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Let the Mexican Riviera Season Begin!

wilmingtech

By wilmingtech,
in Norwegian Cruise Line

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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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With Jewels first year in the Mexican Riviera and a couple longer itineraries scheduled for the Sun, I thought it would be good to start a thread specific to NCL's Adventures through the Mexican Riviera.

 

NCL Jewel - The main ship from NCL running Mexcan Riviera Itineraries.

Season running through May 1st 2016 with some Panama Canal trips in between. Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta are the main ports of call.

 

NCL Sun - Its already begun its semi-Riviera season with its 11 day cruises out of San Diego until Nov 4th. Adding Acapulco and Manzinillo as the 2 additional ports of call.

 

We are all looking for information pertaining to schedules on the ship, NCL Freestyle Daily, Current information on entertainers on board, fun and interesting things to do at each port, weather on your trip, whale and wildlife sightings, Concierge and Butlers on board.

 

While we dont mind discussions about your good or bad experience on board the Jewel or the Sun, what we dont want to turn this thread into is discussions about tips, SDP, UDP, UBP...etc...plenty of other threads for that.

 

Here are some questions to get started!

 

1. Any recent Whale sightings from the ship(s)?

 

2. What shows will be onboard the Jewel for the Winter Season?

 

3. The best shore excursion in the Mexican Riviera...sell us on it!

 

 

GO HAVE FUN!!!

 

-Sean

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rfkeith10

rfkeith10

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We be sailing on the Jewel 13-20 March. Our 5th cruise to the Mexican Riviera and 1st on the Jewel. Looking forward to the cruise since there is no flying necessary for us local folks. If anyone else is booked on the trip, join our roll call...

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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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Its uncanny that cruisecritics headline for the day is 2016 events you can cruise to. As I was just thinking about this yesterday and tooling around on the internet trying to see what would be going on in the different cities during our cruise to Mexico. Something that my wife and I learned to look out for on our second cruise was the local culture and calendar of events. We pulled into Alesund Norway on a Sunday morning at 7am only to find that very few stores and businesses are open on a Sunday. Our afternoon was spent hiking a closed city lucky enough to grab a cup of local coffee with very little else open (2000 cruisers wandering aimlessly).

 

It seems that many of the big cruise lines set a schedule for the cruises and that schedule "is what it is". Hopefully with the large trend in cruising the cruiselines will start realizing that paying attention to local events and changing the itinerary accordingly would be a huge plus and something that would certainly have me coming back to that cruise line to check itineraries before I purchased a cruise. NCL CRUISE LINES Hope you are paying attention here :D

 

Here is an example of what I am talking about...

 

On our cruise which leaves on Jan 31st, we will be hitting Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta on the days before the Carnival (Mardi Gras) weekend begins. Mazatlan begins the pre-festival activities on the 4th (we will be there on the 3rd) and Puerto Vallarta on the 5th (we will be there on the 4th). Im not sure how much of the pre-festival activities we will be able to take part of but it would be neat to be in Mazatlan on the 4th and I am assuming that Puerto Vallarta will be out.

 

What would be really nice on both of these ports is if the Ship left at 10pm or Midnight (totally do-able) So we could get a taste of the nightlife in these ports. And it would be cool if they swapped the Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta stops so we could se some of the pre-festival activities. Granted this is all blah blah blah and none of this is going to happen...much less I really have no experience with the Carnival party in these cities and there may very well be nothing happening on any of these days.

 

But - the cruise following us and leaving on Feb 7th (Superbowl) and being in Cabo on the 9th (The big parade and celebration happening in Mazatlan that day) will leave port at 6pm before any partying begins in Cabo San Lucas and will be in Mazatlan on the 10th (ash wednesday) when everything is closed and the streets will be a mess and not a whole lot happening. Im imagining the few stray overly drunk passed out persons randomly dotting the streets early in the morning of the 10th. That cruise would be awesome if it hit Mazatlan on the 9th, overnighted and then headed of to Cabo San Lucas in the morning which would be totally doable.

 

None the less...maybe when the cruiselines have done all they can to squeeze every penny out to make a profit they will then start realizing the value of this.

 

Second part of my post - Here are some of the holidays that are happening on the MR Port Days on the NCL Jewel so you can plan your trip accordingly -

 

8-Dec Tuesday Feast of the Immaculate Conception Observance

22-Dec Tuesday December Solstice Season

24-Dec Thursday Christmas Eve Observance, Christian

31-Dec Thursday New Year's Eve Observance

6-Jan Wednes Day of the Holy Kings Observance

10-Feb Wednes Ash Wednesday Observance, Christian

24-Feb Wednes Flag Day Observance

24-Mar Thursday Maundy Thursday Bank holiday

 

If anyone is aware of other sporting events, festivals, local activities regularly happening on Tuesdays in Cabo, Wednesdays in Mazatlan and Thursdays in PV, please feel free to share.

