My review of the Jewel's 16-night WB Panama Canal cruise, Jan. 20-Feb. 5, 2017

[Turtles06]

The Mazatlán Cathedral is unique because it is the only Catholic church in the world that has Stars of David (Jewish Stars) in its stained glass windows. We were told they were placed there to honor the members of the Jewish community who provided funds to help build the church, because the Catholic community could not afford the costs.

Before we leave, some additional photos of the lovely interior:

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

After visiting the Cathedral, we hired a pulmonia driver to take us on a two-hour tour. He drove us all around old Mazatlán and along the malecón into new Mazatlán, filled with high rise hotels and condos.

 

Along the way, we stopped to watch a cliff diver. It doesn't look like he's going to make it, but he did.

We happened to be in Mazatlán just before Carnaval, and the city had already put up fantastic statues all around, especially along the malecón.

Pulmonias are so important to Mazatlán that the city has a pulmonia monument!

Our tour in the pulmonia was a great way for us, as first-time visitors, to get a nice overview of the city. We ended back in old Mazatlán, and had a wonderful and relaxing lunch outdoors in a restaurant along one of the squares.

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

After lunch, we walked around the old city a bit before heading back to the ship. We enjoyed the colorful streets, and tiled window frames.

 

 

 

Sailaway took us past the old city

 

 

And several pelicans sent us on our way

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

Our last port was Cabo San Lucas. In some respects, it was sad to arrive here, as it meant our wonderful trip was nearly over. But we were certainly looking forward to whale watching again, and Cabo did not disappoint!

 

Our port call was 7AM-2PM, another very compressed day. Also, Cabo is a tender port, so whatever you do on shore, you have to allow time for tendering back and forth.

 

We arrived early in the morning:

 

 

The sun was just coming up as we caught an early tender to the marina.

 

 

Tender ports may sometimes be a hassle, but I always love seeing our ship from the tender:

 

 

Speaking of hassles, things went a bit awry as we got close to the marina in Cabo -- our tender began to have engine trouble, and we were pretty much dead in the water. Fortunately,after going nowhere fast for a little while, another of the Jewel's tenders was able to nudge us into the dock.

 

 

As I mentioned in my Puerto Vallarta post, we'd booked a whale wathing tour in Cabo with Whale Watch Cabo. These folks run a terrific operation, and I highly recommend them. To get to their office, we had to walk around the lovely marina.

 

 

We spotted a sea lion in the water along the way

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

Once aboard our little whale watching boat, we had a tour of the harbor as we headed to the Pacific, and along the way got a beautiful, close-up view of Cabo's famous Arch, also called Land's End.

 

 

From there, we headed out into the open ocean, speeding quickly to get to where the whales likely were. And we really got to see a lot of whales!

 

 

Our guide spotted a mama whale "running" with her calf, and we followed them for some time. We'll see them again in the post below.

 

 

(photos by turtle06)

[Turtles06]

The baby humpback we were following was about three weeks old. At this point in its life, it's getting a great deal of instruction from mama, including -- learning how to breach!! .

 

Here's the baby, having an incredibly fun time. It was like, "wow, mom, this is so much fun!!" And wow, it was amazing to see this!

 

 

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

Mama humpback was not letting her calf have all the fun. And while baby could muster a little back flip, mama rose straight up out of the sea, and was pretty much vertical. It's almost incomprehensible that an animal this large, weighing about 50,000 pounds or more, can do this. We were definitely in the right place at the right time this morning. Whale watching in Cabo -- awesome!!

 

 

 

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[easyboy]

Apologies for the delay in continuing my review (there's this thing called work!)

Our whale watching tour took us far out into the bay, where we followed a number of humpbacks. Some of them showed us their tales, but mostly they were very subdued. Our guide did put a hydrophone into the water, which allowed us to listen to the male humpbacks singing as they tried to attract a mate. It was just fantastic to hear humpback whales singing live!

 

 

You got me excited here! That must be interesting!

[Turtles06]

You got me excited here! That must be interesting!

 

Yes, hearing the whales singing was incredible. In fact, it was quiet enough in the bay for those with really good hearing to be able to hear the whales without the hydrophone!

[perfect match]

WOW! Turtles, you promised great whale watch pictures from Cabo and you really delivered! <3

 

I also loved your pictures and info from Mazatlan. Interesting info about the star of David in the cathedral.

[Turtles06]

Sadly, our wonderful cruise finally came to end. After 16 beautiful days, we awoke to dreary skies in San Pedro, fitting our mood at having to go home!

 

 

 

(photos by turtles06)

[Turtles06]

I've never bought the chart showing our itinerary before, but I did on this cruise, as it was such an extraordinary adventure. We traveled 4767 nautical miles, taking us from one side of the continent to the other, thanks to the Panama Canal, one of most incredible accomplishments of human engineering. What a great trip!!!

 

Thanks again to everyone who has read this thread. If anyone has any questions, just ask!

