March 7 - Turn Around Day in San Francisco

Saturday, March 7, 2026

It was already daylight when I woke up, just a few minutes before my alarm was to go off. Bob and I went up to the buffet and the place was a total zoo. We had to go to the VERY back of Cafe Caribe to find a place to sit. The buffet in that area is a scaled down version of the main buffet line at the Horizon Court but when it is so crowded, I don't find it worth the effort to check out the more extensive options. When Jon and Michelle showed up I could tell Michelle wasn't feeling great.

Early morning view of Coit Tower from our balcony.

The plan for all four of us to rent bikes turned into just Bob and Jon renting the bikes while Michelle and I stayed on the ship. They reserved e-bikes online while we were sitting at breakfast and then headed off the ship to walk to the bike rental shop in Fisherman's Wharf. 

From our balcony, I could watch the long line of passengers getting off the ship.
Bob and Jon were somewhere in that line!

Michelle and I joined the other in-transit guests in the Michelangelo Dining Room at 9 am. We walked in, sat down for about 2 minutes and then were ushered through the customs line. A quick look into the camera and a scan of our medallion and we were free to go back to our cabin. The whole process was so much quicker and easier than our past experiences where we had to get off the ship and wait as long as an hour in the terminal before being able to reboard.

Michelle spent the morning napping and I just enjoyed the beautiful weather on the balcony looking out at Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge and Coit Tower...and getting caught up on social media. 😀

Alcatraz

The Bay Bridge and Ferry Building

Coit Tower

Golden Gate Bridge

Transamerica Pyramid

I tracked Bob's iPhone and he texted a few times to update me on what he and Jon were doing on their bike adventure. They rode across the Golden Gate Bridge, down into Sausalito and then around the Marin Headlands. I was sorry I didn't get to go on the bikes, but I KNOW I could have never ridden the distance that the guys did.

I was following Bob's location as they started across the bridge.

When I noticed on the map that they were headed down the steep and crooked Lombard Street on their bikes, I expected I would be getting a call from the hospital ER department! They also stopped at a grocery store and had In-and-Out burgers for lunch. As always, when those two go off on their own I worried that they would lose track of time.

Bob & Jon's location...just about ready to go down steep, curvy Lombard Street!

Bob's REAL view!

I hate dealing with the crowds in the buffet on the first day of any cruise so wanted to avoid it at lunch with all of the new passengers just coming onboard. We knew there was rarely a wait to get pizza so Michelle and I went there instead. We couldn't find a table anywhere close so we sat in the lounge chairs by the pool while we ate and visited with a couple who had just gotten on the ship. 

The sun felt so good while we were eating that we both went back to the rooms and changed into shorts and headed to the Terrace Pool at the back of the ship. The pool was not open but there were several loungers available. We were still sitting there when the guys got back from their bike ride. I was getting too hot so Bob and I went back to our partially shaded balcony.

When it was sail away time, Bob went down to the promenade deck to get photos of Alcatraz and also the Sausalito side of the bridge where they had biked today. I stayed on the balcony with a view of the San Francisco skyline until we passed under the bridge.

Palace of Fine Arts

It was so nice going to dinner knowing that we already had a reservation. A long line of people were standing at the door of the Botticelli Dining Room waiting to be seated and we just breezed by them. I'm sure many of them wondered why we were so special!

The menu was a repeat from our first night on the last cruise but I didn't remember ever seeing it before! (Lokesh had to remind us.) I ordered the Cajun fried chicken and really enjoyed it. I begged Lokesh to find me some of the espresso ice cream that I knew had been served in the dining room at lunch but he couldn't make it happen. 

The evening entertainment in the theater was a repeat of Katia and Zenia, the ballroom dancers we had seen a couple of nights ago. None of us really cared if we watched their show again so we didn't need to rush through dinner. Instead we went directly to the Explorer's Lounge to get seats for the game show at 8:00 pm. Getting there early really wouldn't have been necessary since only about half of the lounge seats were occupied for the trivia session that was going on when we arrived.

Jon brought cards (as usual!) and we played the card game, Alaska until the game show began. The show was a little stupid in my opinion. They had people come to the front while they played a song and then had two different years projected on the screen. One of the years represented the year the song had been released. The group would split up and stand on one side or the other based on which year they felt was correct. Once the answer was revealed, the losers had to sit down. This went on with song after song until only one person was left standing. Bob and Jon took part, but the years were always two consecutive years and who is the world could remember the exact year a song had debuted! 

Jon outlasted Bob in the competition, but didn't win.

Karaoke came next and we stuck around until it was too painful to listen anymore. Just as we were walking out, a girl started to sing with a great voice! I anticipate that we might hear her again in the Voice of the Ocean competition later in the cruise. 

Leaving San Francisco, we have three sea days before we reach the port of La Paz.