Live From the Miracle

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 0

 

Yabbbbaaaaaaa-Daaaaaaabaaaaaaa-Doooooooooo!!!

 

Originally, I had not planned to cruise right after the holidays this year. But so far it’s already been a long cold winter in the Frozen Tundra. Ok… my friend Heidi who lives in the real Frozen Tundra is scoffing at me right now. But for a fair weather guy like me, the temps in the teens every night for the last couple of weeks has made it seem like the Frozen Tundra to me. So today I boarded the Carnival Miracle to head south.

 

We’re going to Mexico… Pacific, Mexico. This is one of my rare Pacific Coast cruises. So I’ll be coming to you live for the next six days. Well… sorta live. I’m still boycotting Carnival’s internet. (Another rant about the internet in a little while.) I’ll be writing every day as if posted live. I’ll post every time I get to internet that doesn’t cost an arm, a leg, and my first born son.

 

I’ll be posting some pics along the way depending on the internet that I get access to. I’ll probably post a lot more after the cruise since I’ll be back to my high speed internet.

 

This is a six day cruise. We’re going to have only two stops… Cabo San Lucas, and Puerto Vallarta. The rest of the days will be sea days. I usually don’t like cruises that have more sea days than port days, but this time I’ll do most anything to get out of the Frozen Tundra. Even though it will be a bit chilly during sail-away and the end of the cruise, I’m hoping for warm, sunny days for the rest of the time.

 

Day O… Day¬-yaay-yaay-ohhhhh… (tee hee) has been about what I expected so far. We were a bit late boarding. We arrived at the port about 11:00 A.M. and passengers were still getting off the ship. So we just hung out in the Platinum/Diamond VFIP lounge for a while. I did a little bit of a walk-about around the terminal, but since it was chilly I really didn’t see much. Finally, after about an hour and a half wait, we got to board.

 

By the way, this would have been another case where “Faster to the Fun” would have been worth it. By the time I was boarding, there were hoards of people lined up. Of note… people that paid for “Faster to the Fun” were given the same priority for boarding as the Platinum and Diamond passengers. All were just intermingled in the same line to get through security.

 

**** RANT ALERT****

I hate to start our a cruise with a rant, but I always promise that I will write of the good, the bad, and the ugly about the cruise I’m on. So this is about as close to ugly as I ever get to… the ugly internet on board Carnival ships. I’m sorry to rant about this again… I’ve been ranting bout this for years… but as long as long as the the sorry excuse for over-prices internet continues on board Carnival ships, I will continue to rant about it.

 

I went on the USA inaugural cruise on the Breeze over 2 years ago. At that time Carnival offered unlimited internet for about $80 for the 8 day cruise. While it was still a bit pricey, it was much more reasonable than anything Carnival had ever offered before. AND… the speed throughtout the 8 day cruise was good. No,,. It was not as fast as high speed land stuff, but it was reasonable for a cruise ship. Besides, since it was unlimited, I didn’t mind the extra time it took to upload pics.

 

At the time of that cruise (Nov/Dec 2012) we were told by Carnival’s “Brand Ambassador” that this was a very successful test program that had been offered on several of the ships. At the time were told, again by Carnival’s Brand Ambassador, that the unlimited internet was being withdrawn for a short time pending a few tweeks. Well Mr. Brand Ambassador. It’s been over two years… how long does it take to “tweek.

 

We’ve also been promised Carnival will have the greatest internet on the seven seas. Hummmm…. Where is it?

 

So... Mr. Brand Ambassador… how can you continue to keep a stiff upper lip about Carnival’s internet when you charge these prices?

**** End of Rant ****

 

I guess I should not leave the impression that I have something against Carnival’s Brand Ambassador… I don’t. I like him very much. In fact, I consider him something of a friend. I truly do believe that he is a friend to cruisers and goes way out of his way to help people and make cruising a much better experience. He really does. I think this is a case where Carnival beards hung him (and us) out to dry and didn’t deliver what was promised. So Carnival… when are you going to fix this? I know you “beards” are listening. It’s time you make this right!!! Or instead of calling you “beards”, are we going to start calling you the “long noses”. Yeah… that’s the ticket, the “Long Noses”. *** Ok, really the end of the rant… back to the good cruising; stuff. ***

 

I’m trying the “Cheers” package this cruise. I’ve done a bit of a sneaky for this… shhhhh, don’t tell Carnival. I’m traveling with my daughter and her husband. Those of you that know me know that I always talk a lot about “frozen concoctions to help me hang on.” But the truth is that I’m really a “lightweight” and don’t drink that much. There’s no way I’m going to average 6-8 drinks a day. Also, Carnival requires everyone in the cabin to have the Cheers package and there is no way Bloody Mary is going to drink even 6 a day.

