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Published: March 29th 2015
Tuesday, March 17, 2015 Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Today is the big day, we are able to finally able to board our cruise ship. The day started early for Todd. He headed to the lobby of the hotel at 5:15 am to work on miscellaneous items. Today there was no rain, rather a cool Pacific Ocean breeze blowing through the lobby area. It was so peaceful with the waves crashing on the shore and the jazz music playing in the lobby. I went to the 24 hour coffee shop to get my morning java.
Everyone was up by 7:00 am this morning. We wanted to ensure that we were packed and ready to head to the ship.
Today we ate breakfast the Blaze restaurant. This was the restaurant we ate the first evening for dinner. This morning, it took on a different meaning. First because it was daylight and you could see the ocean and the rugged mountains surrounding the outskirts of the resort. There was a cool breeze at 8:00 am, but it was real comfortable. Instead of eating off a buffet this morning, we opted to have a nice
sit down breakfast and let me people serve us. After ordering our breakfast, we were able to take several photos from this vantage point. The views were remarkable. There was a small cliff off the deck of the restaurant that the waiter said looked like the face of a monkey. It did to some extent; however I will let you be the judge when you see the photos in the blog.
Our breakfast was real good and enjoyed the local flavors of the food. The view and sounds of the mountains, rugged terrain, and Pacific Ocean was a perfect setting for our last breakfast in Puerto Vallarta.
Following breakfast, we returned to the room to finish packing. Cindy wanted to head to the hot tub, her neck was sore, possibly from the zip lining yesterday or just sleeping in one position. We left the room and arrived at our first hot tub. I guess the definition of a hot tub at the Hyatt Ziva is not hot, rather cold. Cindy got closer to the jets thinking it was taking a while to heat up, it was still cold. Todd went to another hot tub,
it was also cold. So much for the rest and relaxation of a “hot tub.”
Instead of returning back to the hotel room, we decided to hang out at the beach for a short time. Michael decided to stretch and yoga, a photo is here in the blog. From here we could see a faint image of what looked like our cruise ship. When we returned to the hotel room to retrieve our luggage, we did get a closer look and it was our cruise ship.
Last evening, late, I reserved a car service to take us to the cruise terminal. We all meet in the beautiful hotel lobby to check out and meet our car service. Today were taking a mini-van to the cruise. Once leaving the hotel, the ride to the cruise terminal was about 30 minutes. During our ride, we went through the busy part of Puerto Vallarta with locals and tourists. There multiple food and clothing markets along the way, all had a fair amount of customers.
We arrived at the cruise port. Before heading to the ship, the driver had to go through a security check
point. After clearing security, the driver dropped us off very close to the ship.
After retrieving our luggage from the mini-van, and walked to a security check point that actually will take us to the ship. After a slight delay, the security guards allowed us into the area. We had to put each bag on the exam table and they opened up each bag and took a quick look. This was a slight inconvenience, however in the end it only took 10 minutes. Immediately following our examination, we walked towards one of the entry areas to the cruise ship. At that point someone from the cruise meet us there. This person radioed to another person on the ship, they said Admin, to come greet us so we can check in and board the ship.
We needed to wait a little while because the ships passengers were disembarking for tours, so the crowds were a little heavy. Approximately 20 minutes later, someone from the admin department meet us at the entry area. They were super nice and welcomed us. We needed to complete some medical forms and received a small envelope that had our muster
station information and the instructions on when and where to meet for the safety drill.
Once the passengers disembarkation lightened up, we were able to board the ship. Everyone was so excited for this moment, finally 2 days late, but still sweet. Once we boarded the ship, we took our own luggage, people were very curious why were just boarding the ship. Along the way we explained our dilemma. We finally arrived at our stateroom on the Baja deck. Before doing anything, we quickly unpacked because we wanted to eat lunch and then go visit the Fiesta Americana hotel, more on why we are visiting this hotel in a while. We rushed upstairs to the Horizon Café and ate a super-fast lunch. When we were getting ready to exit the ship, we asked one of the crew members what time we needed to be back on the ship. Apparently, the ships time was different than the local time. It was LAX time, our time was Mountain Time. We actually had one more hour to play with.
Cindy and I left the ship and the kids and Cindy’s dad stayed onboard. The kids booked hair
appointments and Cindy’s dad explored the ship. While walking to catch a cab to the hotel, Cindy mentioned that it would have been nice to have the kids along, I thought they were not interested, however they were thinking we wanted some alone. This was not the intent at all, so I felt awful. We returned to the ship. While heading to one of the entry areas of the ship, we saw the kids on our balcony, we yelled at them to come down and go with us to the hotel.
