Background.......My sons ages 21 and 17 and I sailed with a group of friends who we met through the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. We all have had a loved one who was a firefighter die in the line of duty. There was a group of 15 of us. My friend Carol and I had a balcony cabin #6397 on Upper Deck, my sons were across the hall in inside cabin #6399. The boys and I are frequent floaters, this was Carols first cruise.

Pre Cruise....My sons Carol and I flew in from Newark Airport on the day before. (Most of the others in the group also flew in from other destinations too.) We stayed at the Best Western Convention Center in Long Beach. Enjoyed the stay. After checking in we walked a few blocks to grab the Passport C bus which is the free bus. We took it out to the Queen Mary where we took a self guided tour and then the Ghost and legends Tour which was so much fun. We got back on the bus and headed over to Shoreline Village where we ate out on the deck overlooking the marina at the Yard House. Back to the hotel for some much needed sleep as jet lag was setting in. We went to the Continental Breakfast and met up with the rest of the group and we walked to the Long Beach Central Fire Station for a visit and tour. In the middle of the tour they got a call so the tour was over early. Back to the hotel and Carol, the boys and I took a taxi to the ship terminal around 11AM, the rest of the group wanted to see more of Long Beach before boarding.

Embarkation......I had finally reached Platinum status so it was off to the VIP room, painless and now we had to wait. We met up with two of our group who flew in that morning. We boarded at about 12:30, we were literally the first ones on board...well almost until the line we got in for our sail and sign pictures, machine broke......A few minutes of working on that and then it was up to Lido for our first foo foo drink and lunch. We were able to get to our cabins at 2 so we dropped off the carry on stuff and off to tour the ship. Read more