Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Navigator of the Seas (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[Coralc]

Waiting.... 😀

[bobmacliberty]

The suspense is killing me Harry!

[harryfat1]

13 hours ago, Coralc said:

Waiting.... 😀

 

6 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

The suspense is killing me Harry!

Haha, sorry guys.  Friday night is my movie night with my wife at home so didn't have time to upload more stuff.  

 

Has anyone watched the TV series - The Witcher? We have been following that series. 

 

Not always easy to find a TV series we both follow from the beginning.  She typically likes drama series and I only like series where there are explosions or killings (not people dying of illness and everyone cries about it).

 

Spoiler alert - as it was low tide time, the Blow Hole effect wasn't great so don't get your hopes up

[harryfat1]

You see the entire group of Kayakers out in the water

 

There’s the guide in a green vest and he acts as a gatekeeper/barrier to prevent the rest of the group from getting sucked into the Blow Hole and getting hurt.  You see how his Kayak is perpendicular to the rest of the orange vest folks as to prevent them from going any further.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK.  Blow Hole.

 

This is why we all came here (long drive and fighting past the gauntlet).  The water goes into the underground cave and pressure from the waves forces the water to shoot water high in the sky.  Wiki can explain the science better than I can:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowhole_(geology)

 

The key to really seeing a good geyser is coming here on high tide day but as a cruise passenger, you can’t exactly pick the hour/days of the week you will be visiting. 

 

So you just deal with whatever nature gives you during your short visit.

 

Depending on how high you rank on the anal scale, you may or may not have looked up the tidal conditions for the day/hour you plan to be in Ensenada prior to leaving town so you have an idea of the wave conditions. 

 

Yeah, I don’t know anybody that anal either…

 

[harryfat1]

The problem with taking these nature shots is you never know when you will really capture anything worthwhile so you just keep clicking and maybe you get 1 out of 10 pictures that might be worthwhile.  The other 9 are the “meh” types.

 

Nope.  Not good...

 

 

Nope...

 

 

Better but not great

 

 

 

Meh...

 

 

[harryfat1]

Similar to videos. You take a few and just the luck of the draw on what you might get

 

Nope

 

   

Meh

 

Nada

 

   

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

After a while, I found a pattern whereby when you see the water rush AWAY from the blow hole, you should get excited as then the next wave will bring more water in.

 

After the 10-second mark of this video, you see the water rushing away and then a new wave comes in to create more space for the water pressure to gush out the water

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by harryfat1

[harryfat1]

OK, the previous video is probably the best one as the water covers the view of the kayakers.  Not going to stand here forever for the “next big wave” as we are not anywhere near high tides. 

 

Good enough is good enough as my 117-page contract with CC doesn’t require me to be here for more than 15 minutes. Y'all get the idea of what it looks and sounds like.

 

A few more pictures and we are done.

 

I like the break between the clouds and the blue sky on the left. The water to the left is blue but anything to the right is more gray

 

 

The blue side

 

 

This was probably the largest gusher during our visit as you can barely see the kayakers on the other side

 

 

[harryfat1]

I would imagine during the storms or when Hurricane Hillary blew through the area in late August, the waves would probably be shooting the water up very high but who would be here to watch this on a stormy day?

 

If a tree falls and no one hears it, does it make a sound?  If a big wave blows through the Blow Hole but no one is there to see it, does that count?

 

 

Anyway, time to walk back but we have a lot of time to kill.  All the tours I have seen (RCI and Viator) list this tour as 3.5 hours.  Take out the 45 minutes each way travel time for the tour, that implies 2 hours at the Blow Hole area. 

 

Which is way more time than you need to see the Hole itself.  The rest of the time is just visiting the uncle in prison (aka shopping) or getting something to eat.

 

As the day wore on, more people were walking the pathway to see the Blow Hole as we walked away from the area.  So if you want fewer people in the water area, come earlier.

 

This photo is time-stamped at 12:07 and you can see more people than in earlier pictures

 

 

Walking back also means you have to “walk the gauntlet” the second time and actually this is worse as when you first came, you were part of the group tour so you are “protected” somewhat by the large crowd as you need to walk fast to keep up with the tour.  Coming back it’s just you and your family so it’s a lot easier for the street vendors to ID you and try to shove some food in front of you or try to get you to go inside.

 

They said, “Remember you said you were coming back ‘later’? Well, now is ‘later’” as they know we ALL say “No, thank you” or say “We come back later as we want to see the Blow Hole first”.

 

So be ready to be bombarded with another round of salespeople in front of you.  If you are lucky/time it right, there will be a big group that is just arriving and the vendors are trying to sell to the newcomers and won’t see you “escaping” on the backside.

