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.

Oktoberfest in Wisconsin

We took a quick trip to Southern Wisconsin this year.

Listening to alp horns during Oktoberfest in New Glarus.

Governor Dodge State Park

Having fun at the apple orchard

Sedona

We had hoped to see fall color in Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon  today. When we got there, we realized that not many leaves had changed yet.

On the way home, traffic on I-17 was all backed up and it took twice as long as it should to get home.