Offered a Port Lecturer Position - But Guess Which Line?

After turning down the Sky Princess for the Baltic, I waited patiently hoping I might get offered one of the two ships that was sailing to South America.

But as August came to a close, I knew it was probably not going to happen.

I then started getting my name out and applying to other lines as a Port Lecturer and even as an Enrichment Lecturer.

Today I am happy to announce that I was offered a position as a Port Lecturer on Celebrity Eclipse! 

It is a 15 day cruise from Santiago (San Antonio) to San Diego.

We are both ecstatic and excited.

Neither of us has sailed Celebrity but we have always wanted to.

We are visiting ports we have travelled to numerous times and only three ports that I have to compose a new lecture for, although I have lots of material on them.

Stay tuned, as I will report here when I get offered something else.

My other question is, should I join the Cruise Critic Roll Call and introduce myself as the Port Lecturer? Bernie thinks I should and I am not sure - don't want to overstep, but want to build a following too.

Thanks for all the support.

South America Here we Come

Today Princess started their Sip and Sail program and we have been tossing out the idea of going back to South America.  

When we heard earlier this Spring that the Royal would be doing the 49 day trip, we knew we would be going back. We love the Royal Princess.

Both our cruise trips to South America have been very memorable and our land trip in January cemented it.

Today after checking prices and the added bonus of the sip and sail included we decided to book.

We ended up booking it as two legs instead of the total 49 day trip for a couple of reasons.

• We wanted to change cabins from Valparaiso up.  So as the saying goes P.O.S.H. - Port Out, Starboard Home. We are sailing in a port side cabin down and a starboard cabin home.  This will guarantee we have shade during the hottest parts of the day. The cabins are on the same deck just opposite sides.
• Price was a little cheaper as two legs, but not by a whole lot.
• On board credits work out much better as two legs. Stock Credit for two sailings at $250 each leg instead of $250 for a 49 day.  Also loyalty credit for two legs instead of one.  And Future Cruise Deposit credits as well for each leg instead of two.

So even though this trip is not until February 2019 it was key to book early.  Cabin selection is minimal but still quite a bit out there.

Care to join us?

Brazilian Visa - Don't Miss Out

Many people ask about getting a Brazilian Visa and how difficult is it. 

Brazil like many countries requires a visa for some Nationalities. First thing to check is click here to see if your country requires a visa. Canadians, Americans, and Australians require visas. British passport holders do not. 

Once you have the page open scroll down to see the number beside your country and then scroll up to see what that number means. 1 means you need a visa 

I can report how our experience was five years ago. It took about a week to gather all the necessary documents and fill out the forms. For use we required:  letter from employer, pay stubs, and travel itinerary. 

We delivered the forms, money and passports to the Brazilian Consulate in Vancouver and because everything was in order we got our passport and visa back about 10 days later.

Note each consulate and country is different. Our experience with the consulate here in Vancouver that represents western Canada asked for different documents than our friends who dealt with the consulate in Ottawa. Friends in San Francisco had a totally different experience too.

Note, many people feel more comfortable dealing with a visa service. The cost of using this type of service is almost double the cost of the visa and you still need to provide all the same information as you would if you processed it yourself. 

So really the only thing the visa service is doing is taking your money, and collecting your documents and submitting to Consulate. Save your money and do it yourself.

Processing time varies significantly so don't wait, get your visa right away so you are not disappointed. Yes in some cases it can be expediated but make sure you give yourself at least two months prior to get the visa. 

Remember if you do not have your visa you will not even be allowed to board a flight to Brazil. If you are getting on a ship that is going to Brazil, you are require to have the visa before you even get on the ship. You will be denied boarding the ship if you don't have it.

Our last cruise that went to Brazil, over 30 people were denied boarding in Fort Lauderdale. These were Americans who were lucky they were able to head to Miami and get their visa processed quickly and then flew and met the ship in Barbados before it headed South to Brazil. 

One couple from Canada was not so lucky as they had to return to Canada to get their Visa. They opted to meet the ship in Argentina and missed the first 14 days of their cruise. Don't let this happen to you.

If you are heading to South America, take note that you also require an Argentinian Reciprocal Fee that needs to be completed before you arrive.  Currently the fee is $72 US and the information for Canadians can be found here.  

