LIVE from the Star 4/18/06

[Megsmom1]

OMG!! Thank you so much for this amazing account of your trip. I felt like I was right there with you. DH and I have decided to def. book it... I am really looking forward to everything! I may even get psyched for the canopy tour, even tho there is rappelling involved.

 

Thank you again so much!:)

[OCLadies]

We had a GREAT cruise!! The ship is wonderful, the staff is warm and friendly, plenty of activities if you want to partake, food in the "non speciality" eateries is good (not great but good), food in the "speciality" restaurants is considerably better as they are cooking for a smaller crowd and not the masses. The old adage "you get what you pay for" applies here.

 

The weather was warm/humid in Mexico, but that's normal for this time of year. The first couple of days at sea are always a little cooler and once you leave Cabo and head North to LA it turns cool again. For those of you coming from out of Southern California, April is NOT a warm month for us generally speaking.

 

I've read that some felt the ship a little too rocky that first day, but that was NOT our experience and we were on Deck 11 Forward. Generally the ships tv log indicated sea swells at 1' - 3 1/2', with the exception of one day late in the cruise when they were 4' - 7'. Again, not bad at all! Smooth Sailing !!!

 

We dined in Cagney's, Endless Summer and Ginza's Tepanyaki room twice and found service and food very good.

 

We're gamblers so when the Casino was open we were pretty much there (except for when we were at Bingo gambling) playing mostly table games and some slots. No one was winning very much at any game, but it's the only game in town. We go to Vegas, Laughlin and the Indian Casinos quite a bit and never loose like we did on board. Could have bought another cruise with what we lost. LOL Oh well, it's only $$.

 

We did the Zip line through Los Veranos, NOT the one offered by NCL. Booked it ourselves online for $72/ea. From talking with others who took the NCL zip line tour we not only saved $$ but had a much better tour. We had 14 Zip lines!!!

 

Mexico is Mexico. It's pretty much still a 3rd World country. The towns are not clean, sanitation remains in the dark ages, people are very poor and will approach you for $$. But they are good people, just trying to eek out a meger living. What Mexico does offer is plenty of warm weather, warm waters and lots of water activities to enjoy.

 

Just keep in mind that a cruise is what YOU make of it!! No vacation goes perfectly, and if you're looking to nit pic you'll find something to grouse about. Your days at sea can be as relaxing as you want or as busy as you want. YOU choose. But you can't beat looking out at that vast Sea, the sunrises and sunsets, watching the dolphins play (if you're lucky enough to spot them), see a sea turtle pass by, pulling into a new and exciting port and just enjoying what beauty surrounds you. So pull up your chair, order yourself a drink and just enjoy the moment and the fact that you are alive and are fortunate to afford what so many others can not. Enjoy your cruise!!!;)

[Stillfloatin']

OC Ladies: LOVE your attitude! That's exactly how I feel about every cruise I've been on. Some are better ships, some have better food, some countries are nicer, some cabins are larger but IT'S ALL GOOD! :D

[judyf]

OC Ladies glad to read you had a great cruise. I love reading all the reviews!!

[tvwebguy]

We had a great time on the cruise. I'm working on a picture posting. I'll let you know when it's ready.

[jennylane]

i was talking to tvwebguy who booked the los verranos tour himself, and it sounded like he and i had the identical trip....i didnt count the ziplines but i thought they had said it was 13 or 14.

 

here's the conclusion of my stuff.....

 

Day 8 – At Sea, cont.

We’re home! It’s 7:30 and I’ve finally gotten the energy to open the computer. We got home around 3 but enough of that for now. Back to last night.

I had a little time before dinner so I filled out our surveys. I never would have thought I’d have watched the NCL tv channels but I actually did a few times. It was nice because they reran the disembarkation talk several times and I was able to watch it. There wasn’t really anything earth shattering but at the same time I like knowing what was talked about.

