Mexican Reviera Questions / VOS

[mmadhatter]

Our family of 6 (4 teenagers) have always traveled the Caribbean. I am interested in trying something different. Found a reasonable price for us on the Vision of the Seas on Jan 9, 2005. Have a few questions and welcome any comments, suggestions,etc on heading cross country (We are from New Hampshire) for a trip on the VOS out of LA.

 

Are the seas rougher on the west coast compared to the Caribbean?

Is the weather favorable and warm? Temps?

Are the ports interesting & fun?

Is it expensive / far from LA airport to the peir?

Any budget hotels for day before arrival?

Alternate or cheaper airports than LAX?

Any hotels that provide free shuttle to the pier / airport?

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I have already booked the AOS out of San Juan but really want to try the Mexican Reviera!

 

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[parr0thead]

I'll try to reply, but it's been quite a few years since I did this itinerary. Also I went in June not Jan. so that could make a difference.

 

The seas weren't any rougher except at the time they used the life boats for tenders and they rocked some getting on and off the ship.

 

The weather was great when I was there.

 

Can't remember what tours I took, but I do remember that I liked Puerto Villarta, and Matzalan more then Cabo. Cabo was hotter and rocky looking as opposed to green and lush.

 

Don't know about the hotels or airports.

 

I would diffenately do it again.

 

Sorry I don't think I was alot of help to you.

 

Kathy M

 

22 RCI Cruises and counting

2 Carnival Cruises

 

Mariner of the Seas 2004

 

 

 

[little miss s]

I can't answer all your questions, but here's a couple for starters.

 

1. Weather: In Dec 2002, I spent a week in Cabo San Lucas. In Dec 2003, I spent a week on a Cruise in the Western Caribbean. The differences in the weather were substantial. The weather in Cabo the week we were there was in the upper 60's to low 70's with a pretty cool wind. At night it cooled off even more. In the Cozumel area in Dec 2003 the temps were in the 80's.

 

2. Ports: Cabo San Lucas was lots of fun. We found lots to do there. We took a glass bottom boat out to Lover's Beach, took a desert ATV tour to an oasis spring, rented jet skis, did some snorkling, went to Todos Santos to the see the Hotel California, and did some surfing on the Pacific Coast side.

 

Hope that helps.

 

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Past Cruises

NCL Sea 9/1999

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[jstducky]

mmadhatter:

 

i think i can help respond to some of your questions about the airport.

 

from LAX down to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro is roughly 25 miles. you can take Super Shuttle, which will probably end up being the cheapest form of transportation and will take you directly to the pier for about $25 a person, give and take some. you can also take a cab, but i beleive that a cab might cost you like $40-$50, but since you are a large familu, it might work out better that way. or of course, you can take RCI transportation.

 

alternate airports... the best airport really is to fly into Long Beach airport. its in Long Beach which is a neighboring city to San Pedro. your shuttle ride or cab ride to the pier will be a lot cheaper. the only problem is that Long Beach is a smaller airport and offers a lot less flights. if Jet Blue flies out of your area, try Jet Blue, they are a low cost but good service airline whose hub is out of Long Beach. as for cost, its hard to say, the costs of the flight itself might not necessarily be cheaper, you just need to do some research.

 

as for the temps, i can tell you that the temps in LA in early January usually are in the mid to high 60s range.

 

hope you enjoy your cruise!

 

jstducky!

-----------------

...til 9/04 - Jewel of the Seas - Canada / New England

 

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...til 7/04 - Zuiderdam - Western Caribbean

 

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7/03 - Zaandam - Alaska

4/03 - Norweigan Star - Hawaii

7/96 - Noordam - Alaska

7/96 - Golden Princess - Alaska

8/95 - Jubilee - Mexican Riviera

[ccletzgo]

Have done this cruise 4 times. The seas are the same. The air temps are the same, but the water temps are cooler. (I have never been to cabo when its been 60 degrees)

Remember the water is a differant color too, due to the fact that the sand is not white, like in the caribbean. The waters are darker.

 

The ports are a lot of fun. Tons to do. WE do something differant every time. Everything from water sports, to city tours. A tequilla factory, and horse back riding. On the ports of call board you can see all the fun things to do.

I dont know if its cheaper, but flying into Long Beach vs. LAX is a lot closer to the port.

Its about 1/2 hour, and a $40 cab fare from LAX. (fast cab drivers)

No big deal. I loved it when we where on the Vision in Feb. and cruised out of San Diego. Beautiful port and 5 mins. from air port. OUr best weather on this cruise was in feb. also. Nov was good and Dec. has always been spotty.

