My wife Renée and I have cruised many times, but what with a daughter in college these last few years it has been a while since our last one! We chose to return to our favorite line, Royal Caribbean (RCCL) to get back into the cruise mode!

Embarking at the Los Angeles World Cruise Center in San Pedro went very smoothly. We arrived by car, dropped our luggage off with the porters curbside and went easily into the large convenient parking lot (which demands payment in advance ...). Published embarkation time was 1:00 PM but we arrived just before noon. The desk opened at noon enabling us to get on board with a minimum of line-waiting.We were cordially escorted to our cabin and very soon met our room steward who was polite and attentive. Our cabin was a small inside cabin (Category I, I think) which bothered me for a short time, but we soon found that it provided plenty of room and closet space for a three-day cruise, and of course as everyone says you're not in your cabin very much anyhow. We chose to have the beds made up as a queen-size bed, which proved to be a mistake as it left very little floor space, and the person next to the wall was "trapped" in the bed all night unless you crawled over your bed mate.After the second night we asked the steward to make up the beds as twins(and reassured him that we had NOT had a big fight!!!)

There is a great Embarkation Buffet served all afternoon on departure day in the top-deck cafe which is really nice as it can be done at yourleisure after you settle into your cabin, or you can go right up to lunch if you arrive starving!! In fact the food the entire trip was right up to RCCLs famous standard. I delighted in the seafood (shrimp two nights,lobster once) while Renée indulged herself in her favorite great bleeding hunks of beef. The service was also up to RCCL expectations. I thought our waiter was fairly delicate in begging for an "excellent" rating ... his approach was to frequently remind us that "We want to give you EXCELLENT service here ... if anything is not EXCELLENT at any time, let us know right away." RCCL recommends tipping the waiter $3 and the busboy $1.50 per person per day, and we certainly felt the service we received was worth at least that much!

The first port of call is Ensenada Baja California, which is a tourist attraction right up in the same exalted class as Tijuana ... i.e. not much. We took the ship's tour to the ocean Blowhole and the folkloric performance at a local hotel (complete with complimentary margarita) and it was OK but not anything to write home about. The bus let us off in the middle of the main tourist district and we could shop for shlocky tourist-trap junk to our heart's content, and then take a taxi or shuttlebus back to the ship for $1 each ... a deal subsidized by the local merchants' association!

The second day which is spent at sea cruising was much more to my taste. The ship cruised to Santa Barbara Island, a little hunk of rock with a ranger station on it which is apparently a well-known wildlife sanctuary. It was really great to sit in the dining room for lunch and count the seals jumping around the ship. Apparently they are attracted to the ship by curiosity.

There were the usual shows in the main lounge every night. I thought they were pretty good as ship's shows go, especially the musical review of 50s to 90s music! There is a large well-equipped casino with slots as well as table games for those who like such things. Renée and I budgeted $20 between us for the 3 days and managed to pump it all into the slots without noticeable results!

Being used to longer cruises, I was afraid that this 3-day one would be too short, but I found that it was really a marvelous little get-away!I would do it again in a minute ... in fact we may soon try the 4-day one and see what Catalina is like!

For more information, e-mail thehalls@bully4.us.

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