Mexican Riviera-Opinions Needed

[emen822]

Hi. I am currently booked on the AOS for next spring break (April) but now I'm thinking of switching to the Mariner. I have read some reviews about the water being rocky but most of those reviews were from the Vision. Has anyone taken a cruise on a larger ship from San Pedro and had issues with the water? I am traveling with two teens who are dying to see California so I was hoping to do a few days precruise to play tourist. :D I know they would love to see the Hollywood sign and the sidewalk of stars (which probably has a nicer name than that!) And I'd love to see Disneyland for the day. Does this sound doable?

 

I'm leaning towards this cruise since the few days precruise would be nice, it's a little cheaper than the AOS, the airfare to San Juan is a killer :eek: and we just took this same exact cruise this past March. Even though I have been on the Mariner before, we have never taken this itinerary. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions they can add? My mind is buzzing over the past few days and I'd like to make a decision soon. TIA!

[AWEST84532]

We cruised the NCL Star in November of last year and were blessed with seas as smooth as glass. In 2007 we were on the Saphire Princess in February and while it wasn't glass, there were no problems with motion.

[LDR]

Hi Mary! Too bad we can't do this one together! I assume you would be

on the April 12th sailing? That's what I originally booked then switched to

March 29th because of the school calendar.

 

We've(rather the kids and I) never done California either, so we are excited. I got a great deal on airfare from CAK to Santa Ana-John Wayne. Cheaper than what I paid to get to San Juan! We are staying in that area also and renting a car to sight-see.

 

It will be different than the Caribbean. This cruise has been our wish list

for a while now, so we are very excited to see and experience new things.

There's a lot of good info on here that I have been able to use in preparing

for this trip. You'll get lots of helpful hints!

[Curt Jerome Wild]

I am traveling with two teens who are dying to see California so I was hoping to do a few days precruise to play tourist. :D I know they would love to see the Hollywood sign and the sidewalk of stars (which probably has a nicer name than that!) And I'd love to see Disneyland for the day. Does this sound doable?

 

I'm leaning towards this cruise since the few days precruise would be nice,

 

It's definitely doable! And that's one of the things I don't understand about people booking cruises that are here in LA.

So many don't take advantage of all they can see or do before or after the cruise (fly in, get on ship, get off ship, fly out).

 

Are you planning on renting a car?

You could stay in one of the cool teen friendly hotels in the Hollywood area, then easily drive to Disney the next day.

Or vice versa.

Or stay in Venice Beach area or Marina Del Ray (then it's easy freeway access to both)...

 

Here's some of my sight seeing suggestions...

Taste of LA Driving Tour

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=511653

The OC Tour

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=500138

 

Let me know what you are thinking, and I'll give you some great hotels for teens and families. It's kind of my expertise here.;)

[emen822]

Lela - yes, we would be on the April 12th sailing. I'm leaning more towards this cruise. The airfare is much cheaper and its something we've never done. I love when its smooth sailing and love the fact that there are 3 sea days. That's why I'm concerned about the waters. We had very rough water coming back into Miami when we were on the Navigator last year. Then again, we had an aft balcony so I don't know if that was the major reason. I guess its the luck of the draw.

 

CJW - wow...Lots of information there. I'm clueless when it comes to California since I've never been there. These are the things I would like to see: sidewalk stars (or whatever they are called), Disneyland for at least one day (maybe two), Hollywood sign and just basic California things that teens would like. My girls will be 13 and 15 by the time we cruise so they want to see stars :D or maybe just their houses. ;) We could rent a car if that is the best way to go.

 

The cruise would leave on a Sunday and I was thinking of flying in either the Wednesday or Thursday before. Are all these things I just mentioned in close proximity? The night before the cruise I would like to stay close to the port so I can see the ship in the morning. :D Thanks again for your help.

[Curt Jerome Wild]

CJW - wow...Lots of information there. I'm clueless when it comes to California since I've never been there. These are the things I would like to see: sidewalk stars (or whatever they are called), Disneyland for at least one day (maybe two), Hollywood sign and just basic California things that teens would like. My girls will be 13 and 15 by the time we cruise so they want to see stars :D or maybe just their houses. ;) We could rent a car if that is the best way to go.

 

The cruise would leave on a Sunday and I was thinking of flying in either the Wednesday or Thursday before. Are all these things I just mentioned in close proximity? The night before the cruise I would like to stay close to the port so I can see the ship in the morning. :D Thanks again for your help.

 

Absolutely rent a car, for that amount of time, and where you want to go...

It will be easier and less expensive that way.

 

So for that general plan, and a 13 and 15 year old, I'll give a few quick plans in separate posts after this...

