What a great cruise! It was really fun to finally put faces to all the screen names.
Jedisan/JediJazzMan-Thank you for the door presents and glow necklaces!
GrammieGail-Thanks for the great cook book!
LegalBriefs-What a fun person you are and what a fantastic pirate!
C&Ssnyders-Congratulations on all the Bingo winnings!
Our check in went very smoothly. Apparently some people had 2 and 3 hours of boarding time, but ours was very quick as was our debarkation, probably about 15 or 20 minutes total once Disney started lining us up.
We had the Early LAP rotation for our dinners and while on the subject, may I say that those meals are all 5 star meals... not Dennys quality. Our server was
SACHIN from India and
MARTYNA from ????both were fantastic. Well actually Sachin was Fantastic (this was his word).. Martyna was so/so... she seemed preoccupied or deep in thought perhaps concentrating on her job or had a week-long headache, not sure, but she did her job, but didn't "shine" at it like Sachin... but then I guess anyone would NOT shine next to him as he went above and BEYOND his job.
We had Pirate Night on Tuesday night and it was a blast. This being our first cruise, we were all psyched up for it and brought our stuff from home to wear. We had a great time. The party started hopping when Captain Hook showed up and took over the ship. We had fireworks and music and even a pirate ship off our port side as we departed Puerto Vallarta.
PuertoVallarta -
ZipLine Excursion...
that was GREAT... I strongly recommend this for anyone that wants to do a once in a lifetime thing. It was not very physical except for the 10 minute walk at the end as it is UP-hill DUUUUUUH... I had not given it much thought that the walk would be UP-hill. THAT was exhausting! I would have paid $100 for a donkey to ride back up, but there weren't any around.
We had team B (as in BEST) and they were all VERY nice, friendly, and helpful. They all spoke English and Spanish, and one even spoke French. The guides strapped us up and showed us how to keep from twirling as we zipped along, and they were always there to keep us from slamming into the trees at the end. They kept us laughing with jokes and pointed out the native plants and trees. Lots of interesting trivia that I don't remember as I was busy trying to take pictures and NEVER got to take one as I was distracted by the fun I was having. They also highly encourage you to leave your camera and valuables at the base camp in a locked container that they provide for your convience because IF you drop something, they aren't retrieving it for you and at times you really are about 90 feet hign in the tree tops. Plus, they want to assure that you will want to buy their video/DVD at the end of the experience. One of the guides zips along with a camcorder filming you as you go. They edit it later with music from Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible etc... so it should be a hoot to watch when we get it in about 6 weeks. Cost is $40w/shipping for Video and $52 w/shipping for DVD. There were 8 in our group so we bought 1 video and will make copies to share. What can I say, we're cheap.
Mazatlan -
Old City Walking Tour...
It starts out with a wild fast breath taking ride in a taxi that Disney had waiting for us as we got off the Magic. We had a driver that spoke great English and he basically gave us the city tour as he drove. His name was "El Gato" meaning the cat and he asked us to ask for him if we needed to go anyplace after the tour. He was incredibly friendly and knowledgable about the town, BUT he drove like a mad man, going THRU stop signs and just plowing into and across traffic to deliver us to a place by the ocean where we meet up with the rest of our tour group... My mom was in the taxi behind ours and she said her driver never spoke to them, but drove just as wildly as he seemed to be trying to catch up with our taxi.
The tour began after everyone was delivered to the beach location... about 20 of us. We had a very nice tour guide named Carmen, very friendly, knowledgable and great English. We were there on June 1st and it was quite warm. Be sure to bring a hat, sunglasses, sunblock and WATER. I don't know how anyone will fare during July and August as after 30 minutes I was sweating buckets. The actual walk was nicely paced and not strenuous at all, so most anyone would be able to do it. You do have to keep an eye out for the dog poo on the sidewalk as you go AND for drivers that drive their cars along the sidewalk for a bit before deciding to park ON the sidewalk! This was hillarious as our guide had just told us to stay ON the sidewalk where it was safe. She had just finished uttering those words when a car came towards us and scooted itself onto the sidewalk and drove ON the sidewalk for about 40 feet before parking. Alot of us had to actually jump out of the way and BACK into the street to get out of the way of this car!
Carmen took us to see statues, a bakery, an old museum, (I didn't go in as I was too hot to go into a hot unairconditioned museum) a church, an opera house, and a restaurant where we were only allowed to get a drink as we were too short on time to get something to eat. As I said it was a very warm day and EVERYONE was hot, thirsty and hungry.
I don't recommend this tour unless you are totally into history and old buildings that are being restored and dont' mind being HOT.
CaboSanLucas - Walking Tour
Decided NOT to do this tour as we were burned out from the Mazatlan walking tour. We decided to eat the cost of the ticket than do the hot walk again. Although now I regret not going as it was BEAUTIFUL in Cabo and it was very cool and breezy there.
You must take a little boat called a tender off the ship to get to Cabo as we can not park along the dock as the water isn't deep enough. At least that is the way I understood it. Once we were on land, there are LOTS of local people standing there ready to take you anywhere you want to go. They have all kinds of things to rent and excursions to take and at 1/2 the cost of booking thru Disney. The whole town seems very clean, touristy and friendly and ready to serve you. There were lots of shops and restaurants and lots of Americans everywhere. This is a very nice place and I highly recommend going there and plan on going back to enjoy more of it. The only regret I have is we didnt spend more time there. I feel Disney should drop Mazatlan altogether and spend 2 days in Cabo San Lucas.
Back to the real world... Work, Bills, and dreaming of the next cruise.
Jedi's, thanks for all the neat glowey stuff. Right up my alley! And (PLEASE FORGIVE ME forgetting) whoever gave us the glow Disney heads, EVERYONE was SO jealous!!! I wore them to dinner and people were stopping me in the hallways everywhere I went. 
I don't know about you guys, but I LOVED having a tv that showed CONTINUOUS Disney programs. We would fall asleep with the tv on everynight. We would go to sleep with The Wizard of Oz and usually wake up to Sword In The Stone. And I always had the DVC channel on. 
Our server from dinner was phenominal! Sachin from India. I recommend him. Fantastic! Anyone else have him? I wasn't too fond of our assistant server-drink lady. Martyna. She was "eh". As the cruise was winding down I was talking about how Sachin basically ruined it for every other server I will ever incounter in my life. He blew the standards out of the water. Always smiling. Always cheerful, always talkative and had very good recommendations. I love him!! We were offering up money, room and board in our collective homes (remember, there were 10 of us) for him to come live with us. 
