Mexican Riviera Excursions

[tarheelmjfan]

DH & I are taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera in April. It's on a Celebrity ship, but I was hoping you guys would help us out anyway. Our ports are: Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Acapulco, Ixtapa (Zihuatanejo), & Puerto Vallarta. I've read that April is a bad time for jellyfish, so we'll probably avoid water excursions. Also, we're not interested in anything extreme like the Canopy tours. We really enjoy history, culture, & anything that is specific to the area. We have booked Randy's Happy Horses in Mazatlan & will probably book the cliff divers through the ship, if we don't get a better suggestion. We don't have anything planned for the other ports. I was thinking we would just wander around in Ixtapa & Cabo, but we don't want to miss any "must dos". I have no clue what to do in PV. Sorry, I don't know which ports DCL goes to, & realize that you may not have been to all of them. I would really appreciate suggestions on any of the ports you have experience with. Thanks

PS: I post on Cruise Critic all the time, but am looking for some different ideas.

 

[lbgraves]

You wont find many references to those ports here (unless the repo cruises went to some of them). I was going to refer you to cruise critic.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Sorry, I thought DCL had Mexican Riviera cruises also.

 

[atakaratemom]

While DCL does not have cruises to those ports at this time, they did do Mexican Riviera cruises last summer on the West Coast, so if you enter the port city name in a search on the main forum and trip reports you may find some good information. Also, several of the DIS groups that met up last summer are still chatting on the Cruise Meets section and you might find some information on their threads as well. I did a search just by entering puerto vallarta and lots of threads came up. We did a tour with Mazatlan Frank in Mazatlan and he had a great thread on this board last summer. Here is a link to that thread http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=659389&highlight. In Cabo we did a tour that took us to San Jose del Cabo and we went to Cabo Wabo, which was a lot of fun. In Puerto Vallarta, we did a beach excursion through DCL, but many people did the Canopy tour and the Dophin experience and seemed to really like those excursions. I think if you look up some of the trip reports from those cruises you will get a lot of the information you are looking for. Good luck and have a great time!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Thanks for the info. I didn't think about performing a search. I thought I had read about DCL going to the west coast for the DL celebration. I'm glad to see I'm not completely losing it.

 

[cruzings]

We took one of the DCL West Coast cruises last summer.
**In PV, we did a beach excursion to Paradise Beach thru DCL. I heard too that the Canopy Tour was very popular.
**In Mazatlan, we booked Frank on our own. He was great. He knows so much about his beautiful city. Other DISers took Randi's happy horses tour and enjoyed it.
**In Cabo, we just took a water taxi on our own and went to the Melia hotel and spent the day at the beach and poolside.
FYI, there was a jellyfish problem in Mazatlan when we were there last July.

 

[AOPI57]

We did the DCL West Coast cruise. In Mazalatan we did the Sierra Madre tour through DCl which was excellent. I would reccomend going through Frank. He was booked when we wanted to go. We went up into the Sierra Madres, vistied some small towns, saw a brick making, tile making, several very old churches. etc. My 3 teenagers also enjoyed it. Good luck!

 

[jilljill]

When we cruise with DCL in August we took a tour with Mazatlan Frank and it was excellent. He showed us the old city and the new city. Here's a link to his website: http://www.mazatlan-frank.com/FrankEng.html
His prices were reasonable and he was very informative.

We just walked around town in PV and Cabo San Lucas.

 

[Soccermom-Cheri]

We did the Mexican cruise July 9th. My daughter (7) and I had fun with Randi's Happy Horses. Hanging out at the Office in Cabo was very fun. My girlfriend did the canopy tours with her family (DD's 10, 11) and had a blast.

One thing I did find out: the seas were a lot rougher going down the coast of CA and Mexico than Florida (typical I've been told)

Have fun!

 

[gouodux]

On our DCL cruise in August, our daughter was stung by three jellies in Cabo. It was extremely painful for the little five year old.

 

[LiserAnn]

We went on the DCL mexican cruises this summer and we did the following:
PV - Pirate Sail on the Marigalante (loads of fun)
Mazatlan - Randi's Happy Horses (excellent ride and we were well taken car of)
Cabo - We took a water taxi to "The Office" (a resort on the beach, very nice and relaxing).

Just as aside, we did not see any jellies in any of our destinations andwe were on the same cruise as gouodux, I think it's just a matter of where you are and the tides, etc.

The water was warm in PV and Maz and VERY cold in Cabo, which is typical.

Enjoy your cruise!

