deladane

I'm here for the ride! 🚢⚓ 🌴 🍹

On the first sea day, we were sailing south alongside a Princess ship (we both started in LA, then had one sea day before arriving in Cabo). They were closer to land than us, so they probably had a better view, but we could still see land in the distance. We couldn't see any details or anything like that, but we could see the silhouette of mountains and whatnot.

haha It's funny though- this itinerary is very different from the Caribbean. The weather and water temperatures are obvious, but I thought it was fun that we could always see land off one side of the ship on the sea days. I'm used to sailing between islands when you see nothing but water all around (and occasionally a small island off in the distance), but on this cruise, I could see mainland Mexico or Baja or California the entire time!

Yes, I imagine that's probably how the PV zoo gets their animals too but I don't know for sure 🤷‍♀️

Aww, maybe they are just too young at this age? I was just proud of him for feeding the flamingos and rabbits. We took him to a petting zoo last spring and he wouldn't get near the animals so this was huge progress!

Now that you are booked on this cruise, you'll have to remember... there's no islands on this itinerary! This ain't the Caribbean 🤣 So maybe the animals came from somewhere else in Mexico, or Central or South America? I'm not really sure 🤷‍♀️

For the first hour or so that we were at the zoo, we only saw a few other families and for the most part, we had each animal to ourselves when we got to each enclosure. It was now 12:30pm and while the zoo was far from crowded, we could tell that more visitors had arrived. There were small groups blocking our view of some of the more popular animals (tigers, deer, bear, jaguar, etc.), so we took Ian to see some of the less exciting animals. To adults, these aren’t as impressive as the bigger animals, but it was Ian’s first time seeing these animals in real life, so he loved it! There were 4 or 5 raccoons in one of the enclosures, and the window went nearly down to the ground so Ian had a great view from sitting in his stroller. We spent quite a while there, watching them eat and play with each other behind the glass. After that, we found the rabbits. There were tons of them! This was another enclosure where the gate came down low enough that Ian could feed the animals while sitting in his stroller. He had so much fun with this, and I think it was one of his favorite parts of the day!

Moving on, we saw the Shetland ponies. After that, we had the chance to feed some parrots. There were quite a few of them in their enclosure, and as soon as they saw I had food for them, they all came right up to the fence to say hello!

I won’t bore you with photos of every single animal in the zoo, but I will say that I was shocked with the variety of animals and I was very impressed with what this zoo had to offer. I honestly thought it would be a small zoo with a handful of animals, but they did an impressive job with laying out the path such that you could see lots of animals in a short time as you wind up and down the hills. We turned another corner and there were a bunch of geese walking around. Growing up on Long Island, I am all too familiar with geese, and not necessarily in a good way. But Ian has never seen a goose before, so he was having a great time squawking at them. Up next was the highlight of my day (and possibly my highlight of the entire cruise)... We got to feed a giraffe!! He was so friendly and stuck his neck out, over the top of the barrier, just to say hello! I took out a carrot from our bag of snacks, and he was so gentle as he took it from my hand. OMG! This was so fun! I tried to take Ian out of his stroller so he could do it, but I think he was intimidated by the giraffe (which is understandable considering their size difference!). I just let him stay in the stroller and watch me feed him again. I could have fed that giraffe our entire bag of carrots, but Jason made me stop and save some for the other animals. Okay, okay, fine!

Up next, we found our first opportunity to feed the animals. Up until now, the animals were either behind a fence or a window, or they weren’t listed as one of the options to feed from our bag of snacks. It was very obvious that we were encouraged to feed the flamingos as soon as we got there because they come right up close to you, and there’s nothing separating them from us besides a low ledge, at the perfect height to put down some food where they can reach it to eat. Ian was hesitant at first, so Jason showed him what to do. When he felt comfortable, Ian took some of the food and put it out for the flamingos to eat. He loved it and asked to do it again and again! I think he felt safe because he was sitting in his stroller that he uses all the time at home. He was doing this new activity in an unfamiliar place, getting him out of his comfort zone, and he did great! Their enclosure looked quite large and extended back quite a ways. The surrounding mountains and lush greenery made this zoo very scenic. Up next was the barbary sheep (I would have said it’s a goat, but the signs indicated otherwise). He came right up to the gate to say hello… …so Ian fed him a carrot!

They wasted no time with the excitement as the very first animal we saw was an enclosure with 3 tigers! The gate was low enough that Ian could easily see the animals from his stroller, and he was so excited to see the tigers up close! There were 2 sets of gates, so we felt safe and didn’t think the tiger would attack us, but this was a good way to see what the zoo would be like. We definitely tested the limits of our stroller today, as while the path was technically paved, it was more like cobblestones and made for a very bumpy ride for Ian. We passed a sign that said to be careful around the coati, and to closely guard the bags of food, as they can become aggressive and try to get the food. Sure enough, we saw this guy approaching a few moments later… I held our bag of food tightly and walked briskly up the hill, and the coati continued on his path, back into the jungle. Up next, we saw the ostrich: Then we saw a beautiful white tiger: Usually when I go to the zoo, I have trouble finding the animals and half the time they aren’t even in their enclosures. That wasn’t an issue here. Every single enclosure was clearly labeled, and the animals were always easy to find. It made the zoo visit fun for all 3 of us, as even Ian was able to spot the animals without our help.

