Tricia’s Travelogue

Changing time zones PLUS Daylight Savings Time has us totally discombobulated.  We have no idea what time it is back home. We first gained a couple of hours flying to California, then on this second cruise we’ve had to “spring forward” twice, although Mexico doesn’t observe DST. Tonight we gain an hour. Keeping our phones and tablets and digital clock set correctly has kept us busy. All day today we thought it was an hour later than it apparently is. Oh, well, it’s always Happy Hour on the ship, right? Last night we enjoyed another excellent meal at Jamie’s Italian, which is becoming our favorite restaurant.  They have a really good side salad with avocado and radish slices that I’ve gotten every time. Last night I had tagliatelle bolognese that was really good, and Charlie had the prawn linguine. We arrived in Puerta Vallarta early this morning, and Charlie captured some photos of the area around the ship.  Sunrise  The crew members were excited about shopping at Wa...

Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed sitting on our balcony, watching all kinds of boats and jet skis zipping around. Dinner that night was at Hooked.  Charlie had the baked oysters—the best ones are topped with champagne Brie! His catch of the day was overcooked, so I shared some of my fried seafood platter.  Charlie watched a boat tow away the platform used to load tender passengers and captured this pic. This morning after the gym and showers, we returned to the Solarium to relax and give the attendant time to do our room. We had a quick salad in the Windjammer for lunch, the first time we’d been there on this ship.  We continue to enjoy watching the ship containers being loaded and unloaded.  Today they were emptying stacks of lumber and loading them on truck after truck. Yes, we’re easily amused. After lunch we boarded a trolley for our tour.  We first stopped at the cathedral in the market area. Here are some photos. I was taken with this enormous bougainvillea ...

Last night we returned to Chops Grille for dinner, and it was so busy that we were given a round table for five, the last one available. It was “dress your best” night, so maybe that’s why so many families were there, all dressed up. This time I had the branzino, served over garlic spinach — delicious! Charlie loved the lamb chops so much that he had them again.  This morning we went to the gym, then after showering, went up to the Solarium to watch the ship’s approach to Cabo.  We lucked into one of the double daybeds, so parked there until after lunch. Charlie took a few photos, and while we were hoping to see whales, we didn’t. Here are some smaller boats chasing whales. And I love this one, of the Arch of Cabo San Lucas.  Here’s a view of some of the resorts and other developments.  As I mentioned yesterday, we decided not to tender over for such a brief visit. From our balcony we’ve seen lots of party boats including one apparently filled with Aggies on Spring B...

Last night we enjoyed another good dinner at Jamie’s Italian restaurant.  Our server from our previous visit seemed thrilled that we’d asked for him by name, and he was very attentive. We shared the garlic buns, and Charlie had fried squid to start, then I had (again) the very delicious sticky short ribs. Charlie had a very simple but rich pasta dish. Fried squid  Sticky short ribs  Penne carbonara  This morning we went to the gym, which was packed, but we managed to get ellipticals next to each other. At 11:00 they had the “Loyal to Royal “ event, with free champagne and mimosas, and we enjoyed hearing from the very personable Captain James.  In addition to recognizing the three most frequent cruisers — one woman had over 4200 points (one point per night or two if in a suite) — and another woman earned her Pinnacle pin. Immediately afterwards we walked to the opposite end of the ship for lunch at Izumi. I mostly ordered the same things. The pork dumplings are r...

This morning we awoke as the ship was returning to the port at Los Angeles. We finished the last-minute packing and had to leave our stateroom by 8:30.  The 129 “continuous cruisers,” as Royal called us, gathered in the Star Lounge. (They told us that we were an unusually large group!). While we waited to be given our new keycards, our sweet room attendant Riel was moving our luggage and hanging clothes to our new cabin. (The only other time we’ve done back-to-backs, we didn’t change staterooms.).  After telling us FOUR times in great detail what the procedures would be, we were led out onto the deck to leave the ship for Immigration. We waited and waited in 45-degree weather before they finally told us the delay was due to a woman refusing to leave the ship. I’m not sure if it was a mental health issue or just someone with a later flight home, but she held all of us up for about 15 minutes. Anyway, THAT was a new experience. Who’d have the chutzpah to refuse to leave?! Immigr...

First, just a few photos from yesterday on the ship: Onion ring tower at Playmaker’s  Captain’s Platter at Hooked Coconut shrimp at Hooked This morning we were up and off the ship for a 9:20 walking tour of local food and tequila. It was a nice, small group of 10, with a few people from Iowa, Northern California, and one guy from Las Vegas. Our guide, Angel, was great!  We walked a total of three miles, and it rained on us on the way back, but I’m glad we went. We first went to an outdoor place for fish tacos, which were excellent. Here are all the hot sauces: From there, we walked to a candy store with an incredible variety of homemade sweets. We got to try as many as we wanted. Our guide took this pic of us with interesting expressions.  Next up was the tequila tasting at the Tequila Room Ensenada. Angel was telling us about the owner, “a rich redheaded Mexican called Archie,” and Archie himself walked in. We learned about the four types of tequila and sampled at least ...