PRIDE (8/7-8/14/05) Mexican Riviera cruise review

etluv2cruise · August 22, 2005

I would like to start off thanking everybody on this board for providing me in the past with numerous insights and knowledge regarding PRIDE and/or Mexican Riviera.

We are a party of 11, ranging in age of 9 to 86. All of us have cruise previously, with Carnival as well as 1 or 2 other different cruiselines.

Day 1 - Sunday

We liked how the Mermaid's Grille is being set up at the Lido deck. You don't feel clustered, there were no long lines of folks waiting to get food. It has different food stations serving variety of food choices. There is a Deli station - choices include Reuben, Pastrami, Roast beef, Ham, Turkey, Shrimp Salad, and Tuna, etc.(during breakfast hours, this station is used for making made to order omlettes); Rotissiere station, where they have a craving station with at least two choice of meats served every day: beef, chicken, lamb, or pork; also on the warming trays, they have hot dogs, hamburger patties, steak fries, fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, etc.; Asian Corner station, where they serve Chinese food, there is always warming trays containing fried rice, noodles, stirfry dishes, and egg rolls appetizers, together with pot of soup, like wonton soup, eggflower corn soup, and sweet & sour soup, etc; Taste of Nations station - featuring Italian cuisine today. (This station change its feature nation daily). All of these 4 stations are either back to back or next to one another in the center part of the Mermaid's Grille. Between the Deli and Rotissiere station is the desserts station, the back side of Deli is the Asian Corner, whereas the back side of Rotissiere is the Taste of Nations. There are also numerous drinks stations in the center court of Mermaid's Grille, several cold drink machines serving punch, ice tea and lemonade; hot drink machines serving regular as well as decaf coffee; hot chocolate machines; hot water machines with tea bags on the counter to the side; several cold water fountains along the counters, and ice machines. (I found the water is always lukewarm, so whenever I fill up my water bottle, I put ice in it first, and the ice melt immediately upon contact with the water). Towards the back wall area of Mermaid's Grille, is where the Salad Bar is being set up on one side and thePizzeria on the other side (Order your Calzone here, it is worth the 10 mins. wait, in the interim, you might want to munch on a piece of pizza while waiting, all four pizza choices are good: Pepperoni, Cheese, Goat cheese with olive and mushroom, and the Vegetarian). Further back, out of the Mermaid's Grille to the Aft pool area, you will the ice cream parlor on both sides of the doorways.

There is also a Grill station set up outside in the Main pool area, where they serve hamburgers, hotdogs and grilled chicken breast sandwiches, etc., together with couple drinks stations. This is to faciliate the people who wants to grab a fast bite to eat or quench their thrist, before getting back into the pool, or resume baking under the sun.

The sitting area with tables, chairs and booths in Mermaid's Grille are very well designed. We were always able to find sitting. Once we have our trays with food in hands. The Lido staffs cleared off table promptly, and have it set up for the next party usage in no time. They also come around with their drink carts to fill your drink orders or refill your drinks.

After we stuffed ourselves with all those food choices, my sister and I wanted to make our ways down to see Maitre'd in the Normandie Dining Room to see if he can entertained our request for a large table to fit our party of 11. (He'll be there from 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. today to field any dining inquiries and/or change requests). However, we were told that they don't have any large round table that can fit 11. Most of the tables are of 2, 4, 6 or 8s. So, we decided to let the kids sit in their own table, and the remaining 7 adults sat on the round table. Our tables which are at the back of the dining room on the main level is really shaky.

We all went exploring on PRIDE, and got back to our cabins when we heard the announcements that the mandatory life boat drill is due to begin at approximately 4 p.m. Put on our life jackets and head down to our muster station located at the Atlantic deck, exterior Promenade area. Thank God that our life jackets are relatively new and did not smell. (I had nightmares with smelly dirty life jackets). Anyway, this time, it was rather painless, because we were fortunately placed in the front of the herd. At the completion of life boat drill, PRIDE set sail for Cabo San Lucus, hip, hip hooray!

