Our last two days…sigh. I swear the first few days go by slowly and then BAM! It’s the end. We were at sea on Thursday and then at Great Stirrup Cay (NCL’s private Island) on Friday morning.
Our day at sea we actually found ourselves some lounge chairs. Were they by the pool, no. Were they three levels up in the middle of fifty chairs? Yes….But we had a place to call home base. We made nice with our neighbors and then decided we were going to go to a wine tasting.
Wine tasting
We had the best time. Turns out we know a little about oenology. Some called us “teachers pets” which just made the experience that more fun.
So, we didn’t leave after that, we stayed for another wine tasting.
Blind tasting along with some macaron’s. We were swapping wines and cookies with are table mates, taking the ones they didn’t love and vice versa.
The next morning we were in the Bahamas. A little island that a big company owns. Great Stirrup Cay.
This was the only stop that we tendered into. With that, it’s one beach and first come first serve.
You can’t just get onto the Tender because you are first in line. You have to have an excursion or a ticket…something.
I read about this before our trip and was prepared. On our first sea day, I went to the excursion desk. I rented us an umbrella and two chairs on Great Stirrup Cay. That got us a first class ticket off the ship and on the first tender/ biggest tender ever.
You guys, I am not kidding when I say that the island was empty when we arrived. The beaches were newly combed, not a footprint in sight and two hours later, the place was packed. If you take any advice from our trip, let it be that. Especially if you want a chair by the water.
We got some nice chairs by the blue water. We drank some drinks, duh. Then we went and played some corn hole. We meandered around the small island and some shops. We shortly contemplated walking to the other side of the island. However, we weren’t sure how far the other side was (the view was sand and trees). We decided against it, we didn’t want to waste our day lost on a hot island.
We spent the afternoon in the water. I took out a paddle board for awhile, we swam, we ate and we just soaked it all up. This was our last stop and we weren’t ready to go home.
But sadly, that was it. That’s the end. It was a great trip, a little too crowded. A little to0 long of lines for dinner and drinks, BUT at least it wasn’t full of college students . That was bad.
Cruises are still our favorite way to travel. And I most definitely want to go stay on St. Thomas or Tortola or both in the future.
One day, you will find me on one of these beaches. I will be the one with the beach bar renting out water toys. Follow the music.
Not unlike St. Thomas, the Tortola port was also semi closed off and vans were the only taxi options. But, we didn’t venture out so please don’t take my word for it.
We went to Cane Garden Beach on the north side of Tortola.
It was everything I wanted it to be.
We found some chairs to keep, we pulled them into the lapping waves and just soaked up the sun.
There isn’t an exciting story about people we met or the amazing sea life we saw. It was just the best day on an amazing beach.
That is all we did. When the time came to leave I was heartbroken.
I vow to return to that beach.
This time our cruise entertainment wasn’t as exciting as the last one. Maybe because this cruise was packed. Either way, we stuck to drinks in the lounge and karaoke for our nightly entertainment.
Our plan for the day was to take a taxi to Magen’s Bay. Getting around from the port was super easy and reliable. The only downside was the taxis were vans and they waited until they had a car full of people before we left. Once we hit the roads, it made sense. It was a long winding drive but so beautiful.
Once we reached the beach we all piled out of the taxi and found someone to rent beach chairs from.
We had to pay for two lounge chairs, I think it was only 25 dollars. Once we settled in we made our way up to Fairchild’s Bar and Grill. It was crowded and lines were long. I guess that’s what we get for going to a popular place.
We don’t have many pictures of our time here and let me tell you why.
We were sitting next to a couple who was on another NCL cruise, the Outlaw Country cruise. {we will call them Carol and Bud.} I asked about their cruise and who was playing on board. I am a country music fan. I didn’t know anyone they mentioned. I guess “outlaw” means someting else. But now we were talking to them for our entire stay at the beach.
The time came for a drink refill so Carol and I went and stood in the long line for rum drinks. While we were waiting she told me that she had been in prison. “Oh, really? I asked. Then she said she’s been out for a few years. She is a whole new person. I mean obviously she is. So, I asked her what she was in for. You guys… She tells me this story. She was arrested in an Oklahoma casino. At the time, she had 40 packs of Sudafed stuffed inside her boots. She told the cops that she “had a cold”…Somehow she ran from them and was on the run for months. I am not kidding you. She told me how she would go to estate sales while evading law enforcement. She’d buy furniture without having a place to put it. Eventually she was caught after a shoot out and a car crash, I mean, of course. HAhahaaa…
She talked about how amazing prison was for her..blah blah blah. She said that she met the man she was now with (Bud ) while incarcerated, (that is another story) That makes sense right? Long story shorter, she got out early for good behavior and made her way to him. Now here they were.
