Spring Break on the Mexican Riviera, April 8-15, Trip Report!!

[Bonniec]

tagging along!

 

[socababy]

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

I can’t remember what time we all rolled out of bed but I do know the sun was shining bright and felt wonderful having my coffee on the balcony! FIL said he woke up around 5am and smelled something burning. He walked out on the balcony but didn’t see anything and went back to bed feeling relaxed about the fact that it didn‘t seem like it was the ship on fire. LOL I could still smell a burning scent when I woke up. We thought maybe there was a fire somewhere on land and winds were blowing towards us. Our plan for the day was to spend it poolside and enjoy, as Christiaan the cruise director referred to it as, our private yacht for the day. We got the kids dressed in their swim suits around 9:30 and headed up to the Mickey pool to grab a table and go in to BBB and grab some breakfast to bring back to the table. You will notice my boys are wearing swim shirts today because I wanted to give their red skin a bit of a break from the sun since I had my bad Mommy moment the day before! Deck 9 was almost empty everywhere but the Mickey Pool was closed as there was black stuff everywhere in the water! It was also all over the ground and the tables. When I touched it it looked like soot from something having been burned. So that explains the burned smell we were all smelling. We ate as we watched them clean the Mickey Pool and after breakfast was done, the boys headed over to the goofy pool which was open and almost EMPTY!!

DD, my MIL and I hung back at our table reading books and coloring. While in PV, the ship did an emergency practice drill with all the cast members. We saw people being carried away in stretchers, guys in full hazmat suits, oxygen tanks being carried, etc. It was quite interesting to watch. They also lowered and tested all the lifeboats.

The boys spent over an hour there but they were getting antsy and wanted the Mickey Pool to open, as well as the slide. I think it was around 11:30 when the Mickey Pool finally opened back up. Even at this time there were not many people up on deck 9. It seems like a lot of people got off the ship! We ate lunch and enjoyed a lot of ice cream throughout the day, all poolside.

We finally headed back up the room around 2:30 to shower, relax, and get ready for pictures and dinner. Our suite had complimentary internet which I definitely took advantage of! It was nice to get updates on my fur baby back home. So whenever I had downtime in the room I would hop on and check my email. I have read all the horror stories about how slow the internet is but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how smooth it all went. I did get bumped off a couple of times and a few times it just wouldn’t connect, but overall I had pretty good service all week long!

 

[socababy]

Day 4 - cont.

At 4:30 we head down to Cadillac Lounge for the Concierge Reception. They had some great fingers foods and cocktails. Mickey Mouse came by to visit as well.

When we got to the Lounge, I had asked Tawanda if he knew what had caused the smoky smell and all the soot. He told me that is was probably from their incinerator coming out of the smoke stack!! This explains why the black soot was all over the Mickey Pool and not the Goofy Pool but I then started to think about what we were breathing in. I didn’t want to be a worry wart so I just focused my thoughts elsewhere…getting good pics before dinner. We left the reception and headed to the atrium. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get down there around 5pm. It really saves you so much time in the long run. Thankfully the kids survived another night of picture taking even though they thought they wouldn’t! LOL
The pictures turned out really great tonight!

 

[socababy]

Day 4 - cont.

Pic taken right before we left PV.

Pic taken after dinner.

We ate at Animator’s Palate tonight. I love this restaurant mainly for the mushroom risotto. So Yummy! We had a really good table (#70) and the kids were able to kive Mickey high fives as he passed by.

The show tonight was Toy Story. While it is a cute show, especially for the kids, I really didn’t care to see it again. The boys said they would rather go back in the lab and dd originally said she wanted to see the show, but later changed her mind. So after dinner, we went to Wavebands to watch Michael Harrison, the comedian and ventriloquist. He was really funny! It’s very cute to watch dd laugh during the show. It reminds me that she is getting older because she is starting to understand comedy. After the show, we dropped all the kids off at the lab. Dd was very excited about being in the lab tonight. At 10pm, they separate the boys and the girls…boys CHILL in the club and the girls CHILL in the lab. The boys do boy stuff and the girls do girly stuff (painting nails, makeup, arts and crafts, etc.) Dd loved this last November and was very eager to do it again. My in-laws and I headed back to the room to relax. The kids have been wanting to order room service from Tritons for breakfast so I call and place our order for the morning. MIL was tired and headed to bed early while FIL and I sat and read our books. Around 10:30, I was getting tired. I was hoping dd had enough time to get her nails painted. FIL goes to the club to get the boys and I go to the lab where I see dd and she immediately makes eye contact and said she’s not ready to go! Her nails are painted but she is waiting for them to dry so that she can add some sparklies to them. So I tell her I’ll be back in 10 min. I walk to shutters to look at the pics and then up to deck 9 to get a drink and go back to the lab. She still isn’t ready! I tell her to go ask one of the CMs to paint on her sparklies, I give her 5 minutes for them to dry and we are finally headed up to bed a little after 11. Once again I fell asleep listening to the wonderful sound of the ocean!

