It was a bit of a struggle staying in bed until about 8am, having had snatches of sleep earlier and the time change. We thought we may as well try the Huntley’s in house Penthouse restaurant, though having seen the room service menu we knew it wouldn’t be cheap. However, it turned out to be the most expensive breakfast we have ever had and a long, long way from being the best.
Last year, we had an excellent eggs Benedict and a glass of orange juice at a Wetherspoons in Nottingham, where the ham was off the bone, £3.99 and the juice probably no more than £1 for a large glass, so let’s say £5 or $10NZD, so $20NZD for 2 of us.
So this was the Huntley experience. I had the eggs Benedict – which came with very mediocre fried potatoes, on small Canadian bacon rounds and Paula had poached eggs and bacon, also with potatoes, two slices of toast with jams and we both had orange juice.
This is the summary of our bill:
Two eggs (with bacon) 15.00
Benedict 17.00
2 x Juice 14.00
15% Gratuity 6.90
Tax 4.37
Total: $57.27USD (£36.76 or $87.44NZ)
Unbelievable. No coffee, no offered extras – and the glass of juice wasn’t very large either. Service was mediocre at best - and they even had the nerve to print out an option for a tip.
Bubba Gumps down the road would have been cheaper - and that is a place we believe is quite expensive.
We had the day to kill but before we went out, I went to the Concierge and asked him to book the Super Shuttle pick up for us. The telephone number on our voucher appeared to be National Head Office and no-one was answering. Luckily, Norton, the excellent Concierge, knew the local number and rang them and eventually managed to sort out a pick up for 6:30pm as requested. I got the impression that he was none too keen on Super Shuttle either. He confirmed that they used to be OK but seemed to have got too big. Quite why the rep at the airport couldn’t do that booking, as she certainly wasn’t overworked, we’ll never know, but she couldn’t.
With that out of the way, we went for a walk, but it was only about 10am and not exactly warm. The Huntley Hotel is on 2nd Street and the real centre of Santa Monica is 3rd Street, so one block back and we were ideally situated, as it was the end (or beginning) of the pedestrianised section.
We may have been little too early for the street entertainers, but the street was scrubbed clean and it was a pleasant amble to the other end – which lines up with the pier. Since we were last here, the shopping centre has been totally rebuilt with the food hall now up on the 3rd floor level, with a massive and attractive outdoor seating area. So new in fact, that some places haven’t yet opened.
We walked back to 1st street , at the top of the cliff and just sat and relaxed, watching a grey squirrel running up and down the fence, but alas, I didn’t have the camera with me. Although there is a HoHo bus, we elected to skip it this time, as Paula had had enough walking, so we went back to the hotel and grabbed a yoghurt each, a tea and a coffee from the ground floor coffee shop.
Paula lay down for a rest (still a long way from being back to full strength) whilst I tried to catch up with the blog. Having done that, I opted for a walk. I retraced our steps from the morning walk, calling in at the Tesla showroom to take some pics. It was pleasantly warm and with loads of people around on the pier and the beach. I walked down to the famous pier and popped into the well-known carousel but fancying a drink, found I’d left my wallet at the hotel!
A change into long trousers for the journey and a slight reshuffle of the packing, then relaxation time again before getting ready for the 6:30 pickup.
At 6:15pm, the telephone rang. The concierge telling us that the shuttle was already there! We piled into the lift, dropped the room tags back at reception and straight out the door.
He was early for us and also for the next pick up, as we had a slow run to Marina Del Ray with a couple of detours. Good job we were early anyway, for a 9:45pm flight.
To the Tom Bradley terminal and as at Heathrow, an easy check in, but no weighing or tagging of our hand luggage. When we tried to go through initial security, we realised we only had one boarding pass, so I went back to the desk…
We were NZ1 again and spare a thought for NZ5. Delayed until 8:30am tomorrow…
Through initial security OK (just showing the boarding pass) then the short priority queue for the scanning of hand luggage and body. No problems here and pleasant staff - though Paula’s knee needed a friendly pat down!
Once again, straight to the Star Alliance lounge. Nice food – but NO CIDER! A very pleasant area, also with a balcony overlooking the main hall. Certainly a lot better than the previous terminal, which we hated.
At least leaving was better than arriving. All on board OK, then a 70 minute delay, as there were cargo issues, probably something to do with NZ5 and maybe shifting people over and also having to shift their luggage.
This time, rows 10 & 11K, so on the right side of the aircraft.
With a longer flight than from London, as soon as the seat belt light was out, there was a rush to convert the seats into lie flat beds and some settled down straightaway to sleep.
I had to stay awake for the meal – and cider, but didn’t wait for dessert, cheese and biscuits or even coffee. Although it was fairly early, I knew I wouldn’t sleep too much and I wasn’t wrong. I was fully awake after a short nap - at 10:20pm NZ time. Although I tried to sleep, even though I was comfortable, as before, it was far from quiet.
Tuesday August 11th - home again!
The pilot and crew did a great job and we landed at Auckland at just after 6am, only about 20 minutes after the original schedule. Once again, we managed to be first off, straight through immigration (no queue); luggage OK and a very quick MAF scan and straight to our own Super Shuttle. We walked straight in and with one other passenger already on, we set off straightaway. Brilliant!
It was cold, but bright and crisp and a good run home avoiding the building rush hour traffic.
The usual turning up of gas hot water heating; turning on the water; power etc. and then to the Freelander, which fired up straightaway.