We spent the afternoon drinking, swimming and chatting. They were fun, it was like watching a train wreck happen in real time. But as the day went on, their story changed. They spoke about being clean after their prison stints. They mentioned that they never wanted to end up in prison again. Her loose lips admitted that she keistered some Molley onto their cruise. She didn’t tell him because he has a guilty face.
Good times you guys, good times.
Before we new it, our alarm went off and it was time to head back to our ship.
We shared the taxi with them. These pictures should show you how we were SO glad that they weren’t on our cruise!
Once we poured out of the taxi , we said “Ok Bye” to our friends.
Then we had one more rum drink before getting on our ship.
After dinner we went to the lounge to watch Karaoke.
I took videos but I’ll spare you. It was basically the same people each night. We all sound good on vacation, right?
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.
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.
Yes, we did make it to Great Wolf Lodge in case you were wondering. It happened sooner than we originally planned for, aka turned into a spur of the moment situation. We decided to keep it a surprise from the girls. We told them that we were going to Grandma and Grandpa’s and that we were meeting them at the their pool. So the girls packed the night before and let me say, Kaili wanted to pack every damn thing, she wanted to give this and that to Grandma and I felt guilty as hell for lying. Come morning, we packed up the car and headed out. Passing our normal Laguna Niguel exit, luckily they didn’t notice with their heads in IPads. But when we got closer to GWL they meaning Shayne, realized something was off.
“Why did you say we were going to Grandma and Grandpa’s? Mom guilt.
We grabbed our luggage and off we went.
Our room was ready when we checked in, so we went and dropped off our stuff so we could get to sliding.
Averi’s birthday, her choice of bed. She chose the twin, no bunk this time.
We found a table to drop our shit, thankfully, that can be the biggest hurdle. If you can’t get there early, everything is taken.
We played all day.
The girls’ Paw Passes came with it all, ice cream, golf, arcade, yada yada yada. So around 6pm we went back to the room and changed and then went for ice cream.
Then they chose their stuffies, played games and then mini golf and then and then and then. For dinner, Averi wanted McDonald’s, sigh. We had it delivered (brilliance) which saved probably $125 for not eating at the resort.
The next morning we were up and down at the waterpark when it opened, easily grabbed a table and did it all again. Once the outdoor pool area opened, Shawna and I went out and had some adult beverages in the quiet sun.
Averi decided to brave the wave pool and boogie board before we went home, we were so proud.
She did so good for her first rodeo! We stayed late into the afternoon and then decided to make our way back home. GWL is always a fun time. Next up though, maybe just Raging Waters and a motel, hahaha!
Way back when I when I was in high school, my brother was in elementary and we lived in Nor Cal, my family spent a week at a beach house in south OC. We loved it. Then we moved there and we still loved it, but nothing is the same as living on the actual beach. The waves crash and you can feel the spray on your legs while you’re sitting on the porch.
My brother decided to recreate that beach house moment from our childhood and rented a house on the same beach, but this house was much fancier.
We couldn’t stay too long because the kids where in camp and school was starting, but it was a great way to end the summer. We played, bathed, swam, sunned, met a curious sea lion and in the end, no one wanted to leave.
The morning that we left the girls went down to the COLD water in their pjs, same thing I would do if I lived on the beach.
I want to preface this post so I don’t get pushback. With months of Covid in action we now know that there isn’t one activity that is safe or risky, it’s all a calculated risk. We do know that wearing masks, social distancing, washing our hands and being outdoors as much as possible are things that we can do to help keep us all safe.
Since SDUSD hasn’t yet opened the doors to on-campus learning, we decided to take a tropical getaway before shit gets real. With that said, I put a lot of time in researching a place to go that was warm but most importantly a place that had all of the above precautions in place. I joined social media groups to ask questions and followed people who were already at the destination or had just came back. I also didn’t want to be in an airport any longer than necessary, so a direct flight was a priority.