Our Uber arrived at the mall just before 10am. The ride went smoothly and it took us 50 minutes to reach the zoo down in Mismaloya. You know that feeling of uncertainty when you don’t know exactly where you are going, and it seems to take forever to get somewhere you haven’t been before? It was so nice that I could relax during our Uber ride because we had actually been very close to this zoo when we were here in 2018. We bought a day pass to visit the Barcelo All Inclusive resort in Mismaloya, and the zoo is just up the street from there. I remembered feeling like that Uber ride to get to the Barcelo took sooooooooo long because I didn’t realize how far down the coast we had to go. This time around, I didn’t have any of that uncertainty with not trusting our driver, or any of those “are we there yet” feelings because I already knew… It was going to be a long drive! We arrived at the zoo shortly before 11am, and the ride cost $12.50 USD. I loved how affordable Uber was in Mexico! Our Uber driver was even nice enough to offer to take our photo before we went into the zoo. As I expected from the information on their website, the zoo charged us $12 USD per adult, and Ian was free. The guy behind the register didn’t mention anything about buying a bag of food for the animals, but I saw them sitting next to him on the counter, so I asked about it and he sold it to us for $5 as expected. Good thing I saw that information on the website or we wouldn’t have known to ask! On the back of the bag, they listed which animals could eat which foods, so that was nice knowing it was safe for the animals to eat this food and that we weren’t going to cause any harm by feeding them. There is just one very long path around the entire zoo that starts and ends at the front gate, so you can’t really get lost. I do wish we had some kind of map so we would know how far along the path we were to help gauge our timing and dispensing of snacks to the animals. One thing to note: while the entire path is paved, the zoo is built up into the mountains, so there are a lot of steep hills to climb and I would not recommend this place to someone with mobility impairments. When we left the visitors center, we forked to the right to start the uphill walk to see the animals. Later on, we passed people coming from the opposite direction, so they must have forked to the left to start. I would not recommend that, as the last section of the path was extremely steep, so much so that Jason asked me to help him control the stroller as we walked down because we were afraid he might lose his grip and Ian would go flying down the hill!! There were no animals to see during that 10 minute steep walk down, so the people who did the path in the reverse direction just had a super steep uphill climb with no animals to see and no chance to stop and catch their breath. At least by forking to the right from the start, we had lots of animals to see along the path and kept stopping every few feet, so it broke up the uphill climb and it wasn’t as taxing. Another thing to note, which is also mentioned on the zoo’s website: The zoo is located in the jungle, so while it is fully shaded by trees and they say wearing sunscreen is unnecessary, they highly recommend wearing pants and long sleeve shirts to decrease the risk of bug bites. We opted for a two-pronged approach. I wore capris and I dressed Ian in long pants, and Jason wore shorts (he’s a risk taker!), but we all wore T-shirts because we knew it would be humid and we didn’t want to get too hot. I bought a package of bug spray wipes, and we applied it to any exposed skin before entering the zoo. That worked perfectly and none of us got any bites while we were there. If there is a bug nearby, it will always find me and bite me. I actually got 2 bites yesterday in Mazatlan, but nothing bit me today, so that felt like a win.

We got off the ship at 9:30am, and had a very long walk to exit the port area. First, we passed a check point where they looked inside my backpack to make sure I didn’t have any produce. I packed a peanut butter sandwich for Ian in case he got hungry for lunch before we did, and I was worried they would take it away, but she said it was okay and let me pass. Whew! We continued walking on the sidewalk along the side of the ship, following signs to exit the port. Eventually, we came to this door, and when we passed through, we were finally out on the sidewalk outside of the port area. Luckily, the whole walk was on paved sidewalk because we had our stroller, but that was definitely the furthest we had to walk to exit the cruise port on this cruise. We walked across the busy street, then stood in front of the shopping mall to request an Uber. There was a ton of traffic, so it was no surprise that our Uber took 15 minutes to pick us up. While we waited, we had a nice view of the ships docked across the street. And look who I spied waving hello from the Panorama’s bridge:

By 8am, we had pulled in beside the Emerald Princess and started the docking process. The sun was shining and the high temperature was expected to reach 81 degrees today, but I could see clouds gathering in the distance and the forecast predicted rain later this afternoon and evening. Ian and Jason slept in until 8:15am. With the whole gang awake, we could finally get this day started. We went up to Lido for breakfast at 8:45am, and surprisingly, there was only 1 person working to make burritos at Blue Iguana so it took a lot longer than the other mornings. There had been 2 people at peak hours all week, so I’m not sure what happened, but eventually I got our burritos and we ate them at one of the nearby tables. Today was also the morning when the cabin stewards set up towel animals on all the lounge chairs on Lido deck. After I finished my burrito, I went off to take some photos while Jason helped Ian finish his breakfast. The cruise ship docks in a commercial area of Puerto Vallarta, right across the street from a shopping mall and a Walmart. The streets were already busy with traffic and the morning rush.