 

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Idea #1

Fly into LAX, rent a car (Enterprise has drop off at the Crowne Plaza in San Pedro right by the pier).

 

Drive to Sportsman's Lodge near Hollywood/Universal.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=12760409

This is a great Hollywood Hotel. Fantastic and safe area for their ages. Best pool in LA. They can hang out for late dinner at Jerry's Deli next door for possible star sightings.

It's about 5 minutes drive to get to Hollywood and Highland for more sights and the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the sidewalk stars).

http://www.hollywoodandhighland.com

Take a Red Line Tour near there (and they will also pick you up at that particular hotel).

http://www.redlinetours.com

 

 

Friday or Saturday drive to Disney.

Stay one night at the Disneyland Hotel (for the ultimate Disney experience) or the nearby Carousel Inn.

http://www.carouselinnandsuites.com/

 

Saturday night before the cruise...

the only (best) place to see your ship in the morning is from an East Facing room here at the Crowne Plaza.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=601984

And you can return your rental car right downstairs!

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Idea #2

If they are into the TV Show The Hills, click on tis post for info on the first night's Hollywood recommendations...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=854190

 

Keep the same plan for the remaining days as above...

[Curt Jerome Wild]

hiccup!

[Curt Jerome Wild]

Idea #3

Rent the car at LAX as above...

 

Check into one of these hotels...

Cal Mar

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=423818

Hotel California

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=451075

 

Hang out near Santa Monica, drive to Hollywood on the next day with this tour:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=511653

Use the directions in there to get up close and personal to the Hollywood Sign.

 

Drive to Disney as posted above.

 

Or, immediately after Hollywood drive to San Pedro Crowne Plaza for a home base for Disney on Friday and/or Saturday.

It will be about 30 to 45 minutes drive one way from there to Disney.

 

Those are starter ideas, I'll won't be posting again until Monday...

So I'll check back then,

[cruisinnewfy]

Cruised Mexican Riviera in April 2 years ago. Smooth as glass great weather, hot in Mexico. Only rough water I have had was in November. Do Hollywood one day, Disneyland another full day. Hollywood, walk of stars and Universal should be fine.

[lovevacadays]

Hi,

I live in So Cal (Orange County where Disneyland is) Posters have listed great ideas. I've done the Mexican Riviera cruis3 5 or 6 times. Seas are usually smooth. The only potential rough day is typically the last sea day coming from Cabo back to San Pedro. I asked one of the officers why this day can be rough (and sometimes windy) and he said it is the currents. It really isn't enough to not go. Ifyou haven't done this one I think you might really enjoy it. Very different experience than the Caribbean.

 

Plus, of course, I think Southern California is the best place to live. So much to see and do. You could show your girls the Hollywood walk of fame (where the star's stars are on the sidewalk) there is also the Kodak Theatre there where the Oscar's are held. (Just so you know this is also an area with lots of tatoo shops, wild and wacky club kid clothes type of shops, etc) If you also want to see the "Hollywood" you see on TV it is not a far drive into Beverly Hills. You can go on a tour of stars homes but it is also fun to just drive Rodeo Drive and into the connecting streets and look at the homes.

 

I think a previous posters thoughts about staying at the Crowne Plaza a couple of nights and just driving to Disneyland is the best idea. That way you don't have to keep changing hotels.

 

I hope you and your girls have a wonderful time whatever you decide to do.

[cruisenwithchris1]

Hi Mary! Too bad we can't do this one together! I assume you would be

on the April 12th sailing? That's what I originally booked then switched to

March 29th because of the school calendar.

 

We've(rather the kids and I) never done California either, so we are excited. I got a great deal on airfare from CAK to Santa Ana-John Wayne. Cheaper than what I paid to get to San Juan! We are staying in that area also and renting a car to sight-see.

 

It will be different than the Caribbean. This cruise has been our wish list

for a while now, so we are very excited to see and experience new things.

There's a lot of good info on here that I have been able to use in preparing

for this trip. You'll get lots of helpful hints!

 

One of the best things I like about these boards is sharing information. I happen to notice you are planning a cruise at the same time I know of a particularly large group going. Although this group is friendlier then anything, they are a large group, probably around 800 to 1,000 people. Check out hogsonthehighseas dot com. We won't be able to make the cruise in March next year, however I have been on a few of their cruises. They are just a bunch of motorcycle enthusiasts. Again, great great group of people, just if you aren't part of a group, you may sometimes feel overwhelmed. It is a fund raiser for Kidney Dialyisis too. In 2006, my friend won the grand prize of a motorcycle, that was pretty cool.

Anyway, if you decide to stay with this date, check out their website and learn more about them, you might join them and have a ball!

Happy Cruisen

Chris

[oilsand]

Been on that cruise a few different times at different times of year. The only time it is somewhat rough is the day between San Pedro and Cabo.

