Valkyre

Cruise - Last Day

All good things must come to an end. We are on our way home. I woke up at 3:00am again. But, looking out at the waves didn't soothe me this time. Stress crept in. I started to worry about Teresa's accident. In just a few short hours, we would get our first look at the damage. Thoughts of insurance, lawyers, lawsuits, high insurance rates crowded my mind. Then, I started to think of work. Crap! I couldn't get back to sleep. I wanted to catch a few more hours before we got into San Pedro. Or else I would be exahusted all day. I drifted back to sleep after about 15 minutes.

I woke up again at around 5:30am. I looked out the window. While the sky was still dark, it was almost as bright as day outside. There were a ton of sodium vapor lights. I could see buildings rather close to the ship. We were passing them slowly. "Where are we?" I asked. "I think we're almost home." Mike said in response. San Pedro? I didn't recognize anything. However, we slowly passed a building that looked somewhat familiar to me. Ah yes, the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. I have been there before. Years and years ago. It's actually an interesting museum. A little further and we were pulling up to the cruise ship terminal. Like I said earlier, Ensenada's terminal may be smaller, but it's much nicer. The one here looks like an old warehouse. Not very attractive. You would think that Los Angeles would want to make a better impression for people who might be visiting for the first time.

We were given the option of leaving the ship at 7:00am with our luggage. Breakfast was going to be served a little earlier today. They would start at 6:30. Mike and I considered the earlier exit. But, there probably wouldn't be time for breakfast. When they called you to exit at 7:00, you had to get off the ship. Another reason I didn't want to do it? I pictured hundreds of people crowding the stairs and elevators with their luggage in tow and bumping into anyone who got in their way. We took the option of being assigned a colored tag to put on our one suitcase. When they called that color, you had to exit the ship, clear customs and then pick up your luggage. The yellow tags had a big number 1 printed on them. I figured that would mean we would get called first. That meant that we would have had to leave the ship by 8:00am. Plenty of time for breakfast.

Turns out it was just the opposite. We would be one of the last ones called. Mike and I sat up on the 12 deck, still in the good ol' Windjammer buffet nursing a few cups of coffee well after breakfast. We watched as the ship slowly cleared of passengers. They wanted us to wait in the cocktail lounges, or by the pool. But, we stayed in the Windjammer until we were finally kicked out. We went to the outside deck and saw this guy:

He had figured out that docked cruise ships equal food. He was hanging around on the rail mooching off of the people eating outside. I don't know if he was having much luck. Mike found a muffin that had been left behind and broke off a piece and gave it to him.

Finally they called yellow. We went down to the centrum staircase and noticed that the line was winding around the floor, back to the 4th deck. Augh! Forget about it. I had to use the bathroom really bad. So, we went around the ship trying to find working bathrooms. Seems as if they shut the water off. And that didn't stop people from using the toilets. It was quite the mess in some of the bathrooms. We finally found some that weren't too bad in an isolated part of the ship.

At some point, Mike snuck back up to the Windjammer and took this shot.

Once everyone was cleared out, they removed all the leftover food and cleaned the place up. They must have done it in mere seconds. It's hard to believe that this place was packed for breakfast a couple of hours ago.

Back to the 7th deck to look at the long line waiting to go through customs. There were quite a few others waiting up there too. Suddenly, I noticed a gap. No one seemed to be coming down the gangway anymore. "Let's go get in line!" Mike didn't want to. He said that he had seen gaps like that before. Usually it's from someone who's a little slow moving up in the line. I ignored him and went down to the Centrum deck. The line was much, much shorter. I got in line and called Mike from my cell. "Get down here! The line is shorter!" Good thing I got in line. As soon as I called Mike, they called down the rest of the people to exit the ship.

Not all of the customs windows were open, considering that a cruise ship had just pulled in and about 3000+ people had to be cleared. But, we were waved through.

To the room to get our luggage and out to the taxi stand. Unfortunately, since the Beetle was now wrecked, there was no way for Teresa to pick us up. A taxi from San Pedro to Gardena, a distance of about 12 miles cost $32.50. It was my first ride in an taxi of any kind. We get home and get our first look at the car. Not as bad as we were imagining. Not good either. We are greeted by three very happy dogs. The girls come out too. I immediately pull out the Fuji and start snapping pictures of the damage to the Beetle. Then, and only then, could I go inside. Our vacation was officially over. I can't wait until we do another cruise. I'm smitten. Maybe for our 25th anniversary?

Posted by Valkyre at October 5, 2006 11:17 PM