Week commencing Sunday 14th May 2000

Sunday 14th May

Today is our trip to Disneyland.

This is the queue for tickets to get into the theme park !

The figure in the centre is a model of a red indian chief on a horse, with an 'Iron Horse' chugging past in the background. This was taken from the deck of the sailing ship Columbia in Frontierland.

The sign above Irene's head reads 'Princess' which is the ladies toilet in Fantasyland (the sign over the gents toilet says 'Prince' 8-)

This is the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle in Fantasyland.

The day was rounded off with a parade...

They certainly do things in a big way here, and the theme park is extremely well organised.
For instance, there were people clearing up litter and cleaning the toilets all day long.
Also, once you pay for the ticket all the rides are free !
We were very impressed with the organisation at Universal Studios and Disneyland.

Oh yes, nearly forget, the temperature has been in the 90s for the last coupla days - too hot !

Monday 15th May

Today was spent in getting to the cruise liner and settling in.
Even though the ship has stabilisers, you have to be careful walking around, since a sudden lurch can throw you off balance !
The facilities on the ship are excellent - they have three lounges with various types of entertainment, a casino for gambling addicts, three different dining rooms, three different bars and various duty-free shops.
We have a table in the 'Magic Flute' dining room, and the food and service is very good - the waiters are working hard for their (potential) tips !
The ship consists of nine decks numbered three to eleven. Our cabin is 7008 (cabin 8 on deck 7) and although very small, the usage of space is well thought out.

Tuesday 16th May

Today's port of call is San Diego.

Here's Irene in our cabin.

The cruise liner Viking Serenade, docked at San Diego.
Since we bought a ticket for Universal Studios, that gives us free entry to the Sea World marine life park.

This is the 'Wings of the World' bird show. The picture shows (not very well) a tame heron who plays up for the audience.
The good thing is, they use the money from the park to finance their rescue and rehabilitation program.

The set you can see is for the Sea Lion and Otter Show, called 'Fools with Tools'.
This was a themed DIY show where sea lions were trying to fix various plumbing problems caused by a rogue otter. Really well done !

The Dolphin Show, called Dolphin Discovery, was pretty impressive, and the dolphins really looked like they were enjoying themselves. Pictured is one of the dolphins jumping out of the water and over a rope at about 15 feet above the water surface !

The climax of the day was the killer whale show, called 'The Shamu Adventure', where a killer whale called...yes, you guessed it - Shamu, did some amazing tricks !

This is where Shamu beached himself for a bucket of fish !

Just managed to catch him as he re-enters the water after a leap.

Finale was where one of the 'wet suits' rode on the back of Shamu as he whizzed along at a great rate of knots.
The weather is still 'Scorchio' - there was no shade at any of the shows, so we ended up like a couple of lobsters !

This was a great day out though and it was good to know we were contributing to their conservation programme.

Wednesday 17th May

Day three of our cruise brought us to Catalina Island.

This is a view of the island from our porthole.

The island does not provide a dock for cruise ships, so we had to take the launch to shore. The picture is taken from the launch as we approached the city of Avalon.

Once ashore, we went on a 10 mile tour starting at Avalon into the surrounding hills, which took us up winding, steep roads in a specially converted coach pulled by a lorry ! The views of the harbour and city were breathtaking.

We made a stop at the 'Airport in the Sky' located on two levelled mountain tops. The runway looked very primitive and it apparently takes great skill to land here. The return to Avalon was along the same scenic route, but this time we were right next to the precipices !

Back in Avalon, we had lunch at a restaurant recommended by the tour guide. The salads in the picture are even bigger than they look since they were served up in bowls, not plates !

After lunch we boarded the semi-submersible submarine 'Starlight' at the pier for an underwater journey to 'Lover's Cove'. We were seated several feet beneath the surface of the water in the climate controlled craft where we saw the fish pictured from a diver's eye view. The seaweed looked like a small forest growing from the sea bed and apparently grows at a rate of a few feet per day !

Once back on the boat, we decided to stay up for the Gala Buffet, which members of the crew spent a lot of hours preparing.
We were allowed in to take photographs between 11:30pm and 12:15am:

This is the start of the buffet, with various fruit sculptures.

The same area of the buffet at a different angle so you can see the dragon.

We thought this was particularly impressive, done by one guy (a steward) who carved it out of turnips !

The ice sclulptures were also extremely detailed - here's a peacock with the Statue of Liberty in wax.

Now we come to Peter's favourite section - the chocolate eclairs - yum !
The windmill is made of loads of individual eclairs.

With Irene is Tomlinson Spencer, Executive Chef from Jamaica.
He has been creating these culinary masterpieces for ten years.

The other end of the buffet is a cake with miniature figures - very detailed. We managed to stay awake long enough to sample a few small treats, but some guests made REAL pigs of themselves 8-)

Thursday 18th May

On to Day 4 of our cruise - destination Ensenada, Mexico.

This guy was working hard for his tips !

Our first stop was the famous 'La Bufadora' or Blowhole (!), which is a natural sea geyser created by the pressure of the ocean inside the caves along the beautiful Baja coast.
La Bufadora blows off every few minutes due to air trapped by water expanding in the heat, until it is released as shown - pretty impressive.
Apparently there are only two other such geysers, one in Australia and the other in Hawaii !

Wherever there is a natural phenomenon to attract the tourists, there are locals who set up stalls to extract money from them ! La Bufadora was no exception, and they won't take 'No' for an answer - talk about Hard Sell !

The second part of our tour of Ensenada took us to the Riviera Pacifico Cultural Centre.

This is the live Mariachi band serenading us whilst we sipped our Margueritas.
Peter has found out two things here:
1) Margueritas are now his favourite cocktail
2) Wine and Margueritas DO NOT MIX 8-(

The Folkloric Show consisted of regional dances and song, including the dance in the photograph which was done using REAL sabres - you could see the sparks flying as they clashed together !
(By the way, the weather is still 'Scorchio' !)

Friday 19th May

Back on 'Terra Firma' at last, although we are still staggering a bit - could be the wine, could be the effects of being on the boat !

One more night at the Beverly Hilton, so a few pictures that we neglected to include last time.
This is our suite complete with Irene, desk and cable TV !

Uplighters and chandeliers in the hotel lobby:

Saturday 20th May

Today we fly from LA to San Francisco.
Our hotel here is the Holiday Inn, Financial District.
Here's the view at night from our hotel room on the 22nd floor:

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