At Sea - First of Four Days at Sea

I will start by saying what a wonderful dinner we had last night.  We were fortunate enough to have Antonio and Ajay as our waiters again in Portifino.  Marcin the Head Waiter is taking good care of us in Douw’s absence.  We had the usual Sail Away Dinner, and we chose the spring rolls and then the mushroom soup but the new item we really enjoyed was the Basa Fillet served with a mango and papaya salsa with potato pancake.  Very good.   We also chose to take the same table every night at 7:45, something we rarely do but we are enjoying the table for two and the service.  Our friend Jeannie and Greg dine together often and now we understand why, it is romantic.

The welcome aboard show is happening tonight but since we saw it the first night of the last sailing we are going to skip knowing it is pretty much exactly the same.  We sit in on the last few question of a trivia game hosted by Kelly then wander around a bit and chat with some of the crew.  Many are shocked to see that we have stayed on for another sailing.

We are in bed early and the clocks are going back an hour (will go back an hour each sea day till we get to Hawaii).  We sleep soundly and wake early too, in fact I am up at 6 am (really 7) and head out to watch the sunrise and do some reading.  It is a little cool but I use the extra housecoat to cover my legs and I manage fine.  Nothing like sailing across the ocean and watching the sunrise.

Today is the first of four days in a row at sea.  This is a record for us, the longest we had been at sea is 3.5 days in a row.  But somehow we are not daunted we love sea days. 

We head down to Portifino for breakfast (breakfast and lunch will be in Portifino this voyage which is much easier to get to than Amafi) but we are sad Douw is not there but sure he is enjoying his mini break in Sonoma.  However Maitre D’hotel Rui is at the door and we are sat and served by a wonderful waiter Vasko.  I choose the Heuvos Ranchero and of course my Cappuccino. 

At 9:45 is the Sudoku challenge, first one of the voyage and I am four for four!  I win a pen and feel proud that I am good at something cause I suck at trivia. 

Our Cruise Critic gathering is at 11 in Skywalkers and it is again nice to put a face to a name of the people we have been chatting with.  Some of the officers attend, including the Captain who explains that the reason we went to the Starboard side of Alcatraz yesterday was because of the water ways being closed to traffic so we were directed to the north side of the island, something we have never done.  Someone asked about showing of the football games and Martyn the cruise director explained that the feed that Princess purchases doesn’t always get us all the games.  And even the satellite feed can be intermittent as there are not a lot of homes on the pacific that would pick up a cable channel.  He is funny!

Bernie heads back to the cabin and I head up to grab a slice of pizza (which was darn good) I was going to get some salad to go with it but the Horizon Court is a zoo and I don’t feel like waiting so I head back to the cabin and have some fruit. 

At one pm I head to the lecture Volcanoes of Hawaii – Are we Safe?  By naturalist Mark Harris.  I found the lecture very informative but for some reason this guy thinks everyone on board is from the States!  He made a few comments stating when we head home to the states, or when we vote next month – but that was my only complaint.

On the tv (channel 21) they are showing a great documentary called Hawaii Paradise Found that I really enjoyed and in fact watched it twice as it is on a loop and learned quite a bit.  I will state that I don’t know much about Hawaii, I have always thought about travelling there sometime but it was never on my radar for something to do so soon.  And since we booked this trip rather last minute I relied on a few friends to assist me with information, thanks Jeannie. 

Bernie comes back from a workout and that tempts me to hit the gym too so up I go.  It is the normal first day busy… by this I mean quite a few people get on the machines who maybe have not been in a gym for a while, use the machine for five minutes then get off.  As the cruise progresses it gets less and less busy.  I had a giggle as I was on the treadmill running the older gentleman next to me was walk on an incline and every time he tried to change the channel on the tv screen attached to the treadmill he shut the machine off by hitting the off button instead.  I finally had to stop and help him because I was giggling so hard.  According the scale in the gym I am actually down in weight – that must be wrong I am thinking, even though I am working out and watching what we eat the liquid calories I am consuming are something I almost never do so I am sure my calorie intake is higher than normal.

Today’s funny is as I was coming down the stairs I saw this couple (I would guess in their 50s) standing by the right bank of elevators (for those that don’t know there are two elevators on each side) but they are close to each making four elevators in total.  The elevator on the far left binged and opened but they did not go to it.  The light for the elevator went out and I overhead them say “well isn’t that the stupidest thing the light goes out but no elevator shows up” guess they didn’t realize there are four elevators there.

