All at sea with the Scrambled Egg Heads!


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North America » Mexico » Baja California
September 29th 2012
Published: June 26th 2017
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Enroute from San Francisco to Cabo San Lucas


Embarkation day had arrived. The Island Princess was not due to dock until 10am so for check in to begin from 1pm (by which they probably mean 12 noon) they would need all those who disembark in San Francisco to piss off pretty quickly!!

I refer to the vernacular because although the ship had come from Alaska, about 600 passengers will have embarked in Vancouver and would be guests of Princess for 2 nights only, their destination being San Francisco. These mini cruises are known as 'party cruises' and it is just an excuse to eat and drink as much as possible in the 2 days aboard. We just hope that the ship has been left in a fit state to continue and that there were some blueberry muffins left for the rest of us. I am not joking when I mention being left in a fit state. Roisin had recently been on the web site ‘Cruise Critic' and according to one source; there was an outbreak of Norovirus on board!! I should have bought some surgical masks when I purchased the hacksaw!!

Mo, the breakfast lady was the highlight of our stay at the Nob Hill Inn. She was always cheerful and ready for a bit of banter. When we ordered our bagel with cream cheese, cereal, yoghurt and apple juice her comeback would be: ‘…and I suppose you want all this today??' Then she would scuttle of and within 2 minutes, our breakfast would be in front of us. Come to think of it, this may not have been banter. She may have been just generally grumpy!! If she was grumpy, she still managed a smile.

We checked out of the hotel, left our luggage in the lobby and headed toward the Cable car museum. This was only a few blocks away…and free. Not only did this house cable cars of ages gone by but also contained the flywheels and pullies that kept the 3 cable car lines in working order. (except when they breakdown!!)

We called a taxi from the hotel and within minutes we were heading for Pier 35. As we turned on to the Embarcadero, the funnel of the Island Princess was visible above the transit shed. The time was 12:25 and check-in had already started. Because check-in is from 12-4pm, there is a steady stream of passengers and for this reason the process is quick and efficient.

We found our cabin Caribe C420 and within 15 minutes our cases had arrived. It was time to get settled in. The cabin, as expected, was bigger than our hotel room in Nob Hill and the décor was less likely to send you bog eyed!!

My first meal on board consisted of a plate of succotash. No idea what it was! But I had to try it in order to write these next sentences!! It looked like broad beans and sweet corn with a cream sauce. It was delicious. I just hope I'm not ‘sufferin' in the morning (there is a joke in there if you are a Sylvester the cat fan!!!)

The cabin below was very noisy. Two men were talking rather loudly about nothing in particular. It was the worst case of verbal diarrhoea I have heard!! They were at times joined by what I suspect were their good lady wives. You would think when you get to their age you run out of things to say. It wasn't even conversation. It was just words. It was if they wanted to be heard but had nothing to say!! Even when they went inside, their booming voices sent vibrations up through the deck head. In fact, they were two of the biggest ‘deck-heads' as when they reappeared on their balcony, I leaned over and noticed one of them smoking. I could have sworn the smoking policy has recently changed and there is now a strict no smoking policy in all staterooms and on balconies. I checked the manual. I was right. If this goes on, I'll have no option but to dob them in!!!

During the customary muster drill, the no smoking policy was confirmed. I decided to give Staedler and Waldorf the benefit of the doubt. There were no excuses now. Since this event occurred, we are now in our 2nd day at sea and to be fair, we have not heard a peep from the cabin below. Perhaps other disgruntled guests beat us to it and lynched them during the sail away party.

The sail away party will be remembered for one thing. It was bloody freezing. As the ship left its moorings and swung around to head for the Golden Gate, the wind started to increase. The cloud cover remained low. The Coit Tower was one of the only landmarks still fully visible. We had planned to visit the tower but I guess we just ran out of time. The tower was built to fulfil the bequest of Lillie Hitchcock Coit, who left funds to be used to beautify the city she loved. She was a cigar-smoking, trouser-wearing gambler (she'd fir right in, in Bootle!!) who had a special place in her heart for the fire fighters who worked Telegraph Hill. She died in 1929 and the tower was completed in 1933. They say that it resembles the nozzle of a fire hose. This rumour has since been denied adding that all art-deco style of the time resembled the nozzle of a fire hose!!

As the famous bridge grew nearer, everyone was vying for position to snap that one unique, special moment. It would have been nice to walk across this bridge but during our time here the bridge was always shrouded in mist to some degree.

We were given a host of facts about the bridge as we passed under. It is the 9th longest suspension bridge in the world yet remains as one of the 7 modern wonders of the modern world. Hang on a minute!! Surely the 8 bridges that are longer should take precedent. What makes the Golden Gate a ‘wonder' any more that the 8 longer suspension bridges!!!??

Our first full day at sea saw us rush down to the dining room at 9:15. They stop serving at 9:30 so we just made it. We both plumped for the ‘Alaskan scramble' a bit like our brains after the cold and chilly start last night. This dish consisted of scrambled egg mixed with smoked salmon and rounded off with a homemade hash brown.

Our first trivia session of the voyage introduced us to one of the entertainments crew, Rebecca or ‘Becs' from Middlesbrough. Roisin and I, at this stage, are just two other quizzers. We are all equal. I observed people doubling up, asking: ‘Is anyone sitting here??' or ‘do you mind if we join you??'

