Our 30th Anniversary Cruise to Cabo Part 1

January 14, Wednesday

I'm so grateful that Dad is here! I hope he and Jonny have a fun time while we're gone. I had plenty of time to get ready for the day and do a few tasks. I left a little before 10 AM to pick up Dad at the airport. We had lunch at Vito's. Thankfully, I got everything done today that I needed to. I had plenty of time to get started on packing. I put in a roast for dinner and I made some rice and corn to go with it. So Michael and I spent the evening packing and we got a lot done. 

January 15, Thursday

I'm so grateful we made it to LA safely! We got Jonny out the door and started getting ready. We said goodbye to Dad and left. We stopped to get some gas and we were on the road. We stopped at a rest area and I took over the driving for about an hour and a half until we got to Blythe. We got there at about 12:45 PM and went to Taco Bell to get some lunch. We got back on the road and Michael drove the rest of the way. We never stopped again and by the time we arrived at our hotel a little after 5 PM, we both had to go to the bathroom so badly. So overall the trip took us about 7 1/2 hours. Not too bad considering all the traffic we hit in LA. 

We got to our room and got ready for dinner. Then I realized I made a dinner reservation at the wrong restaurant. It turns out the San Pedro Fish restaurant near us at this hotel is just a food truck. I'm not sure how I missed that but I messed it up. The reservation I made was for their Long Beach location which was a 30-minute drive so we scrapped that idea and looked up places nearby. There are quite a few cute little restaurants down the street from the hotel. 

We found one called Whale and Ale. It was a cute little restaurant and I was excited to try it because they have fried green tomatoes. They were just OK. They were too thick and not cooked enough but they were served with ranch dressing so at least they knew how to do that. Michael got the clam chowder and the bangers and mash and I got the shepherd’s pie. 

Unfortunately, on Michael's first bite of his clam chowder, he bit down on something that really bothered his teeth. It took him a long time to figure out where the sensitivity was coming from and he's still not quite sure. We were worried it might've been a different tooth than the one he got a crown on but then we realized that was just an old filling. We headed back to the hotel and I took some pictures of his teeth and we called Gateway Dental Care and talked to the assistant. She sent the pictures to the doctor and the doctor didn't see anything concerning but they recommended that we see somebody here because they would hate for him to be on the cruise and then have something worse happen or have it get worse and not have access to dental care. That's my concern exactly. We looked up some dentists in the area. There's no emergency dentist. So we are going to show up at one of the dental offices at 7 AM and see if they'll at least take an x-ray and see how that goes.  

January 16, Friday

I'm so glad that Michael's tooth is OK and that we were able to get on the cruise today! I was mentally prepared to cancel the cruise and do what we had to do so that he could get it fixed but it was such a relief that he's OK. We got up early and left the hotel around 6:45 AM and drove to Dr. Andrew Sheng's dental office, which opened at 7 AM. Just as we pulled into the parking spot, they called us back and said that they could see him at 9:30 AM. I thought it might be nice to look into some other places but Michael felt like we should just go back to the hotel, pack up all our things and check out, and go back to the dentist so that's exactly what we did. It worked out great. We came back at about 9:15 AM and filled out all the paperwork and they took him right back. I sat there in the waiting room and after a bit I asked if I could go back with him and before they could bring me back he already came out and gave me a thumbs up. They even said that the insurance is going to cover it which is fantastic. We had our suitcases ready to go so we drove over to the port. We easily found a great parking space, one row away from where we needed to walk to. We sat in the car for a little bit because there was a huge line and we figured that was the people trying to get in at 10:30 AM. Then once that line died down we got our stuff out and headed over there. 

We dropped all of our suitcases off with a porter and tipped him. This trip, we decided we were just going to carry on our backpacks. I was very careful to make sure we had all of our important things like passports and medications and electronics in our backpacks, but Michael left his CPAP in his carry-on suitcase and it worked out fine. We had to stand in line for a little while and then it got moving pretty quickly. We got through the security check and the check-in process pretty easily and walked right onto the ship. 

The Royal Esplanade is not as grand as it was on Symphony of the Seas but it's still pretty cool. 

We got on the ship's Wi-Fi right away. We went to the dining room to make sure we would have a table for two and they assured us that we do and at least we know where to go for dinner. I think it was by about 11:40 AM that we were at the Windjammer getting our lunch. After lunch, we walked over to the Solarium and sat and relaxed for a little bit. By then, it was about time to go to our room. It was a little after 1 PM and we went to our stateroom and took some pictures and got into bed and took a nap. 

