Well, we are back and I have to say it’s a little colder here in California than it is in Mexico. I woke up to snow on the ground this morning. Coming from 80 degrees to 45 degrees is a little bit of a shocker.
Our trip was nice. We arrived in L.A. on Saturday and got a room where we could park our truck for the week. We woke up the next morning to find that someone had started their partying early and threw up all over the side of our truck. It was disgusting and not exactly the way we wanted to start our vacation.
We decided to take a drive before we had to board so we went up to the Friendship Bell and the adjoining park for a little walk. I shouldn't have worn flip-flops. My feet were killing me. We headed back about noon and hopped the shuttle to the pier and check in was really smooth, and quick. We went straight up to our room to check on things and get our itinerary for the day. The weather in L.A. was really nice but as soon as the sun went down it got very chilly. Crazy me…I didn’t pack a jacket. I was hoping that the weather would warm up the farther south we got. I wasn’t thinking that at 21 knots it would be a little breezy. I visited the shops on the ship and found a fairly cheap sweatshirt...for $75. No way...I'll freeze.
Our room was very nice and the balcony was large. Our neighbors were older and very quiet. We did have a smoker down a floor and her smoke wafted up to our room from the balcony. We soon learned she was a chain smoker and we hoped she would be spending her time in the bar so we could enjoy the balcony. We only saw her two other times the entire trip which was nice. We were on the 8th deck which is one below the pool. I wish I would have booked the 7th deck. all day and night we could hear the kids running around and the crew moving things. It was like living on the bottom floor of an apartment (been there) and having horribly inconsiderate upstair neighbors (done that.)
Monday, our first day at sea, was a time for getting to know the ship and find out where everything was. Both my brother and I had taken a non-drowsy Bonine tablet and couldn’t stay awake. I ended up taking a 5 hour nap and woke up just in time for dinner. I decided I wasn’t going to take another pill unless I threw up first. Good thing I never had any motion sickness or I would have slept the entire trip. Brian started not feeling good. He said his lungs were burning and he could hardly breathe. He started coughing and had to buy cough syrup in the ships store.
Tuesday we had our first excursion. We took a four hour Cabo jeep tour that took us into the mountains. It’s definitely desert, dry, 
dusty, and dead. The road was dirt and we were filthy by the end of the day. We saw 400 year old cactus, visited a tiny (85 residents) village and had a snack at a local boarding school. The country pays for the boarding school because the children are all from farming families and they can’t drive their kids to school every day. The kids go home on weekends only. The kids were clean, pleasant, and well behaved. The village was what you would expect from a small Mexican town. All structures were thrown together with whatever they could find.
We toured the ranch of a local artist who moved there 18 years ago from America. She was a white woman and she lived just like the rest of the village except she had a fantastic garden and outdoor kitchen. We left there and headed down to the river wash that lead out to the beach.
We spent a few minutes on the beach before we had to head back to the boat. It took me 30 minutes to clean my camera and lenses. We all remarked at how no one hounded us the entire trip. No one asked if we wanted to buy anything. There were no little chicklet children anywhere. Brian still wasn’t feeling well and all the dirt from the jeep ride irritated his lungs even more. We went to bed early.
Wednesday we arrived in Mazatlan. We took the city tour because we wanted to experience the culture of the city. We could have just stayed in Stockton. It was congested and filthy. When we arrived in port the first thing we noticed was the smog and factories. We were on a bus trying to fit down tiny little streets. We actually ran people off the road. The one thing they tell you is to be careful where you walk. In Mexico the pedestrian DOES NOT have the right of way. You will get ran over. They don’t even slow down. My brothers bus seat mate was a 70 year old woman who was funny as can be. She attached herself to my brother and kept calling him her man. She had left her husband on the ship and took the tour with her daughter. She was so full of life and energy. She was just adorable. I only wish I could have thought about getting a picture of her with Richard. After a 30 minute bus tour we stopped at a cathedral. It was beautiful. We were given 20 minutes to explore. I felt so sorry for the people that were there to pray. Everyone was taking pictures and muddling around. 
We got back on the bus and went to see the famous cliff divers. Now, I’ve seen old movies that featured the cliff divers and it is nothing like it used to be. The cliffs have been removed to make room for the road and construction. It has been reduced to a 40 foot bump with a platform on top. The divers are amazing and I would most surely hit the rocks if I even attempted it once. The peddlers were very aggressive. The same ones would keep coming back to ask you to buy something. One tourist had a t-shirt on that said “no gracias” which means no thank you. After the cliff divers we headed to the golden zone shopping area. We were given 20 minutes to shop and then required to meet back at the bus for a quick walk to the folkloric show. 20 minutes isn’t enough time to do anything if you are hounded every 5 feet. Every shop offered free beer or tequila and many were taking advantage of it.
The folkloric show was interesting. We watched local dancers and acrobats for 30 minutes and then headed back to the bus. We decided to abandon the bus and take a taxi back. We walked up and down the shops and the one thing we noticed was that every single shop had exactly the same stuff. There was nothing out of the ordinary or artistic that I would buy. Brian did find a hand blown olive oil jar that is actually quite pretty. We hopped a taxi (if you could call it that) back to the ship. The taxi is a very small go cart that can go 70 mph and they do. We got back to the ship and Brian headed to the ships store to buy cold medicine. He was feeling worse today. We had to set the clocks ahead.
Thursday we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. What a clean city. I really like this town of almost 400,000 people. We decided to head to the waterfront before our whale watching excursion. The waterfront was very nice, clean, and pleasant with lots of art and sculptures. There wasn’t any garbage and no one hounded us to buy anything. Puerto Vallarta is by far the more tropical area with gorgeous jungles, plant life, and wild life. I could definitely own a vacation home here. It is a very Americanized city. We passed Wal-Mart, Costco, and Outback Steak House. Pretty much every franchise restaurant is in PV. I found a fantastic Wool poncho. I had priced one at an upscale shop in Jackson and they wanted $399 for it. I was tickled to death to get it for $35. We did a lot of walking in PV before grabbing a very scary taxi ride back. 
We got back to the pier and Brian was stopped and detained at security because he was carrying a pocket knife. They took it away from him, let him go, and we found our whale watching group. He wasn’t feeling well and was trying to decide whether to go with us or just go back to the room. He finally decided to go because he really wouldn’t be exerting himself just sitting on the boat.
Our boat was a very nice sailboat that seated 25 people. We went out about 5 miles and saw several groups of whales. They were everywhere. We even watched two males fight over a female. The tour was 4 hours and we headed back to the boat about sun down. Brian said he would have kicked himself if he had missed it (although he was up to about $40 in medicine from the ship's store.) We went to bed fairly early tonight. We had to set the 
clocks ahead again.
Friday was an at sea day. We slept in and just relaxed most of the day. I fell asleep on the balcony with the sun on my face. It was so peaceful. Since Brian wasn’t feeling good and couldn’t stop coughing we decided to forego the formal dinner. We hadn’t eaten dinner in the dining room even once the entire trip. I compromised with him. We wouldn’t eat in the dining room BUT he was going to dress up and we were going to have formal portraits done. We got dressed up, paraded around like a show poodle, took 6 sets of formal pictures then went back to the room to change into something comfy and warm. We went down to the pizza bar and decided that since we were up we would sit and listen to the big band and then catch the late adult comedy show at 11:45. The comedian was really funny. We had to set the clocks back tonight.
Saturday we slept in and just putzed around. We packed, cleaned up, and watched some movies. It was really cold on deck but we decided to go up and sit in the sun. That only lasted about 15 minutes before I couldn’t feel my fingers. Not even my “spirited” coffee was keeping me warm…and it was half alcohol. We went to bed early because we had a 5:30 wake up call. We had to be out of our room by 8:00 am and off the ship by 9:00 am. We had to set the clocks back an hour but the two clocks on TV were different and we didn’t actually know what time it was. So, at 5:00 am Brian wakes me up to tell me that he has no idea why we didn’t get a wake up call and that it was 6 am according to the ship TV channel. I get up and get ready and flick to CNN. It says 8:00 EST. Brian didn’t set his clock back and the Bridge didn’t change their time either. Pretty much most of the ship was confused on Sunday morning. Saturday night I realized that I hadn’t seen my wool poncho and asked Brian where it was. He couldn’t find it. We finally realized that he had left it in the taxi in PV. He felt so bad.
So, all-in-all the cruise was relaxing and nice…but expensive because we got a suite this time. The buffet food was okay but nothing spectacular. Some of the fish dishes were actually fantastic. The in-door adult pool staff let children in because it was cold outside. Staff was very warm and friendly but a lot of the passengers were rude and obnoxious. The rudest bunch was the 60-70 year olds. They were pushy, arrogant, and nasty. They expected everything now, and they treated staff and other passengers like dirt. Our Seapass bill was about $400 more than I expected but realized that we had perfume, pictures, medicine, gratuities, and drinks on it. We debarked and were back at our truck by 9:30 am and home by 6 PM after stopping for a couple bottles of wine and brownies.
Our verdict is that Royal Caribbean is a far better cruise line than Carnival. The ship was beautifully decorated with very tasteful art, sculptures, and glass. The class of people was different but I wouldn’t say better. This class of people has money and they are rude. Carnival’s class of people like to party so they are just noisy and drunk. This cruise has solidified the fact that we are not cruise people and will not take another one ever. I could have spent the same amount of money on a two week tour of Europe.
I had better get going. It’s snowing right now…has been off and on all day. I feel like I’m catching whatever it is that Brian had and I need to take some Theraflu and head to bed. I have a long day tomorrow.
Take care.
