Mexico Cruise Reviews

I have enjoyed traveling throughout the United States and internationally for over 20 years, but had never experienced a cruise until I took the 7 Night Mexican Riviera Cruise, offered by Royal Caribbean, in May.
2010.

By Phyllis Larison, Travel Agent

 

My brother, Tim Larison, is a successful travel agent and he and his family often take cruises; he suggested that it would be fun for me to experience a cruise with his family. The price for the Royal Caribbean Mexican Riviera cruise was very reasonable; in fact, I was amazed at how inexpensive the cruise was and the fact that all meals were included. I was used to land tours in which only a few meals were included in the total package. Also, the fact that I would not have to carry luggage from one location to another was very appealing to me.

We boarded the Mariner of the Seas on May 23 in Los Angeles. The boarding procedure was very quick and well organized; I was impressed with the size of the ship. It was nice to have our picture taken as we boarded (I am on the far left in this picture).

I had been somewhat apprehensive about the size of my stateroom; I had heard that the staterooms on cruise ships were very small and could be claustrophobic. My stateroom was an interior one with no windows. It is true that the staterooms are generally smaller than rooms at a hotel, but the bed was queen sized and there was room for a couch, desk, TV, etc. Everything in the room was efficiently organized for a small area; there were lots of storage areas to place my things. Sleeping at night was quite pleasant since there was a gentle rocking from the ship and the room was totally soundproof. The room was thoroughly cleaned each day and the room attendant , who could usually be found in the hallway near my room, was helpful in answering my questions about the ship.

When we left Los Angeles on a rather blustery day, it took me a few minutes to get used to the movement of the ship when I was walking and I felt a bit unsteady. Soon, I barely noticed the ship moving through the water. There were over 3000 people, of all ages, on the ship, but, because of the size of the ship, it did not seem crowded. One could choose to sit on the deck and read a book or participate in the many activities scheduled throughout the cruise. The deck was at times rather windy and I often sat in the sun room near the pools for times of relaxation.

I liked the fact that there were activities for a variety of interests. Activities I participated in ranged from a lecture on the history of art to an ice skating show. There were also sports activities such as miniature golf, and even a library where I could check out books. The exercise area was filled with treadmills, elliptical trainers and other exercise equipment. I worked out on the treadmill every day and enjoyed looking out over the ocean while running. I also attended several exercise classes with personal trainers; I did find that some of these free sessions were set up to promote the purchase of special services, such as massages. Every evening elaborate musical productions took place in the main theater on the ship; these were very professional programs with experienced singers. Also, I enjoyed the trivia contests held each day; it was an opportunity to have fun as part of a team and meet new people.
Friends had informed me that there are lots of opportunities to eat on a cruise and they were right! There were specialty restaurants, such as Johnny Rockets, a 50’s style diner with great hamburgers, as well as the main buffet restaurant, the Windjammer Cafe, which had a wide variety of food throughout each day/evening.

The dining rooms were more formal areas for evening meals of several courses.

The food and the service were great! For dinner, we sat with another family at a long table and enjoyed talking to them. Professional photographers took pictures of us, individually and as a group, at the “formal” dinners and I was so pleased with the results that I purchased several of the pictures. The photos are not inexpensive, but the quality is generally excellent. In addition to the restaurants and dining areas, you could get free ice cream cones, pizza, sandwiches and cookies anytime on the deck and the promenade. The long promenade also had a variety of shops; on the final day of the cruise, there were some good bargains and I purchased a few mementos.

We stopped at Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta for shore excursions. At Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan my brother had made arrangements with private vendors for transportation and a day at the beach. At Puerto Vallarta I went on my own with a ship excursion to an exclusive resort on the ocean. As soon as I got off the boat at Puerto Vallarta, I saw the bus waiting to take passengers to the resort. The ship excursions are well organized and mine had a guide who gave us a tour of Puerto Vallarta before we went on our way to the resort. At the resort the guide clearly explained where various services/ restaurants were located and where to meet to pick up the bus for the return trip. The day included a delicious buffet meal, towels, and free drinks. It was a gorgeous resort with several large pools and a beautiful beach with lounge chairs and umbrellas.