 

Otherwise smooth as glass

 

I don't think that it is that bad and should not deter you from the joys of the mexican experience.

[emen822]

Thanks everyone. I checked back this morning to see if I had any replies and was given tons of information. I can't even process all of this right now! :o

 

CJW - thank you for all your help. I'm going to talk to the rest of my gang about your ideas and I'm sure we will have more questions. :D Thank you again for all your posts/links/pictures, etc. :D

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

I live in Southern California and my DW and I have been on cruises to the Meican Riviera about 6 or 7 times. I recall only one time when the seas were rough and that was when we were heading back to Los Angeles on the Fair Seas of the Sitmar Line.

 

I have some suggestions for you that are very different than the suggestions from other posters:

 

Fly to John Wayne Airport (SNA) in Orange County, and stay near Disneyland. There are several very nice and reasonable hotels in this area. I would rent a car at the airport to get you around easily, but use the hotel shuttle to and from Disneyland. You want to see Disneyland and the adjacent places such as California Adventure both during the day and at night.

 

I respectfully disagree with the poster who advised that it is an easy drive from Hollywood to Disneyland...it is not unless you are knowledgeable about LA's freeways especially through downtown Los Angeles. In the daytime it is generally okay despite some of the world's most heavily traveled freeways, but at night it is a challenging to drive if you are not familiar with the freeways.

 

I would plan to drop off the car rental at the cruise terminal and from a previous poster, Enterprise allows you to do this.

 

After you see Disneyland, you can drive north to Santa Monica which is a very nice place for you to stay. Santa Monica has it all...beaches, restaurants, and relatively short drives to Hollywood, UCLA, museums, the Fairfax area and Beverly Hills.

 

There are several other places for you to stay such as Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach, Playa Del Rey or Hermosa Beach. El Segundo is also a possibility as this little city is south of LAX and has some nice relatively inexpensive hotels, but is accessible to everywhere by freeway. And while I do not want to start any arguments, frankly there are some sections of Hollywood that are not safe at night.

 

Hope that this helps,

 

Fred

[ormsby]

Hello,

 

My wife and I and our friends who have 2 daughters also (14 & 19) will be sailing on your cruise. I really enjoyed the responses you received regarding all the things to do ahead of time and some feedback on the expected sea conditions. I did find it odd, unless i missed it, that no one offered any feedback on the ports of call. We're curious because we too opted out of sailing out of San Juan and Miami since it was so expensive, we just hope the ports of call are as nice as those in the caribbean. If you or anyone else has any feedback on them we'd be curious to hear about them. Thanks for your post, it was very helpful to us.

[ormsby]

Hello,

 

My wife and I and our friends who have 2 daughters also (14 & 19) will be sailing on your cruise. I really enjoyed the responses you received regarding all the things to do ahead of time and some feedback on the expected sea conditions. I did find it odd, unless i missed it, that no one offered any feedback on the ports of call. We're curious because we too opted out of sailing out of San Juan and Miami since it was so expensive, we just hope the ports of call are as nice as those in the caribbean. If you or anyone else has any feedback on them we'd be curious to hear about them. Thanks for your post, it was very helpful to us.

[SelectSys]

Hello,

... I did find it odd, unless i missed it, that no one offered any feedback on the ports of call. We're curious because we too opted out of sailing out of San Juan and Miami since it was so expensive, we just hope the ports of call are as nice as those in the caribbean...

 

That is because the ports are largely forgettable IMHO. I prefer the Caribbean over the Mexican Riviera any day. Going on a big ship is a good plan as they will have more activities on board.

[GoodAsGold]

Oh, yes. I've cruised on the Star Princess and Golden Princess, one from San Pedro and one from San Francisco (but we still took the same route to Mexico.) Both of those ships are 109,000. Not as large as the Mariner, but still plenty big! I also cruised out of San Pedro on the Sun Princess at 70,000+. Before that, the other ships were very small. Getting back to the larger ships, we hardly even felt the ship moving on the way down. Sailing back north to San Pedro will always be a bit "rougher", but nothing too bad. The ship is going faster and there's a current that they go against. But, it's never been an issue. It's windy outside, that's for sure. And, you do feel a bit more rolling. Still, I wouldn't consider it majorly rough by any means.

 

Come and join us on the Mariner on April 5! My 16 year old daughter will be along. :) That's our spring break.

 

 

Hi. I am currently booked on the AOS for next spring break (April) but now I'm thinking of switching to the Mariner. I have read some reviews about the water being rocky but most of those reviews were from the Vision. Has anyone taken a cruise on a larger ship from San Pedro and had issues with the water? I am traveling with two teens who are dying to see California so I was hoping to do a few days precruise to play tourist. :D I know they would love to see the Hollywood sign and the sidewalk of stars (which probably has a nicer name than that!) And I'd love to see Disneyland for the day. Does this sound doable?

