Our trip to Mexico on the Disney Wonder (a Mini-TR)

[jkkw]

we just got back from the best vacation we've had in a while. The 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Disney Wonder was fabulous! it was our first cruise vacation, and Disney really delivered. Take a look at our mini TR from our wonderful vacation!

http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/2012/02/our-mexican-riviera-disney-cruise.html

We were so happy with the trip that we took the advice from fellow forum members and booked another trip on board to take advantage of the 10% discount and the on board credit - we just did a blind booking, and are still trying to figure out where we want to go next. As usual disboards is a wonderful resource, and we will definitely be doing more research on our next trip!

thanks for taking a look!

quick links to the rest of the post:
What we did in Puerto Vallarta
Tilt-shift Photos of Puerto Vallarta
Cabo Part 1
Cabo Part 2
Cabo Part 3
the food on board the Disney Wonder
Where is Starbucks in Cabo?
Where are the Taco Trucks in Cabo?
Photos on and about the ship
Our cameras

 

[pristinegem]

Great mini TR! Thanks for sharing your excellent quality photographs!
I love how you organized all the photos on your blog.
Glad you and your family had a great time!

Would you be posting more about the cruise? Perhaps navigators from your cruise?

 

[jkkw]

Thanks for the kind words pristinegem! we tooks LOTs of photos on the trip, almost every meal we had, so perhaps sometime later, i'll share some "food porn" photos with everyone let me know folks if you would like to see them.

As for the blog post, my wife really is the expert here, it's her blog and she really did do a great job! As for the navigators that is the one thing we did not save from the trip - every navigator we got has been marked out, underlined, circled to the extreme, almost every one we got were also folded several times and ended up being quite abused So I'm sorry but i don't have the navigators to share - next trip we'll be more prepared and save a copy for the board!

 

[cnj]

I love your pictures. The clarity is amazing! It left me wanting more. What did you guys do in Mexico? Thanks!

 

[SanDiegoSteph]

.

 

[Justacruiser]

Thanks for the kind words pristinegem! we tooks LOTs of photos on the trip, almost every meal we had, so perhaps sometime later, i'll share some "food porn" photos with everyone let me know folks if you would like to see them.

As for the blog post, my wife really is the expert here, it's her blog and she really did do a great job! As for the navigators that is the one thing we did not save from the trip - every navigator we got has been marked out, underlined, circled to the extreme, almost every one we got were also folded several times and ended up being quite abused So I'm sorry but i don't have the navigators to share - next trip we'll be more prepared and save a copy for the board!

We always get a 2nd navigator from Customer Service. Save one of for the many photo books! Lesson for next time!

 

[pristinegem]

Thanks for the kind words pristinegem! we tooks LOTs of photos on the trip, almost every meal we had, so perhaps sometime later, i'll share some "food porn" photos with everyone let me know folks if you would like to see them.

As for the blog post, my wife really is the expert here, it's her blog and she really did do a great job! As for the navigators that is the one thing we did not save from the trip - every navigator we got has been marked out, underlined, circled to the extreme, almost every one we got were also folded several times and ended up being quite abused So I'm sorry but i don't have the navigators to share - next trip we'll be more prepared and save a copy for the board!

I agree with the other comment, the photos are just amazing clarity! Your wife is a very talented photographer!

Glad to hear that the navigators were well used! No worries about not being able to share them. I'll keep an eye out for your next trip for the awesome photos and navigators

Again, thanks for posting your mini TR

 

[Linda67]

Thanks so much for posting this

I just love the way this blog has been put together and the photos are stunning

 

[jkkw]

I love your pictures. The clarity is amazing! It left me wanting more. What did you guys do in Mexico? Thanks!

sorry i haven't been able to post earlier - it's back to reality with work and all. Toughest thing to get used to is to figure out what to eat everyday, unlike the cruise where your only difficult decision is which restaurant to go to

anyway, thanks for the compliments cnj, as for the ports in Mexico, we really didn't plan much, since it was our first cruise, we were happy to spend as much time on the ship as possible So we opted to go free and easy. Ultimately, we spent only around 2 hours at each port, getting a taste of the place, spending some money on t-shirts and what-nots.

In Puerto Vallarta, we were told to go visit the Malecon (the ship has a shopping adviser who holds these sessions where he drills into your head that diamonds are cheap, in between telling you what else is there is see in the area) The Malecon was a nice stretch of tourist trap shops along the beach, with amazing sand carvings which were donation driven, we took a cab there, which was about 3$ a person, walked around for about 90 minutes, then took a cab back. It was super easy to find transport, on the way there, a van who also wanted to upsell to a city/tequila tour took us right as we disembarked, and at the malecon, every corner you will find taxis waiting for your business. Here are some pictures from our little stroll there..

The Puerto vallarta port area was pretty barren, and as most folks know is across from a Walmart!

But it was nice to have the ship be able to pull alongside, they can apparently take up to 3 ships at once! Shortly after our ship pulled up, the Carnival spirit also pulled up next to us

here is an interesting sign that greets you once you get off the ship

more on Cabo next....

 

[jkkw]

tilt-shift experiments

walmart across the street, buses waiting for folks...

folks lining up and (i assume) boarding a smaller boat for their port adventures

some sailing away in even smaller boats

and a non-tilt shift shot of the Wonder

 

[jkkw]

Cabo was way more beautiful than Puerto Vallarta, i remember waking up early in the morning, and we were already parked several miles away from the coast looking at the beautiful beaches and rock formations.

once again, we didn't book any port adventures, all the research i did on cabo didn't give me a good feel that the adventures would match up with what we wanted to do (eg. the city tour was 1/2 hour drive away etc.). we just wanted a relaxing time off the boat, and perhaps even look for a food truck to try the tacos (which we did!)

