mitsugirly

We arrived at the Gran Acuario Mazatlan and headed inside to pay for our tickets. They charge $460 MX per person or around $30 US. About the aquarium: There are 30 habitats including an aviary, crocodile, flamingo area, penguin and sea lions but most important...the aquariums!!! We love our aquariums. In we went... We decided not to take the stairs up into the building because...well, I was saving my legs for all the walking we were about to do. They do have an elevator! Woo hoo! Up to the top we went.

Aww, glad you found the review. Hey, we were still vacationing (to the ports we visit while cruising) during the pandemic...did you happen to read any of them? We had such a great time! Where are you cruising in December to and what ship? Yea, I'm not a fan of the long flights but it wasn't as bad as I had imagined but still very long. Oh ok, I remember now. But honestly, the time we spent in La Paz it was pretty calm I thought so just didn't understand it.

Once in port, it looked like a regular port with shopping vendors and places to hang out and eat at...but of course we weren't interested in that...we were ready to get our day started. We headed out of the port to find a taxi driver. Yes, they will all be out there ready to take you anywhere you want to go. So what are we doing today? Many people suggested to take a tour in the pulmonia for the day. We are not really tour people (again, unless staying there) and I ask Sakari about it she definitely did not want to spend the day driving around. So, she decided she wanted to go to the aquarium here. She loves places like this so why not try it out! At least it would be something to do. The taxi driver said he would take us for $15. It took us a total of 15 minutes to get there.

After a leisurely breakfast, the family got up and started to head to the room. "Wait, where are you guys going?" They said back to the room to get our bags. "What bags??? We aren't going to be needing any bags today." The deer in the headlights look on the hubby's face was priceless. "Wait, you mean I don't have to carry anything today?" Nope, he was bagless today and I would be the only one carrying a purse with my equipment in it. We headed off the ship by 8:30am. This port is another weird one. You get off the ship in a shipping area and have to be transported over to the port on these trolley like contraptions. They are like the limo version of the palmonia's I guess. And look how fast they are...they have racing stripes! We made our way through all the containers and it reminded me of some action packed movies I've watched. Has anyone watched the movie The Container? It was pretty good. Pulling up to the port

APRIL 2: MAZATLAN 8-5pm Up next is another one of those ports I had never heard of until this cruise. As I did my research on this place, it seemed like "the thing to do" was to go to Stone Island, which really isn't an "island" at all. I researched the place, looked at videos and pictures and for some reason...it just didn't really appeal to me. I don't know why. It just didn't catch my attention at all. So more research brought me to Deer Island. There seemed to be some snorkeling around the area and places to explore and it seemed more "our type" of thing to do. However, I was really struggling with how to get there. I had read that you could take a taxi or pulmonia to the golden zone and catch a boat to go over. However, it seemed like this might be risky and the "unknown" cost to me wasn't appealing. Some said around $25 for 3 people one way...but we had 4 and then the cost to get over...who knows. I just really wanted to secure something with a vendor. There was an excursion that would take you there for an hour and then back over to the Golden Zone to stay at some hotel. Not what I wanted to do. I wanted to STAY at Deer Island. Then there were multiple excursions you could book and go over by kayak...not what I wanted to do. Then I ran across one vendor that was really close to port...5 minutes away (Aqua Sports) that had a tour. It would be $20/pp for this excursion and you could stay as long as you wanted. It sounded perfect! And that's where perfect ended. I contacted them, they replied. I ask several questions and then crickets. I emailed again saying "So I take it you don't offer this since you have not responded back". That got them to respond finally with answering my questions. They had also offered transportation for all of us, round trip, for $25. I told them I wanted to do that to make it easier on us and I would like to book. Then crickets again and again and again. No matter how many times I emailed, I got nuttin! I was really flying by the seat of my pants on this port as well. Now there would be no Deer Island. 😞 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We were up by 6:45am and the sun was coming up. It was a nice balmy weather of 66 degrees outside. I don't like balmy. I like warmer if not hot! Ugh. I was hoping the day would get warmer as it went on. Fingers and toes crossed...fingers and toes. Since we were in no hurry to get off the ship, I sat out on the balcony and watched us pull in while the family came to life and started getting ready for the day. We decided to head up to breakfast at 7:30am. Karl was not willing to wait any longer and I think the hubby had already went up to get coffee twice by now. You see the luxury in not being a coffee drinker and drinking pop? It's readily available in your room and you don't have to go anywhere to get your caffeine fix! The bacon was not showing its face again today...back on bacation again. It takes more vacations than I do!

