Our March 13th Mexican Rivieran Adventure!

[melsherard]

I booked this trip on the first day of booking, in October 2009... it was a long wait! Going with us were: Me, DH, DD12, DD9, DSD29, DSIL, DGS4, and DGS2

We had a wonderful time! Everyone here on the DIS was so helpful with planning our trip

We flew out of Kansas City on March 12. We had made some friends here on the boards that were going on this cruise, too, and one of the families even had our same flights! We were so happy to have them with us... the kids really entertained each other very well. Here is a pic of all the kids waiting at the airport:

The flight went well... when we arrived, our DSIL picked us up from LAX. That is one crazy airport!!!

We arrived at the hotel... we stayed at the Crowne Plaza San Pedro. The hotel and the service there are great. I highly reccomend this hotel! I do not, however, reccomend the hotel restaurant... it is very overpriced, and SLOW! It took forever to get our food, and as far as I could tell, we were the only ones there at the time. We stayed on the 2nd floor in room 220. What a great room! It had a patio that backed right up to the pool area. There was some noise from the elevator, but it didn't bother us. Here is a picture of our patio

Next up: Day 1! Cruise day!!!!!

 

[melsherard]

I woke up early.... I was too excited to sleep I didn't have very good 3G coverage in the room, so I sat out on the patio and caught up with my facebooking. Here is a picture of the hotel from my patio seat

My hubby and girls were up, so we took a walk down to see the ship. There is a very nice Cruise Ship Promenade you can walk along to see the ship. Here are a few pics from our walk:
First glimpse of the ship

Sitting by the fountains:

After our walk, we went back to the hotel to see about breakfast. DSD and her family were ready, so we headed out to go eat. TIP: Eat at Grinder's on Harbour Blvd. It was yummy, and affordable! At the hotel, they had a buffet that cost $12.95 for adults, and half of that price for kids.

The free shuttle to the port was supposed to start at 10:30. It is first come, first served. They actually were running a shuttle much earlier than that. We arrived back from breakfast at 10:20, and the 1st shuttle had already left! There was no wait, so we went and got our stuff, and went down to the lobby. Here are a few pics of us waiting for the next shuttle:

We're on our way!!!! So excited!!!!

This is what you see as you pull up to the port:

We arrived at the port at about 11am. This was our pre-scheduled time to arrive. There was NO WAIT! Empty! I wish had took a picture... We checked in, got our boarding card, and went through security.
Boarding group 10! Not bad, considering we were there at 11....

The kids' picture with Mickey....

TIP: Skip the line for the kids' club!!! It was crazy!!!! We skipped it.... there was no line once we were on board.
When we were in the waiting area, we met up with 2 of the DIS families we had met on board... Love these guys... you know who you are! Here is a pic of my girls and their buddy Maddie

Our boarding number got called at about 12:30... here is a pic of my family boarding...

After we boarded, we went up to BBB for lunch. My first meal of the cruise:

Eating.... yummy....

We still had some time before our rooms were ready, so we explored the ship:
View from the ship:

Playing ping pong on deck 10 forward:

Arcade!!

Clayton (Cruise Director) came on and announced that the rooms were ready about 1:30, so we went and checked out our rooms. We had booked inside rooms for this trip on Deck 6 aft. We loved the location, however, I do not think I want an inside room again. It was so DARK! Good for sleeping, not so good for waking up lol.

It was time for our DIS meet! Everyone was so great! I made many friends that hopefully I will keep in touch with in the future!

After the DIS meet, we had the muster drill. Same as before, but no life jackets. Great improvement!

Next up: Sail-Away party!!!

 

[melsherard]

Time for the sail-away party!!! We really enjoyed it! They give you some streamers to wave around. Here are some pics:

OK! Time for dinner!!!! Our rotation was PTTAPTA. We did not request this rotation, but it was great. We were in Triton's for formal night, and Parrot Cay for Pirate night. BEST NEWS OF THE TRIP! We got our server we requested!!!! It was so great to see him again! Our assistant server was wonderful, too.
Lookie what Sarah did for the kids' cups every night:

Here is a pic of Sarah and Wayan:

If you want to request them, He is Wayan from Indonesia, and she is Sarah from the United Kingdom
Dinner was great! A few pictures....

I had the ribeye with corn on the cob.... delicious!!!!!

After dinner, I dropped off our photo mats at guest services, then booked our next cruise. September, 2012 on the Fantasy!!!!

We went to the show next. It was a good variety show. The preview of the comedians, Alfred and Seymore was SO FUNNY!!! Do not miss their show!!!! It is so funny!!!!

Next up: Day 2!