We went up to the bow area on Lido deck to watch the sailaway, it was very windy. It was pretty cool even with the sunshine.

When we returned to the cabin after exploring a bit on PRIDE after sailaway, our lugguages have already arrrived awaiting us outside our cabin corridor. We changed to our dinner attires, head over to the area outside of the Perfect Game Bar and Starry Nite Lounge on Promenade deck, where they have the Sushi Bar set up every evenings between 5 - 8:30 p.m., and grab some California rolls and Tuna Nigri. Tonite, guests assigned to late seating, will attend the evening show at 7 p.m. prior to dinner @ 8:15 p.m., and the early dinner guests will have dinner at 5:45p.m. with their Welcome Abroad Show scheduled @ 8:45 p.m. Welcome Abroad Show is @ Taj Mahal with our cruise director, Chris Jefferson, and featuring The Comedy & Magic of Cameron. (Cameron ran a Magic Seminar on the following day - Monday at the Starry Night Lounge)

When the show is over, it's time to head over to Normandie restaurant for dinner. Our waiter is Joseph, and assistant waitress is Ramona. They always have a smile on their faces and provide us with good services. Ramona remembers after the first evening that my parents like rye bread and I like the sundried tomato bread, and bring it over to us in her bread basket every nite, also, she remembers to bring me a cup of cappuccino after dinner. We all ate at the dinning room every nite, and enjoyed every one of our meal.

After dinner, we stopped by the Duty Shop which was opened till 10:30 p.m. tonite, and then head over to the Photo Gallery, which is opened till 11 p.m. The two photos they took of us at embarkation were ready. Both pictures came out nice, and tonite, they have a special with the embarkation picture purchased, you pay only $4.99 for a leather 8X10 Carnival Album that includes a 8x10 photo of CARNIVAL PRIDE and 24 sleeves for 8x10 photos, when you purchase the 8x10 embarkation photo. So we purchased together with the photo album.

Oh, how times fly, it is 11 p.m., time to eat again... Late Nite Bistro at Mermaid's Grille (till 1 a.m.). They have fruits, reuben fingers sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, carving of pot roast, B-B-Q ribs, desserts with cakes, tarts, cookies, etc. together with cold and hot drinks. Too much of heavy food to eat at such late hours prior to bed!

It is past midnite, and we finally made our way back to our cabin and hit the sack.

I'll work on Day 2 (1st Day @ Sea) on another segment. Till then, take care.

etluv2cruise

etluv2cruise · August 22, 2005

Day 2 - Monday (First day @ Sea)

We were glad that we have the entire day today to explore the ship, particularly after all these months of planning, anticipating, and reading everything I could about the PRIDE. It was exciting finally seeing all of these places on the ship in person. The ship is beautiful!

I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and head up to the gym to work out on the bicycle (mind you, I'm not the type that exercise regularly at home, I just feel that I need to exercise to help burn off extra calories of food that I had consumed during the course of the cruise). The gym is set up very well, with floor to floor windows that you can look out at the ocean while working out. There is 5 bicycle machines, approximately eight treadmills, and another eight of those aerobic type of machines (I've told you that Iim not the heath-club type already) on the bottom tier of the gym. Climb up around ten steps, in the middle of the gym is the spa with glass enclosure, along the stairways, they have the typical heathclub type of weight-lifting machines, and on the top tier, there are more machines and equipments for body-building. There are also Spa Rooms, and Steam rooms. The gym area took up the forward portion of both the Lido as well as the Sun deck. The lockers room is equipped with showers that have 6 heads, it practically massages you in both directions fom your scalp to your thigh. It is such a pleasure to shower there after working out. The jogging track is one more level up on the Sports deck. Even with so many passengers aboard, I was always able to get on one of the bicycle machines to work, never have to wait in line, even when during the later part of my cruise, I added on an extra work-out session in the late afternoon. because my alarming weight gaining. All gym equipments were very clean and modern.

