Mexico!

I have been wanting to write about Mexico since I got back. But,
what I am increasingly learning, you really need a day to recuperate
after your vacation. I think that that is predominantly due to
travel. We spent the entirety of our last day getting up far earlier
than we had the entire week (and staying up just as late as one does
on vacation) and then waiting in lines to get off the boat, lines to
get our luggage, lines at customs, lines at the airport and then a few
hours waiting at the airport and a few more on the plane. By the time
we stepped foot across our threshold, we had been up and in the
process of 'travelling home' for 10 hours, only about a quarter of
which was spent on a plane. Suffice to say, it isnt like we did a
whole lot of unpacking when we got home. Even our feeble attempt to
get milk ran into delays as our car battery died after sitting idle
for better than a week requiring a call and wait for someone to come
and jump start it (hard to do yourself without a second car).

So, on to the actual cruise. As with anything, it had its roses and
its thorns. I think we have kind of hit a wall with the large ship
cruises, reminiscent of the wall we hit in Bend. As much as we liked
the B&B there and the town itself, there comes a point when you feel
like you have 'been there, done that' and the shine kind of comes off
it. We had a good time, but the shine is definitely gone (though
sometimes it just means a break is in order).

Food
Rose:
- As usual, the food. People review cruise food rather harshly for
what it is........which is better than pretty much anything you make
at home or, by and large, what you might find dining out in moderately
priced establishments. I never fail to be impressed by the array of
choices, the speed of service, and the efficiency of the entire
operation. It is impressive to say the least and the food on the
Carnival ship was as good as any.
Thorn:
- Cannot explain why they had so many interesting choices on the Lido
for lunch, and then shut 75% of it down for dinner. Even the grill,
which was promised to be open, never was at dinner. So, for lunch you
could do sit down dining, or choose from 4 different buffet lines, a
buffet dessert line, or a grill plus ice cream and pizza. For dinner,
one buffet and one sit down option. Odd.

Boat:
Rose:
- The balcony room, although not as well used as it might have been
had we encountered warmer temps, was really well appointed and the
amount of natural light and sea sounds were really nice. We even got
to see a whale breach less than 200 feet from our balcony. The ship
itself looked in excellent condition and relatively new considering it
is an 'older' ship.
Thorn:
- It had the weakest library I have ever seen. One shelf of books
total. Mostly it was for internet usage (which at $0.75/minute is
quite dear). Also, no real quiet spots to read outside of your room.
It was definitely not geared for any kind of peaceful relaxation. It
was definitely a drinking boat. Also, the lido area was not arranged
well for traffic and created a lot bottlenecks around each buffet line
and could have used more seating as well.

Ports:
Roses:
- La Paz, despite its distance from where the boat actually docked,
was a gem. It was clearly not ready to be a port city, which was
quite pleasant. No one hounding you at endless stalls and lots of
quiet beachfront. Was more or less what I hoped to find in Mexico,
though did not find all that much.
- The food in Cabo. We purposely avoided the tourist spots with
their high process and buckets of beer and instead found 2 different
local taco stands that both had incredible food. We were able to stuff
ourselves and have beverages and still pay less than $10 total.
Smoked swordfish tacos in Cabo were the highlight for me. Fresh
caught and smoked that morning. The best thing I ate all week.

Miscellaneous:
Roses:
- The staff. From our steward who called us by name from day 1 to an
entertaining and pleasant wait staff, I had no complaints with parting
with gratuities.
- The comedians were, although uneven, altogether above average.
Plus, they rotated them so you had the opportunity to see 4 total with
varied shows.
- The atrium. Gaudy yes, but eye catching to be sure.

Thorns:
- The waiting........the constant waiting at every port. We tendered
into Cabo (which meant lines of nearly 45 minutes to get off the boat
and better than that to get back on it), parked on the outskirts of La
Paz (25 minutes to town by bus and nothing in between) which meant
waits of more than an hour to get back and just as long to leave the
ship, and even in Puerta Vallarta, the port was in the middle of a
compound with no clear way out to the city proper other than by taking
a $10 taxi ride. Plus a wait of 2 hours to get on the boat itself due
to some difficulties r/t a Coast Guard inspection.
- The activities on the boat were sorely lacking. Endless trivia
seemed to be about all they could come up with.
- The Oscars. They were shown on the boat with live voting, but for
reasons that escape me, they felt they needed to telecast them at
maximum ear splitting volume. Left before a the red-carpet was rolled
up and the bloated self-congratulatory speeches began.
- On board movies. Generally cruise ships have a nice array of films
either just out on DVD or second run. This ship has a mishmash of
older films (5-10 years old, not classics) and recent box office
bombs......and only a small number to boot. Plus no onboard theater
which was a bummer.
- Gym. Generally a high point on most boats. Not this one. Very
little equipment and not very updated at that. Plus, always at least
1 or 2 of their limited cardio machines out of order (which wouldnt be
a big deal, but the jogging track, such as it was, was blocked off by
ping pong tables and sunbathers). Bad bad bad.

Overall, I would not do a Carnival boat again. I think it just misses
on too many counts and it isn't that much less expensive for the
trade-offs. Still a vacation beats the heck out of work, even if it
is slightly less than you had hoped.