justmestace
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- Joined
- Mar 25, 2002
- Messages
- 26,975
Wednesday
June 11.
Mazatlan
For some reason I woke up way earlier than I needed to .6 am. I think I felt the thrusters as we rotated to the dock. I went outside and we were docked already. It was really, really humid .but not hot. Just a heaviness in the air, and very cloudy. It had thundered and rained during the night, but Id slept right through that.
Today we did the Mazatlan Beach Escape & the resort was really nice. Very surprising after driving through Mazatlan (and Ive been here twice) and seeing the poverty and unclean conditions. The resort has 4 pools, one secluded with a hot tub. Someone was constantly in cleaning the restrooms, and beside the buffet that comes with the tour, there is also a restaurant that you can order food from.
They had pottery painting and a pinata party, also wave runners available on the beach. I didnt see him, but Im told Jared (my son) is a maniac operating one of those! Frances and I had already left by that time to take the short 2 block walk to the shopping at the Golden Zone.
We did have some rain showers on and off during the day, but it didnt keep us out of the pools, or the kids out of the ocean. I had enough ocean yesterday, and there were jellyfish warnings (although the kids didnt see any) so Frances and I kept to the hot tub and pool. The kids had a blast riding the waves. At least there werent any rocks anywhere.
The food was only so-so, and Ive had a lot of authentic Mexican food, so that is not my objection. The chicken enchiladas were more onion than chicken, the taquitos were potato rather than the chicken or beef were used to, and the tamales were small and all corn meal. But theres plenty of food on the ship, so it wasnt like we were worried wed starve to death. Everyone really enjoyed this excursion, in spite of the food.
Megan and Dave (DD & DSIL newlyweds) did an independent excursion with Randis Happy Horses and came back raving about how wonderful it was. They were the only two going out this morning, so they had their own private honeymoon ride .on the beach and in some surrounding areas. They said they really had a great time and that Randi is a real sweetheart.
Tonight they are heading to Palo, and the rest of us will have our first night in Parrot Cay.
Thursday .June 12. Puerto Vallarta
It hit me when I got up this morning .6:00 am for no good reason!! .that the cruise is coming to its end. Only halfway through, actually, but I really could use an extra week. Guess Ill have to wait until August!
Were still waiting for a nice, sunny day. More clouds today. But warm so that makes it close enough to perfect.
Were docked with the aft of the ship facing the port terminal, so I cant get a good picture of it. Last time I was here, we were docked alongside of it, so I had a better idea of the layout then.
Were going to Las Caletas today, John Hustons private home, with Vallarta Adventures. They run a lot of Disneys shore excursions, and weve had great times with them.
Its about an hour by catamaran, but the tour guides make the trip fun. Jared, Megan and Dave signed up for the resort dive, so we got their paperwork done as we cruised along. I decided I didnt want to just sit at the beach alone, so I signed up for the private swim with the sea lion. You pay extra for both of these, the dive is $35 per person and the sea lion is $60. Since I havent bought anything at all, or done any spa, I decided I could treat myself to this.
Once we arrived, the divers met right away for their class and preparation. I headed to the area of the beach that I would need to be in to do the swim. I found an outcrop with chairs and two umbrellas, plus a picnic table, up some stone stairs, overlooking the beach. Beautiful breeze and a perfect spot.
Again there were jellyfish warnings. Apparently June is their time of year.
There are so many things to do here. Kayak, snorkel, massages, cooking class (they made paella), pottery, animal encounters ..they have a trained parrot that they bring out to fly around the beach .although we saw a wild parrot on our way to the island/area.
There have been several dolphin and whale sightings off the ship, by the way. Mostly off the port side.
Anyway .there must not have been any jellyfish to speak of, as it didnt keep people from playing in the water. Or so I thought.
At noon it was time for me to go meet my whiskered new friend. There were only four of us doing the swim. We had to wear our snorkel gear, although we never did need the masks. Fins to swim out to the platform was all we really needed. They also said it was required that we wear the big orange life jackets. I hate those things. They did let us wear them around our waists, but once I got in the water, it rode up to where I thought I would choke (kidding) with it pushing all the rolls I have up along with it. Lol
At the platform, we were met by a photographer (the same gal who arranged the swim with us on the catamaran) and the trainer, Johnny .a rather nice looking fellow if I do say so. And suddenly, from underneath us in the water, the star appeared. His name was Monico and he weighs about 300 pounds. We spent a full hour out there with him. He gave us kisses on the cheek, he did tricks that I thought only dolphins did .jumps, rolling, waving a fin, etc. He can show us his teeth, grin, stick out his tongue on command. Absolutely darling, and worth every penny. We even got to have him take us for a ride, one at a time, on his back. It was awesome.
