Mexican Riviera 8/3/08-8/10/08 *almost* live

[DisneyMom92]

I am sitting at the DoubleTree in San Pedro waiting for it to be late enough to go to sleep...watching Titanic, probably not the best idea for the night before the cruise! This will be our third cruise, all of them Disney. In fact, my son said earlier this week that he couldn't imagine doing any other cruiseline because he loves the DCL so much. The cast: Me, my sister and my 2 kids, DD16 and DS12, almost 13.

We spent the day at Taste in San Pedro, this big festival in a park that involves food, drink, live bands etc. It was a nice relaxing day, but our thoughts and discussion almost always found its way back to the upcoming cruise. We really can't wait until tomorrow!

The DoubleTree is a really great hotel for the day or two before the cruise. While there really isn't much to do in San Pedro that's touristy there is plenty of sights to see for a few days. The hotel shuttle will also take you anywhere you want to go within a 5-mile radius for free. It's really nice not to have to deal with a rental car this trip, especially since we really don't know where the renal agencies are and such. The shuttle driver was really nice and friendly. In fact, the whole staff has been extremely professional and nice. The only downside was the restaurant where we had a server who really could not understand or speak English well enough to be in a service profession. We also waited an extremely long time for our meal to come. But once it did, the food was really quite good for a hotel restaurant. The fried chicken wouldn't be recommended, however.

Looking out the window at the harbor is really lovely, especially at night when the lights are lit in the background making sillouettes of the boats in the harbor. It was a dramatic view when we checked in at 1 a.m. that morning after an enjoyable limo ride from LAX through Hollywood and parts of LA to San Pedro. We rented the limo for 4 hours to take us to some of our favorite places in the area before we came to San Pedro. It was the perfect prelude to our adventures that were yet to begin.


View from room at night:

We have arranged for the shuttle to take us to the port in the morning at 9:30 a.m. The idea is to eat breakfast before taking off. Past experiences with shuttles (not this one) is that they want you there at 9:30 a.m. but they probably won't leave until more like 9:45 or later by the time they load all the luggage and everything.

The plan is to post every night, if possible. At least every other night. I have never done a trip report, so I can't promise that it will be entertaining or even very good. I hope it will be informative and fun. I will also answer questions if anyone has any.

Depending on how quick the connection is, I probably won't add pictures until we get back.

Next time I post will probably be onboard unless I can get my phone to allow me to hookup at the port while we wait in the morning. Then I will post my observations there.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

subscribing.. have a great time..

 

[DisneyMom92]

I happened to wake up at 5:30 this morning and debated about watching out the window to see if we could see the Magic from our room. I was about to go back to sleep when I glanced out the window and saw something that *could have* been the Magic. I decided to watch it come closer. It was the Magic!! It was the most amazing thing to watch the Magic sail across the horizon from our room. I couldn't have this experience by myself so I woke up my sister and my son. I let DD16 sleep because I didn't think she would enjoy it as much as the rest of us.

It's time to shut down the computer, pack it and the rest of the paraphenalia of cord bearing products I travel with, so that we can head to the port in a little more than 2 hours.

 

[andriade]

I happened to wake up at 5:30 this morning and debated about watching out the window to see if we could see the Magic from our room. I was about to go back to sleep when I glanced out the window and saw something that *could have* been the Magic. I decided to watch it come closer. It was the Magic!! It was the most amazing thing to watch the Magic sail across the horizon from our room. I couldn't have this experience by myself so I woke up my sister and my son. I let DD16 sleep because I didn't think she would enjoy it as much as the rest of us.

It's time to shut down the computer, pack it and the rest of the paraphenalia of cord bearing products I travel with, so that we can head to the port in a little more than 2 hours.

I am going one week from today so I will be reading your report very closely. I am especially interested in hearing about the rain. Does it rain all day? Is it overcast all day?

Thanks!

 

[DMMarla07860]

hope you enjoy the cruise and have a great time

 

[DisneyMom92]

We are onboard waiting for our rooms to be available. Lunch was, as always, plentiful and delicious. We ate in Parrot Cay this time as well as last time. First time we ate in Topsiders. They both have the same food, but the atmosphere in Parrot Cay is more relaxing. Topsiders seemed to be busier and more hectic. It was nice to sit outside and eat, but you have 7 days to do that.

