Well, as most of you know Ami and I have tamed the oceans of the world (on a 1000+ foot cruise ship) and visited three great ports of call... Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta.

Check out the PICTURE GALLERY for the cruise.

Here's Ami's write-up on the adventure (Click on the "Read More" Link)

Day 1 (3/29/09):  We flew to Phoenix and then LA. They let us board the ship a little before lunch time. The Mariner of the Seas is an absolutely huge ship. We had over 3,000 people on board, and the ship has an on-board ice skating rink, theater, 2 swimming pools, 7 hot tubs, a video arcade, basketball court, mini golf course, a gaming casino, numerous lounges & bars, a rock climbing wall, a lovely gym with a view of the ocean, a strip mall with sidewalk cafes, and more stuff than I care to even mention. Needless to say, there was lots to do. Our room was on the 2nd level and had a good-sized round window that gave us a perfect vantage point to watch for sea life while lounging in bed.  We spent most of the day exploring the ship and scoping out the good spots to people watch. Our travel agent even arranged for a bottle of sparking wine to be waiting in our room for us – a nice romantic touch.
 
Day 2: We spent the entire day at sea. We spotted some whales and dolphins, and the ship activities offered plenty of entertainment. The weather was overcast & windy, but there were plenty of die hard people out shivering by the pool so that they could get a tan. We were marvelously entertained by watching people wrapped up in towels while trying to tan. The activities director hosted a men’s sexy legs competition (also highly entertaining), and we played some table tennis, mini golf and some other activities.

Day 3: We arrived in Cabo San Lucas at about 8 AM. Adam & I stood out on the helipad on the front of the ship so that we could watch us dock. Just as we pulled in, a large pod of dolphins started playing in front of the ship – it was absolutely magical. The weather was perfect – about 80 degrees and sunny.  Cabo is very rocky with brilliant white beaches. The part we were able to see had a number of large resorts on the shorefront, and lots of new construction underway. The ship could not come all the way into the bay, so they anchored out a little ways out, and several  large catamarans tendered us to the main dock. As soon as we set foot across the checkpoint, we were bombarded with street vendors and people selling tour packages. It was pretty overwhelming, so we quickly walked past the main drag and explored the resort area. They are building a new shopping mall that has tons of ornate buildings, fountains and sculptures – seems mostly geared to the tourists. After exploring a bit, we returned to meet up for the snorkeling tour we had pre-booked. They took us to Chileno bay via a 70 person catamaran, and we were able to snorkel for a couple of hours. We saw tons of tropical fish and a large sea turtle. The water was only 73 degrees, so we were happy to get back on the boat to warm up in the sun. Unfortunately, even with waterproof sunscreen, both of us toasted our skin. – we probably did not use enough. I obtained possibly one of the worst sunburns I have ever had. My neck looks like raw hamburger and is peeling repeatedly.  After the tour, we returned to the ship, and they departed Cabo at about 6 PM.

Day 4: We arrived in Mazatlan at about 9 AM. It was overcast and only about 72 degrees. We had an early tour booked to go to a bird estuary (wetlands area), so we didn’t get much time to explore the city itself. Our guide took us by boat through the wetlands where we were able to see tons of birds, small crabs, and mangrove trees. The area is surrounded by rusty fishing boats and a beer brewery, but once we got out of the industrial section, the mangroves were beautiful, and I wish we could have wandered around more. After taking us through the mangroves, they loaded us into a “Mexican limousine” (a large wagon with bench seats that was pulled by a bright blue tractor), and they drove us through a coconut plantation to the beach. The trees were about 50 years old and were huge. Once we punched out to the beach, they drove us along the shoreline to a family-run restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately, 2 things made the day not so fantastic. One was that the beach was littered with tons of plastic bottles, and other trash – it was really sad to see such a beautiful place polluted by trash.  The worst event of the day was that while we were driving to the restaurant, we came upon a tourist who has been on another tour. Hers was a horseback ride, and she apparently fell off her horse and hurt herself pretty badly. The tour guides were standing around looking unsure about what to do, and another tourist was yelling for us to pull up one of the benches to use as a back board.  He was trying to brace her neck with a beach towel, and  she was moaning and screaming when they tried to move her. Our tour guide had a cell phone & apparently they were able to summon a life guard who came with a real neck brace and a back board. They rolled her onto it, loaded her into the back of a pickup truck and drove her off somewhere. It did not appear that medical care was offered close by, so I’m not sure how far they had to drive her to get her to a hospital. We never did find out what happened to her. But, we know that if you miss the boat, they leave without you, and you have to find your own way home. The one positive thing was that she did seem to be able to move her feet, so we were hopeful  that she hadn’t damaged her spinal cord. After that, the tour resumed. The concluded it by driving us through the city on Stone Island. We were able to see how the real townspeople live (and it was an eye opener to see how impoverished the area is). School had dirt yards and most of the buildings looked like they were in severe need of repairs.  We saw a number of roadside stands selling fresh cut fruit and home-roasted peanuts.  Again, we returned to the ship and departed that evening.

