It’s a gorgeous, cool and sunny 70 degrees here in San Pedro, CA at the LA cruise port. This morning we dumped out about 80% of our ship passengers into this port, and picked up a whole new load of cruisers. Some are getting off the ship in Vancouver, BC like we are, while others will continue on through Alaska. On the whole, it appears our ship has average aged down by about 20 years. I suspect that is because this is a shorter cruise, and working folks don’t typically have the vacay time to spend 17 nights going thru the Panama Canal 😂.

Brushes with Fame?

My friend Lisa made mention of us keeping an eye out for possible celeb sightings on this part of the cruise given our origin port, so Rob and I have been scanning the incoming crowds for celebs. I am sad to report no celebs known to us appear to be onboard, BUT… drum roll please… I am thrilled to share that Santa is still here! For those of you who have not been following along with our previous blogs, this cruise ship happens to have a real life Santa Claus aboard. Like, a no lie red-suit, stocking cap wearing Santa who dresses in his Santa gear daily and hohohos his way around the ship. He has an entire collection of Santa hats (including a baseball cap with a stocking cap and pompom attached to the top, Santa tropical shirts worn with big red shorts, and red suits with black belts. It is pretty epic. And what bigger celeb is there than Santa? We suspect- but have not confirmed- that he will be on the ship as far as Alaska, since that is the closest cruise port to the North Pole. So, if you’ve ever wondered what Santa does in his time off (besides boss around elves), I can tell you based on scientific research (I am NOT spying on Santa and violating his privacy as Rob keeps suggesting- I am RESEARCHING), he enjoys cruising, singing and dancing shows, the cookie and pastry buffet (naturally), buying toys in ports, and – I’m sorry to bear this bad news- being a bit rude in the elevator. I’ve ridden with him twice and he has a very poor sense of personal space among other things. He must be used to far less tight quarters in the North Pole. Is Santa on his own naughty list?!

Mmmm… Pizza…

So we have little to report in LA because we used this day to run errands and restock items we needed. We had to be off the ship by 9 a.m. so they could sanitize everything before the next cruise, and be back on before 2:00 for the next sail away. After our errands, we rewarded ourselves with one of the food items we are missing most onboard: pizza. They do have some onboard, but it is unfortunately not on our edible list and we’ve been avoiding it. We found a place (Brunello’s) near the port that filled our need for NY pizza very well. Note: this was a “small”!!

Oh Ship

It’s been a few days since we last blogged in Mazatlan on Monday, and we have managed to stay quite busy, as usual. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday at sea watching shows, attending a Mixology class, losing at Bingo, participating in onboard dance classes, and (Betsy) entertaining our fellow cruisers by playing a role in the Murder Mystery event aboard.

The first pics below are from the cast singers and dancers performing their “Rockumentary” show, a really fun show with rock from the 50s thru today, and including cool aerialist acts! On Tuesday they held a special mixology class for the captains club members, and we learned how to make (and got to taste!) a Bees Knees, a Dark and Stormy, and a Hemingway daiquiri. Verdict: all pretty good!! We also took dance classes both days with the Celebrity Summit ship dancers, and it was really fun! We learned basic steps to the Rumba and the Tango, and managed to only stomp each others’ toes only a few times. On Tuesday we attended a solve-a-murder mystery event on board, and I (Betsy) got randomly selected to play a role in which I had to provide all of the sound effects for the whole show. They gave me a script and a microphone, and I popped up randomly throughout the show making odd noises and generally adding to the hilarity of the show. I once again thank my teacher and classmates at Whole World Theater in Atlanta for giving me the complete confidence to get up on stage and act the fool with very little embarrassment. It was an absolute blast! Rob snagged a few videos of the event, as well.

I would advise myself to keep my day job, but hey… I no longer have one! 🎉❤️ We are off to San Diego tomorrow, so expect another blog sometime shortly afterward. Thanks for adventuring with us!!