Mexico

New Year

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Dammit you guys, it’s been a hot minute. I have excuses if you want to hear them. But do they really matter?

Since we’ve last chatted almost everyone (in our home) started a new school year.

I took a trip down to Cabo!

We watched the LA Galaxy win it ALL!

Averi had her acting debut in a Finding Nemo musical’

… and last but most important, we celebrated the best man in our lives turn 80. But That will have it’s own post!

So, with that, here is the proof.

Some back to school shopping, first day of school pictures.

I am not ready to talk about how old they are getting.

Oh Cabo, the last time wasn’t fantastic, so why do we repeat history? ( wow there is so much in that question)

As we were booking this trip I whispered to myself, “this time it will be amazing”.

Because this time we were going to do things different. We were going to stay at a smaller hotel. We were going to forgo San Diego International and leave out of Tijuana. That’s what everyone said we should do, it’s cheaper, easier..

Side note: we live 10 miles away from San Diego International Airport. We live 26 miles from the CBX crossing.

So, I book a flight from Tijuana to Cabo. The Uber showed up on time and 25 minutes later we are at the CBX border. We got out of the car with our luggage and all the of the paperwork filled out. (you have to have your shit together otherwise you’ll be filling out papers leaning against vending machines before they let you through, oh and they don’t have pens so bring your own.)

We proudly show our paperwork and make our way across the tunnel (border) and into the TJ airport. The walk took about 10 minutes. And then we hit the line for the custom passport check and guess what, we weren’t alone. We were in line for about 30 minutes. After that, there was another check point and then there was a luggage check. We left a lot of time, I’m talking hours to get through everything. But luckily we reached our gate with minutes to spare. We jumped in line and then realized that we weren’t even boarding our plane, we were just getting on a bus to take us to our plane. WTF?

We eventually made it to our plane.

We landed in Cabo without any problems. Once we collected our luggage and walked outside I realized that we werent at the same terminal we were used to. I don’t actually know how manyYou know, the terminal that has the bars?

Little things like that aren’t a big deal, shouldn’t be a big deal. but at that moment I wanted to be where everyone else was. I wanted to the terminal with the bars, I wanted to be where everyone else was.

Our transfer arrived not long after and we were headed to our hotel.

 

This was a smaller hotel that was a short beach walk to Medano beach.

We sat on the beach all day every day . Had the best churros ever.

We ate fresh fish, molé enchiladas. Fireworks every night and stormy weather.

https://videopress.com/v/Dtd91AOB?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

I need to mention that those fireworks went off every night. It sounded like we were being gunned down (Hi, I am that old. ) Also, the flamingos underneath us sounded like they were screaming for their lives. I’m not a fan of either of those.

With that being said, it was a nice trip. But I think Cabo can be put on the back burner for awhile.

The trip home was SO much easier even with a delayed flight, go figure.

 

LA Galaxy, if you know me then you know that I am a soccer person. We are the OG LA Galaxy fans. When we lived in San Ramon (1990’s) we watched the San Franscisco Bay Blackhawks. This is before there was MLS. Eric Wynalda was on the team and I remember running up to him after a win with my friends. Can’t do that anymore.

Nevertheless we are still a footy family. OG Galaxy fans!

 

LA Galaxy MLS Champions!

Now onto my Averi.

I want to be her when I grow up. She’s just so confident, she has that chutzpah, you know.. so sure of herself.

https://videopress.com/v/nENcljex?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

When I wonder what she got from me, she runs into walls and spills shit.

That concludes that last 8 months…maybe?

Next we talk about my dad!

 

 

 

New Year

~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

Dammit you guys, it’s been a hot minute. I have excuses if you want to hear them. But do they really matter?

Since we’ve last chatted almost everyone (in our home) started a new school year.

I took a trip down to Cabo!

We watched the LA Galaxy win it ALL!

Averi had her acting debut in a Finding Nemo musical’

… and last but most important, we celebrated the best man in our lives turn 80. But That will have it’s own post!

So, with that, here is the proof.

Some back to school shopping, first day of school pictures.

I am not ready to talk about how old they are getting.

Oh Cabo, the last time wasn’t fantastic, so why do we repeat history? ( wow there is so much in that question)

As we were booking this trip I whispered to myself, “this time it will be amazing”.

