Mexican Riviera Cruise - Cabo San Lucas

(By Jim)
We didn't have much planned for our day in Cabo. None of the ship's tours appealed, so we decided to walk around, see what we could see, and then head back to the ship. It was beautiful as we came around the rock formations at the mouth of the harbor.

We tendered into the port, and then started walking around the marina. We kept getting approached by touts wanting to take us fishing, glass bottom boat rides, sell us a timeshare. Finally, one of the time-share guys pointed us in a way to get out of the marina area and into town. Unfortunately, the part of town we found wasn't much.

After some harsh words between us, we found a bench to sit on and a pharmacy where I got two cold Coca-Colas.

Cokes in Mexico taste like Cokes used to in this country, because they use sugar, not high fructose corn syrup. [Skip the next part if you’re not interested in economics. You won’t miss anything, really.] Why is this? Cost. One of the side effects of US agricultural policy are sugar import quotas and tariffs to support the US sugar industry, concentrated in south Florida with sugar cane, and in the Midwest with sugar beets. So, sugar is more expensive here. On the other hand, we subsidize corn farmers and so their products are cheaper. Now, it will be interesting to see what happens to the price of high fructose corn syrup when we start using more corn for biofuel production.[All Done!]

Anyway, we decided to cut up some of the side streets, which brought us to a sporting goods shop, Minerva Baja Tackle, one of the premier outfitters in town. Cabo is known for big game fishing, and I spent some time browsing their large boat tackle before buying a hat for my father. Afterwards, we popped into a cigar store and café where we chatted with some American ex-pats who were getting their residency permits that day. They told us that the value of the yachts in Cabo had passed Monte Carlo, and it was the most valuable yacht basin around. I'm not surprised. I saw a bunch of boats that I knew were at least $500,000, and God only knows how much more. I decided to pass on Cuban cigars; I had my Montecristos with me and didn't need any more.

We popped into the jewelry store that the ship was promoting, got a free trinket, and then headed back to the marina. On the way, there was a stand set up by the local zoo; where for a donation of $20 you could get your picture taken holding a baby lion or tiger. Barbara got hers taken with the tiger. They weren't getting a lot of business, so they let her play with the tiger for a while, and even put it on her head!

After that, it was time to find the one thing I did want to look up. Barbara had been told about a tequila store and bar called Tequila Treasures run by a guy named Geovanni. We entered right about the same time he was opening, with the Village People on the stereo singing "In the Navy". The tequila selection was impressive. I had tried a lot of them, but there were at least 2 dozen more I hadn't seen before. I tried four while Barbara had a couple of beers. My favorites of these were the Ancestra tequilas, both the reposado and the añejo.

After that, it was time to head back to the boat. We wobbled back, and chilled out on the balcony of our cabin. I got some great pictures of the sunset and the rocks from there.

I wish we had known more about Cabo. What we saw didn’t make much of an impression on us and we didn't like it much. That was probably because we didn't get away from the port area. Next time I'll know better what to do, like planning a sport fishing excursion before we come, or wearing our bathing suits out and taking a panga out to go snorkeling. Or take a taxi to just drive us around the town and the neighborhood. Anything to get away from the port area.

Fortunately, this planning problem wasn't duplicated in Mazatlan. To be continued…

Mexican Riviera Cruise: the ship, Dawn Princess

By Jim (Biscuit Boy)

We boarded the Dawn Princess on Sunday. This ship was christened in 1997 by members of the Love Boat cast. Yes, there is a Lido Deck. Yes, there is shuffleboard on the Lido Desk. Unfortunately, Julie wasn’t our cruise director.

I’ll be making a lot of comparisons in this to our cruise on Celebrity’s Mercury in 2005; Barbara wrote about it at the time. The short answer is that it wasn’t as nice, wasn’t as pampering as the one on the Mercury.

The formalities were easy: someone took our bags, we got our passports scanned and our credit card swiped for our onboard account, got our card keys (used for our cabin locks and purchasing drinks and other things on board), and boarded and headed to our cabin. The minisuite was sweet.

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathtub

Separate shower

Toilet

Efrain, our cabin steward, took good care of us. Our first meeting was when he stopped by and welcomed us onboard with a glass of champagne. He was the best of the staff that we encountered on the cruise. He made sure we knew how to get in touch with him, and he was there to take care of us. He was from Acapulco, and I wish we had gone there just so he could have told us the best places to go there. Our dinner waiters were nice, but didn’t come close. The dining room didn’t have sommeliers, so we were ordering drinks from our waiters.

The food onboard was OK, sometimes very good, sometimes meh. We had heard that beef onboard wasn’t that good. This was not the case. Fish and shrimp were more likely to be crummy. I’d recommend most anything over the fish, which was typically overcooked and tasted frozen. I love fish, I cook it at home frequently, and will order it when out over about anything else, but not on this trip.