On the way to dinner I stopped in the atrium to drop off the customer surveys. I also remembered that dh’s mom likes the little booklets of postcards from places so I got one of those (they sell them at the reception desk). Then we went to Le Bistro for our final night and it was as good as the first time we were there. I had a bit of a hard time because quite frankly I wanted to stay in the room and pack instead of shower and change for dinner. But I’m glad I did because it was fun to go again. We both had fillets again, and for dessert we ordered the chocolate fondue AND a crème brulee! I must say that the fruit looked a little ragged, being the end of the week. But other than that, everything was great.

We went back to the room to pack. I think by this time it was a little past 9:00. Dh helped me pack a few things, and then settled into his book. Truthfully, that was fine with me because the cabin is just a little small for two people to be trying to get things organized and packed up. I thought it would take a lot longer than it did, but I finished packing and was in bed before 11. We called our friends from shopping and they said they had tried to check out the bars, but that hardly anyone was out. We hadn’t even considered doing anything that night. We had to be ready to go by between 7:30 and 8, so I set my alarm for 5:30.

Ah, I can’t forget to tell you about my late night snack. Now part of this is my fault, which is why I didn’t complain to anyone at NCL. My birthday was last Thursday, and we had ordered decorations and a cake. And for whatever reason, we never actually ate any of the cake. I had put it into an xl ziplock bag and kind of let it sit. I figured that it would be good for a day or two since we hadn’t cut into it and I kept the room like an igloo. But that day or two came and went and we still hadn’t broken into it. The steward left it, so it sat in the corner. So dh decides that he wants a bedtime snack and wouldn’t come cake be great. I thought well it should be fine, maybe a little stale, but it should be fine, right? A lot of times wedding cakes sit for a day or two, the frosting kind of acts like an insulator. So he brings the cake over to the bed and we dig in with two forks, not cutting it…why bother…just take a forkful. It was white cake with white frosting and a strawberry layer between the cake and the frosting. I thought the first bite (which I took from the middle) was actually pretty good. Dh took one bite and said, nah I don’t really like that. And he’s sometimes picky so that didn’t surprise me, I just thought he was being picky. I wanted to see what the inside looked like so I sliced off the outer frosting from the side and then took a forkful next to the edge, and popped it into my mouth. Now THIS bite tasted very different from the first, to me it tasted like metal. I thought it was because it was on a silver plate so I still wasn’t alarmed. Dh didn’t want any more but I wanted to have another bite for some stupid reason. So I took another forkful and that’s when I saw it….BIG GREEN FUZZ!!!!! So then I start screaming and dh thinks I’m having some allergic reaction or maybe I’ve found bedbugs…. I’m like, get it OUT of here!! So I’m not sure who he found in the hall, or if he even found anyone, but I made him get it out of the room. I brushed my teeth twice, mouthwashed 3 times and then ate some cheese balls and STILL all I could taste was the metaly moldy YUCK EWW GROSS!!! But like I said, the cake was 5 days old so I didn’t want to make a huge case of it. But it was still completely horrifying.

Sooooo, that was the end of the bedtime snack, time for bed instead.

Day 9 – Back to the real world!!!

Well, in our haste to get packed, we forgot to hang the room service breakfast menu. Oh well. We knew we’d get to the airport with hours to spare so we decided to just eat there. We got ready, finished the last minute packing and still had some time to spare. We found the bill that was waiting for us and checked it over. It was about what we had both expected, not great but not horrifying either.

We had been told to meet in the atrium between 7:30 and 8:00, so around 7:15 I looked in the hall, and by chance, there was an announcement saying, “please refrain from congregating in the atrium…” so I wasn’t sure what we should do. Our room steward was running around and looked very hopeful when he thought we were done with our cabin, so we decided to grab just two bags and head downstairs to see what others were doing. Once we got down to the 7th floor, thanks to some perfect timing, we latched onto a group of people who had been waiting in the elevator lobby area – they were being moved to the Carousel bar to wait to be called. So I took the bags we brought downstairs and dh headed up to retrieve the rest of the luggage.

I think we really ended up in a good place, in fact I think we were called before the people in the atrium, although it did look like the two groups formed two lines. At about 7:45 we started moving out to the deck are and down to the exit, and then into the pier building. We got into line (a very short one) for immigration/customs and went through our customs form and passports very quickly. He just asked us some quick questions about where we were, what we were doing, our birthdates and where we live. Then we were sent to the elevator.

