Vacation on a Ship

cruise
(krooz)
v. cruised, cruis·ing, cruis·es
v.intr.
1.
a. To sail or travel about, as for pleasure or reconnaissance.
b. To go or move along, especially in an unhurried or unconcerned fashion:

For the life of me, I can’t understand what took us this long to take our first cruise! Did you catch the definition? . . . sail, travel, pleasure, unhurried, unconcerned . . .
I do not even know how to begin to really tell you about this without making this one super long post . . . a shortened version would be to quote a comment that a friend left on my “Travel Thoughts” post…
"You do not have to look for a hotel, because it is already waiting for you. You do not have to unpack every time you are in a new country or city…You do not have to find a restaurant for any of your meals, because that too is waiting for you. Unless of course you choose to go and do some exploring on land…You have everything, and then some, on board. Wonderful entertainment, movie theaters, pools, spas, libraries, some shopping, etc, etc, It is the only way to go! ! !"

At this time of year you can get in on some nice last minute specials and we decided that it would be a good time to check it out. Kristal, our now favorite travel consultant, did an excellent job of making all the arrangements for us. (It is a bonus to have a cruise agent in the family.)
Our ship was scheduled to set sail out of Los Angeles, CA on October 10th. We flew down, spending one day with Shaun and Kristal and our precious little grands (which I will post about on another day) and the next morning we headed to the port. It was all very different from what I had imagined. You may laugh, but I had this vision of walking up a ramp then registering at a table on the deck or maybe on the gangplank. (Too many old movies?)
In actuality, we entered a terminal much like an airport. We dropped off our luggage, checked in at one of the stations and went through security, before getting to the actual dock where the ship sat.

We boarded and found our way up to Deck 12 where our room was waiting for us and soon found our way to the buffet to get some lunch. After that there was much to explore! It took me all week to kind of figure out if I should go up or down when going someplace . . . but then, that’s just me.
For two days the Sapphire Princess steamed south, paralleling the coastline of the Baja California and continuing south to Puerto Vallerta. I loved the days at sea and the changing views of the ocean.

And inside . . . I had to shake off the feeling like I was possibly in a movie scene here . . .

. . . the grand atrium lobby where we hung out before our formal dinners, being serenaded by a continuous flow of live music entertainment.

I loved the many circular marble stairways with glossy banisters.

After relaxing days at sea or touring a Mexican port, it was a lot of fun to meet up with our friends for dinner . . .

. . . and a late night musical or comedy show in the theatre.

I have always heard about the endless serving of food and the beautiful presentations, but what surprised me was how relaxing it was to never have a care about the next meal and the joy of choosing from such a vast array – whether it be on a buffet line or from a fancy menu. What we ate, did not affect our cost . . . our waistline maybe, but no bill, since the menu did not even have prices! There was something to this whole idea that made it easy to become friends with our servers!

One morning, as we sat by the pool, a table was set up in one corner and soon I was a like a little girl, entertained by a fruit and vegetable carving show. Another show, hosted by the Princess’ Executive Chef and Maitre D’ Hotel, was presented more like a TV show in the theatre one morning. Like the cooks didn’t have enough to do with feeding three thousand passengers . . . they also took time out to show us some of their tricks.

After (or before) eating there was always the workout room, the spa or the track to burn off some calories. I opted for the complete “three times around the ship” walk (to get in a mile) and avoiding the elevator to hike up to our room every day.

After just one day in Puerto Vallerta, we headed in a north westerly direction for a short visit to Mazatlan the next day, followed by a third stop in Cabo San Lucas. We did not purchase any land tours ahead of time, so we had total freedom to just stay on the ship, walk the beach or hire a taxi to take us around town. I will tell you about one such excursion later.