Another California Adventure! – Baja Mexico & Mexican Riviera aboard the Miracle & Panorama (with pics) – October 2021.

[Jamman54]

One of the buildings in Shoreline Village has a Merry-go-Round and other amusements…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti takes in most of the shops in Shoreline Village…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti met me back at Shenanigan’s and we had lunch. Patti had the chicken tenders, and I had the Irish nachos and a beef brisket sandwich. Sorry, we forgot to take pictures, but have no fear, we will be back here with our friends Pat and Jim later on in the review.

 

Afterwards, we called to have the shuttle pick us up, and we were back at the hotel around 4 pm, where we would stay for the rest of the night.

 

Coming up next:  If you blink, you will miss it!

[cruisin from vegas]

Sooo enjoying this!!!  Long Beach is the City of my birth…. And most of my family.  Although I spent most of my childhood out in Orange County (land of the mouse!) I moved back to the LB for collage and graduated from CSULB…. Lived in this area for most of my early 20s…. Especially sweet as I was a tour guide on the Queen Mary for most of my college years!  (the Queen is not doing so well right now😢). After graduating…. I didn’t know what to do ..  so I was hired as a Casino dealer on Carnivals brand new first build ship..  The Tropicale!!  Really old home week for me!  The dome was built while I was  there and housed Howard Hughes “Spruce Goose” for a short time (my Dad was a 40 year engineer for Hughes Aircraft and wrote a book about Hughes).  Small small world.  Most importantly I will be boarding the Panorama in 84 days…. Complete walk down memory lane !  Although Las Vegas has been home for the past 30 years…. Can’t wait to go back to my old stomping grounds in January!!  

[Jamman54]

2 minutes ago, cruisin from vegas said:

Sooo enjoying this!!!  Long Beach is the City of my birth…. And most of my family.  Although I spent most of my childhood out in Orange County (land of the mouse!) I moved back to the LB for collage and graduated from CSULB…. Lived in this area for most of my early 20s…. Especially sweet as I was a tour guide on the Queen Mary for most of my college years!  (the Queen is not doing so well right now😢). After graduating…. I didn’t know what to do ..  so I was hired as a Casino dealer on Carnivals brand new first build ship..  The Tropicale!!  Really old home week for me!  The dome was built while I was  there and housed Howard Hughes “Spruce Goose” for a short time (my Dad was a 40 year engineer for Hughes Aircraft and wrote a book about Hughes).  Small small world.  Most importantly I will be boarding the Panorama in 84 days…. Complete walk down memory lane !  Although Las Vegas has been home for the past 30 years…. Can’t wait to go back to my old stomping grounds in January!!  

 

So cool! Thanks for sharing with us, and enjoy your cruise on the Panorama. 

 

[Jamman54]

Day # 4  (October 12^th)  -  Just a lazy do nothing kind of day.

 

We woke to another 70 degree sunny day. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record. We had breakfast at The Loft again. We pretty much ordered the same things we did last time so no pictures were taken.

 

We really have nothing planned for today except to chill out and relax. Patti just wanted to spend a little time at City Place which is an outdoor mall on Pine Ave, and visit the nearby CVS. So the plan is for Alex to shuttle me over to Hooters and then take Patti up to Pine Ave. When she’s done browsing, she can walk down to Hooters and we can have lunch.

 

So that’s what we did. After Alex dropped me off, he drops Patti off at Pine Ave…..

 

 

 

When she was done she met me at Hooters…..

 

 

 

 

For lunch, Patti had the chicken quesadillas……

 

 

I had the fried jalapenos and the buffalo shrimp…..

 

 

 

We were back at the hotel at 3 pm. That’s it. That’s all we did. One post for the whole entire day, which brings us one day closer to boarding the Miracle!

 

Coming up next:  Judgement Day!!! Plus a cruise in the harbor.

[canes20]

Enjoying your review. Followed Greg's live review and knew yours was coming.

[Hogladyrider]

@Jamman54....I agree with you regarding the "change in recipe" at Bubba Gumps, not good.

 

When I lived in Florida we ate at a Bubba Gumps at Universal Studios.....not a fan of the food, but like you've state to each his/her own tastes.

 

Enjoying your precruise section of this reveiw!

[4hunters]

On 11/4/2021 at 11:27 AM, Jamman54 said:

The television in the room was fairly large….

 

 

 

Ha!  Just noticed that TV reflection makes it look like Patti is trying to seduce you.  Maybe she was!  😁

 

[blarko]

I’ve been waiting for this review to start. Once again, thanks for all your hard work doing your fantastic reviews 😀

[Webecruzen]

4 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

One of the buildings in Shoreline Village has a Merry-go-Round and other amusements…..