Because this time we were going to do things different. We were going to stay at a smaller hotel. We were going to forgo San Diego International and leave out of Tijuana. That’s what everyone said we should do, it’s cheaper, easier..

Side note: we live 10 miles away from San Diego International Airport. We live 26 miles from the CBX crossing.

So, I book a flight from Tijuana to Cabo. The Uber showed up on time and 25 minutes later we are at the CBX border. We got out of the car with our luggage and all the of the paperwork filled out. (you have to have your shit together otherwise you’ll be filling out papers leaning against vending machines before they let you through, oh and they don’t have pens so bring your own.)

We proudly show our paperwork and make our way across the tunnel (border) and into the TJ airport. The walk took about 10 minutes. And then we hit the line for the custom passport check and guess what, we weren’t alone. We were in line for about 30 minutes. After that, there was another check point and then there was a luggage check. We left a lot of time, I’m talking hours to get through everything. But luckily we reached our gate with minutes to spare. We jumped in line and then realized that we weren’t even boarding our plane, we were just getting on a bus to take us to our plane. WTF?

We eventually made it to our plane.

We landed in Cabo without any problems. Once we collected our luggage and walked outside I realized that we werent at the same terminal we were used to. I don’t actually know how manyYou know, the terminal that has the bars?

Little things like that aren’t a big deal, shouldn’t be a big deal. but at that moment I wanted to be where everyone else was. I wanted to the terminal with the bars, I wanted to be where everyone else was.

Our transfer arrived not long after and we were headed to our hotel.

This was a smaller hotel that was a short beach walk to Medano beach.

We sat on the beach all day every day . Had the best churros ever.

We ate fresh fish, molé enchiladas. Fireworks every night and stormy weather.

I need to mention that those fireworks went off every night. It sounded like we were being gunned down (Hi, I am that old. ) Also, the flamingos underneath us sounded like they were screaming for their lives. I’m not a fan of either of those.

With that being said, it was a nice trip. But I think Cabo can be put on the back burner for awhile.

The trip home was SO much easier even with a delayed flight, go figure.

LA Galaxy, if you know me then you know that I am a soccer person. We are the OG LA Galaxy fans. When we lived in San Ramon (1990’s) we watched the San Franscisco Bay Blackhawks. This is before there was MLS. Eric Wynalda was on the team and I remember running up to him after a win with my friends. Can’t do that anymore.

Nevertheless we are still a footy family. OG Galaxy fans!

LA Galaxy MLS Champions!

Now onto my Averi.

I want to be her when I grow up. She’s just so confident, she has that chutzpah, you know.. so sure of herself.

When I wonder what she got from me, she runs into walls and spills shit.

That concludes that last 8 months…maybe?

Next we talk about my dad!

Welcome to Cozumel

~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

The reason we chose this cruise was because of the itinerary. NOLA to Cozumel, Roatan, Belize and Costa Maya. I know right? NCL really does the have best deals, what they lack in certain areas they make up for on their price tag.

We woke up in Cozumel and as soon as we stepped off the ship we were in heaven. The weather was perfect, the water blue and before we knew it we were hopping in a taxi to go eat on the beach.

I read all about the all-inclusive beach clubs and we decided against it not wanting to commit to one place our first time there. However, looking back, I think that is a good way to go. There isn’t much to do in Cozumel unless you are doing a certain excursion or renting a car. So if eating, drinking and swimming is what you want to do, then head to Mr. Sancho’s or one of the other popular places.

We started at Albertos Beach bar and we had the place to ourselves. We ordered fresh caught seafood and margaritas and we were in a happy place.

When we were ready to mosey on, we had our waiter call us a taxi. We were on the southern part of the island so we decided to head closer to the port.

Money Bar beach club.

This place was very nice, reminiscent of Europe. Located on a reef, lounge chairs are above with stairs to take you down to the clear and warm water. And they made delicious espresso martinis.

When the time came to head back to the ship we made one last pit stop. Welcome to Miami is right across the street from the port. A small hole in the wall bar with a Captain Jack Sparrow character stumbling around out front which in itself was strange, but who am I to judge? We stopped in for one more drink.

Once we were back on the ship and clean, we went for dinner. Then, yep you guessed it, back to Syd’s Pour House. We took turns waiting in line and grabbing drinks at Malting’s whiskey bar which was located right outside Syd’s. After the show we wentto pool deck for an 80’s party.

