San Francisco

Thursday – May 3

The Zaandam was just approaching San Francisco Bay when we pulled back the curtains. Bob saw that we were getting close to the Golden Gate Bridge so he grabbed my camera and went out to the promenade deck to get some photos. I wasn’t dressed yet, so I enjoyed the view through the window. 

Not being dressed shouldn't have stopped me from going outside...it obviously wasn't an issue with this lady!

I put my cell phone on my mini tripod and set it up in the window to record a time lapse video as the ship sailed past the shoreline and into port. The time-lapse video was funny to watch with people zipping past the window!

After a hearty breakfast, Danny stopped by our room to begin the day. He was going to join us as we explored on our own. Up until 2 years ago I had never even been to the state of California and now this would be my third time in the city of San Francisco!

Each of us downloaded the San Francisco MUNI app and purchased a one-day pass that was good for the cable cars, street cars and city buses. The F-Line streetcar stopped right at Pier 27 where we were docked and we jumped on and rode to Fisherman’s Wharf. From there we walked to the Hyde-Powell cable car turn-around. The line was pretty short, but we waited a long time to board. Seemed they must have been spacing the cars in certain intervals.

The cable car routes + some of the places we visited.

Once we did leave, we only rode a short distance to the first stop at Lombard Street…billed as the “crookedest street in the world.” There is some debate as to whether it is even the most crooked street in San Francisco, but regardless it does draw a crowd! Bob and Danny walked part way down while I sat at the top watching the tourists taking selfies and also a hummingbird flitting among the many flowers.

Looking down the street...

...and looking up the street.

Just like everyone else, we had to take a selfie! That is Coit Tower in distance.

When we had taken a sufficient number of photos, we jumped on the next cable car that came along and rode as far as the Cable Car Museum.  We had just visited the museum a year ago, but Danny had never been before. It was still fascinating to be able to look at the large wheels pulling the cables under the street that drive the cable cars. 

Lots of historical photos of the city. I especially enjoyed seeeing the ones that were taken after the earthquake in 1906 and the fire that followed which destroyed most of the city. Such a tragic time in San Francisco's history.

It was only a couple of blocks to Chinatown, our next stop, so we walked. I had watched numerous YouTube videos on where to find the best eats in Chinatown and had marked the location of Good Mong Kok Bakery on a Google Map as a good choice. When we got there the line was out of the door…a sign of good food! I knew I wanted to try the BBQ beef buns. A lady in front of us suggested the steamed buns (which Bob and I ordered) and also the sesame balls filled with red bean paste (which Danny tried.) We shared bites with each other and agreed both were good. I was surprised at the sesame balls which in spite of being filled with beans were sweet.

Waiting in line...

This was AFTER I tore into the bun to see the filling.

The shops along the street are so interesting…some selling meats, others fruits and vegetables and many with clothing and other goods.

Those are sea cucumbers on the left. Not a vegetable, but a sea creature. We saw them when we were kayaking in Alaska, but not sure I would want to eat one.

Pork rinds were hanging in several different shops we passed.

The Golden Gate Fortune Cookie factory was our next stop. It is located in an alley (Ross Alley) so unless you specifically look for it, you probably won’t run across it accidently. The “factory” is just a tiny room off the alley where you can watch the cookies being made and purchase different varieties.

Ross Alley...on our way to the fortune cookie factory.

One of our other goals was to find a place to have dim sum and we made the mistake of first trying to find the main gate to Chinatown. By the time we got there, we realized it was a much more touristy area and there were none of the more authentic dim sum restaurants. In hindsight, we should have bought some at the Good Mong Kok Bakery or someplace near there. At that point I was getting really tired of walking so decided it wasn’t worth backtracking.

The main gate of Chinatown.

Once we found a cable car stop, we were able to catch the next one on the California route which we took to the Financial District.  From there it was a short walk to the Ferry Building. We walked from one end of the building to the other checking out all of the unique (and expensive!) shops.

Sampling olive oil.

By that time, I was shot. We went back to the ship via the F-Line streetcar, caught the end of lunch at the buffet and went back to our cabin and crashed.

At 5:00 we left the ship again and began part 2 of our day in San Francisco. Once again we took the F-Line streetcar back to Fisherman’s Wharf. It made things much easier since we were familiar with these routes because on our first visit to SF we made good use of the MUNI system! Danny wanted to buy some chocolates so we first walked to Ghiradelli in order to get there before they closed at 6 pm. <Side note: Danny started the cruise with 9 pounds of chocolates which he continuously handed out to the staff and crew. He took time to get to know many of the crew personally and wanted to get them some of the “good stuff” from Ghiradelli.>

After Danny made his purchases we walked back through Fisherman’s Wharf and stopped at the Boudin Bakery...famous for their sourdough bread. There is an observation area on the second floor of the bakery where you can look down and watch as the sour dough is prepared and made into bread. Very interesting!

That is a manequin in the photo...not a headless employee. 

The giant mixer is dumping a huge batch of sour dough to be made into loaves.

The sun was starting to set by the time we got to Pier 39 and it was windy and very chilly. We watched the sea lions for a while but didn’t take time to go through any of the other areas at Pier 39.

The sea lions are always fun to watch and we would have stayed longer, but it was COLD!

One last ride on the F-Line and we were back at the ship…just in time to get something to eat before the buffet closed. Not sure if this was the menu that night, but it gives you an idea of what is served in the evening. A great alternative for the nights you can't...or don't want to go to the dining room.

Before going back to our cabin we walked around the ship getting “just a few more” photos of the San Francisco skyline.

Coit Tower at night.