I have checked the weather forecast for all of our ports. It says isolated showers every day, highs in the mid 90s, lows in the upper 70s. Showers shouldn't bother any of our excursions except Puerto Vallarta, where we are booked into the Sea Lion experience at Sea Life Park. That won't be bad as long as its a light shower with no lightening. The weather in San Pedro is ideally beautifully. Just as you would imagine Paradise to be.

This being our third cruise, we don't feel the need to rush around and fit everything in. We have never done the Mexican Riviera, however, so we are looking forward to the new ports of call. The only downside, so far, is that they told us we may not be able to cancel our excursion in Mazatlan, which I have double booked. I attempted to cancel online but the procedure didn't work so I am left with two excursions in Mazatlan. They did say they would present it to a manager and let me know. I hate to throw away $200, but I hate worse to do an excursion that has gotten such horrible reviews. I have faith in Disney to do the right thing. I figure they probably have already turned in numbers to the touring company and can only refund mine if someone else signs up for it to cover my reservation.

The other great thing about repeat crusining is seeing all the cast members you remember. Of course, Disney is smart and gives repeat cruisers special lanyards so that they are easily recognizable. So, everyone you meet says welcome back or welcome home. We have run into several people we remember, some of whom seemed to remember us as well. We saw our previous server at lunch and were greeted with hugs. Kids saw Luke on boarding. He's one of their favorites and gave them big hugs and high fives, as well as announcing our family. There are so many great cast members, especially in the kids clubs that it is almost like coming home when you repeat cruise. As always, at Disney it's the people who make the difference.

We have wandered the ship, ordered our water service and beer mug, bought our $3 refillable mugs and checked out the spa. We are discussing which treatment to get. Last time we did the Tropical Rainforest Room package, which was to die for. We are leaning toward doing that. We will see what we have time for later.

Our rooms should be ready soon and the adventure will begin. I hope to post again later tonight.

 

[DMMarla07860]

The other great thing about repeat crusining is seeing all the cast members you remember. Of course, Disney is smart and gives repeat cruisers special lanyards so that they are easily recognizable. So, everyone you meet says welcome back or welcome home. We have run into several people we remember, some of whom seemed to remember us as well. We saw our previous server at lunch and were greeted with hugs. Kids saw Luke on boarding. He's one of their favorites and gave them big hugs and high fives, as well as announcing our family. There are so many great cast members, especially in the kids clubs that it is almost like coming home when you repeat cruise. As always, at Disney it's the people who make the difference.

Luke is awesome. I became friends with him on my cruise, if you can, will you find out when he is getting off the ship, I totally forgot to ask and hoping he will be on my cruise in september. If you don't find out no big deal

 

[DisneyMom92]

Still Sunday:

Our luggage had started arriving when we finally got to our rooms so we stuck around waiting for the rest to arrive. We went out on the verandah and watched some of the sights from there. The safety drill is at 3:30 p.m. So we grabbed the life vests and headed down there. The business was taken care of quickly, so we headed back to put the life vests up and sent the kids to deck 10 to snag a table for the sail away party.

We watched the Magic pull away from port while watching the sail away party. It might be that we have seen it too many times, but the sail away party isn't "all that" for me. It was fun to see our itinerary on Ariel Vision. It was fun to have the sail away drink, especially liked the suvenier glasses created for this series of cruises. And, of course, it was very exciting to hear the horn again.

After that we walked to the back of the ship to watch the land recede. That's sort of a tradition for us. I like sitting and relaxing as the land fades off into the horizon. We enjoyed the differences between Port Canaveral and Port of Los Angeles. The California port is more of an industrial port and there is a lot of activity. As we were relaxing we heard an announcement from shore that the ship passing was the Disney Magic headed out to the Mexican Riviera. That was a reality check that our long awaited cruise was finally here.

After unpacking, it was time to head to the first show of the week. I need to preface this with the fact that we are a dance family. We love musicals and live performances. This is something that Disney excels at. The first show gives you a glimpse at the talent that will be entertaining the ship for the next few days. We had Danny Buckler, a magician/comedian, and Heath Hyche, also a comedian. Both were enjoyable and we may try to catch their shows later in the week.