 

-Sean

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Ahhh

Ahhh

Posted
Posted
NCL CRUISE LINES[/url] Hope you are paying attention here :D

 

Here is an example of what I am talking about...

 

On our cruise which leaves on Jan 31st, we will be hitting Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta on the days before the Carnival (Mardi Gras) weekend begins. Mazatlan begins the pre-festival activities on the 4th (we will be there on the 3rd) and Puerto Vallarta on the 5th (we will be there on the 4th). Im not sure how much of the pre-festival activities we will be able to take part of but it would be neat to be in Mazatlan on the 4th and I am assuming that Puerto Vallarta will be out.

 

What would be really nice on both of these ports is if the Ship left at 10pm or Midnight (totally do-able) So we could get a taste of the nightlife in these ports. And it would be cool if they swapped the Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta stops so we could se some of the pre-festival activities. Granted this is all blah blah blah and none of this is going to happen...much less I really have no experience with the Carnival party in these cities and there may very well be nothing happening on any of these days.

 

But - the cruise following us and leaving on Feb 7th (Superbowl) and being in Cabo on the 9th (The big parade and celebration happening in Mazatlan that day) will leave port at 6pm before any partying begins in Cabo San Lucas and will be in Mazatlan on the 10th (ash wednesday) when everything is closed and the streets will be a mess and not a whole lot happening. Im imagining the few stray overly drunk passed out persons randomly dotting the streets early in the morning of the 10th. That cruise would be awesome if it hit Mazatlan on the 9th, overnighted and then headed of to Cabo San Lucas in the morning which would be totally doable.

 

None the less...maybe when the cruiselines have done all they can to squeeze every penny out to make a profit they will then start realizing the value of this.

 

8-Dec Tuesday Feast of the Immaculate Conception Observance

22-Dec Tuesday December Solstice Season

24-Dec Thursday Christmas Eve Observance, Christian

31-Dec Thursday New Year's Eve Observance

6-Jan Wednes Day of the Holy Kings Observance

10-Feb Wednes Ash Wednesday Observance, Christian

24-Feb Wednes Flag Day Observance

24-Mar Thursday Maundy Thursday Bank holiday

 

-Sean

 

Sounds like you need a private yacht. ;)

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nadeki

nadeki

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We were on the first cruise of the season on the Jewel two weeks ago.

 

We saw lots of flying fish and a few turtles in the water on our way home.

 

A couple whales but not much. This was throughout the week and on the way home.

 

We love the Las Caletas excursion in PV.

 

We do the Stone Beach day with a private company.

 

In Cabo, two bay snorkel was lot of fun.

 

We did not spend time watching shows, we were busy eating!

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

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We were on the first cruise of the season on the Jewel two weeks ago.

 

We saw lots of flying fish and a few turtles in the water on our way home.

 

A couple whales but not much. This was throughout the week and on the way home.

 

We love the Las Caletas excursion in PV.

 

We do the Stone Beach day with a private company.

 

In Cabo, two bay snorkel was lot of fun.

 

We did not spend time watching shows, we were busy eating!

Thanks for reporting in :) I will be curious to see if anyone knows what night the VIP Party is.

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wilmingtech Great Review Rare

wilmingtech

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It will be interesting to see how much damage the Mexican Riviera will sustain from Hurricane Patricia. Just wondering what cruises there will look like over the next 6 to 8 weeks. Especially those headed out this Sunday the 25th of October...

 

-Sean

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SunnySailorBoy

SunnySailorBoy

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In light of today's Hurricane Patricia's landfall, I hope Puerto Vallarta isn't beat up too bad, and that her residents are safe.

 

We've got Las Caletas booked about two weeks and a half weeks out from today and I'm wondering if I need to come up with a Plan B.

 

We're on the same booking as LAFFNVEGAS :).

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LAFFNVEGAS "Live from...." Rare

LAFFNVEGAS

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From all the reports I am seeing this morning PV really had no damage, the airport has reopened and it appears today or at least later today will be business as usual. Manzanillo also did not get the wind damage they expected but has had flooding. Not finding as much information for Manzanillo. The hardest hit were small fishing villages on the coast.

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