Year 5, Day 261 “Living the Dream”. Friday, 1/16/2026, Day 11 of 22 day California Zephyr cross country trip, followed by a California coastal drive, and then a 14 night Mexico Cruise – Day 4 of 3 night Ensenada cruise from Los Angeles on Quantum of the Seas and Day 1 of 5 night Cabo Overnight Cruise from Los Angeles on Quantum of the Seas – Los Angeles, California back to back.
Breakfast at 6am.
Then packed up our bags and our free professional pictures. We ordered them late last night and they were outside our door this morning.
We are changing rooms. For the next 5 nights we will be in room 11134. Our Stateroom Attendant Yudi will move our luggage for us today along with items hanging in the closet. We left our the room and headed to The Music Hall deck 4. On disembarkation day the elevators are always packed. We walked the 9 decks down. Down is easy. We are leaving the ship to go pick up my box of contacts at Target. We quickly were given our new room key and an in transit card. We were told to disembark on deck 5 by the Wonderland Restaurant. This is where the suite and key quests disembark. I have to say it was quick. They kept our old room key and will send it to our new room after we leave port.
Walked directly through customs facial recognition and are off the ship by 9am. The pier is very crowded. It is turn around day for us and the Navigator of the Seas. We disembarked at pier 91 and had to walk up to pier 92 where Navigator is disembarking. Uber picks up there.
We tried two different Ubers and were dropped after waiting 10 minutes for each one. We decided to walk out of the port. We walked a block away and were able to get an Uber quickly to Target and took an Uber back.
We were back to our ship by 10:20am. We used our in transit cards and boarded at 10:30. It was pretty funny. We got back on with all the other back 2 backers. They were led off the ship and then back on. Right next to the LA Cruise Terminal is the Battleship USS IOWA Museum.
Upon boarding we walked directly to our new room. Our bags were there waiting along with our excursion tickets for this five night cruise. Also a notification that time is changing tonight. Not all ships change time to match your destination ports. Some will stay on ships time. I always wear a watch when cruising and set my watch to whatever the captain wants. Your phone will not always update correctly to the local time. Remember on the ship your phone will be on airplane mode.
We stayed in our room till 11:30am There is always a back 2 back lunch. Today it is in the Chic restaurant on deck 3. Excellent lunch where we met a couple doing a side to side cruise. They had just gotten off the Navigator of the Seas. Beautiful afternoon to be outside on the deck.
Here is our review of the three night cruise.
Room: Balcony stateroom 13540 was a forward starboard side cabin. It had a great view. It also had a nice private balcony. The sides were totally blocked from the next balcony. Very clean with a great hardworking Stateroom attendant. Carpeting was very nice. The shower did fill up with water when showering. It had a very slow drain. There was an electric hot water pot on the counter along with tea, instant coffee, sugar, and creamer. That was unusual to us. We only had that one other time on our Australia cruise. The hairdryer was one you had to hold the button down the whole time drying your hair. They all used to be that way. Gradually, I noticed they have been replacing them. The new ones have a normal on and off switch.
Stateroom Attendant: Yudi was just perfect. The right amount of niceness and attentiveness. He even made two towel animals for us. A lot of Stateroom attendants would not have not done that for a three night cruise.
Dining room food and service: Everything was very good. The rolls were always warm and so soft. The Chicken Parmesan was excellent. The service was perfect not to much just right. The servers entertaining was better than ever. I usually hate the dining staff entertainment.
Windjammer buffet: Very good. Kept very clean. The bacon was pretty gross though. Really strong tasting. Again there were some perfect rolls. The Edam cheese, salad bar beans, vegetables, and avocado toast were great.
Crown Lounge: Coffee was yummy. The machine worked the whole time. AMAZING it was never out of order. Everything was kept very clean. The concierge lady was very nice. She printed our new room luggage tags without hesitation.
Embarkation: Easy and quick. I do wish you could take your carry on luggage directly to your room. MSC does that and it is so much nicer.
Entertainment: Well only saw one show in the 270. It was called Starwater. It was a very modern type dance show. The singer was good and so were the dancers. I personally found it different and unique, but it did not hold my interest. There must have been a lot of others who felt the same way. We watched many people walk out. We did walk out before it was over.
Here are copies of all that paperwork that is in your room on the first day. Yikes! There is a lot!- But do read it.
Laundry Bags are in the closet
Dinner Menu: Welcome Aboard – Day 1 of 5 (Los Angeles)
Cruise Compass: Day 1 of 5 – Embarkation Day
Thought for today.
Here’s a link to today’s Amazon recommendation: https://amzn.to/4atjHcO 4Nelko Label Maker Machine with Tape: This handy little label maker will make you go label craaaazzzzzy!
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