Our rotation for dining is LAAPLAP, which is 8 p.m. seating. We were happy to see that we had the earliest second seating, which we had requested, but not so happy to find that we didn't have our server from last year, which we had also requested. Oh, well, we decided, we didn't know our previous servers before and we fell in love with them. We find that we have Vally (not sure of spelling) from India and Meg from England. Both are very nice, but service is somewhat shakey. Drinks took a long time to come and were slow to be refilled. One of the steaks was way overcooked. Things like this. We also did not have first course, which for some was salad and for others it was appetizers, until about 50 minutes after we sat down. Needless to say, dinner wasn't over until after 10 p.m. I like to linger over dinner, but it would have been difficult to have sped this one up. However, we do get to spend some time with our servers and I really like them. I will chalk tonight's shakey service up to first night stuggle and hope for the best tomorrow night.

After dinner we headed up to deck 9 to watch some of Mary Poppins, which seems to always play our first night. It's extremely cold up there, 68 degrees according to our stateroom television information.

That's it for tonight. It was a nice day, glad to be at sea tomorrow.

On the schedule for tomorrow...10 a.m. meet with fellow DISboarders. 11 a.m. Castaway Club meeting, 11:30 a.m. Palo brunch, 1 p.m. shopping talk,; 1:45 Q&A with Disney Artist Manny Hernandez. Not exactly sure how or if we will fit it all in, but that's what's planned early in the day. Hopefully I can fit in a trip report as well.

 

[debg]

Thanks for taking the time to write this trip report. I'm enjoying it.

Hey, by any chance have you seen Cornwall, Charlie, or Jeff, onboard?

Have fun!

debg

 

[DisneyMom92]

Monday, day at sea.

For some reason we packed quite a lot into this day,
even though I thought it was going to be nice and
relaxing. Not sure what happened, but I awoke nice and
early and watched the sun rise. Then I laid back down
to wait for room service breakfast to arrive. I ordered
it the night before for between 8 and 8:30 this
morning. I wanted a light breakfast, because we were
going to Palo brunch at 11:30. Before that, however, we
needed to go to our Dis meet at Topsiders and the
Castaway Club meeting at 11. When I reserved Palo for
11:30 I wasn't thinking about the Castaway Club
meeting. For those who don't know, the Castaway Club is
for repeat cruisers. The meeting is kind of fun because
you get to meet the senior officers and some other crew
members, as well as seeing video presentations about
the ship. At the end of the meeting they give away
prizes. We didn't get to stay till the end, so I am not
sure whether the prize was still a clock or not.

Palo is beautiful. The setting is quite nice and
relaxing. When we got there, it wasn't too busy, but
there were several tables of people in various stages
of their meal. We were seated by the window on the side
near the entrance. It turned out to be a wonderful view
of the water. Our waiter was Fernando, I believe he was
from Chile, but I don't remember for sure. He acted as
tour guide as he described and explained the various
offerings at brunch. Believe me they were plentiful and
varied. No one should leave hungry, that's for sure.
The presentation is attractive as well. I decided on
the margharita pizza and the fritatta. My sister had
the margharita pizza and the vegetable pasta. This, of
course, was after we sampled the buffet of sweet rolls,
cheese, crackers, bread,etc. Many kinds of sea food
covered one half of the center table, but we are not
sea food people so we didn't partake in any of it.
Belive me, there was plenty to keep up occupied. While
we enjoyed it, we decided that we would probably not do
this again. First of all, the entire meal took over an
hour and a half. Second, we were decidedly
underwhelmed. I don't know whether it was the timing,
since we apparently had the latest brunch seating, but
service, while adequate, was not amazing, as we had
expected. Same with the food, it was plentiful and
tasty, but not knock-your-socks-off awesome. Part of
it, I am sure, is that we have simple tastes and are
not real adventurous eaters. Another part may be
timing. We thought it was worth it for the view and the
offerings at desert, but probably not enough to do it
again.

