California Coastal Cruise, Part 2: Catalina Island

This is my second post about our California Coast cruise. I recommend that you read the first post before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received media passes and other benefits for several of the locations we visited throughout the trip. Some of the attractions we toured are free to everyone; we paid full price for the rest. What I paid or didn't pay has no effect on my reviews. Everything that I share is something I recommend without hesitation.

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Visiting Catalina Island

I've wanted to visit Catalina Island for years. Steve went there as a teenager and Trevor spent a week on the island at Camp Emerald Bay in 2018, making Catalina one of the very few places that they'd both visited and I hadn't. When I attended Outlook Forum in 2023, I got to know a woman from Love Catalina who convinced me that I should make Catalina a priority. It's been on my list of Future Travels for a long time and I'm so glad to have finally visited!

 

The Ruby Princess anchored in Avalon Bay. Avalon is the only incorporated city on Catalina Island. 

We went ashore as early as possible, which allowed us to avoid the crowds. Look how few people are in our pictures. In another two hours, it was wall-to-wall people. 

The boys went snorkeling (more on that later). Steve and I started with an Urban Adventure Quest.  

There are five Urban Adventure Quests on Catalina Island: two walking, one biking, and two with golf carts. We opted to walk. As always, the Quest took us to places we wouldn't have found on our own and taught us so much about Avalon and the rest of Catalina. 

If we were staying in Avalon for multiple days, we definitely would have done at least one more Quest. Each takes you to unique locations with different questions to solve. 

This is the Catalina Casino. There's no gambling here (and never has been). It offers movies and the world's largest circular ballroom. 

While we were near the Casino, we thought we saw the boys snorkeling. We waved; they waved back. We asked how it was; we got thumbs up. We took pictures; they posed. We found out later it wasn't them, but we didn't know that at the time. We continued with the Quest, talking about how happy we were that the boys were both having fun snorkeling for the first time.  

  

Avalon has a lot of public art. I particularly love the tiles.  

Not just public art - public showers! $3 for 5 minutes seems like a pretty good deal, but since I didn't go anywhere near the sand, I didn't need a shower. 

We finished the Quest in just over two hours. It was a great introduction to Avalon and provided an excellent overview. At our next destination, the Catalina Museum for Art & History, we took a deeper dive. 

The museum is small, but excellent. The exhibits are really interesting and the museum itself is beautifully designed. The permanent exhibit covers the history of Catalina. It was fascinating! Did you know that Catalina Island was the home of the Chicago Cubs' spring training from 1921 to 1951? 

Or that Marilyn Monroe lived on Catalina, back when she was still Norma Jeane? She moved there as a teenage bride in 1943. 

Old Ben is considered Catalina's first movie star. 

Avalon was once home to the world's largest bird park. 

Steve and I thoroughly enjoyed learning all about Catalina Island's rich history. 

On to the art portion of the museum! We loved Narsiso Martinez' Witnesses of Labor: Portraits of Essential Workers. Each piece is done on the boxes that farm workers use to carry harvested produce from the fields to the markets. 

   

We also loved the exhibit about Tim Musso called Chasing the Sun: The Art, Process, and Design of Writing and Illustrating a Children’s Book. His woodcut illustrations are absolutely stunning. Check out Musso's book, which follows the 50,000 mile (!) migratory path of an Arctic tern (affiliate link here and below). I highly recommend his book. While technically a children's book, people of all ages will enjoy the story and the artwork. 

As I said, the museum space itself is beautiful. This courtyard is just one example of places where visitors can relax between galleries. 

We really enjoyed this sign. During our day on Catalina Island, we visited the Casino with no gambling, popped into the post office with no mail delivery, and walked along the second street from the beach (called 3rd Street). We saw birds that swim and didn't see a single stop light. We did a see a huge number of golf carts and more full-size vehicles than the zero I'd expected. 

We had a great time at the Catalina Museum for Art & History. Don't miss it when you visit Catalina Island!

After a nice day in Avalon, we headed back to our ship. 

Trevor was back onboard shortly after we were. CJ did some hiking with a new friend they made during their snorkeling outing, but was back on the ship in plenty of time before sailaway.  

At dinner, Steve and I got to hear all about their snorkeling trip. There were only five of them in the group, plus their guide. They conducted citizen science research as part of the Catalina Monitoring Program, recording the many species they observed. 

