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Grand Princess 10-Day Mexican Riviera Cruise - Photo Review - Jan 9-19th, 2016

WinksCruises

By WinksCruises,
in Princess Cruises

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Purdue-IL&TX

Purdue-IL&TX

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Wonderful Part 2 docu-drama write-up on Manzanillo! I am "almost" sorry that our upcoming MR cruise on Crown Princess won't be stopping here. Darn it, we only get to stop at Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo. Where's the excitement in that? Last time I got to see fun machine guns in a third-world setting was in San Pedro Sula, Honduras back in 1994. Your quoting the actual Manzanilla website was terrific! Makes me wonder if Princess will keep this port stop on its itineraries or eventually remove it. Keep your wonderful write-ups coming, please.

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WinksCruises

WinksCruises

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Christ statue along the boardwalk in Manzanillo

 

If after reading the previous post on Manzanillo (and the forum comments written by others), you’re still wondering whether getting off the ship is worth it, perhaps the photo above will spell it out for you - on a more spiritual level. Depicted above you can see all of us, the innocent cruise passengers, symbolized here collectively as the Christ, who are crucified for the sins of two greater evils: a travel industry looking to breathe life into its tired Mexican Riviera itinerary by adding a new port-of-call and a third world industrial city that needs an injection of US tourist dollars to help fund its military occupation against the drug cartels seeking to control the port. This is Manzanillo in a nutshell. But, of course, as educated cruisers, we know without a Diamond’s International or a Del Sol outlet, sorry Manzy, you’re not a REAL port-of-call… and Manzanillo, you’re not fooling anyone.

 

But now let’s abandon the bleak economic realities of modern global tourism and return to the simple pleasures of life in a glass bubble on the Grand Princess. Once back on board, Mrs. Winks and I quickly got wrapped up in the tried-and-true formula that’s made cruising the successful vacation choice it is today: mindless entertainment, the drink of the day and the music of the Village People. Winner, Winner, Love Boat dinner… otherwise known as the Love Boat Disco Deck Party.

 

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Pre-Gaming the Disco Party

 

It’s funny, in all my viewings of The Love Boat, I never remember seeing any disco dancing going on. The was an abundance of crew cavorting with the passengers, skeet shooting off the aft deck and the spawning of illegitimate children (in Captain Stubing’s case - Did you ever catch THAT episode where his daughter, Vicki, is first introduced? I did on this cruise. It's a shocker!)… those things all passed muster (so to speak). But as for dancing, things never seemed to get more hip-shaking than those episodes where Charo made one of her numerous appearances, and she seemed to be the only one gyrating, not the lounge filled with 10 leisure-suited passengers, who didn’t seem capable of much more than polite stares and tepid applause.

 

So, as you can imagine, I wasted most of the dinner hour consumed by trying to figure this all out. How would the cruise director’s staff meld the The Love Boat experience with that of the disco, thematically? When there had been nothing but ballroom dancing on TV's version of the Pacific Princess? Frustrated, I just couldn’t make the connection. And Mrs. Winks curiously didn't seem to share my obsession about it.

 

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But before long, I’d find out it didn’t really matter. Give folks a colorful drink, a couple guys in sailor suits and turn the volume up to 10 and you got yourself a dance party. The passengers loved it, flanking both sides of the pool and flailing about like the Pied Piper himself was playing and they were 8-years old again.

 

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Dancing and drinking - whether to forget about their time in Manzanillo or simply because the clocks were going to be turned ahead again that night, the engaged crowd transitioned from one iconic ‘70s dance to the next.

 

In between songs, up on the big screen, they played interstitials featuring the original Love Boat cast members (ironically, most of whom were too old to stand - much less dance) egging the crowd on - like they were all back on on some alternate universe Pacific Princess, where Aaron Spelling was hip to the disco scene and everyone dressed like they were going to a Village People show.

 

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While Mrs. Winks did the hustle, I grabbed shots with my camera, parading up and down the top decks trying to kill time (anxious because I knew we would be losing another hour come bedtime) and secretly praying for rain.

 

At one point, the ship’s photographers spied me taking shots from en high and seeing that I was not one their own, engaged me in their own shot. You can see the unbridled enthusiasm all over my face, right?

 

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Coming up Next: Mazatlan resort living.