After Palo, we walked to the Shopping lecture. We enjoy
this to find out what we may want to shop for while in
port. They mostly talk about jewelry, but also discuss
clothing and local products. You have the opportunity
to talk with the shopping guide regarding personal
interests as well. They have a lot of giveaways at this
talk, but we didn't win anything.
Next up was the Art Auction at Sea. There has been a
lot of negative talk about this activity, but we enjoy
it. Mostly we don't buy unless we fall in love with
something. Of particular interest to us were the fact
that Disney artist Manuel Hernandez was on board, and
also they were auctioning several collectible items of
isney memorabalia. I bid on and won a series of Pluto
and Mickey figurines with the Pluto's dog houses and a
watch featuring a print of the figurine and doghouse.
Since I collect watches, I thought this was fun. My
sister bought a Hernandez serialgraph, if I remember
correctly. It will be personally dedicated and signed
by the artist himself. Before the auction, he addressed
the audience with stories about some of the pieces that
were to be auctioned. He had participated in a question
and answer session earlier that morning, but we missed
it due to our DIS meet. The auctioneer, Amy, kept
things lively and fun, but did not try to get anyone to
buy anything they were uncomfortable with.

We decided to go to the informational session about
diamonds and gemstones next. I am not really sure why
we went since we have attended it twice before, but my
sister wanted to go, so off we went. We stuck around
after to talk about the ports of call as it related to
shopping. She was really quite informative and fun to
talk with.

We left this session with just enough time to look at
dates for a future sailing while enjoying one of the
Mai Tais (sp?) they offer for free during the Captain's
Reception. Then we went to change and set off for the
Golden Mickeys show. It hasn't changed any for those
who have seen it before, but it is always a good time.
Changes in performers does alter the choreography a bit
from time to time. It seems that the performers on now
are better at partnering and can tumble better than the
last group on in March.

Before dinner, we stopped in the atrium to talk with
some of the officers. We missed getting our picture
taken with the captain because the line was so long. In
the past we have always had this done. Oh well, we had
a nice discussion with Christiaan, but I forgot to find
out who the assistant cruise director is.

Dinner was a little better served to night than last
night. We arrive at Animator's Palate to discover that
our tablemates from last night had moved to a different
table. They told us that they had requested to sit at a
4 top prior to the cruise and had been notified that
morning that one had become available. We wished them
well and went to our table. We wondered if they were
that upset by the service to ask to be switched. Most
of the bad service caused them inconvenience. At any
rate, service improved tonight. Dd16 ordered a caesar
salad (not on the menu) and scallops. Vally, the
server, told her that was a appetiser and she told him
that she wanted it served as her meal. Ds12 got pork
chop (I think it was grilled) off the kids menu, with a
cesar salad and baked potato. I ordered the baked
chicken with a green salad and some appetizer that I
can't remember right now. My sister had beef wellington
along with some sort of soup. I don't believe she had a
salad. Other than ds's pork chop, which was over
cooked, everything tasted fine. Meg, our assistant
server, was quite entertaining as she stopped by our
table and regailed us with stories and small talk.
Vally was efficient, mostly, but not talkative. We
missed Raphael, who was serving the neighboring tables
this meal. Service couldn't really be complained about
except that DD's scallops arrived with the appetizers
ather than with the meal. Oh, well, she leaves early
every night anyway because she plans to meet friends
and do whatever night time activity the Stack has
planned. This way she did get to eat at her leasure
rather than rushing as she did the night before.

No matter how you work it, dinner is an event that
takes roughly 2 hours if you have desert and coffee. I
don't recommend the coffee, which is my one real
complaint with DCL. No matter how you disguise it in a
pretty pot or functional caraffe, it is still Nescafe
and it is still lousy. I usually drink tea during the
cruise, but it is hard to remember to order tea after
dinner when you have been drinking coffee for as many
years as I have.

After we changed into comfortable clothes, we went to
deck 9 to watch National Treasure. While I have seen it
many times, my sister has never seen it all the way
through. Well, she still hasn't. It had already
started, but she did get to see the best parts and we
stayed to the end.

Now I am unwinding for bed, waiting for DS to come back
to the room. I had waited to tell him about the age
changes in the kids clubs because he turns 13 next
month and had been hoping to go to the Stack. I delayed
telling him that it would be impossible because I knew
he would be disappointed. Other than minor things,
however, he seems to be enjoying the time in Ocean
Quest and has made several new friends.