It almost made me forget that we were surrounded by hoards of jellyfish and being stung the entire time. Yep ouch .I was pretty well covered with stings on my arms and a few on the back of my legs, by the time we were done. Im not allergic to bee stings, so I didnt have any bad reaction to them. I was told they had vinegar to put on them if I needed it, but we carry a bottle of jellyfish sting relief in our snorkel bag, so I used that, and it did take away the majority of the irritation right away. It took about an hour for the welts to go down, and by dinner time, I only had one lingering shadow from where the biggest concentration of stings were. Still .totally worth it for the private time with Monico.
The lunch that they served was pretty awesome. We had 5 salad choices, the paella that people learned to make, chicken, bbq ribs, ziti w/marinara sauce, chips & salsa, (actually pico de gallo we havent had salsa anywhere) beans, and more. There were also about 7 or 8 dessert choices.
After lunch we had time to check out the animals. We held an owl, a macaw and a spider monkey. I cant wait to see the video of the trip. There is a videographer who starts filming on the ride over, and goes around filming people at random all day. If you buy the disk, they mail it to your home. They used to have them delivered to the ship, but now they dont, and to offset that, they have lowered the cost. I think it was $20-something.
I did get to look at the pictures from the sea lion, on the catamaran back to the ship, and then paid to have a copy of the pictures with me in them, and any of just Monico. If I had wanted all the pictures, with the other people, I would have paid more. The picture disk was $115 and she made a copy right then and gave it to me. Its always the pictures where it starts to get expensive, but again, worth it to me. I did have my own camera out there, but only of Monico, so its fun to have some with me. Id say that there are about 30 pics on the disk. She took tons of pictures!
We had just enough time to wander around the area a little and visit the small shop before getting back on the Cat to head back. They had a dance party on the way back and the little kids were having a blast. They were awesome with the kids.
Back at port, Jared headed for the ship while Megan, Dave and I went to the Malecon for some shopping. About halfway down the shopping area, Megan started to not feel well (she better not be bringing home a little souvenir!!) so they took a taxi back to the ship. I continued wandering. I loved all of the sculptures along the waterfront, and there was someone who had built two huge sand sculptures.
I really wasnt looking to buy anything, just wander. I did come across a man selling his watercolors, and fell in love with one that was the same scene with a church steeple in it that I had been trying to photograph. None of my pics look too great, it was such a cloudy day. So for $30, I have a new painting for my wall.
I got a taxi then to head back. The first taxi we took over was a van-load of people so it was $3 pp. Coming back with just me, they wanted $6.
There is a lot of rebuilding going on after a hurricane several years ago, so the hotels near the water look a little shabby right now. Still I thought it was a nice port.
PIRATE NIGHT!!!
Always fun .it didnt seem nearly as crowded as in the past, so I was able to get some good pictures and see the whole thing. The fireworks were great, with an awesome half moon in the background.
Time for bed. I am beat from a great day in Puerto Vallarta.
Friday ..June 13. Day at Sea .
Ooooo Friday the 13th some are creeped out about that, but all I know is that for me, that means one thing ..PALO BRUNCH!!!!!
Need to get ready to head up in a bit.
I am going to try to post this on the DIS. Ive been able to check my mail the last two days, but when Ive tried to post on the DIS, the internet shuts down on me. Hmmmm ..wonder if I missed something? I hope those chatty Canal cruisers didnt get the whole DIS banned from DCLs internet service!
Brunch was marvelous as always. I really see only a few familiar faces in Palo. PJ, who Ive heard will soon be replaced as manager by Marco, Anne-Marie, and Tony.
Decided to walk around a bit after brunch .it was either that, or fall asleep. I went and chose our pictures from Pirate night, wandered to Mickeys Mates & discovered Captain Thord signing items at Treasure Ketch. I wondered why there were so many people down there.
Even though its cold, windy and cloudy outside, it doesnt seem very crowded inside.
I finally remembered to mention our servers. Our head server is Alessandro, and he seems to be around the tables a lot more than most head servers weve had. Hes pleasant and generous. He picked up the tab for a bottle of Banfi for the newlyweds, and brought Frances and I each a glass of champagne the other night.
Our server is Katerina from the Czech Republic. She is an excellent server. And fun. Our assistant server is Adrian from the Philippines. He is really fun. He loves to try out clever mind games with us. I sat and talked with him by the pool today. It always surprises me at how well educated a lot of the crew are. Seems sad to have a college education, but not have the opportunity to do much with it in countries other than ours.
Off to play trivia! Maybe Ill be better at that than Bingo. I also hope I can get this posted. A few people have mentioned getting logged off the ships site at odd times.
