San Pedro, CA

We arrived in San Pedro at around 8:30 am. My first task was to find my package. I asked at the front desk about what time the ship's agent usually gets packages on board. The answer was in the morning...or sometime during the day. A lot of good that was! We had sort of planned to grab a taxi to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach but discovered that the pier would be supplying a free shuttle there, perfect. We toured the aquarium which was very good. There were several creatures I hadn't remembered seeing before. And seeing penguins and puffins is always my favorite. 

After the aquarium we hopped on the "Passport" bus which is a free service in Long Beach. The fav stop for cruisers is Walmart so we followed suit and went. Bought a few snacks for Mel, a shoe rack for me as well as some DVD's on WWII for $5 each. We were back on board for lunch, no package. 

Some of our shipped luggage had arrived so while I unpacked Mel headed over to the Iowa, a battleship they have turned into a museum. It was right in front of our ship on the pier. At 2 there was a knock on the door, my package. Now I can relax for the rest of the trip. 

I am not much of a lunch eater, usually having just yogurt and fruit when at home. I have always had a hard time deciding what to eat on board because of that. Everything else just seemed too heavy. Well, I have found my lunch and had the same thing 3 days in a row so far, sashimi! It is low cal and full of protein, just right for me. Of course they also serve sweet potato fries daily. I will have to resist and just have them as a treat once in a while. I am not going to make the mistake I made on the World Cruise and just eat what I felt like eating. Took me 2 years to rid myself of that indulgence! Now I will pick and choose. I did have a cookie this morning that was the best! It had a lot of coconut as well as macadamia nuts and chocolate. Fortunately it is not a standard flavor they serve for lunch every day or I would be in trouble, just delicious! (Of course then I was on a mission and discovered they do have that type of cookie in the Explorer Internet Lounge daily, oh my!)

I received a call this morning from the gal I had inquired about my package. She asked if I had received it as it never went thru the front desk. She asked how I got it! A steward brought it to the room, that was all I needed to know. At least she followed thru if a bit late. 

This morning we had a Meet & Greet with the folks from Cruise Critic. It is a large group, almost 150 people. Hard to get to know everyone. I had posted before the trip to see if anyone would be interested in snorkeling with us and had 18 replies! We met with some of them during the meeting. Right now we have 20, including ourselves, who are interested, at least at our first snorkeling port, Chuuk. It will be interesting to see if the operators Mel has contacted can accommodate that many. 

After lunch I did my 3 miles around the deck. No whales, just lots of waves. I then went into the small pool at the aft of the ship. The water was a lot warmer than the air! And it was full of waves, the water rolling back and forth lowering the level on one side as much as a foot then sloshing back to the other side. A half hour of treading water was a lot more challenging than in our pool at home. I was the only one in the pool the entire time. We have 3 more sea days before hitting Hilo, HI. By then we will be well settled in.