From then on, it was life very much back to normal, which really means, the end of this part of the travel blog. We will catch up with Teri & Alex in Auckland when the Sea Princess calls, August 31st, so there might be another post.
Still to do of course is a piece on the Royal Princess, or our impressions anyway, and a summary of sorts, before we head off again end September for a short break at Broadbeach, south of Brisbane, where no doubt we’ll catch up with one or two past cruisers.
We can even start looking at the 2016 travel plans!
That means my observations are at best very limited and cannot be seen as comprehensive, but we do know that we are not alone in shunning pay options for anything other than a special occasion.
We started off with the intention of eating in the dining room for the evening meal but as stated earlier, with a later dining time than we were comfortable with, shows where early seating was essential, and just two ancients on our table, although we changed to anytime dining, we never ate in the dining room again.
From memory (no pics) there was a Brazilian night, German, Oriental, Italian and American and possibly more. Whatever they had, there were many dishes to choose from.
First of all, the cabin – as that is where we inevitably spend the most time. We are familiar with the cabin layout of the Sun class ships (of course) and also the Emerald and Diamond Princess. On the latter, the upper cabins are somewhat stepped, meaning a larger balcony on three decks. It was surprising therefore to find that the cabin layout on the Royal was identical to the Emerald and the balcony the same size as the Sun class – meaning, small. The only difference is that the view out is better as the railing tops an all glass panel, rather than a mess of ironwork.
Walking out of our cabin and into the corridor, there are a couple of doglegs, so you have no idea just how long this ship is. Now this is interesting – and frustrating - as anyone situated in the centre section of the ship naturally heads to the nearest set of stairs/lifts, but this is where the Royal starts to fall down.
This is magnificent, but, if you have 4,000 passengers, and about 700 or 800 seats (I’m guessing here as I don’t seem to be able to find out the exact number) then a popular act such as the Beatles Tribute, scheduled for just 2 shows inevitably means a lot of people would miss out. Other less attractive acts or shows may have been scheduled with 3 performances. There may be a reason for this of course, but I have no idea what that might be.
With a 12 day cruise, they certainly crammed in the shows as I think we had 4 production shows. With the Sea Princess, that is all we had in 50 days – with virtually no scenery or flashy lighting at all… 
The Vista lounge at the rear of the ship seemed to be half way between the entertainment lounge of the Emerald, which only has two levels and the Sun Vista lounge, which is properly tiered. As with the theatre, the stage setting can include scenery/props which we saw on the Olde English Pub Night. Despite that, viewing is not as good as on the smaller ships as the height difference from back to front is such that the view is obscured of any performer where it is crucial to see the lower body.
Between the Vista and the centre of the ship, there is the Wheelhouse bar area which again, has music, but the ‘Club 6’ so called nightclub seemed somewhat squashed. The live Studio was interesting as it has sophisticated cameras including a ‘fly by wire’ overhead camera. Both Club 6 and also the studio venues could be used for trivia – but with only 2 sea days and no team organised, we gave it a miss.
Sure, it is all spankingly modern, but with just 12 days on board and just 2 sea days, we never really settled in too well. I have to say that we did come across one or two staff in the Atrium who weren’t as open, warm and friendly as on the Sea/Dawn, but that may well be that they do not consider it a priority to forge a relationship on such a short cruise.
Next post will inevitably be about the food… 
Most others are self-explanatory and had it been warmer, we might well have spent more time outside. We took several on day 1, just as it started to get cloudy and damp.
The jogging track is quite clearly marked as running anti-clockwise. I state this, as on the Sea Princess, there was some debate about the correct direction, as there are no markings, so it was left undecided. All around the jogging track are outdoor gym machines. 
The feature ‘skywalk’ is an attractive gimmick and certainly adds to the shape of the ship and the final pic at dusk is one of Paula’s, taken from our own balcony.
It was a bit of a struggle staying in bed until about 8am, having had snatches of sleep earlier and the time change. We thought we may as well try the Huntley’s in house Penthouse restaurant, though having seen the room service menu we knew it wouldn’t be cheap. However, it turned out to be the most expensive breakfast we have ever had and a long, long way from being the best.
We had the day to kill but before we went out, I went to the Concierge and asked him to book the Super Shuttle pick up for us. The telephone number on our voucher appeared to be National Head Office and no-one was answering. Luckily, Norton, the excellent Concierge, knew the local number and rang them and eventually managed to sort out a pick up for 6:30pm as requested. I got the impression that he was none too keen on Super Shuttle either. He confirmed that they used to be OK but seemed to have got too big. Quite why the rep at the airport couldn’t do that booking, as she certainly wasn’t overworked, we’ll never know, but she couldn’t.
We may have been little too early for the street entertainers, but the street was scrubbed clean and it was a pleasant amble to the other end – which lines up with the pier. Since we were last here, the shopping centre has been totally rebuilt with the food hall now up on the 3rd floor level, with a massive and attractive outdoor seating area. So new in fact, that some places haven’t yet opened.
Paula lay down for a rest (still a long way from being back to full strength) whilst I tried to catch up with the blog. Having done that, I opted for a walk. I retraced our steps from the morning walk, calling in at the Tesla showroom to take some pics. It was pleasantly warm and with loads of people around on the pier and the beach. I walked down to the famous pier and popped into the well-known carousel but fancying a drink, found I’d left my wallet at the hotel!
To the Tom Bradley terminal and as at Heathrow, an easy check in, but no weighing or tagging of our hand luggage. When we tried to go through initial security, we realised we only had one boarding pass, so I went back to the desk…
