Mexican Riviera Cruise (November 11-21, 2024)

We decided to take a 10-day Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Majestic Princess. We left from San Pedro, CA. Here is the itinerary (With Mazatlan at the end and no stop atLa Paz).

After dropping off our luggage, we decided to visit the USS Iowa.

After boarding, we had lunch, unpacked, and relaxed. 

Catalina Island at sunset 

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Cabo San Lucas

We arrived at Cabo in the afternoon of day 3 and had an overnight stay.

On the first day we took a food tour with Avocabo. It was great. We had ceviche, chicken mole, tacos, tamales, churros, and coconut ice cream.

The next day we walked to Cannery Beach.

later that morning, we did a UTV tour at Migrino Beach.

After returning to the ship, we enjoyed cocktails and then dinner.

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Loreto

We stopped in Loreto today and rented a kayak (about $20 for 4 hours) and went snorkeling in the Gulf of California,

We also enjoyed fish tacos, guacamole, chips, and salsa at a local brewery, 

After lunch, we did a bit of sightseeing in town. 

After a fun day, we headed back to the ship for a nap, and then dinner and drinks.

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Puerto Vallarta

After a day at sea, our next port was Puerto Vallarta. We got in a taxi and headed to Los Muertos Beach. The taxi dropped us off about 2km north of where we requested - at the start of the malecon. So, we walked the malecon southbound, instead of the opposite direction as we initially planned. 

We then retraced our steps, and went to Hidalgo Park for the Brewmasters festival, where we tried local beers and foods from different vendors 

We then caught the local bus back to the port.

Mexican Riviera Cruise - Mazatlan

We had a fun day in Mazatlan. First, we hired a pulmonia driver for a couple of hours for a city tour,.

We then took a water shuttle to Stone Island to relax on the beach and stuff ourselves with tuna and mango ceviche, guacamole, and cerveza. It was overcast until right before we left the beach, and then the sun came out. 

Once we arrived back at the port, Steve tried to miss the ship by helping somebody fix a jeep in the parking lot.

Once we were back on the ship, we enjoyed the sunset from our balcony, before heading to dinner.

Mexican Riviera Cruise -Reflections

Overall, we enjoyed this cruise, especially when I compared it to the one I took on Princess over 20 years ago. Back then, I heard about the amazing food and entertainment, and was disappointed in both. 

We still found the entertainment lacking, but had fun in a couple of trivia games. There were a couple of things that were not to our taste that we walked out of. That said, ship entertainment isn't really a priority for us, so it didn't impact our overall enjoyment.

This time, I also went with realistic expectations - that the food would be similar to hotel conferences or wedding banquet food. With this perspective, Princess usually met or exceeded my expectations. 

Vegetable tarts in Phyllo 

Steve with Beef Wellington and roasted duck (the duck was dry)

Delicious channa masala 

Watermelon feta salad

In general, the desserts were beautiful but lackluster. 

Loveboat dream

Coconut mousse (the best part was the coconut cookie it is sitting on).

We splurged for the Plus package and felt we got enough value where we didn't feel the need to over indulge to get our money's worth, although we indulged more than we would have without the package. It was nice to have the WiFi and crew gratuities included.

The package included 2 "casual dining" meals

Pizza and a veal pasta at Alfredo's (ok but nothing special)

Sushi lunch (it was delicious but everyone got identical meals and you couldn't customize)

We could also each get 2 giant sundaes every day (we shared 2 total across the entire cruise)

The package also included up to 15 alcoholic drinks (up to $15 each) per day. We averaged 3 each on port days and 4-6 on sea days.

watermelon margarita 

coconut mojito

Tokyo tea

Plus, it also included unlimited specialty coffees (we had several per day), bottles of flat and sparkling water, cans of soda, energy drinks, etc.

I also splurged on the Enclave thermal suite, which I really enjoyed. I would buy it again, provided there is a thermal pool, put probably only for me, since Steve didn't enjoy it as much. 

We also really enjoyed having a balcony (the Majestic doesn't have oceanview rooms), especially to watch sunrises and sunsets. Whether we get balconies in the future will depend on the price.

For this cruise, we enjoyed the balance between port and sea days (no more than 2 sea days in a row), and the chance to relax between port days.

While we went on two excursions/ tours in Cabo, we didn't purchase any of the ship's excursions.

Puerto Penasco, Mexico - July 2005

My group of friends had so much fun celebrating birthdays in Las Vegas, that we decided to celebrate more 40th birthdays in Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point).
When we first arrived, we had a few problems - like half the house did not have air conditioning. After a few beers and the property manager sending somebody, there were no worries.

The house was nice inside, and had tilework throughout. Much of the house was decorated in a sea-life theme.

Once we saw this hutch with the martini glasses art, we knew we picked the right place. Benigni felt right at home too.

Most of the weekend was spent on the beach.

When we weren't on the beach, we spent time just hanging out at the house and spending time with friends. We fired up the BBQ and grilled fish and meat for dinner, and ate left overs for lunch. We have some great cooks in the group, so nobody went hungry. For the "official" birthday celebrations, we went out to dinner one night. The food was ok, but not nearly as good as what we made at the house. Plus, there was about 1/2 inch of standing water on the floor of the women's restroom when I went, which sort of grossed me out about eating at the restaurant.

When we needed a break from the beach, we spent some time in the town. I had great shrimp cocktail in one beachside restaurant, and the seafood tacos were great too.
Based on all the statues around town, shrimp is obviously an important part of the economy.