First off, for a country whose day and nightime temperature is always about two hundred, and whose humidity needs to be written in scientific notation, they have an alarming lack of Mountain Dew. 'Nuff said.
The ship is, frankly, astounding. I will give them that. I'm amazed at the audacity it took to decide to build something that big and that complex, and get away with it so well. But it comes off mainly as a Vegas hotel/casino with very low ceilings (much to the delight of the adolescent "Look! I can touch the ceiling!" boys).
And it's got gaudy on its gaudy. They apparently had decorators come in, and then had other decorators come in to decorate the decorations.
Anyway, the cruise takes you down to Puerto Vallarta for a day, then Mazatlan, then Cabo San Lucas. You can get off the boat and shop at the unique little shops to be found at each one:
Puerto Vallarta
Mazatlan
Cabo San Lucas
But, it turns out that I already have as many dirty joke and/or alcohol dependency T-shirts, brightly painted ceramic iguanas, serapes, pre-aged cowboy hats, hand carved running horses and fish, and, for that matter, blue diamonds and Rolex watches, as I need.
That's OK, we all had a really great time, on the boat and off. Nobody got sick, and there was always plenty to do, or not do.
The kids joined the 15-17 teen "club" (although Acacia's only 14), and hung out with the other teens most of the time -- dancing (or whatever) 'til 3, sleeping 'til noon. We're not normally the "set 'em loose" kinda parents, but they couldn't get lost or abducted, couldn't run out of money, and couldn't starve, so it seemed OK to just let 'em do their thing. We saw them every night at the mandatory 6:00 dinnertime, and ran into 'em occasionally around the boat, so we kept in touch, somewhat. And of course, they joined us for the shore trips.
Without 'em, we swam a little, relaxed a lot, saw some movies, watched the karaoke (I sang twice), and there was always musicians for me to go watch, scattered around the boat. To keep the band sizes (and pay) down, there's a lot of singing to MIDI tracks going on, but there was one guy (Bruce) that played (12-string) guitar, and sang over it, very similar to what I do, so he was the most interesting it watch.
I ran into him in one of the lounges, late one night on a break, and we got to talking about playing and audiences, repertoire, and such. After a while, he said, "Gee, it's too bad you don't have your guitar -- I'd like to jam with you." I told him I *did* have my guitar, and he said, "Go get it!"
I tried to play songs that he could join in on, but the songs that I think are "impressive" are always somehow "tricky", so he was pretty lost most of the time. But he was enjoying it anyway, as were the dozen or so people scattered around the lounge, who were clapping and whooping it up. One (apparently well-lubricated) guy shouted out, "Hey! You're good!", and later, "You're fired, Bruce!" to big laughter. I hate to say it was the highlight of my trip, but it kinda was.
Anyway, we all had a great time -- clearly the best vacation we've had in a while. It's cool that you don't have to "travel" to go places, and that you just drive to Long Beach, and you're on vacation already. When we went to Disney World, there's the pain of at least a day of traveling, twice, with the actual vacation in the middle. This eliminates that hassle. Admittedly, Mexico isn't my favorite place to visit, but it's the voyage, not the destination, right?
I've posted some pictures -- I know, what's more boring than other peoples' vacation pictures, but it's a gallery of thumbnails, and you only have to click the ones that look interesting, and I won't be there to have hurt feelings if you just scan through 'em. Check it out, here.
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