Me too! We were very lucky there were so many still around and so active. I don't understand...why did La Paz give you PTSD? I'm confused. It was such a let down and I still don't understand why they said the port was shut down. It was perfectly fine out that day. I'm still left wondering if it was for real or it was this vendor 🤷‍♀️ But then again, people on my roll call said Carnival cancelled theirs as well. So idk. Yea the weather definitely wasn't what I was use to when cruising for sure. Why? I'm confused? I hope you are having a great time and good weather!!

Me too! I wasn't about to pay for that crap. He couldn't even capture one usable photo.

I headed to my favorite slots and would also try a few new ones. I did fairly decent. Sakari messaged me to say their time was up and they were heading back to the room. I guess that means adult time is up as well and we called it a day walking away with a little more than I put in. We decided we wanted to go to the MDR for dinner tonight. I immediately opened the app and put in our reservations. Sakari headed for the shower but she didn't have enough time to do her hair before they were telling us our table was ready...10 minutes is all they will hold it for... They had pumpkin soup on the menu tonight. I was pretty sure that I had tried this before and liked it. This time...not so much. I mean it wasn't bad, but it wasn't something I wanted again or could finish. Both the hubby and Sakari liked it. I think my taste buds are changing or something. I did have a back up salad. It was supposed to be a Blue Cheese crumble salad...only there really wasn't much "crumble" to it. That was a little disappointing. For my main, I ordered the stuffed mushroom. It came with only one, but it was fairly large. It was good. The hubby and Karl elected for the Steak meal. Sakari had the Chicken For desert, the hubby had the sugar free ice cream and I decided to live a little and had a cheesecake After dinner we were all tired and went back to the room for the night. We watched a little tv and I pulled out my "treasures" from today that I found at the beach we went to and showed Sakari. We always hunt for sea glass and the hubby found a corroded coin.

The kids looked like they were sleeping just too peaceful so I had to do what any bored mother would do...tickle their feet and wake them up! I ask them if they wanted to go to the Sky Zone and check it out. They agreed and I booked them a spot for 6:30pm. The Sky Zone is an indoor trampoline park in the middle of the ship on Deck 7. The cost is $15 per person if you go during the day. (I believe it is $18 at night) When it was time to head up there, they told us that there was only 2 other people booked for this time slot and that meant they would not be able to play dodge ball. They did offer for them to come back that night at 11pm and they were having a Glow Party at that time and they would have enough kids to play dodge ball. As much as Sakari loves the glow parties, she does not love being up that late...especially knowing that we would have to get up early the following day for port. They decided to just stay and jump around. The other 2 guys that showed up opted to come back at night. So, I guess this meant that they were jumping by themselves. Inside they had a trampoline area, which included basketball and I assume that's where they play the dodge ball. On the other side they had various activities from tug of war to sparring with large foamed thingys, to climbing a ladder without falling and also a rock climbing wall. The rock climbing wall was different than I had ever seen before. It lit up and you climb up to different things as they lit up and you had to smack them with your hand. They would explode and then another would light up. They were crawling all over the place. There's one fact that I would learn about Karl during this cruise, he may be fast at running since he does track, but the boy has no balance at all...nor is he very strong. I'm pretty sure Sakari showed him up in everything they did from tug of war, climbing a ladder and sparring. However, since he is so tall, he did have an advantage over her on the rock climbing wall...he was able to reach higher and easier without climbing as much as she did. They do have an area with stands in here and you could sit and watch them. We only stayed for a little bit and decided since the kids were having their "kid time" we were going to have our "adult time" and and headed to the casino.

