Cabo San Lucas

This is Cabo.  Seriously breathtaking; no place in the world more picturesque than the above beach.
This is the rest of Cabo (you’d find that beach if you continued spanning left).  The rest of Cabo seemed very desolate.  I kept feeling like I was in the Middle East; not that I’ve been there, but it’s just kind of how I imagine it.

The dock area was very busy and touristy.  We saw lots of “hold a baby tiger cub” and “put a Mexican iguana on your head”-type businesses, which were tempting, but skipped.

We did another touristy thing: had lunch at Cabo Wabo, founded by rock musician Sammy Hagar.  All I can say is, “Thank you, Mr. Hagar.” Your chicken nachos truly saved me.  And Dave agreed that his belly, too, could not get enough of your fish tacos.
Tell you what, for being such a tourist hotspot, this cantina was sure off the beaten path.  We had to walk through Little Mexico several blocks to find it.  We had to pass several “massage” parlors (with beautiful women soliciting their services out front). Yucky.
Ah, yes.  Here we are.  This picture just about captures it.

But, we did get to do something AWESOME there. I feel almost embarrassed to admit that I got to do this.

Meet Monet.  He’s the dolphin we got to swim with.

Kate was only skiddish for the first minute, and then it was all squeals and happy sounds coming from that girl. This picture is my absolute favorite:

We got to pet and hug, kiss and be kissed,
and dance with the dolphin.

Kate was too young to book the D.J. & Stephanie Tanner Full House fin-riding experience (don’t say you never saw that episode).   And Cole, too, could only watch from the sidelines. But it was still a fun, once in a lifetime memory.

And that was our experience in Cabo. I love vacations.

Puerto Vallarta

It’s very scenic there.  This is what you see as you disembark from the ship:

Beauty; unlike anywhere else.

But we didn’t sightsee too much. This is what we did
for most of our Puerto Vallarta visit.

Call us crazy for getting off one boat, only to board another, but we did.  And it was crazy. But also, it was kind of fun.  Kind of. 

This was our view from our seats aboard the Jolly Roger.  Here, we were treated to some first class pirate shows, face painting, singing, and swordfights all on our way to the beautiful Majahuitas Beach. 

During our 90 minute boat ride (yes, it took 90 minutes…EACH WAY), we also went down under the main deck and ate a really authentic Mexican breakfast:

It was delicious.  I totally love Mexican food.

Finally, we made it to the beach.  It was beautiful.  Really.
Once there, you could do snorkeling (but not really as jellyfish were supposedly lurking nearby), beach volleyball, banana boat rides, and kayaking. 

Me, Dave, Ryan, Shane, and Svet opted for the water weenie.  It was my first time riding one out on the ocean, which was kind of a thrill.  And I’m pretty certain, we were the only riders to get dumped on our way back in.

They also provided a treasure hunt for the kids.

Kate listened very intently as they explained how to find the treasure.  She’s gorgeous I think:

After repeated diggings (and dirty hands)
the treasure was found.  Not by Kate, but by another little boy who decided to share the treasure with the rest of the kids.

Kate with her cut of the booty

But aside from all the organized activities, we all really just enjoyed the sun, sand, and water.

Our sweet little Cole Baby napped angelically under an umbrella for most of our time there. I think he liked the beach.
After Majahuitas, we boarded the ship.  We had a chicken cordon bleu lunch with spaghetti and salad (as well as a very refreshing and icy pina colada beverage), all of which I was sure was going to give me a case of the Mexican Poops.  I was fine, my friends, but others of our party were not so lucky:) We had to sit through a little more pirating brouhaha and we were back.  In synopsis: too much time on the boat, not enough time on the beach.

We changed our clothes back on the Disney ship, and then came back out to visit the Mercado, or Market, for the unilingualists.

It was here that we picked up some very important souvenirs:  Kate got her bongo drums; Dave, his Nacho Libre luchador mask; and I (well, I kind of wound up with the loser souvenir)…a magnet, but it was handmade from clay and kind of cute. Kind of.

The Ship

So this was us on Day 1 of the cruise, right after getting on board.  The first day was really pretty crappy.  We had terrible weather leaving L.A., and several of us were seasick and nervous that the ship would be rocking like that the whole time.  Luckily, it didn’t.  And luckily, our seasickness ended (except, of course, until we returned to L.A’s stormy weather the following Sunday).

