hayley_bopp

That's a genius tip!
I've never lost my phone, but I have lost my dignity on the FlowRider a couple of times.

Great tip. Alternatively, simply take a picture of your stateroom # on your door.

Cell phones.
My travel agency, while waiting on hold to reprice a cruise offered this piece of advice.  
Change your screen saver or lock screen image to be your SetSail Pass or something the cruise line can use to identify you.  That super cool wallpaper that comes with your phone looks great but with a device locked no one from the ship can figure out who owns the most recent lost cell phone.
By using an image on your lock screen that the cruise line can reference if you lose your phone on board you stand a much better chance of getting it returned.   
Makes sense.
When you get home put it back to that super cool default lock screen image but while on board consider something that works to help you getting repatriated with your lost device.  

Can I rent a kid from Adventure Ocean for 30 minutes on day one?  

That is indeed the address. Try the chuleta Cancan/kankan and arroz mamosteao (mixed rice and beans) 
 
you wont regret it! 
 
*this post has been sponsered by a Puerto Rican.

Day 5 - Sea Day
Two sea days now on our way to Guatemala.  Flat seas and warm.  Beautiful cruising weather.

Day by day my Crown and Anchor selections have been arriving.  Drink package?  Who needs a drink package?

Our progress...
Looking at the map it makes you appreciate how far North we started, relatively speaking.  


With that I am caught up to real time.  Another sea day tomorrow so I won't post much.  

Day 4 - Late
I'm still goofing around with this new phone and how the night capture feature works.  Not great but heck it's pretty dark and I'm not using a tripod so...

 

Our coastal sail continued.  In the downtown area this old Catholic church is well known. 



This is clearly a tourist destination but unlike some Mexican ports in the Caribbean the tourists here are largely Mexican.


As we continue down the coast we come across some rock formations.


I'm not exactly sure what was going on here but apparently I picked the wrong boat to sail on today.  

There were three choices for beer onboard.  Corona, Corona or Corona.  When the guide jokingly handed me a bottle of beer I quickly took a sip and kept the bottle.  Challenge accepted.  Hey, I'm on vacation.  




This is a popular snorkeling spot.

With that we turned around and made our way back along the coast to the cruise ship harbor.

A local was making a meal of some grass.

Today's excursion was a half day coastal sail with sightseeing.  We met in the theater and soon after we began the walk over to the sailboats.  The demographic of this cruise tends to be older.   The 10 minute walk pushed many of them to edge of tolerance and they weren't shy vocalizing their displeasure.    

Lifejackets were required to leave the harbor area.  Once at sea we were free to set them aside.   



Like Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta is a tourist destination.  Peak season is Christmas and Easter.  The large cities of Guadalajara and Mexico City are close enough that Puerto Vallarta is their vacation destination of choice.    


Beaches and resorts go on and on for many miles.  

With the mountains as a backdrop is really is quite stunning and these pictures don't nearly do it justice.

Our sailboat comes with beer, Margaritas and Piña Coladas.  On this hot day a Margarita was just about perfect.



Near the city center we came along a pole set in the beach with some people climbing up.  Today was Day of the Dead in Mexico.  Consequently there were many parades and festivities including, apparently, this display. 


One by one four people climbed to the top of the tower.

Finally the fourth made their way to the top.

Then all of a sudden they began spinning down, upside down, while playing music on something like a flute.

It was quite something to see. Here is video:
 

I was booked for the 50th cruise then cancelled.  I was hoping to avoid the masses of top elite and thought maybe they wouldn't want to be on Vision.  It seems I wasn't alone thinking this way.  

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta
As a kid who grew up watching The Love Boat (and having a serious crush on Julie) sailing to Puerto Vallarta was a staple of my weekly TV experience.  So it is always something special to cruise to this beautiful Mexican port.  
Puerto Vallarta is set at the end of a wide bay that on this morning was buried in a morning sea mist.

As we approached the beautiful beaches of Puerto Vallarta unveiled themselves. 