 

[Milio99]

Beautiful kids! Great trip report!!

 

[my2boys2disney]

marking to keep reading! Thanks for sharing!

 

[marciemouse]

Love that last pic of the kids by the railing! Cute outfits that night!

 

[CarolynU]

Loving reading these reports and your kids are absolutely gorgeous. Your dress on the formal night is great too. While you were on this cruise I was on The Eastern Itinerary, so it's interesting to compare the weather. Ours was a mixture really, sometimes cloudy, sometimes hot and we had some heavy rain. Looks like the sun shone for you.

 

[maslex]

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[socababy]

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments! I’m glad you are enjoying the trip report. I really like writing them because I like to relive the vacation! I have to say how much I LOVE my formal night dress. I got a lot of compliments on it too. I purchased it at Macy’s online but for those interested, they have almost the same dress at Kohl’s online right now. The dress pictured on their site has more purple in it than mine does but still beautiful. I am about 99% sure it is the same brand too but my dress is at the cleaners right now so I can’t check.

Day 5 - Cabo San Lucas

I woke up early this morning, around 6am. I went outside on the balcony and just sat there for awhile looking at the water. I was really missing my Dh. For those who don’t know, he passed away 3 ½ years ago. Sometimes when life is at a standstill like it was sitting there on the balcony, I can’t help but think about how much I really miss him! Everyone else was still asleep so I decided to get my book and read. I read for about an hour when my FIL got up and told me MIL was not feeling good. I guess there was a reason she was so tired the night before. She was having a major migraine which was the result of a sinus infection. Her migraine in turn was causing her to feel nauseous. Poor thing! Breakfast arrived just before 8:30. They set up a beautiful breakfast at the dining room table. I had to actually wake up the kids to eat. Everyone enjoyed breakfast, with the exception of MIL who was still in bed.

After breakfast, we got on our swim suits and headed back to the pool. We were not getting off the ship until tomorrow so we were hoping for a private ship once again and we got just that! We stayed by the Mickey Pool until 3pm and then headed back to the room to shower. MIL and FIL had a ressie for Palo dinner but MIL still was not feeling well and she was holed up in the bedroom all day. Tawanda was able to cancel that ressie and FIL and I placed an order to have Palo delivered to the room. Dinner wouldn’t be delivered until 7 so I got pizza and fruit from deck 9 for the kids. After they ate, I dropped the boys off at the lab. Dd wanted to stay back with grandpa and mommy. The best news of the night for the kids was that there would be no picture taking!! LOL Well at least not down in the atrium!

The servers from Palo arrived at around 7 to set up the dining room table. Then the food came and kept coming and coming and coming!! Even food that we didn't order came. Way too much food for 2 people! We were stuffed! I took pics of the first course but then I must of got caught up in the yummy goodness.

Dinner was good but IMO, it can’t hold a candle to brunch. The original plan at the beginning of the week was to go see The Muppets at 8pm but with Palo dinner being so long, that didn’t happen. They were showing John Carter in the Walt Disney Theatre. It didn’t interest me but I was quite surprised when the night before Christiaan the CD alluded to the fact that it wasn’t a very good movie!

I had told FIL earlier that I had no interest in going to the Pirate Party. I guess been there, done that. Ds7 doesn’t like the loud sound of fireworks so I knew he didn’t want to go. So FIL was going to take ds9 and dd but they both decided that they’d rather stay in the lab. I went and got all the kids around 10:30 so that we could watch the fireworks from our balcony. I know others have said that they had notices in their rooms saying to not go on the balcony during fireworks but in my last 3 cruises, I have never had any notice saying such. That being said, we went out on the balcony and heard the fireworks go off. I looked up and saw the glow of the fireworks but was shocked to see that we couldn’t actually really see them from our balcony! When we have been on deck 7, we had a great view! Deck 8, not so much. Deck 9 pushes out too much. So that was a bummer. After that, I got the kids ready for bed and then headed to bed myself listening to that sweet, sweet sound! Coffee order did not get placed tonight because we were out of room service door hanger order forms! I was too lazy to call so off to bed I went!

 

[CarolynU]

I enjoyed reading your trip report so much that I have also started to read your past reviews, and I did see that you had said that since your DH had passed you didn't feel comfortable about leaving the ship in some ports.
I am so sorry about this happening to you. It must have been devastating losing your husband. You and your beautiful children are just so young to face this. I can completely understand that there must be many times when although in a happy place, sadness still surfaces. I too am a widow, but in my late 50's with adult children, but the same feeling still lurks.