For some reason I woke up way earlier than I needed to .6 am. I think I felt the thrusters as we rotated to the dock. I went outside and we were docked already. It was really, really humid .but not hot. Just a heaviness in the air, and very cloudy. It had thundered and rained during the night, but Id slept right through that.
Today we did the Mazatlan Beach Escape & the resort was really nice. Very surprising after driving through Mazatlan (and Ive been here twice) and seeing the poverty and unclean conditions. The resort has 4 pools, one secluded with a hot tub. Someone was constantly in cleaning the restrooms, and beside the buffet that comes with the tour, there is also a restaurant that you can order food from.
They had pottery painting and a pinata party, also wave runners available on the beach. I didnt see him, but Im told Jared (my son) is a maniac operating one of those! Frances and I had already left by that time to take the short 2 block walk to the shopping at the Golden Zone.
We did have some rain showers on and off during the day, but it didnt keep us out of the pools, or the kids out of the ocean. I had enough ocean yesterday, and there were jellyfish warnings (although the kids didnt see any) so Frances and I kept to the hot tub and pool. The kids had a blast riding the waves. At least there werent any rocks anywhere.
The food was only so-so, and Ive had a lot of authentic Mexican food, so that is not my objection. The chicken enchiladas were more onion than chicken, the taquitos were potato rather than the chicken or beef were used to, and the tamales were small and all corn meal. But theres plenty of food on the ship, so it wasnt like we were worried wed starve to death. Everyone really enjoyed this excursion, in spite of the food.
Megan and Dave (DD & DSIL newlyweds) did an independent excursion with Randis Happy Horses and came back raving about how wonderful it was. They were the only two going out this morning, so they had their own private honeymoon ride .on the beach and in some surrounding areas. They said they really had a great time and that Randi is a real sweetheart.
Tonight they are heading to Palo, and the rest of us will have our first night in Parrot Cay.
Thursday .June 12. Puerto Vallarta
It hit me when I got up this morning .6:00 am for no good reason!! .that the cruise is coming to its end. Only halfway through, actually, but I really could use an extra week. Guess Ill have to wait until August!
Were still waiting for a nice, sunny day. More clouds today. But warm so that makes it close enough to perfect.
Were docked with the aft of the ship facing the port terminal, so I cant get a good picture of it. Last time I was here, we were docked alongside of it, so I had a better idea of the layout then.
Were going to Las Caletas today, John Hustons private home, with Vallarta Adventures. They run a lot of Disneys shore excursions, and weve had great times with them.
Its about an hour by catamaran, but the tour guides make the trip fun. Jared, Megan and Dave signed up for the resort dive, so we got their paperwork done as we cruised along. I decided I didnt want to just sit at the beach alone, so I signed up for the private swim with the sea lion. You pay extra for both of these, the dive is $35 per person and the sea lion is $60. Since I havent bought anything at all, or done any spa, I decided I could treat myself to this.
Once we arrived, the divers met right away for their class and preparation. I headed to the area of the beach that I would need to be in to do the swim. I found an outcrop with chairs and two umbrellas, plus a picnic table, up some stone stairs, overlooking the beach. Beautiful breeze and a perfect spot.
Again there were jellyfish warnings. Apparently June is their time of year.
There are so many things to do here. Kayak, snorkel, massages, cooking class (they made paella), pottery, animal encounters ..they have a trained parrot that they bring out to fly around the beach .although we saw a wild parrot on our way to the island/area.
There have been several dolphin and whale sightings off the ship, by the way. Mostly off the port side.
Anyway .there must not have been any jellyfish to speak of, as it didnt keep people from playing in the water. Or so I thought.
At noon it was time for me to go meet my whiskered new friend. There were only four of us doing the swim. We had to wear our snorkel gear, although we never did need the masks. Fins to swim out to the platform was all we really needed. They also said it was required that we wear the big orange life jackets. I hate those things. They did let us wear them around our waists, but once I got in the water, it rode up to where I thought I would choke (kidding) with it pushing all the rolls I have up along with it. Lol
At the platform, we were met by a photographer (the same gal who arranged the swim with us on the catamaran) and the trainer, Johnny .a rather nice looking fellow if I do say so. And suddenly, from underneath us in the water, the star appeared. His name was Monico and he weighs about 300 pounds. We spent a full hour out there with him. He gave us kisses on the cheek, he did tricks that I thought only dolphins did .jumps, rolling, waving a fin, etc. He can show us his teeth, grin, stick out his tongue on command. Absolutely darling, and worth every penny. We even got to have him take us for a ride, one at a time, on his back. It was awesome.