Here is a great site that you can put the information of where you are going and it will tell you if you require a visa or not.  Note this is a visa service website so they are trying to get your business.  Save the money and submit yourself.

A good travel agent will make sure you know about the requirements for each country.  You can also check on your cruise personalizer with Princess and they have notifications about your visa requirements.  It is your responsibility to ensure you have the correct documentation.

South America Planning and Gambling

As many of you know we have been on two amazing South America Cruises.  Have to say that South America holds a special place in our hearts.  It is an area we had always been interested in and it did not disappoint.  And of course we can't wait to get back there.

When planning for 2017 we knew our vacation choice at work was not going to be a good one and we would have to focus on time in January/February.  Not to worry we don't mind that time of year as we always go away then.

We have a few reasons for wanting to head back.

• I really want to visit many of the ports again for more research.  My goal is to write more port information and look at port lecturing for South America after I retire. This trip would focus on us looking at the ports on a very practical level for this purpose.
• We have some friends in Santiago we would really like to spend more time with.  Not to mention we have never been to Santiago and want to spend some time there.
• Bernie has always dreamed of going to Machu Picchu and we are hoping to head to Lima and then Cusco prior to the cruise.  
• Also Lima is an amazing city I want to explore more

Usually we like to go to the Caribbean in January for some R & R but this coming year the prices are just way too high and with the exchange rate still sitting at about $1.30 Canadian for one US dollar we have to be conscious of the cruise cost.

This year we have really focussed on looking for deals.  This means not booking most trips far ahead of time like we have.  We can't risk the price not dropping.

Normally South America itineraries are high at first but can come down closer to the date.  Note cruises that are part of the repositioning of the ship - like our 49 day Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles rarely drop by much.  But the 14 days between Buenos Aries and Santiago often goes down. 

Since we are not too concerned about cabin location - other than not wanting to be in the aft section due to vibration on the Crown - we can wait.

So far the price has gone down $400 each.  We are still watching and hope to book in October.  This is risky and a gamble that you have to be prepared to do.  

Of course we won't have a great selection of cabins.  We will probably not be able to get the same cabin for both legs (but we will manage).  But it is a risk we are willing to take.  

The great things about this itinerary are:

• It leaves from Valparaiso on Bernie's Birthday
• It visits Puerto Montt again (have only been there once)
• It has two nights/three days in Buenos Aries
• It visits Puerto Madryn twice - have never been here but it is a common stop
• Lastly it stops once in Punta Del Este in Uruguay - have not been here either

So stay tuned to see what happens.

We do have a back up if this trip doesn't work out but we hope we don't have to fall for the back up. Time will tell.

Video of our South America Grand Adventure

I am finally getting around to putting together the slide show of our South America trip.  It was such a long voyage with so many pictures and videos.  

I can happily say that it is done.

Here is Part 1

Part 2

Part Three

CABIN ASSIGNMENT

Finally a cabin assignment!

This is the latest we have ever gotten a cabin assignment -- four days before we sail!  

Now sure we could of gotten assignment up until we boarded but it was frustrating and a little exciting waiting for cabin assignment.  Kind of like Christmas morning as a child sneaking around and trying to find my presents that my Mom had hidden, but never finding them but always happy when I opened the gifts.  

Okay you have all waited long enough.... drum roll please.... (hmmm can I add a sound effect)

A227

yup 

A227 which is a BE Category, which is what we booked. When Princess changed their cabin categories when the Royal came out they changed the numerous categories to just a few.  Which makes it easier when booking but now when you get a guarantee you can be given a cabin really anywhere.

We originally had a guarantee for both legs, but when a coveted Caribe balcony came available (yes it is a BE cabin too) we grabbed it for the second leg.  But still had the guarantee for the first leg.  Until today!  

We are happy with the cabin.  The main issue for me is that we have passenger cabins above and below or at least areas around us that are quiet and won't have lounge chairs dragged above us or base sounds coming from a show lounge below us.

We are happy that we will be on starboard side for part of the trip and the port side for the other part of the trip.

Love that it is only a quick two flights up to the Lido deck and Horizon Court, and the gym is close too.  

Turnaround day in Valparaiso will mean packing up and changing cabins, but Princess has this down to a science and it is easy to do.  We don't have anything scheduled for Valparaiso so we can pack up and move our bags ourselves (or leave it for the crew and they will move) but normally we just pack it up and move it ourselves.  

