Our Cruise Vacation

We just returned from a 7 night Royal Caribbean cruise to the mexican riviera. We went with Nick, Matt, and Katie. We departed from Long Beach, CA where we spent a night at the Renaissance, a very ritzy hotel that I'm sure we'll never stay in again. Once on the boat, we stayed busy with 3 stops at ports. The first port we visited was Cabo San Lucas. Our highlights of that port was the shopping and the visit to the famous restaurant Cabo Wabo.

Next, we stopped at Mazatlan. There, we took a "taxi ride" in the back of a pick-up truck which was quite a thrill ride. We managed to find an all-inclusive resort where we took advantage of the pool and paid a waiter (under the table) for free drinks and free food...it was his idea! We made sure to get our moneys worth!

The final port of call was at Puerta Vallarta. We took a 7 hour excursion on a Pirate Ship. When we signed up we were thinking it was going to be cheesey but it actually turned out to be a blast. There were about 20 mexican pirates who entertained us with a pirate show, music, and dancing and they waited on us hand-and-foot with free bar service and 2 delicious meals. They took us to an island where we enjoyed a banana boat ride and snorkling. We also got to see some whales close up as well as dolphins in the distance. It was by far the best excursion ever! Jordan was impressed with the shark urinals.

Back on the ship, we soaked up the sun, ate as much food as possible, and just enjoyed each other's company. We also managed to see whales off of the ship as well because they were migrating. Whereas Jordan and I, and Matt and Katie went to bed pretty much no later than midnight, Nick stayed out into the early morning! We also tried our luck out at the casino. Jordan won $50, which we eventually spent, and Nick won over $150 and he managed to save it! We had a great time but as much fun as we had, we were also very anxious to get back to the kids!