 

 

 

 

 

Patti takes in most of the shops in Shoreline Village…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti met me back at Shenanigan’s and we had lunch. Patti had the chicken tenders, and I had the Irish nachos and a beef brisket sandwich. Sorry, we forgot to take pictures, but have no fear, we will be back here with our friends Pat and Jim later on in the review.

 

Afterwards, we called to have the shuttle pick us up, and we were back at the hotel around 4 pm, where we would stay for the rest of the night.

 

Coming up next:  If you blink, you will miss it!

Jim’s favorite wings this trip!

[bunnyette]

Another excellent review!  Looking forward to more

[Jamman54]

3 hours ago, canes20 said:

Enjoying your review. Followed Greg's live review and knew yours was coming.

 

Thanks! Glad you found your way over. 

 

2 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

@Jamman54....I agree with you regarding the "change in recipe" at Bubba Gumps, not good.

 

When I lived in Florida we ate at a Bubba Gumps at Universal Studios.....not a fan of the food, but like you've state to each his/her own tastes.

 

Enjoying your precruise section of this reveiw!

 

Thanks! Just a couple more pre cruise days to post, and then on to the Miracle! 

 

1 hour ago, 4hunters said:

 

Ha!  Just noticed that TV reflection makes it look like Patti is trying to seduce you.  Maybe she was!  😁

 

 

I'll never tell! 💕

[Jamman54]

1 hour ago, blarko said:

I’ve been waiting for this review to start. Once again, thanks for all your hard work doing your fantastic reviews 😀

 

Thanks for joining us and for your kind words! 

 

27 minutes ago, Webecruzen said:

Jim’s favorite wings this trip!

 

I know he loved those wings! How many times did you guys eat there? I know you weren't thrilled with Parker's Lighthouse. 

 

2 minutes ago, bunnyette said:

Another excellent review!  Looking forward to more

 

Thanks for following along! Much, much more to come! 

[Jamman54]

Day # 5  (October 13^th)  -  Testing Day & Harbor Cruise.

 

It’s another beautiful sunny day in Long Beach. We are now only two days away from boarding the Carnival Miracle. What does that mean? It means it’s time to get tested! We have brought our BinaxNOW Covid-19 Home Tests with us, and as a backup we have the addresses and phone #’s of two locations here in Long Beach that do the rapid antigen tests for $65, and have time slots open today and tomorrow.

 

So let’s get started. Right off the bat we had some compatibility issues with our Samsung phones, so we switched over to Patti’s tablet. We still had some connection issues, even had to re-establish connection in the middle of a test, but that was probably a result of the hotel’s not so great internet connection. But we were able to muddle through it and got both tests done. And the results are in…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

We’re going cruising!!! That was a big weight off of our shoulders. After flying all the way across country, what would have happened if one or both of us tested positive? Of course we know what would have happened, and it wouldn’t have been good. Not to worry, as we can now continue with this review!

 

To celebrate, we decide that we are going to go on the 45 minute Harbor Cruise. Around 12:30 pm Alex takes us over to the Rainbow Harbor to board our cruise. Here we are at the ticket booth. It’s just $10 each for us seniors. What a deal!

 

 

Here’s our ride around the harbor…..

 

 

Once we are on board, they sell beer too!

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti gets these views as we sail through the Rainbow Harbor…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a couple views of the jetty that protects the Long Beach Marina, and the one we walked out on a couple of days ago…..

 

 

 

Here we are getting up close and personal with the Queen Mary…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We are sailing in Long Beach Harbor…..

 

 

 

 

This is the Carnival Cruise Terminal……

 

 

 

These are the four oil islands that I mentioned earlier. They are also known as the THUMS islands, or Astronaut islands, after the astronauts they were named for…..

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about them:

History

 

The THUMS Islands were built in 1965 to tap into the East Wilmington Oil Field. The landscaping and sound walls were designed to camouflage the operation and reduce noise, and they are the only decorated oil islands in the United States.

 

After a 1964 court case that gave the state of California mineral rights to the area, the islands were built at an estimated cost of $22 million in 1965, the islands were operated by THUMS, a consortium named after the parent companies who bid for the island contract: Texaco, Humble (now Exxon), Union Oil, Mobil, and Shell. The rim of the islands are made of 640,000 tons of boulders from Catalina Island, and the islands were then filled with 3.2 million cubic yards of dredged material from the bay. The islands contain significant landscaping, a waterfall, and tall structures concealing the drilling rigs, including one known as The Condo and mistaken for "a ritzy hotel" by those on land. The structures are lit by colored lights at night. The aesthetic mitigation cost $10 million at time of construction, and was overseen by theme park architect Joseph Linesch. They were described by a Los Angeles Times writer as "part Disney, part Jetsons, part Swiss Family Robinson".

