Feb 20, 2011 - Presidents' Week - Mexican Riviera

[preedymtnwest]

Man, it is windy and stormy in LA. Everyone drive carefully!

Ditto! We've got cold temps and a little ice and snow, but nothing so far that should impede our flight, I hope.

Jealous of all of you stopping at DL first - a rainy day there is better than no day at all! At least we'll get to DL in April.

I hope it clears up for all of us for Sail Away, even if it will be chilly!

Love that emoticon, LKFan!

 

[XMom]

It is pouring right now and has been for the past few hours. The weather people say it should stop Sunday and Monday and come back Tuesday, but that's ok because we won't be here to worry about it

 

[silence]

It is pouring right now and has been for the past few hours. The weather people say it should stop Sunday and Monday and come back Tuesday, but that's ok because we won't be here to worry about it

We left the house about 6:30 this morning. After numerous potty breaks and horrible traffic in LA, we arrived at the hotel just after 2. After unloading the van, we stepped outside to go hop on the shuttle. As we shut the hotel door, the skies opened up and it started POURING. Of course it did, we were on our way to the parks.

We only stayed for 3 rides and dinner. By then it was dark and COLD and we were soaking wet. Fortunately we have APs so we come often. Went to Target, they are all sold out of cheap ponchos. We bought some at the park but they ripped!

Anyways, we will try again tomorow. It was just a quick bonus trip anyways.

 

[talie]

Well we were going to leave tomorrow around noon to make the drive south but because of the weather we're going to leave first thing in the morning. Just keeping our fingers crossed that the Grapevine stays open. (We had some friends drive through tonight and the said it was very rainy and windy but they made it.)

 

[LKFan]

It looks like this morning's rain got pushed back until this afternoon - good thing because my daughter has a swim meet this morning and my son has baseball practice.

Talie, hopefully you'll get down here before the rain starts.

Tomorrow's the day!

 

[XMom]

It looks like this morning's rain got pushed back until this afternoon - good thing because my daughter has a swim meet this morning and my son has baseball practice.

Talie, hopefully you'll get down here before the rain starts.

Tomorrow's the day!

Yes, seems like mother nature forgot that it was supposed to rain today. It is chilly outside but the skies are blue Our baseball practice was cancelled due to muddy fields...but that's ok, we still have a birthday party dropoff, a pedicure for me and lots of packing and list checking to do before tomorrow.

I can't believe my husband is just as exicted as I am. I thought he would think I'm nuts to want to get to the port early. I said if we leave at 9am we can be there by 10:15-10:45 depending on traffice and he replied with..."why don't we leave at 8:00?" I almost fell over!!! I will tell him yes, but that probably means that we will end up leaving closer to 9am. With bags, and 3 kids and grandma, someone is going to be running behind or having a meltdown.

We surprised our kids last night with the crusie. We had balloons come out of the box they opened with a letter from Mickey. I made them shirts with their DCL name tag on it and a Mickey head MR itinerary on the back. My hubby wanted to know why I didn't make him one!!

Looking forward to meeting you all tomorrow at 3pm!!!

Charlene (Roland, Xander, Xayne, Xoey and Grandma Pam) aka XMom

 

[samily]

Yay! We made it! We were supposed to get in about 9:30 last night but because of weather and an unexpected fuel stop we landed about 12:30am ( which was 3:20am to us! Last leg of the flight was rough, people all around us were getting sick but luckily my crew was fine.

Happy it had stopped raining when we landed and happy to see the sunshine this morning! Can't wait for tomorrow!!

 

[talie]

We are very happily in Santa Clarita. It was quite a wild ride over the grapevine. We got a late start and ended up going through the grapevine about 5pm. We made it over the summit with it still raining but as we started down the hill it started to snow. It's funny because we go up to the snow all the time but driving in snow in a non-snow area made me really nervous. As the temperatures got closer and closer to 32degrees I looked over at dh and asked, "Caltrans does have sand and plow equipment up here right?" Ice plus drivers unfamiliar with ice and snow = disaster in my mind. We were just really happy we weren't a half an hour later than we already were. I have a feeling we would have encountered quite a bit more snow.

But, on to happier thoughts. We had dinner at Chuy's in Santa Clarita. YUM! We've never been but it was quite tasty. Weird combo of barbecue, Mexican, restaurant and bar.

Okay, off to bed. Our checking time is 10:30-11:00. Something tells me we won't be hanging out by the pool like we had originally planned. BRRRRR

See everyone at 3!

 

[LKFan]

Checked in, went through security and are watching Good Luck Charlie. Is anyone else here yet?

 

[herefishy]

Just wondering since this is our first Disney cruise....
Tracy

(sitting and waiting to be picked up at the Paradise Pier!)