I thoroughly enjoyed my first cruise and would recommend taking a cruise for someone traveling alone or with a family. The cruises are reasonably priced; there are activities for every life style and I found it to be more relaxing than a land tour since I didn’t have to worry about luggage, meals or transportation. I am now thinking about where I would like to go for my next cruise!

Whenever I get into a cruise discussion with other travel agents I like to ask the question “What is your favorite cruise line?” In the last year I have heard the response “Crystal!” to that question more often than any other cruise line, particularly from long time travel agents. I have sailed on a variety of cruise lines in the past two years (Disney, Princess, Royal Caribbean, NCL, and Carnival) and I always wondered “what makes Crystal special and different from other cruise lines?”

by Tim Larison, CLIA Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)

In December 2004 I jumped at the chance to find out the answer to this question – my wife Anne and I were given the opportunity to sail on the Crystal Serenity (the newest of the 3 ship Crystal fleet). ... Read More

My wife and I were looking for a short weekend getaway to celebrate my birthday and our 15 year anniversary. Anne missed out on a 7 night cruise I took with our sons in March, and we both enjoy cruising very much, so we decided “why not celebrate with another cruise?” This was to be our first Carnival Cruise. We wondered if a short three night cruise on an older ship would give us a similar experience to our past sailings with other cruise lines. Below I will answer this question, and review different parts of our cruise.

by Tim Larison, CLIA Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)

Click To See Our Pictures

We liked the “at sea” day on this cruise – we had taken two three night cruises with Disney and those cruises did not have an “at sea” day. “At Sea” days are one feature we have enjoyed on our previous seven night cruises.

The one port we did visit on this cruise, Ensenada, promised to be interesting as we had never been there before. Ensenada did not disappoint. We did an unusual shore excursion there – the “Baja Bandidos” Horseback trail in the hills with magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean and the surrounding countryside. I had heard this was a popular excursion before our cruise, so shortly after we boarded the Ecstasy I submitted our request for this excursion. TIP: This is a good excursion to book within an hour or two of boarding. Don’t wait until the 4 pm shore excursion talk – at that talk the shore excursion manager will tell the crowd how popular this excursion is and it will sell out shortly thereafter. For our shore excursion adventure, we signed up for the early ride (8:30 am). This excursion also was offered at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm. We liked this early time as we took the ride in the cool of the mid morning, rather than the heat of the afternoon sun.

The Ecstasy docked at Ensenada at 6 am on Saturday. It was nice to be able to walk off the ship rather than take a tender boat like we have had to at some ports on past cruises. We met the van to transport us to the horse riding stables right at 8:30 am. Everything was very well organized. We took a 30 minute van ride to the horse riding stables in the foothills surrounding Ensenada. We were met by the owner of the Baja Bandidos stable. We were asked if we had any horse riding experience before. We had not ridden horses for over 15 years so we both raised our hand and said “none!” We were given more tame horses for our hour and a half ride. We left the stables in a group of 10 horses, with the owner of the ranch and another ranch hand on their horses escorting us.

The ride was very scenic. We had beautiful views of the hills of San Miguel and the Pacific Ocean. My horse, Lorando, had a tendency to fall behind – when he ran to catch up (at the urging of the ranch hands) the ride got to be a little rough, but not too bad. A soak in the hot tub back on the ship was a welcome relief after this shore excursion! Overall we thought the horseback riding was a good experience and we would recommend it. This excursion was different than any other I had done on previous cruises. We thought the staff at the ranch were good at helping people who had never ridden a horse before and we quickly learned what we needed to for the 1 ½ hour ride.After our ride we were treated to home made tacos – not enough for lunch but a good snack to hold us over until we ate at the buffet back at that ship.

The other shore excursions offered included a scenic “Gold Coast” tour, a visit to the “blowhole” (where the ocean sprays through a rock opening), a golf outing on the Bajamar golf resort, a La Bufadora adventure tour, City and Shopping tour, and a Wine Country tour. We liked the variety of shore excursions offered – there was something for everyone. The golf outing seemed particularly popular as we saw many golfers with their golf clubs waiting outside the ship as we departed for our horseback riding outing. The golf course was described as “like Pebble Beach for the views, but lots less expensive”. We were told a round at Pebble Beach will cost $395. This excursion cost $125 for transfers and 18 holes of golf.