Tomorrow is Cabo San Lucas. We are taking the Harbor
Cruise and Scenic Drive or something like that at
12:30. we are hoping to get the kids up at 9 or so, to
explore around the pier before we go to the excursion.
Since they know it's at 12:30 they may be a little
harder to get up.

Oh....someone asked about Luke in September. He said he
leaves for vacation on September 6th. Hope this answers
the question for you.

Till tomorrow, then...

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

I'm enjoying your TR, I cannot wait to read more.

 

[OSUBuckly]

Luke is awesome. I became friends with him on my cruise, if you can, will you find out when he is getting off the ship, I totally forgot to ask and hoping he will be on my cruise in september. If you don't find out no big deal

My wife and I are also big fans of Luke. He was definitely one of our favorite cast members on board. Here is one of our favorite photos from our honeymoon:

http://tiny url.com/5m5cex

Remove the space between tiny and url to put into your browser.

 

[DMMarla07860]

My wife and I are also big fans of Luke. He was definitely one of our favorite cast members on board. Here is one of our favorite photos from our honeymoon:

http://tiny url.com/5m5cex

Remove the space between tiny and url to put into your browser.

great picture

 

[DMMarla07860]

your trip seems great so far, makes me a little(ok a lot) jealous even though I was on in july

 

[JoiseyMom]

Great report!! Is Keyon (entertainment staff) on board??

 

[DisneyMom92]

The three port days passed quickly with little time
left to think, let alone add to this trip report. Cabo San
Lucas was beautiful, as we took the Harbor Tour and
Scenic Drive offered through Disney. It was a nice,
pleasant tour of the harbor into the Pacific ocean,
passed the sea lions and on out to see a little bit. I
think the tour was about 40 minutes, narrated by a
recorded Jacques Cousteau. Would have been informative
if I had paid enough attention to it. Mostly I watched
the scenery as it passed by and took pictures. It was a
little choppy going out to sea with all the activity on
the bay, making it difficult to walk around the boat,
but not so much to interfere with the pleasure of the
outing. There was a photographer onboard who took
pictures in front of the Arch. They turned out so nice,
they almost looked like the backgrouds you do onboard!

After the harbor tour, they took us up to Giorgio's
restaurant. The trip was aboard an air conditioned tour
bus similar to the Disney Cruiseline buses, very
comfortable. The air was so hot in the boat portion
that the air conditioning felt so nice, that several of
us fell asleep on the 15 minute ride. The draw for this
restaurant has to be the spectacular view. It was
absolutely stunning. You had a clear view of the bay,
along with the Disney Magic, the arches, part of the
town and the open sea. The beauty was nearly 360
degrees, with just the building blocking the view.
There we were given a complimentary beverage and given
the opportunity to buy pizza or sandwiches for lunch.
We all decided on pizza, which were $4 each. It turned
out to be a bargain, since the pizza was excellent and
rather large for the price.

On the bus ride back to port, I took time to notice the
surroundings. Most of the area near the restaurant will
be time share or full owner condominiums before long.
All of the construction signs were up but it didn't
appear that much building had begun. A glimpse of the
natural terrain was available in these spots.
Unfortunately, the tinted glass on the bus prevented a
good picture of the area. It always amazes me that all
things American are embraced in these areas. We drove
by Burger King, Sams Club, Walmart and McDonalds.
Once back to port, we went shopping. We had purchased
several rings last year on the Western Caribbean, that
we thought we would browse this year to see what was
available here. We had been told that some of the best
shopping in the world was to be had on the Mexican
Riviera. We had a great time visiting the shops, where
shop keepers were friendly but not pushy. Along the way
to the shopping area, there were several Mexican
families trying to sell their wares (ie, pedelling with
a twist). They weren't pushy as they knew that when you
said "No, thank you" there was someone behind you to
ask.