At 9:30 a.m., I met up with my family to have breakfast at the Normandie Dining Room. We all want to be waited on while vacationing. However, it is rather time-consuming to have meals at Normandie, therefore, on the following three port days, we chose to have breakfast at the Mermaid's Grille, where you can go to grab a quick bite before getting off the ship for excursions.

After breakfast, my mom and I were heading to the Taj Mahal Lounde for the 'Travel & Adventure Talk', we were a bit early, so we side-stepped into the Duty Free Shops, and you guess it, we never made it to the "talk". Oh well, we told ourselves, we probably did not miss much.?.?. We were there for over an hour, trying on jewelry, both mom and I got ourselves something and purchased some gift items, so at least we are productive. It's almost time for lunch, so we went back to our cabin.

Originally, we planned on doing lunch in Normandie on all Sea Days, and at Mermaid's Grille on port days, but while mom and I were shopping, my brither and sister had gone up to Mermaid's to check on the food line-up, and they must have seen something they like. So, change of plan, everybody meets at 12:30 p.m. Mermaid's Grille instead for lunch. Today's Taste of Nation is featuring Caribbean cuisine. Overall, I'm very impressed with the quality of food being served for lunch at Mermaid's. It is just in my humble opinion that Asian Corner is my least favorite station. We roamed around the ship some more after lunch and took some family pictures all over the ship.

I went to the "Port Shopping Talk", if you plan on attending, be sure to go early, so that you can sit on the first row, or the second row near the aisle. The reason being that Linda gave away items that she showcased during her presentation, item like a bottle of vanilla, various arts and craft items, plastic rings from Del Sol that change colors under the sun, and even a kids t-shirt, etc. She just left it on the stage and said "whoever interested, come and get it". I was sitting on the side aisle, but five rows back, so fat chance of me getting anything. I would not say that the Port Shopping Talk was a waste of time, from the talk you can picked up on how much the taxi fare should be from the pier to Golden Zone in P.V., what is the approximately fare to go to Diamond International at Mazatlan, and where to go shopping at Cabo, etc. She even went on to tell us that Cabo's price tends to be the highest, and Mazatlan has the best price for souvenirs items. I picked up some shopping maps on each of the ports we will be visiting, and cut out of there at around 3:30 p.m., because I want to go to the Florentine Lobby for Tea Time. When I got there, all the tables have been occupied, and there were only maybe at most 15 tables in that area. They covered the little tables with white table cloth, and there were servers going tables to tables with thermos filled with hot water, and a wooden box containing choices of tea bags. They also brought over each table several pieces of petite cream puff, sponge cakes, and petite pastries. They have classical music playing in the background. Due to being full capacity at the tables, the server directed me to join several with other passengers already sitting at the Florentine Bar counter area. The atmosphere is very tranquire, a calm and relaxing effect. Tea time ends at 4:30 p.m. I kept a mental note for myself to get there early on the next sea day, i.e. Friday, so that I can have a table by the window, to make my experience even more enjoyable, staring out into the ocean with passing waves, seeping afternoon tea and savoying each bites of the petite pastries and sandwiches. Uuh... even recalling the moment bring me tranquility.

My DD and DS felt that Tea Time is too stuffy for them, they much prefer to be at the aft section of Mermaid's Grill, for Sweets & Treats, which runs from 3 - 5 p.m. They had hand-packed ice cream there where you scooped from the tub of ice cream, various toppings like raisins, nuts, sprinkles, mini M & M, butterscotch, mango syrup, etc. They also have brownies, various types of cookies, ladyfingers, etc.

Tonite, being the first of the two formal nites, I noticed that the ship photograhers has been out and around, setting up various stations for potraits taking. Due to my dad's condition of being unable to stand for long, I inquired with a photograher as to whether we can set up an appointment to have our group of 11 take a family portrait. I was directed to talk to this gentleman, by the name of Mikarus, he set us up for 7:30 p.m to meet at the of the bottom of the atrium staircase, right by the Information desk area. This is the only backdrop for groups larger than 6. So, if you are in a large party, it is highly recommended that you set up an appointment, and that way can save some time in not waiting in lines.

