January 13 - Los Angeles

After spending the weekend with Josh and Vanessa it was time to leave for our cruise ship.  The cost of the cruise included personal pickup at your home or the airport (or in our case, from Joshua’s as they are close to the port).  The driver had a bit of a problem finding us and called.  We gave him final directions and he pulled up by the garage where our luggage was stashed.  He had to pile the smaller pieces in the front seat as the trunk wasn’t big enough to hold everything. 

Then it was goodbyes to the kids and off on our next six month adventure,starting with a three month World Cruise on the Crystal Serenity.  The cruise goes from Los Angeles to Hawaii through Polynesia to New Zealand and Australia, on to Africa and up the West Coast of Africa to the Canary Islands and Spain, ending in Monaco.

It was immediately obvious that this cruise line is different from any others we have been on.  First was the fact that we had the private transfer.  Next, as we pulled into the port area we were stopped twice where staff asked if there were guests in the car and our names.  By the time we pulled up to the terminal they had received the information and greeted us by name.  We had our picture taken with the Cruise Director and the World Cruise Hostess, our large luggage was driven off to wherever they handle luggage, the small luggage pieces taken by staff and we were personally escorted to the check in desks.  After a painless checking we were escorted onto the ship and to our room. 

We totally unpacked (and we won’t have to repack for another almost 3 months…yeah!) and then wandered around the ship.  We found the Marketplace buffet where we had lunch and then wandered some more.  There weren’t a lot of scheduled activities today so we mainly wandered around the ship to find everything.  We did go down to the spa for a raffle but didn’t win anything. 

Dinner tonight was billed as the World Cruise Gala Dinner and dining was by assigned seating. We were seated with people who had all traveled extensively on Crystal.  One couple had traveled with them on over 20 voyages and Olga was actually living on the ship and had been for about 5 years.  We were seated by Stacey Huston, the World Cruise Hostess who will be on for the entire cruise, so we learned a fair amount about Crystal and the World Cruises. 

We found out that only the people taking the entire world cruise (LA to Monaco) arrived on Sunday.  Dinner was followed by a show which included Broadway producer Kevin McCollum (In the Heights, Avenue Q, Rent, Something Rotten, and more) and starred Heidi Blickenstaff (singer/actor in several Broadway shows and films). She had a great voice. They were joined by the song writers that spent 1 week on the ship writing songs for Kevin’s new musical, Mrs. Doubtfire. We were the first audience to hear two of the songs. Quite a treat that Crystal put together.

All in all we have decided that Crystal is one of the best cruise lines we have sailed on (not surprisingly it is the most expensive).

View of the San Pedro Harbor and docks from our stateroom.