Traveling yesterday was easy. Ellexia enjoyed the airplane ride and acted like she had done it lots of time. We had plenty of time in the airport to enjoy a pizza before we went to the boarding gate. The flight left on time and was smooth.
We got to LAX and found the hotel shuttle bus fairly easily. It showed up only about 10 minutes after I called it. We only had a five minute ride to our hotel. Unfortunately our hotel room was not ready for us when we arrived at 10:30 at night. We had to sit in the lobby and wait for about 45 minutes until they finally let us in our room. We had trouble finding the room and it was not an impressive room by any means. We were so tired by that point we just went to bed. The guy that checked in right before we did had it worse. He was given a key to a room that had a couple already in it. He caught them in the act. Needless to say he was furious at the front desk and then he had to wait for over 30 minutes for another room – this one empty.
Got up and had breakfast at the hotel. I must say the people in the lobby that were guests at the hotel were not very pleasant. Ellexia wanted some scrambled eggs and I finally had to go with her as she kept getting pushed out of the way and she couldn’t get them.
I called an Uber to take us the the cruise terminal in Long Beach. The lady driver showed up within a few minutes and safely drove us to our destination. It was about a 40 minute drive. I noticed gas costs about $5 a gallon here. The Uber charge was $40 for the drive which seemed reasonable. The bus ride coming back from the cruise terminal to the airport was $40 a piece – Uber wins again.
We waited at the cruise terminal for about an hour and then went through the initial processing point. We then had to wait another hour in a big waiting room inside the terminal before our group was called to board the cruise ship. The check in process itself was quick and easy and no long line until we were called to get on the ship itself.
Unfortunately we never saw a place where we could put our bags so we had to carry them onboard ourselves. Our rooms weren’t ready for about two hours after we got on the ship so we had to carry our bags wherever we went. We finally figured out where the food was and got some lunch. Seating was hard to find but we managed finally to find a place to sit and eat. Ellexia changed into her swimming suit and got in the pool and hot tubs while we were waiting for our room to be available.
We finally got to get into our rooms and dumped our bags. We hung out by the pool most of the rest of the afternoon. I found a place in the shade to sit and Ellexia would go off and then come touch base and go off again. A lady sat and visited with me for a while which was nice. Ellexia got hungry so she grabbed a hamburger and fries and that served as dinner. She came and went all evening after I went to the room and stayed in for the remainder of the day.
I am struggling a bit to deal with all the people and noise. I can hear the music from three levels down in our very small room. I’m glad Ellexia feels comfortable roaming about the ship without me.
Grateful for a safe journey here, grateful for Uber, and grateful to have figured out how to get us on board and into our room.