Now this is the only complaint I have of the express disembarkation. There is only one SLOW elevator, and two escalators going down (I didn’t see the up escalator). There are people directing you and they won’t let you on the escalator unless you can physically carry all of your luggage. In other words, you cant drag your luggage onto the escalator. So you wait…and wait…and wait. It really wasn’t that bad, but it definitely did slow the line down a lot.

I had thought that our bags would be scanned and/or inspected, but that didn’t happen. When we got off the elevator, there was a porter with a cart waiting to take our bags if we wanted him to, which we did. He loaded everything up and walked us to the front of the building, where there was someone waiting to take our customs forms from us. No questions, just collected the form. Then out the front door and we were done, that was that! We were at the taxi stand by 8:10. It really was painless and I’d definitely do the express route again.

The next part probably isn’t of any interest to you but I feel silly not giving the story an ending, so here’s the rest of the trip. Our flight wasn’t till 1:30 so we had a LOT of extra time. We checked our bags curbside (which maybe we shouldn’t have because we could have checked for an earlier flight, oh well…) and then got in the long line for security…the line went down the hall, down the escalator, out the door, down the sidewalk and back up the sidewalk. Once through we found some breakfast and then settled in for a nice wait. But for once I didn’t mind, it was nice to just sit and ease back into being home again. Around noon we took the shuttle over to the mini-terminal to catch our mini-plane for our mini-flight (about 45 min flight). Made it to San Jose, all of our luggage made it as well, took a cab home, and now I’m back on my bed with the dogs, typing as if the whole trip never even happened!!!

Here are a few post trip comments. I do wish that there was a larger variety of in-room movies. It’s not that I want to watch movies all the time, but I’d like to not have to watch Cher in concert a dozen times. And I don’t have anything against Cher, but it got old. Couldn’t they have a larger number of movies so that they didn’t repeat so much, or maybe one more channel to have another to choose from?

I also wish there was a larger variety on the room service menu. We only used room service for breakfast but I would have liked a few more snacks and a few more…well everything….

Let me know if you want any more info about anything…food, the excursions we did, whatever you’re interested in. I got so much information before our cruise from so may people on the cc website, I’m happy to share any info that I have.

I packed a TON of stuff and I used almost everything I packed. We took four large suitcases (oh btw one of the wheels on one of the suitcases was damaged on the flight home) in addition to our carryons and everything was full. Most of the tips that I used from cruise critic were useful and accurate. I could have done without the nitelite, I’m not sure that we really needed it, as we kept the closet light on but the doors closed. I used and loved ALL of the organizers I brought (shoe organizer hung on the wall, small clear organizer hung on bathroom door for toiletries, belt hanger in closet to hang strappy shirts from, hanging closet sweater/shoe organizer for shoes and clothes). I used the duct tape and the power strip. Oh another thing I really liked was magnets. You know the magnets with the paper clip type thing attached…you can stick it on your fridge and attach a takeout menu to it… I brought a bunch of them and stuck them to the adjoining door to the next room, which is of course metal. I clipped the dailies to them, the slips for our restaurant reservations, our excursion tickets, everything I needed readily accessible and each had its own clip. I also hung a small mesh envelope shaped pouch from the robe hook in the cabin and since it was so close to the door, it was a convenient place to toss receipts in as we came back to the room. Those receipts really pile up! I wouldn’t have needed as many books as I took, and I would have worn a few more shirts if I’d have taken them. I didn’t run out, but I think I would have liked more choices. I took 8 pairs of shoes and wore all but one pair. So even though I packed a lot, I really don’t think that I overpacked. I had a few extras, but I’d rather have it that way than to have wished I’d have taken things. The huge ziplock bags are genius…I got the kind that are in the grocery store, I think they’re 2 or 2.5 gallon, and then I also got the gigantic kind that you can store pillows and blankets in with handles, all of them came in really handy. I also took two pop-up hampers and used them both and was really glad I had them.