 

I'm leaning towards this cruise since the few days precruise would be nice, it's a little cheaper than the AOS, the airfare to San Juan is a killer :eek: and we just took this same exact cruise this past March. Even though I have been on the Mariner before, we have never taken this itinerary. Anyone have thoughts or suggestions they can add? My mind is buzzing over the past few days and I'd like to make a decision soon. TIA!

[GoodAsGold]

Ah, heck, we'll be getting OFF just as you're getting ON. Oh, well! If you decide to go, have a wonderful time! If you had more time, I would say to definitely come North and visit the Central Coast on Monterey Bay (where I live). Carmel is close by, too. Then if you had even MORE time, I would definitely visit San Francisco! That's a must. Then on to Napa area in Wine Country.

 

But, it sounds like it will have to wait for next time! :)

 

 

Lela - yes, we would be on the April 12th sailing. I'm leaning more towards this cruise. The airfare is much cheaper and its something we've never done. I love when its smooth sailing and love the fact that there are 3 sea days. That's why I'm concerned about the waters. We had very rough water coming back into Miami when we were on the Navigator last year. Then again, we had an aft balcony so I don't know if that was the major reason. I guess its the luck of the draw.

 

CJW - wow...Lots of information there. I'm clueless when it comes to California since I've never been there. These are the things I would like to see: sidewalk stars (or whatever they are called), Disneyland for at least one day (maybe two), Hollywood sign and just basic California things that teens would like. My girls will be 13 and 15 by the time we cruise so they want to see stars :D or maybe just their houses. ;) We could rent a car if that is the best way to go.

 

The cruise would leave on a Sunday and I was thinking of flying in either the Wednesday or Thursday before. Are all these things I just mentioned in close proximity? The night before the cruise I would like to stay close to the port so I can see the ship in the morning. :D Thanks again for your help.

[GoodAsGold]

Looks like they're getting off the ship just as we board. I hope they have a fantastic time! The OP mentioned they're going on April 12.

 

 

One of the best things I like about these boards is sharing information. I happen to notice you are planning a cruise at the same time I know of a particularly large group going. Although this group is friendlier then anything, they are a large group, probably around 800 to 1,000 people. Check out hogsonthehighseas dot com. We won't be able to make the cruise in March next year, however I have been on a few of their cruises. They are just a bunch of motorcycle enthusiasts. Again, great great group of people, just if you aren't part of a group, you may sometimes feel overwhelmed. It is a fund raiser for Kidney Dialyisis too. In 2006, my friend won the grand prize of a motorcycle, that was pretty cool.

Anyway, if you decide to stay with this date, check out their website and learn more about them, you might join them and have a ball!

Happy Cruisen

Chris

[Cruisin' Chick]

The last couple of times that we went to Disneyland, we left pretty early in the morning and timed our arrival for before it opened (the last time we got there very early and had breakfast at a hotel nearby). Avoided long lines to buy our admission tickets and was able to get in as the park opened. We also avoided much of the traffic on the freeway that way.

 

Even then, it's about an hour trip from where we live...and not that less if coming from say, Hollywood.

 

And if you arrive later on in the day, you have to deal with more trouble with parking and catching the parking lot shuttle.

 

I would definitely set aside a whole day for the experience.

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

The ports of the Mexican Riviera are varied but fun to visit. And all have lots to see and do, especially Puerto Vallarta. To me though the sunsets off the coast of Mexico make a cruise to this part of the world very special.

 

My DW and I been on cruises to many parts of the world...Europe, Hawaii, Alaska, the Caribbean, Panama Canal and many ports along the way, and

a cruise to Mexico is affordable and fun.

 

Fred

[emen822]

Love to hear all the opinions/suggestions! :D But I must say ... I'm still so confused. :o

 

Disneyland is a must for me. At least for one day. I was told its not as big as the one in Florida so do we even need a full day? And what about the amusement park that is nearby (Adventure something?). Is that worth a day to plan it? I know my girls would want to see the Hollywood sign and the walk of fame. Are they near each other? How far is Disneyland from all this Hollywood stuff? And about how far are they from San Pedro? I was thinking I would want to stay in San Pedro the night before the cruise so we can get up and go right on the ship. But if there is nothing to do in that area, maybe we should stay near Disney and just drive down in the morning. So many questions, so many options and I'm so clueless. :confused: We will obviously need to rent a car but I just don't want to be hassled with long drives and possibly getting lost. :eek: I'm going to look at a map of California right now to try to ease my mind but would love some more ideas! TIA!