Day 8 - Groundhog Day

And so it begins again...

We disembarked about 9:30 am today and purchased a combo ticket for the Queen Mary and the Aquarium. We boarded the free shuttle for the 5 minute ride to the Aquarium first and spent about an hour wandering around there. It was small, but nice, and you could touch lots of things - sharks, rays, sea anemones, and birds. Touching and feeding the animals is Andrew's favorite part! When we were ready to head back to the Queen Mary we thought it would be nice to walk, as it's a perfect 65F in Long Beach today. The only visible problem with this is that there is water between the two locations and, aside from the freeway, not an apparent way to get across it on foot. We asked a guy staffing one of the booths in the marina who told us that it would take us "at least an hour an a half" to walk back. I found this difficult to believe since the shuttle ride had literally been minutes. We decided to forge on anyway and, after missing the stairs the first time causing a 20 minute delay, we found a foot-path along side of the highway and had a lovely walk back to the QM. If we would have seen the stairs up to the footpath the first time past, the walk would have totaled less than 30 minutes. We should have known better than to ask someone from LA about walking anywhere!



We started our tour of the Queen Mary with the "Ghosts and Legends Tour" which is a campy scripted live tour to some of the areas of the ship that are reported to be haunted. We enjoyed it as we got to see the famous swimming pool (see photos), the boiler room, and a few other areas of the ship that are not available for the general public. We spent another hour wandering around the QM. It is a little creepy, yet amazingly preserved with the original marble and other art deco features. We both agreed that we'd definitely like to do an overnight there in one of the hotel rooms!

The stairs down to the pool area

The pool itself (with one of the original ladders)

After finishing on the QM we walked over to the VIP area to re-board the ship. The process was smooth and we had cleared security and were back on board in less than 20 minutes. We had a bite of lunch and are not back in our cabin to start all over again. Andrew is delighted that this is my 10th cruise with Carnival so I have earned "Platinum" status. This means we get a few perks such as free laundry, priority boarding/VIP check-in, priority tendering, and a special "Concierge" line at the Guest Services desk. I'm sure we will get our money's worth in free laundry alone! We also had a bottle of champagne in our cabin - which we think may be because we did a back-to-back, rather than because of my platinum status.

Again on this cruise, we will not see Mazatlan and will have two days in Cabo, starting Tuesday. We were not impressed with the diving in Cabo, and were told that the diving in Puerto Vallarta is also not very good so, sadly, we won't be doing any more dives on this trip. We'll have to figure out other things to do and will keep you posted!

Day 7 - Sea Day

Last day of round one – another sea day. We slept in until about 7:30, which is great for us! We both woke up feeling much better so I headed up to the gym for about 90 minutes. Couldn’t run without coughing but was able to walk 4 miles and then do 30 minutes on the bike, which felt good. After a light breakfast we headed up to the Promenade deck to get a coffee and read. It was very foggy and cool today so the inside areas were crowded. At times the fog was so thick that you could barely see the water and the captain was blowing the fog horn every few minutes. Fortunately, we did not hit any other ships or icebergs!

After lunch we got some information about our process for tomorrow. This back-to-back will be different than others we have done because we are staying on the same ship, in the same cabin. This means we just have to take ourselves off the ship (our clothes and other things can stay in our cabin) and go through customs with our declaration cards. Then we can return to the ship, should we choose. However, we are planning to take the shuttle from the port to the Aquarium and then come back for a tour of the Queen Mary. When we walked around the QM before we boarded the ship last Sunday we noticed that they have a tour “package” price to do both.

