OUR CRUISE AND LEGO LAND TRIP;
21st to 26th April 2008

Since long we had a plan in our mind to take a cruise with entire
famiy and as such Nimish and Snehal planned in time to book a
cruise of 4 nights tour on carribean international lines for Mexico.
All these cruise starts from Los Angeles on a west coast apart from
Boston, New york and florida.
Lot of planning needed to take this tour. first we need to inquire
about our visa for the Mexico .This was clarified after calling
mexico consulate in San jose and were informed that no visa is
necessary for the visit. Then how to reach LA ?. This was a major
challenge, as driving 400 miles to LA is not easy, so we discussed
various options and inquired about train service that goes to LA
but it takes 10 hrs and is not cheap and then from trains station to
reaching Harbour is also costly and time consuming, so we inquired
about Bus service which runs regularly, and came to know that this
too we have to take it at night at 22 hrs reaching LA at 8.00am but
then again reaching from bus stop to Harbour is disfficult and in
both the cases it was a night journey so kids may not sleep
properly and even we might not be confortable at night in bus. So
taking 2 cars was also not feasible,as in a long run of 400 miles,
we might get seperated on the way, might take ` wrong freeway or
some wrong inside road and then it makes it difficult to make the
bearing of the road and meet again at particular place, as we
all are new to that area and giving particular direction to meet is
difficult. So ultimately it was decided to rent a 12 seater VAN
which we did on canada tour.
We got the van rented from Oakland airport . On Saturday we went to
San francisco moved in a cable car , had ice creams at Ghirardelli and
visited our favourite Golden gate bridge. on sunday we went to
Fresh Choice salad buffet restaurant and in the evening, both
brothers went to get the van from Oakland airport which took 2 hrs
to return.
On the morning of Monday the 21st april 2008, we both got up at 4.30
in the morning and got ready and thereafter one by one others too got up and got
ready by 6.30 am. We loaded the van with all the luggage, which was
quite in a large numbers andt was meticulously thought over what
willl be needed during the trip .We started at around 7.00 am
stopped at Mcdonald for breakfast at around 9.00 am took pan
cake, buns, coffe tea etc and drove towards LA, again stopped
twice for lunch at visitor centre, which houses different
restaurants such as Taco bell, pizza hut, burger kings etc, so
everybody gets of his own choice for snacks, and for use of rest
rooms. We reached LA harbour at 14.30 and unloaded our luggage.
We were sent tickets by the caribean international and to save check
in time we had to do the online checking which we did it and had to
print sail pass and sign it. Alongwith all this we were also sent
boarding tags with room numbers to attach on the luggages .This is
exactly like airlines boarding tags. A lady porter was ready at the
harbour luggage unloading area where she took posssion of all our
luggage , attched tags and took away our luggage which was to be
delivered at our rooms inside the ship .We completed all the
formalities at the check in counter wherein our passports and
tickets were verified and credit card type boarding sail pass with
room numbers name and other details of dinnig time and table no. were given. Then as usual we
went through security check and on boarding of the ramp, again our
sail pass was chekced and our photos were taken.This was to become
our identity for the rest of the cruise, as we needed to go out as
many times.
DAY 1 MONDAY 21 st April 2008
We entered such an luxury liner ship for the first time in life and
WOW what a luxurious centrum it had. A five star hotel type guest
relationship counter and central area where huge stage was decorated
with sorrounding staircases and 2 bullet type open glass windows
elevators were moving up and down , entire area its staircases were
decorated with carpets and handrails of Golden chrome glittering metal. It
really looked like some PALACE . It really was so glittering and so
beautifully decorated that we just were dazed looking at it. We
were stunned . Those who have seen TITANIC will remember how the
main area was decorated and dances were going on , exactly like
that, Dancing and guitar performance was going on. Around the centrum on left side a painting studio was located, where as on other side a library and exactly opposite to it was internet cafe.
We then went towards our rooms which were on that same centrum floor no.4
Our luggages were waiting near the doors which we brought inside. Rooms
obviously were small as they had to accomodate lots of passengers
and earn profit, but quite comfortable, as matresses, pillows,
blankets were white and spotlessly clean. small writing table and
chairs were also provided as also small toilets with wash basin,
shower bath were provided . our rooms had enough lighting and TV ,
internal phone connection too. Entire ship was carpeted.
I inquired about the passengers and staff strength and I was told that today it has
2500 passengers and
855 staff members.
It had totally 8 elevators ( lifts ) 2 bullet type, open glass glittering lifts on centrum and 6 in the corridor in the front of the centrum. These lifts are also most modern with voice annoucements and blind people also can use it, as it has braile number of floor having a capacity of 16 passengers in each elevators . It also had inside the elevators,panel showing what facilites it had on each floor, so that we can get down on the floor where we wish to go and did not necessary to ask anyone.