My last visit here was in 2013 and I have to ask myself why haven't I come back.  Seriously.  The cruise harbor has three docks and is very convenient to a shopping mall as well as Sam's Club and Walmart literally across the street.  The crew love coming to this port since it's so easy to stock up on everything they want.  

Day 3 - Dinner
Dinner tonight in Chops the other half of my BOGO.




The 16 oz. bone-in Ribeye cooked perfectly.

As we waited for the tender boats to be recovered day turned to night and it was very special sitting by the window to take in the lights of Cabo.

Finally dessert.

Another great dinner experience.

@ChrisK2793 & @wstephensi.  Let me first start with LESSON LEARNED:
When on a cruise ship, if you, a loved one, a friend, or a passenger are involved in an incident DO NOT try to handle it yourself!  Security is everywhere, often much closer than you might think, so your ONLY involvement should be to seek them out for help. Please please learn from me and DO NOT DO what I did!  My Elevator story has a lot of facets which make it a rather long story so I will keep it as brief as possible by leaving out many details.  Hope it is understandable...
Our 121028 Freedom cruise was a partial charter by the https://www.highseasrally.com group.  In talking to members of the group we learned there were over 2000 of them.  So they easily out numbered us.  Suffice to say (and you can read my related posts in the link below) that this cruise was unlike ANY of our over 30 cruises - very unlike!  On the second night (Formal) five of us boarded an elevator going down to dinner (my wife, my sister, and two friends).  The elevator was nearly full and at our first stop there was a man and a woman in a wheelchair.  They were together and he was carrying both of their glasses of red wine.  We did our best to squeeze them in and at our next stop going down it became apparent the man was already having a very good time for himself.  At that stop we found more people on their way down to dinner.  With barely any room left in our elevator, the man invited more people on.  We squeezed in two more, but my sister got stepped on.  This was a really bad situation for her as she had recently had foot surgery and still had temporary pins in her foot.  So we politely, but quickly try to explain this to man and asked him to not move any further back. This is where he became belligerent as he either did believe us or just did not care about us.  It seemed to us like we were not going to stop his fun.  Two more stops and he and his wife got off for dinner (thank goodness).  The five of us were in a back corner of the elevator.  As the door was closing a passenger next to me (who I did not know) broke the camels back by shouting to the man something like "good riddance and take your wine with you".  So just before the door closed the man threw both red wines into the corner of the elevator where we were standing.  We all got the wine on us, but my sister took the brunt of it.  We were all really pissed by this point and no one more than I.  My sister did not deserve that.  She wears very nice clothes to formal night dinners.  The next elevator stop was ours just one floor down from the couple's so I made the decision to run up one flight to confront him.  THIS is where I should have found security!  Anyway we both got into it, both ended up in sick bay, and both ended up getting dis-embarked two days later in Jamaica.  When security talked to my wife and I, they make it very clear that I would NOT be banned for life, so that made me think that the other man may have been.  FYI: All decisions of this type are completely up to the ship's captain.  Thank You Captain for having some mercy on me.  ?
Four of my group got off in Jamaica and two of us stayed on the ship.  So my sister asked "Art you just thrown off a cruise ship, what are you going to do now?"  I said "Let's go to Disney World" and we did...
 See here for a small discussion on partial charter cruises...
 

Hi all,
 
My girlfriend and I are going on our first ever cruise at the end of January.
 
We are on Allure of the seas sailing to Perfect Day, Bahamas, Cozumel & Costa Maya.
 
We are lucky enough to have the drinks package along with a balcony room.
 
Hoping the weather is warm mid 20’s or higher as we are based in the UK and it’s Baltic!
 
Thanks

Time for the ride back to the ship.

This time I managed to get on the upper deck of the lifeboat/tender.


Local water taxis are very popular to reach remote beaches like Lovers Beach and Divorce Beach.

The NCL Bliss is the largest cruise ship to ever do the full transit through the Panama Canal.  She is just ever so smaller than Quantum class.

Here she is washing her anchor chain as she slowly raises it and gets ready to leave.


Onward towards Vision of the Seas.

Walking around the marina in almost a full circle you come to that beach we could see from the ship.