We sat quietly and probably for this reason, were overlooked. That was until the answers were read out and ‘Becs had everyone who scored 10 or more cheering, then it went to 12, then 14. The cheering reduced somewhat. At 18 only 2 teams were cheering. At 19…yes you've guessed it…!!! We won a clip-on dangly thing!!! No sooner had we received our prize than Dave and Kaye from Bolton introduced themselves. This was quickly followed by a couple from Boston, New England. Finally a couple Roisin had befriended on the plane joined the gathering. Talk about how to make friends and influence people!!! Hence the ‘Scrambled-egg Heads' (out of the ashes of the Delta Delays) were born!!!

One piece of disappointing news is that whilst we were playing trivia, all the sensible people were booking their excursions. We had decided on only 1 official tour this time, to a town called Todos Santos on the Californian Baja. The tour takes you to visit the Hotel California. This is the place where the Eagles allegedly wrote their famous song. It looks as if I will never know if there are actually mirrors on the ceiling and pink champagne on ice!!! Even the title for this blog was going to be called: ‘On a dark desert highway'!!!!

We were running late for the afternoon session of trivia due to a Cruise Critic ‘meet and greet. By the time we arrived at the Wheelhouse Lounge, ‘Becs was already at Q5. I spied a couple on their own at the back of the lounge. I strolled over and said those immortal words: ‘Do you mind if we join you'. Daniel and Natalie must be the youngest cruisers we have met. They both appeared to be in their 20s, from Vancouver and newly weds to boot. This was their honeymoon. They missed the morning session of trivia because theyoverslept'. Yeh, right!!!

Natalie whispered the first question to us: What is the capital of Bermuda?' I thought for a second then said;Hamilton, I think?'

We rattled through the questions until Q11. ‘What grows to 8 times its normal size when excited?' I wrote my answer down on a piece of paper and passed it across. Natalie blushed and Roisin, rolling here eyes overruled my suggestion and instead put (what turned out to be the correct answer) ‘the pupil'. Of course!!!

After the marking, the same process saw us as last man standing once again. We didn't just win. We won by 4 clear points! This time we received the giant magnetic crocodile clip. I'm sure we'll find a use for these somewhere!!! Our reputation was starting to build. But just as something can be built up I am sure it can be knocked down to size again!!

One of the excursions in Cabo san Lucas was swimming with Dolphins. This was one of the few tours still with availability. At $199 each I'm not surprised. I'd want the thing saddled with reigns and stirrups and a ‘ride ‘em' cowboy sombrero to wave in the air for that price!! The odd thing was the advert had changed from ‘swimming with dolphins' to ‘swimming with a dolphin'!!!

It was the 1st out of 3 formal nights and, as we are what are known as ‘anytime diners', we can only use a certain restaurant. We rang the desk to make a reservation during the afternoon and surprise, surprise they were fully booked!! We were advised that the procedure for dining ‘anytime' is that you present yourselves at the entrance and then are given a pager. They will then call you when a table becomes free. At 7pm we did just this. We thought that if we do this at 7, then by 8 hopefully something would be free. We were asked if we didn't mind sharing with another couple (which we didn't) so were shown straight to a table. What's happening?? I wasn't ready to eat!! My brain had resigned itself to tell my stomach not to get hungry until 8pm!!

The couple were actually a father and son from Brisbane Australia. The son had previously worked as an exchange teacher in Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. It is definitely a small world!!

On the 2nd day at sea there were 2 trivia session. The morning session was at 10:45 and the other at 4:30 in the afternoon. It's not that we had that bump back down to earth I mentioned earlier or that I'm a sore loser but the questions were hard. We were joined by Rick and his mother Mae from San Francisco in the morning and only managed to score 11. We did slightly better in the afternoon where Dave and Kaye came across to join ourselves and Rick and Mae who just seem to appear from nowhere like in Mr Benn's fancy dress shop. We did slightly better scoring 14 but as the winners only dropped 1 point, they deserved to win.

An announcement was made from the bridge in the afternoon that there was a school of dolphins off the starboard bow. (not sure why everything is always ‘off the starboard bow'. Even the Klingons held that privilege!!) The dolphins seemed to be swimming after the flying fish that were popping up all over the place. I wonder if these are the dolphins that were supposed to be part of the ‘swim with' package?? Perhaps they had all escaped so that is why the excursion offered only to swim with a dolphin?

We discovered a mini golf course on deck 15. It was empty. Not a soul around. Roisin and I played a quick 9 holes before dinner. The mini course is complete with sound effects. My golfing skills still need some fine-tuning. The smallest green in the Western hemisphere and I still manage to find the bunker!!

The Island Princess wouldn't be complete without MUTS (Movies under the Stars). We caught the 10:45 showing of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. This is a surreal experience. Lying on a sun lounger off the coast of Mexico, munching on popcorn watching a movie on a big screen. This beats working. I wonder if they do ‘Orange Wednesdays'!!!

Tomorrow we touch land: Cabo san Lucas, Mexico. The temperature is predicted to be touching mid 80s. Far from ‘a dark desert highway' and I don't envisage manycool breezes' in my hair either!!!


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2nd October 2012

Enjoying the latest blog - nice cabin (sorry Stateroom). Congratulations on the Wedding Anniversary and trivia quiz wins.Also enjoyed the Stockholm blog.Don't forget to get some carrots as a thank-you to the mules that will be used to pull
the ship through the Panama Canal locks.
2nd October 2012

A late morning followed by smoked salmon and scrambled egg for breakfast followed by movies under the stars .................. What did you say about newly weds? Happy Anniversary to you both!!!!!
2nd October 2012

Sounds wonderful. Wish I was there....;)
3rd October 2012

Sound Like You are haveing a good time wish I was there the photos were good
4th October 2012

Delta delays still rule
4th October 2012

Agreed Marie. Looking forward to the day when 'the Brianiacs' reunite.
6th October 2012

Yes 50 out 50

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