The kids quickly came down and met us. We explained to them what happened. We exited the port area and grabbed a taxi close to the main street. The fare to the hotel was 50 peso’s. We arrived at the Fiesta Americana hotel in less than 5 minutes. Now people are probably wanted to know why we were going to this specific hotel. Over 27 years ago Cindy and I spent part of our honeymoon here at this hotel. I have been wanting, since this trip was planned, to revisit the hotel and take photos. What an awesome feeling and really neat to not only visit
the hotel, but share it with the kids. Much of the hotel, particularly the lobby area (open air), was very similar. We took a photo at the entrance, in the lobby, out by the pool and then on the beach. All areas we frequented when we were honeymooning.
After our visit at the Fiesta Americana hotel, we took a taxi back to the ship, 50 peso’s, the same when arrived at the hotel. Cindy and Jenny went back on the ship, Todd and Michael walked around the shopping area (tourist shopping). Cindy wanted use to purchase Mexican vanilla. Every shop sold vanilla, so which one to purchase from. We ended up randomly finding a store and bought vanilla. Bartering is priceless in the Mexico ports. I only had 50 pesos left to spend, the price was 70. I told the gentleman that I really wanted to buy the vanilla, however I only had 50 pesos. He took the 50 pesos. Michael got a quick lesson on bartering.
When we returned to the ship, Michael and I went back to our rooms, and Cindy’s dad was in the room. He said he had left the
ship to shop, bought Michael a shirt and wanted to know if we all wanted shirts. I agreed so we left the ship again and went to the store to purchase more shirts. He bartered some and purchased shirts for all of us.
Upon to returned to the ship, we had to meet in the Wheelhouse bar to receive our safety instructions at 2:30 pm. We arrived early as required, but no one was there. We ended up waiting for 20 minutes and I ended up going to the Pursuers office and someone arranged for a crew member to meet us and go over the safety instructions.
Everyone except Michael and I stayed on the ship to enjoy 2 for 1 happy hour. Michael wanted to leave the ship to visit a bar off the ship to have a beer. The drinking age in Mexico is 18, the cruise ship is 21. Michael and I left the ship and visited a local bar in the port area to drink a cold one. It was fun just relaxing and watching fellow passengers walk around and converse at the bar.
Our agreement was
that we would all meet in the room at 4:30 pm to get dressed for dinner and then have a drink before dinner. We ended up having cocktails in our room and on our balconies. It was actually real fun doing this. Our scheduled seating time is 5:30 pm. This is kinda early, but the only option when booked our trip. We headed to our dining area and were lead to our table that we will settle down at for the remainder of the cruise. Our table was actually in a small room with two other smaller tables, actually very nice separated from the noisy dining room. We did not meet any other people in the room that evening, however we were still new on the ship.
As always, Princess food is so awesome. Unfortunately this evening I did not write down any of the food we ate. Darn it. I do remember that we did purchase a bottle of Pinot, white wine, so we must have had a chicken dish.
Following dinner, we went to the Piazza to watch Mariachi madness Mexican Fiest. This was a ton of fun and very entertaining. The
show in the Princess Theater this evening was ‘Motor City.’ Princess shows are always super entertaining and a lot fun to watch. We arrived at the theater early and sat in the front row. It was funny, the girls in the show were checking Michael out. Michael was doing the same.
Before we left the theater and the show was complete, the cruise director came on the stage to highlight the activities this evening. He did inform us, due to the weather, the Love Boar Disco Party scheduled for the Caylpso Cove (outdoor venue) was cancelled. The funny thing, it was not raining and the stars were vibrant. Oh well.
Before retiring for the evening, we all walked the ship some exploring the really neat features. Todd grabbed his computer and found a place in the Horizon Lounge to plug in and do school work.
Lights out for the Breton’s was at 10:30 pm, we were exhausted. Tomorrow we are visiting the port of Mazatlan. We have never visited this port before, should be a blast.
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Jackie R
non-member comment
Great Blog on Mexican Rivera
Todd, it looks like the trip started off a little rocky, but persistency and enthusiam really paid off. It seems like a phenomenal trip. I was so entrenched in your daily activities I read every detailed. It gave me a great envision of the enjoyment you all had. Great job on the blog. Keep up the outstanding work !!!!