Down in my cabin getting ready I spotted the arch through the porthole.

The tender ride was ~15 minutes given that the Bliss had arrived earlier and secured the closer anchorage.


The tender dock in the Cabo marina.

The Cabo marina is lined with bars and restaurants, pharmacies and tourist shops.


Cabo is the self proclaimed sports fishing capital of the world.  


A happy fisherman back with his conquest.

It was hot so a nice cold margarita sounded pretty good.

Day 3 - Cabo San Lucas
Our arrival was scheduled for 11am. 

Approaching land coming from the North we could begin to see the beaches along the shore.

Well North of Cabo there were some pretty big resorts.


The famous Cabo arch as seen from the sea. 

Coming around the corner of the arch we discovered the NCL Bliss was already at anchor.

Today we would be using the ship tenders - four specially designed lifeboats that do double duty as tenders.

Cabo tip - take pictures of the arch in the morning.  When the sun comes around in the afternoon it reflects off the water so lighting isn't as good compared to the morning. 


From the ship we could see the wide and long beaches of Cabo.



We had to wait from local officials to visit the ship to clear it.  Soon enough the tenders began.


These tenders feature two levels so some guests can sit upstairs in the open air.

With four boats each carrying ~100 guests it would take some time to get everyone to shore.

Good to see you, Haley !

I've been away from the message boards for a while but what a great welcome back this live blog is! Thanks @twangster and bon voyage!

Day 2 - Sea Day
Our progress as we make our way down the coast.

Formal night.
Due to the high number of top elite the entire "Some Enchanted Evening Lounge" is reserved for the Diamond Happy Hour event.  The Viking Crown Lounge and Concierge Club is Pinnacles and Suites only on this sailing.  This actually works well because the Diamond Club is tiny on this ship.   

Spur of the moment decision to use my Diamond Plus BOGO for Giovanni's and Chops.  The letter in my cabin stated I could use my BOGO on day one through three.  I had a $50 OBC and with prepaid gratuity I figured why not?  Table with a view.

Bread service.

Antipasti for one.

Filet.  Yumm.

Risotto for a side.

A very nice dinner experience.

Sunset not long after sail away as we sailed past Catalina in the distance.


The ship was decorated for Halloween.


Somehow my SeaPass card was invalid.  It worked on my cabin door but when swiped on board it had an invalid folio attached that didn't exist in the system.  This required a stop by guest services to get a new card.  She was baffled why the folio printed on the card and in the system didn't actually exist.  Oh well, easily fixed with a new card.

Cabin Tour!
Ocean view deck 3 forward.



The dreaded shower curtain.

The bathrooms have been updated.  They are similar in style to the bathrooms being installed when a ship receives new cabins.  


On deck plans certain cabins appear larger in the forward section of the ship.  The livable cabin space remains the same however there is a ledge in front of the windows.  It's quite large, almost enough to put a mattress in there but it does push the windows out away so they are less accessible.  

Beds separated for better use of the space.

It was empty upon boarding.  They have to dump the pool water while at sea since they can't dump anything while in port no matter how well any water is treated.  Nor can they fill a pool while in port.  In cases where they have to do any maintenance with an empty pool often this means no pool upon boarding.  Majesty was the same last week.  
 

Day 1 - Los Angeles (San Pedro)
Finally on with the cruise!
The Lyft ride from the Queen Mary to the cruise terminal was $12.

I arrived later than normal because I wanted to take pictures of the QM in daylight.  As it turns out I was still early and it was prior to boarding.  This cruise terminal is a little different.  My expedited boarding worked well with a quick scan of my SetSail pass and passport but security occurs after check in as they call groups for boarding.


Finally boarding commenced closer to 12:40pm.  Apparently CBP was really slow processing the ship.  Talking with some B2B guests they were cleared just after noon time.    

The port area is industrial with numerous docks setup for container ships.

A Princess ship was also boarding today.

A special welcome aboard cake - Panama Canal edition was waiting for us in the Windjammer.

Time for muster.

Finally sail away.


The battleship Iowa is on display here in San Pedro.

Onward towards the Pacific!