Month: December 2024

                        As you can now tell, we survived the Great Vallartan Escapade and Land Tour.  Just for fun, go back in time to the Archives and visit January 17, 2023. That was the Post of the last time that we were here. Yesterday the weather was better, we were not on a Tour with forty of our new best friends, and we were far more confident than those Beginner Tourists that we were back then.

                        We ambled out of the Official Cruise Port, crossed the street and walked past the busy (fenced and gated) Walmart (pay for parking). Our goal was to find the local “market” that another couple had told us about. We really didn’t know exactly what kind of market we were seeking…. was it a many-vendored affair or a single tent in an abandoned lot….???  What we found was an open-sided version of a fruit stand/grocery store. It was obviously in business for the locals as it was far from the “sanitized” shops that cater to the Tourist Trade. In hindsight I should have snapped a few pics, but we felt a little conspicuous as it was. Admitting that one is just a Touron is harder than it would seem even though it was obvious that we were Gringos and that was exactly what we were!

                        Our first task was to try and figure out the local exchange rate. How many Pesos to the Dollar? We looked at the posted signs in front of the merch and were a tad puzzled. The prices were stupidly high! For example, cans of vegetables were in the $40.00 range! Being the savvy idiots that we are and sensing that this was impossible we did a little on the spot homework and found out that Pesos is a thing of the past and that the correct denomination of currency is the Mexican Dollar that uses the same symbol as ours…. $$$.

                        Then we found out that the Rate was 20/1 or Twenty Mexican Dollars equals One US Dollar. That made that can of vegetables come in at around $2.00 US…. now we’re talkin’! We didn’t even need a calculator from that point!

                        Some items were obviously similar enough in price to what we are used to until we came to the quarts of pure vanilla… here they were approximately $8.00 US and back home a bottle of just four ounces averages around $15.00, which brings the equivalent price to $60.00 a quart!

                                    We bought some.

                                    The produce was crazy big…. radishes as big as apples, giant heads of nice-looking broccoli (I’m sure that they looked good because Paula said so, I do not look at broccoli), but again, you’ll have to take my word for it because there is no photographic proof to back it up. Wait! Paula did snap a quick photo of the radishes….

                                    After we left there we stayed in the same local area and walked into a Farmacia (Pharmacy) to procure Illegal Substances that can be had for the asking down here,,,,, antibiotics and my personal fav Prednisone! These have Over-the-Counter availability, and they are not expensive either! You know…. just in case I need to get a few weeks work done in a day or two…. a few Monsters and a regime of Prednisone will do the trick! (Just kidding!)

                                    After we stashed our ill-gotten booty in a deliberately clear shopping bag (to discourage shoplifting), we decided to try our hand at going to the Centro. This is the Old City, the area that we were in the last time that we were here. Hailing a cab and finding out that our 15-minute ride would be $120.00 ($6.00 US) we clambered in and had a somewhat adequate conversation with the driver who knew a little English and I knew a little Spanish. Anyway, it was definitely satisfying on a certain level and helped pass the time until we were dropped off right where we wanted to be. This area has the older buildings and a very nice esplanade (Malecon) along the shore where seaside restaurants and shops abound. Throw in a few street entertainers and you’ve got a great spot to spend some time.

The walk along the Malecon was perfect…. fabulous weather, not too crowded, and just the right number of festivities that were ongoing, it all kept us delightfully amused. When we arrived there Paula looked down the coast and said, “Look, a parasailer!” This activity is a must in this area of the world. As we got closer and saw that this guy was not moving, we realized that it was a Spiderman doll at the end of a kite string, just suspended in the wind!

                        We found a shoreside restaurant that had everything that we wanted which really was just a few Tacos. Friendly is an understatement as we really hit it off with Alfredo, the Manager/Hawker who corralled us into his establishment.

All was good. Some (pollo) Tacos, a (strong) Margarita, and a (regular) Pepsi later, we found ourselves another (friendly!) taxi to get us back to the Port.