We decided on heading down to Puerto Vallarta, the weather and ocean temps were great, the resort was on top of all their safety protocols and the flight was quick and easy. The flight left San Diego early one morning and it was the emptiest flight I have ever been on, I think there were about 15 of us on the entire plane. The airport in PV was also empty and it was a breeze to get through. Our luggage was sanitized before we got in our private vehicle to take us to our hotel.
When we arrived at the resort we were greeted with hand sanitizer and a glass of sparkling wine. Once checked in, we headed straight to the room, dropped the suitcases, put our bathing suits on and went straight to the water.
This is where we stayed 90% of the trip.
If you are already judging me, thinking that I am irresponsible or some other adjectives that I can’t think of right now, then you should probably stop reading these posts. There were some OMG moments on the trip, things that are crazier (in retrospect) than being on an airplane. I won’t go into explicit details because 1. I don’t know the age of all the readers and 2. my parents read my blog.
The first couple of days that we were at the resort it was pretty much empty. We stayed in the pool, drinking, chatting and meeting new people. There were beach vendors down on the sand but they were very respectful and kept to themselves if you didn’t want to purchase anything. We did however almost die (sort of kidding) with our first dip in the ocean, apparently there was a red flag waving (cringe face) but that was news to us until later. The water was warm like a bath so we swam out. Long story short, the ocean was more aggressive than it lead on. I was able to get under the waves and get to shore but Shawna got caught in it and lost her brand new sunnies, that was the most devastating part. But she will claim to this day that mother nature was playing dirty. So we made our way back to the pool where we stayed all week; The red flag suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stayed put the entire week.
Doesn’t look so threatening does it?
Our room was your typical room but we had an amazing view. We were never in it aside from sleeping and showering. We fell asleep with the doors open but since their hours of operation have changed due to Covid, certain younger folks would take the party outside. The door then had to be closed to block out the sound of their drunk chatter and music. Yes, this trip made us realize that we are now “those” old people.
The Resort had two sides, adults only and family. All together there are about 7 restaurants but they rotated the nights that they were open. Two of those restaurants required fancy attire and since it was hot and very humid we decided early on that we would only dress up one night. Shorts and flips were where it was at. The first night we ate at the Japanese place on the family side of the resort. Food was fine, service was great, that was that.
Every night there was some sort of live entertainment in the lobby. The lobby or lobbies were all open air.
Day two we woke up, ordered breakfast and coffee and ate on our balcony. The only plans we had were to pool. Lay by the pool, play in the pool and drink in the pool. We ended up meeting a really nice couple from New Jersey and a couple from Idaho. We had a fun time visiting with them and decided to all have dinner together at the Seafood restaurant. Everything was going fine until the Idaho husband started getting flirtatious with me. {Let me mention that he was a police officer in Idaho who spent a lot of the afternoon talking about respect.} While we were sitting down after dinner he put his hand on my leg while asking “is this okay?”. “No, it’s not” I said and I moved away. Looking back, earlier in the day at the pool, his wife was making some adulterous comments which meant nothing to any of us at the time. Now we think it was all a plan in action to swing. Different strokes for different folks, not our jam. I also want to say that reading this you may think, so what if he put his hand on your leg, that’s not a big deal. But it is, it made me feel uncomfortable. Especially since we spent the day with each other as couples and had to listen about how A. he was a police officer and B. how he doesn’t deal with disrespectful people. He is the problem.
Moving on, we spent the rest of the evening with our new New Jersey friends listening to people butcher songs at Karaoke in the Lobby bar, and we could not wait for it to happen again later in the week.
This was our first Christmas away from our kids which is in part why we decided to get away. I couldn’t imagine just sitting in our living room without them. We woke up a tad gamey on Christmas morning, luckily we had a special in room mimosa breakfast ordered for 8:30. Then we planned our attack to hit up Isla Mujeres. We went back and forth with just hopping on a Catamaran right outside our hotel to cut out the trip off of the resort grounds and down into town to catch the Ferry. Buuuut, we weren’t keen on being on someone else’s schedule and having them choose where we were going to have lunch. In the end we decided to just do it ourselves. We hopped in a cab and jumped on the ferry.