We did a little bit of shopping at the stands lined up at the port and then headed back to the ship. Following Karl's yelling stomach made it easy to find our way up to the buffet and to my surprise we must have timed it right today because it was still open...although I can't say it was very good. I felt like the quality of food on the ship was a hit or miss throughout the cruise. Today was a miss for me. I tried to counter act the offerings with a little bit of ice cream. One thing I found during this entire cruise is that everyone seemed to go to the same side for ice cream. The line would be forever long. I did discover that by walking to the other side, there was hardly ever a line. I'm not sure why but I took note of this and did this every time and never had to wait for more than 2-3 people in front of me versus probably about 30 in the other line. After lunch we went up to the Sports Square and it would be the first time I seen the Sky Ride open. They had the ropes course open as well. Sakari said she was cold and didn't want to try out the Sky Ride "today". She wanted to play ping pong but the tables were taken so they wanted to play pool. Quickly we found that the balls just rolled all to one side of the table and it was impossible to play. Ok, next suggestion would be to go to the library and play chess and cards. Nope, it was closed and they were setting up for an Art Auction. That only left one thing to do...nap (according to the kids). While they napped, I took pictures. Then it was time to leave the port. They waved goodbye to us and we were outta here. Maybe next time La Paz...I'm still holding out hope of swimming with the sea lions one day. A few pictures as the sun was starting to go down. I always noticed the land looked foggy as we passed by places. Is it always like this?

It took 25 minutes to get back to the port entrance. Here is a map I had made so that I would know where to go IF I had done the tour with Tuna Tuna. They were located a little bit further than where the bus drops you off at but will show you the distance of the Malecon to the cruise port.

There's a lot of cacti along the way as well. I always find it so interesting to see cacti in the area when there's the ocean near by. I just always picture them to be in the flat desert...like Arizona.

I took some pictures on the way back of...more statues of course. Notice the rocky beach area. They said the tide had been low and exposed all the rocks.

We passed several restaurants along the way to see what they had to offer. They were all very crowded and expensive. I'm now feeding a family of 4 this trip and had to consider that. We just decided to head back to the ship instead. When we had gotten off the bus earlier in the day, I put a marker on my phone to know where to go back to get back on the bus. There was quite the line at the bus stop. It wrapped around the side of the building and down the street. I had Karl and Sakari hold our place in line while I went across the street to take a picture of the line. When the line moved, and they weren't paying attention to us, we ducked behind a large truck and moved positions, then watched them trying to figure out where we went to. lol The line did move rather quickly and we were inside the building in 13 minutes according to my time stamp on my pictures. Now this is a working bus station for people living there. They had to buy tickets to where they were going. I just find it odd to know we are getting this for free. The cruise line must have some type of deal/contract they worked out with La Paz to get the cruise ships to come there for them to make money and free bus service must have been in the deal. Now when we were waiting in line, the hubby had to use the restroom. He told me it was free. Once we were inside, I noticed this: It looked like you had to pay. I ask him how he did this. He pointed in the opposite direction and said "Those ones are free"...um, ok. Those look like handicapped bathrooms to me. He said "oops". The line was still going, even after getting out of the bus terminal and the buses were lined up out back. We managed to get a nice cozy coach bus for our ride back to the terminal. We were pulling out of the terminal at 1:02pm

We had went down so far and decided to do a U turn and head back on the opposite side of the street. There was a lot of closed and broken down buildings along the way. We made it to an area with little stands and turned down the street. I had heard people mention there was a farmers market and I wasn't quite sure if this was what they were referring to or not. They did have a lot of fresh produce but nothing we could have purchased. HOWEVER, Karl was complaining about being hungry and he managed to stop at a few of the stands for a "taste test". LOL We continued on and the hubby found a skate park. Of course he had to stop for pictures to show his buddies back home.

At this point we found a line to take pictures with the LA PAZ sign. We knew we had to have ours done. Once we got up there, I handed Karl my phone to take pictures. There was a guy standing there that was taking pictures for everyone and wanting tips. We knew we wanted Karl in the picture as well so we did end up handing my phone to the guy standing there. He snapped several pictures and handed it to me and wanted his tip. Me, being the frugal photographer I am, decided I wasn't handing over any money until I reviewed the pictures. I looked at them and showed the hubby and we were completely shocked at what he had taken...like seriously shocked. He probably took around 10 photos and this is just an example of what he did. Us not looking at the camera, us girls with ours hands up because our hair was blowing, walking up to the sign, deciding where to stand and switching positions, Sakari with her hand across her face, it was a mixture of a hot mess! I said, "I'm not paying for that crap are you kidding me"? We didn't have one good picture. I wonder how many people he does a day and just snaps pictures without people being ready and gets paid for it. Let this be a lesson...check your photos first before tipping someone to do a crappy job!' We decided to move on and continue down the Malecon. If you need to stop and use the restroom, this is the place:

We headed out to the bus stop and it was perfect timing. There were 3 of them pulling right up...the nice coach style buses too. Along the way we would see the statues at the Malecon. We were off the bus by 11:15am so it was a very short ride. We started walking toward the Malecon They had so many beautiful statues along the malecon.