This pool deck was supposed to be adults only but that rule was lenient. I also tend think all young people are 14 years old when they are in fact, legal drinking age and that saddens me. There were a lot of those around this cruise, dancing to music that came out before they were born, sigh.

We ended each night at O’sheehan’s bar and grill. A pub that’s open 24 hours a day and a perfect spot for late night snacks before bed. The pub also had two pool tables but those were being run by professional 14 year old billiard players, or so they thought.

They next day was Shawna’s 50th and we woke up in Roatan.

Cabo 2023

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We took advantage of the extreme temps and low rates that Cabo had to offer at the end of summer. A favorite spot on our Mexican Riveria cruise, we thought exploring it more than a day sounded like a nice getaway. We chose a RIU resort and as beautiful as the grounds were, we didn’t love it and wouldn’t recommend it.

This was the view from the lobby bar, by far the best bar at the resort in terms of drink options, bartenders and service.

We hung out staring at this view until our room was ready. A few beers and tequila shots later we unpacked our luggage in our just ‘fine room’. The room seemed damp the entire week, and had a musty smell but it was extremely humid during our stay, maybe that is why.

Then we hit one of the two adults only pool. They both were smaller infinity pools with a swim up bar. It was so hot outside we were sweating with excitement to jump into some cool water. You guys ALL the pool water was warm and there wasn’t any shade, that was a tough pill to swallow.

But it was beautiful.

We found a couple of lounge chairs, pulled over an umbrella, walked down to the beach and bought two hats.

For dinner we ate at a fusion restaurant. I think we ordered a fish dish and a lamb dish which was obviously not memorable. Unfortunately none of the food or drinks for that matter, were great. The buffet which we hit up for breakfast had a lot of options but some of it was questionable after sitting out for hours.

The next morning we had some coffee and fruit sent up to our room and enjoyed our patio.

We spent a couple of our days in town. The beach in front of our resort (and most of the resorts nearby) wasn’t swimmable. I researched this before we booked and never saw that it was dangerous, so that was a real let down when we found that black flag waving. We took advantage of the ocean (which was cooler than the pool) down at Medano beach. Reachable by foot but way too hot for that, we took a short taxi ride to town. Our first stop was at the Sand Bar, a favorite of ours from our cruise stop to Cabo.

We also popped into Cabo Wabo for a drink.

A little window shopping and then a stop at another favorite of ours, The Monkey Bar.

A very small bar with a handful of stools, great margaritas and country music.

Then we walked by an even smaller bar, or so they claim.

Our resort had some questionable entertainment each night. Karaoke night was by far the most fun. I was a judge which I took very seriously.

I started having some stomach issues halfway through our stay. Luckily OTC meds helped enough and allowed me to enjoy the last few days.

We spent another day at the pool chatting up the people we had met. But the pools were sort of gross, and it gives me chills thinking back on it now. Older folks sitting in the pool at the bar for hours, never getting out to use the toilet. Questionable things floating in the corners of the warm pool water, ew.

On our final day we decided to stay out of the pool and head back into town.

After some souvenir shopping for the girls, we stopped at Uno Mas for a margarita, it’s another cute little bar outside the marina.

We ended up back at the Sandbar where we sat for hours eating the most delicious octopus and fried fish. Sipping cold Chardonnay and floating in the ocean.

Our last evening we walked to the steakhouse for dinner and then the lobby bar for a couple of espresso martini’s.

We both wound up feeling terrible by the time we were heading home and were sick for a good week later. I blame the buffet, the pools and one pool bartender.

Final thoughts; find a better resort to spend your money on.

Ensenada

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Our final day of the trip was spent on the beautiful streets of Ensenada.

Definitely not beautiful.

We didn’t get into town until noon or so, we were all watching the docking process from the decks above. Eagerly wanting off of the rocking ship.

This guy here was the best. Alvin was the assistant cruise director and he was a hoot!

We hopped on a bus that took us to the main drag of town. We just wanted lunch and drinks, nothing special on our minds.

Clever name huh?

We were heading to Hussong’s, apparently the oldest bar in Ensenada when we took a wrong turn and was coerced into a bar with free shots, blue shots.

It was a little iffy but the guy promised us that we would be ok and why would he lie to tourists? We really need a sarcasm font.

After our drinks we found our way to Hussong’s, imagine that.

