This morning after brekkie Chari arrived to kindly ferry us and our suitcases down to Jessie's. Poor chicken had a late night and was covered in bruises after derby. Thomas was left in Pete's capable hands while Jess and Char took us in the super Skoda over to Mascot. I think the longest part of e entire trip was the last 3 kms, but being driven right to the door was a real luxury. The girls dropped us off at departures, we found area C and were ushered over to the priority checkin - courtesy of the walking stick which is now my companion when I leave the house (knee replacements and no travel are planned for next year). We were also shown to the short lines in immigration and security. Tom then left our cabin bags in my protection while he found us some water and snacks. We then made our way to gate 9 where we were ushered straight through with the parents with children, wheelchairs and other walking stick people, to a priority boarding lounge, giving us a five minute wait before commencing boarding. Our timing was just perfect. Our seats are in the upstairs cabin of the A380, just behind business and premium economy classes. There are just five rows of economy there at the back of the plane, with no bassinets for babies. I'm able to stretch my legs out really well under the chair in front. Tom gave the stewards a box of chocolates in appreciation of their work. We left Sydney just a little late, and lunch was served not long after. When we did the checkin yesterday we found we were able to preorder our lunches, and if you did that they offered you an extra online only dish to select from, which I did. Tom chose the chicken cacciatore and I had the special Duck a L'orange, which was really tasty. This was served garlic bread, rhubarb with custard and a piccolo of Jacobs Creek sparkling. Very nice indeed. Later on they offered hot chocolates with a marshmallow (or tea or coffee) and later still a blackberry Weiss bar! Very nice. And the food continued - banana bread and the sometime later some gozleme. In between all this food I watched a movie - I think it was Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates, or something like that. It had that Kendra girl from Perfect Pitch in it, and the guy who played the nanny in Modern Family, oh and Zac Efron. Very funny. I was going to watch "Me before You", but I think I watched it on the plane coming back from Singapore. I also bought some duty free freshwater pearls, did a jigsaw and started this blog. Breakfast was as good as any Leura cafe - muesli with Greek yoghurt, frittata with a chipolata sausage, spinach, baked beans (gourmet), potato and bacon, and a fruit muffin. We landed at 6am, the same day that we left (makes my mind giddy). Immigration was a nightmare - must've walked two kms in a queue house before we came across a staff member who immediately found us the special line and fastracked us through. We went downstairs to the luggage carousel - no problems. The lines to leave the airport looked horrendous but as we approached a nice man told us to go through the "assisted" exit. We then went out to the curb where we found supershuttle and organised a shuttle van to San Pedro. It took less than an hour to come down to the cruise centre, and that was stopping off at three neighbourhoods on the way down to let people off. It was interesting to see residential areas. We realised it's 17 years since we were last in LA. Arriving at the port so early was no problem. Porters were by our sides in minutes to relieve us of our luggage. So then we waited in the port terminal, and dozed, and waited. We got talking to the couple sitting behind us - they are from Brisbane and sail on Silverseas all the time!! At 12 noon they let us board the ship. We were greeted at the entrance with moist towels, and then in the foyer (where they sent us to the short line) with glasses of champagne. It is so relaxed and such a warm welcome. Our rooms would not be available until 2pm, so the Queensland couple suggested we go down to the dining room for lunch. Very civilised. The dining room is so small compared to all the 3 storey ones we've seen on ships lately. It's just lovely. They have enough tables and chairs for every guest on the ship if they chose to all dine at once because this ship's capacity is about 380 guests, and we learnt later that we have about 307 on board, 11 of whom are Aussies. The food was just wonderful. Very small portions, but when you have 3 courses (with an option for a couple more) that's just what you want. The Queensland couple (in their 70s) have been on Silverseas many times and this is their favourite ship. They are incredibly wealthy, but very down to earth. The house champagne is Pommery, from Reims, and is lovely. The four of us all drank champagne. Garry and Noelene were wonderful companions, full of travel tales. We watched seals fishing in the port next to the dining room as we ate! At 2 they announced that our staterooms were ready, and we went up to ours at about 3, with our luggage being delivered soon after. Our butler hadn't put in an appearance at this stage, but we wanted to do our own unpacking anyway. By this stage we were wilting fast - it had been such a long 2 days that only count as one, since we'd left home. By 5pm we'd showered and freshened up, dressed in our life jackets and gone down to our muster station where we tried not to snooze too much during the safety drill. As we left our room we met our butler who was concerned that he hadn't seen us before this time, and Orly who is in charge of servicing our room. After the drill it was up to the Panorama Bar for the sail away party as we left the port of Los Angeles. We were greeted by waiters holding trays of LA Cooler cocktails, in honour of our departure, and many offerings of exotic and delicious hors d'ouvres. There was a band playing wonderful music, and then they brought out the officers in charge of each department and introduced them to us all, as well as the guest lecturers and musicians on board for this cruise. We were joined at our group of chairs by another couple and when they were asking for a show of hands for nationalities, they were Aussies too!! They were from Sydney and have also sailed with Silverseas many times. At 7pm we went back down to the dining room for dinner. When we asked for a table for 2 they said "not a problem" (unlike our last cruise where we had no choice but to sit with the same 12 people each and every night). They quickly converted a table for 4 into a table for 2. We dismayed our waiter by only requesting a main, as we were not at all hungry. We both chose roast NZ lamb, which was just perfect. The sommelier showed us the house wines for the evening, but the red was a little heavy, so I asked for a Shiraz and we had a lovely bottle from Victoria! Good Aussie Shiraz! As we were eating a man walking by tickled my back, and it was Gary and Noelene going to dine at the next table. After the main Tom had some wonderful looking profiteroles, and I settled for a small serving of lime sorbet and crackers with a cheese plate, telling them only the Danish blue cheese and only 3 crackers please (from a choice of 4 different types). Of course the cheese came with grapes, walnuts, dried apple and dried apricots. We had been convinced to follow this with a glass of port, and then enticed with a glass of cognac. Amazing hospitality, when you consider they're not making money out of it, because it's all included in our fare! Tom loves that he's not forever reaching for his room card to pay for any drinks, including cocktails (and worrying when the card wasn't immediately returned as often happened with Holland America). And the wi-fi is free. I love that you can tell we're on a ship because you can feel and hear the thrum of the engines, and the creaking of the fittings, and the rocking and rolling (a little) of the sea. It's not so much a big hotel that just moves on the water ...... we are sailing!