 

[eltigre]

Thank you so much for a terrific review & pictures. We don't go until Feb 2018, however your information has been a great help in our research.

[dancemum]

Thank you for the great review. We are booked onto the star in Feb 2018. Tjis is a dream cruise for my husband and only his secind cruise. Is there anyway I can get the contact info for the people you used for private excursions as the links are not working for me.

 

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Forums mobile app

[Crusin'Cousins]

Great review Judith...

 

What a wonderful cruise. We so much enjoyed our excursions and time spent with you and Eileen as well as the others from our roll call. Great memories were created from those couple of weeks.

 

Hope you are both feeling better. Sounds like so many caught whatever bug it was that was going around. We were fortunate enough to have avoided it. Thank goodness!

 

Your whale pictures in Cabo are amazing. Even those we took in PV don't come close to matching those that you shared here. Great pictures!

 

Hope our paths cross again some time...

 

Tim

[easyboy]

I've never bought the chart showing our itinerary before, but I did on this cruise, as it was such an extraordinary adventure. We traveled 4767 nautical miles, taking us from one side of the continent to the other, thanks to the Panama Canal, one of most incredible accomplishments of human engineering. What a great trip!!!

 

Thanks again to everyone who has read this thread. If anyone has any questions, just ask!

Thanks again for the great review and sharing the wonderful photos.

[eltigre]

Thank you for the great review. We are booked onto the star in Feb 2018. Tjis is a dream cruise for my husband and only his secind cruise. Is there anyway I can get the contact info for the people you used for private excursions as the links are not working for me.

 

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Forums mobile app

 

You are on the same cruise as we are in Feb. Let's chat on our roll call. If you are interested in sharing info.

[Turtles06]

Great review Judith...

 

What a wonderful cruise. We so much enjoyed our excursions and time spent with you and Eileen as well as the others from our roll call. Great memories were created from those couple of weeks.

 

Hope you are both feeling better. Sounds like so many caught whatever bug it was that was going around. We were fortunate enough to have avoided it. Thank goodness!

 

Your whale pictures in Cabo are amazing. Even those we took in PV don't come close to matching those that you shared here. Great pictures!

 

Hope our paths cross again some time...

 

Tim

 

Hi Tim, thanks so much for the kind words. It was really great to meet you and Sally; you both helped make the trip special.

 

Glad that neither of you got that virus. It was incredibly persistent. I only stopped coughing about a week ago!

 

I agree -- I hope our paths cross again. Safe and happy travels!

 

Judith

[Turtles06]

Thank you for the great review. We are booked onto the star in Feb 2018. Tjis is a dream cruise for my husband and only his secind cruise. Is there anyway I can get the contact info for the people you used for private excursions as the links are not working for me.

 

Sent from my SM-G935W8 using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks for reading and for your kind words! Here's the contact info for the private shore excursions we took:

 

Cartagena, Colombia: Dora de Zubiria

 

http://www.cartagenatour.com/

 

dora@cartagenatour.com

 

Costa Rica: Gio Tours

 

http://www.costaricacruisetours.com/

 

info@giotours.com

 

Puerto Vallarta and Cabo: Whale Watch Vallarta and Whale Watch Cabo

 

http://whalewatchvallarta.com/

 

http://whalewatchcabo.com/

 

they have direct contact forms on their websites

 

I hope that's helpful. Have a great trip!

[dancemum]

Thanks so much. Greatly appreciated

 

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[BritChickBN1]

What a wonderful cruise. Thank you so much for sharing.

[SeahawkSiren]

Great review! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Those photos of the whales were awesome! That is probably my biggest regret about our Panama Canal cruise back in October was I knew we were not in whale watching season then and would miss seeing them in Mexico (but since our cruise was offered as a replacement for a cancelled cruise we didn't have a choice with the dates). Someday when we do another Panama Canal cruise I will make sure it is during whale watching season. Thanks again. So glad you had a great trip!

[Turtles06]

What a wonderful cruise. Thank you so much for sharing.

 

Thank you!

[Turtles06]

Great review! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. Those photos of the whales were awesome! That is probably my biggest regret about our Panama Canal cruise back in October was I knew we were not in whale watching season then and would miss seeing them in Mexico (but since our cruise was offered as a replacement for a cancelled cruise we didn't have a choice with the dates). Someday when we do another Panama Canal cruise I will make sure it is during whale watching season. Thanks again. So glad you had a great trip!

 

Thanks for the kind words, and again, thanks for your own awesome review, which was so helpful to us.

 

As for Cabo -- we were very excited when we realized we'd be there during the whale migration season. In fact, we'd never been to the Mexican Riviera; we enjoyed those ports more than we thought we would, and can certainly see why the route is so popular, especially for folks on the West Coast. I'd gladly go back.

[perfect match]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us. I've really enjoyed the journey, and I've picked up a number of tips along the way. :cool: