Mexican Riviera Cruise

 

This year as a reward for my Summer Sales Program going...well, my company decided to allow me to accompany them on a 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise!  They allowed me to bring one companion, and Kaicyn.  Mike used up all of his vacation time when Kaicyn was born (and who can blame him?)  So I decided to bring my Mom.  I thought this might help her relax, but I totally forgot that she had all the sewing to do for the wedding... WHOOPS, needless to say she is playing catch up now!

We flew out to Long Beach, CA on Sunday December 7th.  From there we took a Shuttle bus to the Cruise Harbor where our boat was docked... Talk about hectic!  We had to check in at the Queen Mary.  This was really cool to see.  This boat was built around the same era as the Titanic.  It was HUGE!  They always have it docked there in the harbor, and actually use it as a hotel now!  Once we checked in, Mom and I set out in our search for the coveted Dr. Pepper (Our cruise ship didn't have this 'nector of the gods' on it, so we had to stock up!)  We ended up boarding the ship with 3-20 oz bottles and 2-12 oz cans... for 2 people for 1 week... EEK!  We had to wait a while to board the ship, so Kaicyn was getting hungry.  I made him a bottle and about the time I start feeding him, we start moving.  So I am pushing him in his stroller, bent over feeding him... NICE!  Once we finally got on the ship, there was food a plenty!  Literally 24/7 there is food!

We spent 2 whole days out to sea.  To kill time, we walked around the boat, ate, shopped, and even took Kaicyn swimming.  The pool was really cold, so we only did that once.

Puerto Vallarta: We got into Puerto Vallarta early Wednesday morning.  To me, it was the typical stereotype of Mexico.  It was hot, muggy, and dirty.  We walked around the shops close to the pier, held the parrots that were close, and shared a taxi down town to downtown to hit the 'recommended stores'.  Word of advice, DON'T TAKE A TAXI IN MEXICO!!  That was the adventure of the cruise!

Mazatlan: We got into Mazatlan on Thursday morning.  Mazatlan was definitely an upgrade to Puerto Vallarta!  We took a van ride around the city and got to see a lot more than we did on the previous port.  We shared the van with a really nice couple that bought 'The Little Guy' a cute souvenir shirt.  

Cabo San Lucas: I LOVED CABO!  There was a huge boardwalk, lined with shop after shop!  The people were really friendly, and Cabo was very clean!  Even the water was crystal!  You could look into the water and see all these tropical fish just swimming around!  We found a beach and let Kaicyn put his feet in the water... Let's just say it wasn't his favorite thing he has done in his little life. It has been over 15 years since I was on a true beach! Wow!  The water was so warm!  I would love to go back to Cabo!

Thanks to my Mom for all of her help with Kaicyn, I could not have done it without her!  I am so glad that she got to come!  We got to know our waiter really well while we were on the ship!  It is amazing to speak to someone from a different country, and a not so wealthy one at that!  He was from Indonesia, and had a wife and 2 kids.  He works on the ship for 7 months straight, and gets 2 months off!  Can you imagine being away from you family for that amount of time?!?!  What was amazing about this is that he was extremely grateful for the opportunity.  He said that working that job has made a world of difference for his family...  Just makes you think.  I have decided that we are going to put $100 in an Indonesian bank... (in Indonesia, $100 USD is equal to over $1,000,000 there!) That way we can say we are MILLIONAIRES!