Sunday, January 8, 2023 Los Angeles

 

Sunday, January 8, 2023 

Los Angeles 

We arrived in Los Angeles in the early morning hours with Starboard side (our side) against the dock. There are pros and cons to this. Con is we are looking at the Cruise Terminal and it is just a building. This one is about 3 or 4 stories tall and not particularly attractive. The pro is we are able to check out where the gangway is and kind of get a lay of the land. We also get to watch the provisioning process as a lot of it is going on right beneath our cabin. It is fascinating to watch the workers organize the pallets, and then watch the equipment load it on board. And there are pallet after pallet of provisions. And they just keep coming. 

We have been enjoying Sandemans Port as a nightcap since we’ve been on board, and we were pleased to see a pallet with several cases of Sandemans. We should be good until Hawaii.

Pallet after pallet of provisions for the Viking Neptune.

The yellow piece of equipment is actually a fork lift. Instead of it lifting things high overhead, it's arm extended inside the ship.

Once on board, everything had to be removed from the pallets and transferred to stainless steel pallets or shelving or refrigerated storage aboard Viking. Then ALL wooden pallets were removed from the ship.

 

Last night (Saturday) we received a notice that due to pending inclement weather, the decision had been made to cancel our stop in Santa Barbara. A bit disappointing, but Santa Barbara is a Tender Port and trying to tender ashore in bad weather did not sound like fun. And in pouring down rain, the excursion would not have been all that exciting. 

We had also received a notice from Viking that the naming ceremony for the Neptune would be occurring on Sunday afternoon/evening in LA and that we were invited to attend (via large screens throughout the ship). We were very pleased with this as for some naming ceremonies in the past, the passengers had been relegated to a venue on the dock and were not allowed on the ship. 

Our excursion was for 8:15 a.m. and would be a 4-hour drive around (“Postcards from LA”). Before we could get started on the excursion, we first had to clear customs in the Cruise Terminal. There were also about 300 guests departing the ship this morning for flights home. A different 300 will be arriving throughout the day to board for the remainder of the World Cruise. Customs moved along swiftly, and we had one of the nicer CBP officers that we have ever encountered.

 

We were settled on our bus and ready to pull away when a couple of people popped up and said, “we’re supposed to be on a different tour”. A quick spin around the parking lot, and off they went to find the right bus. 

This is a standard tour in LA, particularly for cruise ship passengers. Since it usually runs on weekdays, there is a lot of time built in for traffic. This is Sunday! There is minimal traffic. So, we just kept scooting from one site to the next, occasionally going round the block or pausing for photos from inside the bus. “Jon” was our guide. He had us laughing within a couple of minutes. Born and raised in LA, Jon had lot of anecdotes and facts and made all of it fun. We toured downtown LA including Olvera Street and City Hall as well as “Angel’s Flight”. Then off to Hollywood. Along the Walk of Fame we stopped for the only time we would be allowed off the bus. There are now 4,700 “Stars”. Usually, tourists get about 15 minutes. We had an hour due to how quickly we were moving with no traffic. Jon knew of a spot to take selfies with the “Hollywood” sign in the background and led us to that spot, then we were on our own for a while. We found a coffee shop and enjoyed a cup of coffee, with two couples from Australia before heading back to the bus.

Walt Disney Theatre. Amazing building! and beautiful.

Angel's Flight railroad. It only goes about a block but continues to be used to this day. It costs a whole buck to ride.

Art Deco buildings in downtown Lost Angeles.

Hollywood's Walk of Fame. Conditions apply. It costs the "star" $50,000 as a maintenance fee. They must show up for the installation.

Donald Trumps' star has had to be replaced 7 times because when he was president, somebody kept taking a sledge hammer to it.

An interesting mural in the shopping center adjacent to the Dolby Theatre.

The infamous Hollywood sign.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

On we went along Sunset Strip with various famous restaurants and clubs. Then through Beverly Hills and adjacent communities with some very high-end rents. It really is a very lovely old, well-manicured neighborhood. Because we had so much time, Jon and the bus driver agreed to extend the tour a bit and took us to Santa Monica and Venice Beach before heading back towards the ship.

Marilyn Monroe's cottage. The comment was it was a lot more attractive when Marilyn had it.

Nakatomi Plaza. From "Die Hard"

Santa Monica Pier

A great excursion. Although we both grew up in Southern California, neither of us had ever done this kind of touristy thing. We really enjoyed it. 

We have met a couple that happen to have one of the suites at the front of the ship. We were invited to join them to watch the naming ceremony. I’ll cover that in a separate post.