Day 5: We arrived in Puerto Vallarta at about 7 AM.  This was by far our favorite of the 3 ports. It was more developed and obviously less impoverished. They also had a lot more trees, and the city did not have the overwhelming gauntlet of street vendors that welcomed us at the other 2 ports. We took a taxi downtown and wandered the shops and viewed a number of marvelous statues along the seaside boardwalk.  Then, we took a taxi back and met up with another tour group to go on a zip line expedition in the jungle.  Now, this was 1 day after the horrible horseback accident we came across, so we were a starting to wonder if this was still a good idea. But, the tour was booked through the cruiseline, so we figured that they would not book us with someone that was not trustworthy. The tour guides picked us up in a 12 person military-style truck with the canvas roof and plastic windows. It was an hour ride to the jungle, and I swear the guy drove 90 miles an hour most of the way. Once we arrived, I was relived to see that they had a very professional operation. We had 4 guides and 1 camera person for our 12 guests. They had all of us double-clipped into the harnesses, and they would not let us do anything with the gear (they dressed us, clipped us to the lines, etc).  It was absolutely exhilarating, and I had a huge grin the entire time. They took us through about 12 lines that were up in the tops of huge 175 ft trees. Then, at the end we got to rappel down from a tree to the ground. The guides were tons of fun, and they really played with the group – I felt very safe through the whole thing. Ironically, in my perpetual state of grace and coordination, I still managed to sustain a minor injury. – I was walking across a catwalk, and the camera man told me to look up and smile. I kept walking, and managed to step in the only gap in the catwalk that existed in the entire place. My foot slipped through and I scraped up my shin. (Don’t panic now – I was still clipped into the line, so no risk of falling very far). The 5 guys all had to ask me if I was ok and check my wound. The leader pulled out some surgical gloves and alcohol from his first aid kit & cleaned me up and kept checking back after every line to make sure I was still ok. Then I got to finish the tour by filling out an incident report – way more attention than I wanted! (I was relieved to see that they seemed much more prepared for injuries to the tour guests than the people in Mazatlan, though).  After the tour, we again drove for an hour (at about 90 MPH) back to the port and we boarded the ship. We departed at about 7 PM to return home.

Day 6 and 7: We were at sea for the remaining 2 days. Weather was again windy and overcast. Since I had already fried my skin, I didn’t feel like doing much sunbathing anyway. We watched an excellent ice skating show and a variety show complete with magic, juggling and comedy. We had a salsa dancing lesson, did a sing along at the piano bar, learned to make the towel animals they leave on your bed at night, and played lots of games of shuffleboard – Adam was the undisputed champion in shuffleboard. We flew home from LA on Sunday afternoon feeling a little tired, but ready to face work again.

So, if you are looking for pampering and lots of opportunity to relax, the cruise is a good way to go. Royal Caribbean did a fantastic job, and the staff were top notch – I could not have asked for better service. I do wish we had more time to tour the port cities, so I don’t think we would book quite so many tours if we were to do it again. All in all, it was a great trip, though and lots of fun.