Below are night two-Cabo dinner pics. Night one, we forgot our camera.


Crab Quiche - o.k.

Smoked duck breast - good


Crawfish - OK, although our tablemates from New Orleans didn't order it.


Pasta with Veal Sauce - meh.

The pizza parlor on board made very good pizzas. The dough tasted like it was made fresh that day. Unfortunately, everyone else figured this out as well and waiting times for lunch took time, like 20-30 minutes. Lunch, however, was when people should have been in the dining room based on our experience, and it was dinner when they should have sought other food. Princess plays games with the pizza parlor, though. It’s free, but if you want it in your room you have to pay a delivery charge.

This was one of the things that aggravated me most about the cruise. There were so many rules that seemed to be focused on preserving a profit center for Princess. In addition to the pizza, breakfast in the room was restricted to continental only. At dinner, it was only the limited sandwiches on the room service menu, not the items in the dining room. Our last night, we wanted to take the strudel back to our room (Barbara saw them making it earlier that day) but the waiter was concerned that the staff might not let us take it out. We did take it out, and would have run over anyone who told us not to.

Another fiction is “formal night”. At our table, that meant maybe a suit, but more likely a sport coat, tie, and dark pants. It worked for me, and for everyone else. Don’t bother renting the tux.


Onboard activities sucked. On the last cruise, we struggled to decide what to do because there was so many options. On this cruise, we struggled to decide what to do because we had so few options, and there is only so much time you can spend in the casino or bar.


For the shows, the ventriloquist was pretty good, but the other shows were crummy. The other comedian on board was seen having drinks in Cabo and delivered a pretty crappy show afterward.

Anyway, my overall impression was that the Dawn Princess kinda sucked. It wasn’t bad, but it should have been a lot better. I had been told by other experienced cruisers that, for them, the ship was their destination, and the ports were just extra. I would have been bored to death if that were the case. Fortunately, we had some great port experiences which I’ll describe in the next posts.

Our Cruise - Celebrity Mercury - Oct. 8-13, 2005

(If you absolutely can't wait to see the pictures, scroll down)

To sum it up on one word..........ahhhhhhhhhh. We had a great time, met some really nice people, ate really good food, and totally relaxed. Celebrity Cruise Lines knows what they're doing. In all the years that Biscuit Boy and I have been together, I have never seen him relax so quickly. He was apprehensive about going on a cruise to begin with since he had never done one before. And no matter how much I tried to explain to him what a cruise was like, he had to experience it himself to see what I meant. He's now looking online for other cruises....hehe. I think someone's been bit by the cruise bug. He said it's like crack....very addictive and you leave the ship wanting more and more.

Our cruise started in Seattle the went to Astoria, Oregon; one day at sea; Nanaimo, British Columbia; Victoria, British Columbia then back to Seattle.

One of the things we were looking forward to was the food. Everyone raves about how good the food is on Celebrity ships. And while we never went hungry, I'd say the food sort of met our expectations. Right up there on top of the list were the desserts. Oh, my....they were incredible. Creme Brule to die for, apple tarts that begged you to lick the plate clean, chocolate cakes that satisfied even my choc-o-holic self. Next were the beef and lamb entrees served at dinner. The kitchen knew how to cook these bad boys. Tender, juicy and so full of flavor. Seafood was hit and miss. One night the fillet o'the day was very tasty but the chilled fish appetizer the next day tasted suspiciously like the left over fish from the night before. Vegetables were just ok, mostly steamed and somewhat bland.
Lunch in the dining room was fair. Biscuit Boy ate there one day and said he liked the open air grills and buffet options on the pool deck. I had a hamburger one day from the grill that was actually quite tasty. Other choices were pizza made to order, your standard buffet line with hot entrees, and a pasta bar. Given mydrutherss, I'd choose these options over the dining room. They were less formal than the dining room and you could sit outside, weather permitting, and enjoy spectacular views.

For breakfast we tried the waffle bar and buffet on the first morning. I had read so many comments online about the waffle bar that we had to give it a shot. Biscuit Boy is a waffle-hound so I figured he would be in heaven with this dining option. Unfortunately the waffles were a bust. They weren't bad, they just weren't as spectacular as we had been reading about. They were a thick Belgian type of waffle that lacked a whole lot of flavor which is probably why they offered so many toppings for them. The rest of the trip we went to the dining room. The menu was nice and had plenty of choices. My usual fare was fresh fruit, eggs, grits and bacon. Biscuit Boy varied his routine usually having fresh fruit, eggs benedict one morning, kippers another and eggs on other days. And of course he had toast and sausage or bacon. I enjoyed the dining room in the mornings because I didn't have to fool with getting a tray and walking through a buffet line then finding a table. For the dining room, you were met at the door, shown to a table and people magically appeared to serve you coffee and food. A nice way to start your day.