We have all our stuff ready to go.... we leave tomorrow so stay tuned.

What We Have Planned Ashore for South America

There is a small outline of what we have planned for each port on our 49 day South America cruise.  I will add websites on the day I post the actual blog (or at least after I get home from the trip when I have unlimited WiFi - stay tuned).

Fort Lauderdale:  Everglades Safari Park private tour for the four of us

St. Thomas:  Water Island on our own

Antigua:  Segway Antigua tour

Barbados:  Nelson Dockyard for beach day

Trinidad:  no firm plans

Recife/Olinda:  Hiring taxi to take us on tour

Rio de Janeiro:  Sabadrome Transfers and Parade tickets to Carnival, rest of the time we will take taxi and tour around.  We know the area and will revisit some of our favorite places.

Ilhabela:  Beach

Buenos Aries:  Full day private tour thru Eco Uruguay for just Bernie and I

Montevideo:  Full day tour with city tour in the morning then ranch tour in afternoon with Eco Uruguay

Falkland Islands:  Hiking the island

Ushuaia:  Bernie is going golfing, and I have a full day tour with Eco Uruguay 

Punta Arenas:  Our own thing

Puerto Montt:  Full day tour with GV Tours

Valparaiso:  Vina Del Mar on our own

La Serena/Coquimbo:  Petroglyphs and Limari Valley Vineyards with Lunch thru South Tours

Pisco:  Bernie is doing a Nazca Line Fly over tour with Mystery Peru

Lima:  Taxi Lima with Renato for a private tour for the 8 of us

Puntarenas:  Adventure Park for zip line and superman ride

San Juan Del Sur:  Beach, check out the small town

Puerto Vallarta:  Bus to Bucerias for beach and Mexican Meal

Trip to South America - Florida

With the trip coming up I wanted to let you know a bit about our pre cruise information and details.  I decided to write this blog before we left so I can link the hotel website, car rental, port details etc.

First we should start with the fact we are flying to Florida from Vancouver, yeah!!!  I can't remember the last time we flew from Vancouver to Florida.  Well I can remember it was when Princess use to do our air and they would put us up in a hotel the night prior for free.  That was like our 1st, 2nd and 3rd Princess cruise, and that was a long time ago.  But back then when Princess organized the flights we use to have to fly East to Toronto or Montreal then South to Florida.  We hated that itinerary, we encountered flight delays and missed connections because of this routing.  Soon we started planning our own flights and with that it was always more economical to fly out of Seattle.

So back to this trip.  

Quite a few months ago we booked this air with United.  We leave at 6:24 am and get into Fort Lauderdale around 5:30 pm, which is really 2:30 our time.  We have a one hour connection in Houston.

We decided to rent a car in Fort Lauderdale cause there are so many trips in port leaving that weekend that hotels were very expensive.  Hotels that we normally pay around $75 a night were asking over $200 a night.  I don't think so....  

So we booked a car for $15 a day thru Priceline and got Alamo, we decided to upgrade to a full size vehicle for a nominal fee since we will spend the next day with our friend Barb and Craig.  

We finally got a hotel that we were able to book thru Priceline about two months ago.  We knew because we had a car we could look further afield.

We won a bid at the Sheraton Suites Fort Lauderdale at Cypress Creek.  It is about a 12 minute drive from the pier.  We got it for $90 a night and that includes Wifi, and free parking and the rooms are very large with numerous amenities.

We have never stayed at this hotel before and I am sure it will do the trick for the two nights we are in Fort Lauderdale.

The next day Craig found an Everglades tour for just the four of us.  Everglades Safari Park is the company and we are going on a one hour private air boat ride for $250 total.

After the tour we will get some lunch and then head to a local Target to pick up some sundries that we will need for the long voyage.  We decided to not pack so many of the toilitries, but to buy then when we get there.  The list includes; moisturizer, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, hair mousse, bars of soap, wine and whatever else we feel the need we can't live without.

A nap will probably be in order and then evening will be a lovely night out with our friends to celebrate a wonderful Valentines Day.  Don't know yet where we are going but will post where we end up.

For embarkation day we will probably head to the pier and drop off our bags then head back out to meet up with a friend who is a comedian on board and will be getting off the Crown and then getting on the Ruby (sad we won't see him perform) but glad we will get to see him.  