We did not attend the Captain's Cocktail Party at Taj Mahal Lounge, for various reasons that we have already been to several of them on various ships, and felt that you seen it once, you seen it all. Anyway, tonite, in lieu of the Sushi station being set up outside of the Perfect Game Bar and Starry Nite Lounge area, they have servers station there with trays of drinks and hors' doerves for the cocktail reception. This is one of the very few occassions, other than nuster drill, that we see such a crowd. Normally, we always wonder is this ship sailing in full capacity? Because we seldom felt crowded or encontered long lines. The dining room was a bit late opening its door for the late seating guests tonite, which did not help to alleviate the congestion along the Promenade deck area.

When the door opened and we got to our table, Ramona already have all the drinks ready at the kids' table, and pot of hot water each for my parents. Overall, we felt that the food in the dining room was okay, seems to be not as good as our previous experience, JMHO. Even so, most nites, my husband chose one if not two entrees with two to three appetizers. We all like the desserts.

After dinner, we went to see the show "Wonderful World". It was good, but nothing really spectacular; maybe we have been spoiled with quality of shows and/or productions that we have seen in the past at Las Vegas.

We went up to Mermaid's Grille after the show for their Late Nite Bistro again, just snack a little and grab a drink, before going back to our cabin and calling it a day.

We really enjoy the Sea Day, but we are also anxiously awaiting for tomorrow morning, where we will be arriiving at Cabo San Luca, our first port of call. With the exception of my brother, the remaining ten of us are first timer.

I will be continue with our day at Cabo tommorow. Till the, take care. May all your dreams are wonderful cruises.

etluv2cruise

bleuseas · August 22, 2005

Was the waterslide operable?

crazycath · August 22, 2005

My mother and I are going on this cruise on Sept, 18th I am hanging on every word. Thank you for taking the time to write. Hope to read some more soon!

CAthy

ionelee1 · August 22, 2005

We will be cruising 9-18, also, it will be our third time taking this cruise. Love the great details and descriptions you are giving us. (Thank you for your time.) We are looking forward to your tours, or day trips you took, we are still undecided on Cabo, and P. V. hope you can help me decide on something.

crazycath · August 22, 2005

I have booked Mazatlan Frank for Mazatlan, we need more ppl to go on tour with us, are you already booked with someone for Maz? I can send you the tour description.

What floor are you on, I live in Hemet... we're neighbors

Cathy

etluv2cruise · August 23, 2005

Was the waterslide operable?

Hello bleuseas:

Sorry, the waterslide was closed the entire week. We did inquire about its status at the information desk, and was told that it will be closed indefinitely, pending repairs.

Prior to our cruise, I was upset that it was closed. On the first day, when I went to take a look at the slide, and was sort of disappointed that they closed it down. However, in looking back now, our days either in ports or @ sea are pretty much filled. Hate to admit it, we did not miss it afterall. Yes, on the other hand, that if it is opened, the 4 kids and some of us adults would definitely be on it. This might give us an excuse to come back and visit the PRIDE soon in order to experience going down that monsterous slide.

etluv2cruise

ionelee1 · August 23, 2005

We have booked in Mazatlan the shopping, beach and lunch from the cruise ship. We did Randi's horses, it was nice, but I don't do horses well. But it was very nice. We have our cabin on the top deck Panorama room 8176.

I hope its not to noisey. Does anyone know? We are still undecided about Cabo. P.V. maybe the Tropical Jungle Paradise Tour, still waiting for some comments. Need some help time is getting short. Thanks for any imput.