We were followed from port to port by the Vision of the
Seas. The nice thing was that the Royal Caribbean boat
was the only other boat at port when we were. Some
people aboard had seen the same people from the other
ship that at Mazatlan I heard them tell each other that
they would see them at the next port. Since this is low
season for the Mexican Riviera, it was uncrowded and
less hurried than the Caribbean, at least from what we
could tell. This could actually be characteristic of
the area rather than the time of year.
Shopping we visited Milano and Royal Jewelers. I bought
a ring at Milano and several beautiful pieces at Royal
from their Kabana collection. We truly were treated
like royalty, including my kids who aren't always
treated that well in a jewelry store. My sister bought
my daughter her first real ring here because she fell
in love with it. She would get her second real ring in
Mazatlan, also at my sister's hand. LOL

It was pretty hot in Cabo San Lucas, so walking in and
out of stores was brutal. When we returned to the ship,
it was already time to shower and change for the show,
commedian Heath Hyche, who my sister had watched on
Last Comic Standing. I thought his show was funny most
of the time. There were a couple parts that I thought
were over done, but he was mostly funny. DS12 LOVED it!
He guffawed throughout the whole show and has made
several references to it since, including when he related his
experiences on deck during the storm that night!

After the show and dinner, which I will comment on
later, we decided to head to the hot tub and pool at
the Quiet Cove area. In past cruises, the area had
never been busy, but it was fairly busy tonight. The
hot tub was scorchingly hot and very difficult to get
used to. I spent about 10 minutes in there and decided
to head for the pool instead. The pool was nice and
cool, very refreshing after being that hot earlier. At
11:30 we left the pool to get a drink and head to bed.
We had an early morning the next day with one of
Mazatlan Frank's guides.

 

[DisneyMom92]

After a wonderful sleep and difficult time getting DS12 up, we left the ship about 8:50 a.m. We had been told that Mazatlan was a working port, similar to Port of Los Angeles, so we were required to take shuttles to the end of the port area. The shuttles were similar to trams at Walt Disney World but not as well kept. They were plentiful and you didn't have to wait long to leave. Passengers were dropped at a center that had several tourist type shops in it as well as a bar or two and restaurants. Kind of quaint looking. We found Andres fairly easily as he was holding a sign with my name on it. This turned out to be a great tour. I had lower expectations of Mazatlan because several trip reporters had stated that this wasn't a great location. While the peddlers did interfere somewhat with the enjoyment of some of the stops, we didn't let them ruin our visit. A gracious "No, thank you" would send them on their way. Ignoring them only made them talk louder and one of the even whistled to us at the restaurant! LOL They must be successful some of the time or they wouldn't still be there.

Andres took us all over Mazatlan, from the old city to the golden zone to a neighborhood that was very affluent. We saw spectacular views of the ocean, the cliff divers, the light house and the cathedral. We saw tons of statues dedicated to everything from individuals important to the city to the beer factory in town. The city is beautiful and varied, especially when seen through the eyes of a native who loves his city. Andres told us he was born in Mazatlan but had moved to Puerto Vallarta for a time. He only returned to Mazatlan when he got the job with Mazatlan Frank, who he pronounced as a good boss. We met up with Frank at lunch. Andres took us to Tony's on the Beach, which turned out to be a beautiful location and the food was plentiful, authentic and tasty. We asked Andres if it was safe to drink the ice and lemonade, which brough our server and what appeared to be the manager to our table to make sure everything was ok and to assure us that they only used purified bottled water to make the ice and drinks. That made us feel better and we set out to enjoy our meal. My sister had fajitas, dd and I shared a "Mexican Plate" of several different foods and ds had a hamburger. We also had nachos as an appetiser and they served chips and salsa with a warning to beware of the "green ones" (peppers in the salsa) as they were very hot. We tried to avoid those even though son and I are spicey eaters. We were encouraged to eat slowly and even keep our table while we walked around on the beach. No one but me enjoys the ocean, so we had decided not to swim this day but rather take in more sights of Mazatlan. While we were walking around the beach, Frank had gotten there with his customers. None other than MN DIS Fans, from our meet thread. Of course, we did know it was going to be them, as we had discussed excursions at our meet on Monday and discovered they were the ones with Frank, who had told us he would plan to meet us at lunch. What is really cool about this is that MN DIS Fans and our family had cruised together on our previous cruise on March. We hit it off well since we both had DS's who were 12 at the time.

