This day did not start well. And almost ended in disaster. But sandwiched between those two bad ends was a lot of fun.

While at sea on Day 17 we had booked a “hop-on, hop-off” bus tour. We had $50 excursion credit to use and this tour would take us across the Golden Gate Bridge, which was a bucket list item for Marlene. We were notified, on the app, that the excursion was booked and we received an envelope with tickets. But I didn’t look at the tickets until I got up on Day 18.

Big surprise: the tickets were for the Costa Rica excursion that had been cancelled! What kind of idiots send us tickets for a cancelled excursion from 4 days ago?

So down to the Shore Excursion desk. Which was closed. Next, Guest Services. They told me to go to the meeting spot – the theater – at 8:45. So we got some breakfast, got dressed for the day, then headed to the theater. Or, more accurately, I headed to the theater and Marlene, who was just a few feet behind me, I thought, apparently didn’t understand the plan and didn’t see me, so she went ashore.

I managed to get tickets and found Marlene on the dock. We found our bus and headed out for the day. A very chilly, cloudy day. On the top, open-air bus. VERY chilly.

We got off at Pier 35 – near where we were SUPPOSED to dock – and wandered down to Fisherman’s Wharf, then to the cable car.

Yes, we were supposed to dock downtown but got moved about 4 miles south, to Pier 80. Due to pier damage, we were told. But we learned later that the damage occurred 3 days ago and Norwegian never bothered to inform us that we were going to be in a place that was VERY inconvenient. Basically we docked at a pier that was used for offloading foreign cars. To get anywhere from the ship a person would have to traverse about a quarter mile of parking lot. Most people had to take an excursion or an Uber ($70 to downtown). Marlene and I agreed that the cruise line handled this situation VERY badly. They should have arranged a shuttle between Pier 35 and Pier 80. The fact that we had to find our way back to the ship became very significant at the end of the day.

We had to wait a bit to board the cable car. We took it from one end to the other. Marlene didn’t think it was worth the $8 fare, but I felt we had to do it – it is an iconic thing to do in San Francisco.

After the cable car ride we walked back uphill, to Chinatown. There were lots of shops with exotic food there. We bought some canned dace and crackers for lunch. I ate the crackers but found the dace to be disgusting – too sweet, with bones, in an oily sauce.

We ate our “lunch” in Washington Square, then spent some time trying to find the bus stop, which we thought was in the square. Turned out to be 3 blocks away.

We continued the bus tour and got off in Haight-Ashbury, the funky ’60s hippie neighborhood. It is still a vibrant community. We found a nice coffee shop where we had coffee, gelato and a cookie (and a much-needed bio break). Marlene found a Goodwill and bought another dress. Then we got back on the bus to go over the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was COLD on the bridge and in Marin County on the other side. But we got some good photos.

We took the bus back to the Ferry Building then figured out how to get on the F trolley line (cheap – just $1.50). We rode that for nearly 30 minutes, then had to transfer to the 15 electric trolley. We waited about 15 minutes for that and rode another 20 minutes. We then had to walk nearly a mile to the ship.

That is where it got interesting.

As we were approaching the security checkpoint a guy in a car stopped and told us to hurry – we were the “last two.” That puzzled me as I believed we had over an hour to return – I thought our “back on ship time” was 10pm. Well, as I stepped on the gangway they started to raise it. We were, indeed, the last two passengers to board. The “back on ship time” was 8:30 and we boarded at 8:28pm. I had NO idea that we were cutting it close. I’m glad I didn’t know as I would have been freaking out.

Now I need to figure out how I could have gotten the time so badly wrong.

We had a quasi-Easter dinner in the buffet. It wasn’t what I was expecting as they were out of ham. But we had a lot of shrimp.

I took a photo of the Bay Bridge as we left. I was hoping for a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge too, but it wasn’t lit.

15,000 steps. And a near-miss on returning to the ship.

