pppiglet

Just wanted to chime in and say I am so thankful for you putting your report in purple font! I'm on limited time and it's so easy to scroll to find your installments. I think I'm putting the Zoo on our "next trip" list.

Also note in some parts of Mexico ATM's only take a 4 digit pin. Mine was 6 and didn't work. Jim's was 4 and had no problem. (I found out the hard way) Lol...

Did pretty much the same places a few weeks ago. Walked from the port to Tacos Fenix, across the street to Taco Coronas, then around the corner to Tacos Castillos. Walked to the other side of the city and stopped for a Margarita at El Corralito. Excellent! Touristy spot. Can't miss it. Pink building. The down the street to the La Guerrerense stand. Really good. Stuffed and went back to the ship. A really good day. In July we tried to go brewery hopping but found most of them were closed or opened later.

Just another note. After the cruise, the shuttle (which was a big bus) just dropped us off at the second parking structure and we had to lug all our luggage up the street to the 3rd structure. They also had us pay when we first parked at the 3rd spot ($100) and we were hoping our car would be there when we returned as it was not in a covered spot and just off the main street.

I thought the same thing. Here's what happened with us. Wasn't fun. We'll just an update to my question, they didn't let us park in the terminal and we were sent to an offsite structure with bad directions and we got lost, finally got to where they directed us too and they turned us away saying it was full, sent us to another structure that had a long line waiting to get into it, and cut off it right after the car in front of us. Sent us to a 3rd location up the street and then we had to walk back to the structure to get on the shuttle bus to the port. We arrived to the port finally an hour after our check in time. My husband was so mad! (along with many other people) Very frustrating way to start a cruise off. That being said, we had a nice time on the cruise and the Miracle was in very good shape.

We'll just an update to my question, they didn't let us park in the terminal and we were sent to an offsite structure with bad directions and we got lost, finally got to where they directed us too and they turned us away saying it was full, sent us to another structure that had a long line waiting to get into it, and cut off it right after the car in front of us. Sent us to a 3rd location up the street and then we had to walk back to the structure to get on the shuttle bus to the port. We arrived to the port finally an hour after our check in time. My husband was so mad! (along with many other people) Very frustrating way to start a cruise off. That being said, we had a nice time on the cruise and the Miracle was in very good shape.

We are on the MIracle next week. (21st) Do you think we can park in the structure instead of offsite since Panorama won't be there? I just got an email update to our sailing, but it still shows the notice on it that parking for Miracle is offsite.

Sounds like a great plan to me! We love Puerto Vallarta.

Panorama has a great selection of beers! The brewery on board sold bottles of beer also. The craft beer on tap (Carnival's) tasted stale to me so I drank cocktails instead when we were on the Radiance.

We did too. Panorama was just too big. Too many rooms and people. The best part about it was the Havana area. I would only book the Havana area if going on this ship again. Radiance was just our size. Loved our regular balcony room. Food was better on Radiance, but both buffets didn't have much to select from and overly crowded.

Looks like you had fun! We stopped in Hussong's and had one of their beers while waiting for the other brewery to open. Met a guy that lived 3 blocks away that used to be a Vet tech in Los Angeles years ago. He kept us entertained with stories. I told him he wouldn't recognize LA now with all the homeless everywhere.

Knock on wood, but we've never witnessed a fight or overly drunk people on any cruise we have taken. We've only sailed out of Long Beach or San Pedro (except for a Disney Cruise from Florida in 2007) Guess we've just been lucky!

We did this too on our Panorama cruise. Feels good not to rush on your last morning on the ship. We easily found our luggage also.

Ours was over the 4th Holiday week, so it was above capacity, but we only had the long line to get back on the tender to get back on the ship in Catalina. I think it was an hour or so. We had the same thing happen to us on the Panorama Spring Break cruise, but that was over 2 hour wait! The tender off we didn't have to wait long. We just got up early and got the ticket to get off the ship as soon as they started handing them out. We had anytime dining on Radiance and did not have to wait for the main dining and any ship we've been on usually has a line waiting for the shows to open the doors 30 mins before the show so we just got in line. The comedians on Carnival cruises are really good so I can see why the lines.