Other events happening today, Ukulele Workshop Registration, Spotlight Shopping Show, Bridge, Team Cruise Long Speed Trivia, Line Dance Class, Tour of the Star Princess, Movie is The Iron Lady in the Princess Theater, GLBT Get Together, Ballroom Blitz Dance Class Merengue, Paniolo O Hawaii:  Cowboys of the Far West, No Smoking night in the Casino, Comedy with Tom McTigue, Maxman Duo in Wheelhouse, Opus in Vista Lounge, Indigo Light String Quartet in the Piazza, MUTS is showing The Artist, Multimedia Trivia.

We are dining tonight in the Crown Grill with friends can’t wait for the chocolate molten cake again.

Sunday and Puerto Vallarta

We are up and down to the Amafi dining room for breakfast, had a lovely dish today a Frittata.  It is busy in the dining room this morning, lots of people are up and ready to hit the port running, well not literally cause it could kill a few people on board if they did. 

We dock at 10 am and it is so GREAT to be back in Mexico.  We have been coming to Mexico for almost 20 years now and both of us feel like it is a second home and have even considered retiring down here.  But that is another story.

this is the cruise terminal

We head ashore around 10:30, note the agents on shore may go thru your bags ensuring you are not bringing any fruit of any kind ashore.  Oh and they will check your bag when you come back on too to ensure you are not taking anything out of the country that you shouldn’t so be warned.

I will be writing a port report on Puerto Vallarta when I get home so stay tuned for more details on what to do here and how to do it.

 

We walk out to the main drag, just outside the port area and stay on the same side of the road and catch a local bus.  The destinations are written on the dash of the buses to identify where they are going.  Today the price was 13 pesos for the two of us.  To go downtown catch a bus that says Centro meaning the Center of Town.  It will be about a 15 minute ride, look for the open square, large cathedral and the water this is a good spot to get off and walk around.
 

see bus will show on windshield where it goes

romantic zone

We are off and I find a lovely clothing store where I buy two Mexican blouses.  Then we cross the Gringo Gulch and head towards the Romantic Zone and find a store that is selling Oaxacan rugs.  Bernie loves these rugs and he wants another one for his newly renovated bathroom so we decide to talk about it and come back if necessary.

 

We walk along the beach and there are lots of options for places to eat and drink but we head back to a place we passed earlier.  The view is to die for, the Margaritas are cold and the beer even  colder.  I order chili rellenos, and Bernie gets the shrimp tacos and we are happy – doesn’t take much.

 

While walking back to the rug store I come across a store that sells lovely leather shoes and buy two pairs.  Then we go around the corner and Bernie buys two rugs!  They are lovely.

 

It is freakin hot and while sitting on a bench we pick up two popsicles pineapple for Bernie coconut for me from a street vendor, then we get a lovely cold beverage from another vendor… yup we belong!

With all our packages to weigh us down we flag a taxi (60 pesos) and we are dropped right near the port at Sorianos which is a large grocery/general store that sells pretty much everything.  It is on the same side as the port just to the south of the port, you really can’t miss it.  We pick up more Maja soap for me, some grapefruit juice for Bernie for mix with his vodka in the room, and ear plugs so Bernie can sleep during the shows below our cabin. 

We head back to the ship around 4 pm and head back to the cabin to peel off these sweaty clothes and I swear I heard the bed calling my name, yup I am pretty sure it was calling Vickie.  So I am down for the count and miss sailaway, but Bernie did go out and get pictures.  But afterwards he is back in the cabin and we sleep for like two hours!

Not really into going to the dining room tonight, I don’t want to dress for it; however the dress code seems to be very lax this voyage but most people do follow the dress code and it is the Ultimate Deck Party tonight so a lot of people are in appropriate dress for that I guess.

I am glad we went up to Horizon Court for dinner it was very good and I really enjoy the salad bar and enjoy a large spinach salad bar.

Bernie, Matias, Me, Jasper and Peter

Look at Zara an her moves, Bernie keeps up very well

Jasper enjoys a drink

 

Up for the deck party!  Love Opus and they get the dance floor up and moving, including us!  We dance for like 40 minutes, we are hot and sweaty, time for a drink.  We enjoy a lovely evening and love watching others enjoying themselves too.  We catch up with some of the crew we know and by 11:30 we are back in the cabin.  Clocks go back tonight, they went forward last night and then go back tonight…. Argh.

 

Tomorrow we arrive in Cabo at noon and we are there overnight.  Good night.