 

Soooooo... when we booked our two cabins, we booked my daugher’s husband and I in the same cabin. He and I are going to buy drinks and share them. Yes I know that’s cheating, but I don’t care… I want to test it our and see if I can get my money’s worth with two people drinking from it. Even then I’m not sure.

 

That’s all for now… more coming.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and decent wi-fi.

[patz]

Everyone over 21 years, in the same cabin has to buy the Cheers program.

[pbmsmile]

Your "cheating the Cheers" plan only makes sense if your daughter buys it since she is in the cabin alone as far as carnival knows. You and your SIL will BOTH have to buy it if you are "sharing" a cabin. :confused:

[LilMissScareAll]

Your "cheating the Cheers" plan only makes sense if your daughter buys it since she is in the cabin alone as far as carnival knows. You and your SIL will BOTH have to buy it if you are "sharing" a cabin. :confused:

 

I read this as they are buying the package for 2 (OP & SIL) and splitting it 3 ways. SIL would drink his share and OP and daughter would be drinking under OP's.

 

Going under the assumption that SIL is really the one who wants/drinks enough for Cheers.

[pbmsmile]

Oh!! Well that makes more sense! :p

 

Sent from my SM-N900R4 using Forums mobile app

[pirate4me2]

Oh, I can't wait for more updates! Your reviews are some of the best on CC. :)

[CAnative1]

Hope you have a blast! I was on Miracle with the same itinerary back in Nov. Unfortunately we missed our PV stop due to weather :(

 

Oh well... all the more reason to book another trip with the same itinerary in the future!

[RANCHOVISTA]

Was the propulsion system also a problem? I've been reading :rolleyes: that there is on this ship.

[Kokomo_Man]

A quick note in the Cheers I'm doing. I guess I didn't make it very clear.

 

We booked two cabins with two people in each cabin. I and my SIL are "booked" in the same cabin. Bloody Mary and my daughter are booked in the other cabin. So... I'm buying booze for me and Bloody Mary. My SIL is buying booze for my daughter and himself.

 

Even doing this I'm barely breaking even. As I said, I'm a lightweight.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo... and cheap booze.

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 1

 

Hoards in the Hot Tub

 

There aren’t many kids on this cruise. I suspect a lot of the school age kids have gone back to school. That said, all of the hot-tubs on the Lido Deck are filled with hoards of kids. Since it’s still cool, the only people in the pool are kids too. Adults are staying huddled up with hoodies and long pants.

 

There’s a great Serenity deck on the poop deck of this ship. So, since the Lido hot tubs were filled with kids… turning the water yellow, I decided to try out the hot tub in the Serenity area. Well… that hot tub was even fuller. The people in there must have been very, very good friends. And even if you were very good friends you weren’t likely to fit in. I want you to contemplate this image… even Olive Oil would have been squished.

 

I’ll tell you a bunch about the ship on the next sea day, but for now, I want to mention a couple of things. First… Coke… no Pepsi. I never realized this before so I suspect this is something that is Carnival wide. I like Coke better, but if you want something from Pepsi Corp like 7-up you’re out of luck… Sprite is what you would get. Patooooooooyyyyyyy.

 

The other thing is that the Serenity Deck is on the aft of the ship. All the other ships have had it has been up front or sorta up front like the Sunshine. I like this much better. It has a very nice large bar area and is more spacious than the ones I’ve seen before. (Look at my signature and you’ll see what ships I’m comparing to.) Since it’s been cool it wasn’t too crowded, but we’ll see what it is like when it warms up.

 

Today is a sea day so there’s the usual schtick on the Lido deck; the Master Mixologist and Hairy Chest contests. I’ve only had one Master Mixoligist that was any good… so I’ll let you know about this one. (The one that was good was mine… “The Woman to Blame.”) As hairy chest contests go, this one was good. Now keep in mind, I’m comparing to other ones I’ve seen. Most, including this one, are really awful. Rotund guys that resemble Santa Claus… stomach that shakes like a bowl full of jelly… usually do the best. This time was no exception. Except that the women seemed to go wild and the guys were a bit more “buff” than usual. Now I’m no expert on guys, but at least I understand why the women were hooting and hollering. As always, it should have been at least R rated, but all had fun. I’ll leave it at that.

 

It was chilly all day. So there was no problem if you wanted to have a deck chair. And there were no “Chair Hogs” today. Except for the hot tubs, nothing was crowded on the lido deck.

