carohs

Observatorio 1873 is super family friendly. You start out with a short video of the history of Mazatlan then you go up the funicular. Once up, you can choose to do a variety of activities with tour guides who appreciate your tips. You can also choose to explore on your own. The iguanas and aviary run at the 20s and museum and others at the 30s. We only did the animals because we wanted to start heading back early.

After the basilica, we walked in the wrong direction for a few minutes, then decided to hire on another pulmonía. He drove us around the malecón and let us hop on and off to take a few pics. Then we went to Observatorio 1873. 200 pesos. I didn't have pesos so I said that's like $12, he said it's like $17. I do get irritated at locals who don't give a fair exchange rate; Google says the dollar should be 18 pesos. We settled on $15.

Cell service in Mazatlan is slow. At times I was only on 3G and maps couldn't quite pin point my location.

We had a beautiful day in Mazatlan, 65°. The locals are all very friendly too. I can see why people might choose to live here. We started out our morning headed towards the basilica. We walked passed all the taxis and ended up taking a pulmonía for $6. The driver was super cool, he said as drivers the goal is to find a family that wants to do city tours. I'm sure that compared to shore excursions this is more economical for the family and also lots more profitable for the driver. Pictures don't do the beauty of the basilica any justice whatsoever but we took some anyway.

I can certainly try. Any idea where'd I'd get that info?

This morning we are in Mazatlan and it's overcast. The weather is perfect after the heat of the last two days. The breeze feels amazing and it's warm enough for a dress but still cool enough for a walk around town.

Last night we had a lot of fun. 5 maybe 6 glasses of it. A few days ago I met a group on the elevator who were using stitch counter rings to keep track. What a good idea since NCL doesn't give you receipts nor do the included drinks show up in your onboard account. After Puerto Vallarta I was tired. I think we all were except for DD. But Ema the CD announced adult comedy at Stardust so I pulled it together and got us moving. Scotty Goff had the entire theater in a riot. MIL may have even shared TMI as she related to the jokes she found especially funny. We zig zagged our way to Shakers for martinis and to end up at Spinakers. Checked on the kids in between and both were sound asleep. Spinakers was popping and we met some new friends. The 19 yo next to us was especially kind and said I looked fabulous for my age. Well, she was drinking too but I'll take it. She also told my silver haired MIL she guessed her age at 48 😂😂😂

DS is now sleeping and MIL is resting with a book. DD wanted to swim in the pool. It is relatively empty tonight and the water is lukewarm. Note to self: if you wanna go night swimming grab pool towels before 7pm. The lifeguard was kind enough to grab DD a lifejacket though 🤩🤩

When we got back to the stateroom I realized I forgot to switch the thingy to "make up room" before we left. Aw man! I asked to just get clean towels but Steward was nice enough to make up the whole room while we were at dinner. For sure earning extra tips, even if he's quietly working on the background. Dinner was at Tsars tonight. I walked by and they actually had the same menu as Azura. We chose the former for a change of ambience. Service was great! The highlight of the meal was the bread pudding which wasn't very bready and looked like a piece of flan. Delicious and melts in your mouth.

We demolded our chocolate and walked a bit more. I wanted some souvenirs I had seen on the way in. We found the line of parked taxis and got one back to the port. Originally I had said to Walmart but at the last second I mentioned we would cross the street to the marina. Welllll the taxi quickly maneuvered into the turn late and left us at the entrance. Then he charged me $5pp. That's almost 4x more than our ride there. Seems they charged a premium for the convenience. I knew that would happen but whatevs we were tired.

How did you like it?

While we played with chocolate Rodrigo passed around spices we could smell and made hot chocolate with milk and the chocolate paste. The kids took turns with the molinillo. Another yummy drink, and the end of the workshop.

We then ground the beans into a paste and then re-grinded with sugar added. We had fun making the chocolate into shapes.

He then took the tea and added honey and chili powder to make another drink. This was mixed using coconut shells. Mmmm.