I wanted to pop into this place when I learned that it was established in 1892. It’s also apparently where the margarita originated and it’s still standing. Did I order a margarita? No I did not, but Shawna did and it wasn’t great. Just a basic lime margarita.

I went with the timeless favorite….

The place was a tourist trap, it wasn’t as crowded as the other chain, Papa’s and Beer, that place was PACKED.

The bathrooms were interesting. The toilet paper was meant to be grabbed before going into the stall.

Very sanitary.

One drink and we were out. Then I found out that there is a Hussong’s in Vegas, WTF. We could have found a way dingier dive bar had we known that, sigh.

Time for lunch. We chose El Corralito for no particular reason than it was there and some people eating, that’s always a safe bet.

(One time long ago I got really sick after a day in Ensenada and I have some major PTSD).

You guys, the food was INCREDIBLE. Probably the best meal of the trip, aside from my Indian dishes. The sad thing is, we ordered what we normally do at our local Mexican places at home, ha. Cheese enchiladas, crispy chicken tacos, rice and beans. Can’t go wrong with those..Oh and mango margaritas…Why are they so good?

After lunch we hit the 7-11 for M&M’s because one can only try so many bad desserts in a row. Then went back to the ship.

Last dinner, last late night of mediocre entertainment.

I don’t think we ate dinner that night, but I could be wrong. I know that we went back to the martini bar for two last espresso martini’s.

We listened to some music and said goodbye to new friends and the best server in the lounge.

Then we played Roulette and probably ordered room service one last time because we didn’t eat dinner.

And that’s it, that’s the end. Well almost. We kept our luggage in our room so Saturday morning we just woke up, got dressed, grabbed our shit and walked off the ship. Our car was waiting for us and we were home by 9:30.

Reflecting on our trip, I don’t think there is any need to sail with Norwegian again. Next time we want to try Princess or Celebrity, advice welcomed. I would also like to hit the Panama Canal or Western Caribbean.

Until then, the end.

Onto the Next

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We woke up Tuesday morning to a Royal Caribbean ship docking right next to us in Puerto Vallarta.

Our plan for the day was to get to Los Muertos beach, eat lunch and lay in the sun.

We walked around until we found a place that had some open chairs on the sand and that place ended up being Burros Bar.

We ordered margaritas, I had a Cadillac and my babe got the mango, and apparently it was two for one.

For food we ordered the shrimp aguachile to share, a shrimp quesadilla and a shrimp burrito. Her burrito was the best and I really wish had ordered the snapper, food regrets are the worst.

After lunch we walked down to the beach and laid out for awhile.

After a couple of hours we found ourselves ready to head back to the ship where we could lay by the pool and the drinks were already paid for.

We stopped for some ice cream at one of the ports shops, dropped our stuff in our cabin and situated ourselves by the pool.

Before heading back to our room we watched the Royal Caribbean ship depart port.

After dinner we decided to watch a show called “Rock you Tonight” It was bad, if we were watching a high school performance then it would have been pretty good, but for cruise ship entertainment it was really not good. The entertainment in general was poor. I ended the night not feeling very hot so we went back to the room and said goodnight to Tuesday.

Wednesday was Mazatlan and sadly we were only there from 7:00 to 2:00. We got off the ship around 9:00, took a cab to a beach somewhere, and then we just walked until we found a man who offered us a couple of lounge chairs for a small fee.

As we were lounging in the sun wishing for a drink, a man with a menu appeared. He claimed that him and his mom were from Cabo and that they are making drinks in the alley. Shawna and I glanced at each other questionably and then said “ok, why not?”. My babe was braver than me and she ordered a very large mango margarita…..I ordered a Tecaté, playing it like a wuss. Her drink was really good and once again I had a drink regret because the nice man never came back, sigh.

We had an alarm set to make sure we allowed time for lunch.

We walked back down the beach until we hit Joe’s Oyster bar and popped in there.

Once again we ordered ceviche and shrimp tacos.

The shrimp in the tacos were fried, and they were SO DELICIOUS!

Our time was up so we went back to the ship and to the pool which was already crowded. We spent the afternoon swimming, drinking and meeting new people.

We took that night off, brought dinner down to our room and just watched a couple of movies. Oh, I forgot to mention the food at the buffet. It was set up by different stations, salad, pizza, entrees, desserts etc. But every day one side of the entree station had four or five Indian dishes, plus condiments such as chutney and raita. You guys, it was the best thing on the ship. Every dish, each day was phenomenal. Anyhow, that is what I had dinner that night.