 

One of the things I was a little suppressed about is how subdued most folks seem on this ship. I’ve done a cruise right after New Years (or over New Years) for the last six years. Before this one all my January cruises were out of South Florida to the Caribbean. On each on of those it seemed that folks wanted to keep the New Years party going for most of the cruise. It was truly a PARRRR-TAY for at least the first few days. But this one is different. It seems that everyone has accepted that New Years is over and it’s time to “get over it”. Maybe the cool weather has something to do with it. Whatever the case is, so far this cruise seems more reserved.

 

Of course, there was the guy in the florescent yellow floppy hat… with shorts that were the wild colors of the rainbow… and an outlandish tie-died t-shirt. He didn’t care what time of year it was and he was here on the ship to have fun. There’s always one of these every cruise I’ve ever been on.

 

That’s all for now. It’s “elegant night” so I’ve got to pretend that I prefer a shirt and tie over flip-flops and a tie-died t-shirt. Of course I won’t wear a shirt and tie… I’m on vacation.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and an available hot tub.

[kcparrothead]

Have fun! Looking forward to the read!:)

[Kokomo_Man]

Day 2 - Nearing Cabo

 

There was a question about the ship’s propulsion system. As far as I can tell, the ship is clipping along quite well. We’ve been doing more than 19 knots and up to a tad more than 20 knots since we left Long Beach. So I’m not sure what might be going, on nor why our arrival in Cabo was delayed. The original schedule was to get there some time in the morning. It was changed to noon. So I’m not sure what the “deal” is. I do notice that this ship has a bit more vibration than most ships I’ve been on, but that’s about it. I’ll have a whole “talk” about the ship later in the cruise. I’ll be taking a bunch of pics too and I’ll post them on my kokomomantoo…

 

Since we don’t get to Cabo till noon, I’ll pass on some stuff from last night. I had my rant earlier about the ugly… now I want to tell you about some very, very good stuff.

 

As you guys know, I spend most of my evenings and nights in the Piano Bar. That started way back on my first Carnival cruise on the Valor when Roger Conception was in the piano bar. I was hooked. I’ve gone on to see some of the very best Carnival ever had. In fact, I now book many of my cruises around who is in the Piano Bar. Not this cruise however… this one was pot luck.

 

So… last night I headed toward the Piano Bar. I got off the forward elevator and started down the corridor on my way to hear Rey at the ivories. I heard some music coming from the main show room. I thought I would go in for a peak just to see what was going on. You know… just for a couple of minutes. Well, it was really good so I decided to stay a bit more. I was on the deck where the show-room balcony is. I decided to sit down and stay a little bit more.

 

I ended up staying through the whole show. That was the first show I stayed through in about 10 or 12 cruises. It was that good and kept me from going to the Piano Bar… at least until it was over. The musical review is called “Generations.” The music covers the eras of any one alive. I have to say… if you are a warm body and you like music at all, there will be something in this for you. OK… if you are part of the Beiber generation of teeny boppers you may be left out. But everyone else will most certainly love it.

 

One more thing I really liked about the “Generations” show is they had a live orchestra. No matter what ya’ll have heard, Carnival has really stepped up in this department. There was a full nine piece group that played and they were very good. I was hoping they would have a repeat show later in the week, but I was sorry to find out that “Generations” is only performed on one night of the cruise. If you go on this cruise, be sure to make this show… you won’t regret it. (I know… as soon as I say that, someone will say they didn’t like it. So, 99.9% of you won’t regret it.)

 

After the show I went to the Piano Bar… duh. As always, if there is anyone at least half-way good, I’ll spend time in there every night of the Cruise. I had been in for a little bit the first night. I new the entertainer, Reynold (Rey), was more than half-way good, so I already knew that I would be spending most evenings in the Piano Bar. (I’ll get you his last name later. For now it’s just Rey.)

 

Rey has a large selection of songs. He plays is essentially requests from the long list he provides. It’s everything from ABBA to Zeplin. He is sorta new to Carnival and comes from Australia. When I asked him about Buffett songs, he only knows Margaritaville. Xxx sad face xxx He said folks in Australia had never heard much of Buffett but was told to learn that because cruise folks would love it.

 

Rey is very personable and engaging with the patrons gathered around the piano. His music is a bit mellower than some of the other Carnival Piano Bar entertainers you may have seen. So far he hasn’t done any of the more “adult” sorts of ditties. I think if you spend some time with him, you’ll enjoy a pleasant little shift from the usual Piano Bar antics. So that you aren’t disappointed, I feel I must add… he is no Ron Pass. But then no one else in the fleet is either.

