canal and it was very interesting. They had someone from the canal authority
doing a narration on the ships PA system all day and he had all kinds of good
information. For dinner tonight we went
to one of the specialty places called Food Republic. This was an Asian themed place and we went
with Peggy and Rita. The menu was mostly
small plates and we were each able to get five small plates as part of the
dinner. We had lots of really good and
interesting food. After dinner we
wandered the ship enjoying the evening until bed time.
Tuesday, March 7
th, we arrived in Cartagena,
Columbia about 10:00 and docked. We got
off the ship fairly early as we had a shore excursion booked. It was mostly a bus ride around town and the
suburbs, with some stops at various tourist places, including a high end
emerald jewelry store. We were with
Peggy and Rita on this tour. We did get
a couple of geocaches, making another country for our stats. After the tour we got back on the ship and
spent the evening relaxing. We had
dinner with most of our group in the main dining room tonight. After dinner we gamed a little in the casino
then went to bed. Wednesday was another
day at sea. Nothing exciting during the
day, just relaxing at various places on the ship. We had dinner in the dining room then at 9:00
went to the second major production show in the main theater with Peggy and
Rita. This show was called Elements, and
was kind of a variety show with acrobats and dancers all tied into a kind of
fantasy story that I, frankly, didn’t understand. However it was still a nice production and I
enjoyed it. After the show we finally
made the 10:30 karaoke, which turned out to be a dud. There was almost no one there and they had a
VERY limited selection of songs. I did
do a couple of tunes, but we didn’t stay very long. We left that and went to bed.
Thursday, March 9
th, we arrived at George Town,
Cayman Islands and anchored off the port.
We had a shore excursion scheduled along with Peggy and Rita to take a
bus tour of the island, so we took an early tender ashore. The tour was about three and a half hours and
really didn’t amount to much. We visited
an old colonial fort, then drove to a shopping and dining area in town where
the bus dropped us off for 40 minutes.
Unfortunately, nothing was open because it was a Sunday morning. We just sat around and looked at the ocean. Then we went to a place called Hell, which is
really just a small area of limestone formations. We then stopped at the beach. I did get to take my shoes off and wade in
the Caribbean sea. After the tour we
stopped at a café in the port and had lunch, then went back aboard ship. We did a geocache and a tee shirt for our
troubles. We had dinner with Peggy and
Rita and played in the casino for a while, then went to bed. Friday was our last day at sea. We spent the day in various places on the ship
and we had dinner with our Pahrump group in the main dining room, kind of a
farewell dinner. We played in the casino
for a while, then went to bed.
Saturday, March 11
th, we arrived at the Port of
Miami about 6:00 in the morning and got docked.
They cleared the ship and started letting people off about 8:00. We had to be out of our cabin by 8:00 and
spent the next three hours just hanging out in one of the public areas. We were one of the last off the ship because
NCL had booked us on a flight out of Ft. Lauderdale airport to Las Vegas and
the flight didn’t leave until 7:30 in the evening. We were the only one’s of our Pahrump group
that was not flying out of Miami airport.
We were also the only ones without a direct flight, we had to change
planes in Dallas. We finally got off the
ship and on the bus to the airport.
After we got to the airport and checked in for our flight. This was now early afternoon and I started
getting messages that our flight was delayed.
First it was just 30 minutes, then it gradually got extended until it
was so delayed that we were going to miss our connection in Dallas for the
final leg to Las Vegas. I checked in at
the American Airlines counter and they rebooked us for a another flight to
Vegas, this one a non-stop, but it was out of Miami! Because the delay on our flight was caused by
maintenance issues with the plane, they gave us voucher for a cab ride from Ft.
Lauderdale airport to Miami Airport. We
took the cab, which was a 45 minute ride and noted the fare was almost a
hundred dollars. We checked in for our
flight, which left a little later than our original, but got into Vegas earlier
because it was a non-stop. Our flight
left on time and we had a fairly good flight back home. We got into Las Vegas just before midnight
and by the time we got our bags and took a cab back to the hotel it was about
1:00 a.m. We got to the hotel and went
to bed. Sunday we slept in and checked
out of the hotel about noon, picked up our car from the garage, and drove back
to Pahrump. We got in mid afternoon and
spent the rest of the day unpacking and relaxing from a very long but fun
journey.