Now we’ve had dinner and are back in the cabin. As I type this, Andrew is watching a documentary on a man who was found guilty of drowning his wife while they were scuba diving. I hope he’s taking particular note of the fact that the guy is now in prison for the rest of his life! :)

Day 6 - Sea Day

Friday – our first of two sea days before we hit Long Beach on Sunday morning. We’re both still feeling less than well, so had a relatively lazy day. I tried the gym but my seal-bark of a cough was alarming the other passengers so I left to avoid being quarantined to my cabin as “Typhoid Mary”. We had a light lunch and then Andrew went to the cabin to nap while I went up to the deck to read. Unfortunately, I fell asleep and got a little on the crispy side. At one point tonight Andrew said that I was looking “beat up”. I was initially offended until I looked in the mirror and realized his assessment had been kind.

Now we’ve returned from dinner, which we mostly picked at while we listened to the four women next to us talk about their cats for 90 minutes. For various reasons, we are now in the process of overdosing on the Mexican remedies for some unidentified malady that we purchased yesterday. Let’s hope for a better day tomorrow!

Day 5 - Puerto Vallarta

A beautiful day in Puerto Vallarta! We both woke up feeling a little better this morning, but now both have lovely chest coughs. All we have with us is Excedrin and Immodium so we needed to lay in a supply of cough medicine if we are to survive the rest of this trip. Fortunately, and likely not coincidentally, good ol’ insidious Wal-Mart has opened just across the street from the cruise port. We followed the sea of our fellow cruisers and filled our cart with Kleenex and some liquids that we hope will turn out to be cough syrup. These products were suspiciously close to the Nicorette (the only boxes printed with words we recognized) so we’ll either quiet our coughs or decrease our non-existent cravings for nicotine. Note to self: learn some Spanish words for common ailments, like cough, before next trip to a Latin American country!

We came back to the ship to drop our “treasures” and then headed back out to find a cab to take us to the tour we had booked. Who needs bungee jumping or skydiving when, for less than $10 for two people, you can take a ride in a Mexican taxi?! Despite our cabbie’s best efforts, we made it to our destination in one piece, and in time to find some lunch. We found a little cantina, named 8 Tostados, that served great ceviche and guacamole!

Finally, time for our tour – whale watching! We have been looking forward to this for weeks! We were greeted by our guide, Fernando, who looked and spoke much like a 12-year old Latino surfer but introduced himself as a marine biologist. He spent about 30 minutes teaching us about whales, their physiology and their behavior in a manner that demonstrated either a good understanding of the species, or a talent for memorizing a script and anticipating our questions! After the lecture we trooped off to the dock. Andrew, me and 9 octogenarians donned our lifejackets and loaded in to the 12-seat zodiac. We trolled past million-dollar yachts on our way out of the marina and were soon zooming along out to sea.

We spent the first 60+ minutes on a very bumpy ride listening to complaints about back pain while straining our eyes to catch sight of a whale blow. Alas, none were to be seen. “We’ll try one last spot” said Fernando, “but it’s a little late in the season so we may not see anything.” Finally, about 25 miles out to sea, a shout arises from the rear of the boat – “Thar he blows!” Cheers erupt from behind the oxygen masks and we quickly veer in the direction of the evaporating whale mist.

For the next 90 minutes we were treated to the show of a lifetime. A mother, her 3-4 week old (but weighing in at about 5 tons) baby, and their “escort” (either a juvenile or older male) were content to let us follow them in lazy circles. The baby was particularly active “waving” his pectoral fins, slapping his tail on the water, and even jumping out of the water more times than we could count. There were instances that they came within 15 feet of the boat, which really puts your size in to perspective. The female was about 50 tons, and about 40-45 feet long. The male escort was a bit smaller, but still looked like a giant. Even the baby was big compared to our 15-foot boat. I took a ton of photos, and was lucky to get a few good ones (below). Most of them are just of the splash left behind. No matter how much we pleaded, we could not get the baby to jump slowly! J The 90 minutes flew by and, too soon, it was time for the hour ride back to the marina – all in all, an amazing day!

The baby "waving" his pectoral fin

The "escort" - too bad you can't judge his size here.