 

[LKFan]

We're home and, as I sit at the computer, I can feel the rocking and rolling of the ship.

We had a great time. Thanks Elaine for organizing the FE and for the green Mickey tags. It made it a lot easier to spot people from the boards.

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful and very generous gifts. Some of you are very creative. Thanks to all!

 

[minie_meese]

We had a terrific time. It was great meeting everyone.

We're staying the night near LAX so get to extend our vacation for an extra day.

 

[silence]

Just got home. Oddly enough, after 6 hours in the car (hubby drove like a bat outta hell to Sacramento) I am just now feeling like I did last night with those large swells rocking the ship!

We had a FABULOUS time. Booked for spring break next year.

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful gifts, my kids loved the FE. Thanks again Elaine for organizing it for us.

I did catch a nasty cold bug though. It hit me hard Friday after dinner. I had a fever and chills on Saturday. At least it was the last day of our trip.

 

[Bruins]

We had a FABULOUS time. Booked for spring break next year.

We're also booked for Spring Break next year as well. I think it's the week of 4/8 we tentatively booked. I went on the DCL site and it said something like "only 408 more days"!

We weren't planning on rebooking, but we talked it over while we were having an amazing dinner at Palo. Our server at Palo was Daniel from Italy, who was a very pleasant person who gave us great recommendations on what to order.

Does anyone have any feedback on their tours in PV and Cabo? Since we're going back, it would help us to know how your tours went. I know X Mom's family did the ziplines, and it sounded great. Anyone else?

 

[XMom]

Was nice meeting everyone. Sorry, we weren't more social. Loved seeing and experiencing how the Disboards gets people together. We booked a dummy date and not sure what we will do with it. We are scheduled for Jan 2, 2012 on their 6 nite MR cruise (no mazatlan), but we are hoping we may be able to move the dummy date to Alaska in 2012 if we can afford it.

I'm still trying to convice the kids that our couch is not rocking!!! Should be fun to get them up for school tomorrow.....ugh.

 

[silence]

We're also booked for Spring Break next year as well. I think it's the week of 4/8 we tentatively booked. I went on the DCL site and it said something like "only 408 more days"!

We weren't planning on rebooking, but we talked it over while we were having an amazing dinner at Palo. Our server at Palo was Daniel from Italy, who was a very pleasant person who gave us great recommendations on what to order.

Does anyone have any feedback on their tours in PV and Cabo? Since we're going back, it would help us to know how your tours went. I know X Mom's family did the ziplines, and it sounded great. Anyone else?

Our spring break is the week before Easter, so we are sailing on the 4/1 cruise, which is the day after DD birthday.

We did the following:

PV - Beach/Pool Resort at Paradise Village - Our BEST day in Mexico. Could it be because I won a week's stay at the resort? No, it probably won't get used. We had all you could eat/drink and the water slides and pool area were wonderful. We never did get the kids in the ocean, they had too much fun in the pools.

Cabo Day 1 - Pool Resort - The name escapes me at the moment. However, this one was HORRIBLE. It was the Pacific side, so no beach access. We had a bus full of people. We basically booked this one as we had so much fun in PV. We arrived and they set up 12 loungers for the cruisers. 12 for a bus full of people. Every other lounger and chair had reserved towels for their hotel guests. NO ONE was in the pools when we arrived, there were 4 pools and not one person swimming. We all stood around and then they tried to tell us to go use the loungers on the beach....but we booked POOL access. So much for the lounger and umbrella we were promised! I felt sorry for the tour guide. They finally ended up bringing the beach loungers to the pool area. But to be honest, I felt like we were second class citizens here. When we arrived back after the short bus ride, they left us there, didn't walk us back to the port. We almost stood in the horrible Carnival line to tender (it looked like a 2 hour line!). When my husband asked the waiter about the free mimosa, they said no, you don't get that, and from that point on all the waiters ignored us. We never got our free lemonade or ice tea. We couldn't wait to leave this place.

Cabo Day 2 - Swimming with the dolphins. My kids absolutely LOVED this. The water was a bit chilly. I'm a LARGE person, so I didn't try to fit into one of their wetsuits they offered. I was the only one. To be honest, I did this as my DD was too young to go by herself. Anyways, we had a great time.

 

[talie]

Hi everyone! We didn't make the drive quite as quickly as silence but got home about 6 or so tonight. And yes, we are still rockin and rollin here. Had to laugh as we put the kids to sleep at 8:15 my son started to complain that we would just be going to dinner and there is no way he was going to be able to fall asleep. Both kids were out in 5 minutes.

We had a great cruise although I did discover that I am not immune to sea sickness. The first and last night were rough for me. Other than that we had a great time and kept running into DISers.

