The 'Wonder'ful Mexican Riviera with a nut (allergy) Full report w/pics!

[Stinkerbe11]

Day 7 was on Saturday-our last full sea day. We pulled back into the port in L.A. early Sunday morning.

 

[Dramamama]

Loving your TR. DH and I are laughing and starting to get very excited about our MR in March.
You family is adorable.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Today Parrot Cay and Beach Blanket had a seafood buffet including sushi.

We had a great time, I think I must have had several pounds of stone crab claws myself!
Everything was good, even the sushi. After lunch we walked around the ship taking pictures and ended up walking through Beach Blanket. TIP: Skip Parrot Cay and eat here for the seafood buffet. The sushi selection was so much larger and the crab claws (picked over and small in PC) were plentiful and huge in BBB.

We decided it was probably time to start packing up, so I headed back to the room and Divot went to the lab for the kids. A few minutes later, Divot comes storming into the room tearing around looking for the camera and mumbles something about the kids performing on the stage in Friendship Rocks and it was starting now. I ran after him, but he had already disappeared into the darkened theater, so I tiptoed down to one of the empty seats to watch the show.

I had no idea the kids wanted to participate in this, but here they were up on stage singing and dancing with Mickey and Minnie. It was cute how their faces lit up when they saw Mom and Dad in the audience and I actually teared up a couple of times.

After the show, Divot brought the kids back to the room and we got dressed for our last dinner onboard (sniff, sniff).

We had reservations in Palo, but wanted the kids to have dinner in Parrot Cay. We wanted to see our excellent serving team and hand out their well-deserved tips.

GG had the Mickey shaped pasta with a Mickey bar for dessert and BASS had the cheese pizza and nut-free cake for dessert.

After dinner and a change of clothes, we dropped the kids off at the club and
went to Palo for our adult dinner.

Very surprisingly, this was (besides the nut incident) the most inattentive service that we received the entire cruise. I don’t know the reason why, but our server seemed very rushed, scattered and behind the entire evening. He was extremely likable and charming- just spastic, like he’d been in the back siphoning espresso, if you know what I mean.

After we were seated, it took around 30 minutes before anyone greeted us and finally the maitre’d Marco brought some water to the table- I didn’t say anything and there was no apology offered. Truthfully, I was just happy to be on a date with Divot and anything beyond that was just bonus.

Finally, we met our server and he brought over the rolling antipasto bar (this was delicious)

For appetizers Divot had the mushroom risotto(looked good, but tasted really bland) and I had the lobster mascarpone ravioli with shaved truffles(very good). Our server suggested the quattro forrmaggi pizza (mozzarella, mascarpone, gorgonzola and parmesan), this was good also.

For entrees we had the rack of lamb(best thing I had all week) and the veal chop(heavenly).

For dessert I had the Palo chocolate souffle(very good) and Divot had the tiramisu(very good).

Spastic server didn’t deliver our coffee until we were almost finished with dessert. This would normally not be a big deal, but I did expect more attention to detail in Palo- especially when I looked around and saw Judy floating effortlessly around her tables tending to their every want and need.

In the meantime, another couple had been seated beside us and the gentleman was grumbling about 10 minutes passing without being greeted...I wanted to say “dude, you have no idea”...

All in all the meal was excellent despite the lackluster service and having a romantic meal with Divot more than made up for that.

We picked the kids up at the clubs, turned in their wrist bands and went our separate ways. GG was tired, so she and Divot went to the room and BASS and I went to the atrium lobby to see ‘Till We Meet Again.

We didn’t watch the entire show-there was still some packing to do and the bags had to be out in the hallway soon...We went back to our cozy little stateroom for the last time and found Cinderella, Minnie Mouse and a swan.

Next up...Good Day L.A.- Welcome home! Debarkation and the countdown is on ‘til next year!

 

[cidymom]

Hi Stinkerbell - thank you for your wonderful TR! I'm loving all the details and beautiful pictures. I have a question for you: is it fresh water or salt water in the kids and adult pools? Thanks again for your help.

 

[lar32]

Hello!
I think my question may have gotten lost earlier but could you tell me when you arrived in PV, how was ship time compared to actual local time? I'm nervous about a booking we have for a zip line tour and the tour company is assuring me that the 7:30 a.m. arrival time that is showing in my cruise documents is indeed local time but from what i've read, that doesn't appear to be true! Any insights you have would be great!!! Thanks!!!

 

[Jewelss37]

Stinkerbell! Great TR! love the pics! So I am glad to hear the seafood and Palo's tasted good towards the end of the cruise. I had this crazy thought that maybe the food wouldn't taste as fresh due to it being a week later??? I have Palo brunch scheduled on our last day. So glad to hear it was great! ( except for the service)

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Hello!
I think my question may have gotten lost earlier but could you tell me when you arrived in PV, how was ship time compared to actual local time? I'm nervous about a booking we have for a zip line tour and the tour company is assuring me that the 7:30 a.m. arrival time that is showing in my cruise documents is indeed local time but from what i've read, that doesn't appear to be true! Any insights you have would be great!!! Thanks!!!