We are also booked at the Coast Hotel, the night before. I get very nervious about missing the Ship. I have nightmares!! We stayed their last time. A beautiful place, and great location.

slineberry528 · August 23, 2005

I justed loved reading your posts. I am planning the shore tours now. I have gotten email from Mazatlan Frank. I am thinking of using him.

etluv2cruise · August 23, 2005

Day 3 (Tuesday) 1st Port of Call - Cabo San Lucas

Carnival changed their itinerary for the Mexican Riviera cruise in mid June from its original 2 sea days before arriving at its first port, Puerto Vallarta, to its current schedule of 1 day @ sea, then its first port at Cabo San Lucas, then onto Mazatlan the next day, and the final port, Puerto Vallarta on the following day, with two sea days @ the end prior to arriving back to its home port at Long Beach. I understand that with this itinerary, we got to stay at Cabo till 7 p.m., rather than the usual 4 p.m. Personally, I like this new set up better, not only because of a longer stay @ Cabo, but also, I appreciate having the two sea days @ the end for some much needed R & R, prior to going back to real life -WORK. Carnival will soon be changing back to its regular itinerary starting in late September.

As in the previous morning, I woke up slightly before 7 a.m., and head up

to the gym for my workouts on the bicycle. It was great to ride the bicycle, glanced into the ocean as the ship approached the harbor of Cabo San Lucas. As we got closer, a white speed motorboat armed with presumably Mexcian security personnel came along our side, and escorted the PRIDE into the harbor. Even at that early hour in the morning, there were several water taxis out in the water carrying people out to view the "Arches".

I decided to cut short of my workout session, and opt to take a hike up to the Sun Deck in order to better take in the sights of this beautiful and majestic rock formation, that rises from the ocean floor. What an incredible sight! At 8 a.m., the ship finally came to a halt, I made my way back into the gym/spa, and got into the shower. What a great way to start the day, with warm water from the six shower heads cascading onto you.

When I returned to my cabin and open up the door, my mouth almost drop - Holy Macaroni - I can't believe my eyes. "Los Arcos" was in my direct sight. Picture perfect. Can't ask for a better view! I was absolutely ELATED!

Both my parents as well as my sister's cabin is on the starboard side, so I invited them to come over to our cabin to our cabin to take in the scenery. Of 'coz, everybody is standing in our balcony, snapping pictures with "Los Arcos" in the backdrop.

At almost 9:30 a.m., we finally made our way out of the balcony / cabin, and head up to Mermaid's Grille for some breakfast. We were in no rush this morning to get off the ship, because we did not have any excursion booked for Cabo san Lucas. With the exception of my brother, the remaining 10 of us are all first timer @ Cabo San Lucas. My brother had plan to go scuba diving, so he woke up early, went to the Starry Nite Lounge to get his tender sticker, and while awaiting for his sticker number to be called, he even got a bite to eat up at the Lido deck, before getting off the boat at 8:15 a.m.

Cabo San Lucas is tender port, i.e., the cruise ship can't dock at the pier, because the bay is too shallow. So, the ship is docked outside in the harbor, and a tender boat ferry passengers from the ship to shore. The ship's policy is that if you have not booked a shore tour through the ship, you will require a tender sticker to board the tenders. They start giving out stickers at 7:45 a.m. in the Starry Night Lounge, and the purpose of tender sticker is not to overcrowd the gangway areas, which is located on Deck A (which is deck below the Riviera). You should only come to the gangway when your number is called. For people with tours booked thru the ship, you will not require a tender sticker, your tour ticket is sufficient. It is a 5 mins tender drive to go ashore, and each tender should be able to fit around 30+ passengers. Stickers are required only during the peak early hours; once the crowd dwindle down, you will be able to walk to the gangway areas without sticker to get aboard the tender. Make sure that you bring along a photo ID, together with your S & S card, and a copy of today's Caper (listed is an emergency contact number and person's name)

There has been announcement of tender sticker number made throughout the entire morning, with two numbers usually being called at a time, and it seem that they are moving the numbers in pretty good time. However, when we were done with breakfast at around 10:15 a.m., they still haven't called off the sticker system yet, so we went down to Starry Nite Lounge for our stickers, and were assigned to #25. (They just called #21 and #22 a few minutes ago). In less than 10 mins, our number was called! Alright, first port of call, here we come.