We did not shop in Ensenada like many of our fellow passengers. We had been to Mexican markets on our Mexican Riviera cruise last February and didn’t feel the need to repeat this experience. Instead we relaxed back at the ship in the afternoon.

The Ship

The Carnival Ecstasy was built in 1991 and she is the 5th oldest ship in the 20 ship Carnival fleet. Since we had only cruised on newer ships previously we wondered how the cruise experience would be on an older ship. Though the ship lacked some of the features we experienced on other ships, overall we thought she provided a similar cruise experience to our other cruises. The ship had an unusual “neon” theme throughout – it looked more like a downtown Las Vegas hotel and casino rather than the “classic” look we have seen on other ships. The bright colors and neon lights took a little getting used to and fit in well with the “party” theme that Carnival advertises for the cruise.

Our stateroom was actually larger than what we have had on newer ships. Our inside stateroom was 186 square feet – this compares to the 133 square feet stateroom that I had on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner Of The Seas in February. I found the bathroom area to be roomy. This was the largest inside stateroom we have had on our cruises next to the Disney category 10 staterooms (214 square feet for Disney). We had heard that the staterooms on the Ecstasy were noisy. We did not experience that. We could hear noise from the hallway in our room but we could not hear noise from the staterooms next door. Our stateroom was on the lowest passenger deck (the Riviera deck) and we did not hear any noise from above (there were two decks of passenger staterooms directly above us). If you are used to sailing in a balcony stateroom then you may be disappointed with the Ecstasy, as only 26 of the staterooms have balconies. But if an outside or inside stateroom will do you will find these staterooms have as much room or more room than what you will find on other lines. TIP: Be sure to bring a hairdryer as there is not one provided in the stateroom.

As for other parts of the ship, we liked the Blue Sapphire Lounge for the nighttime shows. This was an older style theatre with lots of leg room and a small table by each chair to place your drinks. We liked sitting on the first row of the balcony where we had a great view of the stage.

Dining

The Ecstasy had two formal dining rooms, the Windsong and Windstar, and a large buffet. We thought the quality of the food overall was very good.

Panorama Buffet

We ate our opening lunch here, we had breakfast here one morning, and we frequently visited the buffet for snacks. The selections for the opening buffet were limited. There was a turkey carving station, a salad bar, and a choice of 7 or 8 side items. The turkey was excellent and the salads were fresh. For breakfast I liked the “made to order” omelet station. The scrambled eggs in the breakfast buffet were only average (I’ve never had good scrambled eggs in a buffet) so the omelet station was a good alternative.

The best feature of the buffet was the soft serve ice cream and yogurt station that was available most hours (from 6 am to 3 am the next morning). The ice cream was creamy and excellent – much better than the ice milk I have had at other buffets. With some cruise lines starting to charge extra for ice cream it was nice to see Carnival have free ice cream available anytime you wanted it. The buffet also had a 24 hour pizza station. I didn’t think the pizza was very good – save your calories for better options in the buffet or at the main dining rooms.

Outside the buffet near the pool area was a grill where hamburgers or hot dogs could be ordered most hours of the day. The cheeseburgers we had here were very good.

Windsong Dining Room

The Ecstasy had two formal dining rooms – the Windsong and Windstar – we were assigned the early dining time (5:45 pm) in the Windsong. The Windsong had a nice atmosphere, more elegant than the loud neon color scheme elsewhere on the ship. We found the food here to be very good – as good as or better than the main dining room food I have had on other cruise lines. The first night I thought the lobster tail entrée I had was excellent. Anne liked the prime rib entrée she ordered. On other nights I had a chicken dish and a beef tenderloin dish that were also very good. Anne also gave high marks to the beef tenderloin and a whitefish entrée she ordered.The salads were fresh. The dessert selections were limited but good.

We also ate at the Windsong for breakfast on two mornings and for lunch one day. The breakfasts here were very good – I had an omelet each morning. The only food we had here that was below par was the baby back ribs for lunch on our “at sea” day. Our waiter, Saul from Colombia, was attentive to our needs. He offered to bring more than one entrée or appetizer if we were not happy with our main selection.