 

Ok… on to today’s activities.

 

One of the things about cruisin’ the Pacific coast this time of year is that it’s whale season. On the Pacific coast, humpback whales migrate south starting about late November and go as late as April. So I’ve had my eyes peeled for whales. And I saw a some today… but I kept lookin’ the for some in the ocean just the same.

 

Then, this morning the Cruise Director, Troy Linton, came on the loudspeaker and announced that “there be whales, Capt’n”. He really didn’t say that… that sayin’ is from Star Trek’s Mr. Scott. What the Cruise Directed did say was that there were whales off the left side of the ship. They were quite a ways away. But as we continued on, there were several more sightings. Some passed just a hundred or so yards off each side of the ship. Those there that were into whale watching squealed with delight.

 

We’ve finally pulled into Cabo and folks have started to go ashore. It’s around noon and I’m only going to do a walk-about today. By the way… this is one of those times having “faster to the fun” pays off. This is a tender port and it takes up to two hours to get folks to the docks. Faster to the fun… platinum and diamond passengers too… get priority tender boarding.

 

That’s all for now… I’ll report back later.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and Moby Dick

[sanmarcosman]

"One more thing I really liked about the “Generations” show is they had a live orchestra. No matter what ya’ll have heard, Carnival has really stepped up in this department. There was a full nine piece group that played and they were very good."

 

The musicians and the show props will all be gone after the dry dock this March as Carnival in its infinite wisdom brings Playlist Productions to the Miracle :mad:

[ccruisequeen]

Unfortunately, the 2.0 will eliminate the live music

 

 

I still cruise for warm chocolate melting cake (with two sugar free vanilla ice creams)

[modes]

Day 0

 

Yabbbbaaaaaaa-Daaaaaaabaaaaaaa-Doooooooooo!!!

 

Originally, I had not planned to cruise right after the holidays this year. But so far it’s already been a long cold winter in the Frozen Tundra. Ok… my friend Heidi who lives in the real Frozen Tundra is scoffing at me right now. But for a fair weather guy like me, the temps in the teens every night for the last couple of weeks has made it seem like the Frozen Tundra to me. So today I boarded the Carnival Miracle to head south.

 

We’re going to Mexico… Pacific, Mexico. This is one of my rare Pacific Coast cruises. So I’ll be coming to you live for the next six days. Well… sorta live. I’m still boycotting Carnival’s internet. (Another rant about the internet in a little while.) I’ll be writing every day as if posted live. I’ll post every time I get to internet that doesn’t cost an arm, a leg, and my first born son.

 

I’ll be posting some pics along the way depending on the internet that I get access to. I’ll probably post a lot more after the cruise since I’ll be back to my high speed internet.

 

This is a six day cruise. We’re going to have only two stops… Cabo San Lucas, and Puerto Vallarta. The rest of the days will be sea days. I usually don’t like cruises that have more sea days than port days, but this time I’ll do most anything to get out of the Frozen Tundra. Even though it will be a bit chilly during sail-away and the end of the cruise, I’m hoping for warm, sunny days for the rest of the time.

 

Day O… Day¬-yaay-yaay-ohhhhh… (tee hee) has been about what I expected so far. We were a bit late boarding. We arrived at the port about 11:00 A.M. and passengers were still getting off the ship. So we just hung out in the Platinum/Diamond VFIP lounge for a while. I did a little bit of a walk-about around the terminal, but since it was chilly I really didn’t see much. Finally, after about an hour and a half wait, we got to board.

 

By the way, this would have been another case where “Faster to the Fun” would have been worth it. By the time I was boarding, there were hoards of people lined up. Of note… people that paid for “Faster to the Fun” were given the same priority for boarding as the Platinum and Diamond passengers. All were just intermingled in the same line to get through security.

 

**** RANT ALERT****

I hate to start our a cruise with a rant, but I always promise that I will write of the good, the bad, and the ugly about the cruise I’m on. So this is about as close to ugly as I ever get to… the ugly internet on board Carnival ships. I’m sorry to rant about this again… I’ve been ranting bout this for years… but as long as long as the the sorry excuse for over-prices internet continues on board Carnival ships, I will continue to rant about it.

 

I went on the USA inaugural cruise on the Breeze over 2 years ago. At that time Carnival offered unlimited internet for about $80 for the 8 day cruise. While it was still a bit pricey, it was much more reasonable than anything Carnival had ever offered before. AND… the speed throughtout the 8 day cruise was good. No,,. It was not as fast as high speed land stuff, but it was reasonable for a cruise ship. Besides, since it was unlimited, I didn’t mind the extra time it took to upload pics.