Monday, March 13th, my son Roy’s birthday. We had dine out with the Lucky Rollers, our
park’s RV club, at 11:30. After we got
home in the afternoon we set about catching up on mail and chores we needed to
do. We also started the process of
washing all our dirty clothes from the cruise.
It sure is handy to have a washer and dryer in the house and not have to
go out. We had happy hour with our
group, most of whom were on the cruise with us.
We had dinner and watched TV until bedtime. Tuesday was a chores day for the most
part. Jackie had an appointment with a
PA at the health center at 2:30 to see what they could do for her cough and stuffy
head. The PA was useless, didn’t seem to
really work to diagnose her and told her that she thought Jackie’s stuffy head
was really just that she couldn’t hear and needed hearing aides. Jackie was floored. She has always had pretty good hearing and
couldn’t believe that was the best the PA could come up with. We went home, went to happy hour, had dinner
and watched TV until it was time for bed.
Wednesday, March 15th, Jackie had her Pokeno in
the afternoon and I stayed around the house and did chores. Late in the day I got a call from my brother
Ken asking for help. Ken is my youngest
brother, 20 years younger, and about a year ago he and his wife Susan retired,
sold their house and hit the road with a diesel pusher motorhome much the same
way we did in 2005. He told me they were
in east Texas, near Tyler, Texas, and that he had a medical problem. He had not been feeling well for a while and
went to the doctor who found a mass in his chest cavity. The doctors there said it was something that
needed to be taken care of as soon as possible and they recommended that they
return to wherever Ken’s primary physician was to seek treatment. They also recommended that he not take on
strenuous activity. Ken told me that he
did not feel up to driving their motorhome over a thousand miles from Texas
back to Goodyear, Arizona, where they were originally from. Part of it was the stress, the other was they
had him on some meds that might affect his driving abilities. Susan does not know how to drive the coach. Ken told me they had SkyMed, a travel
insurance similar to our MASA, which would pay to have someone come out and
drive their coach back to Arizona, or they would pay for someone Ken wanted to
come out and do it. He asked me to fly
out to Texas and help them get the motorhome back to Arizona. Of course, family comes first, so I said
yes. The next day I had reservations,
made by SkyMed, to fly out of Las Vegas to Dallas, Texas, on Friday
afternoon.
Thursday, March 16
th, I spent most of the day getting
ready to leave tomorrow for Texas. We
went out and did some shopping in the afternoon. Friday we left the house about 9:30 or so and
started over the hill to the Las Vegas Airport.
Jackie really didn’t want to drive back from Vegas alone, so our friend
Charlene volunteered to drive us down there and drop me off. That way Jackie didn’t have to drive. They dropped me off at the airport just in
time for me to get through security and to the gate to catch my 1:30 flight on
Sprit Airlines to Dallas. The flight was
about three hours and was pretty smooth after an on-time takeoff. After I landed I contacted my brother who
said that they were parked at the car rental center, which is almost off the
airport grounds. The Dallas/Ft Worth
airport is huge and they didn’t want to try and navigate the roads inside. All of the rental car companies are located
in a single large building with free shuttles from all of the terminals. I caught the bus and went to the center and
they were there waiting for me when I got off the bus.
The trip back to the RV park they were staying in outside of
Tyler, Texas, took about two hours in heavy traffic. When we got to the RV park I put my stuff in
their motorhome and the three of us walked down to the park’s clubhouse. Today was St. Patrick’s day and they were
having a party. The clubhouse also had a
small kitchen serving hamburgers and snacks as well as a full bar, so we had
hamburgers for dinner. I even got to sing
one karaoke song since they were doing karaoke and having trouble getting
singers. We took our food back to the
motorhome and ate there. Ken and Susan
have a very nice 43 foot Newmar Ventana coach which is only a year old. We sat and talked for a while, then went to
bed after a long day. They have a pullout
couch with an air mattress, which was my bed.