And just like that it was Thursday which was our last day at sea. When we woke up we were rocking and rolling, we peeked out our window and this is what we saw….

Obviously, we wouldn’t be outside so we looked at the daily schedule of events to try and plan an inside day. Norwegian didn’t have as many fun ‘at sea’ activities as Holland America did. I am not sure if it was the actual games, the cruise staff or the guests, maybe all of the above, but it was all just blah.

We wandered around, popping into the bridge.

Played a little basketball in the arcade.

We watched a dance class from the safety of the back of the lounge while sipping Dirty Shirley’s.

Then we saw the sun really making an effort so we bundled up, grabbed our books and went to the pool deck.


But we couldn’t hang. The wind was ICE. So we took that as a sign to just go read in the room until dinner.
We had reservations at Le Bistro that evening.
I opened last years birthday gift to enjoy while getting ready.

It was DELICIOUS!

We both ordered the Escargot Bourguignonne, I got the Coq au Vin and my babe got the Duck de Canard. I guess I only took one photo and it was of the escargot, so voila!

The dinner was pretty good and after we headed to Bliss lounge to watch Karaoke and that was a lot more entertaining than the rock show, that’s for sure. The next day was our final day and we spent it in Ensenada.

Bon Voyage 2022

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We said adios to 2022 while cruising down to Mexico. The cruise deals lately are phenomenal, I highly recommend taking advantage if you can. Most cruise lines are now offering unlimited drink packages which are really hard to beat, if you like that sort of thing. Since flying anywhere lately is not only expensive but also a shit show, we decided to go back down to the Mexican Riviera but on a different cruise line. We were really spoiled with our Holland American cruise last year, very few people, ZERO children and great musical entertainment so there were big shoes to fill. We decided on Norwegian because it was a first for both of us, the dates worked out and the price was really easy on the pocketbook.

The itinerary had us leaving San Diego on New Years eve and hitting Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Ensenada, then back to SD.

We arrived at the port mid day and had a very simple embarkment. Unfortunately, new years eve was a cold and drizzly day, not an ideal way to start the trip. Pool deck activities don’t hit the same when it’s cloudy and cold, but we still gave it our all! Once we found our cabin, we hit the Lido deck for lunch, took a stroll around the ship, grabbed a couple of adult beverages and snagged a couple of pool loungers for people watching.

Norwegian’s selling point seems to focus on freestyle cruising. That means they give you more freedom from the OG of cruises. Instead of fancy dinner attire in the dining room at either the early seating or later seating, they have multiple dining rooms where you can go eat at anytime. While you can’t show up in board shorts and flips, you can wear pants and a t-shirt. However, I feel like most cruise lines offer that now, on Holland we went to dinner when we wanted to not at a certain time each night. Besides the two main dining rooms, there were also a handful of places to eat that were included. A buffet on the pool deck along with a poolside bar and grill. There was also an Asian restaurant and a 24 hour diner type place called O’Sheehans. It looked like a Hennessey’s but the food wasn’t great. The 24 hour part was exciting as we really needed that on our last cruise, but it turns out we didn’t need it on this one.

The view wasn’t bad.

These days the cruise lines have a few extra restaurants that you can dine at but for a price, some may have a fixed price and some are priced by entree. The Jewel, which was the name of our ship, had six to choose from. Italian, French, Sushi, Teppanyaki, a steakhouse and a Churrascaria. When we booked the trip, our package included all beverages $15.00 and under, wifi, one excursion and one alternative dining choice.

The captain pulled anchor at 4:00 and… we were off like a prom dress. Then the wind kicked in, so we bid a farewell to the pool deck and went to see how the casino was doing. Maybe we played some Roulette, and then we went to get ready for dinner and some dancing.

There were two dining rooms to choose from and honestly neither of them were anything grand and sadly, either was the food.

After dinner we chose to go to the Spinnaker lounge where the house band was playing top hits and then a DJ was going to count down the night. This would be the place we went to end each night, sadly it wasn’t anything great either.

We woke up to a new year but the weather was still in 2022.

Knowing that the sun was in our future, we spent the day playing Battle of the Sexes, Majority Rules and Bingo.