We’re going to go on another cruise, but we’re going to wait for a bit to book it. I didn’t want to book another cruise just because we were there and felt pressured to do so, but I wanted to come home and think about it for a while and decide what we want to do. We’d like to go to Alaska since it leaves from the west coast and it’s a location that interests us, but both the Caribbean and Europe are both calling me as well, so we’ll see what we end up doing. It will partly depend on how fast those NCL credit card points add up!!!

[LVScooby]

Jenny...two words for you...

 

YOU ROCK! :thumbsup:;)

[sametu]

May I add one more word...AWESOME! Thanks!!!!

[Stillfloatin']

Jenny - SUPER review. Thanks so much. Now, I do have one question if you don't mind: Can you please tell me for each port which side of the ship faces the docking area? Our cabin is starboard and I was just wondering what the views from our balcony would be like when we're in port. Thanks.

[judyf]

Great review Jenny. I felt like I was there with you.

 

I almost booked our next cruise while onboard too but decide I wanted to research a little more then decide.

[pool girl]

Hi Jenny: I was there with you and I agree this was a fabulous vacation. I had no complaints at all. My DH did have one small complaint which I could just hit him for(you know what I am talking about women)he wanted better tv channels. He wanted me to write this down on my comment card. Needless to say I didn't but I don't know if he wrote it on his. Silly boy. I also will be doing another cruise hopefully in another 2 years. Any way I am glad you had fun too and yes you did a great review.:)

[jennylane]

i'm tired today. i had an appt at 11:30 and it was all i could do to throw on some clothes and make it there. i've been laying in bed in front of the food channel and dozing on and off all day. i havent even touched the laundry and the suitcases are lying on the bedroom floor begging to be unpacked! dh went back to work today and i just text messaged him begging him to pick up a pizza on the way home :D i wonder if we should convince the medical community to give "post cruise blues" a medical diagnosis!!

 

for the person who asked about the views from the balcony. i was on the port side so i can just tell you about what i saw, and even that i cant really remember. plus remember that when you tender, the view may be a little different each time. on the way down to acapulco we had sea view all the time, and KILLER sunrises, although once the sun did rise, omg it was bright. the view from acapulco was nice, some little buildings on the hills in the distance and a view of the pier and the people walking back and forth along the little walkway near the water. i do remember that the view in one if the cities was of a beautiful beach with big huge rocks jutting up between little patches of beach. it looked like it would have been amazing for snorkeling. i think that was cabo. in that same port we had a view of one of holland america's ships, which wasnt that great of a view because it was kind of close and i dont know...the ship is dark blue like a tanker ship. anyway, thats all i remember. isnt it funny how fast we forget things?

 

i wanted to mention the caesar salads. i'm having a caesar salad craving right now, and i'm not usually a fan. i've read some people's reviews which said they did not prepare them tableside but we had both of ours prepared tableside both times we went to le bistro. now when we went to cagneys or versailles it was not tableside. yummy!

 

judy, it didnt seem to me that they were trying to get us to book another cruise quite hard enough for me. if they'd have been offering amazing deals, i might have been convinced but there didnt seem to be a lot off the price. no deposit, complete flexibility of changing to a different cruise if you want, and an onboard credit, but i was looking more for a price break in order to want to book right away.

 

views from balcony i was port

salad at cagneys lots of dressing

booking another cruise

[jennylane]

now you know my secret....before i start typing i make myself a note of what i'm supposed to answer, and on that last one i forgot to delete the notes before i posted!!! i told you i was tired!!!

[tvwebguy]

Acapulco - port side to the dock

 

ixtapa - tender, bow was facing south westerly

 

Puerto Vallerta - tender, however, if docking it appeared that the port side would be facing the dock

 

Cabo - tender, bow facing south

[tvwebguy]

OK. I've posted some pictures. I haven't labled them yet. I'm working on it. Enjoy.

 

http://kroetz.shutterfly.com

[judyf]

Nice pictures thanks for posting

[German]

Day 4 – Acapulco

We did not go to either. We heard some people say that old town was very rundown and depressing, and we didn’t think we wanted to spend enough money to warrant a trip to the flea market.