Lisa

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Thanks for all the info. We have already booked Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. My DH really wants to ride on the beach. It seems that everyone who has taken this tour loved it. We're really excited about this one. It's too bad that we can't do this & tour with Frank. I've read nothing but good things about his tour also. Could someone tell me more about The Office? I looked on their site, but most of the info. seems to be about going at night. Unfortunately, we leave Cabo at 6pm. Also, more info. on San Jose del Cabo would be great. A lot of people on our Roll Call are going on the Pirate Sail. Is this something 2 adults would enjoy? What does it entail? Thanks again

 

[LiserAnn]

Thanks for all the info. We have already booked Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. My DH really wants to ride on the beach. It seems that everyone who has taken this tour loved it. We're really excited about this one. It's too bad that we can't do this & tour with Frank. I've read nothing but good things about his tour also. Could someone tell me more about The Office? I looked on their site, but most of the info. seems to be about going at night. Unfortunately, we leave Cabo at 6pm. Also, more info. on San Jose del Cabo would be great. A lot of people on our Roll Call are going on the Pirate Sail. Is this something 2 adults would enjoy? What does it entail? Thanks again

We had a group of people in our group that did Randi's in the morning and then met up with Frank in the afternoon. Frank knows Randi very well, so maybe you can email him and he'll let you know if it's possible based upon what time you leave Mazatlan.

The pirate sail on the Marigalante was awesome. We booked it through www dot vallartaonline dot com (I don't know if I'm allowed to post the website so replace the word "dot" with a "." and no spaces) and not Disney, although DCL offered it. It was much cheaper through them and we got to get on the pirate ship first before the DCL folks...so that was another plus. Basically you get on the pirate ship, have breakfast, then they perform a pirate show, with a pirate take over coming up on a smaller boat, etc. It was fun (yes even for the adults). Then you arrive at a basically deserted beach where you're tendered over to the beach. You can take banana boat rides, swim or snorkel. After that you're back on the pirate ship for lunch and the ride home where they perform another show. It was fun and we enjoyed it very much.

The Office...basically you take a water taxi there and once on the beach you walk to the resort (it's on the beach) and stake out lounge chairs. you need to buy a few drinks for the "free" lounge chair, but it's worth it because you're right on the beach and it's a beautiful view. Oh, and the chips and salsa are great also! The lounge chairs were comfy and they also provide an umbrella if you ask (and buy a drink).

That's the scoop!

Lisa

 

[atakaratemom]

San Jose del Cabo is a charming little town about 45 minutes from Cabo. It has a beautiful church and town square and offers some very nice shopping opportunities. The tour we took left from Cabo, stopped at a hillside restaurant with gorgeous views of Los Arcos then went to a glass blowing factory and then on to San Jose del Cabo where we had time to tour the town and shop. On the way back we stopped at a lovely cactus garden for a brief tour there. We learned all about the blue agave cactus that tequila is made from. After that we headed back to Cabo and ate at Cabo Wabo and shopped. It was a lot of fun.

 

[cruzings]

Thanks for all the info. We have already booked Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan. My DH really wants to ride on the beach. It seems that everyone who has taken this tour loved it. We're really excited about this one. It's too bad that we can't do this & tour with Frank. I've re

I was just about to say (I agree with Liserann). I had read some posts before of people going with Randi and Frank on the same day. They know each other well and can make arrangements to meet somewhere to make the switch. We spent the whole day with Frank on the July 2 cruise and he was excellent.

 

[Queen2]

look for review links. I just came from that cruise in November. I was on a shopping for me kick. you will some some great reviews there. At one port they had an old fort right across the ship, you can walk to it. Book your cliff diver ex. on line, it sold out we went. Some people when to see the night divers they really enjoyed that. Most of the tours are $$$. Some people just took cabs. MAKE SURE THEY SPEAK & UNDERSTAND ENGLISH. Never take the first price they offer you, ask them the best price, you don't like the price most of them will come down alot.

Happy cruising

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Thanks again for all the suggestions. We are in Cabo from 9am to 6pm. Along with Randi's, we have to stop by Cabo Wabo & pick up my DS a T-shirt, & stop at HRC to get my nephew a shot glass. He collects them, & I try to pick one up when we go someplace new. I'll ask on Cruise Critic to see how many have done both Randi's & Frank's to see how much time they had left. I'll also look through the reviews. You guys have been a big help.

 

[LiserAnn]

Thanks again for all the suggestions. We are in Cabo from 9am to 6pm. Along with Randi's, we have to stop by Cabo Wabo & pick up my DS a T-shirt, & stop at HRC to get my nephew a shot glass. He collects them, & I try to pick one up when we go someplace new. I'll ask on Cruise Critic to see how many have done both Randi's & Frank's to see how much time they had left. I also look through the reviews. You guys have been a big help.

But Randi's and Frank are in Mazatlan....isn't Cabo Wabo in Cabo?

Lisa

 

[Vanvmom]

But Randi's and Frank are in Mazatlan....isn't Cabo Wabo in Cabo?

Lisa

Correct. Randi and Frank are both in Mazatlan. Randi is on Stone Island, and Frank is on the mainland. You will be time pressed to do both in Mazatlan, but neither should effect your trip to Cabo!

 

[tarheelmjfan]

But Randi's and Frank are in Mazatlan....isn't Cabo Wabo in Cabo?

Lisa

Duh! I keep doing that. I was referring to Acapulco as Puerto Vallarta yesterday. Maybe, I should check to make sure we're going to the Mexican Riviera.