 

In 1975, the state of California and the city of Long Beach sued the THUMS oil companies for artificially depressing oil prices. A federal jury cleared Exxon of all charges, and the other four oil companies settled out of court for "hundreds of millions of dollars".

 

Since 1967, they have been known as the Astronaut Islands, having been renamed in honor of four American astronauts who lost their lives in the service of NASA. Island Freeman (Theodore C. "Ted" Freeman) is named for the first astronaut to perish in active duty (piloting a T-38 Talon jet trainer). Island Grissom (Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom), Island White (Ed White), and Island Chaffee (Roger B. Chaffee) are named after the Apollo 1 astronauts (launch pad accident).

 

A peak of 148,495 barrels per day were produced in 1969. 300 million barrels of oil were pumped from THUMS by 1974, the 500 millionth barrel of crude oil was pumped in 1980. By 1992, the pumping volume was 44,444 barrels of oil per day through the water injection method of oil recovery, producing low-grade crude oil. The 900 millionth barrel of oil was pumped in April 2002, and the one billionth in 2011. The pumped oil contained 20% water in 1965, and by 1994 it was 92% water.

 

The islands and operation were purchased by Occidental Petroleum in 2000. In 2014, Occidental Petroleum spun off all California assets into California Resources Corporation (CRC), which still owns and operates THUMS Islands as of 2018.

 

Operations in the THUMS Islands are currently run by the THUMS Long Beach Company, which is part of the California Resources Corporation.

 

Islands

 

Island Grissom is the closest to land, containing waterfalls and more sculptured screens than the other islands. The screens and decorations also serve to deter the public from swimming to the islands (trespassers are subject to arrest).Island Freeman is the largest of the islands, at 12 acres.

 

As mentioned earlier, the Oceana Regatta is laid up in Long Beach Harbor…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

The Norwegian Bliss is also laid up in Long Beach Harbor…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of container ships out there waiting to be unloaded….

 

 

 

We are sailing around Island Freeman…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We are now heading back to Long Beach…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are passing close to the jetty…..

 

 

We can see the Long Beach Hilton between the buildings…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We are sailing back into Rainbow Harbor…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed this short harbor cruise and feel that it was well worth the money! Afterwards, we went to Chili’s for some drinks and an early dinner…..

 

 

Patti had soup, salad, and bottomless chips & salsa…..

 

 

 

I had a buffalo chicken sandwich with fries…..

 

 

We called for the hotel shuttle and they were there in less than ten minutes. We got back to the hotel around 5 pm, and after a couple of drinks at the Enclave Bar, went back to the room for the night to relax.

 

Coming up next: Only one more day until we board the Carnival Miracle!

[jimbri]

Another great review.  Looking forward to the rest.

[pcrum]

I am loving this review.  I'm have not been on the Carnival board in a while, and I see I have been missing some great reviews. Live reviews are ok, but I prefer this style. I was on the Miracle for my honeymoon in 2009 so love that ship. 

[Hogladyrider]

@Jamman54...Spirit class is our favorite class of Carnival ships, wish they had more!

 

Not a big fan of the HUGE ships, too many passengers, too crowded, we don't find it relaxing, but hey different strokes for different folks!

[jbhcw]

CC won't let me like any posts!  But so happy to see your review...as usual wonderful pics....and great narrative....lived in Long Beach a million year ago....looks a lot different now!   Can't wait for the rest of the review...Thanks!!

[JRL81]

@Jamman54 loving Patti’s pictures as always!!! Can’t wait to see more!!!

[Jamman54]

2 hours ago, jimbri said:

Another great review.  Looking forward to the rest.

 

Always great to have you along for the ride! 

 

1 hour ago, pcrum said:

I am loving this review.  I'm have not been on the Carnival board in a while, and I see I have been missing some great reviews. Live reviews are ok, but I prefer this style. I was on the Miracle for my honeymoon in 2009 so love that ship. 

 

Thank you for jumping on board! It's great to see all the reviews of all types on the board now. I remember before the start up this board being a rather dark place. We'll be getting you back on the Miracle very shortly. 

[Jamman54]

4 minutes ago, JRL81 said:

@Jamman54 loving Patti’s pictures as always!!! Can’t wait to see more!!!

 

We're loving your review as well. Can't wait until you get on board!