Thursday, January 4 | Puerto Vallarta | 9:00am to 9:00pm As I mentioned, Jason and I spent a week in Puerto Vallarta in December, 2018. We stayed downtown in the Romantic Zone, and spent the week seeing all the major tourist attractions that interested us. Luckily, PV is a big city with countless ways to spend the day, and traveling with a toddler opens up a new world of options. Back in 2018, whenever I read a list of the top things to do in PV, the Vallarta Zoo was always on the list. It is a non-profit zoo built into the side of a mountain in the jungle, and it houses mostly rescued, endangered, and injured animals in an attempt to provide them a better life than they would have in the wild. At the time, we chose different ways to fill our days, but on this cruise, I knew the zoo would be perfect for us! They only charge $12 per person admission, and children under age 3 are free. They also encourage visitors to interact with the animals, and they sell a bag of food for $5 with treats specific to various animals so Ian could feed the animals. We thought that would make the zoo a bit more exciting for him, so overall this seemed like a great way to start our day. The plan was to take an Uber down to the zoo, explore for an hour or two, and then take an Uber to the Malecon to walk around and get something for lunch. No matter what time I fell asleep, I always woke up at 7am on this cruise, and today was no different. The boys were still fast asleep, so I quietly got dressed in the bathroom, then snuck out onto the balcony to watch us sail into port. We weren’t due to arrive for about another hour, so we were still a bit far from the marina. 15 minutes later, we turned into the marina, and I could see the Emerald Princess was already tied up at her dock. I don’t think I have acknowledged this yet, but I took this photo below so obviously it was bothering me this morning. When I booked our cabin, I knew there was a smoking section on the starboard side of deck 5 forward. I assumed that being 4 decks higher, and being closer to midship, we wouldn’t notice the smell if people were down there smoking while we were on our balcony. I assumed the smoke would dissipate before it got to our balcony. I was wrong. We could definitely smell it, both while docked in port and while out at sea. I have no idea why Carnival decided to put the smoking section at the front of the ship so everyone on their balconies would be downwind and have to smell it. There were several decks of balcony cabins below us, and many cabins forward of us, who could all smell it too. We made the best of it, but sometimes had to go back inside if the smoke was too much to tolerate.

What a beautiful photo!! I'm so glad you had a wonderful cruise and can't wait to hear all about it!

Hi Norris, I just stumbled upon your review! Clearly, I am very late to the party and have lots of catching up to do!! I've been busy writing up my own review in the Carnival forum from our New Years Eve cruise! I look forward to catching up on all of your posts 😃

Thank you! It's been a busy weekend, but I'll try to post the next part tomorrow!

I don't think we have ever gotten the cheese plate from the steakhouse... and now I guess we never will 🤷‍♀️ bummer!

Yea, that's what I thought it would be like under the overhang. I could see that being a good cabin on a Caribbean sailing when the weather is hotter. We have had some cruises when we couldn't use our balcony in the afternoon because it was so hot out there in the direct sun, so the extra shade would come in handy. Otherwise, I don't think I would like the overhang because it blocks the view for photos, and you know how important the photos are to me! #priorities 🤣

Oye, I'm so glad they didn't make us get tickets for the shuttle. I couldn't have predicted the day before what time we would be ready to leave the ship (because... toddlers!) so that would have just been added stress. Maybe there was a long line for the shuttles at a different time in the morning, but we got lucky and had a very smooth experience.

Exactly! We have gotten cheese plates on every cruise, so I was curious if I was just remembering the presentation from a different cruise line, but nope! My old archive of photos doesn't lie 🤷‍♀️

I had the eggplant parmigiana for my entree. It was tasty, but I wished they plated it over a bed of spaghetti. The short nap didn’t phase Ian… he was having a great time watching Cars on his phone and stealing bites of food from my plate. I had the cheese plate for dessert. Imagine my surprise when this is what they brought me… I’m sorry, but that just looked sad. On our 2019 cruise, the MDR dessert cheese plate looked like this: They had the same 5 varieties of cheese, but the pieces were significantly larger, they included fresh fruit, and several pieces of bread. I was really trying not to be too critical of all the cutbacks that we noticed throughout the week, but it was getting hard to ignore. None of the evening entertainment for tonight appealed to us. After so many long, busy days and late nights in a row, we decided to go right back to the cabin after dinner. We put Ian to sleep, and we called it a night and went to sleep right along with him. Up next: Puerto Vallarta

The sun went down just in time for us to head down to the MDR for dinner. For my appetizer, I had the shrimp cocktail and the BBQ beef spring roll. Both were good but nothing special, although at least they were served as expected and as described on the menu.

For a while, I thought we would see the elusive green flash because the skies were crystal clear. Of course, just as the sun was about to hit the water line, some clouds gathered at the horizon and there was no green flash.