San Diego, California

Tuesday, May 1 

The rolling seas lasted all night and so did the banging noise in our cabin. 😒  Bob talked to guest services  and they said call if (and when) it happens again and someone will come check. 

The morning was a bit of a waiting game for those of us who were “in-transit”. We couldn’t leave the ship until we...and everyone else...had cleared customs. We were docked by 8 am, but the process didn’t start right away. Once it did, we were called by decks and had to take our passports to the coffee bar where agents would stamp us back into the country. By 11:00 the ship had been cleared and we were able to go ashore. There was a LOT of grumbling from some of the passengers over the whole procedure...especially those who had tours or other plans scheduled for earlier in the morning.

We had seen our destination for the day as we were eating breakfast...the USS Midway Museum, a retired aircraft carrier. The Zaandam was docked right by the Midway, but the walk was further than what it seemed by the time we walked through the terminal and out to the street. I used my cell phone to purchase our tickets before leaving the Zaandam so we got them $2 cheaper and didn’t have to wait in line. 

Looking across to the USS Midway from the Zaandam. 

I knew the bridge or “island” tour was popular so that was our first stop. The 30-minute tour was led by a veteran who had served on the Midway.  

View of the flight deck from the "island."

The captain's cabin while at sea.

The stairs were very steep. 

The view back towards the Zaandam from the USS Midway.

For the rest of the ship, we did an audio tour using headsets that were provided when we arrived.

A rather humorous look at how tight the bunk space was in the crew quarters.

The crew dining area. After all of the cruise food, the creamed chip beef actually sounded good to me!

State of the art equipment...at one time. 😉

A map showing bombing missions in Baghdad during Dessert Storm.

I let Bob check out all of the planes and helicopters on the flight deck. With good cell service, I called my airplane-loving grandson on FaceTime so he could also see the planes. He was particularly interested in the helicopters and the planes that had fold-up wings.

The ship is HUGE!

All of the museum staff we talked to apologized for the weather...it was cloudy, windy and really quite chilly. It wasn’t long before I was pulling out my windbreaker to put over the fleece I was already wearing. Frigid Bob was actually wearing a down coat and added a down vest when he couldn’t get warm. Out on the flight deck one of the docents explained in detail the how planes were launched and landed on the flight deck.

A 25-foot tall statue near the USS Midway depicts the famous Life magazine image of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square during WWII when Japan surrendered.

After checking out the flight deck, we went back down to the hanger deck where there were many more displays to view. A movie about the Midway was run every half hour but our timing was off so we never did get in to the theater. 

Bob sitting in the cockpit of one of the older fighter planes.

It was 3:00 before we walked out of the museum and during that time we saw a "little of a lot" of the museum. Bob is really into military aircraft so he was in heaven. I mostly found it interesting thinking about the contrast between life on an aircraft carrier compared to our present life on a cruise ship!

The walk back to the ship was even longer than we had taken earlier. The Nieuw Amsterdam was in port with us and to get to our ship we had to go through the joint security lines for both ships. 

The Nieuw Amsterdam leaving San Diego.

Smelling hotdogs at the museum snack bar put us both in the mood for the Dive In. It was nearly 4 pm when we ate so getting to the main dining room for our 5:45 dinner was out of the question. We stopped by to let Stan know we wouldn’t be there. With sail away not until 11 pm, Danny had made plans to get together with a family member in San Diego for the evening. 

Even though we didn't eat in the dining room, here is the menu:

STARTERS, SOUPS, and SALADS

MAINS 

It was chilly, but I enjoyed sitting outside on the promenade deck wrapped in a blanket where I could get a good cell signal to use my phone. At one point we got chased off while the new passengers went through their muster drill. Bob gave up much sooner than I did because he was cold and went back to the cabin to watch a DVD. 

We weren’t overly hungry, but went to the Lido and each had a salad and cup of split pea soup. After we ate we went out on the aft pool deck to look at the lights of the San Diego skyline. The chilly wind sent us inside so we moved to the front of the ship and watched from the Crows Nest. Beautiful. 

The Midway at night.

The only evening entertainment was a movie. I knew I wouldn’t stay awake for that so we had an early jammie night back at our cabin. I worked on my blog while Bob continued to watch his DVD movie.