As for the staff members,
we observed that most of them are from
INDIA, either from Mumbai or goa and they were very friendly
and cooperative to us .Services here in the dinning hall,
windjammer cafes or anywhere else, were excellent . All the staff was
very cooperative, very helpful and most courteous. Food on the cafes
were abundant and lavish.I will narrate it later on.
First class passengers are given cabins on 9th and 10 floors where
as all other passengers are given cabins from 4th to 8th floor, but
there is no descripancies between any passengers and everywhere else
they ALL are treated equally.
Rooms are alloted on bookings only and one has to adhered to it as
ship was fully booked. Even our dinning time preference of 5.30 pm
and 8.30 pm was also confirmed in advance ( we prefered to dine at
8.30 pm. How can we eat at 5.30 in the evening.) and our table no
112 was also given in advance and was printed in our sail pass.
We immediately went out for snacks as we all were hungry .
Unfortunately lunch was closed, so we went on to 11th floor for
snacks, but we were told that at 4.30 pm a security drill with life
jackets will be conducted at 7th floor and it is compulsory for
everyone to attend it.We all went to our rooms to collect our life
jackets which had room no. written on it with emergency life station
no. also written on it , so that in case of emergency we had to
reach that place on 7th floor. When we reached 7th floor open dack
there was hundreds of passengers lining up at their designated life
station and roll calls were taken.This is a system that in case of
emergency we had to reach that designated/particular place and our
boat was alloted to us which was just above our head, so that in
case of emergency there is no chaos and everybody knows where to go
and which boat is alloted to them and where they have to stand to
board the life boat . Children were tied a green bend on their wrist
with room no and emergency life station number. We were told that in
case of emergency we were not to worry about our children as they might be in some children's place and had to
run for our life station and children will be brought by their life
station staff.
After this drill, we came to deck no. 11 which was named
"windjammer cafe " and behind that a japanes style Sushi cafe was
situated. Japanese are the highest number of international tourist
and as such a special cafe is alloted to them. on 12th floor it was
pizza cafe which was named as "sorrento " We took tea, coffee,
pizza ,cookies etc. Our kids especially Anvay and Lipi are water
frenzy and as soon as they saw swimming pool they just ran towards
it. Water was warm and out of 4 pools and 2 jacuzzis, 2 pools were
deep up to 5 feet, where as 2 small pools were for the small kids
and had only 9 inches of warm water, so kids can fearlessly play in
the water. There was an atmosphere of celebration on the pool deck,
lots of people were dancing, sitting relaxing and enjoying the
live band playing on the upper deck.Upper deck too was full with
pool chairs and people thronged the outer railings to watch ship
leaving the harbour.
Ship left the pier at 5.30 p.m leaving Los Angeles harbour for 4 day
journey towards Mexico. Wind was getting cold and Lopa asked Lipi to
come out of the water, but she refused to come out for quite some
time and then when Lopa and Nimish lifted her and brought her out,
she just ran back towards water and on resisting to go towards water
she cried . Dhrut too was enjoying warm water pool. Anvay somehow
did not like the salty sea water of the pool and came out early.
We then moved around the ship and started a tour of the entire
ship.First we went on the 5th floor, which too was attached to
centrum area with staircases Here a luxurious shopping centre was
ocated and had mall type decorated shops of jewellery, cigarettes,
liquor, fancy items, perfumes, photos etc.On the 3rd floor behind
the centrum, a luxurious dinning hall was situated and just above
that on 4th floor another dinning hall was situated. A casino too was situated near the centrum and behind it we saw a gorgeous most luxurious theatre named " Sound of Music " .We have never seen such a luxurious theatre in our life. it seats were wide with 12 inch foam , red sllky cloth , having red carpet on the floor ,with small 3 floor design with moving bar chairs and yellow metal railings and extremely beautiful lamps, lights and decors. It was so glittering ,beautiful and dcorative ,illuminated that we will never see such theatre again in our life, unless we take another cruise.
It was getting dark and we all were hungry, so came back to room, got ready for dinner and we all together went to Dining hall situated behind centrum on 4th floor. Hall must have a capacity sit around 500 people to dine with and waiter staff was around 100 for 3rd and 4th floor dinning hall . as soon as dinner was served , music started and entire waiter staff came out walked and danced through the dinning hall waiving handkerchiefs and smiling to all, making the atmosphere vibrant and cheerful . We found some indian vegetarian dishes in the menu and ordered it. We had hefty,satisfying dinner and came out. Thereafter kids went to sleep, we moved to casino and young guys went to theatre show.