Keeping up with the Manssons: The more ideal part of our Mexican Cruise

On our way to Las Caletas

Once we got the room situation all figure out (see my previous post), we were able to actually enjoy the rest of our vacation. Our first port was Puerto Vallarta. We splurged and did an all day excursion to a private island (Las Caletas through Vallarta Adventures). We picked this mostly because there was a beach and they had a kid’s ropes course. It started out with a catamaran ride for about 40 minutes where there was an open bar (which was just what I needed after dealing with all the issues on the ship the last few days) and the kids got soda (which they didn’t on the boat, so it was a treat). Once we go to the island, we were able to enjoy a delicious buffet lunch of Mexican food. They had this serrano pepper cheese sauce that was AMAZING! Plus fresh tortillas and ‘Guava Water’, which I think was Guava Juice…but something was lost in translation. Yum. After lunch we headed to the beach for a short time where the kids got to play in the water, then we headed over to the ropes course. The kids course was awesome. The ladies that ran it were friendly and they were professionals. The beach was great too. We just played in the sand and the water. No giant structure at this beach. On the way back to the ship, the crew of the catamaran put on a little show with song and dance. It was fun. We had a great time. The pictures we have from there are great as well. The kids held a python and touched a toranchila. This was the first night where we were only the boat without a fire alarm, but they did have to turn off ALL the water to the entire ship for 3 hours (from 1-4AM) to fix a ‘pluming issue’. So…probably the issue in our room.

Working hard

The second port was Mazatlan. We ventured off on our own, which turned out to be great. We had to ride the tram with everyone exiting the boat (it is a working port, not a cruise ship terminal), and then we headed to the Water Taxi station. It was easy to get to, but everyone stopped us to see where we were going. EVERYONE! Even when we told them we knew where we were going, still they gave us directions. The walk took about 10 minutes (with the kids) and we got to the end of the road, and there was some confusion as to whether we were really in the right place. The coastguard/navy for the area was located down by the water taxi station so upon first glace it does not look like you can cross the road and get to the water taxi station. But we figured it out and it cost us $2 per person for a round trip ticket. So for $10, we made our way to Stone Island and we had the beach all to ourselves. I think if we were to go later in the day it would have been crazy busy (there were lots of excursions where you ended at Stone Island) but it was just us for the 2.5 hrs we were there. It was great. We built a sand dragon. So we had a really nice time and the beach was clean. There were a few peddlers on the beach, but nothing unexpected or pushy/rude.

Dig, Dig, Dig

The third port was Cabo San Lucas. We ventured off again on our own. We went to Local Beach (in lieu of Medano) because it was within walking distance of the port. So this day’s excursions were free. Local beach had a lot of…character. It was not super clean, I think that a lot of waste (cups, wrappers and the such) were floating across the harbor from Medano beach. And there were some homeless people napping in the shady areas. Plus, lots of locals with their dogs (intact males not on leashes). So like I said lots of character. But the beach was nice, the kids built a person…but it started out as a multi-tiered castle. The last day on the ship was a sea day. It was pretty relaxing. The kids enjoyed the kids club and we took it easy. I don’t think I have written about the pizza onboard the ship. The pizza was AMAZING. It was hand stretched/tossed made fresh in brick oven style oven. It was SOOOO good. They had cheese and pepperoni everyday and a specialty pizza. One day it was a chicken bbq, another it was blue cheese and prosciutto. We ate pizza every day. Atleast one slice to see how the specialty pizza was…so good. Overall it was a good cruise and vacation.