It almost made me forget that we were surrounded by hoards of jellyfish and being stung the entire time. Yep ouch .I was pretty well covered with stings on my arms and a few on the back of my legs, by the time we were done. Im not allergic to bee stings, so I didnt have any bad reaction to them. I was told they had vinegar to put on them if I needed it, but we carry a bottle of jellyfish sting relief in our snorkel bag, so I used that, and it did take away the majority of the irritation right away. It took about an hour for the welts to go down, and by dinner time, I only had one lingering shadow from where the biggest concentration of stings were. Still .totally worth it for the private time with Monico.
The lunch that they served was pretty awesome. We had 5 salad choices, the paella that people learned to make, chicken, bbq ribs, ziti w/marinara sauce, chips & salsa, (actually pico de gallo we havent had salsa anywhere) beans, and more. There were also about 7 or 8 dessert choices.
After lunch we had time to check out the animals. We held an owl, a macaw and a spider monkey. I cant wait to see the video of the trip. There is a videographer who starts filming on the ride over, and goes around filming people at random all day. If you buy the disk, they mail it to your home. They used to have them delivered to the ship, but now they dont, and to offset that, they have lowered the cost. I think it was $20-something.
I did get to look at the pictures from the sea lion, on the catamaran back to the ship, and then paid to have a copy of the pictures with me in them, and any of just Monico. If I had wanted all the pictures, with the other people, I would have paid more. The picture disk was $115 and she made a copy right then and gave it to me. Its always the pictures where it starts to get expensive, but again, worth it to me. I did have my own camera out there, but only of Monico, so its fun to have some with me. Id say that there are about 30 pics on the disk. She took tons of pictures!
We had just enough time to wander around the area a little and visit the small shop before getting back on the Cat to head back. They had a dance party on the way back and the little kids were having a blast. They were awesome with the kids.
Back at port, Jared headed for the ship while Megan, Dave and I went to the Malecon for some shopping. About halfway down the shopping area, Megan started to not feel well (she better not be bringing home a little souvenir!!) so they took a taxi back to the ship. I continued wandering. I loved all of the sculptures along the waterfront, and there was someone who had built two huge sand sculptures.
I really wasnt looking to buy anything, just wander. I did come across a man selling his watercolors, and fell in love with one that was the same scene with a church steeple in it that I had been trying to photograph. None of my pics look too great, it was such a cloudy day. So for $30, I have a new painting for my wall.
I got a taxi then to head back. The first taxi we took over was a van-load of people so it was $3 pp. Coming back with just me, they wanted $6.
There is a lot of rebuilding going on after a hurricane several years ago, so the hotels near the water look a little shabby right now. Still I thought it was a nice port.
PIRATE NIGHT!!!
Always fun .it didnt seem nearly as crowded as in the past, so I was able to get some good pictures and see the whole thing. The fireworks were great, with an awesome half moon in the background.
Time for bed. I am beat from a great day in Puerto Vallarta.
Friday ..June 13. Day at Sea .
Ooooo Friday the 13th some are creeped out about that, but all I know is that for me, that means one thing ..PALO BRUNCH!!!!!
Need to get ready to head up in a bit.
I am going to try to post this on the DIS. Ive been able to check my mail the last two days, but when Ive tried to post on the DIS, the internet shuts down on me. Hmmmm ..wonder if I missed something? I hope those chatty Canal cruisers didnt get the whole DIS banned from DCLs internet service!
Brunch was marvelous as always. I really see only a few familiar faces in Palo. PJ, who Ive heard will soon be replaced as manager by Marco, Anne-Marie, and Tony.
Decided to walk around a bit after brunch .it was either that, or fall asleep. I went and chose our pictures from Pirate night, wandered to Mickeys Mates & discovered Captain Thord signing items at Treasure Ketch. I wondered why there were so many people down there.
Even though its cold, windy and cloudy outside, it doesnt seem very crowded inside.
I finally remembered to mention our servers. Our head server is Alessandro, and he seems to be around the tables a lot more than most head servers weve had. Hes pleasant and generous. He picked up the tab for a bottle of Banfi for the newlyweds, and brought Frances and I each a glass of champagne the other night.
Our server is Katerina from the Czech Republic. She is an excellent server. And fun. Our assistant server is Adrian from the Philippines. He is really fun. He loves to try out clever mind games with us. I sat and talked with him by the pool today. It always surprises me at how well educated a lot of the crew are. Seems sad to have a college education, but not have the opportunity to do much with it in countries other than ours.
Off to play trivia! Maybe Ill be better at that than Bingo. I also hope I can get this posted. A few people have mentioned getting logged off the ships site at odd times.
Hate to hear about the jellyfish--you and water aren't the best of friends this trip
Hopefully, it cooperates better in August for you. Hope you had fun with the trivia. I have enjoyed reading your report---I think there are 9 more Mondays
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