On two nights the Ecstasy offered a “midnight buffet”. We didn’t stay up that late but we heard this buffet was very good from a few of the other passengers.

Entertainment

The Ecstasy offered many different entertainment options. There were two different Las Vegas Revue type shows offered on Saturday and Sunday night. If you enjoy Las Vegas type shows you will like this entertainment. The lead singers for the shows were excellent (Freddy Martin and Cassandra Swales). The shows featured live band music, not a canned soundtrack like I have heard on some other lines. The shows featured dancers with many different costumes and set changes – they were fast paced, entertaining one hour shows. Two comedians were onboard – Stanley Ullman and Lance Montalto. The first night the comedians gave a “PG” rated show, then on the second and third nights they offered an “adults only” show at midnight. We didn’t make it to the adult shows but we thought PG show was good. There were a number of smaller lounges onboard with their own bands. A small casino was packed with people when the ship was at sea.

Recreation ... Read More

My family had been to Disney World and on the Disney Cruise before, so in February of 2003 I decided to take them on a different type of vacation. We visited Disneyland for 5 days, followed by a 7 night Mexican Riviera Cruise on Princess. This would be our first Princess cruise, and as a travel agent I wanted to see how their kids programs compared to the excellent ones Disney has. Also we were excited to try out a new ship on a new cruise line with a new itinerary for us! Rather than give a day by day account of this cruise, I will tell you about the different parts of our cruise in this report: Disneyland Portion, Our Stateroom, Recreation And Activities Onboard, Itinerary and Ports of Call, Cruising With Kids, Dining, Entertainment, and Embarkation/Disembarkation.

We found this “self made” land and sea vacation an excellent fit. After spending a few days walking around theme parks it was nice to relax on a 7 day cruise.

by Tim Larison, CLIA Master Cruise Counsellor (MCC)

Family Members: Tim, Anne, Andrew (age 9), and Joshua (age 9) Larison

 

Click To See Our Pictures

Our Stateroom

While we would have liked to have a verandah or window stateroom on this cruise, we got an excellent deal on a inside category M stateroom so we decided to give it a try. This is the first time we had taken a cruise with an inside stateroom. Our stateroom was on the Aloha deck – the second highest passenger deck on the ship (deck 12). We loved this location! We were only one deck away from the pools and recreation areas, close to the kids club on deck 15, and midship. The Star Princess had 5 elevators at three different locations (aft, midship, forward). We found we rarely had to wait very long for an elevator when it was necessary to go to the lower decks. Our stateroom was small but functional. We had two single beds below separated by a center dresser. Above each bed was another bed that came down from the wall. Our kids loved sleeping in the upper beds.

TIP: The upper beds each had a safety rail to prevent the kids from taking a tumble in the night. For extra security, we asked our cabin steward for extra pillows and we wedged the pillow next to the safety railing for more protection. With this setup we felt secure our kids would not roll out of their beds.

While the sleeping area of the stateroom was small, it did have a large clothes closet, a good sized bathroom, a desk, and lots of shelf space. We carried 5 suitcases onboard and we were able to fit everything with room to spare.

When we wanted a look outside, we either went up a deck by a nearby staircase, or we changed to the shipboard channel in our stateroom that had a continuous view from the bridge. TIP: When you are on the cruise tell your family and friends back home that they can monitor your sailing through the Princess web site (www.princess.com). There is a bridgecam on many of the Princess ships that are updated every 30 seconds, with the photo being displayed live on the internet. My mother enjoyed following our cruise this way.

TIP: When you checkin to your stateroom you are given a foldup map to the ship that easily fits into a pocket or a purse. We carried this guide around with us all week and found it very helpful to navigate this large ship. Ask your stateroom attendant for additional copies for other members of your family. Also there are maps of the ship with a “you are here” dot at each elevator. TIP: When getting off the elevator it was sometime hard to remember which side our stateroom was on. The staterooms with an even number had a red carpet in the aisle, the odd numbered side had a blue carpet in the aisle. Using this info we always remembered which side our stateroom was on.

Recreation and Activities ... Read More