We tried the other dining room for dinner and this was a clear look into Norwegian’s “free-style” dining. Some guests did not care about what they wore, ordered or acted at the dining room. Classy is the opposite of what we saw. The night ended the same but we ordered room service and watched whatever we could find on the tv until we fell asleep.

We woke to sunny skies in Cabo San Lucas.

We were excited to head back to Medano beach and just lounge with food and drinks with our toes in the sand. That was all we wanted to do in each port. We walked around the marina, stopping for a couple of margaritas.

Then we walked through town to Medano beach seeking out The Sand Bar.

The beach was packed so we weren’t going to be able to lounge on the beach, the holiday brought ALL of the people. We were lucky enough to find a seat at the Sand Bar but then we proceeded to wait forever to be served. Sadly they were out of the octopus so we ordered a spicy shrimp ceviche, fish and shrimp tacos. Nothing was memorable aside from the view and the weather.

When we were finally able to wrap up our meal, we hit the street and got a cab to take us back to the main drag. We were going to pop into Cabo Wabo (don’t be judgy) for a drink but with three cruise ships in port, that was a HELL NO. So we asked around for a place with a good margarita and we were sent to The Monkey Bar.

This place was literally just an outside bar with about eight bar stools and a handful of tables. We chatted up a couple who just moved to Cabo and met a man who was a tour guide. We got his card for when we head back in June, hopefully he can hook us up with some fun activities.

The margs were pretty good.

When our glasses were empty we hopped on the tender and went back to the boat. We soaked up some sun at the pool, had dinner and then tried our luck at the martini bar.

Two days into the trip we knew that this cruise wasn’t going to live up to our Holland American cruise, sadly.

Actual People?

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You guys soccer fans? No? Cool, cool, well anyways, here is a little update anyhow, our U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) beat Mexico, Dos a Cero (that means 2-0) in the World Cup Qualifiers. If you aren’t sure about the history of the U.S. and Mexico rivalry referred to as Dos a Cero, then I won’t bore you with the details.

Anyways, it was fun night, good food, good people, great game.

Then it was straight into a busy week.

I was in the middle of a Peloton ride when the instructor said, “I am going to stop talking so you can be present with yourself.” My brain went straight to how much people-ing I did the past week. I don’t really have too much interaction with actual people (family doesn’t count) since Covid. Most of it is via text or email, but last week it seemed that I had somewhere to go or a meeting with someone each day. It’s quite overwhelming and I understand the anxiety some people are probably experiencing. Anyhow, I just wanted to say that if life is sometimes hard, I get it.

To help ease the busy constant that is keeping children alive, I put the kids to work.

Averi helped me make chicken piccata, which in the end, she wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole. Seriously infuriating.

We also made Polvorones aka Mexican wedding cakes. When I was going through my binder of saved recipes to find the enchilada casserole recipe, I found this recipe.

You guys, this recipe is straight out of a college Mexican cooking course.

All of the girls helped. All of the girls tried the batter except….ya Averi. She was eating the pecans out of the bag but refused the batter.

But, they all thought the cookies were delicious, so that’s a win. Although, it shouldn’t be a win because they’re effin cookies, right?

Puerto Vallarta: Secrets vs. Grand Fiesta

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Once we decided that we would just go back to Puerto Vallarta instead of somewhere farther, I hit the ground running on our options. There was a checklist with our wants…All-inclusive, adults only, swim up bar with a swimmable beach. I went on all the travel sites comparing the only two resorts that checked off our lists and those two were Secrets Vallarta Bay and Grand Fiesta Americana. Since we had already been to Secrets, I really wanted to see a pros-cons list comparing the two, but never found one. So I am going to make one for future me and for anyone who wants a rundown on the differences between the two. Price wise they can be close to the same and other times it seems that Secrets is much pricier. I will say that both places had very low prices at one point but I hesitated to book, sigh…I wanted to wait until I knew that we were going to be vaccinated in time. Once I booked, the prices did climb a bit, what can you do? Better healthy than quarantined.