 

At the time of that cruise (Nov/Dec 2012) we were told by Carnival’s “Brand Ambassador” that this was a very successful test program that had been offered on several of the ships. At the time were told, again by Carnival’s Brand Ambassador, that the unlimited internet was being withdrawn for a short time pending a few tweeks. Well Mr. Brand Ambassador. It’s been over two years… how long does it take to “tweek.

 

We’ve also been promised Carnival will have the greatest internet on the seven seas. Hummmm…. Where is it?

 

So... Mr. Brand Ambassador… how can you continue to keep a stiff upper lip about Carnival’s internet when you charge these prices?

**** End of Rant ****

 

I guess I should not leave the impression that I have something against Carnival’s Brand Ambassador… I don’t. I like him very much. In fact, I consider him something of a friend. I truly do believe that he is a friend to cruisers and goes way out of his way to help people and make cruising a much better experience. He really does. I think this is a case where Carnival beards hung him (and us) out to dry and didn’t deliver what was promised. So Carnival… when are you going to fix this? I know you “beards” are listening. It’s time you make this right!!! Or instead of calling you “beards”, are we going to start calling you the “long noses”. Yeah… that’s the ticket, the “Long Noses”. *** Ok, really the end of the rant… back to the good cruising; stuff. ***

 

I’m trying the “Cheers” package this cruise. I’ve done a bit of a sneaky for this… shhhhh, don’t tell Carnival. I’m traveling with my daughter and her husband. Those of you that know me know that I always talk a lot about “frozen concoctions to help me hang on.” But the truth is that I’m really a “lightweight” and don’t drink that much. There’s no way I’m going to average 6-8 drinks a day. Also, Carnival requires everyone in the cabin to have the Cheers package and there is no way Bloody Mary is going to drink even 6 a day.

 

Soooooo... when we booked our two cabins, we booked my daugher’s husband and I in the same cabin. He and I are going to buy drinks and share them. Yes I know that’s cheating, but I don’t care… I want to test it our and see if I can get my money’s worth with two people drinking from it. Even then I’m not sure.

 

That’s all for now… more coming.

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and decent wi-fi.

Keep believing the brand ambassador, he lies left and right.

[sanmarcosman]

Unfortunately, the 2.0 will eliminate the live music

 

Is this in addition to my post above? :confused:

[sanmarcosman]

dup

Edited January 9, 2015 by sanmarcosman

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your live report.

[bonstersd]

Can't wait to hear more! Going on the Miracle right before dry dock.

[BSUGrad]

Keep believing the brand ambassador, he lies left and right.

 

 

Please provide proof of outright lies versus answers you didn't like. I'm sure there are times when he has said some things will be happening, and they don't end up happening exactly as he promised. That is rarely his fault. He is told things by corporate that don't end up materializing and he looks bad for it. He doesn't control when things occur. His job is to disseminate information that corporate wants told and sometimes the things they tell him don't always happen perfectly.

 

 

Anyone without a sense of humor is at the mercy of the rest of us!

[Kokomo_Man]

After a little bit of delay, here’s the continuation of my “live from” trip report. (Obviously it’s not really live from, but all of the stuff I wrote was “live”. Since it’s not really live, I’ll be posting pics as I go from now on.) So here’s what I wrote about Cabo.

 

Cabo San Lucas - Part 2

 

I’ve stumbled back on board now so here’s the rest of my report on Cabo San Lucas.

 

My intention today was to just check out the port area. I don’t usually spend time in the watering-holes around the port… ‘cept Margaritaville of course. But this time was different.

 

Even though I lived in California a lot of my life, I’ve been to Cabo before. I expected the port area to be the typical Grande Tourista Trap. I’ve been to Cozumel a zillion times and one of my upcoming books is about cruisin’ to Cozumel… I love it there. Cozumel is one of my favorite ports. And… I’ve been to Ensenada a couple of times. I don’t care if I ever go back to Ensenada. If Cabo was like Cozumel, then that would be good. If it was like Ensenada, I would just get back on the ship.

 

Somehow, Cabo is different than either. It was much larger than I expected. As the tender pulls in to the dock, there’s a huge Senior Frogs there to greet you. The whole area has lots of folks offering tours to everywhere and water-taxis any where you want to go. Unlike Ensenada or even Cozumel, the vendors weren’t pushy. Well... not as pushy as the other places.They had signs to show you what they had to offer. We (my daughter Amaya, and her husband Zach) didn’t want any of the tours and just walked along the sea wall sidewalk. The vendors didn’t try to push themselves on us.