                        Puerto Vallarta has come a long, long, way from the mid-sixties when John Huston shot “The Night of the Iguana” here with Richard Burton. They both liked it so much that they each bought a home down here and soon the world followed. Jump another ten years and have the Love Boat make this Port one of its destinations on its weekly cruise down from Los Angeles, and you can see how, and why, this is such a popular vacation spot. There are numerous condo/hotel establishments (all the big guys are here), the weather is fantastic, and the people are genuinely nice.

And they have a Walmart.

Today we sail into Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. In a few hours we will rattle down the gangway and find our way to a local market. Local markets are tons of fun, in these days the goal is to find genuine items that are not imported from China! This is the only Port on this Itinerary that we have been to before, so we are throwing all caution to the winds of the Pacific and forging out on our own with no regard for personal safety. There is a Walmart directly across from our berth in the harbor so if things get dicey, we will seek refuge in this Familiar Haven.

For today I have assembled a few photos for your Traveling Pleasure.

See below for details.

Well, it’s time to rouse the Crew from their sleep, so I’ll leave you here pondering the outcome of our Unescorted Foray into the jungles of Puerto Vallarta. With any amount of luck there will be a Post tomorrow morning detailing the same. If not, send out the Mounties and raise a search party!

                                    Today is Embarkation Day, or in other words, the day that the rest of you say to us… “Shove off!”

                                    And that we will, at around 1500 hours (3pm) this afternoon. I’m fairly sure that our assistance will not be needed during this procedure but just in case we will be up on deck with the rest of the ship’s complement, umbrella drinks in hand, waving to those  throngs of waving well-wishers that line the docks when cruise ships depart.

                                                Not!

                                    Who’s kidding who here….. ever since the Cruise Lines and The Government stopped the practice of having friends and relatives being able to come aboard with you, see the ship and your quarters, and then beat a hasty retreat before the gangway was retracted….

                       So….no streamers and confetti raining down on the reluctant landlubbers as the jubilant maritime-merry-makers yell and scream to their loved ones still stuck on shore… no unintelligible renderings of ‘so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, and good-byes”  echoing between the hull and the docks…..

Well, those were the old days.

Nowadays we’ll be lucky to spy a few disinterested seagulls sitting on the pier…. the nautical version of ‘hearing crickets’.

But be that as it may, our collective Voyage starts today just in time to queue up for dinner. This is the night the Matre’d and waitstaff hate. The start of a new voyage with a new set of passengers, some of whom don’t have a clue as to how this all works, and the rest of us, the ‘Experienced Ones’, who do know how it all works but still there is always a handful of that insist on throwing their “experience” around and make things difficult for the Dining Room team. If everyone would just be patient and let them be the professionals that they are and realize that they really do want to make you happy….. they just can’t make everyone happy at the same time! But time will tell….. So, if we all agree to meet in front of the Symphony Dining Room, let’s say around 1700 hours (5pm) , I think that we can all be accommodated nicely.

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                        Well, that didn’t happen.

Sorry, never got to post any of this yesterday.

Embarkation went well, Linda and Dan (my son-in-law’s parents) dropped us off after spending a great few days with them after our flight from Texas, and even though the line was long, everything worked out nicely. We even received our luggage in a reasonable amount of time!

We were about 2 hours late leaving Los Angeles. It is quite an undertaking to empty  a big ship and then turn it around in just a few hours, needing to clean all the rooms, check in the thousands of new passengers, load their luggage, take on supplies, fill the fuel tanks, etc. I’m surprised that they can do it as fast as they do!

When we finally embarked it was around 5pm and we were not in the Symphony Dining Room (my apologies to those of you who were meeting us there) but in Concerto where we had a nice table for two by one of the ports with a view. We hope to retain this table for the duration of the voyage.

                        We shall see.

