First Port of Call: Catalina Island

Tuesday, December 31, our port of call was Catalina Island. For this port there was no gangway and transportation to the island was provided by local boats that shuttled cruise passengers to fro. People walked down a set of stairs to board each tender, which held about twenty passengers. Here are Catalina as viewed from our yellow tender and Frank in the boat awaiting transport to the island.

This is our view of the harbor at Catalina Island en route there
from our cruise ship, Carnival Inspiration

Frank is gazing out at Catalina Island with our cruise ship in the background.

Seeing our ship from outside in the light of day gave me a better perspective and sense of orientation, something I seemed to crave for some strange reason. In the picture below our stateroom was on Upper Deck 6, which is the row of windows just below the red line. We were in Stateroom U125, slightly aft of mid-ship on the starboard side, the side opposite the one in the photo. Once I learned that odd and even numbers were on opposite sides of the ship and that the numbers increased from bow to stern I could make my way about much better since the stateroom hallways all looked alike. The galley was on Atlantic Deck 8 in the windowless section mid-ship above the red line. It stretches the full width of the ship and is accessible and passable to crew members only. Again, once I realized this, I was much better at knowing which elevator or stairwell to take to get to where I wanted to be. Deck 3 was the launching level for the boats to shore.

As we head toward the island we look back and get an overview of our cruise ship.
noting the four levels of staterooms. Above them are the galley, lounges, dining, pool, theaters, shops, etc.

Catalina was a picturesque seaside town. The weather could not have been better. Noticing the very light traffic I wondered if only the wealthy could afford cars since they would need to be transported to the island in some way. I asked a shop keeper about that and she said you needed a permit to have a car and they were rationed and hard to get, saying "Somebody has to die or donate you a permit in order to get one." A lot of the locals use electric golf carts to get around. We strolled through some shops and then walked around the harbor area on a small path (to the left in the photo below, and out to the Avalon Museum situated on the ground floor of the round Casino Building.

I copied this picture of the Catalina harbor from Google because it was such a great overview.
We did not walk far enough up the hillside beyond the town to get such a panoramic shot.

From our vantage point at the Casino building we could look out at our Carnival Inspiration ship and across the harbor to the town.

Beyond me is the Carnival Inspiration awaiting our return.

Beyond Frank is the harbor, the quaint shops at sea level, and the housing on the hillside.

We returned to the shop area for a bit and decided to have a late lunch back on board the ship. The night would be a late one, being the New Year's Eve celebration, and we wanted some down time in the afternoon before the formal festivities of the evening.