And with out further adieu, here are some food pictures.

One of the meals we at on land. This is a cajun salmon sandwich with cole slaw from the Silver Salmon Restaurant in Astoria. Also from the Silver Salmon, Fried Oysters with potato cakes. This is a view of the Manhattan Dining Room on Mercury. This is upstairs looking down and across to the other side. Our table was downstairs just below where this was taken. We had a lovely window right behind the table so we could watch the sunsets and watch as the ship left for our next destination.The daily breakfast menu in the dining room. Pastries from the Cova Cafe. This was taken in our cabin. Ham and Cheese Fritters appetizer Escargot appetizer Shrimp Scampi entree Duck A L'Orange Truffle chocolate cake Apple Tart Baked Alaska Night. All the waiters and wait staff parade around the dining room with flaming baked alaskas. Hokey but fun.A slice of the baked alaska. Here are some other random pictures from the trip. This was a marina in Astoria, Oregon. If you look closely at the dark line in front of all the boats you'll see sea lions. Big, lazy, barking sea lions. We were on a little trolly that ran up and down the city shore line and our guide said these were the males that could not find mates down in California so they come up here to winter by themselves. This was our one day at sea. And what a wild ride that was. This is the pool early that morning......before all the water was thrown out of it by the rough seas. About 1/3 of the passengers and a good number of crew were sick. I came close but thankfully our cabin steward gave me some bonine. By the time the ship left the open waters of the northern pacific and turned into the Canadian Inner Passage, life began to stir again onboard.This is a view of Mercury from the pier in Nanaimo. We had to take tenders in from the ship which is why it's not right up at the dock. We like Nanaimo. It was a small town like Astoria that was really trying hard to become a port city for the cruise lines. The people were extremely friendly and the town had a certain charm to it. And of all the days during the cruise, this day was glorious. A picture perfect day for exploring a new city. This is a shot of the harbor area near the place we got on the tenders to head back to the ship. This is Victoria's famous Empress Hotel. An old ivy-covered hotel known for serving anelegantt high tea. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to experience the tea but it will be on my agenda when we go back. This is a shot of the harbor in Victoria. Even on a cloudy, drizzly day the city was beautiful and had a comfy feel to it. Being a librarian, I just had to see the ship's library. It was nicely set up with one wall of glass enclosed bookcases full of books from just about every genre. The ship's librarian (Yes, they actually have a librarian on staff) will help passengers find reading material, prepare copies of the daily crossword puzzle and sit and chat with passengers. I could do this......... I would miss my husband and the dog greatly.......but I could do this. Ah, but I know in reality it is just a dream. This was our cabin. Biscuit Boy was standing at the window looking back into the cabin. We had a little love seat and a desk and chair back where he was standing. The window was just about the full width of the cabin so we had a nice view where ever we went. On the last day we woke up back in Seattle before sunrise. Biscuit Boy took one last opportunity to take some pictures of the beautiful skyline. This one is my favorite. It's the same view we had from our cabin only this picture was taken up on the pool deck.

Teaser

I know some of you have been waiting with baited breath to hear about the cruise. Bottom line, we had a GREAT time! Biscuit Boy was sooooo relaxed and is already looking at other cruises, hehe. I hoped to have gotten my post about the cruise done by now but since we got back we've been working, Biscuit Boy's been fighting a cold and I had a brief bout of food poisoning from one of our favorite local restaurants where we ate on Saturday. I was sick all day Sunday and Monday, what a lousy way to spend my birthday too!

But I'm better now and Biscuit Boy's cold is getting better too. And with my sister and brother in law visiting this weekend, I probably won't finish my post on the cruise for a few more days. So I posted a few pictures just as a little teaser. Enjoy!

The picture at the top is an appetizer we had on Formal Night. It was called Smoked Salmon Claudine. The menu described it this way: "An envelope of Smoked Salmon filled with Smoked Trout and Salmon Mousse complimented by a refreshing Cucumber Relish." It was wonderful. As was most of the food we ate, and we did eat a lot of food.


This was Mercury in port in Astoria, Oregon. Notice the sailboats in front of the ship. They're dwarfed by the size of Mercury. She's a beautiful, classy ship.

Where are my stretchy pants?

Why do I want to know where my stretchy pants are? The answer is simple, we're going on a cruise! We leave before the butt-crack of dawn on Saturday to fly out to Seattle for a 5-day cruise in the Pacific Northwest. See that thin line of blue on the middle of the ship? Our cabin in smack in the middle of that row.

Our ports of call are Astoria, Oregon; Nanaimo, B.C., Canada; and Victoria,B.C., Canada. We also have one day of just sailing through the Canadian Inner Passage (basically the water way between Vacouver Island and the mainland).

And of course, there's the food. Lots and lots of food. I will try to get some good pictures to post here after we get back.....try not to drool on your keyboards.