Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

Reports about cruises on Aurora
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melsea
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Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

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Post by melsea »

Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

Day 83. Second Day in San Francisco. Overnight - 8.30pm
31st March

Again another beautiful sunny & warm day.

Being a little fragile from the night before which was a truly fabulous night and we had danced all night.
If one thing we certainly learnt from our evening last night was that P&O have without doubt the best waiters and the food is very good compared to what we had last night.

So onto our second day in SF. We took the street car back to Market Street. The driver of this street car was so much nicer than the one we had yesterday and so helpful. He was giving us so much good information & tips, especially about how to use the ticket we just bought. You can use it to transfer to other transport modes excluding the cable car. In our case you had until 2.30 to use the transfer notice.
Bill went off to Union Square and I went in search of the number 5 bus to take me to the Golden Gate Park. The bus came very quickly and soon I was on the way to the park. It took about 20/30 mins and along the way I saw some interesting places. I got off at the right stop by using my little pop out map of San Francisco. I walked a little way into the park and I saw a good number of beautiful birds of which I tried to take photos. I came across a glass house that housed some very tropical flowers. Spent quite a while in there. Paid 8$ to go in. I then walked further into the park intending to visit the Japanese Gardens but when I got there, there was a charge to go in and I had a limited time to visit. I didn't bother to go in but I was able to take some photos from where you paid to get in. I then started to make my way back. Just before the Japanese Gardens there is an art gallery I would have gone in and paid if I had got there earlier but in the end I only saw a few things in there as there was a basic charge of 10$.
I got back to Market Street and onto Union Square to do some shopping in Macy's. Just as I got off the bus my phone rang and it was Bill asking where I was & I said I had just arrived back at Macy's. Apparently a bag with two shirts he bought was left at the counter because an old boy neglected to pass it to Bill so I was playing Anneka Rice on a hunt to find the bag, after 20/30 mins I finally was able to locate it. I did a little more shopping before I got back to ship.

Muster drill 7.30, meal upstairs at the Horizon. And we have a new Captain Julian Burgess

Day 84. At Sea.
1st April Dress Code Black Tie

The sea state was a little bumpy with lots of white horse on the waves. It actually looked worse than it was.
A very lazy day reading and listen to my audibook.

Evening entertainment was 4tunes, four lads singing who I saw last year and they were very good.

Day 85. At sea.
2nd April Smart, Jacket required.

Woke up to the alarm only to go back to sleep and waking up at 9am instead. We went down to breakfast at quarter to ten. As soon as we sat down at the glass the waiters had already brought out fruit juice and poured our tea, they guessed our order and that was right too. I guess we have been on here too long now..

I went to the photography department to get a few prints ordered that were taken at the party with my camera on Monday at the Fairmont Hotel.
Entertainment this evening was Kenny Martin who is a clarinet player and once again the 4 lads that make up the 4tunes. Both acts were very good. I do like going to a show knowing you have not far to go to go to bed, its a great thing this cruising..

Day 86. Cabot San Lucas, Mexico 9am - 4.30pm last tender.
3rd April Evening casual.

Today's port was the last one where we need to use tender boats to get to shore. It was also our last port in the Pacific. I got up a bit later than I had intended. I had breakfast in the Horizon buffet. I got a tender ticket which was 706. I also went to the Curzon theatre to see if the Whale watching tour had any availability, of which they did not. The sequence of tender ticket numbers of my number came up just before 11am. I went down to deck four where they do the tender operations. They filled up 2 tender boats and we were the first to be off. We arrived at the quayside some 20 mins later. Took some minutes for all the passengers to get off. When we got off our bags were checked before exiting the secure area. There were the usual tour touts vying for your business. I approach one about doing a Whale watching trip but I was a little late in doing this and so he suggested doing the glass bottom boat trip to the lands end at a cost of 15$. I declined and went on my way. It wasn't long before I noticed there was a place with internet connection. At first I had to wait a bit but finally got connected and it wasn't bad for a while. While there I saw Jim & Marjorie. Jim wanted to know how to send photos in an email. I told him there were two ways to do this. He was pleased I was able to tell him & how so simple it is. Also I helped him to understand how to add an email account onto his iPad.
Once I had done what I could on line I went on my way. I walked along the promenade Boardwalk that goes right around the marine harbour. I came across another guy who was trying to get people to go on the lands end trip. I managed to get his attention and ask was there room and how much it was he replied 12$ which was 3$ cheaper than the one this morning. Off I went and I got onto the boat of which I was the only English person there the other 8 adults & 2 children both boys were Mexican. Off we went it was a little bit wobbly but we had life jackets on which was a good thing, we couldn't leave until we had put them on. When we got to the place where there is an arch in the rock formation the Captain of our boat gestured to take photos of us with our various methods of taking pictures. When it came to the young couple on my left the young lady sat at the head of the boat when there seemed to be something happening. When I looked across, the young man got on his knees and proposed to his lady. She said yes and we all cheered and the Captain put music on. I got a couple of photos of them. With that all over and done with the rest of us had our own photos taken. The trip took all in all an hour to complete. It ws really something to be in with someone elses happy event and to think I could have missed if I had gone on a different boat, it kind of made my but not nearly as good as the young man who proposed to his lovely lady.

When I got back Bill was not in the cabin so I went upstairs outside and Bill was sitting at one of the tables.
I saw Ev & Joy and thanked them for the photo they sent to us at the Fairmont Hotel and I asked about their Whale watching trip (which I tried to get on), it seems it didn't go too well as there were no Whales to speak of and that they have now left the area, apparently they left two days ago so all in all I was lucky to have not wasted my money. And as it turned out there were a couple of Whales out to sea and we saw a few spouts going off and part of a tail. Ev said we saw more activity when we were at Hilo from the ship, of which was a really a good afternoon and display from the Whales.

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melsea
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

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Post by melsea »

Oops, Cabo San Lucas was not the last port in the Pacific, there is still one more place to go before the Panama Canal.

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Dancing Queen
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

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Post by Dancing Queen »

Another great read, I agree with what you said about losing the hour at night it's a killer when it's a few consecutive nights in a row, I much prefer it in the daytime even though it shortens your day, I'm sure the crew must find it better too.
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emjay45
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

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Post by emjay45 »

Dancing Queen wrote:
Another great read, I agree with what you said about losing the hour at night it's a killer when it's a few consecutive nights in a row, I much prefer it in the daytime even though it shortens your day, I'm sure the crew must find it better too.
I think the reason they do it is for the sake of the crew. Personally I really would have preferred to have lost the hour at night, but on a circumnavigation you generally travel west all the time and that was so much better.
Mel, our Spanish teacher did the Whale watching tour and he was lucky enough to see some. It was the end of the season for them though, so it was a shame for your friends.

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oldbluefox
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Re: Melsea's Adventures of South America & Pacific Adventures Part 25

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Post by oldbluefox »

Fascinating report melsea.
It's not every day you get to see somebody propose. When we were at Niagara there was a couple getting married and obviously thought they had found a nice quiet spot for the ceremony overlooking the falls. Imagine their surprise when they turned round and saw the crowd who had gathered behind them and gave them a hearty cheer!!

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