Once we were off the ferry they had people renting golf carts. We quickly grabbed one and within minutes we were in ours heading south down the island. Only 7 km long, its an easy trip around the island. Our friend at the resort told us to go to The Joint, a bar that someone he knows, knows someone else that might work there. Or so that is how the story went. About ten minutes into our cruise we unexpectedly and surprisingly ran straight into….
That was some luck. We parked and went up to this outdoor bar. There were a couple guys playing some Sublime and a local bar dog. Shawna ordered a mango margarita and I ordered the best espresso martini of the entire trip, you guys it was so good. So good in fact that I ordered another to go. It’s legal there, well I assume it was since the bartender put it in a to-go cup for me.
Not a terrible view to sit with a bevi.
Once back in our cart we continued around the island. It’s just beautiful.
We stopped every so often to walk down the the water and then I was able to get some cell service so we stopped at a cemetery and I called my girls to wish them a merry Christmas.
Once we made it around the island we parked near Playa Norte. This is where there were restaurants and the beaches had chairs to rent. We had a pretty good lunch on the beach and I was very confident that it was el fin of tequila for me on this trip.
After lunch we walked up the beach until we reached some open beach chairs. We plopped down, set our alarm and here is the best part. Fell asleep.
We woke to the alarm and headed back to the mainland with plans of playing pool volleyball. But once we were back we ended up skipping it and just sat in the jacuzzi chatting with people.
For dinner we got all fancied up and went for one last Italian meal. Their garlic cream soup was so incredible you could bathe in it. I will see if I can recreate now that we are home. They had a Christmas show that night, once that was over I was beat.
We woke up on our last day to rain. Once we were all packed we went down to the cafe for breakfast. Our flight wasn’t until later that day so were able to spend a little more time with friends at the pool until it was time to say our goodbyes. The trip home was a piece of cake and we were back in our own bed by midnight. It was a really good trip, just long enough. If we decided to do another all inclusive I would focus more on going where the food and wine is a bit better. But It’s going to be hard to go back to a hotel that isn’t all inclusive, that is definitely the way to go.
A couples massage was booked for the next morning and it was the best way to start the day. After the massage we had access to the hydro-pool and hot tubs. Since it was still raining on and off we chose the warm option.
After drying off in the sauna we made our way to get breakfast before the storm.
This was the worst day in the way of rain. It would dump bucket loads and then stop and continue throughout the day. We took this opportunity to join in the sushi making class.
The entertainment staff was in charge of all things fun. Classes, pool games, volleyball…you get the point. They were the best out of all the staff at the resort. This is what happens if you give them your phone.
Alejandra and Dylan made our stay just that much better.
If you can believe it, this was my first time making sushi. I didn’t do to bad but I think I’ll stick to ordering it.
Most of our time was spent in the pool, drinking, and playing. Some days we played water volleyball, some days we played music trivia and some days we just floated around. Sometimes there were even boats of fresh skewered fruit floating around as well. We also met a lot of nice people that became instant friends. I wish I had more pictures but our phones were always under a towel somewhere.
Then the weather took a turn, the humidity dropped and the sun came back out. It was just perfect.
Another afternoon we took a cigar making class. To sum it up, I learned WAY more than I ever needed to know about cigars. After the class a few of us shared a cigar and then decided the pool was more important.
Each night we went to dinner and the evening show. We ate at the French restaurant and the Italian restaurant twice. We had amazing dishes like duck confit, rack of lamb and and a garlic cream soup. We also had some very underwhelming dishes like the escargot and basically every dessert item on any menu.
Next door was a sister resort that we had full access to but it wasn’t adults only. Several people mentioned to us that we should head there for their Brazilian steakhouse, so we took an evening to try it out. To sum it up, it was a waste of a dinner. Harsh? Maybe. The salad bar was a sad excuse, some of the meats were okay but most weren’t very good. The one thing that stuck out the most were all.the.kids. It’s funny we hadn’t been around any children for a handful of days and it was like a heightened sense of chaos at that restaurant. The next day we were talking to another couple and told them about our dinner and the first thing out of the women’s mouth was “aren’t kids there?” Ha, what were we thinking?
The shows were also not great, probably just local talent that they can find. If you are used to Vegas shows or cruise ship entertainment, you need to take these with a large grain of salt. The guest singing talent show however was the best. One of our friends went up and sang a Bon Jovi song. He started out a show that turned out to be a lot of fun.
We all ended up in the club and danced the night away.
The Art of Thyming 