Kathleen and I were looking for a short trip this fall. Since we are going to Florida for two weeks in the spring to sail on Solstice with the Martini Mates we didn’t want to go anyplace too far away but we did want to get away.

We didn’t want to have the expense of flying cross country or take more than a week or so. This meant staying on the west coast. We did discuss a land vacation but you all know how much we like cruising and we had never been to the Mexican Riviera so we decided to try that. Our first problem was that our favorite cruise line, Celebrity, doesn’t sail the Mexican Riviera. So we had to find another. We had previously cruised on both Holland America (HAL) and Carnival. There was and is NO possibility that we will ever sail on Carnival again. But Holland was a possibility. Our first cruise was on HAL almost 8 years ago.

The deal sealer happened in late August when we were invited to lunch onboard HAL’s Oosterdam while they were in port in Seattle. We are big supporters of Seattle Men’s Chorus who has a sponsorship arrangement with HAL  and they invited all their major contributors to lunch on Oosterdam as a thank you. We were impressed enough with the ship to book this cruise.

We started the trip by flying down to San Diego on Jet Blue from Seattle. We had never flown Jet Blue before but we had heard good things. And the good things were right. First, everyone we met with Jet Blue was extremely friendly and efficient. And besides the TV in the back of every seat with about 50 channels of live TV (I got to watch the World Series on a plane--LIVE!) the seats have more legroom than any coach seat I have ever had the discomfort of sitting in. They even have seats with more legroom than the ones we were in. You have to upgrade into those for $20 but I did sit in one for a few minutes and there was enough legroom I was able to cross my legs. I had almost spent the extra $20 (per seat) but I decided not to and was glad I didn’t. The regular seats were fine for me and I am 6’2” tall.

Up next, San Diego.