This was our love nest, Deck 6, room 6004:

They use the term “cabin” for the rooms, which seemed appropriate.  I often think of cabins as a stuffy place where you rough it in the middle of nowhere. These rooms are tiny and not so luxurious all while sailing above the middle of the oceanic abyss…"cabins”, if you will.

These were our servers (L) Gordana from Croatia and (R) Buyani from Botswana:
They were darling.  They screwed up our orders every night and were a tad slow, bless their hearts, but they were sweet.  They, along with the rest of the crew, worked from sun up to sun down and managed to do it with a constant smile on their faces. It was seriously slavery…I don’t know how they did it. 

Speaking of the crew members, we had one go missing on our ship.  I know, right? Crazy, but so sad.  They had to do a mandatory check of all staterooms to try to locate her, all to no avail. When we returned to L.A. after the cruise, her family was there, along with news crews, to meet up with our ship. It makes me sad for her family.

Moving on. The ship had 3 main restaurants (Triton’s, Animator’s Palate, and Parrot Cay), which we rotated through during the week.  There was also the Beach Blanket Buffet and several other poolside food joints, and free room service in case you got the munchies.

The dining room in Animator’s Palate starts out with Black & White sketches on all the walls and picture frames. But throughout the dinner, color starts seeping in and by the time you leave, the pictures and walls are all colored in.

The food on the cruise was alright.  I was enjoying the whole “order an appetizer (or 2), a salad, an entrée, and a dessert” thing, until about Day 4.  By then, I was disgusted by how much I could engorge myself with. Plus, all the food started tasting the same and I was kind of turned off by the food from that point on.

There was, however, an adults-only restaurant, Palo, that you could book (if you were able to get a reservation), which we did.  That food I DID NOT get sick of.  It was awesome, and cooked on-spot (none of that premade food, like everywhere else). They served several courses, and my lobster ravioli deserves a shout-out.  Not to be neglected of mention, it was also pretty romantical watching the sunset with my Baby too.

On board, we saw several plays and movies (hence Kate’s 3D glasses),

played Bingo and lost,
admired ice sculptures,

checked out the sites,

as well as the architecture,

lounged,

met up with millions of characters,

got dressed up for formal night and failed to take a family picture.  Luckily, we got one of Cole Bear.

We celebrated Pirate Night, by dressing up and going to a pirate party on the top deck, complete with characters, fireworks and all.

Afterwards, Kate commented, “Mickey Mouse sure knows how to throw a party!” Yes, he does, Kate.
Another hot ticket event, was the Disney Friends Tea Party.  It’s normally an impossible event to get tickets to, but Dave overheard someone in the hallway giving theirs away, and managed to score them.
I’m not so sure what all the hullabaloo was about.  I mean, they taught you the correct way to drink tea, aka, apple juice (with pinkies up) and eat cookies (slowly, with small bites), and we got to learn the Do-si-do with Snow White, but really, not that neat.
We did enjoy our time at Mickey’s pool and waterslide.  Between excursions and such, we didn’t get as much pool and sunshine as I would have liked, but we got the idea.
The only thing Kate loved more than the pool, was the Oceaneer’s Club, which is where you can take the kids to play free of charge, for as long and often as you or your kid wants. Seriously, kiddie paradise.  They always had crafts, activities, and events at every moment of the day.  They gave her pillow cases, a t-shirt, and multiple crafts.  She won prizes from dance parties, and played with characters in there.  She loved it.  In fact, Kate frequently refused to leave “her class”  when we came to pick her up.

On the last day, the kids could perform in a show on the Walt Disney Theatre Stage.  If you know our child, that was right up her alley. It was mostly just dancing up on stage, but Kate (and her parents and grandparents) ate it up.

Heading to the stage

Dave and I managed to hit the spa a few times for some lovely treatments, so that was pretty much our paradise.  I’m glad we managed to get some adult time.

And in case I haven’t said much about Cole, here he is sporting his captain’s hat souvenir.  Thoughtful Dave decided Cole should get at least 1 souvenir and bought this for him. Seriously, people.  This kid came from heaven.  He’s that perfect.
And last, this is what took place after the announcement that the vacation was almost over:

After 7 days on a boat, the parents were quite ready for home, but apparently, this one could have used a few more days.

~Prizes (or at least props) to anyone who read this post in its entirety.