Then we enjoyed a Tea, but not with the nibs but with the shells. Rodrigo said this is called Trash Tea. Very healthy and delicious.

Next the cocoa beans were roasted, we were a group of 8, 5 of which were minors. DD took a turn stirring the beans. After they were roasted, Rodrigo spread them out so we could shell them all.

At 3pm we had a workshop scheduled at the Chocomuseo. We started out learning the history of chocolate while we picked which toppings we wanted to add to our molded chocolate.

We walked across the street to Walmart. I was looking to see what the selection of souvenirs and tequila would be but I didn't notice anything special. We got some papitas and suero for DS. Chips and Mexican Pedialyte and got a taxi to the malecón. 100 pesos. We walked around and took lots of pics. The statues were cool and DD wanted to stack rocks.

I finished my cup and went to bring back a cup for MIL. When I grabbed by lanyard to head out I didn't bother to check it. It turns out that if you wanna get back into your stateroom you should have your key card inside your lanyard. Whoopsy. Good news is I didn't wake anyone up when I exited, bad news is they're not answering my knocks. Luckily I saw our Steward Roland and he let me in. He even remembered which room, nice.

8:10 and we're still inching towards the dock. Celebrity Solstice will be our neighbor for the day and she's already here.

I realize I left a small gap last night. So what was what? This time the line at Splash only went as far as down the stairs, not too bad. DD went to be with her friends while DS stayed in the room watching movies. MIL and I skipped the theater and went to Spinakers to listen to D'Revelations. There was almost no one there and the bar was empty. I got a bartender special and MIL got the...shoo I'll ask her later. Spinakers had trivia after so we went to Bliss to listen to New Sensations latin music. The we got a Mr. Worldwide. Good if a little sweet. MIL and I must be lightweights because this is only the second cocktail since dinner and we're happy. For anyone who's counting, we also had 🍷 at 🍽️. MIL and I did get up and danced at least one. She knows how to Cha Cha 😉 New Sensations took a break and I checked on the littles. DD says she's still having fun: she's obviously wired. Unlike DS and I she has not taken a nap. DS was still awake and watching Minions. It seems his energy has returned just a little, good sign. I turned the TV off and headed back to Bliss. We finished out their set and then headed to bed. Yes I did remember to pick up DD first.

Good morning from Puerto Vallarta!!! It's 15 minutes from our scheduled arrival time and we have not yet docked. I can feel the ship inching closer but at least I now have service again. MIL agreed we didn't need to rush out first thing, so when I woke up in our pitch black room I checked the time and snuck out for caffeine. I hope I didn't wake anyone, but I'm 0 for 2 so far. How's the coffee? Well since you asked it's tolerable and does the job. It is piping hot which I know is a requirement for some. Today the drink station had brand new machines too, however they did not mark them. Or my uncafffed head did not see a sign. Anyway, despite common practice, reg on the left, decaf on the right, I managed to pour myself decaf first. Bleh. There are two sized mugs but even the larger of the two is half the size of a standard mug. I guess they really want the serving crew to be singing coffee jingles. The handles are small and I can only fit one finger through. They are also heavy. This all in combination is just a big ol conspiracy to limit my joe intake making it impossible to carry more than one cup at a time. Oh, I tried to carry two in one hand and one in each hand, but the darn mug is too hot to hold by anything else than the handle. My index finger is getting quite the workout. For milk substitute, they have rice, soy or almond milk available. I'm having mine with almond milk.

ROFL 😂 if I could like this three times over I would.

Absolutely!! I will have to take a much closer look at the deck map and stateroom designations. We have POA booked for Oct with a gty and now I'm even more nervous what we end up with.

We are on the sailing after yours and embarkation went a lot more smoothly with the exception of the escalator incident. It helped that the Wonder wasn't there, of couse; however, every DCL embarkation we've done has gone a lot better so I do believe some of the fault belongs to NCL.