We returned Thursday night from an 11 night cruise of the Pacific Coast. We like cruising and the 'taste of' different locales it affords us. This past experience, however, was not as positive as the prior cruises. We should have known this when a few months before the cruise, we could not get a straight answer as to where we were to check in. Some said at the airport; some said at The Pavillion (a large tent with one portable toilet beside the Sheraton). The latter is where we were finally instructed to go.
We checked in for the Celebrity Solstice in San Diego. It was total chaos. I don't do well with chaos. Our experience was not as bad as others', though, and we got through the line in an hour and a half. We were issued our ship ID cards and assigned to bus 14 which when boarded would take us to ENSENADA, MEXICO. Yes, that was where the ship was docked and where we would board. Why? See The Jones Act (also under antiquated, pain-in-the- ass laws). People were panicked and grabbing boxed lunches and water that we were supposed to get when we boarded the buses. Giving each person one ticket for their lunch would have taken care of this, but no thought seemed to have gone into this whole process. We never got a lunch or water; that kind of greed/panic really bothers us and we stayed clear.
Like I said, we made out pretty well having begun the process at 12 and boarding the ship at 4. Our travel buddies, Margie and Dave, began at the same time and boarded the ship closer to 8 PM. After standing in line for 4 hours to register, waiting another few hours to board, their driver got lost in Tijuana and then ran out of gas. It was the trip from Hell.
When a bus arrived in Ensenada, they checked passengers' IDs several times, lined us up to get on the ship where they checked us again and took our pictures and collected our passports. Our luggage arrived in trucks, was unloaded in front of armed guards, sniffed out by dogs, and then loaded onto the ship. We watched from our balcony, waiting for our friends to arrive, as they transported and boarded 2880 people.
See the dog in the middle of the luggage???
More about the actual cruise later!! :)
We checked in for the Celebrity Solstice in San Diego. It was total chaos. I don't do well with chaos. Our experience was not as bad as others', though, and we got through the line in an hour and a half. We were issued our ship ID cards and assigned to bus 14 which when boarded would take us to ENSENADA, MEXICO. Yes, that was where the ship was docked and where we would board. Why? See The Jones Act (also under antiquated, pain-in-the- ass laws). People were panicked and grabbing boxed lunches and water that we were supposed to get when we boarded the buses. Giving each person one ticket for their lunch would have taken care of this, but no thought seemed to have gone into this whole process. We never got a lunch or water; that kind of greed/panic really bothers us and we stayed clear.
Like I said, we made out pretty well having begun the process at 12 and boarding the ship at 4. Our travel buddies, Margie and Dave, began at the same time and boarded the ship closer to 8 PM. After standing in line for 4 hours to register, waiting another few hours to board, their driver got lost in Tijuana and then ran out of gas. It was the trip from Hell.
When a bus arrived in Ensenada, they checked passengers' IDs several times, lined us up to get on the ship where they checked us again and took our pictures and collected our passports. Our luggage arrived in trucks, was unloaded in front of armed guards, sniffed out by dogs, and then loaded onto the ship. We watched from our balcony, waiting for our friends to arrive, as they transported and boarded 2880 people.
See the dog in the middle of the luggage???
More about the actual cruise later!! :)