 

[melsherard]

We woke up around 9 am, and I had to go up to Goofy's Galley and grab a few of these:

We ate chocolate croisants every morning of the cruise

We had breakfast at BBB, then went to watch Tangled. This is a great movie! If you haven't seen it yet, you are missing out!

We all had lunch at Triton's:

David had his usual dessert of marshmallows and sprinkles...

After that, we went shopping, then up to deck 9 for a snack

I wanted to see the matinee of the show, so DD9, DGS4, and I headed up to the red carpet for The Golden Mickey's! The kids got interviewed on the red carpet by Rona Rivers....

The kids loved the show! After the show, we went swimming... the kids loved the Mickey slide!

Time to get ready for formal night! We had dinner at Triton's and it was the Golden Mickey's menu. I had the Potato Gnocci, and the KC strip Steak, with Creme Brulee for dessert. A few pics:

After dinner, we went up for a swim at the goofy pool. The air was chilly, but the pools were very warm....
We went to the adult show put on by Alfred and Seymore. They did a family show, and an adult show. These guys are crazy funny!!! Do not miss it!!!!!

Next up: day 3!!!!!

 

[melsherard]

Today is Cabo day!!!!

It was such a beautiful day, that after breakfast, we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the pools. The kids would stay there all day long if we let them! The men went ashore to check things out, and the rest of us swam for about 3 hours, had lunch on deck 9, then watched Secretariat in the Buena Vista Theater. The pools were almost empty... it was a great day to stay on the ship

The guys came back, and said they didn't want to take the kids off the ship, there were 2 other ships in port that day, and it was crazy!

Tonight was dinner at Triton's again... this is what I ate... it was so good!

A little bit of silliness....

Tonight the show was the family show put on by Alfred and Seymore. Since I had just seen the adult show last night, I didn't go, but a few of the others did... they loved it!!!

Next up: Day 4, Puerto Vallarta!

 

[melsherard]

Today, we got up at 7am and had breakfast at Triton's. I had been wanting to try that French toast tower I had read so much about on here.... it was good, just ok, really. It sure filled me up, though!

We got off of the ship and headed across the street to Wal-Mart and Sam's to pick up a few souviners,
Inside Wal-Mart:

Hubby and I both work at Costco, so went took a cab over there to check it out (The cab ride cost $5)

After Costco, we took another cab ($8) to the El Centro portion of town. We walked along the boardwalk and saw:
Guy stacking rocks for tips

Beautiful sand sculptures:

Picture of town:

I had read in my passporter that you can take a bus back to the ship for $.50 per person, so we took the bus that said "Wal-Mart" on it. Pretty crazy ride! They kept cramming people on, and there were a lot of people standing in the ailes... but we did arrive back to the ship safe and sound
On the bus:

Back at the ship:

After we got back on the ship, we went swimming, then got ready for dinner at Animater's Pallette. The kids LOVED the show!

Except this one, he fell asleep before it even started

Sarah was so good with the kids....

Tonight the show was "Toy Story, the Musical." The boys LOVED it!!!!!!

After the show, Hubby and I walked up to see us pull out of port

It was funny, as we were leaving, if you looked at the resorts ashore, you could see lots of flashes going off as people took pics of the ship... it IS very pretty all lit up at night like that

Next up: Day 5, Day at Sea

 

[melsherard]

Today is Palo brunch!!!! I can't wait!!!! Here are a few pics:
Yummy pizza with grapes and tons of cheese:

Hubby:

Our view:

Dessert:

Us

Brunch was AMAZING!!! Do not miss brunch!!!!!!!

After brunch, I hung out at the Quiet Cove pool for awhile... it was crowded, but still very nice.

Gracie and I decided to go to the hypnosis show... it was good! I wasn't a believer, but I am now!

DH, DD9, and I decided to explore a bit. While she was getting a hair wrap, look who showed up!

Donald played hide and seek with me....

Then we got a picture together

That was fun!!!

Tonight is pirate night.... Dinner is in Parrot Cay...

DD9 had to go to bathroon right when Mickey was coming down!!! She couldn't hold it, so her and I missed the fireworks However, as I was waiting for her, I was right by the buffet, so we were first in line for turkey legs

Arrrrrrrwrr matey

Towel animal

Sleepy chocolates... too cute

Next up: Day 6, Cabo San Lucas, part 2

 

[melsherard]

Today DH and I decided to explore Cabo on our own. We got up early and caught the 1st tender in. The 1st tender was at 7:30, we got there at 7:15 and had no problem getting on the first one out.