I'm not gonna lie...I remember reading about a tour that was whale watching in Cabo back in 2015 and a breaching whale slammed into the boat and a lady died. These whales were VERY active but our tour guide and captain watched very closely and kept a safe distance away. I also noticed that where the whales were, you would see seagulls hovering above them. I would watch the seagulls location and just knew that a whale was about to come up. There's always that possibility it could happen again. I mean they are wild animals in their own habitat and we are merely there to observe. So yes, I was nervous at times because you never know what to expect. But oh the excitement!

They did have some construction going on over on the side. They also had military presence on the beach. (I would notice this at every port stop as well). One thing I have to mention here (and found it odd) was that you had to grab toilet paper from a dispenser PRIOR to going into the bathroom stall. The stalls did not have any. So if you missed this, you were left to drip dry. I always check for toilet paper when I get in a stall so I was one of the lucky ones...others that came in after me was not and I had to help a few people out. lol The kids decided they were going to get in the water. I felt how cold it was and I knew right then and there...I would not be going in. Heck, I couldn't even sit under our palapa in the shade because it was too cold. I planted myself out in front of it in the sun and bundled up with a beach towel. It wasn't long before the hubby did the same. Sakari was coaxing Karl into the water...I seen a few quick tugs here and there and he was not liking it. Little by little they edged their way out into the ice cold water. It definitely took awhile, but they made it out waist deep. It didn't last long before they came back in trust me. It was just too cold to swim and enjoy it. But, at least they could say they were in the ocean. Well we all knew this wasn't the perfect "beach day" weather and decided it was time to pack up and move on. We spent a total of 2 hours here, drank a few cans of pop, enjoyed the beautiful scenery and that was all that we could really do here today. I imagine it would be a great place to hang out at if it was warmer. I wouldn't hesitate to come back again.

We picked out a palapa and put our things under it and decided to walk the beach to explore. Oh no!!! A trigger fish. I love them. Just look at those almost non-existent waves and wind... The building that you would find restaurants, several convenience stores and the bathroom.

The first stop was at the beach: Coromuel. We arrived at 9:02am so it is a short ride here. I have to say, it was a very pretty place for sure! We might just be able to have a good day. I mean any day at a beach is better than at home or working right? Ahh, the beautiful beach with barely any waves or wind... It was definitely a beautiful day out!

We finished breakfast and went back to the room to grab our ....things? Wait, there's nothing to grab this time around. Oh that's right...we are doing nothing! Yes, I'm still a little salty at this point. However, I decided to at least pack a small bag and take some towels. I remember reading the buses do stop at a beach along the way. There's still hope... We were off the ship by 8:30 to head to the buses. Will you look at this water and weather? Does it look like it's bad? Does it look windy? I'm really left wondering about what they said about closing the port. However, others on our roll call had stated that Carnival even closed their tours here. I think it was a bad call myself...if that was true. Here is the pricing for Taxi's if you want to use them. But, why would someone pay $40 to go to La Paz downtown where we can pay nothing on the bus? Ok, I get it, it's private but really? Maybe I should have inquired about the trip to Balandra Bay for $25 to see if they would have taken us there. It was 9:40 as we walked out of the building to the bus. The bus they put us on was like a regular transportation bus you find in the city. However, they did have the luxury tour buses as well. We just didn't get one.

We headed to breakfast and we weren't going to be on a time crunch to get off the ship only to wander around aimlessly, looking like tourist who are lost. We were to be in port from 8-5pm. Here's a brochure they gave us to help with things to do and navigation. I guess we looked like we were going to need some help here.

