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cruiseSHIP
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Dec,22nd. Arriving at the dock. Our ship is straight ahead. The Viking Seranade, Royal Caribbean Lines. Four day cruise, docking in Ensenada Mexico, San Diego, and Santa Catalina Island.
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cruiseLimo
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Wendy and Stacey in Front of Pete's Limo. Den and Wen were in the Van, and we followed Pete driving his Limo to the Docks .... boy was that ever a hairy adventure . . . driving fast would be a huge understatement.
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cruiseLuggage
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Luggage, wow, the baggage guy had his work cut out with our load. It was a windy day but warm. After we got on the ship, we went straight to our cabin, unpacked and then headed for the bar. The ship set sail around 6pm and it was nearly dark.We left the docks and sailed passed restaurants and shops filled with waving, chearing customers shouting Merry Christmas to 100's of passengers standing on deck. Very enjoyable and a great start to the cruise.
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cruiseCabin
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Our cabin attendant, Jesus, was quite the character. When we came back to our room, we had a good laugh at his art work. Jesus had shaped the towels into a snake (with my glasses) and a fish with the mint being the eye of the fish.
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CruiseCatalinaIsland
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It takes an hour, at 15 mph, to drive around Catalina Island with a Golf Cart. We rented a cart for 3 hrs for $60.00. Stacey and Allysha in one, Den and I in one, Mum Dad Jen & Ed in the third cart.
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cruiseshipside
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After I got on the small boat, I looked up and took a shot of the side of the ship. The ship is actually much taller than this, as there are more decks above the highest visable rail in this picture.
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cruise26
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The ship can't dock at the pier in Catalina, we got on a small boat to ferry us to the Island which only took 10 minutes.
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cruiseMumDadWenDen1
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cruiseCat_Cart36
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The golf cart we rented to tour Catalina Island. Behind us is the bay where our ship was moored.
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cruiseCat_Harbor2
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Another shot of Catalina harbor
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cruiseCat_harbor
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Better picture of our cruise ship in the distance.
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cruiseCat_Cart2
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We have just finished the trip around the Island. That's Stacey and Allysha in front of us.
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cruiseCat_mom
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Mom with our ship in the background.
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cruiseCatalenaStores
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Den and I.
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cruiseCat_bird
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Den and I had an Ice-cream cone, the birds are eating some of the crumbs of the sugar-cone from my hand.
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cruiseCat_DenWen
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Den and I, picture taken just before going back to the ship.
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cruiseBrowns
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Captains ball. Daniel, Me, Dennis. Mum didn't make it that night as she had a bad case of sea-sickness.
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cruiseCaptainBall
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Dan and Stacey at the captains ball.
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cruiseKapersBrowns
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Top, left to right, Casey, Allysha, Alex, Cindy (Ed's sister)
Bottom: Dennis, me, Jennifer, Ed.
Jen wasn't feeling too good either (rough seas) so she left before the meal was over. We were told that this was an unusually rough sea. After the meal, Den and I retired for the night also.
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cruiseourTable
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Christmas Eve. Jenny brought some English Christmas Crackers. This was the group at our table. Our crowd took up three tables.
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cruiseDadStacey
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Ah ... Grandpa and Stacey ... aren't they cute!
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cruiseRushtons table.
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A shot of Stacey, Jimmy, Evan in the back, Jaimie and son Kenny.
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cruisepresents
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Christmas day openening our presents. We all picked a name out of a hat and bought just the one present.
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cruiseSanta
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Santa boarding on deck three around noon on Christmas day
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cruiseSanta2
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Santa and his elves pass out presents to the children on board.
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cruiseMex_BlowHole
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Day trip in Ensenda. A 35-minute bus ride past farms and olive groves to "La Bufador" a blowhole. We were told there were only 4 blowholes world wide. There is a huge hole/cavity, that fills with air when the sea goes out, the next wave in fills the hole with water and traps the air, which then blows the water into the air. The 35-minute ride went through extremely run-down areas that shoved poverty in your face.
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cruiseMex_BlowHole2
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Another shot of the water shooting up at the blow hole which was interesting and the one thing about Ensenada we enjoyed.
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cruiseMex_DenWen
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Den and I at the blow hole.
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cruiseMex_StacEvan
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Stacey and Evan at the blow hole The shops behind them were Tourist shops we walked passed where the merchants expect their customers to bargain for the items they sold. The streets were filled with children that followed us with extreme persistance, pestering every tourist to give them money. It was not an enjoyable experience, the children were not clean and were obviously poor. Very sad and depressing to me. I was told that "eventually one gets used to it" , , , Den and I have no wish to "get used to it" and we don't plan on going back there again. We both found the whole day trip in Ensenada to be depressing. We did enjoy the trip on Catalina was very enjoyable.
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cruiseStaceyEvanDeck
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Stacey and Evan walking around the deck that surrounds the pool
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cruiseBirds
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We had a breakfast on the deck. There are signs "Please don't feed the birds". They poop all over the deck and glass rails.
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