 

(Oh, yeah, since this is not a professional trip report, I will drop in a picture I forgot to include in previous posts and I can't go back to insert anymore. Took this picture as I liked the clouds were just lined up.  So just a bonus picture)

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

As the pickup by Alexa and the driver wasn’t until 1:15, we had one hour to kill and instead of being bombarded by every vendor if we just walked up and down the pathway, we went to the beginning of the gauntlet area and grabbed some lunch at Lidia’s Tacos as it had good reviews compared to the other shady establishments along the walkway.

 

Besides, it was getting hot and we could use a place to sit down and cool off for a few minutes.

 

 

Not to mention Anthony Bourdain ate fish tacos when he was in town years ago as that's the famous food of the town.  Yeah, I know, he didn't eat the tacos here-here but it's in the same town so it can't be that far off

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

On YoutTube, the tacos were listed at $2/taco but as inflation has hot Mexico, it’s now $3/taco. That’s some hefty inflation!

 

 

As it was lunchtime, it was starting to get crowded. You just stand in line and order as there’s no waiter to take your orders so it's more fast food style

 

 

 

 

All the tourists are here

 

[harryfat1]

Fresh tacos being made in front of you

 

 

 

Of course, we had to order the fish tacos as that’s the signature dish for Ensenada 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Funny story – there was some dude with his family and he got some salsa from the table and dumped it on his food and then he complained really LOUD to everyone there that the salsa was TOO SPICY – “Oh My God, this salsa is too spicy.  My mouth is on fire. This can’t be real”. 

 

 

He even flagged down a restaurant worker who was cleaning up the table next to him and complained to the worker about how the restaurant could not legally serve this time of spicy salsa to its patrons. The worker looked at him as if he was from Mars (or Iowa) as the dude must not have eaten anything spicy wherever he’s from.

 

I tried the various salsa on the table and there’s one that packs a lot of heat but that’s part of eating in an authentic Mexican restaurant with real salsa.  The dude must not eaten in any authentic Mexican establishment previously – OK, Toto, I don’t think we are in Taco Bell anymore…

 

Our family still laughs about this incident whenever we eat anything spicy since then.  So if you can’t tolerate spicy food and have not eaten anything spicy where you are from, be careful when you visit Mexico before you dump the whole container of salsa onto your food. 

 

Yo, dude, that stuff might look red, but that ain’t ketchup you got on your tacos…

 

 

[Coralc]

The last video of the blowhole is very good! It does look cool when it goes off. 👍 I wonder where the kayak people come from? It is way too far to paddle down from the pier. I guess folks do actually vacation there. 😊

[harryfat1]

9 minutes ago, Coralc said:

The last video of the blowhole is very good! It does look cool when it goes off. 👍 I wonder where the kayak people come from? It is way too far to paddle down from the pier. I guess folks do actually vacation there. 😊

 

There's a Kayak place not that far from the Blow Hole (red arrows). I think they came from the Green arrow place around the bend if you look at the pictures they are coming from the top of the picture.

 

 

If you look at the picture, you see a group of them coming from the right of the picture into the middle so there must be a launching place around the rocks

 

 

I think some of these people could be from our cruise as I know viewing the Blow Hole via Kayak is an option:

 

https://ensenadatourguide.com/product/kayak-at-la-bufadora-downtown-city-tour/

 

Here's their perspective looking up at us:

 

 

These nature-viewing trips are all a matter of luck.  If someone comes to see it during really high tides, they will see a much higher geyser spray.

[harryfat1]

 At 1:15, Alexa and the driver came to the pickup point and loaded everyone back onto the bus and we headed back to Ensenada.  I didn’t take any pictures on the way back but just wanted to mention that there’s major construction going on the road coming back as we didn’t get back to Ensenada until much later than expected. 

 

The theoretical travel time is 45 minutes to 1 hour per Google Maps.  The actual time getting back with traffic delay due to construction was closer to 1.5 hours.

 

As the all-aboard time is 5:30, I wasn’t worried as I knew we had plenty of time to spare with no real-time pressure.

 

Speaking of which, queue up the next song:

 

 

 

The TV show Magicians was one of my favorite shows on the Syfy channel – many call it the Harry Potter for grown-ups. In some episodes they break out into songs to fit the storyline. They have a couple of really talented singers. 

 

It was on for 5 seasons on the Syfy channel before moving on to Netflix.  Catch it if you appreciate some adult-themed magic stories

 

After hearing this song for so many years on the radio, I never really understood all the words until I saw this on YouTube with closed captions

 

[harryfat1]

Made it back to downtown.  Got off the bus and tipped Alexa for being our guide.  I’m surprised how many people don’t tip the tour guides on excursions as people just walk off the bus.  She was happy and almost surprised when I gave her a tip as all the people ahead of us just walked off. I thought it was customary to tip tour guides after a tour...

