Pictures from Vision trip to Mexico!

[sdmike]

I did a writeup of the trip in another thread, but wanted to post some pictures in a way that would not just get burried.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=816340

 

In the thread I discuss our suites and our excursions in Cabo (dune buggies), Mazatlan (walking), and PV (Pirate Ship!). I have pictures of these, plus some pictures of that nasty thunderstorm system that moved in to PV at the end of our stay.

 

Enjoy the pictures!!

 

http://public.fotki.com/ritchiefamily/san_diego_family/2008-pictures/mexico-cruise-public/

[19AUSSIES]

Thankyou so much for your review and photos of The Vision Of The Seas.Sounds like you had a great holiday.We are coming half way round the world for this trip so it was very pleasing to read that you had such a great time. I have 2 boys aged 13 and 16 they cannot wait to go to the kids club (especially excited about the night club) One question what sort of things are available to buy in Mexico Is it all touristy junk? Also did you have lunch in the dining room just wondering how the food compared to the windjammer. As you can see by my name there are 19 of us going on this cruise on 28th sept and it seems it has been left up to me to find out as much information as I can.Thanks again SDMike:)

[sdmike]

I really hope you have as nice of a time as we did!! One thing you need to know is that the kids facilities on this ship are pretty small, as it's not one of the biggies (only about 100 feet across while the newer ships are about 180 feet across!!). The best part of the teens club, according to my teen, is that he got to hang out with really neat people from all over the place!

 

Shopping in Mexico is kind of interesting. If you're into jewelry and know your prices I think you can find good deals, especially on silver. Just don't buy from street vendors. you can really haggle down the price in most cases. My wife bought a beautiful silver & abalone turtle charm for a necklace and after originally getting quoted $40 we ended up with that and one other for that price. One thing we always like to get there is Vanilla. I don't know about pricing in Australia, but here in the US it can be expensive. Everywhere you look they are selling Vanilla in Mexico, and we always get a few bottles. Our favorite brand is "orlando". We paid about $12 for a 500ml bottle. You'll notice things are marked in Peso's when you are down there, but they gladly take US dollars. The exchange rate is about $1 to 11 pesos, so something market 100 pesos would be about $9US.

 

The tour ships really try to steer you to certain vendors through their shopping programs, and while it's nice that the products are guaranteed through the cruise line (actually through an agent), you'll find better deals milling around on your own.

 

Mexico is also known for clothing, leather product, decorative iron work, and hand crafted items of all sorts.

 

i think the ship had better deals on booze than the towns did. :)

 

Let me know if you have any other questions about the ship or if you want to see more pictures. I'd be glad to help.

[sdmike]

You also asked about lunch in the dining room versus windjammer...

 

Well, unfortunately we never had lunch in the dining room. We were always running around doing something during that time, so we ended up doing an "eat and run" in the windjammer each day. The food was ok, but there seemed to be less variety towards the end of the trip.

[Coralc]

Great photos! :D You're right...the feet/foot shot is sort of "arty" . It is a great photo and reminds us of a Corona commercial. :D

[19AUSSIES]

Thanks for your quick response,The boys have just had a look at your photos and want to know all about the Dune buggies in Cabo and the pirate ship tour. Did you book these through the ship? They both look fantastic,just hope we dont hit that storm.Do you happen to remember the approx cost of these two tours. Thanks for the tips on shopping, sounds like we are in for some haggling though.

[sdmike]

Both of the trips were booked through the ship, which I liked because you were guaranteed to not get left behind. I think both of those excursions were around $85 - $90 per person. Not cheap for sure, but we had a pretty big room credit from our travel agent so we didn't mind.