The tender process was interesting. DCL does a good job to remove the crowds and lines you have to be in - they actually made us go wait in the movie theater to collect "tender tickets", we made it there around 10am, and it was literally a "touch and go" on the theater seats barely after we got the tickets, sat down, were we told to go down to level 1 to get on the tender boats. With 3 young kids, we didn't know what to expect, but luckily the seas were calm, and the tender onboarding experience was fun... here are some pictures (coming back was an entirely different experience - more on that later)

and we were on our way to cabo!

 

[jkkw]

the food on board was pretty good... we took a picture of every meal, but some of the restaurants were too dark (we were in an especially dark corner in animator's palette )

Palo brunch

hungry yet?

 

[Cari2109]

Love the tilt shift pictures. You should post them on the picture of the day thread.

 

[twindaddy]

Where did you find the taco truck in Cabo? I dont want fancy, I want real street food!

 

[jkkw]

Where did you find the taco truck in Cabo? I dont want fancy, I want real street food!

we followed the directions in another TR from LeshaFace (scroll to the middle of the post) and we found the 2 taco trucks behind the main tourist area, they are not hard to miss, they are just behind some fences around the mall area. It's a short walk away from the place where you disembark at Cabo.

this picture shows how the place looks like, there was another truck next to this (not in picture) that we ate at, since it was manned by 2 nice older ladies (who don't speak english) and there was an american couple eating there that told us that their carne asada tacos were great (they were). Only troubling thing is that there were flies everywhere!

 

[jkkw]

Love the tilt shift pictures. You should post them on the picture of the day thread.

Thank you for appreciating them! I don't think they are good enough to be picture of the day, but thanks for the kind words!

 

[jkkw]

continuing my cabo experience...

the tender ride was nice, it was the first time we actually got to see the exterior of the ship, and it was such a beautiful sight.

the weather was perfect, and the skies were so blue

when we got to the dock, guess who was there to greet us? A friendly sea lion, peeking out near the docks, it a wonder no boats knocked into it

Once we got off the tender boats, we were immediately surrounded by folks offering water taxi rides, they were pushy, but otherwise friendly. We negotiated a good price (5$ a person for 5 of us) and ended up on a 45 minute tour of the area. This was money well spent! didn't need to book any port adventures - a water taxi is all we needed! we spent time at all the rock formations (window to the pacific, witches rock, scooby doo rock), got to see more sea lions up close, take a look at lover's beach and pirate cave (we didn't get off), and saw lots of fishes through the glass bottom of the boat.

Window to the pacific (ocean)

Scooby Doo Rock!

Witch's rock (the water taxi driver said it looked like his mother in law) can you spot it?

sea lions being lazy

on the way back, we saw this pirate ship hauling *** back to port...

not sure if it was one of the port adventures - it looked like fun, and was really quick! The water taxi driver decided to ride in it's wake for a while, which made for a wild ride

when we got back

we went on our taco truck hunt, bought t-shirts (you can't have too many of them), pit stopped at starbucks (and to use the internet for a little while) then decided to go back to the ship to pig out

 

[jkkw]

Cabo is really nice, i think it's nicer than puerto vallarta, less industrial, more touristy... here are some other sights from the area

awesome decor at this lobster restuarant (we didn't bite though)

this is where you find starbucks, just round this corner free internet with purchase (the code to the wifi is printed on your receipt) Starbucks is also 2 shops away from the cabo Hard rock cafe (which has overpriced T-shirts)

there was also this nice marlin sculpture along the way

and we stopped at senor frog after seeing a bunch of folks with their foot long drinks (8$ a drink alcoholic or non)

another cute statue

we boarded the tender headed back

the ride back was nice, but it was clear that the sea was way more choppy than when we left, the wonder continued to look magnificent (Disney really chose their colors well, they look so good compared to the carnival ships)

when we approached the tender station, the seas were so choppy that the tender boats were moving around 2-3 feet up and down, and you really had to time your jump across. With young children, this was INCREDIBLY SCARY! the folks manning the station literally had to just pick up our kids and throw them to the ship!!! They even stopped all tendering operations after our boat got off, leaving the other boats to just wait in the sea off the wonder for some time...

Images taken right before we tried to get off... that is when all the excitement began...

back on the ship, we retired to our room to settle down, that tendering disembarkation experience was pretty harrowing for all of us. While relaxing on the veranda, we were visited by a bunch of seagulls! We had some bread leftover from breakfast, and started throwing them some... it was a great experience watching them dive for food, and flying up by our veranda to wait for food

 

[cnj]

Thank you! Thank you for extending your trip report. Oh my gosh, your pictures! I don't get one picture to turn out that clear. I want to see more of your gorgeous pictures onboard!

 

[sarahmarie]

Loved the style of the mini TR on your blog. GREAT picture of Mt. Rainier - I'm even more impressed that your daughter took it. I've flown from Seattle to CA many times, and taken many pictures of Rainier, but none of mine have ever come close to turning out as well as yours.

this is where you find starbucks, just round this corner free internet with purchase (the code to the wifi is printed on your receipt) Starbucks is also 2 shops away from the cabo Hard rock cafe (which has overpriced T-shirts)

Any chance you can provide slightly more detailed directions of how to get to Starbucks from the port? My friend and I both collect the "city mugs" from Starbucks, and would love to pick up one from Cabo. Did you happen to notice if they sold the ceramic mugs there?

Thanks!

~Sarah~