First Cruise (first post!) What to do & where to do it?

[bowzer1972]

Greetings all, this is my first post on this website. I was sent over here on recommendation from a member of the Las Vegas Advisor board. She mentioned that the people on this site are as passionate about cruises as the LVA members are about Las Vegas, and that was all I needed to hear. Looking forward to doing tons of research and getting some great suggestions from y'all to make our first-ever cruise a memorable one.

 

Wife and I are taking the Norwegian Star Mexican Riviera cruise at the very end of September. We are celebrating our 5-year wedding anniversary (not too long, but hey, you've got to start somewhere). We had our honeymoon down in Cabo San Lucas and loved it. Wife has always wanted to do a cruise, and a travel agent friend of ours got us a great deal on the NCL. I trust his recommendation, and based on the research I've done so far I think this will be a wonderful trip.

 

I feel pretty confident that I can get a handle on food and shipboard activities, just using the reviews and other hints from this board (although ANY comments/suggestions from you experts would be more than welcome).

 

What I'm most concerned about is the on-shore activities in the ports of call. Suzi and I are both 33 and fairly active, so spending an entire day (or even more than an hour or so) shopping is out of the question. I have heard that some of the excursions planned by the cruise line can be spendy, and that you are often better planning your own activities in advance. Here are some things that we'd love to experience at some point on our trip--maybe you can suggest 1) which town to do it in 2) which company to go through. Again, ANY comments are welcome.

 

In no particular order

 

Swim with dolphins

Deep-sea fishing (we did this on our honeymoon and Suzi actually LOVED it)

Snorkeling

Horseback riding

 

I'm sure there are other things to do that I just can't think of at the moment. I'm going to continue to do some snooping around the site, but if you have suggestions or personal experiences about excursions or about the NCL Riviera cruise in general, please e-mail them to me or respond to the thread. bowzer1972@yahoo.com

 

A couple years ago I joined the Las Vegas Advisor site, and because of the research and planning I did we had the best Vegas trip we've ever taken together (and yes, we've taken a few). I want to put the same effort into this cruise, and, God willing, we'll get the same great result.

 

Happy sailing all!

 

Chris

[cruznbuddies]

Hey Chris,

 

My husband and I have cruised twice - although both were Eastern/southern Caribbean cruises, so I can't help with specifics here. Our first cruise, we didn't know about this site and I'd say we did about half and half - some shore excursions through the ship and some with friends we met on the cruise. It didn't take long to realize that the way to go is to do your homework, and come up with the better deals on your own. So good for you. Your cruise ought to be awesome!

 

Do you know about roll call? Finding others who are on the same cruise with you? We did that for our RCI Serenade cruise Nov 2004 and it made the cruise so much more fun. You hook up with people prior to sailing and get to know them here on the boards. It was great! If you haven't already done so, I suggest looking for a roll call to see who you'll be sailing with and chatting there as well.

 

Sorry I can't be of any help regarding specifics for this cruise, but there'll be somebody who'll know that stuff.

 

Good luck and happy anniversary. Our Serenade cruise was for our 25th! You're well on your way!

 

Laurie

[Mzmoto]

Chris,

 

My husband and I are cruising Mexican Riviera in 23 days!! You can dolphin swim in Puerta Vallarta. I beleive it is offered by www.vallarta-adventures.com, however, we had to book through Carnival as they hold all the bookings for Wednesdays. It costs more, but it is something we want to do so we paid up! Not sure how NCL handles this. For horse back riding - my parents did the tour from www.randishappyhorses.com yesterday in Mazatlan and had a great time! For only $45 pp they pick you up at the terminal and arrainge all your transportation to Stone Island for a horse back ride and then a 2 hour stop at Victor's on the beach. There are many reviews of this tour on this board, so you will see that it is quite popular. I wish you a fabulous anniversary cruise!!

[Mzmoto]

Oh, and about snorkeling. I have heard that the snorkeling in the Mexican Riviera is not that good. We will be taking our own snorkel gear just in case we get the urge. I really wasn't interested in paying for an organized snorkel if it isn't going to be as good as we have seen in the past - We traveled to the US Virgin Islands for our honeymoon 10 years ago. The snorkeling there was fantastic!

[CruisingAgain]

Sorry Chris - we can't give you any personal experiences yet either. Our first Mexican Riviera cruise is in 2 weeks.

 

I have also heard that the snorkeling isn't great. We haven't decided if we'll be dragging the snorkel gear along. We've snorkeled a lot in the Caribbean and I'm afraid this would be too disappointing. Read one story where they took an excursion and then it was too cold to snorkle.

 

From all the reading it looks like Randi's Happy Horses is by far the best for horseback riding. I also saw some info about deep sea finishing - Cabo, I think, but I didn't save any of that. Try searching in this forum.

 

Diane

[CrusinElf]

Hi Chris! Welcome to the wonderful world of cruising! :) I have a feeling I know the poster from the Vegas board who also posts here. OK, I don't know the OP personally, but 2 years ago when we were planning an anniversary trip to Vegas, I spent a lot of time of that board. I was very surprised to find one of the same posters from the Vegas board also posting here. Bet it's the same person! Just like I got a ton of information on Vegas from visiting their board (and what great help they gave me! We had an absolutely fabulous time in Vegas) , I've also learned so much regarding cruising here on CC. We had a wonderful 4th anniversary in Vegas and had an equally wonderful 5th anniversary on our cruise last October. These boards are a wealth of information!

 

I haven't been on NCL in a long time (when I was much younger) so I can't really comment on that particular cruise line right now. As someone suggested, go to the NCL part of CC and read there. Join the Roll Calls and get to know (in advance) some of the people who will be on the same cruise as you. It's a blast to meet, in person, people that you've been talking to for awhile here on CC!

 

My husband and I are just about to book a Mexican Riviera cruise (Princess) for next October, our 6th anniversary. I was there once but years ago. Since I'm just now starting to research just "what" we'll be doing in each port, I probably can't help you there. We, like you, are fairly active and shopping is not in my husband's vocabulary! ;) Since you spent your honeymoon in Cabo, you most likely know it well. Deep sea fishing seems to be very good there. I'm not a fisherman at all, but I may have to try it. For Mazatlan, Randi's Happy Horses gets high marks from everyone. We'll probably try that for sure. Like a few of the other posters, I've also heard that snorkeling on the Mexican Riviera isn't all that great (different ocean from the Caribbean and all). Still, we'd like to try it and so I'll be doing some research on the best place. I'll let you know anything I find out.

 

I'll keep in touch here and hope you do the same. Maybe you can learn something about the ports that I'll have missed and share them on this thread. I'll let you know whatever I find out.

 

You're going to love cruising! Welcome again to Cruise Critic!

 

Elf