We may look at trying to fit in a pedicure too this day.

We will take the car back to the airport and then catch Alamo's free shuttle back to the pier.  We are not in a rush to get on, I am okay with waiting till 2 or 3 to board.  Plus we will have 49 days to be on board so we can wait.

I hope you stay tuned to follow our adventures.  

And check out my Facebook Fan Page for more details and personal answers to your questions.  Cruising Princess Cruiseline With Vickie Page

My To Do List

Okay how many of you do to do list?  Come on admit it?  

Where do you write these list?  

For me I write them almost everywhere.... on a post it, on my iphone, on my tablet, on a blank piece of paper in the kitchen, and then they get written on the real list in a spiral notebook.

I have to admit the list thing has become more of a necessity as I have gotten older cause well I forget things.... now what was I saying?

Also the other reason is there are so many things I need to do before we go that it occupies my thoughts and unless I put it down on paper I will obsess (yeah obsess, just ask my husband) until I write it down.  Cause I will forget it.... now what was I saying?

So since I am pretty sure some of you go thru this too, here is my list so you can obsess along with me.

• pay cities utility taxes (cause they are due while we are away - this involves calling City Hall to find out how much they are cause the bill doesn't even come out till late Feb).
• pay all bills in advance
• program PVR for shows we just can't miss - Yes I need to find out who Juan gives his final rose too (don't judge me)
• clean house (I can't leave a messy house)
• put together list of things for house sitter
• inform Strata that we are away, and let neighbours know too 
• wash car (don't know why but the car needs to be clean for when we come back)
• buy chocolates for crew as little treats
• do up business cards (cause so many people we meet on board ask) with my info on it with, Youtube channel, my blog (you are reading it right now) and facebook page --- WHAT you don't know about my cruising facebook fan page, well here it is.  Cruising Princess Cruise Line with Vickie
• Hair cut
• Pedicure/manicure
• Pull out clothes and try everything on to make sure it fits and it is practical and so I don't bring five black tshirts.
• Iron all the above - I know how weird is that, I never iron, but for some reason things need to be ironed before I throw it in a suitcase and squish it and make it wrinkled.
• Update Ipod with songs, playlists etc
• Add books onto Kindle so I will not run out of books while away, heck I can never have enough books
• Charge all batteries, camera, fitbit, ipods, laptop
• Add movies to laptop to watch while at sea relaxing in the cabin.
• Send out birthday cards to those whose birthday falls while we are away.
• Get US money
• Confirm all the tours
• Clean out fridge
• Print out cruise documents and luggage tags

oh and a few other things to do with work but our job has it's own terminology and no one except us understands it

So am I forgetting something?  Help cause I will obsess unless I write it down.

All kidding aside, this is a list I usually do for every voyage.  And so far we haven't forgotten anything - so far, now watch me forget something this time.  

Thanks for reading.... now off to bed 

One Month, Well One Month and Two Days

touching the foot of the Indian in Punta Arenas guarantees are return visit - guess it worked

Yeah just over a month, one month and two days till we leave.  But who is counting.  Don't know why I am so excited about this trip.... sure I always look forward to all my trips and sure we talk about it.  But I am so excited about this voyage.  

WELL I SHOULD BE EXCITED I am going back to South America!

We really enjoyed our last trip around the horn; although there was a few issues that were beyond our control.  This time we know what to expect and this has given us some peace of mind and also the knowledge to know what to do where and what NOT to do and where.

Us in the Falklands at Volunteer Point with King Penguins

The things I am really looking forward to:

• Over 50 days away from work, yup no shop talk, no early morning shifts, no rude passengers on board, no uniform - yup 50 days baby.

• Seeing good friends again - yes I am talking about Barb and Craig and also Jan and Michael.

• Seeing Rio de Janeiro again during Carnival and actually getting to go the Sambadromo Parade to see the parades!

• Reading lots of books

• Seeing all the wildlife.  The last voyage we saw so much wildlife, and so many species we have never seen before.  Can't wait to see again.

• The total relaxation that being on a cruise for this long with lots of sea days brings.

• Good food, great wine from many of the ports, and seeing so many great crew that make our special voyage extra special.

• Seeing all the glaciers in Southern Hemisphere.

• Getting to see Peter, Johan, Felipe, Sanja, and Claudio on board again!!!  Our Princess family.