The movement we stepped off the tender, you can feel the heat coming from the ground up, with the sun beating on. The hills of Cabo is pretty much just rock with not much vegetation, rarely would you see any trees. As we leave the dock area, there is security personnel there, (possibily Mexican police) checking on our backpacks or bags carried for food items. We seen them confisgated banana, danishes and other items from passengers, or they are chowing it right down there, before they let them out of the little gate. Once, we stepped out onto the pier area, swarm of vendors approached us for fishing trips, snorkelling, water taxi ride to Lover's Beach and Los Arcos, glass bottom boat ride. Image how wild this place was a few hours back, when the initial waves of people set foot at Cabo earlier in the morning. As I have mentioned before, we did not have a fixed plan yet. My BIL wants to try snorkeling (a decision he would soon regret!), my DH, DD, and DS said that they will give it a try also. One particular vendor keep hanging around nearaby solicitating for our business, whereas, the remaining pack started to drift away. Finally, we took his offer of $20 per person for snorkeling, with equipments included, and they would also throw in a tour down to and around the arches for us. My neice and I do not want to snorkle, but, we just want to do banana boat ride. So, for not snorkeling, he charge us $10 per person for riding out to the arches with them and hanging out at Lover's Beach for a hour while the other 4 is snorkeling, They will pick us all back up in an hour and drop out off at the place for banana boat ride, 'coz my DH, DD and DS also want to ride the banana boat. (Banana boat ride is @ $8 per person).

Getting off the boat at Lover's Beach is an adventure by itself is definitely an understatement. For all of you who are planning to get off at Lover's Beach, here is the words of caution: The boat will not get onto the beach, and there is strong current there pushing the boat back out from the shore. Put all your belongings in ziploc bags before placing inyour backpacks or duffel bags. Don't jump off the boat, even when the guy driving the boat tell you to do so, he will say: "Get off, get off now", when the boat get to about 10 feet from shore. You have to time it right to slid out of the boat. My BIL got out first, as he landed, he was swept by a big wave and got his 3 weeks new digital camera wet, throughout the remiander of the trip, he was unable to power on the camera! My niece was fortunate, she got off at the right tome when the water was receeding from the beach area out to the bay, so she was standing there with water up to her thigh only. Following my neice, is my DD, and she jumped off from the boat, as the waves pushes, she went completely under the boat. By this time, a Mexican gentleman who was done helping people getting on another boat came over, and help in taking our bags up to beach area. Then is my DH's turn, and he did okay with his timing, so did my DS. Disaster for me, because I jumped off too, and at high tide. Yek!!! What an experience, never again. You would have thought that I learned from my first experience, no, I did the same thing when done with the banana boat ride; instead of gliding off the side of the banana boat while getting off, I jumped again into the water. But, hey, I enjoyed the banana boat ride, my only complaint is that it is rather short, definitely, not 15 mins ride as they indicated, I don't even think it is 10 mins yet. It was a 30 mins walk along the beach back to the pier, where the tender back to the PRIDE is at.

I'm glad that my parents as well as my sister and nephew, who is 9, did not join us in this adventure. We all agreed that if we ever are back @ Cabo again, we definitely would not do what we did today (even though we enjoyed riding on the banana boat). IWe would try riding in a different port: Mazatlan or Puerto Vallarta instead.

It was a little after 4:00 p.m. when we got back onto PRIDE, since we have all dried off on our way walking back, we just want to grab a quck bite to eat at the Mermaid's Grille, before taking a shower. We missed lunch featuring cuisine from India at Taste of Nation today (lunch ends @ 3:30p.m.). The only food stations open are: Deli and Pizza Bar, as well as the Grill out by the main pool area. I had the Roast Beef baguette, and my DD had Reuben sandwich from the Deli; my DS and DH sordered 2 calzones and a couple of pepperoni pizza to share. Everything taste so yummy. We each grabbed a

soft serve ice cream and head back to our cabin. All was forgotten once we entered our cabin and exit out to our balcony to enjoy the picture perfect view of the Arches! We just sat out there at the balcony absorbing the scenery while taking turns to shower. When everyone was done showering, we head down to Deck 2 and got some sushi from the Sushi Bar (every nite the chef feature 4 different items) and with plates of sushi in hand, we head up to Deck 9 forward to watch the PRIDE set sail slightly before 7 p.m.. - a good sign that everybody made it back on board by the last tender at 6:30 p.m.