When we had visited the cliff divers, Andres warned us not to purchase the silver that was being hawked there, as it was plated and not real. Later he would take us to a silver shop that was at the edge of the Golden Zone. Their work was beautiful, but I mostly wear yellow gold so I wasn't concerned about the silver. We also went to the shops in the Golden Zone and purchased a few items there, including a Hello Kitty ring for DD. She has loved Hello Kitty since she was young and collects items reflecting that.

After a really enjoyable day in Mazatlan, Andres took us back to the port. We spent the entire day with Andres, from 9:00 a.m. or so until almost 4 p.m. The price for this? $250 USD! This was an amazing price, in our opinion, for a completely private customized tour for us. At the end of the tour, Andres asked up to write comments about the tour on paper so that he could know how we felt about the experience and improve himself. Honestly, we could think of nothing we didn't enjoy during the excursion. It was a really wonderful day.

When we returned to the ship, we decided to head immediately up to Quiet Cove pool to cool off beore getting ready for dinner and Twice Charmed. I have seen this twice before and it's not my favorite onboard. It's not that I dislike it or even hate it, but it's truly not one I look forward to every year. I love Disney Dreams, which is tonight.

More on our last port day, Puerto Vallarta and Pirate night later.

 

[DisneyMom92]

We had reservations at Sea Life Park for the Sea Lion encounter at 11:15 a.m. so we decided to leave the ship around 10. We had docked much earlier so there wasn't a crowd to fight getting off. The port area was very nice and getting off proved to be the easiest of all the ports. There was an artist set up painting the ship (as well as the Visionn of the Seas that was also docked there) on tiles. We had bought hand painted tiles of the ship in Cabo San Lucas, so I thought a companion tile from Puerto Vallarta might be nice. However, I put off buying it until we returned and he had sold all of the Magic ones.

We arrived at the waiting taxis and tried to bargain for a price to take us to Sea Life Park. Previous trip reports had said they paid $40 to get there, so when I negotiated down to $28 I thought I did a pretty good job. We were taken to a really small car for the 4 of us and we proceded to wedge ourselves in. The drive was only 15 minutes, not the 30 minutes we had been told. As we were leaving, I asked the guy at the photo counter how much a taxi back should cost, he said no more than $15, which meant we had been charged double on the way over! He asked me if I remembered the cab number or anything and of course I didn't. He told us that he could report them for double charging us if we knew the information. When we got the cab on the way back, he said $20, and I said they told me inside $15 and he said ok. For future cruisers, the cost should only be $15.

Going into Sea Life Park, we noticed it was owned by Dolphin Discovery, the same people who owned the park where we did our Dolphin excursion in Cozumel last year. We checked in and were told where the lockers and bathrooms were and where to meet for the excursion. We were also told that all the water slides were reopened! The kids were pleased. When we found the lockers they were in the bathrooms, so DS left to put his stuff in his own locker and we used two lockers in the women's restroom. The sea lion encounter was really fun. We met two different sea lions. One was young and another one was older but I don't remember their exact ages. The first part of the encounter was out of the water; the second part in the water. We petted, kissed and cradled the sea lion as well as learning various facts about it. After the encounter, they had two shows, a sea lion show and a dolphin show. The sea lion show was informative, but much of the same information we had already learned during our encounter. The dolphin show was interesting and fun, but I thought it went on a little long. The kids went to the sea lion show but decided to skip the dolphin show because they wanted to do the slides. Since this was slow season and we had been told that the slides would be closed, they weren't busy and the kids were able to do all of the slides while we were in the dolphin show. We met at the restaurant for lunch. DD had the shrimp, which she thought was very good. DS and I shared a sampler plate and my sister had the fish. All of this food was greasy and not very tasty. We also had nachos which were edible but not really good either. As we left we saw a snack bar with typical American food that might have pleased us a little more than what we ate.

Before going back to the ship, we visited the mall across the street, the Vallarta Galleria. There was a mega store called Liverpool that had pretty much anything you could possibly want. There was also a Levi's store there, where most of the items were made in Mexico. They weren't your ordinary Levis, and my DD loved them! She bought a pair of "skinny" jeans, which basically means that they look painted on once you wiggle into them.

