Los Angeles, California – January 20

Los Angeles, California – January 20

The World Cruise is sold as “round trip Fort Lauderdale” or “round trip Los Angeles”. So, today many new people will begin their world cruise. When we get off in Fort Lauderdale they will continue on doing almost the same itinerary as our first segment. 

 the ship is getting fuel seen from our balcony

Everyone had to disembark and go through customs and then you could re-board. Normally it’s a simple process, but it took 2 hours. First, they had to reposition the gangway and then a luggage elevator was broken. Finally, we got back on board and dropped our things and then got back off the ship to meet Michael & Naomi. We met them on a Baltic cruise on the Holland America Rotterdam ship. We had a lot of tours together and they were very enjoyable company. Michael & I are both “over-planners” when it comes to exploring a new port. 

Friends Karen & Steve (they were also on the 2013 & 2017 World Cruises) were at the port picking up 6 other friends to spend the day together. We got lucky and we were still waiting to be let back into the terminal when they arrived, so we had some quick hugs before they were on their way. Great couple and we were sad when they canceled their segment of the cruise. 

 Greg, Annette, Les Lee, Karen, Phyllis and back row Cathy, Steve, Bob, Tom & Joe

We had so much better weather this time than last. It was cold, windy and rainy last time and today was sunny and warm. Since it had been 10 years since we last saw Michael & Naomi, we weren’t sure if we would recognize them (and they us), but of course we recognized them right off. Michael suggested Tequila Jacks for lunch and we sat out on the patio on such a beautiful day and got caught up on the last 10 years. After a leisurely lunch they stopped at a drugstore, so we could pick up a few things. 

 carnitas

 carnitas tacos

Naomi & Mike

the marina

Michael & Naomi leaving the restaurant

We said our goodbyes and we were back on board in time for the lifeboat drill. There is a small child on board and I joked that the family would probably be sitting right next to us at dinner. (they were, but no issues what-so-ever)

We were out on the balcony before dinner and there were 3 dolphins alongside the ship. We also could hear sea lions barking in the distance. We also saw a new bird on the water. 

 Norwegian Gem was in port with us

 Surf Scoter

 dolphins

 Western Grebe

 Frigate

At dinner we all got caught up on each other’s day. Yes, the young child is at the table right next to us. 

Tonight’s entertainer was Christopher James that was an illusionist. We have seen either him or someone else that did a very similar show. He was entertaining and a lady that we met in 2017 was asked up on stage to be part of the show. Hilarious! 

We went out on deck to see the lunar eclipse before going upstairs to the Oceans Trivia.

There were only 5 or 6 teams and we tied for first with 2 other teams. They did a tie breaker (guessing his mother birth year) and we lost. Actually, it was the second tie breaker question. The first one was guessing Jonny’s age which we knew was 26 because he mentioned it in Bingo. We could have won with that, but Greg said we knew because of Bingo and the other people were new. 

We have completed 15 days of our 111 and have traveled 4459 Nautical Miles from Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles.

Tomorrow we have the first of 5 days at sea headed to Hawaii.

Photo link for Los Angeles https://photos.app.goo.gl/dNKArTohuF2ZoZy19