Edited by WinksCruises
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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

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We were in Manzanillo early in January and took a ship excursion that was a bus tour with a stop at a flea market and a restaurant. Our tour guide was constantly telling us how great it was there with little crime and lots of jobs. The flea market was a joke. A small makeshift building with a bunch of booths with sellers begging and bugging us to buy from them. The restaurant was actually nice. It was on the beach. We received a free drink. We ordered chips salsa and guacamole which were good. The restrooms were clean. I can't see this being a port that will ever be a good stop. We were happy to get back on the ship.

 

OMG -- Manzanillo is my absolute favorite port of call down on the Mexican Riviera. We've been there a half a dozen times and would pick a cruise solely based on this port. I could care less about Cabo or Mazatlán and usually stay on the ship. We've even looked into booking a stay down there before....but then got appendicitis so never did end up going for a week long stay ... but I would.

 

I loved the people down there ... so much less hawking and begging down in this port.

 

This last time, we went on a tour of the Turtle Sanctuary.....it's on the way to Colima. This was, bar none, the best tour we've ever taken. Warning, though ... I got eaten alive by mosquitoes. After the turtle sanctuary, we did a short tour of the salt museum ... actually found that very interesting as well. This was all followed by a most fantastic lunch at a quaint little restaurant with several included ICE cold beers and excellent food. They allowed us time to walk through this little town and went back to the port. Once in the port area, we were hunting down some of the hot sauce that we had with lunch ....it was delicious!! We found some in the little Kiosk store (kind of like a small 7 Eleven) -- we bought all 3 bottles on the shelf. I handed her $2 and got change!! We never could find more so might end up ordering some online. Same size bottle here is $5 a bottle + shipping. :eek:

 

On the way back, we walked through where the vendors had their wares set up ... nobody bugging us there so it was very pleasant to make our way through the shops leisurely. On the way back to the boat along the pier, they have all of these statues of colorfully painted dogs. There is a story behind all of these dogs. They help you into the after life. Quite interesting actually. The locals will talk of their significance if you take time out to talk to them.

 

We're so glad the pier is now set up more in town .. it used to be down where all the shipping containers are. That made for a very long walk into town ... but we've done it before. There are some awesome very authentic hotels when you make your way up past the pier....way past the sailfish and up into the hills a bit. Plus, you just cannot beat Las Hadas .... very nicely maintained hotel for those of you that have seen the movie '10'....although the Barceló hotel there is very nice as well. There are a couple of others that are very iffy ... just go to the ones mentioned as they are gorgeous!!

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shredie

shredie

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I agree with you, Cruise Raider, about Manzanillo. So not toursity and fake. The new dock is a huge improvement, too.

 

Love Boat straddled the disco years, and when we were on the 50th Anniversary cruise on the Pacific (with a stop in Manzanillo) we had the actual cast of the Love boat disco dancing at the real Love Boat deck party. Ted Lange (Issac) can still dance like a teenager. I'm wondering when they will stop the 50th celebrations now since 2015 is over.

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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

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Manzanillo is not touristy, but we loved it when we were there on our New Year cruise this last month. The turtle sanctuary excursion was so interesting , and afterwards we enjoyed a long stroll around town.

 

We live in the same town and seem to just keep missing each other on our cruises. We just did this one in December. One day we may actually end up on the same sailing.... and probably on the same tours. :)

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cvpends

cvpends

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We live in the same town and seem to just keep missing each other on our cruises. We just did this one in December. One day we may actually end up on the same sailing.... and probably on the same tours. :)

 

 

LOL, we might be neighbors! One of these days we will have to coordinate better :)

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Cruise Raider Great Review Rare

Cruise Raider

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LOL, we might be neighbors! One of these days we will have to coordinate better :)

 

Exactly what I was thinking! :)

 

We actually met some neighbors -- I mean only about a dozen houses or so down the road -- when we were on a Panama Canal cruise way back in 2000. We also just met some other CV residents on our cruise on the Grand in December. Small world that keeps getting smaller.

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dara90210

dara90210

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We were on a Carnival cruise in 2009 that stopped in Manzanillo and we went to an all inclusive resort for the day (Barcelo Carmina Palace, I think) and ended up drinking copious amounts of alcohol with the cruise directors staff. Needless to say we were afforded great hospitality for the remainder of the cruise since we had incriminating photos! And due to the alcohol, I don't remember much of the scenery I saw from the bus windows on the trip from and to the ship. We had an awesome time and made a terrific memory.

Edited by dara90210
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