Then we returned to the ship to get ready for pirate night, which was fun and the same as always with the dancing and Mickey saving the day plus the fireworks. The buffet was plentiful but we don't usually partake too much because we are on the late seating and are simply not hungry. I took a few pictures but to be honest, the people were like vultures who had not eaten for weeks, so I didn't stick around it too long. I didn't eat desert at dinner thinking I would eat it at the buffet. Wrong. I selected a few items to sample but they all tasted like plastic. No flavor at all. I found this to be true the next night at the Desert Buffet as well.

The next two days are sea days and I will report those together since they run together anyway.

 

[abayaflowers]

We had reservations at Sea Life Park for the Sea Lion encounter at 11:15 a.m. so we decided to leave the ship around 10. We had docked much earlier so there wasn't a crowd to fight getting off. The port area was very nice and getting off proved to be the easiest of all the ports. There was an artist set up painting the ship (as well as the Visionn of the Seas that was also docked there) on tiles. We had bought hand painted tiles of the ship in Cabo San Lucas, so I thought a companion tile from Puerto Vallarta might be nice. However, I put off buying it until we returned and he had sold all of the Magic ones.

We arrived at the waiting taxis and tried to bargain for a price to take us to Sea Life Park. Previous trip reports had said they paid $40 to get there, so when I negotiated down to $28 I thought I did a pretty good job. We were taken to a really small car for the 4 of us and we proceded to wedge ourselves in. The drive was only 15 minutes, not the 30 minutes we had been told. As we were leaving, I asked the guy at the photo counter how much a taxi back should cost, he said no more than $15, which meant we had been charged double on the way over! He asked me if I remembered the cab number or anything and of course I didn't. He told us that he could report them for double charging us if we knew the information. When we got the cab on the way back, he said $20, and I said they told me inside $15 and he said ok. For future cruisers, the cost should only be $15.

Going into Sea Life Park, we noticed it was owned by Dolphin Discovery, the same people who owned the park where we did our Dolphin excursion in Cozumel last year. We checked in and were told where the lockers and bathrooms were and where to meet for the excursion. We were also told that all the water slides were reopened! The kids were pleased. When we found the lockers they were in the bathrooms, so DS left to put his stuff in his own locker and we used two lockers in the women's restroom. The sea lion encounter was really fun. We met two different sea lions. One was young and another one was older but I don't remember their exact ages. The first part of the encounter was out of the water; the second part in the water. We petted, kissed and cradled the sea lion as well as learning various facts about it. After the encounter, they had two shows, a sea lion show and a dolphin show. The sea lion show was informative, but much of the same information we had already learned during our encounter. The dolphin show was interesting and fun, but I thought it went on a little long. The kids went to the sea lion show but decided to skip the dolphin show because they wanted to do the slides. Since this was slow season and we had been told that the slides would be closed, they weren't busy and the kids were able to do all of the slides while we were in the dolphin show. We met at the restaurant for lunch. DD had the shrimp, which she thought was very good. DS and I shared a sampler plate and my sister had the fish. All of this food was greasy and not very tasty. We also had nachos which were edible but not really good either. As we left we saw a snack bar with typical American food that might have pleased us a little more than what we ate.

Before going back to the ship, we visited the mall across the street, the Vallarta Galleria. There was a mega store called Liverpool that had pretty much anything you could possibly want. There was also a Levi's store there, where most of the items were made in Mexico. They weren't your ordinary Levis, and my DD loved them! She bought a pair of "skinny" jeans, which basically means that they look painted on once you wiggle into them.

Then we returned to the ship to get ready for pirate night, which was fun and the same as always with the dancing and Mickey saving the day plus the fireworks. The buffet was plentiful but we don't usually partake too much because we are on the late seating and are simply not hungry. I took a few pictures but to be honest, the people were like vultures who had not eaten for weeks, so I didn't stick around it too long. I didn't eat desert at dinner thinking I would eat it at the buffet. Wrong. I selected a few items to sample but they all tasted like plastic. No flavor at all. I found this to be true the next night at the Desert Buffet as well.

The next two days are sea days and I will report those together since they run together anyway.

It's so nice to read your TR. Our family misses it alot. We loved the the entire cruise and the off-shore excursions. Thanks for letting us relive it through your report.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

TFS it is awesome reading your TR