"Triumph"ant Adventures with D & E 12/2011 review w/photos

[txlnghrn79]

Since George was feeling better we took lots of pictures! We wanted to make sure that he had lots of memories of the good days!

I saw our sign for the excursion and quickly got to know our guides. I've been told I'm a "people" person. Here is our main guide Ricardo! He was a "people" person too!

The girl in the background with the green shirt and clipboard is Ricardo's assistant Nash! I may have a better picture of her later!

[Rudyard]

Nice to see George doing better. On our last day on Mariner we had some rough seas and saw some pretty miserable people because of it. I felt so sorry for them.

[ChristieDawn]

Hey, ya'll look familiar...did I meet you on another cruise? ;)

[steelerjen]

Great Review, keep it coming!!!

[txlnghrn79]

After all of our group was accounted for we got onto the bus for our 45 min ride to Merida. Nash and Ricardo did an awesome job as tour guides, informing us of important to non-important information about Progresso and Merida. Here are some of the pictures take from the bus. I apologize if they aren't of the highest quality.

 

There is a familiar store! :)

 

Nash and Ricardo warned us of the aggresive locals. The locals sell their wares around the city and really push the tourist. Most of them were polite when told no thank you.

[txlnghrn79]

When we arrived in downtown Merida we were informed that it was the Day of Guadalupe! There was a day of celebration and of prayer at the church. The church has three entrances but the middle door or the door of forgivness is only open a few days a year. It is said that if you walk through the door of forgiveness all sins are forgiven.

Here is the church and the door of forgiveness:

 

This church also has the largest wooden crucifix in the world. We were able to go through the door of forgiveness and take pictures throughout the church.

 

From the church we walked across the street to the Governor's Mansion. Pics to come soon!

 

Sorry this review is taking me so long! I hope to get through Progresso and Cozumel by tomorrow evening!

[txlnghrn79]

In the Governor's Mansion it is set up more like an art gallery. They had a huge fake Christmas tree up in the court yard. There were several offices and such but it was more of an art and history gallery than a mansion. I loved it tho because I am quite the dork and love to learn about art!

[txlnghrn79]

 

Once everyone had adequate time to look at the mansion we headed to the restaurant/hotel for our salsa y salsa lesson. FYI when walking on the streets of Mexico stay as close to the wall as possible or you will get run over!

[txlnghrn79]

When we were all seated we were given two drink coupons. They could be used for alcoholic or non alcoholic beverages. Here are

 

We were given three recipe cards and a lesson on the items and foods we would be using. My MIL and DIL opted for soda but Marcia, DH, and I got piña coladas to wash it all down!

 

They will give you all of the chips you want but you may want to eat a big breakfast or find a local vendor to sell you some food. We were pretty hungry and salsa just didn't fill us up!

[Andrea72]

This is a great review. I love your pictures; they are making me feel like I'm there :)

[txlnghrn79]

After we made our salsas the party got a little crazy because we discovered there were a couple celebrating birthdays! Ricardo started the party by pouring tequila straight from the bottle into the birthday girl's throats!

Once good and ready we set off for our dance lesson!

Here is our beautiful instructor Nash!

This is some of the scenery in the dance area! We had to take a picture of the alcohol wall! This dance/ patio area was located at the back of the hotel. There were hammocks and such if you chose to sit out this part of the excursion. I didn't get a picture of them though. Nash made sure that everyone learned the steps to salsa and you didn't feel rushed or stupid. Well, maybe the lady that had a little too much and ended up spinning to the ground felt stupid but we all had a great laugh!

After our lesson we had 30 min to an hour to explore before our bus ride back to the pier!

[txlnghrn79]

So, after the lesson we set out to explore! The "deals" weren't much better than the shops on the pier but it was still fun to barter with the locals! There were hundreds of pigeons and although not the most sanitary, this little boy was having a blast playing with them!

 

We then took pictures of the hustle and bustle of the city.