So I'm going to back track to yesterday, while in Cabo, for SOME reason (because I NEVER do this) I decided to check my email. I noticed an email from Tuna Tuna Tours. Hmmm, what could this be? I get this notice: We are supposed to have bad weather tomorrow (very windy) starting at 10 AM approx., so we will try to only do the Whale Shark part and not do the Sea Lions and Balandra part. Is that ok with you? Please let me know if you are still interested. This brought on more questions from me because if the weather is going to be bad...how are we going to be able to swim with whale sharks?? I told them I was confused because we would be further out in the ocean...wouldn't it be more windy out there than at the sea lions close to shore or in an enclosed cove like Balandra Bay? Then I ask how much the tour was going to be since we were only doing the whales now. Unfortunately I don't think we will be able to go out tomorrow, it seems like they will close the port due to high winds. I will confirm with you later, once they give the official announcement. Then a mere 11 minutes later I get this... We will have to cancel the tour, I am sorry. They just announced that the port is closed. Well crap....what do we do now? I'm a planner and have no plans for this port now. The only thing we can really do now is take the free bus to town and .... walk around? How boring is this going to be? Needless to say, I was very disappointed. So, we were up at 6:45am and coming into La Paz. The tv screen said it was only 66 degrees outside. Am I really on a cruise with this kind of weather??? What is wrong with me. I'm going to freeze this entire cruise. This is by far the strangest looking port we have been to. It looks like they just picked a spot that had nothing there and said "Hey, we will make this a cruise ship port". We could see the buses coming in for all the cruisers to use to go into port. Most of them looked like tour buses.

Well I survived the birthday party! It was a BIG HIT! Sakari absolutely loved it and after 3 days of decorating (seriously...Kendra and I decorated my sons basement for 3 days to make this happen) she was shocked at what we managed to do. They danced the night away and she had so many friends there. Then half of them headed back to my house for a sleep over. They are starting to come alive at the moment and I'll have another busy day of going back over to my sons to clean up everything today. So, I'm going to try to get some more of this review done before then. APRIL 2: LA PAZ So this port was a struggle for me to find something and here's why... I found the most beautiful place I wanted to go to, Balandra Bay, and knew this was what we just had to do. I watched video's online and looked at pictures and looking at it, it was the closest thing to what looked like the blue Caribbean water. I wanted to surprise Karl at what the water could look like. After deciding on this place, I noticed that Carnival was sold out of this excursion and the task of how to get there began. I would have to book with an outside vendor...which you all know is something I usually always do. However, the reason I wasn't wanting to do that is that is that I was aware that they only allow so many people here during the day. They have two different time slots you can enter, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. You only get to stay for one or the other. If you was to do this on your own (say by driving or taking a taxi there), you risk the chance of not getting in at all. I also read that if you come by boat, you are not limited. So boat it was! After contacting different places, I found a tour guide (Tuna Tuna Tours) that did an excursion there that also included...get this...SWIMMING WITH SEA LIONS! I knew I had to book that tour. We spoke back and forth for quite some time and I finally booked. This tour was to include Ceviche, burritos, drinks, fruit, snacks and underwater videos and pictures of the swim with the sea lions, wetsuits and the National Park Permit to get in. It sounded perfect so we booked. The only issue was that we had to find our own ride to the dock they were located at and we would be on a time crunch (so wouldn't be able to take the free bus from the port into town and it didn't go as far as the location we needed to be at). I had trouble booking online with the link they gave me. After multiple tries, they finally just told me to bring cash. Ok, I can definitely do that. THEN.... 3 days before we were to leave for the cruise I get an email from them.... Do you think you can pay in cash for this tour? The thing is that we had to rent another boat because we didn't have availability anymore and they only accept cash. Um ok, isn't that what we discussed already? Cash...as soon as I answered yes, he emailed back an hour later saying " I have bad news. The owner of that boat that we were going to rent just told me that his boat’s engine broke down and he won’t be able to fix it soon. I could try to get another boat but since it’s high season I am not sure if I will be able to find another one. We still have 4 spots available that day for the Whale Sharks, Sea Lions and Balandra tour. Would you like to join us on that one instead? Regular price is $3,200 MXN per person but since we made the change we will charge you the same price as just the Balandra tour which is $2,200 MXN per person. Please let me know if you would like to do this. WHALE SHARKS...the best excursion we've ever done in Mexico...I would love to do that again and give Karl the opportunity to see them as well. However, the ONLY reason why I didn't book this tour was the time frame. I was afraid we wouldn't have enough time to do all 3 of them. But he assured me we would be back in time. OK...we're doing this!! I couldn't contain my excitement and even though I was going to make it a surprise for Sakari and Karl, I blurted it out! So another exciting day for us coming right up.