Your Palo in room ding looks fab, and I spy one of my favourite appetisers; the polenta, mushroom parmesan crisp thing. We went to Palos twice and I managed to consume three of these beauties! I too like brunch, although I still feel that dinner is may favourite, but I'm going to be controversial here. I don't really enjoy dinner in the main restaurants. The food is OK/so so, but too often is not served piping hot, and that is one of my food pet hates.

It seems a shame that you couldn't see the fireworks from your balcony. Still as you say you have all seen them before. I'm looking forward to reading your next installment.

 

[jerry112]

Just wanted to say that you have a beautiful family, and that includes your in-laws!

 

[Shell54]

Following along Your children are so cute and I love your formal nite dress. I'm still looking for one for my June cruise. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[jetskigrl]

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

I can’t remember what time we all rolled out of bed but I do know the sun was shining bright and felt wonderful having my coffee on the balcony! FIL said he woke up around 5am and smelled something burning. He walked out on the balcony but didn’t see anything and went back to bed feeling relaxed about the fact that it didn‘t seem like it was the ship on fire. LOL I could still smell a burning scent when I woke up. We thought maybe there was a fire somewhere on land and winds were blowing towards us. Our plan for the day was to spend it poolside and enjoy, as Christiaan the cruise director referred to it as, our private yacht for the day. We got the kids dressed in their swim suits around 9:30 and headed up to the Mickey pool to grab a table and go in to BBB and grab some breakfast to bring back to the table. You will notice my boys are wearing swim shirts today because I wanted to give their red skin a bit of a break from the sun since I had my bad Mommy moment the day before! Deck 9 was almost empty everywhere but the Mickey Pool was closed as there was black stuff everywhere in the water! It was also all over the ground and the tables. When I touched it it looked like soot from something having been burned. So that explains the burned smell we were all smelling. We ate as we watched them clean the Mickey Pool and after breakfast was done, the boys headed over to the goofy pool which was open and almost EMPTY!!

We smelled the smoke when we got up too (we were up with the sun that day also since we had an early excursion). We actually thought it was a fire on land. Good thing I didn't know it was coming from the ship or I would have been worried also, LOL.

I love all the empty pool pictures. When we do the Pacific Coast on September, I don't think we will be off the ship much so hopefully we will get some good pool time in also. Of course, I will finally get to try the adult pool for that trip

You must be getting excited for your upcoming trip!! I think we will probably be at the port to watch the ship leave for that one.

 

[socababy]

You must be getting excited for your upcoming trip!! I think we will probably be at the port to watch the ship leave for that one.

I am excited and anxious all at the same time! I'll make sure to wave goodbye in your direction if you end up going down to the port!

 

[socababy]

Day 6 - Cabo San Lucas

I was up early again this morning. I read a little on the balcony and it must have been just after 7 when I heard Christiian come over the PA system and say in a long drawn out way “Good morning. We’re here!” LOL It was funny! The kids got up not long after and the kids, myself and FIL headed up to the BBB for breakfast around 8:30 (Poor MIL was still sick in bed!) It was an absolutely beautiful morning…perfect to sit outside at the BBB overlooking Cabo. It was a bummer that there were no more seats available outside so we sat inside. Once all of us were finished eating, we headed down to do something for the first time ever in 3 DCL cruises to the MR…we were actually getting OFF the ship! Woohoo! The kids had a 10:30 Dolphin Kids excursion. We were early so we just walked around the port area for a little bit. About 20 different people asked us if we needed a water taxi and the kids kept asking me why everyone kept asking the same question. LOL We met back at the pier a little before 10:30 for our excursion.

The Dolphin Discovery place is just a couple minutes walk from the pier. We were walked over in a group, checked in and then went to a waiting area. Once they were ready for us, the kids went one way with the trainers while the adults went to the viewing area. Cameras were not allowed in this viewing area. A couple people tried to take pics with their Ipads and were asked nicely to put them area. My boys had a lot of fun with the dolphins. Dd not so much. The kids got to touch the dolphin on several occasions, got to give it commands to make it perform a trick, got to feed it fish, give it a hug and kiss, and then they got to take a ride on it while holding onto its fins. Ds7 had a smile stretching from ear to ear the whole time. Ds9 enjoyed it but I also think he just enjoyed being in the water (even if it was only 4 inches high.) LOL I knew I was taking a chance with dd. I don’t think she was scared of the dolphin but rather scared of being in a pool. She knew she was on a platform but the way she would walk showed she was scared that her next step would land her into the deep end! The only time she actually touched the dolphin was when they took pics of all 3 kids with the dolphin. All the kids were lined up in one long line at the edge of the pool and dd spent most of her time behind all the kids so she didn’t even get to see the dolphin much. I was a little disappointed with ds9 because I wish he would have encouraged her more. The workers there did try to get her to participate more but all I could see was a lot of head shaking! At the end she did get close enough for the trainer to hand her a fish to give to the dolphin.