 

We didn't venture too far because my DH and I have a fear of being left or being late but we still had great fun! It was time to get back on the bus. The next post will be pictures from the bus. Again, sorry if the picture quality isn't great.

[txlnghrn79]

More pics on the way back...

[txlnghrn79]

I ended up failing asleep...

There's the ship!

 

We arrived back at the terminal with time to shop! We tipped Ricardo and Nash for their great service and headed back to the boat!

 

Overview of this excursion: Well worth the money! If you want to see "real" Mexico, learn some history, eat great salsa, and not feel like you wasted your day this excursion is for you! I wouldn't recommend this to people using walkers or wheel chairs. The roads are narrow and cracked. It is not really easy to get around. Lots of people hit the beach or the ruins, both of those good choices, but I'd rather this excursion. I think having great guides helped too!

[txlnghrn79]

Can you tell someone is feeling better?!?!?

It was so nice to have George out and about with the family! We then headed to lido to get some lunch! Since full lunch wasn't provided on the excursion we were starving!

Once fed, I am pretty sure Marcia and I had a slice of pizza everyday on the ship for lunch, we were ready to relax. DH took pics of the sunset and wake as we sailed away from Progresso.

[txlnghrn79]

Many guest took advantage of the hot tubs, pools and watersides once we had sailed. Everyone seemed to enjoy this cruise!

After walking around the ship, DH and I headed back to the room. We had our first past guest party to attend! We didn't know quite what to expect but we were excited!

[wrigley80]

Great Revew so far. I was in Progreso in March 2011 and I wasn't too impressed but it was OK. Looking forward to the rest of your review

[txlnghrn79]

When we arrived at the past guest party the cruise director, Felipe, and the assistant cruise director, Stephanie, greeted us at the door. It was held in the main theater and you had to give them your invitation in order to enter. It really made DH and I feel very important. Even though we weren't VIP (yet), for that moment they treated us like it and we welcomed it! Once inside they had a live band and singer on stage, a wait staff was handing out hor dourves, and the bar staff had free drinks and champagne! Even though DH and I are not big drinkers or fancy eaters, we had fun!

 

[txlnghrn79]

After the party we headed to dinner with the family! George was at dinner and still felt good even though the ship was moving!

Here is some food porn:

[txlnghrn79]

 

We then took pictures of the staff entertaining us and pictures of us!

[scrappychick1]

Love the review and pictures!

[txlnghrn79]

Here was our desert porn that night:

 

After desert we headed to the room to change into more comfortable clothing. Here is our towel animal for the night.

 

We had fun dressing up the animal!

[txlnghrn79]

We headed down the hall to the parents room. We had to take a picture of Sunni's (our steward) cart animal.

We walked into mom and dad's room and found that Sunni had left them an elephant as well.

We started having funny with mom's wigs!

Sunni had to put his personal touch...

It was so nice to have such a personable Steward. I truly felt that we had formed a friendship.

[txlnghrn79]

I want to thank everyone who has viewed and commented on our review. We are sorry that it has taken us so long to finish but we will keep adding to it til its done. Let us know if you have any questions about the ship and or excursions!!

 

Hope to have some more up soon!:D

[txlnghrn79]

Last cruise we were exhausted after our days on shore but this cruise we just didn't want to miss anything so we found the energy we needed to keep going! We went to the antrium and took some pics before heading to the liars club show and the love and marriage show! The liars club show had the two comedians and two of the entertainment staff giving their definitions of a certain word. The audience had to determine who was lying and who's definition was the truth. We had some good laughs! The love and marriage show is a great show and one of our favorites. It has a newly married couple, a seasoned married couple and a couple in the middle. They give the women multiple choice answers and the husbands have to guess the answers of their wives. It is very funny! The only thing that could have made it better was to have escorted two females out of the theater at this time. They were a lesbian couple that were very intoxicated and making a spectacle of themselves. They were trying to answer questions from the audience just for attention and it was so rude. I don't care about their sexual preference but their attitudes and the way they treated the cruise director needed serious attention! Here are the pictures from that night: