Our plan for the second day was to use the HOHO Bus to see all the popular things in San Fran. I bought the tickets directly through Big Bus, they were the same company that offered them through Royal Caribbean. It was a few dollars cheaper on our own. This was my first mistake. Let me explain...
Last time I was in San Francisco was 2009, with a friend. We were there for a teaching conference. We bought HOHO tickets and used the bus to get around and see everything after the conference had ended. It worked out perfectly, so I assumed it would work the same way this time. I could not remember the company I bought them from last time, but it was NOT Big Bus. I would highly recommend choosing another company. Big Bus stops at some weird, random, useless locations in my opinion. It doesn't stop at Alamo Square, but a block away down a hill. It stops at the "wrong" side of the Golden gate Bridge. What do I mean? I mean it stops on the North side where the angle is so sharp that it's near impossible to get a good shot.
Last time I was in San Francisco was 2009, with a friend. We were there for a teaching conference. We bought HOHO tickets and used the bus to get around and see everything after the conference had ended. It worked out perfectly, so I assumed it would work the same way this time. I could not remember the company I bought them from last time, but it was NOT Big Bus. I would highly recommend choosing another company. Big Bus stops at some weird, random, useless locations in my opinion. It doesn't stop at Alamo Square, but a block away down a hill. It stops at the "wrong" side of the Golden gate Bridge. What do I mean? I mean it stops on the North side where the angle is so sharp that it's near impossible to get a good shot.
| | Here is my photo from 2009 (I am on the left, my friend on the right). We stopped at the South side of the bridge. Great angle. Nice displays & signs explaining the bridge. A store. Just all around better location. The bus from 2009 stopped on both sides. |
Here is the BEST shot I could get on this recent trip. While beautiful, the bridge is barely visible. It was very difficult to get a good picture because this was was also overcrowded. A lot of people just hanging out on the viewing wall made it difficult to find a spot for a picture.
One positive than I can mention is that when we got off the ship they allowed us to go on the buses that were parked inside the "terminal" rather than make us walk down the street to the official stop. They had Big Buses inside the terminal because that was the company assigned to the Royal excursions. I assumed that they might make us go outside because we bought our tickets on our own. We rode around for close to an hour before the first place that we wanted to get off.
We got off here because I wanted another picture in front of the Painted Ladies. I grew up watching Full House as a kid, so these houses always looked so cool to me. The grass was in pretty bad shape, I am guess it is from the drought? Connor spotted the playground. We let him play for 20 minutes because most of the trip was focus on things we (Matt and myself) wanted to see, we made time to let him burn off some energy in between stops. This was the 1st of three playgrounds for the day!
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| Next up was the Golden Gate bridge, I already shared the photos when explaining my disappointment in the bus stops. But I was able to get a nice shot while we were riding over the bridge. I wanted to get off a Lombard Street to show Matt the curvy street. Except that Big Bus doesn't stop anywhere near that section. It drives through a regular street with nothing to see but stores. So we ended up staying on the bus until we got to Chinatown. There we walked through some shops, ate lunch, and then we found another playground!! |  |
 | I saw a sign for this "tea" that I like. It goes by various names: Milk Tea, Bubble Tea, Boba Tea, etc. I was excited. There aren't many places back home that serve it. People have always told me it is better out on the West Coast. So I ordered one. Ugh! The lady that made it must have thrown a bunch of stuff in a cup without measuring. It was way too sweet, gritty (too much powder), and just not the same. I was let down!! I'll stick to the East Coast version! |
After Chinatown we hopped on the bus again and headed back to our ship. We were tired. It was about 3:30pm at this point and we needed to get the little guy to nap. and he wouldn't... We ended up going to the Windjammer for dinner right around when we sailed back under the Golden Gate Bridge! I was tempted to go back upstairs for some evening shots, but I was too tired from the long day we had. We even saw some whales breaching the water throughout our journey away from the city by the bay! So my photos are from inside the buffet. Oh well.
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