Our Cruise to Mexico
We spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express that allows you to leave your car in their parking lot while you are cruising and they take you to the cruise line and pick you up.
My sis and husband did the same so we had visiting time beforehand. We also met some of our fellow cruise members at dinner and breakfast the next a.m.
At the embarkation point we waited in the hot sun in a long, long line for nearly two hours. It seems the Coast Guard was doing a check on the ship and no one could get on until they were done. Hubby made all the alarms ring when we went through the security check. (He does this in airports too--he wears suspenders and a belt and always has tons of junk in his pockets.) So we go separated from everyone. By the time we go to the buffet for lunch, there was absolutely no place to sit. We ended up on a lounge chair out by the adult only pool.
We had an inside cabin, dinky, but certainly adequate. The ship was huge and I never did really get where everything was. If I wandered around enough I finally found where I needed to be. Hubby, the ex-Navy man was much better at it than I was.
Our group had a get-together the first full day and we got the opportunity to meet everyone--some mystery writers, a group called Citizens Against Homicide (they were are table mates at dinner and we had a great time with them), a Victims' Advocate, and a few others. You'll hear more from the Citizens Against Homicide as I plan to have their spokesperson on this blog.
Most of the time we were on our own. We did the buffet a few times, but I'm not thrilled with that food--though I did try each type of food they offered--American, French, Mongolian, Indian. We soon realized not only did we not eat as much, the quality was also much better if we ate breakfast and lunch in the dining room when we could. (Closed when we were in port.) Ahh, and the dinners were wonderful--great choices. Mostly I chose the fish dishes and lots of shrimp, also had two helpings of lobster tail! I even ate frog legs on night. Skipped the escargot. I'd had snails once before and wasn't thrilled.
We were at Cabo San Lucas two days. Beautiful bay with lots of interesting ships, many pelicans and noisy seals. Bought two T-shirts but looked at lots of stuff. It was very, very hot.
We had one day in Puerto Vallarta, also did a bit of shopping--got a nice ring--sort of had to or the shop keeper wouldn't have let me out of his shop. We sort of felt like we were being attacked by all the shop keepers so we fled back to the ship.
My husband's favorite place was the coffee shop and the area around it. We met lots of people while there. We only went to one show because the rest were on so late at night. We did see some fun comedy shows and also went to karoke one night and thoroughly enjoyed it. No, we didn't sing.
We learned a lot about Citizens Against Homicide one morning. And we had another time together where we talked about promotion. I passed out my card with info about my books to people reading on e-readers and other books and each one actually seemed excited to meet an author.
Our last full day there, my sis and her hubby got food poisoning. To add to their discomfort, the seas got rough. Walking around was difficult--it felt like being drunk without having a drop to drink.
They felt better the day we landed in Long Beach and we had breakfast together. Of course again you have to wait and wait, then stand in long lines, and once we got outside the ship it was pouring rain. Despite the covering over the gangplank, the wind was blowing so everyone got wet.
Once we'd been through customs etc. and found our luggage then we stood outside in the cold again waiting for our van from the hotel. Finally we were able to drive home.
Yes, it was a good vacation--but maybe I'm too old to wait in such long lines. I know though, it's kind of like childbirth, you forget all that stuff and remember how much fun you had.
Marilyn
My sis and husband did the same so we had visiting time beforehand. We also met some of our fellow cruise members at dinner and breakfast the next a.m.
At the embarkation point we waited in the hot sun in a long, long line for nearly two hours. It seems the Coast Guard was doing a check on the ship and no one could get on until they were done. Hubby made all the alarms ring when we went through the security check. (He does this in airports too--he wears suspenders and a belt and always has tons of junk in his pockets.) So we go separated from everyone. By the time we go to the buffet for lunch, there was absolutely no place to sit. We ended up on a lounge chair out by the adult only pool.
We had an inside cabin, dinky, but certainly adequate. The ship was huge and I never did really get where everything was. If I wandered around enough I finally found where I needed to be. Hubby, the ex-Navy man was much better at it than I was.
Our group had a get-together the first full day and we got the opportunity to meet everyone--some mystery writers, a group called Citizens Against Homicide (they were are table mates at dinner and we had a great time with them), a Victims' Advocate, and a few others. You'll hear more from the Citizens Against Homicide as I plan to have their spokesperson on this blog.
Most of the time we were on our own. We did the buffet a few times, but I'm not thrilled with that food--though I did try each type of food they offered--American, French, Mongolian, Indian. We soon realized not only did we not eat as much, the quality was also much better if we ate breakfast and lunch in the dining room when we could. (Closed when we were in port.) Ahh, and the dinners were wonderful--great choices. Mostly I chose the fish dishes and lots of shrimp, also had two helpings of lobster tail! I even ate frog legs on night. Skipped the escargot. I'd had snails once before and wasn't thrilled.
We were at Cabo San Lucas two days. Beautiful bay with lots of interesting ships, many pelicans and noisy seals. Bought two T-shirts but looked at lots of stuff. It was very, very hot.
We had one day in Puerto Vallarta, also did a bit of shopping--got a nice ring--sort of had to or the shop keeper wouldn't have let me out of his shop. We sort of felt like we were being attacked by all the shop keepers so we fled back to the ship.
My husband's favorite place was the coffee shop and the area around it. We met lots of people while there. We only went to one show because the rest were on so late at night. We did see some fun comedy shows and also went to karoke one night and thoroughly enjoyed it. No, we didn't sing.
We learned a lot about Citizens Against Homicide one morning. And we had another time together where we talked about promotion. I passed out my card with info about my books to people reading on e-readers and other books and each one actually seemed excited to meet an author.
Our last full day there, my sis and her hubby got food poisoning. To add to their discomfort, the seas got rough. Walking around was difficult--it felt like being drunk without having a drop to drink.
They felt better the day we landed in Long Beach and we had breakfast together. Of course again you have to wait and wait, then stand in long lines, and once we got outside the ship it was pouring rain. Despite the covering over the gangplank, the wind was blowing so everyone got wet.
Once we'd been through customs etc. and found our luggage then we stood outside in the cold again waiting for our van from the hotel. Finally we were able to drive home.
Yes, it was a good vacation--but maybe I'm too old to wait in such long lines. I know though, it's kind of like childbirth, you forget all that stuff and remember how much fun you had.
Marilyn
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