 

Lets Go!

 

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Royal's Vision 2/02

Royal's Vision 12/02

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Celebrity Galaxy 9/17/04 !!

 

 

 

 

[DChabira]

I would like to try and answer most of your questions but I must disagree with some of the people who have posted so far. Let me first say I'm not trying to discourage you from taking this cruise. We have done it twice recently, once with just my wife and me, and once with our two teenage sons. I just want you to have all f the facts.

 

We live in Las Vegas and it saves us about $1200 to drive to Long Beach or San Diego vs. flying to Florida, so this has been a deciding factor for us.

 

The Mexican Riviera is not the Caribbean. The seas are always somewhat rougher and the water is cold. We chose to go over the fourth of July as our research on weather.com told us the air temperature and the water temperature would be the warmest in July and August. The two days at sea from California to Cabo were cool and gray. Air temperature was 65 and water was just 60. The pools have salt water pumped from the ocean so the pools were freezing cold. We like to lie out and enjoy the pool on our sea days so the first two days were a loss.

 

Cabo the air temp was in the low 80's but the water was still only 70. We rented jet skis and wore wetsuits and it was somewhat comfortable. Cabo is where the sea of Cortez meats the pacific so the water warms up just south of cabo.

 

The next stop Mazatlan was our favorite. We went with Randi's happy horses on Stone Island. This is a must do excursion and the highlight of our cruise. Also, Mazatlan is a nice sized Mexican town and very cool in the Centro (downtown). They have a great Mercado. The water temp here was almost eighty and we enjoyed the ocean.

 

Puerto Vallarta was nice but all of the hotels control the beach and it's hard to find a public area. The water was warm but the bottom rocky so you need to wear flip flops. We para-sailed here for a very reasonable price. I think it was $35.00.

 

The trip back was again cool and gray and the pools freezing.

 

We had a great time but it's a very different cruise experience, like an Alaskan cruise, you have to look for different things and enjoy the ship.

 

We still prefer the Caribbean and the beautiful warm-azure waters. Last year we went on the Voyager (western Caribbean) and next month we fly to Puerto Rico to board the Adventure for a ten day Southern Caribbean cruise.

 

Also, the cheapest place to fly into is LAX because it's a major market for the airlines. You can rent a dollar rental car for under twenty dollars and take the entire family to the pier, drop them and the luggage at the pier, return the car in Long Beach and they'll give you a ride back to the pier. This s the cheapest way to go.

[SRAFROG]

Mmadhater

[SRAFROG]

Mmadhatter,

 

We have done this cruise 27 times and we also enjoyed it. Yes it is cool going down and coming back and yes the seas can get rough, we it 25ft seas one time, but it bother us from having fun. During the time you are going will be whale season so you should beable to see the whale and dolphins going down and on your return. Long Beach airport would be the closets one there is a Best Western in San Pedro close to where the ships dock and they would take you in their shuttle. Randies Horse's in Mazatlan is very popular and bucks up fast.

 

If you need anyother info just e-mail me.

 

Dennis

[suny0619]

Can anyone here tel me what the water and weather is like in the first week of november on the Mexican rivera? Thanks

[natesfirewife]

I can only vouch for Puerto Vallarta in November because that is where we like to go for Thanksgiving. The weather is usually nice that time of year (high 80's-low 90's) and the water is warm. We just got back from the Vision doing the Mexican Riveria and the water was cold in Cabo and Mazatlan. Of the three ports Puerto Vallarta is our favorite with Cabo second. When you go to PV check out www.vallarta-adventures.com , they have some of the best tours and the prices aren't too bad. They even have a Canopy Tour in the jungle! Now, we did not like Mazatlan and if we ever do that iten. again we will most likely stay on the ship. We did the Stone Island thing on our own and we just we not impressed with the beach there and the surrounding area. Everyone else that we talked to from our CC group also was not impressed with Mazatlan either. Cabo was great, we took a water taxi from the pier over to the Office (El Medano Beach) and we rented Jet Skis. Don't worry about the wetsuits, I get cold easy and I was fine without one. The weather was perfect and we just hung out at the beach. The airport shouldn't be too far away from the ship and I think they have shuttles. I know there are hotels close to the pier but I don't know the names. The first day at sea was warm and everyone was at the pools. The 2nd day at sea was ok but the third one was a bit windy and everyone hit the Solarium. We didn't feel the ship move at all until the last day and even then it wasn't that bad. If I can answer anything else let me know.