Saturday, March 18th, we had their coach packed
up and ready to travel about 10:30 or so and were on the road heading
west. Today’s trip was about 240 miles to
Abilene, Texas, to the West of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Ken was OK to drive the first 80 miles or so
before his meds kicked in and he needed to be relieved. I drove the rest of the way. It wasn’t a bad trip except for the 40 miles
through the Dallas metro area. The coach
drove very nicely. It has only been four
months since the last time I drove our coach, so it didn’t take me long to get
back in the swing of driving. We made a
fuel stop and got into Abilene in the late afternoon. We relaxed for the rest of the evening. Sunday we were up and on the road again about
11:00, this time heading a little over 200 miles to a little town called
Monahans, Texas, about 40 miles west of Odessa.
We got settled into another RV park and had pizza for dinner, which we
had delivered from a nearby Pizza Hut.
We were not unhooking their truck and were only hooking up the electric
service for our one night stays. We
played some cards in the evening and went to bed.
Monday, March 20th, we were off in the morning
again, this time heading a little over 200 miles to Las Cruces, New
Mexico. The good part of this trip,
which was pretty uneventful, was that we gained an hour when we crossed out of
Texas. We had a rough night because
after we had dinner Susan discovered that she couldn’t find one of her
cats. I haven’t mentioned that they
travel with three yellow cats, and older male called Ranger, and a brother and
sister who are about two years old, named Bailly and Kalua. Kalua, the female, could not be found
anywhere. We searched all over the
inside and, thinking she may have gotten out accidently, all over outside
area. Susan and Ken were beside themselves
with worry. We even had half the park
looking for the cat. We ended up going
to bed about 10:00 without finding the cat.
Tuesday morning we got up and Susan called the local animal shelter
without any luck and made some posters to put in the park office. Since Ken really needed to get back to his
doctor ASAP, they felt they had no choice but to leave even if they didn’t find
the cat. Susan used to work for
Southwest Airlines and could fly back to Texas at little or no cost if the cat
did show up. While we were getting ready
to leave we pulled in the slides and low and behold, the missing cat was
sitting in the coach looking at us.
Seems that she had gotten into a spot under the bed in the back of the
coach, a spot which, when the slides were put out, became sealed off so she
couldn’t get out. For some reason she
never called out or made noise, just stayed in there all night until they
pulled the slide in and opened up the hole again. We got back on the road and drove about 220
miles west to Wilcox, Arizona, gaining another hour in the process since
Arizona is on Pacific time in the summer.
We settled into a KOA park there and went to the onsite restaurant for
dinner. After dinner we played cards and
went to bed.
Wednesday, March 22
nd, our last day of travel
with the motorhome. We pulled in the
slides, making sure we knew were all the cats were first, then hit the road for
another 200 miles or so to Gila Bend, Arizona.
Gila Bend is about 40 miles south of the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear
where Ken and Susan used to live. They
like the park out there in Gila Bend better than any that were closer into
town. Once we got in and settled Susan
contacted SkyMed and had them book a flight for tomorrow out of Phoenix to take
me back to Las Vegas. I was booked on a
flight leaving about 1:30 in the afternoon.
We played some cards again and settled in for the night. Thursday we left the resort around 9:30 and
left to take me to the Phoenix airport to go back home. I wanted to go early so I could take my time
and get some lunch before boarding the plane.
After they dropped me off they headed back to Gila Bend. I grabbed lunch and waited for my plane. It was delayed about an hour, but I finally
got off the ground and an hour later I was in Las Vegas. Jackie didn’t want to drive down to the
airport and we had no friends who happened to be in Las Vegas today, so as soon
as I landed I called an Uber and headed for home. I got home about 5:30 or so, unpacked had a
cocktail and some dinner and went to bed.
Now I just have to wait and see how things turn out for Ken.
Well, it’s time to close this long episode out and put it
online. No more quotes or words of
wisdom as the blog is now more for our own use to jog our memories rather than
letting friends and family know where we are and have been. See ya in another month.
