California Cruise - Day 0

This was our "Coastal Cruise," out of San Pedro (LA) and going to Santa Barbara, San Francisco, San Diego and Ensanada, Mexico. There were 2 days at sea.

San Pedro is an industrial area, with lots of fuel storage and shipping lines. It was fascinating to watch the unloading process of the container ships.

The blimp must be docked somewhere close by.

This was on the Princess Cruise Line ship Sapphire Princess, the largest ship and newest we have been on yet.

Check-in was very quick. This was partly in due to the fact we arrived at the LA airport fairly early in the day. We chose not to be bussed to a local hotel but to wait another 30 minutes for the bus and were taken directly to the pier. We had to wait about an hour to board and once on we went straight to our room.

We had a very nice room. That is one advantage of having a handicapped room! We were glad the cruise line made us verify that we needed it and grateful we had the extra room to get around in. Several nice accessible features included the roll-in shower with adjustable shower head and the clothes racks that were either high or could be lowered for the wheelchair user. The room also had a nice flatscreen TV that we were able to plug into to watch movies and a large balcony.

Looking towards the rear of the ship and towards the front. See the bridge?

Very nice on deck.

"Solarium" with the roof open and then closed. When closed it made for a nice warm (and humid) room. This was the floor we had to go to for the buffet and usually found it easier to go through the pools to get there than try to navigate all the cleaning carts down the narrow hallways on our room deck.

This is the outdoor pool on the 14th deck. This was also where another bar (surprise) and the ice cream bar were located. For $2.30 you could get a milkshake made or free cones.

Very interesting decor throughout the ship. This was the lobby on one of the floors in the upper bowels of the ship. there was only a bar there so we didn't really go there much. It was one of several bars throughout the ship.

Art was displayed not only in the gallery but throughout the ship. Very interesting choices. Some very contemporary, others more traditional.

Atrium was also redone during the refurbishment which added a pizza parlor, pastry cafe and, believe it or not, another bar. Plus they made it nice and sparkly.

There was entertainment offered at different times in the atrium, most often during the dinner hour.



Nice comfortable spots to watch Movies Under the Stars. The ship recently received a major upgrade, including addition of the screen. First-run movies are shown each night. Cruisers can wrap themselves in a blanket or booze to keep warm and popcorn to stay nourished.

Sunset at sea is always beautiful.