Embarkation is a terrible day to take a nap because they keep interrupting you with announcements, including the captain signaling with the horn. The emergency signal is seven short beeps and one long one. It's a miracle I was able to fall back asleep after that. Once we got up, it was about 3:40 PM and our suitcases were already there. We were only missing Michael's carry-on and I realized I don't even have it on my AirTag list. I was more worried about it than Michael was and it wasn't long before we got that one, too. I had made a note for myself to look for extra storage in the room, like at the end of the bed and behind mirrors and stuff but the only place we found was one that Michael found above the bed, which is two little cubbies. We probably won't use them that much because we have plenty of room in the closets and drawers. We got most of our unpacking done. Michael talked to the steward. Later, we asked him for some ice and to make the bed a little softer and fix the gap in between the two mattresses. Sail away was at 4 PM. We weren't really paying attention until Michael mentioned that we're moving. We were busy unpacking. We went out to the balcony and I took a little video, but neither of us cared about going outside for a sail away party or anything. 

View from our balcony as we sail away

We got ready and went to dinner at 5 PM. They seated someone at our table right as we were walking up but it's just as well because they got us an even better table right next to the window and it was sunset so it was beautiful. 

There was another couple next to us that struck up a conversation with us and they were very nice. Michael and I both got the steak and dinner was delicious. 

After dinner, we stopped at a couple places to get our picture taken.

We headed back to our room and relaxed for about an hour. Then, we went to a show called Starwater. The dancers came out and did a whole Vogue number and then a lady came out with a dress that expanded into these parachute pieces that made it look like her dress was floating on the water. 

Starwater

The dancers would walk up to the audience and we were sitting on the second row so they came right up to us a couple of times. They were very talented and it was really cool. After that, I wanted to get a cookie at Café Promenade. The chocolate chip cookies are kind of overcooked and not very good but the oatmeal raisin one was really good. After that, we went back to our stateroom.

January 17, Saturday

We've had a wonderful day on the cruise! I had a wonderful morning of lounging around and spending time with Michael. He went to the gym and I laid in bed with the curtains open so I could see and hear the water and have time to do my phone tasks.

I did my basic tasks like Duolingo and all of that. By the time I got showered and ready for the day and we went to lunch, it was almost 1 PM. That was a bummer because we have such an early dinner but it worked out fine. I've been eating a tortilla from home each day for lunch and Michael always chuckles at me. I'm pretty stealthy about it so nobody knows the difference. After lunch, we headed over to the Solarium. I found a lounge chair to sit in and play on my phone while Michael went to the hot tub for a while. 

Here is a video of the really cool elevators

Papa and Jonny went to Osaka while we were gone.

We headed back to the room and got ready for our escape room. I set everything out for my formal night clothes so that we could change quickly after that since we had dinner at 5 PM and I wanted to get some pictures first. There were only six of us to do the tasks but finding the place like an escape room because it's just an unmarked silver door with a circle window in it. There's no label of what it is or anything. It's right next to one of the teen lounges very close to the pools. Anyway, there were multiple puzzles around the room that we had to work on. We had to figure out what the four animals were and then figure out codes to unlock the boxes. Some of the boxes just needed a key and then you could get more clues from whatever was inside the box. I had fun helping with the math problems. There was one paper with a pyramid that had boxes for missing numbers and you had to fill them in with the numbers from one to 15 so that all the numbers below added to the number above. Anyway, I got that figured out and they were able to figure out one of the animals. Then I helped another lady figure out one of the puzzles where you figure out what each symbol represents numerically. We used that to get the final combination. We completed it in 50 minutes which was pretty good since there were only six of us. The people gave us hints along the way and told us if we were on the right track but we decided that was fair since we didn't have very many people. 

We went back to the room and got our formal clothes on and headed to the dining room and found a picture spot along the way. Our table was available this time and we explained what happened last night to our waiter and he's said oh, I was wondering what happened to you last night. I had a lasagna and Michael had the lamb. I had the minestrone soup as an appetizer and Michael had the polenta and the little rice balls. He got a lemon tart for dessert and I got the chocolate cake. The chocolate cake was so chocolatey. 

I ran into this lady and we had a good laugh over the fact that we were wearing identical dresses!

After dinner, we went to a couple more picture spots but we had to wait in pretty long lines for it. They ended up turning out pretty well. 

We came back to the room and changed into more casual clothes and at 8 PM we went to Finish That Lyric in the Music Hall. When they asked for volunteers I hopped right up and I was third in line. The first two ladies couldn't figure theirs out but mine was pretty easy so I was able to get it correct. The guy asked if I knew an artist named Leslie Gore and I had no idea who that was, but then he said the name of the song was "It's My Party" so then I knew I could get it. My line was: "you would cry too if it happened to you." It was pretty fun to watch everybody. The prize if you got it right was a drink cozy so I got one but I don't know what I'm going to do with it. 

After that, we went to the picture gallery place to look at all of our pictures from the last two nights. We narrowed it down to five good ones and I bought that package.