That First-Day-Dining-Fiasco never seemed to rear its ugly little head last night. My premonition of Doom and Gloom was greatly exaggerated and for the most part, the process seemed to work out fine.

Dining aboard ships is constantly changing with the morphing of the ages of the passengers. It was not too long ago that firm dining times (seatings) were the law of the sea but that changed with a newer generation of passengers who either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, conform to the norm. So, now came along “Anytime Seating” which sounds good until mostly everyone wants to eat at 7pm. Well guess what! Everyone cannot eat at 7 pm because there is not enough room, servers, or kitchen staff to feed everyone simultaneously! So, someone has to wait and/or be unhappy.

            If you take into account the average age of the passengers that are currently on board you can predict how and when these people will want to dine. If the age group tends to be on the more “mature” side, the earlier (and at the same time) every night will rule the room. These folks (us!) were brought up on dinner being at a certain time very night whether it was prepared by Mom in the Kitchen or Jacques in the Galley.              

            I don’t know about the other Cruise Lines, but I can relay to you how Princess is currently handling these scenarios. (I say currently because the process has changed again since we were on the World Cruise last year). The Ships have three Dining Rooms, Symphony, Concerto, and Allegro. Each venue handles a different seating style:

                        Symphony handles the Traditional Diner, same time, same table, same waitstaff for the duration of the Cruise.

                        Concerto is for walk-in dining, just show up and you will be seated accordingly, just like walking into a restaurant.

                        Allegro is kind of a combination, you make a reservation for whatever time you would like to, and you will be seated without a possible wait. You will probably not get the same table or waitstaff from night to night.

                        I can speak only for us, and I will tell you that having the same waitstaff every night for a Cruise is part of that experience, for all the right reasons. If you are on an extended Cruise, then that reason becomes even more obvious as the waitstaff become even more familiar with your wants and/or needs and anticipates accordingly. Plus, there is added benefit of getting to know them to the point where your kids and grandkids pictures come out, they show off their families, and you get to know them on a personal basis. We are still in contact with Nidia, our server from the Baltic Cruise we took back in 2017 😊

                        So that is the way it is all laid out for Dining….

                        Until….

                        Until an extended Cruise comes along

                        A Cruise such as the one that we are on or the World Cruise. These are Princesses’ two longest Cruises at 51 and 111 days respectively. Who goes on Cruises this long? Old folks like us! Now let’s go back to those three choices for Dining….

                        Oops!

                        “We (The Cruise Line) better be flexible now because we have way too many passengers that fall into one category….”

                        The Traditional one!

So, the intelligent Dining Department makes room in the other Dining Rooms and those rooms kind of get a mixed diner base and everyone is happy. Us for example! There was no room  left (except at 7:30 which is waaaaay too late for us!) in the Symphony (Traditional) Dining Room, so accommodations were made for us in Concerto where they will just set a table aside for us (and others like us) again, keeping everyone satisfied.

                                    Our Stateroom is as cookie-cutter as it gets, you’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all, except maybe the big suites, and those are from another universe! On this Cruise we opted again for an Inside Cabin. Obviously less expensive, but remember, everything else is the same! We were quite satisfied with our inside cabin on the World Cruise. For us, it made the difference between either going around the world or staying at home. You know which one we chose! As for this Cruise, we again selected an Inside Cabin.

                                    But…..

            Princess has this new “Bidding” option.

            When it gets closer to the sailing date they kind of know from experience how many of each type of stateroom they will have left (unless they are totally sold out) and they allow passengers to bid for a potential upgrade. This is a way for passengers to maybe get a better cabin and the Cruise Line to get some more revenue. It doesn’t cost them any more to take care of a Balcony Cabin than it does an Inside Cabin, so the potential to grab a few extra dollars works just fine. We were awarded an Outside Deluxe Cabin for probably a quarter of the actual difference between these two cabin levels.

                        So, on those Days of Turbulent Seas, I can observe these rogues from the comfort of my own cabin instead of needing to be strapped to the mast like Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump!