Mexican Riviera Cruise 2011

Cindy’s Spring Break from Solano Community College was the week before Easter so we decided to take a cruise from Long Beach, California down to the Mexican Riviera. Neither of us had been on a cruise before and we were excited to experience this new form of travel. We packed our warm clothes and drove to Oakland Airport on Sunday, April 17^th where we caught a Jetblue flight to Long Beach, south of Los Angeles. Arriving late morning, we took a taxi out to the pier where we queued up with 3,600 other guests to board the ship. The Carnival Splendor makes weekly runs to Mexico returning each Sunday morning when they disembark 3600 passengers, restock and clean the entire ship, load 3600 new passengers, and set sail again Sunday afternoon.

The ship is enormous, with twelve decks, three pools, six whirlpools, eleven restaurants and 1500 on-board staff. There is a health club, casino, and dozens of events each day to satisfy any desire. Our stateroom had a king bed, TV, plenty of storage and a balcony with two chairs and a table. From our balcony on the ninth floor, we can look down on the Queen Mary, which is permanently docked in Long Beach and has been converted to a hotel.

After settling into our cabin and exploring the ship, we went down for dinner in the Golden Pearl Restaurant, one of three formal restaurants, where we would eat dinner at table 541 during the 8:15PM seating each night for the next week. Our waiter was friendly and the selection of entrees was plentiful.

Monday was a full day at sea. I established the habit of going to the health club early each morning, then would come back and have breakfast with Cindy before swimming in the salt-water pool, or one of the hot tubs. Cindy would often go to yoga or Pilates classes in the morning or afternoon. Lunch was available from any of six buffet lines on the Lido deck, which was the same deck where our cabin was located. We ate dinner at the Golden Pearl for the first two nights, but reverted to the buffets for the balance of our trip as it avoided the necessity of dressing for dinner.

Tuesday morning we arrived at Cabo San Lucas, the southern most point of the Baja Peninsula. Cabo is a beautiful port with remarkable rock formations. We dropped anchor in the harbor where a caravan of tenders snaked their way out to our ship to ferry us ashore as there is no dock large enough to accommodate our ship.

There were dozens of shore excursions available for purchase, but we elected to just go ashore and walk around the old section of town. On the way in to shore, a fishing boat was also returning to port and a large sea lion had propped itself on the stern and was begging to be fed. We stayed ashore in Cabo for about six hours. After walking around the town, we settled into a little restaurant overlooking the harbor where we ate lunch. We ran the gauntlet of hawkers again in the mid-afternoon returning to the ship where we relaxed for the rest of the day.

I was becoming a little put-off by the constant pressure by ship’s crew for tips or to buy things. The cruise itself had not been too expensive, but everywhere we turned, we were offered opportunities to buy drinks, photos, tours, souvenirs, spa services, etc. The key to our room is also an on-board charge card linked to a credit card when you board, so they make it very easy to sign for whatever you think you (or your wife) wants.

We originally were to sail to Mazatlan on the Mexican mainland on Wednesday, but Carnival changed that port due to security concerns, which meant we spent a second day in Cabo. The weather was beautiful and the ship was positioned so that we could see the entire port from the balcony of our stateroom, so we decided to stay on the ship and enjoy the view. There were so many small boats in the bay it was a miracle they did not run into one another. There was also a yacht; large enough for a heliport that anchored in the bay for the two days we were there.

Wednesday afternoon the ship began maneuvering to prepare to leave Cabo San Lucas. The small boats and jet-ski riders raced to see who could be the last to cross the bow of the ship, before we got up to speed. It must have been annoying to the captain to have these daredevils tempting fate in this manner.

After sailing all night, we awoke Thursday morning in Puerto Vallarta. Here we were able to dock the ship so the disembarking process was faster than if we had anchored in the harbor. We had signed up for a shore excursion here to see the Old Town and visit a couple of tequila distilleries. We boarded a bus with about thirty other guests and headed out for our six-hour tour around 9:00 AM.

Our guide was Jose who was a self-described expert on tequila. He explained to us that the Old Town was going to be closed to traffic starting early this afternoon (tomorrow being Good Friday) so they changed the order of our tour to go to the town first and then the tequila distilleries in the afternoon. Unfortunately, his idea of going to the Old Town meant driving through it on the bus non-stop and then going to a pre-arranged shopping area where tourists are brought by tour operators who earn commissions for everything purchased.

By 11:00 AM we were headed out to the countryside to visit the tequila distilleries. The process of extracting and distilling tequila from agave plants was presented in an interesting manner. We were all offered copious shots of a variety of tequilas, spurred on by Jose who sampled the most of anyone. Then we were given the special opportunity to buy this tequila which is not available anywhere else for about $85 per bottle.

The bus dropped us off back at the ship around 3:00 PM and Cindy and I immediately took a taxi back to the Old Town. Of particular interest was the sand castle competition, which was being held on the beach this weekend. Several groups of artisans were busy constructing sand statues, including one group which was building Jesus and the twelve apostles seated at the last supper, twice actual size. The beach also features a series of bronze statues, which are very popular and have become icons of Puerto Vallarta.

We spent several hours in the Old Town weaving in and out of shops and bars. We purchased several souvenirs before heading back to the ship for dinner.

The ship did not leave Puerto Vallarta until 10:00 PM on Thursday. The next two days we spent cruising back up to California. The weather had been great in Mexico, but we were greeted with clouds as we reached US waters. We lounged at the pool each day, reading and getting sunburned. The casino was unlucky for me, but most of the time I just played for quarters so I didn’t get too scathed. I decided I was playing too much though, when the casino manager sent chocolate covered strawberries to our cabin, twice.

The ship docked at 5:00AM on Easter Sunday, several hours ahead of schedule. We could have left as early as 8:00 AM when US Customs opens, but our flight was not until 5:20 PM and there were no earlier flights so we stayed on the ship until 11:30AM and left with the last passengers.

We checked our luggage at the airport and then took a taxi over to the Lakewood Mall where we watched a movie in the afternoon as we waited for our flight. The Jetblue aircraft left an hour late, so we did not get home until 9:00 PM.

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April 17-24, 2011