Port of Long Beach

Leaving out of the Port of Long Beach, my friends and I christened a new ship, Princess Diamond.  Only a few months old, this cruise ship was sparkling from top to bottom and to date, the largest ship I've sailed on.

I had lived in L.A. for about seven years and have maintained a delightful friendship with my friend there who is a native Angelinan.  This trip was the second sailing with this fun group.  Interesting characters in this bunch..... my friend used to be the mayor of a city within Los Angeles, her sister is famous in the singing world, and her husband is a world-class violinist who has played with Celine Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, and countless others.  Had we stayed anchored in port I still would have been entertained the entire vacation just listening to their stories.

Princesses ship boarding process was long and tedius. Because it is even larger than the Celebrity Cruises I have been on and because the ship and crew were new, boarding took nearly five hours.  That's a lot of standing!  Once on the ship we were not greeted with drinks or escorted to our room.  That was such a disappointment.  I had grown accustomed to being treated like a "Celebrity" on their cruise line and I felt a bit more of a herd here on Princess.  However, it was still a vacation and ship was new and sparkling.

The Long Beach port is fascinating as it is one of the largest cargo ports in the US.  Quietly slipping by tall stacks of cargo cars stacked 8 tall, we were imaging what goods were inside and where they were headed.

We finally reached open water on the Pacific and headed to the adventures before us in Puerto Vallarta.