 

So we got off the Blow Hole shuttle at the park area and walked the same 50 feet to get on the transfer bus back to the ship at 2:50.  Remember to take out the $4 roundtrip transfer ticket from this morning

 

 

Got back to the ship around 3:10.  Remember when I said to track the time when we got on the shuttle bus to leave for town a little before 10 AM?  The whole time off the ship was 5 plus hours. 

 

So if you plan to do this tour, get off the ship no later than 11 AM as you need to account for travel time to make it back to the ship with some wiggle room for the 5:30 all aboard deadline.

[harryfat1]

Continue on with the trip report as we are almost done. I tried to log in last night to upload a few more pictures but the system was down.  Has anyone else experienced this problem besides me?

 

+++++++++++++++

 

When we got back to the ship and opened the cabin door, we were genuinely surprised by the towel birthday cake that the cabin attendant, Melanie, provided along with a birthday card for my wife.  I guess Melanie saw my wife’s birthday based on the passenger info and she prepared this for my wife a few days prior to her birthday because none of us told Melanie about the birthday.

 

 

This is the first time I have ever seen a towel cake – even has LED lights.  We put it in the bathroom that night as a night light

 

 

 

Lost in the commotion was the towel animal of the day

 

[harryfat1]

As it’s way past 3 PM and the Windjammer is closed during the much-needed food time between 3 and 6 PM, we wanted something to eat as the tacos weren’t enough to tie us over until 8 PM.  So we went up to the pool deck and got more Mexican food by the pool area.  

 

I really think the Windjammer should be opened from 3 to 6 for those people coming back late on shore excursions.

 

 

 

Yeah, the El Loco Fresh is not as good as the restaurant by the Blow Hole and the salsa isn’t as spicy either.  Maybe that dude from the restaurant was used to eating the salsa here

 

 

At 3:45, many of the people are back from the port visit and trying to catch a couple of hours of the sun during the last day of the cruise

 

 

[harryfat1]

During this entire trip report, I have shared a lot of food pictures on the front end but now let’s talk about the back end of the matter as to what happens after eating all the food (yes, bad pun intended.  Hey, my joke writing team of one is on vacation so unless you can come up with better jokes...)

 

 

Ahhh, yes.  Toilet Paper.  I know some people probably stuck around just to see what we will be talking about toilet paper.

 

So, is it just me (or my behind) but these toilet papers feel like they are sandpaper factory rejects? Maybe as I get older, the muscles in my bottom become more sensitive but I just think these toilet papers are terrible.  Now I don’t expect RCCL to buy higher grade stuff like Charmin toilet paper but at least not the sand paper rough material they are giving us here.

 

Maybe after the Covid years, I have become more aware of toilet paper as there was a big shortage with all the people hoarding them.  I have since grown in appreciation of higher-quality TP.

 

I know we stayed in the lowly interior view cabin so I assume we get the worst TP of the lot but for those that have stayed at the higher-end suites, do you get better TP or does RCI just have one TP grade for all the cabins?  You would think if you had to pay $5K/pp for a cruise, they would give you a softer TP. 

 

Do they include higher-quality TP as one of the suite amenities?  Has anyone ever made a request with the concierge to request better TP? 

 

I have read/watched YouTube videos of people bringing their own blankets/pillows/shampoos/lotions onto the cruise but I assumed no one had brought their own TP?  I haven’t gotten to that point yet but it’s certainly worth a discussion to see what people think about bringing their own TP.

 

I guess it’ll be interesting to see the TSA agent’s face when he/she has to inspect a couple of rolls of TP in your carry-on.

 

[Biker19]

7 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

I haven’t gotten to that point yet but it’s certainly worth a discussion to see what people think about bringing their own TP.

Especially when you have to use it on a much longer sailing.

 

Biker, who wonders what's the over/under for the number of days folks will put up with the crap TP before bringing their own.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Biker19

[broberts]

35 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Has anyone else experienced this problem besides me?

 

Yes. The CC boards were unavailable for an hour or two.

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, broberts said:

 

Yes. The CC boards were unavailable for an hour or two.

Thanks for the confirmation.  At first, I thought it was my phone and the Internet connection not working but when I got the same message on my laptop, I figured the problem wasn't on my end

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Especially when you have to use it on a much longer sailing.

 

Biker, who wonders what's the over/under for the number of days folks will put up with the crap TP before bringing their own.

Harry, who agrees with Biker19 and thinks he should start a polling question to get the feel of the market for over/under spread.

 

Harry, who thinks like an accountant, believes there is a market for Royal to sell upgraded toiletry products such that they can package the Charmin soft toilet paper with higher-quality lotions and shampoos for $85 per sailing and call it "The Royal Flush"...

 

Harry, who thinks RCI, after selling the Royal Flush package for a big profit, will now limit each passenger over the age of 21 to only bringing 1 roll of toilet paper per person in their suitcases.  Any rolls of toilet paper above the limit will be confiscated by security and only be returned to them on disembarkation day