Panama Canal Cruise/winter hiatus 2018-2019
Cruise ship departure day! Greetings from the Crowne Plaza Hotel San Pedro/Long Beach, California. (Sis in law) Julie and I just finished our buffet breakfast after a much-needed night's sleep. Shuttles to Royal Caribbean's "Vision of the Seas" start at 10 a.m. and leave every half hour until 1 p.m. Outside, it is 63 and raining/sprinkling, the latter a rare event here ("It never rains in Southern California"). It will make for a gloomy sendoff from port, but that is OK. Our journey began yesterday (11/28) with an 8 a.m. bus Van Galder bus ride to O'Hare airport. Arriving at 10 a.m., we checked a bag apiece ($30 each), cleared security and got to our gate no problems. The flight aboard American Airlines #2744 direct to LAX was booked solid. J and I each had window seats on opposite sides of the cabin. We arrived LAX 2:30 local time, about half hour late. We claimed our bags and headed to the Uber pickup point, where "Jose" was waiting fo...