 

 

And… SHAZAM, SHAZAM!!!... there was a Diamonds International. No self respecting cruise port would be without one.

 

One of the big activities is to go to the nearby “arches”. The “arches” are barren rock formations jutting out only a water-taxi ride away from the Cabo harbor. There were lots of vendors offering a tour to the “arches”. Since these arches don’t have, “two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, onions, on a sesame seed bun”… I didn’t go. While there are the folks trying to sell you some trinkets, they aren’t as pushy as Ensenada or even Cozumel.

 

Here’s a pic of “the arches”

 

 

Instead of tours, we were on a mission… to go to Cabo Wabo, the Happy Ending, and the Hard Rock Café. I knew nothing about Cabo Wabo before this trip. It is a place built by Sammy Hager, and they have very good Margaritas… I had two for eight bucks. It seems it’s always “Happy Hour” so that makes it very reasonably priced. While I was there they had a live band and were pretty good. They played a large variety of rock music. They also have good internet connections. I got my first internet fix in the last two days while I sat there sipping on the Margaritas.

 

There are signs all along the way that point to Cabo Wabo

 

 

I asked what the “Wabo” stood for. No one seemed to know. Then when I got up to leave I found out. They were very generous with their “pour” in the Margarita and when I tried to walk out it was more of a wobble. If I had any more I wouldn’t have been able to say “wobble”… let alone spell it or type it. So I’m sure that’s how it got its name… Cabo Wabo.

 

After that we “wobo’ed” our way to “Happy Ending”. Now I don’t know what comes to your mind with a name like “Happy Ending”, but in my youth, I went to a place in Southeast Asia with a name like that... I certainly wouldn’t go there with my daughter and her husband. Now I don’t know what this place is like in the night-time, but during the day time it was more like a local bar… sorta like Cheers… kind of a relaxed “watering hole”… with tequila.

 

They had an ongoing special… 2 beers and 2 tequila shots for five bucks. I thought this might be some kind of gimmick, but it was “straight up.” We ordered it and the shots were double shots. It was “down the hatch” with a shot for me, a shot for Amaya, and two beers for Zach. I figured it would be real rot-gut tequila… to-kill-ya… but instead it was mmmmm-mmmmm good. Then we ordered another round along with a bean and cheese burrito.

 

The burrito was three bucks. I figured it would be small, but it wasn’t. It was more than large enough for lunch… and to soak up some of the to-kill-ya. Altogether, we had four beers, four shots, a coke and a burrito… and the bill was only fifteen bucks. Quite a bargain. I did have a smile on my face when we left so I guess the “Happy Ending” name is appropriate. I’ll have to come back at night sometime and see if “Happy Ending” is still the same.

 

 

Unfortunately, those to-kill-ya shots didn’t come with a wheelbarrow for me. By the time we left the Happy Ending, it was “duces wild” for me… two Margaritas and two shots in about two hours. I was quite a happy fellow. I wobo’ed on to the Hard Rock… about another half a block up the road. When we got there the place was really crowded so we didn’t have anything there. Zach bought the required shirt for his collection. Since it was sprinkeling a little bit we decided to wabo back to the Happy Ending for another round. No… it wasn’t going to stop the raining, but with another round I wouldn’t care.

 

After two more rounds the rain had let up and was only spritzing… I was mostly oblivious to it. By then it was time to head back to the ship. We still had plenty of time, but we wanted to be safe. By the time we got back to the tender area, there was a huge line for the tenders... probably an hour or more. How convenient of the folks to put a Senior Frogs right there. We sat down and had another drink… a Margarita for me of course. We had a glorious time there.

 

Two young ladies… and I do mean young… came up to Zach and asked him for $15 so they could buy a t-shirt. These were short-shorts kinda girls… and I do mean short-shorts. They were kinda flirting and teasing with Zach… right there in front of his wife. Then they came over to me and “hammed it up.” We took pics of all of this and they seemed to be just having fun more than anything else. I suspect they had more to-kill-yas than I had. We figured they were just some Americans that were living in Cabo.

 

We waited at Senior Frogs till the line was down to a more reasonable wait… probably about half an hour. The last tender was supposed to leave the dock at 4:45 and sail away was supposed to be 5:30. We finally got in line around 5:00 PM. and still were not the last back to the boat. Our tender got under way a bit past 5:30 and we didn’t sail away till after 6:00. OH... it turned out that the “short-shorts” were on the tender with us back to the ship.

 

This is a pic of one of the restaurant areas along the walk around the harbor.