The baby jumping

Day 4 - Cabo, take 2

Today was our second day in Cabo with perfect weather! Unfortunately, we didn’t see or do much. We both woke up with colds this morning, and were achy and running low-grade fevers. We did get off the ship and doddered around Cabo for about 2 hours, including stopping for lunch (shrimp tacos!). Back on the ship we loaded up on sunscreen and ibuprofen and headed up to the deck chairs. The warm sun felt good but, without the ship moving, we could only spend about 90 minutes out before we were well crisped! After a nap we went to the past-guest party that Carnival always offers. They had out free cocktails and appetizers, have a band/dancing, and then show a video of all the ships in the Carnival fleet.

From the past-guest party we went for an early dinner, which we both found we didn’t have an appetite for. Now it’s 7:30 pm and we’re back in the room with mugs of Neo-Citron. Tomorrow is a full day in Puerto Vallarta, and we’re scheduled to do a whale watching expedition in a Zodiac. We’re both looking forward to that so will call it an early night and hope for a full recovery in the morning!

Mr

The Famous Cabo Arch

Sea Lion colony. Look close - they're the brown blobs on the rock.

Stingray

Andrew petting a jellyfish

Wall o' fish.


Chef's Table

Salmon tar-tare

Roasted tomato and Poblano soup

Shrimp benignets with prosciutto and dried tomato

Greek salad with lemon dressing

Chilean sea bass with lobster foam

Filet mignon with pepper coulis trio



Dessert - sponge cake with marscapone filling and raspberry sorbet with coconut gelee strip

Day 3 - Cabo

Today was our first port – Cabo san Lucas. Cabo is a beautiful port with golden, sandy beaches and friendly people. We had 2 dives booked today so were off the boat (after the gym and breakfast) by 10 am, ready to go. We met up with everyone after the tender (ships do not dock in Cabo as it is too shallow, so they take you to shore in smaller vessels) and headed over to the dive shop to get fitted for gear. For those of you who have had the good fortune of never having to fight your way in to a wet 5 mm suit, consider yourselves lucky. Nothing will test your dedication to scuba like this 5 minutes of sheer agony. I have personally lost all the skin off of several fingers completing this stunt in the past.

Once we had wriggled our way in to our suits, we headed back to the dive boat and then out to the first dive site, the North Wall. The beautiful thing about diving with a tourist excursion, such as a though the cruise line, is that they do everything for your in terms of readying your gear. Really though, after struggling in to your wetsuit, that should be all that is required of me. After everyone was suited up we jumped in to the water, which was 70F and cold enough to take your breath away. Once we got going it was a little warmer, and we spent 30 minutes under the water. It was very windy in Cabo today, so the visibility was limited. Despite that, we saw some jellyfish (new for us), a stingray, and a lot of snappers, angel, and parrot fish.

After changing out tanks and grabbing some crackers and a drink of water, we headed out on the second dive at Pelican Rock. We had originally planned to dive near the sea lion colony, but the waters were very rough today, due to the wind, so our dive master moved us to a safer location. Somehow the water seemed even colder on the second dive and, even with a 5 mm suit, boots and a hood, my teeth chattered through the whole 35 minutes! On the second dive we swam through a wall of what was likely more than a thousand fish. With the limited visibility, I thought it was a reef wall at first, so was awed to see it turn in to individual fish!

After the second dive we headed back to shore and then took the tender back to the ship. We rinsed all our dive gear and had just enough time for a quick nap before it was time to get ready for Chef’s Table. For those of you who have followed this blog in the past, you know that Chef’s Table has been one of the highlights of our trip; this time was no exception! We had 7 courses of amazing food over the course of 4 hours; each one more awe-inspiring than the next! Only 12 people are permitted at each Chef’s Table event, so the group is small and the company is good.

We’re now back in our cabin, stuffed to the gills and anchored just off the coast of Cabo. Because of the recent shooting in Mazatlan, we’re spending tomorrow here as well. We’ll post pictures tomorrow when we head back in to Cabo to sightsee, as we saw several places advertising free Wi-Fi. Good night!