We were there in time for early embarkation at Queen Mary, first time doing that in this port. Very fast and we grabbed our Zone 1 card and headed over to that area. Beautiful morning, sunny with little wind. We embarked and went up to Serenity area deck 9, but first a stop at the pool bar for a Foster's (a cruise tradition). Serenity was empty for a couple of hours, just to ourselves so we could enjoy the view of Long Beach and soak up some sun. Cruise Critic roll call was limited for this sailing and I went to where the meet and greet was expected but saw no one. Did run into one of the roll call people on Halloween night. Muster drill was ok, all went well and we then went up to Verandah forward to observation area for sailaway at sunset. We were able to switch our dining from late to Anytime option but decided to pass on dining room that night and just eat on Lido. Other than a couple of things, really disappointing food up there. Cabin was U15, went cheap on this cruise since it was just a filler till platinum. Stateroom was nice, could tell they did the upgrade and porthole worked fine for light and views. Bed comfy as always but wish this room had couch as it only had a chair.

Woke up in Catalina and could hear anchor dropping but not as loud as others have commented on. Grabbed early breakfast to catch tender before they get busy...........no problem. Weather was fabulous in Avalon so we followed our plans to walk up to Wrigley Memorial which is about 1.5 mile of steady climb. It's $7 pp to go into Wrigley and worth it for us. Hint: water there sucks, bring your own. We walked though gardens which are both indigenous plants and imports. This is not a lush garden like you might expect but since the islands are just about desert climate, suiting that they favor plants that do well in arid conditions. The Memorial was great and I won't go into details about that but it is impressive.

Hoofed it down the main road, even did the makeshift labyrinth maze someone laid out in a small grove of trees. Walked past the golf course where I've played before and replayed some memories in my mind. Got to town and things were busier than earlier along the main streets. Grabbed a quick bite at a walk up hot dog/burger place and then headed over to Descanso Beach area, taking pics along the way. Said hi to casino building and ended up at Descanso where they have been and continue to do upgrades from my past visits. One of them was the zipline tour that Roxanne did. It is 5 lines and she enjoyed it more than the 14 lines in Puerto Vallarta she has done (I don't do ziplining!). This has a eco component and history of island included. Since she had 2 hours for the ziplines, I zipped over to Luau Larry's and Marlin Club for a beer to continue previous traditions. Plenty of time to go back to Descanso (about a 10 min walk) and snap some pics of her coming in on last zipline. We spent rest of time walking around main beach area and stopped for a margarita before heading back on tender. Read more