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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2005 
Carnival Pride Cruise Review of Mexican Riviera Cruise
 Dave Ellett & Family
My wife, myself and my 16 year old son just finished a Mexican Riviera cruise on the Carnival Pride 13-20 Mar 05. We were in cabin 1170, bottom middle which is Nirvana for motion sicko's like myself. It definitely makes a difference.
I tried the watch "ReliefBand" and it was generally working, but I had to keep my hand a certain way or it wouldn't work properly on me. Other friends we talked to said it worked great for them. I got it for $84 on-line with extra batteries and gel which is a must.
However, I ended up using the patch, and though I definitely experienced at least half of the common some side effects, it was well worth it.
Overall, we enjoyed the cruise very much. Entertainment was very good. Our dinner waiters Romar and Camillo (at table 157) were absolutely outstanding and dare I say perfect. Funny, entertaining, loveable, gracious, and ever helpful. I cannot find a single fault (and I'm known for being critical).
I only had $10 each to tip them at the time of our last meeting and I very much regret not tipping them more (in addition to what they add to your bill). They earned it.
We always do our annual vacation during spring break and our 16 year old, last of 3 children at home, picked cruising. We picked the Mexican Riviera.
Four years ago, we took a 5 day cruise to Ensenada Mexico on the Carnival Ecstasy with our 3 children then 16, 15 and 13 and we all loved it. Cruising is an excellent family vacation for children of school age and older. The children have time away from the parents (and vice-versa) in a very controlled, but fun atmosphere, and yet we still get to spend quite a bit of time together as well.
We sailed from Long Beach CA on Sunday and very much enjoyed our relaxing time at sea. Easy workouts at the gym, walks on deck, volleyball, Jacuzzi, dancing at night, Las Vegas style shows, comedians, sundry activities, but mostly relaxing.
We don't drink or gamble so can't give ya the scoop on that stuff.
On Wed morn we debarked at Puerto Vallarta.
They advise you to book tours only through the ship, and not to do activities such as parasailing, quad'ing etc because there are no safeguards or they are dangerous. It's not entirely self-serving, but we took the advice of my coworker and booked our own tours at port. They were significantly cheaper.
It's probably safer booking through the ship, since I'm sure there are safeguards that you would not have otherwise, but with some reasonable caution and common sense it's OK to book at port. The dune buggy trip at Puerto Vallarta was pretty fun (they also have quads on the same trip). The dune buggy bottom floor is mesh and is not solid. So when you cross creeks you get soaked if you punch through them like I did. The first one we crossed I punched it full throttle. The water came up with such force that it would have ripped my shades off my face had it not plastered them into my eye sockets. I couldn't see and almost hit a wall of rock across on the other side. My wife was not happy. I thought it was excellent! The folks who were riding quads didn't get wet at all since they have wide fenders and solid undercarriage. There's a place at the half way point where they serve drinks and you can jump off a rock into a deep part of the creek.
Then on the way back you stop at a cool backwoods restaurant which serves some good food. My buggy was hard to shift right and I've been driving sticks all my life. After returning, we shopped some and then got back on ship.
On Thu, we debarked at Mazatlan at 9am and had to be back by 6pm. We actually got off at about 10:30am, but didn't have anything planned. We quickly tired of shopping because regardless of what city you're in, most of the stuff is the same. Shopping on these trips is way overrated and quickly becomes boring. We ate lunch at Sr Frog's and we ended back on ship early since we didn't plan anything ahead. Interestingly some, and I say some, of the stuff right off the boats is actually cheaper then the shops farther out.
On Friday, debarkation started at 7am and we got off about 9:30am. For lack of time and absolutely no clue what we were going to do, we fell into the clutches of a vendor on the pier for tours. We decided on a quad tour. When our vendor asked another vendor about getting cash, the other vendor inadvertently saved us $20 bucks by stating the actual price of the tour. For some unexplainable reason, perhaps being in a hurry, I didn't even think to negotiate the price down. But we got lucky anyway. The prices were significantly cheaper than the ship. However, since there is so little time at Cabo, I would suggest booking a tour on-line before you even get on the ship and anything else you want to do, because there is so little time there. It may be worth the extra money.
I thought we had more than enough time for the trip since it was a 3 hour tour. But they didn't tell us that it was a half hour drive to the quad facility. I asked if we would be back by 3:30 to catch the last boat to ship and he said yes. We later found out however that the tour did not get back to the quad facility until 3 to 3:30.
The quad tour was lots of fun. There were about 9 of us plus the leader and we did not go slow on the trail down. My son was goofing off and lost control of his quad and went strait into a tree. Luckily he was able to slow down enough so that he hit at about 10-15 mph and barely got hurt (tore up the stupid brand new $15 T-shirt we just bought him). Being 16, he of course brushes it off and we quickly get going again. Being parents, it's at least 5 minutes before our hearts stop pounding from parent's fright and extra adrenaline.
After 20-30min we get to the beach area with dunes and are set free to storm the place (can't go near the water though). They gave us a bottle of water which was much appreciated at that time. Recommend pants though not absolutely necessary. But definitely wear shoes and not sandals. I wore water dogs and the top of my foot really hurt from shifting. They call it semi-automatic because there's no clutch, but you do shift. My wife spent at least 15min learning to ride before breaking out her book to read. I got her to take a picture of me looking really cool accelerating a 180 to go back down the hill -- or in this case rolling the quad. Ya! We bad! Nnnnnot! Another guy rolled a quad down too. It was definitely lot's of fun and worth the money, even though we had to leave early to get back in time. They had to give 5 of us a ride back in a small compact and a truck since the tour van wasn't coming back until later (remember I said it was probably safer to book tours through the ship). Arriving at the quad facility we were charged $40 for bending the front cage in. Very reasonable (especially since we only had $40 at the time).
After getting back at 2:50, we didn't have any time to do anything else. Cabo was very beautiful, but since we had no time there, what else can we say about Cabo?
While waiting to get back to ship we came up with the idea that they should drop one port and spend a full 24 hours at the remaining two ports and they could alternate which port they drop on each cruise.
Instead of 8am-10pm at Puerto Vallarta, 9am-6pm at Mazatlan and the ridiculous 7am-4pm (3:30) at Cabo, we suggest Wed 8am to Thu 3am at either Puerto Vallarta or Mazatlan, and then Thu 4pm to Fri 4pm at Cabo.
Every family with whom we spoke with (including all those in back of the boat on the way to the ship from Cabo), and even a woman I work with who took the very same cruise on a honeymoon several weeks before on the Pride, all agreed with us on this idea.
Despite enjoying the cruise overall, personally I will not take the cruise again, or any other cruise in which there is so little time to do anything at the ports. Only Puerto Vallarta gave us the opportunity to barely get a sense of the flavor of the port. It was too hectic figuring out what to do and getting it done in so little time. I'd rather fly down and get a hotel like we did in Cancun last year. Obviously the food (and waiters) would not be as good, but everything else would be. And let me tell you, the food was grrrrrrrreat!!! We had two main courses which weren't all that great, but everything else was excellent. |
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