We spent 2 days in San Diego before our cruise, staying at the Holiday Inn San Diego on the Bay. We love this hotel, which is right across the street from the cruise terminal. Their bus picked us up at the airport and we were at the Holiday Inn in 7 minutes. Our room was nice, with a balcony facing the harbor, and pretty small. We figured this would be good practice for cabin living once onboard. The staff was very nice and helpful. We ate at The Elephant and Castle downstairs and also at Anthony's Fish Grotto across the street. We enjoyed Anthony's so much we ate there again upon our return from the cruise. We especially liked Hazelwood's, the little deli place downstairs and outside. It was convenient for breakfast, lunch, ice cream, pastries and beverages ...... we made many visits. Coming from the chilly Midwest, we felt like we were really on vacation sitting at an outdoor umbrella table watching the ships come in.

While in San Diego, we took the OLD TOWN TROLLEY TOUR BUS. You could hop on and off the bus at each sight, staying as long as you wished until you were ready to hop on the bus for the next location. We visited Old Town, the Harbor, Seaport Village, Marriott Hotel and Marina, Horton Plaza Shopping Center, Gaslight Quarter, Coronado Island (the ferry landing and an Irish Pub closer to the Coronado Hotel), San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park. You really could spend an entire day at some of these stops. One surprisingly interesting site was the SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFF'S MUSEUM. It's in the Old Town area and it's free to the public. Very interesting and educational. If you're into photography, there are many photo opportunities there.

The day of the cruise, we walked over to the cruise terminal about 11:30. Within 30" we were eating a delicious lunch in the Lido. Very efficient check in. Our outside cabin on the Dolphin Deck was efficiently laid out with plenty of storage, a personal safe, luggage storage under the bed, 2 additional keyed drawers by the bed, luxurious linens and pillows and a comfort-top mattress. On the desk, we had an ice bucket and glasses. There was a fruit basket but with so much food aboard we discontinued the daily in-room fruit. The bathroom had a corner cabinet that held quite a lot. Even so, I used the over-the-door shoe hanger for additional "stuff". The provided toiletries were up-scale and smelled so good. For those mentioning difficulties getting in and out of the tub.....our tub had two grab bars... And believe me, they came in handy when the ship was rocking and rolling! Our room stewards RiDHO and SYURYADiH magically appeared, presented their card and proceeded To lay out our luggage for unpacking. They asked if they could do anything for us, and complied with all our requests. By the way, I did pack the suggested sticky notes and they came in handy whenever we wanted to communicate with Ridho and Syuryadih. Read more