 

 

I was surprised by a couple of things in Cabo. First, everything there seemed cheap. Food, booze, and even the tourista trinkets did not seem as expensive as any of the ports I’ve ever been to. (That’s about 20 ports.) The second thing was how well everyone we came in contact with spoke English. It’s common for folks interacting with tourists at cruise ship ports to speak some English, but not nearly as well as the folks in Cabo. Of course we didn’t venture out into the countryside to see anything, but just the same the folks in town were very fluent. I suspect this has a lot to do with the large contingent of “Norte Americanos” that live there a large part of the year.

 

This was clearly not my usual day ashore. I rarely have more than one Margarita at a Margaritaville. I like to take in a bit more of the “real” stuff in a port. It’s a little bit of a shame that I didn’t check out more stuff and get a little bit off the beaten path. Just the same, I have a big smile on my face just thinking about it. I guess I’ll have to come back.

 

Since my web is short on space for pics, I’m posting a pile more of Cabo at http://www.facebook.com/kokomomantoo

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and another shot of Tequilla

[bonstersd]

I asked what the “Wabo” stood for. No one seemed to know. Then when I got up to leave I found out. They were very generous with their “pour” in the Margarita and when I tried to walk out it was more of a wobble. If I had any more I wouldn’t have been able to say “wobble”… let alone spell it or type it. So I’m sure that’s how it got its name… Cabo Wabo.

 

In Sammy Hagar's book, he explains how he came up with the name Cabo Wabo. It was like 25-30 years ago when he saw some guy walking along the street, definitely super drunk, and having a hard time walking-- they called it the "Cabo Wabo."

[bonstersd]

Looking forward to the rest of your review and some more pictures! Welcome back!

[Kokomo_Man]

Puerto Vallarta

 

These days I’ve taken to doing my own thing in ports. I’ve done a zillion tours and for the most part they’ve all been very good. I still recommend folks to take the ship’s tours till you’ve learned your way around. So this time I took my own advice. A while back I heard some safety concerns about Puerto Vallarta and didn’t want to take any chances since this is my first time to the port. While I didn’t see anything on the day that gave me any concern, I’ll play it safe until I’ve learned a bit more about the place.

 

So… today we took the “Tequila Factories & Old Town Tour”. It seems that this is now officially a “to-kill-ya” cruise. Seems to me there’s a song that has something to do with tequila and cloths. I’ll get in trouble if I say too much here, but I’m sure that song is absolutely true.

 

Bloody Mary was with me along with Amaya and Zach for this tour. It was actually Amaya’s idea to do this cruise. She did this about ten years ago and wanted to do it again. After getting off the ship, we boarded a modern luxury bus and headed out into the countryside. Our guide, Jose… also known as “Pepe” (go figure) was very personable. As we went along he told us a bit about the area and answered questions we had along the way. From the beginning, it was very obvious that Pepe was perfect for this job because he was very enthusiastic about tequila.

 

The first tequila factory we stopped at was kind of a tourist trap. They had a bunch of vendors selling t-shirts, serapes, Mexican hats, and in general nothing that had anything to do with the factory. Just the same, it was interesting because Pepe took us around and told us about the agave plant, and the processes the factory uses to produce to-kill-ya. Then we went into the tasting room. There were six different varities to taste… “silver”, “respesado” and “anejo” for the regular style, and three flavored types… vanilla, almond, coffee. They poured the samples were into little cups that were about ½ shots, but they were never stingy with any of it, and if you wanted another taste, you could have it. I thought the tequilas were ok for making Margaritas, but that’s all. I didn’t like any of it as much as I liked the el cheapo shots we had in Cabo the day before.

 

This felt so much like a tourist trap that this was the only pic I took at the first factory.

 

 

 

After the “tasting” we were allowed 30 minutes to “shop” or get something to eat at the little “taco stand” inside the compound. I figured I should have something to soak up the “samples” so I had one of the tacos… about $2.50 each. They had three kinds of salsa… mild green, hot red, and… OMG!!~!~… BRING THE AMBULANCE!!!. Now I like the hot stuff but we were warned about the OMG. So I got some “hot” on my taco with a little OMG on the side of the plate. The taco was really good. Then I tried just a touch of OMG and they were right. Even with just a touch I couldn’t have any to-kill-ya for an hour for fear that the alcohol would burst into a raging inferno. My mouth was an inferno as it was.

 

Bloody Mary got a taco too… on the same plate. Yep… now she’s not talking to me. Partly because she thinks I tricked her… and the other part because it will take a month of Sundays for her mouth to heal from the OMG hot stuff.

