This sunny cruise onboard the Oosterdam made us completely forget it was February!

Travel to Port, Background, Hotel: We left Chicago on Thursday 15 February, encountering a several hour flight delay due to the storms on the East coast. (We rationalize this several day ahead departure as cheap trip insurance.) Since all of the port area hotels/motels were completely booked, we had reserved a room at the La Jolla Estancia and rented a car to drive up there. It was a most pleasant interlude at a deluxe hotel. Saturday, 17 February, at 9:45 am, despite dire warnings about traffic (what traffic?), we left, drove the car to Budget and called a Yellow Cab for the trip to the pier. Hotel to airport-Budget to ship terminal took no more than one hour. We were at the dock at 10:45, showed our tickets and passports to the friendly security staff and went inside the waiting room. A small crowd had gathered, sandwiches and lemonade were being served, and we were in group 2 for boarding! We were onboard by 11:45. We went directly to the Lido, sat in the sunny pool area, and happily ate! (Or, a great suggestion from RandyandTina of CC, deposit your suitcases and head over to the Midway Museum, for a 3 hour self-guided tour of the aircraft carrier.)

Ship: I like the Vista class ships because of the moderately priced balcony cabins and because of the hydrotherapy pool and thermal suite in the spa. Purell hand sanitizer is ubiquitous. Read more