Here are some of the photos Trevor took with our underwater camera. 

The orange fish are garibaldis, the state marine fish of California. 

Of course, Trevor photographed birds as well. Catalina is a great place for bird watching, although most people do so from the shore and not while snorkeling. 

Both boys really enjoyed snorkeling in Avalon Bay and would definitely recommend it. 

We all had a great time on Catalina Island. I'm so glad I was finally able to make it there. The next day, our ship docked in San Pedro. We had a really fun day in nearby Long Beach. I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. 

California Coast Cruise, Part 1: Boarding the Ruby Princess

As I mentioned, Steve, Trevor, and I just got back from a 7-day cruise aboard on the Ruby Princess. This was our second time on the Ruby. In 2014, we sailed from Canada to New England as a group of 10. This time, four of us sailed along the California coast. Our fourth was CJ, Trevor's friend from high school.  

California Coast Cruise - Ruby Princess

On Thursday, September 10 the four of us drove to the ferry terminal in Vallejo, excited to get to San Francisco to board the Ruby Princess. Driving into SF on a weekday morning is a giant pain and parking there for a week is expensive, so taking the ferry is a great option. We weren't the only ones who thought so, as there were at least 30 others on the ferry taking the same cruise. 

We had a pleasant, 1-hour ride to the Ferry Building in San Francisco. 

It's 1.3 miles from the Ferry Building to Pier 35, where we boarded the ship. We took a leisurely stroll, enjoying the public art along the way. It was a beautiful day. 

Normally, the Ruby boards out of Pier 27, which is closer to the Ferry Building and far better equipped to handle crowds. Boarding did not go nearly as smoothly as it usually does on a Princess ship, but eventually we made it aboard. 

Steve and I had a balcony cabin (B-335) on Deck 11. 

Trevor and CJ were directly across the hall in an interior cabin (B-337). 

We had a delicious lunch, took care of our safety/muster responsibilities, and then spent time exploring the ship and enjoying the Bay views. 

There's Alcatraz!

In the 12 years since we were last aboard the Ruby, it has been refurbished twice: in 2018 and in 2023. So while the basic layout didn't change, practically everything else was different. It was fun to discover the fabulous new mini golf course! 

Shuffleboard and cornhole are right there too. 

I love the new menus at the bars that put zero proof and nonalcoholic drinks front and center! That is such a smart and thoughtful improvement. The other side of the menu has the alcoholic drinks. I can't have alcohol because of my cancer medicine, so I really appreciate when there are fun mocktail options. 

  

By the time we were ready for sailaway, San Francisco's famous fog (Karl) had rolled in. 

We sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge with the foghorn blasting. 

We had a fantastic dinner, then enjoyed some of the evening activities, including trivia and a game show called Strike Out. They played a song and put two dates up on the screen. Everyone moved to one side of the room or the other based on when they think the song came out. The people with the correct answer stayed for the next round; the ones on the wrong side had to sit down. It was HARD, especially for the songs that came out 20+ years before I was born. I did do pretty well with the songs from the 80's and 90's. 

Each time they got a winner, they started a new game and brought everyone back to play. On the very last round of the very last game, I stood alone on one side of the room. I thought Baby Got Back had come out in 1992; the other remaining contestants all thought it was 1994. I won (exciting!) and enjoyed my Princess-branded prizes for the rest of the week. 

Friday, September 11 was a sea day. I'm an early riser, so I had the buffet mostly to myself to eat, answer emails, do my morning puzzles, and then finish my Duolingo. 

I went to a port lecture, walked multiple laps around the Promenade deck, and enjoyed the ocean views. 

Steve and I filled the rest of the day with good food, reading, and relaxing. 

  

The boys went swimming, then joined us for trivia. Our host was Prince, who is from St. Vincent and the Grenadines! I had to introduce myself and tell him about my connection to his beautiful country. 

After dinner, we went to the champagne waterfall.... 

... then played cards and enjoyed live music. 

We were all really excited for our first port. Steve and Trevor had both been there before (separately) but I'd never visited and it had been on my bucket list for a long time. It would be CJ's first visit as well. Tomorrow I'll tell you where we went and everything we did.