We’ve started to become old hats at this cruising thing, but we’re headed to a different coast. This is our sixth cruise, fifth on Royal Caribbean, and we’ve developed quite a taste for them. Our itinerary for this trip sailing out of Long Beach, CA is to head south to Cabo San Lucas first, then Mazatlan, and, finally, Puerto Vallarta (Did you start humming the Love Boat theme song? I certainly can’t help hearing Puerto Vallarta and not hum …”the Love Boat soon will be making another run…”in my head!)
We start by flying into John Wayne airport, a smaller airport that is easier to navigate in and out. We rent a van for the six of us and play our game of luggage tetris and then proceed to drive to Long Beach. We stop for lunch at Huntington Beach and take a walk along the pier. Nice but a little cool. We get to our hotel in Long Beach and head to meet Julie’s cousin Beverly for dinner at a fancy seafood place on the ocean by the Queen Mary. Very nice dinner, we walked around the shops and I found a really nice sand dollar Christmas ornament, now to get it home without breaking it! (Side note, it’s six years later and I just packed it up again after Christmas, it made it home safe.)
When we first booked our cruise, we scheduled for the week following the week we actually go. We heard from the cruise lines that our week was cancelled, the week we’re going is the last sailing out of Long Beach for Royal Caribbean, they will no long sail out of California, and still don’t today. We board only to discover the crew is less than happy about this turn of events. Some have no idea where they’ll be next week and some are unhappy about their assignment for the next week, making a very cranky and not so willing to please, crew. So begins our week…
On board, in our normal fashion, Sondra and I head to the spa to schedule our massage(s) and I head to the dining room to make sure I have gluten free food for dinner. I started this practice after a cruise when I tell my waiter I need gluten free and, being the first night of the cruise, they freak out. I begin going to the dining room as soon as I board to inform them and meet the head waiter, who will take my preorders every night for the duration of the cruise. They’re usually more than helpful and glad I’ve come to find them before the dinner madness of the first night is underway. This cruise they were less than helpful and I felt as though every time I ordered I was taking my life (or my stomach) into my own hands. Not a comforting thought, I might have lost some weight on this cruise!
We have a balcony room again, like we’ve come to expect, but the temperature outside is less than warm and we don’t really hang out there like we want to. Heavy sigh. We have booked an excursion for each of our stops and we start with a “whale watching and snorkeling” tour in Cabo. Well, we were on a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez, by the well known arch in the ocean. We were told, “Here’s your snorkeling spot. Jump off the boat.” We had done a little research and knew the water was cold, so we had on “shorties” (the wetsuits, with short sleeves that comes down to the knees) little did we know the water is 58 deg F and so cold it took our breath away and caused a few expletives! REALLY?? We recover and start to put our heads in the water to snorkel and the water is so churned up and so busy there’s nothing to see but sand swirling, not to mention the water felt like needles on your face because of the temperature. Not good, okay, we’ll just go see some whales.
Dave had seen some whales from the ship on our way into the port, so we expected when we told them so they would head that way. I don’t think they ever intended to take us anywhere. They took us out to the ocean and proceeded to tell us we didn’t have time to go any further and there wasn’t anything to see…uh-huh, likely story! To appease us, they let us girls take turns at the wheel and gave us some food and drinks. Okay, whatever, we felt slighted but shrugged it off and did our best to have fun with the rest of our day.
We went to Cabo Wabo and the Hard Rock, of course! And walked around a little. We headed back to line up to get on the tender and found several young “adults” that had imbibed a bit too much and were being dragged to the tender stops…wow! All sorts of thoughts about safety, their intelligence and what a waste of money for a trip you won’t remember, etc. went through my head. I guess it’s the mom side of me, but I just really hoped they regretted that choice and learned something.
Our next stop was Mazatlan, now this stop was a little scary! We were to meet our tour guide by the gated entrance to the cruise port. We didn’t want to go outside! It was just a not safe feeling and we felt like we were stepping into an HBO crime show. Well, we meet our guide and he takes us to a resort where we get on a small boat and head to Sea Lion Island (or whatever it was called.) It smelled horrible! We froze all the way there and then when we get to the spot we were supposed to snorkel and hang out at the beach, we were told, “Jump in and swim, it’s right there.” Ummmm, “What’s the water temperature?”, “55 deg F”, “No thanks!” SERIOUSLY?? We get back to the “resort” and they give us sandwiches, which I couldn’t eat and tell us we can hang by the pool. It was nicer by the pool, but we had a sour taste in our mouths…this excursion was not as advertised. Sort of like Cabo, you seeing a theme here? Side note…The next week, there was a shooting and a cruise passenger was killed in Mazatlan, none of the ships stop here anymore. Doesn’t surprise me!Â
We got back on the boat and sat on the balcony until I couldn’t stand it anymore and went in and turned the heater on! Ugh!
Our last stop is Puerto Vallarta, at least it’s warmer when we get here! Chris, Julie and I have decided to do a tequila “factory” tour and David, Sondra and Dave are going ziplining. I should have ziplined, but, hindsite. Don’t get me wrong, the three of us had a fun day, but I do NOT like tequila! But it was an interesting tour, it was an actual processing plant! We saw a church in town on our way there and, when we got back, we walked along the beach a bit. It was the best of all the stops. Dave thoroughly enjoyed the zipline, it was his first time and, he still thinks, the best.
We were in the port until late that night, so we decided to go on shore for dinner. We picked a restaurant where we could sit upstairs and get beautiful sunset views. Of course, David being a photography enthusiast and me, just wanting to have fun, decide we’re going to get THE sunset picture! We had a lot of fun. I cherish these memories of him, he’s since passed on and it just breaks my heart! (see my blog Life and Death…)
The next day was a sea day. We were laying out by the pool and it was warm but not real warm, tolerable. By noon, we were getting a little chilly and it was getting a little misty out so we go inside and decide to take a nap and then fiddle around the ship. We were in our room and heard this weird noise. We couldn’t figure it out. We looked outside and, WOW! Did you ever watch Scooby Doo? I loved Scooby Doo! Remember the episodes where he’s in the fog and has to cut it to get through? It was Scooby Doo Fog outside!! And it was the fog horns on the ship we were hearing! Super cool! That was a first time experience, hearing the horns, anyway. The last cruise we took out of Galveston, TX (see Cruising Crows go on a Voyager…) we were fogged out of port and couldn’t dock. The fog was so thick that when it finally lifted a few hours later, you could see the color of the eyes of the people on the ship next to you and you didn’t even know there was a ship there before! I was just glad we were moving and not sitting in the harbor waiting to dock this time.
We had a great cruise, but only because we enjoy our friends. This was my least favorite cruise I’ve taken! It was just the whole package, last sailing with a cranky crew, cold climate when we were expecting warm, excursions where we felt conned, you name it. But, we sail again and nothing seems to spoil our addiction to being on a ship in the ocean!
The Travels and Tales of TLC 