mitsugirly

I have to say that once we booked, planning was a grizzly bear in every essence. The only thing I knew about any of these ports are WHALES! I had read so much about people going to the Riviera to see the whales and I knew that was on the bucket list. I did know that the date that we would be going was toward the VERY end of whale season and I was holding out all hope that we would be able to catch a few stragglers left behind still...(for those that know my family, think of it as a Kendra whale...always late for everything). But, I knew there was a possibility that they might be gone and I might have a pouting party, but I was going to book a whale watching tour anyhow. Then of course we always have to scuba dive in one port. The other 2 ports I had never heard of would end up being quite the challenge for me...up until the week before the cruise. I was flying by the seat of my pants this cruise, for the most part at least. Now let's talk air flights! Or should I call them fights because I was really fighting to pull the trigger on getting back home. They were so expensive!! They should cut me a break for having to endure such a long flight and the time change involved in this trip. Don't all you east coast people agree? If I was going to have an extra long day of flights, I'm going to at least make it worth it...on the way home, we're going to Vegas for a lay over and gamble our sorrows away! Ok, air flights purchased. The only thing left was to pack. I usually start packing weeks, if not a month, ahead of time. I'm an over achiever in everything I do. I'm always afraid I'll forget something. I'm a planner that has everything booked, reservations made way in advance, arrive to the airport 3 hours early and has a carry on bag full anything you might need during a flight...just in case...including Aleve because I felt this trip I was gonna need it. Then you have the hubby and daughter who just throws everything into the suitcase the night before all while not thinking they'll need underwear or socks for this vacation. I don't know who trained them but it sure wasn't me! Our flight left at 6:10am which means that we were up by 3:15am and out the door on our way to the airport by 4am. I was not sure what it would be like there since it was Spring Break. After parking the car, it was time to catch the shuttle over to the airport. I always take a picture of us waiting for the shuttle with our luggage. We met a strange-r and decided to include him in the picture as we waited. We have a small airport, which never seems to be too crowded, but this would be the exception. There was an extremely long line in security winding around the inside of the airport. Once we made it up closer we would see they had an area blocked off with the drug sniffing dog. They had us walk in the area, two at a time, and then get in line where you normally would. This is a first for us. They've never done that at our airport before. Once we made it up to check in, they also had face recognition. Another new feature AND we didn't have to remove our shoes or coat. Time to board the plane and begin this adventure....

Yep, it happened again...we were back on a cruise ship but this time with Carnival for Spring Break. WHEW! We haven't sailed with Carnival since 2018, but this would be our 7th cruise with Carnival and (I believe) our 24th cruise since we've been cruising regularly with our daughter Sakari. After our NCL Encore cruise in December I made the executive decision that I WAS GOING SOMEWHERE NEW!!! I didn't care where, as long as it was some place different! We have been cruising the Caribbean (and land vacationing there) since 2010. The ports are "worn out" with us. We love them...don't get me wrong...and wouldn't hesitate to land vacation there, but deep in my soul I needed a change. I've had a bucket list for awhile that hasn't quite materialized into much over the years other than mostly jibber jab about "I'mma go here one day" and it was left at that. I get high anxiety of the "unknown" and have always felt more at ease with returning to familiar places but just doing something different each time. NO MORE I TELL YA! I'm spreading my wings and hopefully they were strong enough to endure the wind I was about to fly in....THE MEXICAN RIVIERA! Those that have followed my family for years on here and my travel website know that we 1) love the water 2) love the beach 3) love to snorkel 4) love to scuba 5) love the water 6) love the heat 7) love the beauty of the clear aqua sea and did I mention we love the water? Why have I held back for so long on visiting the Mexican Riviera...just plain scared...of...the water! I read the stories, not crystal clear water, not the beautiful aqua turquoise color, not warm water (well unless you peed in it and we'll get to that at a later time...just saying), windy and the ship be rockin! Ok, I got this! Cheers to new experiences. We booked the Panorama from March 30 to April 7th. An 8 day glorious cruise to: Cabo, La Paz, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Woo Hoo! And so it begins...

I had never heard of this game until someone on our roll call brought it up and organized it. Sounded like a fun game but we didn't get to go (so don't know if it happened or not on our Panorama cruise 2 weeks ago).

I got frustrated at trying to find something and my daughter decided she wanted to go to the Aquarium. So we went there and then walked around by the cliff divers area after that. The teens was 100% not interested in any tours. lol

Sounds like you had a great time! Thanks for updating.

We had facial recognition in Long Beach as well. However, the passport line was extremely long where the birth certificate line just zoomed past everyone (was just thinking they probably still made it up there before we did even with stopping and showing their birth certificates). 😄

Yea, I know but it was toward the end of the cruise and we could have just went up to the kiosk and put a card on there but ehhh, decided not to. I guess it wasn't meant to be. The slots filled our time and we were ok with that.

I'm going to chime in on this with our Panorama cruise from last week to the Mexican Riviera. We noticed that there were 2 lines (one for passport people and the other for b/c only) and the passport line was EXTREMELY long and the people with b/c just all zoomed right by us. It really had me thinking that next time I'm carrying BOTH with me because it looks like everyone has passports now. LOL

Hey, better late than never right? We actually just got back (last week) from another cruise (but on Carnival) to the Mexican Riviera (our first time there) and I will be starting another review soon on that on the Carnival boards. 😄 Cane Garden Bay looked beautiful! I hope you enjoyed it. Yea, those roads that are like that are scary. I'm glad we didn't experience that. It was "hilly" but nothing major. How great was that you got to see the stingray at Coki?!? We love Coki and always have a great time. Trisket was amazing when we went. I would 100% recommend him if you ever decide to dip you feet in a little deeper water with a tank on your back. 🙂

I'm researching for Alaska too! (But not on the Encore). I have never been before and plan on trying to take a much smaller ship since they say you can get closer to the glaciers on them. I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

I'm honestly not sure, but probably so. However, you have to have a tour guide AT the falls (or be with a group). We booked a private tour and still ended up with a group that was from the cruise ship (it was cheaper). You definitely don't have to book with the cruise line. Go with a private well known vendor.

Speaking of chips...my husband try to buy chips to play the craps table and they would not allow him saying that he had to have a credit card attached to the room in order to buy chips. We purchased (over purchased actually) aarp gift cards instead of using a cc this cruise so we didn't attach our cc to the room. I thought that was strange and a bit of a let down.

We have already went on our cruise last week. I won’t need suggestions (of course this doesn’t mean you can’t keep suggesting for others to read going here) 😁

No charge. I just did this the entire cruise last week

Hike BVI. Sorry just seen this