There was only one show at 9 pm in the theater...a comedian named Rodney Johnson...but we were too tired to attend. The When & Where also shows a game show called "Majority Rules" in the Crow's Nest at the same time. Didn't make it to that either!

I guess this might be why I was so tired!
The health app on my iphone shows just how much ground we covered in our day in San Francisco!!

The ship left the city at 11 pm but by then we were fast asleep. That is…until around 2 am. I heard my phone “ding” indicating that I had received a text message. A big oops. Since we were still in port, I had used my cell phone up until I went to bed but then forgot to put it back in airplane mode. The text message was from T-Mobile and said “Welcome to the Cruise Ship. Out of plan coverage $.50/text and $5.99/minute talk.” I got a sick feeling knowing that it wasn’t the calls or texts that I needed to worry about, but the data. I quickly turned on airplane mode and hoped that my phone hadn’t been updating apps while I was sleeping.

Update: All was well with my phone bill…no extra charges. I realized I had data roaming turned off so I hadn’t used any data while connected to the ship cell service. Since I have unlimited data at home, I don’t usually pay attention to something like that…but I surely will in the future!

Sea Day #8

Wednesday – May 2

We never knew when we set sail from San Diego. I’m assuming it was as scheduled at 11:00 pm. We watched the end of a DVD movie in our cabin and had lights out by 9:30. Sometime during the night however the waves got a little bigger…enough that our thumping started again. Not enough that we felt compelled to have someone come check on the problem, but enough that I was aware of it and not sleeping soundly.

Bob decided to start the day walking and since there wasn’t anything I wanted to do until 10 am, I chose to join him. We both set one foot out on the promenade deck and immediately turned around and went back to the cabin to get jackets! I didn’t walk long before I felt the coffee calling me from the Lido.

This door in the bow was opened as we walked by... 

...and we couldn't help but notice the huge chain.
It may be hard to judge the size from this photo, but the links were MASSIVE!

I had just sat down in the buffet when Stan showed up. We were still sitting there chatting quite some time later when Bob came to breakfast.

At 10:00 I went to the theater for a talk on what to do in San Francisco. Bob had made arrangements to play pickleball, but the wind kept them from playing <again!>. The two of us met up again in the Wajang Theater for the morning session of America’s Test Kitchen. The show was Southern Snacks and featured biscuits with pimento cheese and fried pickles with ranch dip. The host had just come onboard yesterday in San Diego. A second host was brand new and on her first cruise. I gathered that she was there in a learning capacity.

I didn’t realize she was new and asked her if there was any sort of door that could be banging in their kitchen since it was directly above our cabin (trying to investigate the cause of our mysterious bumping noise!) She seemed surprised by my question but assured me that all of their cupboards were locked but she did ask for my cabin number.

Bob, Stan and Danny always go to the Asian station at the buffet for lunch so we know to look for each other in that general area. I found the soup which was bacon cabbage…and so good! When the captain gave his noon report from the bridge he said he had just turned the ship to the port side to avoid hitting some whales! About that time we looked out the window and saw multiple whale spouts and could make out some tails as they dove.

By the time we finished lunch we went straight to the Crow’s Nest for trivia. The regulars that we usually play with were ALL there, making our group too large (only 6 are allowed per team) so we divided up into two teams. I was of no help (as usual) and even the good players struggled on some of the questions so we didn’t do too well.

Right in the middle of the game, Taylor (the cruise director) saw a big school (pod?) of some type of fish right in front of the ship. From our perspective so high up, it appeared that the ship ran right over them. Quite a few whales were spotted as well.

There wasn’t anything else on the schedule of interest to me for the afternoon so I grabbed my camera and a blanket and sat on one of the lounges on the promenade deck. Of course sitting there hoping to photograph a whale meant there were none to be seen! One of our Australian friends walked by and stopped to visit about things to see in San Francisco.

Sitting outside had gotten me chilled so I ran up to the coffee bar and ordered a large mocha latte to warm up. I sipped it while I worked on downloading photos from the last couple of days. Bob came back shortly after…he had gone to the BBC Earth movie.

Our routine was to check the dinner menu on the Navigator app each day and decide what we wanted to order ahead of time. Here are the menus from the app:

MAINS

The menu that we saw online had quite a few repeat dishes, but when Yezzir handed us the menus at the table, it was completely different. The choices on the actual men were all new choices I believe. I ordered a salad, French onion soup and rainbow trout. Bob got the salad, pea soup with leeks and fennel, and breaded shrimp. Here is the actual menu we ordered from:

Even if our dinner choices weren’t repeats, the production show (Variations) in the main theater was. And once again the show was performed with only one male dancer. Danny had talked to the dancer (Jason) who said a replacement dancer had come aboard in San Diego but had not had time to rehearse the show yet.

Before returning to our cabin, I stopped at the kiosk and printed out our account statement. I was more than surprised to see that I had a $99 charge from the spa…especially since I have not even been IN the spa! Guest services got things straightened out which put us back to having $90 left of our onboard credit.

As the captain predicted, the swells were getting large. The rattle/bumping noise was going strong in the cabin and Bob decided it was one of the emergency sprinkler heads. He reported it to guest services and a gal came to our cabin to check on the situation. Since it was so late, we agreed to wait and have someone check on it the next day. Unfortunately, with the ship docked there will be no noise so not sure if they will be able to figure out the problem. We shall see.

Tomorrow will be another long day in port in San Francisco. The Zaandam is scheduled to sail under the Golden Gate Bridge pretty early in the morning and be docked by 8:00 am. The ship won’t sail until 11 pm so that gives us lots of time to explore.

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.