4 Night cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada

4 Night cruise from Long Beach to Ensenada - November 2009

Avalon is the main town on Catalina Island. It's been a popular day trip since the 1920's when the Casino opened. The Casino is not a gambling casino - it's original meaning was meeting or gathering place but it got corrupted by Las Vegas. The owner of Wrigley's (chewing gum) bought the island and helped protect the island from development. The Casino is a two storey building with has a cinema on the ground floor and ballroom on top. It still shows a weekly movie. There are no cars on Catalina and the locals and tourists drive golf carts.

Ensenada is a down to earth working fishing port but has deviated to accommodate the hoards of cruise passengers who come to get drunk! During college breaks, groups of under 21 year olds Americans come here and get completely legless. There are horrible, loud party bars that cater to the young crowd (I admit I no longer want to be young!). However, there is a lovely old bar that was establish in 1890's by a German and is still going strong and caters to the more sophisticated crowd (me!) that doesn't want loud music. There's sawdust on the floor but the drinks are good and they're not frou-frou. The mariachi bands come in and look for custom and Bill was seduced by them - we were serenaded while we drank at the bar but have no idea what they played except the trumpet was pretty loud!

On the ship, it was very different from our usual Celebrity brand. A bit tacky and the food wasn't so good. The cabin steward was friendly and I did look forward to finding out what towel animal he left out on the bed when we got back from dinner! Celebrity don't do that because it's tacky but that tacky I like!