We were told, when the stop in Cabo San Lucas was cancelled, that we would benefit by getting extra time in Los Angeles. Well, not quite. First, our 11pm arrival was delayed until nearly 1am. I was then up until 3:30am blogging. Then in the morning we were required to go through immigration. That was done by floor, starting with the top floor, Deck 11. Our Deck 5 was called around 9:30am. We then waited in line for about 45 minutes. We finally set foot in Los Angeles – or, more specifically, San Pedro – at 10:15am. Not exactly “extra time in Los Angeles.”

Being adventurous, we decided to try to get to the Hollywood Walk of Fame via public transportation. It was about 90 minutes away by bus. We walked about half a mile to the stop for the J bus, an express bus to downtown. We waited just a few minutes and it got us to the downtown transfer point in less than an hour. We were invited to share an Uber by another cruise couple on the bus, but Marlene wanted to do the second bus, so we crossed the street to look for the stop for the B bus. But I could find no mention on the bus stop sign of any such B bus. The I looked behind me and saw the entrance to the subway. I didn’t know LA had a subway! So we went down the escalator, figured out how to get a fare card ($2 for the card, 75 cents for the fare) and followed the signs to the B line platform.

The subway was clean and quite – very much like the Barcelona subway and much nicer than Boston or New York. But we boarded the wrong train – a D line train – which took us a couple of stops in the wrong direction before we discovered the error. But we got back to the station where B and D diverged and got on the right train pretty quickly. In just a few minutes we were back on the street – Hollywood Boulevard.

We walked all along the Walk of Fame, browsed stores on the Hollywood Boulevard and caught a glimpse of the iconic “Hollywood” sign. We had lunch at a Taco Bell Cantina – a Taco Bell that serves margaritas – and met a young couple from Fresno who were in LA to attend a concert – at $550 per ticket!

We made it as far as Grauman’s Chinese Theater, which was a mass of humanity. We stayed for just a few minutes then escaped the crush.

We got back on the subway, paid another 75 cents each to travel an hour to Santa Monica. We spent some time enjoying the bit of crazy that is the Santa Monica Pier. We also marveled that some people were actually in the very cold water on a very chilly day.

We spent some time goofing off in the amusement buildings before walking back to the subway line.

We didn’t have to be back to the ship until 11pm, but it was going to take 2 hours to get there so we headed back around 7pm. We got to the J Line without a problem and had to wait just 10 minutes for the bus. But it was dark by the time we got to the stop and Marlene stumbled and fell just as we got there. Flat on her face. Fortunately, no serious damage – just a skinned knee.

The adventure began when we got about halfway to the ship and were told it was the end of the line. Huh? We needed to get to the port. Oh, the driver said… “That is the 950 J line. This is the 910 J line.” So, we asked, when does the 950 arrive. Well, he said, he wasn’t sure it was running anymore as the last bus was at 8:30pm and it was 8:45.

So we were faced with the possibility that we couldn’t get back to the ship via bus. And the clock was ticking.

We talked to some other people waiting for buses and were told that the 946 bus went to San Pedro and could get us fairly close (where “fairly close” meant “within a mile”) of the cruise terminal. There was a 946 bus there, with the driver on break so when he came back we asked him for advice. He said he thought there was one more 950 J bus that would arrive in about 10 minutes, but, yes, the 946 would get us within a mile. Just get off at O’Farrell Street.

We decided to not wait for the 950 J which might or might not arrive. We rode for 40 minutes on the 946 and talked to some passengers who advised us to get off at 1st St rather than O’Farrell. That is what Google told us to do, too, so that is what we did.

Turns out O’Farrell would have been better. We probably walked an extra 6 blocks to get to the gate which was right at the bottom of O’Farrell. Lesson: ignore Google and listen to the bus driver.

We got on board at 10:15pm, tired and hungry. We had dinner at O’Sheehan’s, the free pub on the Jade. Then to the cabin and straight to bed.

A day filled with adventure and exercise (17,000 steps). And just a little too much drama. But cheap – the total transportation cost was $9.