 

Misty

 

 

Grandeur of the Seas / W. Caribbean / 12-18-04

Vision of the Seas / Mexico / 04-04-04

Radiance of the Seas /Alaska /07-05-03

[dsclark]

I agree with Dchabira- you can get some miserable cruising weather down there.

 

I can't tell you anything about cabs and stuff down in Long Beach. I did used to live there and the beaches are pretty desolate during the winter for good reason. I used to often go there to surf, and even then, I was in the minority of surfers wearing a short suit.

I have did the mex riviera twice, once at the end of June, the other the 4th of July. Both times, it was miserable the first and last sea days. It was cold and windy enough to blow shoes around.No need to worry about deck chair hogs- there weren't many people out there! So, I considered that two days wasted.

The pacific is rockier than the Atlantic. When was the last time you saw some surf a 12' wave in the Carribean? It was rocky enough to cause the showroom curtains to move back and forth. Didn't bother me, but if you're sensitive...

Oh, I also went on a four day'er on the Ecstacy last Sept. It was so cold that many people wore their bathrobes around the pool.

Once you get down below Cabo, things warm up. Gets humid, too! All in all, it is ok, but if you have the $, it is well worth it to go to the carribean. Often, the cruises in fl are so much cheaper than the mexico cruises, that, with airfare, it only costs a few hundered more to snorkel St. John and see beautiful schools of fish, instead of snorkeling Puerto Vallarta, where you might mistake a mop handle for an eel (that happened to me!)

[cruzinw/kids]

Hi

 

We are also from NH and just got back on Aprl 3rd on the Princess Diamond. We flew out of Manchester on Southwest with a one stop in Kansa City but did not have to change planes. Smooth flight with no problems. When we got to LA we had reservations at the Radisson LAx and had their shuttle take us there. Hotel was very nice although the restaurant was pricey for dinner, the next morning we didn't see the restaurant open for breakfast but there were muffins and coffee for sale in the lobby. We hired our own private shuttle to taie us to the pier and I can get you the info if you would like. They were very efficient and a very modern van we even asked them to stop at a drug store as we forgot ou sea bands. I won;t tell you about the ship as this is a RCC website but it was beautiful. Coming home we had a delay in disembarking and our van driver was still waiting for us even though I did have to call him on my cell phone. LAX was very crowded and they searched our suitcases in front of us which I was not pleased with but the flight back home as uneventful. Mexico was beautiful and PV reminded me of Hawaii and later I was told that it was on the same latitude as HI. In Mazaltan we had no excursion planned so we were just going to gret a taxi to do shopping. Our driver and my husband agreed to a tour and he took us all over the place in these cute open air taxis, they look like golf carts - we had a blast except for a over tired 5 year old. We even stopped for lunch and the taxi drivers waited for us. I think the price was $80.00 plus tip for six of us, four adults and two kids. In Cabo my husband and daughter and father in law went on a fishing trip and I went on a whale watch with my 5 yrear old. The seas were very rough that day and the air was a little chilly. I thought the weather in the Carribean was warmer than in Mexico and the seas a little calmer but the scenery was beautiful and still had a great time. We picked up our car - we left it at the Highlander Inn for $7.00 a day with a AAA discount.

 

SS Norway, 1998

Norweigan Sky, Alaska, 2000

Norweigan Sun 2002

Diamond Princess 2004

[Cruise Miriam]

It has been a few years since I did the Vision to the Mex. Riv. and I got sick so I missed two of the three ports. We also sailed out of San Diego.

 

The seas were rougher than the Caribbean (this was a Nov. cruise just after 9/11) coming back and it was kind of cold.

 

Once in Mexico, though, the weather was warm and sunny. The coolest day was Puerto Vallarta (the one port I was able to see) and it was in the mid 80s. I can't tell you about the water temps.

 

I hope to do this cruise again soon and see what I missed!

 

Host Miriam

Community Supervisor

ldrscruisemir7@aol.com

 

 

[ccletzgo]

I was in cabo over the fourth of july and the water was colder then it has ever been in Nov. Dec. Or Feb.

 

The warmest water was febuary.

[1stCruise05]

We'll be going in February 2005 so I am looking for answers/suggestion also. These board are so informative and very entertaining. Thanks to all who posts.

[jstducky]

1stcruise05:

congratulations on your first cruise! you'll love it and be hooked for life...

one tiny suggestion that i have for you.. in your signature, you might want to change the color on your text, its so bright, its kind of hard to read...