Thursday, May 5, 2022

HOMEWARD BOUND

 LAST NIGHT

We had cocktails in the Mariner Lounge with Marcia, Burt, Richard, Harvey, and Gudrun (sales consultant).  Then up to Sette Mari for dinner.
This the chef who prepared another veal parmesan for me.  I shared some of it with Rebecca.  After dinner we retired to our suite and finished packing the things we wore to dinner.  Then I placed all 8 bags out in the hall to be picked up.

TODAY:

We both woke up at 6:15.  Got showered and her hair fixed.  Room service delivered breakfast at 7am.
The longshoremen did not start unloading luggage from our ship until 7:30.  They did not seem to be very organized.  The ship started disembarking at 8:15 by the color of your luggage tags which they had provided.  It was just before 9am when they called "black #2" which was us.  A porter loaded our 4 bags that we were taking with us to the airport on his cart.  The Luggage Forward representative said she would be handling our other 4 bags that were to be shipped home.  Then we were led to our private car which took us to SFO airport.  We arrived at the airport at 9:30 and checked our 4 bags curbside.  There was no line for TSA pre-check so we whizzed through.  They wanted to look in one of my bags and one of Rebecca.  Everything checked ok so off we went to out gate which was the furthest one.
                                                            This was our private car.
        Our flight to Phoenix departed on time.  There were only 8 seats in first class and 6 of us were off the Mariner.  We arrived a few minutes early in PHX so we easily made our connection albeit a long walk.  


                                              We had some chardonnay on our way to PHX.
        So our flight to DRO was on an American Eagle but it had more seats in 1st class than the Airbus 319 did.  More wine for Rebecca and I had a couple Woodford Reserve bourbons.  Both flight first class F/A's were nice and I ended up with 3 minis to bring home.
                                                       Rebecca misses her afternoon nap.

   
                                                  Our Eagle as we deplaned in Durango.
        So our friend Jerry was there to pick us up at the airport.  While waiting for our checked luggage to appear I called Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza.  This is our normal post cruise dinner.  We landed a few minutes early and was on the road with our luggage by 5:50.  Jerry dropped us off at 6:30.  All seemed well at the house.  Our water pressures seems lower than normal however.  Directv works!  Internet works!  Beautiful evening so opened up some windows.  Fresh mountain air!!
        So much to do the next few days.  First will be picking up our mail at the post office and going through it.  Gotta hit the grocery store too.
        Well, I hope you enjoyed my blog posts.  Sorry we did not explore many Caribbean ports but, been there, done that, before.  We will be doing another world cruise next January.  It will be 143 nights long so 5 months rather than the usual 4.  Yes, I will be blogging again.  See you again then!!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

DAY 119---SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

NOW TO VIEW MY JANUARY AND FEBRUARY POSTS YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK ON THAT MONTH SO THOSE POSTS WILL BE DISPLAYED.

TO VIEW PREVIOUS POSTINGS USE THE "BLOG ARCHIVE" UNDER OUR PHOTO ON THE RIGHT.  THEN CLICK ON THE DAY OR DAYS YOU MISSED.  ALSO CLICKING ON THE PHOTOS WILL ENLARGE THEM.  I RECECOMMEND IT.

When we opened the curtains at 7am we were sailing in very dense fog.  We could barely see the Golden Gate Bridge as we passed under it.  However not long after that the fog lifted.  We were docked by 9am.  It is 63 degrees at 10am with sunny skies.

LAST NIGHT:

Cocktails in the Mariner Lounge.  L to R  Burt & Karen Schraga, Marcia, Harvey, Richard, us.
There was a receiving line of the ship's officers & staff as we entered for our "Farewell World Cruise Dinner".



                                                           Being escorted to our table.
                           Everyone's seating card had their photo on it as well as names.
                          Also at our table were Burt & Karen, Richard, Marcia, and Harvey.
                Theme of the dinner was "Black & White".  So balloons were black & white.  
                                Appetizer was this lobster ballantine, cod mousse, and caviar.
There were 3 choices for entrees.  Rebecca and I chose the baked Chilean sea bass on garlic spinach and 3 each glazed carrots, & potatoes.  All were very good.
Dessert looked to good to eat but I certainly did.  Otucan Chocolate Cremeux.  Think the name was French.
                                                        Our favorite waitress, Dara.
Chef Ronald came around to all the tables during dinner.  Nino, the restaurant manager was with him.  It was a very fun evening and dinner.  Sorry we will be leaving all those who shared the last 120 days with us on the "Caribbean" World Cruise.
The dinner ended just as the doors to the theater were to open so I dashed down to get our usual back row seats.  I was the first on in the theater.


This was the 5th time we had seen this show but we never got tired of watching and listening to the production cast.

TODAY:

                                                     Pilot had just been dropped off.  Foggy


                                                    Under we go at Golden Gate bridge.




                                                                       Navy vessel

                                                          Small submarine at a dock.





 
This bird is spending all day cleaning out the gutter.  Picking up bits of stuff.  Not sure what it was doing with it.  Maybe making a nest.  The white markings is bird "do-do".

                  Coit Tower on right side of this photo.  Good place to get photos of San Fran.


        We started out with around $3000 in ship board credits.  Managed to spend most of it.
                                                                   Alcatraz Island
        All packed now except for the clothes we will be wearing to dinner this evening.  We will be having cocktails in the Mariner Lounge with friends to say farewell to.  At lunch today we decided to dine up in Sette Mari tonight and the chef there is going to prepare one last veal parmesan.  We always call the last dinner prior to disembarking, the "Last Supper".
        Tomorrow we will disembark around 9am probably.  Our luggage will be in the terminal so we will get a porter to help us through Customs and out to our private car.
        I checked us in and printed boarding passes for our 12:38 American Airlines flight out of SFO.  We will fly to Phoenix and change planes for our flight on the Durango.  I have made arrangements with Jerry to pick us up there at 5:30pm and take us home.
        I will make one more post about our disembarkation and flights home probably on Friday.  

HOMEWARD BOUND

  LAST NIGHT We had cocktails in the Mariner Lounge with Marcia, Burt, Richard, Harvey, and Gudrun (sales consultant).  Then up to Sette Mar...