Secrets Vallarta Bay

PROS ( I have to preface this, we went during Covid and they weren’t at full capacity, things may not be the same anymore)

  • Free Covid testing upon departure. If you test positive they will PAY for you to quarantine and provide you with all your food and non-alcoholic beverages (you have to buy your own booze).
  • Close to town, walkable even.
  • Staff throughout the entire resort was exceptional. Bartenders especially!
  • No wristbands and no class/booking distinctions.
  • No problem getting chairs by the pool, again maybe because it wasn’t full capacity.
  • Drinks were good and what you wanted, no potential of being watered down.
  • Grounds were kept immaculate.
  • Plenty of pool games without silly “must-do’s” to win.
  • Clientele was more our age, maybe a little older and there was just a classy vibe, even when things were getting a bit crazy.
  • Had a more elegant and romantic vibe.
  • Horse back riding and tours available on the beach.
  • Beautiful rooms with large tubs and an ever bigger shower.

CONS

  • Beach not swimmable, rocky and strong undertow. The no swimming flag stayed up all week.
  • No nightly dancing or DJ/music by the pool (again maybe just because of Covid)
  • The resort grounds were split in half, one side was adults only and the other was for families aka kids. However the restaurants are spread out among the entire place. So some restaurants you might want to eat at will have children. On the plus side, the kids couldn’t come to the adults only side.
  • The food was just average.
  • Casino was closed (probably Covid)
  • Had a handful of suggestions of swinging and/or obnoxious advances.
  • A lot of vendors on the beach.

Grand Fiesta Americana

PROS

  • Views from anywhere were amazing.
  • Pool DJ daily.
  • Plenty of different restaurants and bars, no kids at all.
  • Food was pretty good.
  • Man made enclave in the ocean/bay. Perfect for floating and swimming. Free kayaks available.
  • Dance club/bar with DJ every night.
  • Free Covid Testing upon departure.

CONS

  • Rooms weren’t great. No bathtubs and the shower got the bathroom floor wet.
  • Outside room hallways weren’t cleaned very well, smelled like rotten food sometimes.
  • Color coded wrist bands were given out at check-in. We were told it was just to identify who bought what package through what company, ie. Costco, Expedia etc. But I don’t believe that was the truth. I think it has to do with how much you paid, or something along those lines.
  • Staff was good, but not exceptional and the service was not consistent.
  • Mojito and Martini bars weren’t open every night AND the bartender didn’t even know how to make a true mojito, so there’s that.
  • Pool chairs were taken super early in the morning. The sun didn’t hit the entire pool until 11:00am.
  • Alcohol seemed watered down and sometimes we didn’t get what we ordered.
  • More of a younger crowd that came with more of a “no f*cks given” vibe.
  • Farther from town, about 15 minutes in cab.
  • Drugs were offered, ha, maybe not a negative for some.
  • Pool games came with consequences ie. lap dances etc. No thank you.
  • Didn’t offer free quarantine if tested positive for Covid.

Now that I wrote it all out, it seems like there is a clear winner. We agreed that if we were to go back, we would go to Secrets. Secrets was just a bit more upscale, had a tad less of a party vibe, We brought up the Target vs. Walmart comparison while we were there, Secrets was Target and Grand Fiesta was Walmart.In the end, Secrets ended up having more of what we want in an all-inclusive resort.

Now the hard question…”are all-inclusive resorts worth it?” Who knows? I am an all-inclusive resort novice. I have been on my share of cruises and I have heard other peoples stories about how great these resorts are but I ask myself, is there something better for the same price?

The problem, if there was one, is that we live in an area that is home of the California burrito and the fish taco. We have Michelin star restaurants, craft cocktail bars, breweries and some amazing wine. So, when we go to these resorts are we actually downgrading from our norm? The answer is yes, sounds snobby perhaps but I don’t mean it to be. It’s just a realization that we have it good in San Diego and if we want the warm ocean water, amazing views AND great food and drink, it doesn’t come in an affordable all-inclusive package. But I am also not on board with paying a ridiculous amount of money for multiple meals daily and adult beverages hour by hour, day by day. So we get what we get.

I think if you are a simple person, and don’t spend much thought on food and are fine with domestic beers, then this is probably an amazing vacation. Me, I am a food snob and self appointed wine drinker, so I will go on these trips and appreciate the simple things on the vacation, sun, love and free flowing wine.

With that, a friend of ours that we actually met at Secrets PV, is a travel agent. He highly recommended the Hyatt Ziva in Puerto Vallarta if you aren’t as picky as we are.

In the end, no matter where you go and stay, it will be amazing.

Secrets Vallarta Bay

Grand Fiesta Americana

The Devil made me do it.

~ Girlmom ~ 2 Comments

Isn’t it great when you stumble upon a great place by accident?

