Mexican Rivera Cruise–Part 1

I’m going to write two blog posts about our cruise, so they don’t get too long.

First I’ll start by stating that we had a good time, but it wasn’t great. Part of that was due to the weather. This is our second cruise in the Pacific Ocean, and both times the at sea days were mostly cool, cloudy and windy. Also, the Carnival Miracle is one of their smaller, older ships, and there just wasn’t the level of enthusiasm by the crew that we’ve experienced on the larger ships. Everything was adequate, but not great.

This is the first time we’ve cruised from the port in Long Beach, California. The terminal is small and doesn’t have seating. We ended up standing outside for over an hour before we were able to board. Good thing it was a nice day. Here’s our first glimpse of our ship.

Our first day, Sunday, we explored the ship and had dinner in the dining room. Here’s the token pirate picture at dinner.

One of our bags never made it to our cabin, but we retrieved it from guest services. I get a kick out of the towel animals in your cabin each night. This was a new one for us; I think it is a bat.

As we walked by the shops on board, they were giving away raffle tickets. We went back later for the raffle, and I actually won. I’m not usually very lucky, so that was cool. It was a beach bag with a matching coin purse, a man’s watch, a necktie, an evening purse, some bracelets and a sun hat. Other than the bag and watch, it’s not stuff we need, so our kids may be getting some goodies if they want them.

On Monday we found a table on the Lido Deck. It was mostly cloudy and windy. As you can see in the picture, I’m wearing a coat. I signed up for the Mixologist competition. I won this on the last cruise we were on. I think I get picked because most of the people who sign up are younger or men. I think I’m the representative for older women. I was third this time. My concoction was rum, creme de cocoa, peach schnapps, and pineapple juice. It wasn’t sweet enough, but I got two free drinks, so I was happy.

Monday night was also the Captain’s Dinner. On previous cruises, there was an hour of free drinks and hors d’oeuvres on that night. This year they gave you a $1 discount on drinks at the bar before dinner. That was a disappointment. Here we are at dinner that night.

On Tuesday we were at Cabo San Lucas. This was a tender port, which means the ship did not dock directly at the pier. Instead, small boats tendered passengers to the pier. If you purchased an excursion through Carnival, you were first off the ship at 9 am. If not, you had to get a tender number. The line was super long for this, so we decided to eat breakfast first. By the time we got a number, we were number 48 which meant we didn’t get off the ship until 12:30 pm. We had to be back by 3:15, so it was hardly worth getting off.

The only reason we got off was because we had never been here before, and I wanted to at least take a look around. Also, it was the nicest day of the trip, sunny and warm.
There were lots of small shops and restaurants along the pier. I can’t begin to count the number of times we were approached to buy tours, cigars, and all kinds of junk. Pretty overwhelming.I did get a kick out of the Mexican ATM machines.

Couldn’t resist a picture with Poncho Villa. Based on how shiny his knees were, it must be good luck to rub them.

No visit to Mexico is complete without a margarita, so we had to stop at Senor Frog’s to quench our thirst. This picture is for Korey so he can see we are just as cool as he is when cruising :) We weren’t all that impressed. The place was very busy, the drinks were more expensive than other bars in the area, and the waiter hit me in the head with a chair he was moving. Ouch! I should have asked for a free drink after that.

Nice view of our ship from the pier.

We left port just as the sun was setting.

One of the tours that was heavily advertised was the Arch of Cabo San Lucas. Good thing we didn’t pay for that tour, as we got a beautiful view of it from the deck of the ship.

Lots of boats out enjoying the sunset.

Well, that’s enough for this post. I’ll be posting part two in the next few days. Tomorrow we’re going to Mexico with friends (because we haven’t been in Mexico enough lately). I’m planning on getting a new pair of glasses and some Mexican Prilosec for our boys.

By the way, I downloaded Open Live Writer after reading on other blogs that it worked well for them. I did a test post without pictures, and it worked great. So, I wrote this entire post and then it wouldn't publish. I did some research and changed some options, but it still wouldn't work. Super frustrating. So, I had to rewrite the post in blogger. I just don't like how the pictures turn out in blogger, and how some of the spacing is off.


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