As mentioned, they did take a ton of pics of the kids. I think it is based on the number of kids you have but it was going to be $200 for the pics and a video. Without the video, it was going to cost $170. There were not enough pics for me to justify that price. Each individual pic was going to cost $25 each and sadly there was not one pic of all 3 kids that was good. I was going to have to buy 3 separate pics to get one of each kid. So needless to say, we walked away with no pics. I’ll have to keep that pic of ds7 riding on the dolphin with that HUGE smile burned into my brain!

We then walked back to the pier and hopped onto a tender to head back to the ship. As we were heading back, we saw this hilarious sight!

The fishermen were luring the seals (or is it a sea lion, otter??) with fish. The seals plopped themselves on the back on the boat in hopes of getting the fish the fishermen were holding. We saw one boat pass by with a seal on the back and then saw this one with an even bigger seal. So funny!

 

[jetskigrl]

I am excited and anxious all at the same time! I'll make sure to wave goodbye in your direction if you end up going down to the port!

If you see DD and DS going back and forth on their scooters, that would be my two (or 3 if DD's BFF comes along).

I hope you have a wonderful trip

 

[socababy]

Day 6 - cont.

Got back to the ship and went back to the room to drop off the wet swim suits and then headed back to the BBB for lunch. After lunch, the kids wanted to go to the lab so I dropped them off and then I went up to deck 10 to grab a lounge chair to read my book as we set sail away from Cabo. For about 10 minutes it felt great just sitting in the sun reading. Then all of a sudden, it got very windy and very cold, too cold to sit outside in a sundress! So I went back to the room to read and walked in to see MIL sitting on the couch! She finally was starting to feel a little better. I picked up the kids from the lab at about 3:30 to come back and shower and get ready for their last night of painful picture taking! (FYI, they don’t do background pics on the last night. They told me that they don’t have time to get them onto the cds in time??)

I think may people were aware that this was going to be their last chance to get background pics because by the time we got downstairs at 5, we were about 5th in line for the white background pics. Dd was already starting to melt down. I stood in line and FIL took her and the boys to see Goofy and even then she didn’t want to really smile. When it was finally our turn, dd was quite the pill. She didn’t want her brothers touching her and then she was upset when she saw that some of her sequins was on the ground and all she wanted to do was pick them up. The photographer took a few pics of the 3 kids and then literally snapped one pic with me and the kids and one pic of FIL and the kids. I’m sure the photographer had had enough, I had enough and I’m sure the long line of people behind us had had enough!

We were back in Tritons tonight for dinner. Yummy yummy! MIL did not come down for dinner even though she was starting to feel better. I believe she finally ate by ordering chicken noodle soup from room service. FIL and I do a lot together with the kids. My Dh was a very hands on dad and I think FIL feels like he needs to fill those shoes now that Dh isn’t here. It’s sweet but I can’t tell you the number of times people have just assumed FIL was my DH and father to my 3 kids! Tonight at dinner was no exception. The photographer walking around told the kids to go stand next to their dad. FIL probably gets a kick out of if because he does look good for his age but for me it’s like a tiny dagger in my heart. I often wonder how the kids feel when they hear things like that. So I just speak up and say that he is their grandpa. It definitely put me in a sad mood. The photographer must have sensed this because she then tried to lighten the mood. She started messing the kids hair up and we ended up with a pic that is one of my favorites from the entire cruise!

After dinner, we met Tawanda at our usual meeting spot to go get seats for the show Dreams. The show is good but I need to remember that sitting in the front row for this show isn’t exactly the best idea. They use so much smoke on stage during this show and it blows right into the faces of those in the first few rows. It is not pleasant! After the show, the kids went back to the lab and I went to the shops to do a little shopping. After, I’m still a little sad missing Dh so I head back to the room to down my sorrows with a glass of wine and my book. I went and got the kids around 10:30 because they needed to be up at a decent time in the morning for our character breakfast!
Lights out and the only sound is the sweet, sweet sound of the ocean. (Well there is a lot more creaking tonight too because we are rocking and rolling quite a bit!)

I didn't take pics every night of the towel animals but I just loved this one! So pretty!

 

[socababy]

Yikes! I thought I'd get this TR done before setting sail to Hawaii! Not going to happen since I set sail tomorrow. I will finish it up when I get back!

 

[dededisney]

Just found this TR and am loving it. You are getting to be quite the pro on the ships, esp this year...can't wait to hear the rest of this report and esp the Hawaii cruise! I just love all the pictures you had taken and that you matched so well! And I would never know that your dd didn't want to cooperate with the last photo shoot!