• Also to see so many different countries with such a variety of cultures, history, languages. To try the local cuisine, and drink... yup got to test who makes the best Pisco again.

Buenos Aries

So am I excited well, YES.  Stay tuned while I countdown the trip and I share what we will be doing in each port.

Planning for South America

As many of you know we are heading back to South America.

So much to do before we leave.  A few new things or maybe I should say different things to accomplish before we head out this time.

First we don't need to get a Brazilian Visa cause well we already have one.  But I will say it was cumbersome to do and a lot of details and boxes to check off and submit.  Note you need to contact your Brazilian consulate in your country and perhaps even in your province or state.  For me in Vancouver I had to contact the one for Western Canada which was thankfully in Vancouver.  Each location seems to have different requirements.  I know you can go with a visa service but that would double the cost, if not more of the visa and you still need to get all the necessary documents yourself then they just submit it.  Save yourself the money and submit it yourself.  So any ways, we have our Visas for Brazil and they are good for five years so this is one reason we decided to go back cause well we have the visa.  I know you like how I rationalize things.

We do need to get an Argentinian visa though.  Now this did cause some confusion since we visit Buenos Aries first, then we head to Montevideo, then the Falklands then back to Argentina.  Do we need a single entry visa ($75) or a multi entry visa (which was twice the cost of the single) -- note this is for Canadians.  I contacted the Argentina Consulate in Toronto and they wrote back that a single entry was fine as they allow you to enter and return to neighbouring countries within a single visit.  Go figure!  They say that they consider the Falklands still part of Argentina so no problem.  I now like how they rationalize things.  Saved us $75 each.

Now if we were flying into Chile we would have to get a Visitor's Visa at the airport but since we are arriving via a ship no need.  

Other things that are different are:

We are starting the trip in Florida, Fort Lauderdale to be exact.  And there are 8 ships leaving that day.  Hotel prices were crazy!  So we opted for a rental car $15 thru Priceline and a hotel further afield for a steal.  This way on the day of departure we will drive the rental car to the pier, drop off the bags then get some lunch then drop off the car and take the shuttle back to the pier.  Easy right - traffic will be crazy so remind me on the day of how easy I said it would be.

Flights!  Yeah Flights.  Normally we fly out of Seattle but this time with being gone for so long and the cost of storing our car in a parking lot, and the cost of the flight from Seatac not being that much different than Vancouver, we opted to fly right from home.  We booked United because we can get airmiles transferred over to our Aeroplan with Star Alliance.  

But hey, United stop changing our flights!  First they kept changing our flight to Fort Lauderdale.  The layover in Houston kept getting longer, from an hour to two hours to finally three hours.  But stay tuned to find out what it is now. 

Then last week I went on to rebook our seats, since we both hate middle seats and on our last trip we both took aisle seats across from each other and that worked great.  So low and behold I go on line and see the dreaded notice.  Your flights have been changed, press okay to accept.  

What I think, they changed it again..... nope not the first flight but the flight home from Los Angeles.  We purposely booked a flight that was after 1 pm cause we remember the chaos on the last day going thru immigration after the ship had been in South America.  We knew we couldn't make a flight before noon.  We opted and booked the 1:20 pm flight.  But now they have changed us to a 3:20 flight.  WHAT, we don't want a flight that late, what the heck will we do.  So I am not going to accept.  I call them and spoke with a lovely agent, and since the change is more than 90 minutes they said they have no problem switching our flight.  Would we like the 1205 flight, NOPE too early and I don't need to stress I say.  I then request the 2:20 flight. Still later than what I would like but at least it is not 3:20.  

Then the agent says oh and they have changed your flight to Fort Lauderdale too, do you accept that?  WHAT, and then she reads me the details and guess what, they have returned the flight to the original time when we booked.  Go figure!  Works out great for us.

Okay now flights are taken care of.  

This is the longest trip we have ever been on so it does require some extra planning.  We are having a friend who attends college nearby to stay at our place during her school nights so she doesn't have to commute too much.  And our neighbours have been informed.  We live in a secure building and we have a security system, so along with the house sitter and neighbours I know we are covered.

The Cities' utility taxes are due at the end of March and there is a penalty if you pay after April 1 so we need to call them and arrange payment of that.  Also doing our Income Taxes is just going to have to wait till we get home --- yeah how many people get to say that?