I knew nothing of this bar aside from some good reviews that I saw on Trip Advisor. I had some notes saved for days like these when we were going to be wandering around. It was an open air bar on the Malecón with around 12 bar stools, we soon found out that this was in fact a Sun Devil’s bar, yeah that college football team from Arizona. That took the illusiveness out of it but we stayed and we were happy with that choice. The owner of the bar graduated from ASU back in the day and then moved to PV and opened this place. It’s prime real estate so I imagine he is riding high on the hog. The bar menu was written on the walls in chalk, I ordered a passion fruit margarita, Shawna ordered a mango colada and we also threw in two flaming Dr. Peppers because somehow, she has managed to go through life without ever having one, truthfully she still hasn’t. Her amaretto never left the shot glass and she just chugged Modelo, ha!

Once we finished our drinks we decided that it was time to get some food. I don’t know why we chose the place we did but it was a good decision.

We sat to this view while chatting with an American man who just recently moved from Washington state to Puerto Vallarta with his wife. He went on about how good the food was and how great it was to live there. Then my molé enchiladas arrived and it went silent.

Happy and full we hopped back into a cab to our hotel and I bet you can guess what we did next.

That’s right, back to pool and this view.

Teleport me back!

Before dinner we popped into the Mojito bar where the service was slow, the drinks were worse but the spectacular view helped us swallow the poorly made drinks.

One drink at the Mojito bar and then we made our way to Gulietta, the Italian restaurant. The porcini risotto was the highlight, so good in fact, we would go back for more.

The next morning (day 3) we had coffee and breakfast delivered to the room and then….headed down to the pool. The fun pool, not the boring pool. The fun entertainment took place in the pool with the booze, the pool without the bar was for the boring people and the boring fun, well that’s what Emilio (see below) said daily .

We played Bingo and water volleyball and then we met new friends. Toby and Lord were from our neck of the woods aka California. We became fast friends and after dinner, which I am sure we had, we met them at their hotel room for some tequila. Sounds shady right? It wasn’t, they are really great people and they even convinced us to try this tequila that was….sippable. gasp! Still seems shady huh? Ha, we sipped and talked and talked and sipped and then went up to the sky bar. The people watching was on point, I am sure drinks were spilled but the laughing and dancing never stopped. I am sorry to say that we didn’t take a picture with them, but we will someday.

Wash, rinse and repeat. Same routine, different day. Day 4 and we had found our groove, we knew what activities we wanted to participate in and which ones we did not. For instance, I played Texas Hold Em’ and Lord was part of the Juego Loco.

I mean, what even was that? Ha, ha. After that brilliant and brave performance by Lord, we took a moment to salute the Mexican Air Force.

Mexican Air Force

We met another couple in the pool that day and they were self appointed avid Karaoke singers. They told us about a bar called Kooky’s in town that had Karaoke on Thursday’s and it just so happened to be….Thursday. We tossed the idea of leaving the resort around and decided to make a decision after dinner.

Dinner.

We ate well at the Japanese restaurant and committed to a night out, we called an Uber into town for some Karaoke.

We ordered some drinks, said hello to the ladies that invited us and took this all in.

AMAZING!

Fun times. It was a fun time to sit back and watch magic happen…. from a safe distance away.

Sadly, it happened. We woke up to our last full day of our trip. The people we had met and spent our days with were starting to disperse and new guests were arriving. We took advantage of one more day. We floated in the warm ocean water, enjoyed the slight chill of the pool and watched a pretty remarkable belly flop contest.

We had a really good lunch at the Cevicheria and an even better dessert.

The coconut ice cream was incredible.

We decided we needed to have the mushroom risotto one more time before we left, so off we went to the the Italian restaurant again. Finally, I ordered a really good drink.

The one and only, espresso martini.

We went up to the Sky bar thinking that since it was a Friday night and new people had rolled in that it would be a busy, great music situation. That was not the case. Turns out that most everyone went into town for their Friday night and we watched some musicians play instrumentals that lullabied us down to our room.

That’s it, that’s how it ends. We slept in, packed, ate one last meal, said our goodbyes and hit the road to the airport.

We had a great time. Cheers Puerto Vallarta, thanks for the fun!

Now…. Since we have been to both Secrets and Grand Fiesta, which resort would we revisit?

T.B.C.