Sunrise by the Wonder

We didn't have an excursion planned, we just walked around the Marina to Medano beach. It was so early, there wasn't really anyone to bother us When we got to the beach, we toured a beautiful resort... here are a few pics of their amazing pool...

Pics of the tenders, and coming back to the ship

Today, DH and I spent a lot of time together. When we got back to the ship, we had lunch, then spent some time at the adult pool. it was lovely

We had Palo dinner tonight, so we went to the matinee of Disney Dreams. This is by far, my favorite show The kids really enjoyed it!

DH, DSD, DSIL and I all went to Palo for dinner. It was delicious! I had the mushroom risotto, beef ravioli, and the beef tenderloin. We all had the chocolate souffle for dessert. It was all I had hoped it would be... yummy!!!! While I enjoyed dinner, the brunch is my favorite of the 2 Palo options. I think they had to roll us out after both of our Palo meals!

Next up: Day 6, day at sea

 

[melsherard]

Today, I woke up sick I was pretty much confined to the room...

Everyone else went to the character breakfast... here are a few pics:

They said the food at the breakfast was yucky...

I ventured out of the room for some oragami with DD9 in the Promenade Lounge... we made a jumping frog.

Still not feeling great for dinner, but I went anyway and had some soup. I didn't want to miss the last night with our wonderful servers!

DH and I stayed in the room to pack while everyone else went to the farewell show. They enjoyed it, but I guess someone got hurt in the front row during the balancing act... scary!!!!

Tomorrow, we have to get off of the ship I have had such a wonderful time, and I don't want to leave...

Next up: Debakation

 

[TexasGirl]

Loving the report Melissa! Also love the pictures!! Do you mind if I use some of them for my photo album...esp some of those cabo shots and mickey coming down.

I feel like we were shadowing you much of the cruise. First night stopping by to book our future cruise, dinner at Palo.

I think this was one of the BEST cruises we've ever been on. We also had a fantastic group of DISboard folks.

 

[melsherard]

Today we have to get off of the ship.... So sad.... We went to the dining room for breakfast, then had to wait to get off of the ship. We were late arriving into port... here are a few pictures of us arriving....

Bringing the Krispy Cremes for the next cruise...

Waiting to get off of the ship...

It was taking so long that we went into the Studio Sea and watched a couple of movies. Finally, our luggage tag was called and we got off of the ship. Debarking in LA is nothing like debarking in Florida... It takes a lot longer, and you wait in many long lines... just wanted to forewarn all of you going on these cruises in the next few months. I don't think we made it outside to wait for our car until noon! Part of the reason, though, was because we were so late getting into port.

We decided to go straight to the airport since we were running so late. It made for along day at the airport, since our flight was delayed 2 1/2 hours We made it home about 3am the next morning and slept the next day away

Final thoughts:

The cruise was wonderful! The food was great, the service was great, and all the people we met were great

Our DIS friends rocked the Fish Extender!!! We received so many terrific gifts!

The ports were not my favorite, but really, we went for the ship.

It was truly a "wonder"ful family vacation

 

[melsherard]

Loving the report Melissa! Also love the pictures!! Do you mind if I use some of them for my photo album...esp some of those cabo shots and mickey coming down.

I feel like we were shadowing you much of the cruise. First night stopping by to book our future cruise, dinner at Palo.

I think this was one of the BEST cruises we've ever been on. We also had a fantastic group of DISboard folks.

Sure thing! Take whatever pictures you want! It was great seeing you throughout our cruise

 

[Mindyjoy]

Thank you for the great report! Please tell me you remember the name of this resort. I want to go to there.

 

[Donald_Quackers]

Great report! We had Alfred and Seymour on the Magic when I went to the Eastern Caribbean last year, hilarious!

 

[melsherard]

Thank you for the great report! Please tell me you remember the name of this resort. I want to go to there.

It was called Hacienda Beach Club and Residences. We didn't use the resort, we just toured it... It was beautiful!! The pool was AMAZING!

 

[melsherard]

Great report! We had Alfred and Seymour on the Magic when I went to the Eastern Caribbean last year, hilarious!

Funny as long as you are not late, or do not try to leave early... haha

 

[livingis2me]

Great trip report!

Looking forward to meeting you and your family on the Fantasy in September 2012!

Ron

 

[Mindyjoy]

It was called Hacienda Beach Club and Residences. We didn't use the resort, we just toured it... It was beautiful!! The pool was AMAZING!

Thank you!

 

[Pumba's Dad]

Great Report and loved the pictures.

 

[emm313]

Thank you for posting these pictures! You have captured some of my family and I sitting behind you at Tritons and Animator's Palette! LOL