We're also booked for Spring Break next year as well. I think it's the week of 4/8 we tentatively booked. I went on the DCL site and it said something like "only 408 more days"!

We weren't planning on rebooking, but we talked it over while we were having an amazing dinner at Palo. Our server at Palo was Daniel from Italy, who was a very pleasant person who gave us great recommendations on what to order.

Does anyone have any feedback on their tours in PV and Cabo? Since we're going back, it would help us to know how your tours went. I know X Mom's family did the ziplines, and it sounded great. Anyone else?

In PV we did Las Caletas and really enjoyed it. You take about a 45-60 minute boat ride to an secluded inlet. There is an activities beach were you can snorkel, kayak, or they have innertubes. The trip is all inclusive with the snorkling, kayaking, innertubes and food and drink all included. I also did the nature walk which was nice, though not that exciting. They also have parrots that they fly around.

I'd say this was a highlight of our trip. (Well if my son hadn't got seasick it would have been.) But both kids loved the innertubes and playing in the sand. On the boat ride back we saw whales, spouts, backs, tails and one breached 3 times! It was amazing.

Day 1 at Cabo we did a whale watching tour that we booked privately with Pez Gato. This was our most economical excursion and quite nice. The tour was on a catamaran and drinks were included. They took us past Los Arcos, Lovers Beach, the seal rock, Divorce Beach, and then out to the whales. The whales once again were amazing. We repeatedly saw two that would come up right next to each other. They are so loud. No breaching but they were so close you could really see a lot of their backs.

Day 2 at Cabo we did the Dolphin Experience which was fun. I'm not sure I'd do it again as it was pricey for what we got but we'd never done the dolphin thing before so it was exciting to be able to touch the dolphin. Our six year old was very leary of the dolphin so her great brave moment was when she actually touched it.

We got done with that about 11 so we decided to take a Water Taxi out to Medano Beach so the kids could play at the beach and we could get some food at the same time. Some people on the whale watching tour recommended that we take a water taxi to the Office which was family friendly. We never did find the Office but were able to find a restaurant on the beach where the kids could play in the water and we could eat so we were able to kill two birds with one stone (which was good as we really only had about an hour). dh liked Medano more than I did. The beach was pretty and the kids had fun as the seas were calm. I just didn't like the taudry spring break atmosphere. Maybe if we'd successfullly found the Office my opinion would differ.

If I were to return to Cabo I'd definitely take a tour with Pez Gato. I'd also take a water taxi out to Lover's Beach to explore. The other thing I'd like to do would be to go to San Jose. We were talking to some people that took a shopping tour there through Disney (which apparently was a bit of a disaster as they barely had enough time to do anything as one family was 20+ minutes late). They did say that San Jose was a very nice town that they would have liked to spend more time exploring.

 

[Señor DonDuck]

My head is definitely rolling back and forth while sitting on the couch. Guess we'll be taking Dramamine for another day or two.

We had a great time and was great meeting many of you (sorry to those that we missed). All of the FE gifts were fantastic. Thanks to everyone (well, except for trying to fit all of them in our luggage ) Thank you Elaine, once again, for organizing this!

 

[EricaG]

Still feeling a little swaying here, too!

Thanks to everyone for the gifts--my little boy loved everything he got and was so excited to see gifts there!

We loved the beach at Cabo--spent a few hours there, near the Office but not quite in front of it. Relaxed and drank some nice light beers while my son played and played in the sand at the edge of the water (though the water was COLD!).

We've done one other cruise out of Port Canaveral and didn't get much motion at all, so I wasn't prepared for the sea-sickness I felt on the first night and last night--first night I didn't even make it through dinner. Next time I will see about getting some of those sea-sick prevention patches I saw folks wearing behind their ears, just in case!

Again, thanks to all for the gifts--we had a great time!

 

[LKFan]

We've done one other cruise out of Port Canaveral and didn't get much motion at all, so I wasn't prepared for the sea-sickness I felt on the first night and last night--first night I didn't even make it through dinner. Next time I will see about getting some of those sea-sick prevention patches I saw folks wearing behind their ears, just in case!

I think they were giving out the patches for free at the Health Office (or whatever it is called).

On Friday night my 8 year old developed a fever. I brought half the medicine cabinet but, unfortunately, didn't pack any liquid IBU or Tylenol for him (he doesn't swallow pills yet). Treasure Ketch had IBU but only the infant version. For him, the correct dosage was half the bottle. It was late at night so I bought it anyway.

The next morning, we went down to the health office and they had all kinds of meds available for sale. I wish the people in the stores knew that.

Anyway, while we were at the health office, there was a large bin of seasickness meds that were free. I didn't examine them in detail but they looked like scopolamine patches. This was on Saturday around 9:30 am so I'm sure they were anticipating a rough ride home.