It was the saddest day of the cruise, time to disembark the ship.  Luckily for us, we had two more days of vacation left before we had to head home.  We got up, drank some of our coffee that we ordered the night before, and then made sure our bags were ready.  We had a late breakfast scheduled back in Tiana’s Place, where we’d had dinner the night before.  We enjoyed one more look off our great balcony before heading to breakfast.

We grabbed our bags and headed down the stairs to the restaurant on Deck 3.  Shane and Willy were waiting for us.  We ordered our breakfast off the See Ya Real Soon Menu and talked about our plans for the day.  We finished up breakfast and after saying our goodbyes, headed off the ship.  After we cleared US Customs, we headed to the taxi line.  The taxi took us to the Hotel Del Coronado, located on Coronado Island.  This Hotel was the inspiration Walt Disney used when designing the Grand Floridian.

After getting dropped off, I went to check in.  We had two separate reservations, so I made sure to remind the front desk.  They said we could stay in the same room for both nights, but the room wasn’t ready yet.  We grabbed our swimsuits from our bags, then left our bags with bell services, who would deliver them to our room once it was ready.

The front desk gave us access to the pool so we could hang out until our room was ready.  There was a lot of time to enjoy the pool since we arrived around 10 am and our room wasn’t supposed to be ready until 3 pm.  This ended up being perfect since we didn’t go to the beach during our five night cruise.

The weather was beautiful, so hanging at the pool wasn’t a problem.  We took turns exploring the resort, getting food, and swimming in the pool.  We also managed to enjoy some adult beverages.

The resort itself was built in 1888 and has held up well.  It has been rehabbed multiple times over the years.  The beach side of the hotel is filled with lots of activities to do.  There were beach chairs and umbrellas for rent as well as day beds.  The best part was the original elevator that is still operated by hand. 

There were several sand castles that had been constructed on the beach.  The breeze that was blowing made it a bit too cool to get in the water, so while there were some sun bathers, nobody was really swimming.

Once Nancy got back from the beach, we got notified via text that our room was ready.  Here are some pictures of the first room.  I said first room because this room ended up being extremely loud at night once we went to sleep.  I believe it was located near the loading dock and we got to hear traffic coming in and out of the hotel all night. 

This might have been the smallest bathroom I’ve ever had in a hotel.  I’m sure it is because the hotel was build 130 years ago, but it was difficult to find storage for our toiletries as well as to move around in the bathroom.

 After we placed our stuff in the room and took some quick showers, we decided to walk down the beach towards the Naval Air Station.  We wanted to catch a glimpse of the Wonder as she left on the next cruise.  It was probably about 6:00 pm or so when we saw her come around the end of the island in the channel. 

After we cried a bit and waved to the Wonder, we headed back to the hotel for dinner.  We went to the Sheerwater for dinner, the main restaurant at the hotel.  Normally, we probably wouldn’t have picked a hotel restaurant for dinner, but we were using our American Express Hilton Aspire card at this hotel, which comes with a $250 hotel resort credit.  The credit can be applied to anything charged to your room at the Hotel Del Coronado (because it is a Hilton Resort).  The meal at the Sheerwater turned out to be a great idea, probably one of the best we have eaten in quite some time.  We then decided to top off that great meal by going to the ice cream parlor on the property.

After enjoying our ice cream, we headed back to the resort to sleep. 

I’ve already alluded to the restless sleep we got that night because of the noise.  My first task in the morning was to head down to the desk to express our displeasure with the noise.  The front desk staff was very apologetic and offered to relocated us for the second night.  The next room, however, wouldn’t be ready until later in the day.  The staff said we could finish getting ready, leave our bags in the room, and bell services would transfer the bags for us.  That solution worked out great because we had plans to spend the day at the San Diego Zoo.

We arrived at the zoo around 9 am via Uber.

The tickets for the zoo were $55 each.  We’ve been to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in DC multiple times and Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom more times that I care to count.  Those two places don’t hold a candle to the San Diego Zoo.  The animals seem really well cared for and have great enclosures.  The park has a great layout and is very visitor friendly.  We got to see multiple types of large cats, as well as the other standard zoo animals. 

We started the day off with a bus tour of the zoo that took about an hour or so.  Once we got off the bus, we were looking at the map and attempting to determine the best course of action.  A zoo employee stepped in and offered us some great navigation advice.  He helped us plot our a route to maximize our time at the zoo and told us where to go to see some of the animals without standing in a long line (Panda Bears).

We toured till around 1 pm and stopped for some lunch.  After we had lunch, we started back up again to take in the rest of the zoo.

Around 4 pm or so, we were running out of steam and had finished up most of the zoo.  We decided to walk over to Balboa Park and revisit some spots we saw during an early trip to San Diego a few years ago.  We walked around the park for an hour, then found a parking lot to get an Uber pickup.  Our Uber arrived pretty quick and we headed back to the hotel.

The second room was ready for us along with our bags.  This one was much quieter, which was certainly appreciated.  It had a nice balcony as well.

After a round of showers, we headed for the other restaurant on property called ENO Pizzeria & Wine Bar.  The food and service was fantastic as we enjoyed fresh brick oven pizza under the night sky.  We got back to the room early and turned in.  We had an early flight the next morning.

Tomorrow, it would be time to start heading home!

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