We stopped by the photo gallery to look at our formal pictures taken. The photograher did a pretty good job. I have in receipt a $15 photo discount coupon as gift for the" 45 days letter", so I applied it to the purchase of my photo. Then, it is off to dinner at Normandie. Tonite's showtime is "Swing Time" starring Ned Rifken. He is okay, I have heard better. This show appeal to passenger mainly aged 50's and up, because he did mostly oldies with songs dated back in the 1950's. The people of younger generation would find tonite's show boring. As with our ritual, we stopped off at the Mermaid's Grille after the show for Late Nite Bistro before calling it a nite.

Tomorrow, we'll be at Mazatlan, and we had a booked excursion.

etluv2cruise

slineberry528 · August 24, 2005

Wow, I think I will pass on Lover's beach.

etluv2cruise · August 24, 2005

Day 4 (Wednesday) Port of Call: Mazatlan

I woke up at my usual time in the morning, slightly before 7 a.m., and went about my routine of working out on the bicycle at the gym, while watching the ocean go by. We are set to arrive in Mazatlan at approximately 9:00 a.m., and I can faintly see the city in the distance. As the ship got closer to the harbor, I can made out that there is another oceanliner with black funnel docked at the pier already. Little did I know that half an hour later, that we will side by side with each another, as the Carnival PRIDE glided past the Disney Magic, and amazingly made a 180 degree turn and docked behind the Magic at the pier.

Our portside cabin lucked out again, our balcony has the view of Stone Island, very scenic and tranquil. Every now and then, we saw a ferry docked at the pier directly across our view, unloaded the passengers going there, and load up with passengers wishing to come over to the mainland. During the morning hours, it seemed that the ferry was pretty crowded heading to the island and sparsely occupied on its trip back. This pattern reversed itself as the afternoon wears on.

We quickly finished our breakfast at the balcony, gathered our bags and head towards the gangway, which was located on Deck A. (Make sure that you take with you your Sail & Sign card, a photo ID, just in case, an additional form of identification is needed; and your Carnival Caper, because the number to call in case of emergency for each port is listed with the day's paper.

I have booked with Mazatlan Frank a private City Tour on the air-conditioning van for our entire party. (This is the only port that my brother joins us with our excursion). Realizing how popular a tour guide Mazatlan Frank is, I made the reservation with Frank back in January, and reconfirmed our reservation with him again in mid-June, when Carnival made the itinerary change on PRIDE. Due to my heavy work schedule the week prior to our cruise, it did not crossed my mind to reconfirm with him again prior to leaving for our vacation.

According to the instructions that he had given me, we were to meet him at 9:15 a.m., and it was 9:20 a.m. and we still have not gotten off the ship yet. The Port of Mazatlan is an industrial port, and by Port Law, you must ride the free (green) trolley from the ship to the passenger terminal building. When you arrived there, there were around 100 timeshare people (I'm not kidding, all line up outside) trying to give you something "free". As Mazatlan Frank warned us, "remember that nothing is free". Do not make eye contact with any of these timeshare vendors, go through the terminal building, which have lots of little stores in there, and as we exit the building, we saw a gentleman wearing a white shirt that says OLE TOURS on it, with a sign that said " Welcome to Mazatlan", and have my name on it. I have seen photo of Mazatlan Frank on the web, and this gentleman does not resembles the Mazatlan Frank that I have came to know.

He introduced himself as Luis, aka Tomatto, and he is a partner of Frank. He informed us that Frank has written several emails to me and did not received a response back from me, so he was unsure as to whether our party are still with him on the tour or not. I was puzzled, because I checked my email daily on the week leading to the cruise, but did not come across anything from Frank on my mailbox. (Upon my return from the trip, I searched my mailbox, and found all his emails in my Spam folder. For some reasons unknown, I don't know how and why his emails end up in my "Spam".) Anyway, all well that ends well, our party is very happy with Luis as our tour guide. He gave us a lots of insights about the history, ways of life and culture of Mazatlan. We enjoyed the incredible sights, beaches and shopping that beautiful Mazatlan has to offer. He is very flexible, he let us take our time to enjoy the tour. We never felt rush. I highly recommend him to anyone interested in taking the Mazatlan City Tour. You will be happy with either Frank or Luis. They both speak very good English, are very knowledgeable and courteous.

