Aquaticdreams

Thank you so much! He gave us all quite a scare but fortunately the Princess medical response team was excellent. Thankfully he did recover and we were able to enjoy most of the rest of the cruise.

I wish I could! My husband got very sick that morning and we missed Mazatlan. I had found this in a video though so I’m passing it along. Looks like even with multiple taxis it would have been cheaper than the HOHO.

We really enjoyed it! It was an easy two block walk from the Crowne Plaza. It’s a smallish but pretty restaurant. My husband ordered the Cioppino and loved it. My lamb was also very good. The calamari, appetizers, and tiramisu were excellent too. Thanks for the great recommendations! We plan on going again next time.

Thank you! We almost had to cancel but thankfully it’s back on. Made a reservation at Raffaello Ristorante. I’ll let you know how it is.

Thanks for all the suggestions! We almost had to cancel the trip but thankfully it’s back on. We’re en route to LA. We were hoping to do the arch, Medano beach, shops, and dinner. Hopefully we’ll be able to fit most of it in. It’s too late to pre book so we’ll check out the early tours once on board.

We bought some super thin microfiber beach towels for our upcoming trip on Amazon as recommended in another post. They look great and will take up practically no room at all. Since we’ll be doing other things too on beach days I’ll be happy to be carrying those rather than the bulky beach towels. I suppose if you’re not doing a lot of walking around it doesn’t matter but I think they’ll be perfect for us.

We’re on the January 20th sailing. Port time was changed to 2:00 - 9:00. We’re exploring on our own with an ambitious wish list of things to do. What’s the best strategy for getting off as early as possible? We don’t mind a long wait as long as we can be in the right place at the right time to get off early.

I sure will!

Does anyone have any suggestions on where we can find the best authentic/high quality Talavera pottery? Our ports are Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan. Thanks!

Thank you. We’ll probably cancel the HO HO tour and just cab it. It was $120 which is probably more than the 3-4 cabs you suggested and it sounds like it’s easy to get around without the tour.

Thanks you make some very good points. It sounds like we might have to skip something but still trying to decide what. Any other suggestions are appreciated!!

Thanks!

We booked a Hop on Hop off through Princess in Mazatlan. We’re interested in seeing the Historic District, Golden Zone, and the Cliff divers (we would skip the Aquarium stop.) Has anyone done this? Is it worth it or are we better off canceling and just taking a cab? Are those three points within walking distance of each other? We don’t want to walk the blue line but if we could take a cab to one of those points and walk to the others that would work. Thanks!

Thanks. The Queen Mary sounds like fun but he’s not a huge ocean liner buff so with Sir Winston’s being closed I think for this trip it will probably work out better to stick closer to the hotel. Raffaello Ristorante looks good on line so that’s a good possibility. Seafood would be another option if there’s a good one nearby. Any other suggestions are welcome!

We’re cruising to the Mexican Riviera out of LA on the 20th. We’ll be driving in the day before and staying at the Crowne Plaza. That day happens to be a milestone birthday for my husband so I’d like to take him out for a nice dinner to kick off his birthday cruise. After a long day of driving I’m sure we’ll want to turn in early so I’m looking for something near the hotel. It doesn’t have to be super fancy, just a nice place with really good food. Any recommendations?

Cruising in two weeks on Princess. We’ll be in Cabo from 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM. We want to do the water taxi to El Arco, go to Medano beach (an hour is plenty), shop, and have dinner close to the tender dock. Being a tender port I know it may take some time to get off and I assume we need to return by 8:00. What’s the best way to do this to try to fit everything in? Take the water taxi to El Arco first, then get dropped off at the beach, shop, then take a cab back to the dock? Or take a cab to the furthest point out for shopping (and where would that be?), make our way to the beach, take a water taxi to El Arco from the beach (any idea how late they run? Is this even possible?), then get dropped off back at the dock. I’m not really sure where the best shopping is i.e. near Medano, the Marina, or elsewhere. We’re interested in Mexican souvenirs and art, not so much the high end chain shops we can find at home. Any suggestions are much appreciated!

I just got notified that our port time in Cabo (in January) was changed to 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM. I had originally thought about a beach and shopping day for Cabo but now that doesn’t seem feasible. I’m thinking walking around/taking cabs at night in Mexico isn’t a good idea. Has anyone had a late port call in Cabo? Any alternative suggestions? This will be our first time doing the Mexican Riviera and I was really looking forward to exploring Cabo. I’m even wondering if I should rebook for February when they don’t have this “scheduled engine maintenance” change.

We decided to cancel it due to the partial closure in Denali. We’re taking a Caribbean cruise next month instead. We really want to see as much of Denali as possible so we’ll just wait and go another time. For what it’s worth we had booked the one with the land portion starting in Fairbanks before the cruise. This was so there wouldn’t be all that backtracking on land and also to relax on the ship after the high activity level on the land portion. I’m sure others here will chime in on the pros and cons. Have a wonderful time whatever you decide!!

Thanks so much! Very helpful!

Thanks! We’re on this same cruise January 2 - 12. I’d like to know what day they’re doing the first formal night. We want to celebrate our 25th anniversary on that night by dining in a specialty restaurant and having photos taken in our formal attire. I assume it will be either night two or three so I booked both nights but I really only want to keep the reservation that falls on formal night.

We will be visiting St Kitts on Monday 1/9/23 and will be docked from 7:00AM to 5:00PM. We have full day excursions on most of the other islands. We want to have one day that includes shopping so I’m looking at half day tours for St. Kitts to allow for that. The one I’m looking at goes from 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM. So that leaves somewhere between 7:00 AM to 11:00 to shop which I know is early. Does anyone happen to know what time the local shops near the port open? I’m trying to figure out if there’s enough open time to make it worth it. Last time we visited St. Kitts we spent the day at the beach so I’m not looking to do that again even though it gives us more flexibility. We’re looking at excursions that include Nevis this time so I’m locked into those times. Thanks!

Thanks for the suggestion! I booked the Riverside. Awesome location, we’re excited to stay there!

I had the same question and wrote to the shore excursion dept. This was their response. Antigua Beach Express is Dickenson Bay Beach and you spend approximately 3 hours 40 minutes there. The Beach Escape is Fort James Beach

Thanks for the helpful feedback. Sounds like the hotel is decent. We could live with the construction and we can always take a cab to go out so I’m not ruling it out. But since it’s not ideal I’m looking at other options. We’ll be there for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day so everything is pretty pricey. I looked at valuetrips for the Hyatt Place which is highly rated here but New Year’s Eve is a blackout. Any suggestions for a nice but reasonably priced hotel that’s maybe in a better location than the Crowne Plaza are welcomed.

We booked a room at the Crowne Plaza for two nights pre cruise. It’s only 1.5 miles from Port Everglades and looked fine in the photos so it seemed like it would be a good choice and popular. But I’ve noticed there’s usually no mention of it on this board. Has anyone stayed there? We don’t need anything too fancy but I don’t want to stay in a dump either. I can always book something else if this one is bad. Any feedback on this hotel?