I decided to order some of those ebags that everyone keeps raving about and a few other things to make packing easier.  

I have created my list of things to do before we go.... I could type it here, but trust me it is not that exciting. 

Now the countdown on how many days left of work begins.

Stay tuned as I report more on what and how we get ready for our voyage.

Sea Day and Around the Horn – February 26

After a great sleep we are feeling refreshed, after a latte and a bite in the International Café we sit up in Crooners and chat with friends.  Lots going on around the ship, especially shopping.  Bought a nice fleece jacket with penguins on the back for $18 and Bernie got a nice windbreaker with fleece lining. 

Bernie wants to do trivia and I am not really interested so I relax and read and chat with fellow passengers.  For lunch we head to the dining room and I had a lovely stuff pepper. 

Gail and Russell meet up with us in our cabin for a trivia game and some good laughs until we hear we are coming close to the horn so we bundle up and head up on deck.  It is cold and windy but wearing appropriate clothes helps. 

Gail and I

Now it is confusing to explain how we go around the horn, we are going east to west and we are just passing deception island, the island is called this because many times ships thought this was the end of South America when in fact it is not, therefore called island of deceit.

We are sailing on the north side of Cape Horn going around the horn counter clockwise.  Joe Mae our speaker is talking over the loud speaker about what we are seeing and the history of the area.  Have to say we really enjoy his talks.  His lectures are well attended but we choose to watch them in the cabin as they are replayed there.  Then when I do fall asleep it isn't so obvious and I am comfy in bed.

The ship photographers are out and they are trying to get their quota of pictures so we are trying to help by posing and getting our friends to pose too.

After about an hour up on deck we head back to the cabin to change and get ready for dinner.  Tonight’s menu is called Candlelight menu, one we have not experienced and it looks good.  I had the mushroom stuffed chicken, but they did have a lobster tail and lobster cake that looked very good. 

I should note that the Captain did come over the in cabin speakers to notify us that we may be delayed in our arrival tomorrow in Ushuaia as there is a political protest group occupying a ship at the berth that we need to dock at.  Word is that they have agreed to leave the berth at 7 am so our arrival will be delayed by an hour.

our waiter even got in on it

Tonight is Oscar night and we have arranged to have a group of us sit together in the Vista lounge to enjoy the show together.  Just prior to the show is Oscar Trivia for which we didn’t do too too bad at but still did not win.  A group of us gather and we bring out the feather boas for the show.  Great fun, good laughs and great people.  The show starts around 10:30 but sadly the sound is just so overpowering that we can’t really hear well.  After about 45 minutes we decide to head back to the cabin and we watch a bit on the t.v. but we are both having a hard time staying awake.

Research for our South America Trip

Now that our cruise is less than a year away we are busy planning, researching, and reading.  We are of course researching the most thru Cruisecritic.com and our roll call is huge!  Almost 200 people, heck we don't usually get that big a roll call when we sail  in the Caribbean!

We have a Lonely Planet book on South America, we have a book just on Rio de Janeiro and we have read them both!

We have narrowed down the flights and are just waiting for us to accummulate a few more air miles (probably will reach it some time this month) to book our flights thru Airmiles.ca   Looks like we will fly to Rio via Toronto and Sao Pablo and arrive six days before our crusie.  This should give us a lot of time to do a thorough tour of Rio and the sourounding area.  We are hoping to get a feel for the city and are currently researching three different tour guides to provide us with two days of tours.  We hope to narrow this down within the next two weeks.

We also hope to get out and enjoy the pre Carnival events.  As well as maybe renting bikes and riding around, taking the metro to downtown and  visit museums and perhaps visit some other sites that we miss while touring around.

I am trying to find out about visiting a Samba School while we are there but not sure if this will be possible because of being so close to Carnvial weekend.  But it would sure make Bernie's day.

With regards to the other cities we will visit, looks like we have a good understanding of what we want to do in each port.  We do have a tour of Volunteer Point in the Falklands allready reserved and it looks like his tour is allready sold out!

Not sure what to do in Lima, Bernie really wants to see the Nazca Lines, so hope he can get more information and see if it is at all possible. 

For now we are researching, but have a quick trip to the Mexican Riviera planned for April and then a coastal cruise home.