I am sorry to say that I have no idea! I know that they are different though, because our Navigator says Please remain on ship's time while in port today. Do not adjust your watches to local time. I will do some research and try to find out the answer for you.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Hi Stinkerbell - thank you for your wonderful TR! I'm loving all the details and beautiful pictures. I have a question for you: is it fresh water or salt water in the kids and adult pools? Thanks again for your help.

Fresh water.

 

[lar32]

oh thanks but don't worry about spending your time researching it. I really have tried researching myself and according to this board and cruise critic it seems the clocks move up once one hour but that is it. In PV it would actually be 2 hours ahead (or one hour ahead of ship time if they indeed only move up one hour) but now I'm wondering if even though we stay on ship time if they do actually port at 7:30 a.m. local time. So confusing!!! But thanks for offering to look into it but don't worry. Your trip report is enough to be working on...

 

[Magic#]

Stinkerbell your trip report was amazing...thank you! I can not wait to get on the ship on the 27th!

 

[Magic#]

Stinkerbell did u book your next cruise while you where onboard the ship? If so, did they offer good deals?

 

[LuvIt]

So on the last night the "Till We Meet Again" show isn't performed in a theater but in the big atrium lobby area?

P.S. Sounds like you had a great trip - you've got me rethinking trying Palo on our first cruise later this year....I thought that everything on the ship would be new for us so just dining in regular sit down venues would be great and we'd save Palo for our second cruise!

 

[cidymom]

Stinkerbell - we all owe you a big THANK YOU for your time and effort in preparing this TR. It is of great help to future MR cruisers. You have a beautiful family. I don't know how you remember all the details of your cruise. I tried to keep a journal on our last cruise and I had great difficulty remembering what we did - it was a blur. Congratulations on a great reporting job!!

 

[talie]

Stinkerbell - Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together. We are driving down to LA tomorrow for our MR cruise and I feel much better prepared due to your TR.

 

[rrbar]

Regarding the time, we were also there on the Jan 30th to Feb 6th cruise. There was a note on the bed either the first or second night to change our clocks by one hour. So, in Cabo we were on the same time as the local time. The day before we got to Puerto Vallarta, Christian, the cruise director, gave a speech at the 6:15 show about not changing our time to local time in Puerto Vallarta. He said to ignore whatever we heard and stay on ship's time so we were one hour off of what the time was in Puerto Vallarta. We went on the excursion on Las Caletas but they were using Puerto Vallarta time so we had to pay attention to what time it really was when they told us to meet at a certain time as we had not changed our watches. Hope this helps!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Regarding the time, we were also there on the Jan 30th to Feb 6th cruise. There was a note on the bed either the first or second night to change our clocks by one hour. So, in Cabo we were on the same time as the local time. The day before we got to Puerto Vallarta, Christian, the cruise director, gave a speech at the 6:15 show about not changing our time to local time in Puerto Vallarta. He said to ignore whatever we heard and stay on ship's time so we were one hour off of what the time was in Puerto Vallarta. We went on the excursion on Las Caletas but they were using Puerto Vallarta time so we had to pay attention to what time it really was when they told us to meet at a certain time as we had not changed our watches. Hope this helps!

How did you like Las Caletas? I have this booked but it's so expensive and I'm not sure it's worth it. Did you do the sea lion swim?

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Stinkerbell did u book your next cruise while you
were onboard the ship? If so, did they offer good deals?

Yes, I rebooked onboard and they offer a 10% discount on your future cruise + 200.00 onboard credit + I get 75.00 onboard credit from my travel agent.

 

[Stinkerbe11]

Stinkerbell - we all owe you a big THANK YOU for your time and effort in preparing this TR. It is of great help to future MR cruisers. You have a beautiful family. I don't know how you remember all the details of your cruise. I tried to keep a journal on our last cruise and I had great difficulty remembering what we did - it was a blur. Congratulations on a great reporting job!!

Thank you, I am glad it's appreciated- it's more work than I had anticipated. The last few posts have been short and to the point because I am a "single mom" this week and I can't seem to find time to write the way I normally do. I brought my iPad along on the cruise and made notes every night, otherwise I would have nothing to report I'm sure there's a ton that I left out, but my goal was to reassure future cruisers that this is a worthwhile investment of your family's time and money

 

[cidymom]

Hi again Stinkerbell. Sorry to bug you with more questions. I just re-read your TR from the beginning and had a couple more questions. 1) When you went back to the ship after your adventure in PV, did you have to show any type of photo ID (passport, driver's licence) in addition to your KTTW card? 2) When you bought stuff at Walmart and other stores in PV, did you pay in US dollars or pesos? Thanks in advance for your help and your detailed TR is very much appreciated.

 

[pristinegem]

Thank you SO much for your AWESOME trip report! My husband and I greatly appreciate your thorough report with lots of photos! You have a beautiful family! I'm glad you and your family had a wonderful cruise! We can't wait to go on our first Disney cruise in a few days!