Jenny,

At first I felt exactly as you did; intimidated and uncomfortable by both the cab drivers and others trying to offer their services and goods, and I got especially irritated by this guy who kept on walking with us after we told him we were on our way to the flea market. As it turned out we had my sister in law in her scooter with us (which works better than her wheelchair on cobblestone), and I am not kidding we could have never navigated the craziness of those traffic insane streets by ourselves with her on her scooter. Our self appointed guide, plus some buddy of his he also enlisted, got her to ride on the side of the road with cars all over the place, he actually stopped traffic many times. It was beautiful, and the whole time I thought I was not totally safe even on the sidewalk and here she is right in the middle!. Both stayed with us during our shopping trip at the flea market; and granted we thought there would be some kick back for them bringing cruise pax to the shops, but nevertheless, they were friendly and accommodating. We ended up making arrangements with them that same night to take us to the cliff diving, ended up they also took us to a restaurant for dinner. Once again they came through. All being equal and having traveled extensively all over the world, this truly was an experience worth noting in my book.

[Chipster2]

Jenny

 

Thanks for posting your review. Always looking to hear what others are saying about the ship we will be taking this fall.

 

Thanks.

[vette]

Jenny,

 

Thanks again for your daily reviews. I loved reading them.

 

TVWebguy - Thanks for the pictures, great shots.

 

Vette

[jennylane]

now that we've had a few days to reflect, i think we've decided that we wont be heartbroken if we dont get back to acapulco anytime soon. we did enjoy the other stops, but for us, acapulco had more negatives than positives. we're glad we went, dont get me wrong, its just not somewhere we'd race back to.

 

it was my husbands first cruise and i was concerned that it might be our last, but he enjoyed enough of it to join in conversation with me about which one we might do next. he felt we got a great value for our money and liked having the floating hotel aspect....our clothes in one place, food plans taken care of, etc. we live on the west coast so i think we'll do alaska next, and then maybe something in europe in a few years.

 

i'm STILL not unpacked! i'm tempted to create some sort of "cruise storage bin" or something to put all of the items that i need for our next trip.

[judyf]

Jenny I have just that. I have a dresser with two drawers just for cruise stuff, it started out as one. I also use some of it on other vacations too. It makes it so much easier to pack when it's all together.

[pool girl]

now that we've had a few days to reflect, i think we've decided that we wont be heartbroken if we dont get back to acapulco anytime soon. we did enjoy the other stops, but for us, acapulco had more negatives than positives. we're glad we went, dont get me wrong, its just not somewhere we'd race back to.

 

it was my husbands first cruise and i was concerned that it might be our last, but he enjoyed enough of it to join in conversation with me about which one we might do next. he felt we got a great value for our money and liked having the floating hotel aspect....our clothes in one place, food plans taken care of, etc. we live on the west coast so i think we'll do alaska next, and then maybe something in europe in a few years.

 

i'm STILL not unpacked! i'm tempted to create some sort of "cruise storage bin" or something to put all of the items that i need for our next trip.

I agree Jenny. I felt very intimidated in Acapulco. I did like our tour guide but the cliff divers were the highlight for me. I loved Puerto Vallarta though that was a wonderful place. I wasn't crazy about cabo san lucas though but that is probably because the tour guide kept hitting on my daughter.

[jennylane]

EWWWW on the hitting on your daughter!!! that would ruin the whole thing for me. we didnt mind the other cities, but maybe thats because we were comparing them to acapulco. we did the bar hopping and dolphins in acapulco, and didnt mind either, but we also went for a walk on our own and that we didnt enjoy at all. i'm glad someone else felt that way.... i had convinced myself that we're just snobs!!!

 

judy i'm glad to know someone else does that too ;) i think i'll take one of those plastic tubs and label it "cruise stuff" and toss all the stuff in there. i think thats part of why i didnt unpack yet, i dont really know where to go with some of the stuff. it was the first cruise in a LONG time for me and so a lot of the things were purchased just for this trip, so its not like they have a regular home at our place. my lovely dh's solution is to throw it all away and just buy it all again when we go again...can you imagine???? or maybe he's worried that if i have it laying around i'll be more likely to bug him about taking the next cruise! out of sight out of mind???