We've never had rough seas going to Mexico. We've gone in the months of November to beginning of July. Maybe we've just been lucky. I do know that I wouldn't book end of July through October as that is hurricane season for the area. Lots of storms pop up in those ports.

This is not the norm and I could see why they may take you to the wrong tour drop off as there are many tour places in PV. All taxi drivers know where the Malecon is. 🙂

I agree with this. Way more to see in Puerto Vallarta than Cabo. Cabo even walking the beach you are always approached to buy drugs. We've never had that happen in PV.

This is so funny because our room smelled like that too (faintly) Wasn't an issue for us though. We did order room service pizza late one night! LOL... Speaking of room service, we ordered coffee and muffins for 2 every morning and they told us 20-30 minutes, but they were always there within 10 mins. Loved it.

I wanted to try the 3 cheese omelet at Shaq's but never made it back. The only issue we had with Shaq's was they kept making batches of the strips and everyone that wanted a sandwich had to wait in another line. They asked if anyone wanted strips on their sandwich instead of waiting so that is what I had. It was really good though.

We actually ended up Googling breweries in the area and went to one ourselves. I'd do that next time if they cancel on us again. 🙂 We didn't even try to do the seaday brunch. Didn't look appetizing at all.

I agree. Way more comfortable to us also.

Next trip we will be booking both of these for sure!

Carnival did suggest another excursion, but we just decided to do our own. We had a good time. If my work schedule wasn't so hectic right now I'd book another cruise on this ship.

Wish I saw your post before we sailed last week. Our brewery excursion got cancelled last minute and we had to wing it. I looked up some breweries but most didn't open until later in the day. We ended up going to Chikilla which was a few blocks away from Hussong's. (Small little place with a sushi restaurant next door.) Lots of beers on tap and really good! Spent more time there than we thought we would so never made it to any other breweries.

We had a great cruise! Because of this being the 4th holiday cruise it had a lot of people, but only felt like it once and that was trying to get back on the ship from Catalina. The tender line wrapped all the way down passed the boardwalk/pier. We had hiked up to the Botanical Garden since we didn't book an excursion. More of a desert garden. We had some beers at Catalina Brewhouse and then went to Coyote Joe's for a quick bite before going back to the ship. (Mexican food, eh...a little greasy and wouldn't recommend it) Red Frog Pub was our bar of choice this trip and they were excellent! Music was really good also. The only two negatives on this trip were that we had booked the Italian restaurant for embarkation night and they came around 2pm and gave a slip of paper confirming our reservation at 7, but at 6:30 no one was at the restaurant and I call them and they said they had to cancel as no one booked it for that night. (you're telling me 4,000 people on the ship and no one booked it?) The waitress in Bonsai sushi told us it's never open on embarkation night. Not sure why they let us book it online then) We had the same thing happen with our excursion for Ensenada. The tickets were in our room, but the night before there was a big pink notice on our door saying it had been cancelled because not enough people booked it. (it was the breweries tour and it had really good reviews so I would think someone would have booked it) Any how, seems like most people on this ship avoided the specialty restaurants and ate at the Lido buffet most of the time as it was packed and the restaurants empty. Ate at the main dining room once and it wasn't really good so most of the time we ate at the buffet too. Bonsai Sushi was probably the best meal we had. Shaq's chicken was excellent also. We had a balcony room 7419 Aft (the weird shaped room with the long balcony) and we loved it. Used the balcony a lot. Never saw our room steward until the 3rd day. He did his job though. Our experience on this ship was way better than when we cruised on the Panorama back in April. It was our first time doing taking our bags off the ship ourselves instead of checking bags the night before, but buy the time they called our deck, they were already starting to call the tag. We were still off the ship by 9. I'd definitely do this cruise again.