Playdate: Notes from the Trenches: I'm in love with a Celebrity

Celebrity Solstice Solarium lounge

Yes, it is true. I thought I would never get there, but photos don't lie - I'm a groupie now and it will take a while before I realize that I'm back on dry land.

Yup, I've been lucky enough as part of the San Pedro Convention and Visitors' Bureau (SPCVB) to have the opportunity to board cruise ships as part of a welcome delegation and I've seen some amazing ships, though with more glitzy chrome and bling than I felt I could take for more than a day After many tries, today I finally fell in love with a ship making its first ever port of call here in San Pedro. Hello Celebrity Solstice!

Not that the benefits of meeting the various ship captains and enjoying their extraordinary chef offerings on all the many cruise lines that have welcomed us hasn't been a privlege. This experience, along with many others like this one, was made possible by the Grays, who once owned a nautical antiques shop and now are the owners of the SPCVB, a small but steadily significant tourist organization in San Pedro. They love ships, and they made it their business to get in touch with the cruise lines - Princess, Costa, Norwegian Star, and many others who make San Pedro a port of call. Apparently the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau has not yet realized that a hundred years ago San Pedrans (much to their regret) opted to be annexed by the City of Los Angeles in order for them to control the new port that was certainly going to become the lifeline of the West Coast. They behave as if we fell off into the ocean decades ago, or perhaps they believe the misconceptions they hear from other people who have never been here.

San Pedro gets so many bad raps from so many quarters of the Southland it has become the punchline of a flat joke. It may have been true back in the day when cruising along the once-industrial Harbor Boulevard with nothing more than cranes and container ships might not have been classically touristy, but if anyone wants to really experience San Pedro it's easy enough to just......go anywhere else in town. Then you will experience the pristine and nearly deserted beaches, the beautiful marina filled with luxury boats, soaring cliffs leading to hidden coves and places for children to search among the tidepools for starfish and crabs. Neighborhoods filled with fabulous ocean views, Catalina in the distance, whales passing by on their way north and south each year. There is a wonderful marine aquarium with a world-class research and aqua-nursery, winding seaside drives, destroyers and merchant ships to explore, fresh fish to grill overlooking the channels, and so much more.

But then you have to actually come here.

For years we have been chafing at the apparent inability of the people we pay at the LACVB to get in their cars and actually come down here to do their jobs and promote us as part of Los Angeles. We are the city's only waterfront, chock full of activities, from artist galleries, quaint shops, places to hang out, lobsters to eat, and hidden treasures to explore. We hope the next mayor will be revamping the work of this outdated bureau and finally giving back some of the millions of dollars we've poured into it over the decades. In the meantime The Grays, and their nascent tourist bureau are putting the multi-million dollar bureaucrats up there in City Hall to shame. It's us the Cruise Lines and their thousands of passengers remember as the friendly face of the town where they are docked.

The cruise ships docked here weekly, pristine white against the skyline, in front of dancing, musical fountains and the old fashioned red car street car cruising up along the boulevard are just some of the sights that make this town unique, and now that I've finally found one that is as beautiful inside as I imagined they should be (instead of the 90's style casino interiors that seemed to dominate the industry for many years), I finally want to go on a cruise. In fact after visiting the Solstice I wanted to go home, pack our bags, and get back on for the rest of the trip to Alaska.

My sister, Deb and I have been talking about a sibling cruise and I now have a focus for that idea. Celebrity is luxury cruising, but once a year they do a re-positioning route from Ensenada to Alaska (this is a one way trip) and the reduced prices are a great deal. They stop in several West Coast cities, including San Diego, San Pedro, San Francisco, Seattle, and Vancouver. True, it's a bit older crowd, but after my disasterous experience aboard the Carnival where children multiplied in the pools like gremlins and ran screaming along the halls until 2 a.m., where there was no shady peace to relax and read on the entire ship, and only the clang, clang of gaming machines in the sub-zero interior, I was off, off, off the idea of getting on another boat until the Solstice came along.

I'm in love!

Solstice has all the amenities you'd expect on a ship this size (too large to go through the Panama Canal) Shops, a casino, performance theaters, discos, outdoor activities, many different restaurants, clubs, and a variety of places to swim, soak, and relax. This ship was built in Germany in 2008 and the decor is distinctly Soho modern with a retro nod to the days when trans-atlantic crossings were in comfort and style.