 

After the tacos we got back on the bus and headed out to the second to-kill-ya factory. As in the first case, we drove through some of the rural areas to get there. One thing that struck me is that the standard of living seemed higher than I expected. Don’t get me wrong… these folks are by no means rich. But I didn’t see anything that would make me think they would risk what I think they risk to go illegally to the United States. I’m not commenting on immigration problems or anything like that. It’s just that I didn’t see any abject poverty I had been led to believe was in Mexico. Maybe the region we were in is different.

 

Any way, the second factory didn’t have any of the vendors with the tourista stuff. They did have a little shop where you could buy some souvineers of the dislilary… and a little outdoor cantina where you could buy a tequila fruit punch and grape wrapped tamales. I have no idea what “grape wrapped” means, but Amaya said they were very good.

 

We had a good guy, Poncho, to tell us about the tequila at the “Mama Lucia” factory. He didn’t spend much time telling about how they make the tequila… only about five minutes. Then it was on to the tasting. This time there were ten different offerings to taste. Although they had the little cups too, they weren’t stingy with any of them! From the beginning they told us all we had to say was “mas tequila” and they would pour you some more. There were many shouts of, “mas tequila”… especially from me.

 

I don’t think anyone really got drunk. But the tequilas at “Mama Lucia’s” were much better than the first place. So good in fact that Bloody Mary and I bought a bottle of vanilla and a bottle of coffee tequila. I’m not particularly a fan of flavored booze, but these were exceedingly good… especially when the two were mixed half and half. Bloody Mary said she thinks they will be good over ice cream deserts. I don’t think mine will ever find the ice cream.

 

 

After “mas tequila” it was back on the bus to town. We went through some more of the rural areas and then to a little place in town not far from the port called “Villa Villarta.” It was really just a tourist trap strip mall kinda place. We parked the bus at a jewelry store with restrooms we could use inside. Of course we were welcomed to come in and look around. Besides jewelry they had some other nick-nack sort of stuff. One was a brightly colored ceramic of a parrot perched on a banana. I asked how much it was. The answer was $125. I said, “Pesos?”… the answer came back, “No, dolares”. I left the store without using their “facilities”.

 

Everyone walked around the area for a little while. Then we boarded the bus for a bit of a tour around “old town”. I’m not sure how old it really is. Much of it has been rebuilt as a result of hurricanes. It is all along the coast line and was kinda interesting. This is an area that I would like to come back to look around on my own. Most of it was up-scale with “ma-n-pa” type places intermingled. I felt like there would be no problem walking around on my own in this area the next time I come.

 

Note that I said “the next time”. The whole area looks interesting. It’s clear that this is a tourist economy. Despite the troubles they had, the town depends on tourism. There are lots of hotels along the coast-line and the area looks like a nice place to come back to.

 

The bus tour through “old town” was interesting and Pepe told us a bit about the history and pointed out some of the land-marks. He also told us about some reforms that are going on in Mexico. One thing I thought interesting is that the long state held monopoly on gasoline through the “PeMex” company is coming to an end. They have passed legislation allowing an open economy when it comes to gasoline. So, Shell, Standard Oil and the like will be opening gas stations in Mexico.

 

This is a pic of the streets of “old town”. Note the cobblestone roads.

 

 

At the end of the tour we had the option of getting off the bus back near the port or to go all the way back to the port area. A few people got off because they wanted to go to the WalMart and/or Sam’s Club that are right across the street from the port… go figure. We actually saw two Walmarts and places like Subway as well as a host of other chain fast-food places. There were lots of shops and brand name stores just like we’ll see when we get back home.

 

We chose to go back to the port. It had been a five hour tour and we were ready to get something to eat. Before heading back to the gang plank, we did look around the little “grande tourista trap” area right there at the boat. Most of the stuff was over-prices junk that you see all over the place… ‘cept the prices there were even higher than others away from the port. We didn’t buy anything.

 

One of the tourist traps in the port compound. This one, like many others, featured brightly painted metalwork.

 

 

All-in-all it was a good day. It had been nice and warm… verging on hot… just what I had been hoping for. The “tequila factory & old town tour” was one of the best I’ve ever been on in over 24 cruises. If you have never taken it before… and maybe even if you have taken it, I highly recommend the tour. And you can’t beat the price at $39.99 per person.

 

(There are a few more pics on kokomomantoo)

 

Bob

Searching for Kokomo… and “mas tequila.”

[Wavesprite]

Thanks for your review, we sail in a month on the Miracle!!!! (Grape Tamales are tamales that are wrapped using grape leaves, not the usual corn husks)

Edited January 15, 2015 by Wavesprite