We were glad that we end up on the open air trolley, the openess make sightseeing better, less restrictive. We enjoyed the fresh air and the slight breeze when the trolley is moving, it is more comfortable than having air-conditioning inside the van, and having to contrast the warm air when stepping out of the van. Last, but not least, we have a very good driver, Abraham. He kept an eyes on our personal belongings while we are out walking around.

A summary of our tour is as follows: The tour began with the drive up a hill, where you can see a great view of the city, as well as our ship, the PRIDE. A great place for photo opportunities. From there, we went to see the cliff divers, then off to Old Mazatlan, stop at a shop, which offered us complimentary drinks of soda, water, or beer; and the use of bathroom facilities. Our group purchased quite a bit of souvenirs here at this shop, items such as wind-chimes, vase, pottery wall hangings and figurines. After approx. half an hour, we got back onto the trolley, and continue through Old Mazatlan, and walked around the area where the Machado Plaza and Angela Peralta Theatre is located. Re-board the trolley, we went to the Cathedral and market, we visited the Cathedral and a Senor Frog store here (You'll see that there are Senor Frog stores everywhere). Returning back to the trolley, we drove past the shrimp market, and then continue on the main avenue, where we saw many monuments and statues along the way, to El Cid residential area (we drove through there to see beautiful houses with the site of a 27 hole golf couse on one side, and mariner on the other.) Then as a final stop, we went to the Golden Zone, where we have some time to look around and shop. My parents and BIL ate at one of the restaurant there. They had fish taco and said it was very good. My sister and I had a great time shopping at the Sea Shell store, we purchased a lots of souvenirs/gifts here. In fact, we were late returning back to the trolley, everyone was sitting in the trolley waiting for our return. Thank God that it is our own private tour!

Luis and Abraham got us back to the dock area by 2 p.m. The kids were in a hurry to return back to the ship, because they were showing a Big screen movie - Monster in Law @ 2 p.m. in the Butterflies Lounge, Riviera deck forward. The rest of our party went up to Lido deck's Mermaid's Grille for lunch, after a quick clean-up. Taste of Nations features Japanese cuisine today. After lunch, I took the free shuttle and went back out to the terminal building and flea market, and do what else, of course more shopping! I also stopped by the internet place inside the terminal building, because I promised my boss that I'll check in on work during mid-week. The price they charged in this place is far more reasonable than the amount charged on PRIDE. For $3, I got 15 mins usage of the internet. Upon returning back to the ship, I went back to our cabin, sat outside at the balcony and admired the beauty of Stone Island. Contrary to this morning, the ferry that transport passengers from the Island back to port are now pretty full, and the number of passengers heading to the island twindles to a handful. All passengers need to be back onboard no later than 5:30 p.m. and the PRIDE set sail at 6 p.m. sharp. (Disney Magic is still at port. They were scheduled to leave @ 5 p.m.

However, as I was returning from my internet/shopping trip @ around 5 p.m., the trolley shuttle passed by Disney Magic, and I saw several people working on the ship, wonder what cause their delay?)

After watching the sailaway up front on the Lido deck, it is look to make my way down to the Sushi Bar for my nightly ritual of having some sushi to tie me through dinner at 8:15 p.m.

Tonite's showtime feature a hypnotist. I have seen better hypnotist, he is mediocre at best. After the show, as usual, we went up to the Mermaid's Grille for some snacks at their Late Nite Bistro, before calling it a nite.

It is kind of sad that we are already at the mid-point of our cruise. Time flies when you are having fun!

etluv2cruise

etluv2cruise · August 24, 2005