Cruising Again With Pat and Phil

Itinerary for First Segment of our Voyage!

Saturday and Sunday

18-19 December 2021

At 2:00 am Saturday morning a text came in from American Airlines reminding me of our 6:00 am flight from BOS to LAX. I tried to go back to sleep -- afterall, we had two alarms set for 3:00 am. Alas, my eyes were open wide and I knew this was the beginning of a very long day. The 6:00 am flight is one of those things that sounds good at the time it is planned but not so much when it comes time to actually get on that 6:00 am flight.

Our scheduled taxi arrived at 3:55 am and, needless to say there was no traffic to the airport. We arrived at Terminal B in no time. But -- where did all these people come from? The lines were long but we discovered our TSA pre-check was still valid. (They took our money for a renewal in 2019, but because of COVID we never had the interview). By 4:35 am we were sitting at Gate B4 with plenty of company.

Flight 2455 was uneventful with an early arrival to LAX. On the way to baggage claim we passed many anxious passengers about to board flights -- then waited at least 30 minutes for our luggage. But -- the saving grace was that I decided before we left home that perhaps we should take a car service to our hotel in Long Beach. I contacted Maria, with apologies, for calling at 4:50pm on a Friday but I just wanted the name of a good car service in Los Angeles. She insisted on making the reservation which resulted in Fabio picking us up once we had collected our baggage. Thank you, Maria.

Fabio looked, acted and spoke exactly as one would expect of someone with his name. He delivered us to the Hyatt Hotel in Long Beach in record time. There was very little traffic as everyone must have been at the airport. That phone call to Maria was the best thing I’ve done in a long time.

We were early to check-in at the Hyatt but they did have a room available if we were willing to pay an extra $15 a night for a harbor rather city view. Even though I was miffed at the upcharge -- I took the deal since we were exhausted and needed to get settled. Our focus for the day was getting our PCR COVID tests required by Viking within 48 hours of boarding the ship on Monday. We were scheduled to be tested at a CVS about a mile from the hotel. There was a hitch -- it was a drive-thru but we did not have a vehicle.

In response to my inquiry, the front desk clerk at the Hyatt was adamant that we could not walk up to a drive-thru window and she said CVS would never get the results to us in time. She suggested another place which was also free and where she had been tested the day before. It was on the way to CVS. Once our bags were secured in our “harbor-view” room, we headed out on foot for our COVID tests.

We arrived at FCTS which was a storefront with two women inside behind two tables taking information and handing out test kits with nose swabs. We were told PCR test results would be available Tuesday but Rapid test results would be available in ten minutes. We took the Rapid. We opted not to wait for the results since they would e-mail them to us. On to CVS where I went directly to the pharmacy and told them we had appointments but no vehicle, the clerk said no problem just get in line with the cars -- so we did.

Long story short -- we tested negative on the Rapid test -- Whew! Walking back to the hotel we explored the area and settled on the “Auld Dublin Pub” near the hotel for a late lunch/early dinner.


Phil with Scooters which are everywhere!

On Sunday -- I considered going to Mass at St. Anthony’s (about a mile away) but since I was not sure about the protocols for churches in California and we’d seen a number of people going mask-less, I opted to skip it. After checking out the Outlet Mall across the street, Phil and I walked over to Shoreline Park along the Los Angeles River and found Bubba Gumps for lunch. We then went our separate ways. I walked all over the park to get my 10,000 steps in taking a photo of the beautiful Queen Mary -- which is now closed. I’m not sure what Phil did although I think football was involved. During the afternoon we each heard from CVS that our PCR COVID Tests were negative.

The Queen Mary

For dinner we went back to Shoreline Park to pick a restaurant. P.F. Chang’s received the nod, we sat at the bar where we met Claire, the best bartender, and a great conversationalist. Claire is in nursing school set to graduate next semester and then going on to UCLA. She gave me her e-mail to add to my blog list.