Have you ever been on a cruise before? If not it’s something everyone should experience at least once. This was my 4th cruise overall and the 3rd with my wife in the 6 years we’ve been together. We enjoy them because there is always something to do, but you can do nothing at all and still have fun.
This particular cruise was 10 days along the Mexican Riviera on Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas. Very large ship for sure! In total there were 5 days at sea and 5 ports of call. Valarie and I enjoy the days at seas the most because we don’t feel guilty for not wanting to get off the ship at the ports. If you’ve seen one Caribbean/Mexico port you’ve seen them all. If you really want to experience a destination you should vacation there, not take a cruise. The reason is that you only get about 6 to 8 hours per stop and that is not nearly enough time to take in everything a place has to offer. Here are the places the ship stopped…
- Cabo San Lucas
- Puerto Vallarta
- Mazatlan
- Ixtapa (Zihuatanejo) – remember the movie Shawshank Redemption
- Acapulco
In Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Acapulco we got off the ship and rented a cab for a few hours to drive us around to some of the more touristy spots. For some reason the cab drivers really loved pointing out the Applebees,McDonalds and other very common chain places. They would also point out ever single Condo complex which I found odd. I guess it’s either a big thing in Mexico or they wanted us to see that they had those things as well.
There were some breathtaking views of the ocean and coves throughout each city as well as some interesting history. Quite a few older movies (before my time) where made there like The Night of the Iguana. My favorite thing I saw was the cliff divers in Acapulco for sure. 6 insane men and 1 insane woman scaled a rocky cliff and dove into a cove of ever changing depths. It’s a site to be seen. I’ve got some good pictures of it below.
Two things that I noticed right quick once we started on the cab tours, (1) the cab drivers are crazy and pay no attention to red lights, stop signs or even oncoming traffic. Plus I found out where all the VW Beatles have been hiding. They are the Cabs in Acapulco!! Thousands of them. (2) Coming where I come from, these places are so old and rundown. In Acapulco our guide brought us to this beatup, rundown old hotel so we could see the view from the top (it was amazing). There were broken windows and cracked concrete all over the place. Not abandoned, nope, it was fully operational and occupied by guests. Color me shocked!
One of our biggest annoyances though had to be the constant soliciting at each and every port. You could not go more then 5 seconds without someone asking you to buy some crappy little trinket. And god for bid if you stop to actually look at something, they begin to shove more and more in front of you. “You Buy”….”Very very good price”…”Happy Hour”….”You Like?”
Back on to the ship!
Our schedule for each day was very much the same…
- 10am: Wake up and go to the breakfast buffet. French Toast, fruit and cereal for me. Omelet, Fruit and Cereal for Valarie
- 11am: we would go off to the gym to build up some equity for our next couple of feedings that day.
- We’d then relax for the next hour or so by reading on the deck, playing bingo or just watching TV
- 1pm: Eat Lunch at the buffet
- During the after noon we’d play ping pong, lay by the pool and read, take a nap and stop by any demonstrations they were giving about towel folding, mixing drinks or taking pictures.
- 4pm Snack Time! Grab a soft serve Ice cream cone and a few sugar free cookies. Val would be on a constant hunt for anything banana related. LOL.
- 4:45pm: Bingo Time! Didn’t even come close to winning
- After bingo we’d go back to our rooms and shower to get ready for the evening events.
- 7pm: Show Time. We saw some pretty good comedians, a Juggler, a Hypnotist, musicals, plays, singers and some acrobatic displays much like you would see from Cirque du Soleil. They were all very entertaining, but not spectacular.
- 8:30 EAT! We chose the late seating, so this was our dinner time. We ended up sitting with an older family of 4 who were very nice and it was fun to meet them each night at dinner and talk about how our day went. If you go on a cruise, don’t be afraid to sit at a table with others. The food at dinner is very good and the menu changes every night. I’m a picky eater but always found something I liked.
- 11:o0pm. On most nights we would fall asleep after dinner because we are 29 and 33 going on 75 and 80. Some nights however we would stay up for the Karaoke contest (some really good singers there) or try to get on one of the “game shows” they have like the Newly Wed Game (no luck this year).
- When we got back to our room there would always be some new towel animal folded on our beds. Dog, stingray, monkey, ant eater (ok I wasn’t sure what the heck that one was), snake and a few others I can’t remember.
As I said before there is always something to do. We never even stepped foot in the casino or went to any of the clubs at night and we still felt as if we had a full vacation. Below are some pictures that I took so let me know what you think and if you have any cruising questions I’d be happy to answer them 🙂
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