Vision of the Seas
Back in October 2006 Amy and I discussed going on a cruise when I was over there.  Monarch of the Seas was ruled out for being too short and we wanted to avoid the boozers.  Dawn Princess from San Diego to the Mexican Riviera was vetoed after Princess wanted to charge me the higher UK rate.  They can sod off!  Vision of the Seas doing the same cruise from San Pedro because the 30th March coincided with the QE2's annual visit.  Royal Caribbean don't care where you're from.  Perfect!  Or would have been if there wasn't a chance of missing the departure as Amy had seen them all.  So we opted for the 23rd, little realising it was actually Easter.  That way we would arrive with her.  We booked an Oceanview but in March 2007 decided to upgrade to a balcony so we could see the QE2 if she was behind us coming in.  So Amy contacted her rep at Vacations To Go who told us D1-7152 on the portside of the stern was the only one left.  We didn't hesitate and took it.  Our excitement turned to sadness on the 18th June that year when it was announced the QE2 had been sold, meaning it would be her very final call to Los Angeles.  They slapped a fuel surcharge on us because Americans were no matter what whereas other countries didn't have to pay it if they already had a reservation or had paid it off whch was incredibly stupid.  We did have a bit of a panic in the weeks leading up to the cruise when in March, British Airways pilots threatened to strike.  Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!  They can't do that to me!!!!  It would have been over Easter as well.  Then we received two excellend pieces of news.  The first was Royal Caribbean would refund the surcharge after a Florida judge's ruling.  The second was the pilots union said they won't strike over Easter.  Hooray!!!!  So on the 21st I headed to Heathrow and encountered some weird weather.  As the taxi left my house, there was hail.  By Totton it was raining.  Twyford we had snow and Winchester for the rest of the journey there was sunshine.  I was leaving from Terminal 1 and when I returned it would be via the brand new Terminal 5.  I was too early so able to check in but had to go back to do my luggage.  Surprisingly I was only taking the one case.  Perhaps it was due to it being so hot where I was heading but I can take more for two nighters!  I got chatting first to a girl from Coventry and then, when I rejoined the queue, to Val and John who were heading off to LA to cruise on Island Princess through the Panama Canal to Fort Lauderdale.  I noticed they had a letter with the Princess logo and I am a nosey so and so.  Then it was time to wait until the gate opened.  Since giving up smoking at the end of January this was the first time my duty free only comprised of chocolate and a double adaptor.  I met Val and John again a while later.  We had our gate but the flight was delayed nearly two hours.  It was finally time to board at 4.10pm, an hour after we should have taken off.  When we did leave at getting on for 5pm it was pouring with rain.  During the flight I met many people who were on Island Princess, including the two elderly Scottish women next to me.  Nice as they were, they were pretty hard going so I ended up spending much of my time talking to Val and John.  They introduced me to Neville who was sat beside Val.  It was nice talking to them, especially Neville who is interested in ships and has sailed on Canberra five times.  Lucky thing!  We all exchanged details over Canada but at immigration we lost Val and John so only Neville met Amy. The following day we did the usual Hollywood tourist things before going down to see Island Princess and Golden Princess off down at San Pedro.  We also went to see the Queen Mary at Long Beach before the light faded.  However the day of the cruise we would see the Queen Mary proper and we passed Vision of the Seas and Norwegian Star as we drove over the Vincent Thomas bridge en route to the grand old lady.
After lunch and hoping they'd blow her horn again at 1pm, we headed back to San Pedro.  As we had e-tickets there were no luggage labels meaning we had to get them there.  The porters are good though and go to you with their large trolley rather than you go to them.  Check-in was a doddle despite the girl being fairly new.  The same couldn't be said for the people at the next desk because the woman's children had different surnames to her but she couldn't prove they were hers.  We walked through the terminal and they ban you from taking photos.  Even after you've done the x-ray machines and security and are walking towards the gangway you're banned from even taking a photo of your ship.  The very ship you've paid money on to sail on and have already been checked by security.  It's all very stupid.  You don't have that problem over here thankfully.  93 is a very nice terminal.  Better than ours, apart from the QEII.  Bright and airy.
Once boarded on our home for the next week, we went to find our aft cabin.  Once we walked through the door we couldn't believe the size of the balcony and realised we'd got lucky.  The deck plans show the corner balconies to be no larger than the ones between but they are significantly bigger.
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	(C) Copyright Patricia Dempsey & Amy Blume 23rd-30th March & 12th April 2008 Not to be reproduced without permission