Day 5 - Day of the Iguana?

Wednesday November 3, 2021

We were fortunate to see the picturesque sunrise over Puerto Vallarta as we came into port this morning.

Puerto Vallarta is well known for the movie Night of the Iguana starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner. Richard brought Elizabeth Taylor to Puerto Vallarta with him and later purchased her a villa there.  Both were married, just not to each other - scandalous! Puerto Vallarta is also know for their tequila.  

We took a bus tour of the city, Central Plaza and of Hacienda Doña Engracia, a manufacturer of Mexican tequila.  City Plaza was still decorated with elaborate decorations for Day of the Dead.  So many tourists were walking around enjoying the sea air and taking pictures of the displays.  

Dancers and musicians performed for us along the way.

At Hacienda Doña Engracia we enjoyed a quick lunch, dancers, a tequila presentation and tastings of their liquors and tequila.  This hacienda is in the heart of a local farming part of town.  The people may be poor, but the hospitality is abundant.

Back on board, we had a relaxing dinner at Alegro (with Rea and Mary as servers).  Once again, the meal and service did not disappoint.  We also met a lovely couple from Albuquerque, New Mexico.  We aren’t ones to typically interact much with other travelers, but Matt and Kathy were the type of people I would love to have as neighbors.  

The Princess Theater’s show was showtime singer Colleen Williamson. Her voice was beautiful as she sang tunes from Meet me in St. Louis, Carousel, A Star is Born, Chicago and many more.  We saw Colleen outside the International Cafe after the show and stopped to chat for a few minutes.   She is as delightful, as her voice is beautiful.  Colleen, mid-west US born, has been performing on cruise ships for 30 years and loving every year of it.

My dessert from the 24-hour International Café.

Day 4 - it’s where the blue waters run down the mountain side to the sea - Mazatlan

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

After a nice breakfast in the buffet, we disembarked the Majestic Princess in Mazatlan. Today we chose the hop-on hop-off bus tour in order to cover more of the city. Our double decker open-air bus conveniently picked us up and returned us ship side. Our stops included watching cliff divers, walking the Historic District, visiting the City Aquarium and lunch in the Golden Zone.  The weather was warm and humid but the breezes were lovely.

The stop for the cliff diver show consisted of pulling off the side of the road to view one diver.  Impressive that he dove into shallow rocky water, but I expected to see multiple divers.  Luckily we were on the upper deck of the bus and my camera was ready.

The Cathedral was beautiful with golden and grey arches, tiled ceilings, gorgeous crystal chandeliers, reliefs and statues.

The City Aquarium was meh.  Nice to walk around but just an aquarium.  Not worth the extra $9 USD per person.

Fourth stop was the Golden Zone filled with plenty of shopping and restaurants.  We ate at Restaurant Margaritas.  This was just a small Mexican restaurant nestled between 2 retail shops.  A gentleman walked around singing typical Mexican folkloric tunes (for a tip of course).  We enjoyed a taco plate and a cool beverage before heading back to the Majestic.

Back on the ship, it was Italian night at the Alegro.  My seafood antipasto was filled with lucious shrimp, black mussels, squid, pickled vegetables and kalamata olives.  I followed with minestrone soup and sautéed shrimp and sea scallops.  I had the chocolate Love Boat as well as an assortment of cookies - butterscotch, chocolate, almond and lemon.  Our wait staff tonight was Rea & Mary from the Philippines.  They made our dinner so enjoyable, so we decided to make reservations to dine in the Alegro again tomorrow night at a table in their section.

I’m typing this in the fresh sea air on the balcony of our stateroom.  As I glanced out, I saw a dolphin racing along with us.  What a wonderful site.

Day 3 - There’s a sleepy town as south of the border - Cabo San Lucas

November 1, 2021 - Day of the Dead

Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas.  The closer we got to Cabo, we were greeted with large beautiful bright yellow butterflies and dark black butterflies. A very strange sight to see so many butterflies when a ship is still at sea. This is Day of the Dead though. 

The signature landmark of Cabo San Lucas is the El de Cabo San Lucas or “the arch”.

The waters of Cabo are too shallow to support a cruise ship, so water tenders are used to taxi to the port.   Within the first minute of stepping on land, we were inundated with people offering water taxis to the beach or offers to buy souvenirs. 

Navigating the streets of Cabo San Lucas can be quite difficult, as few roads run parallel to each other and no street signs were populated with the street names. Our destination was Sammy Hagar‘s Cabo Wabo Cantina. At the cantina we enjoyed local live music, pollo fajitas and cool drinks. 

The streets of Cabo are quite clean and people are very friendly, but the shop vendors are constantly encouraging you to come in the shops for good deals, “almost free!“.  “Señor, just step in.  Deals are so good, they are almost free!”.

The Day of the Dead displays in front of the shops were beautiful.  These girls are putting the finishing touches on a vibrant border made of dyed grains of rice.

Once back on the Majestic, we showered, changed info formal attire and headed to the Crowne Grille for an amazing dinner.  We had black tiger prawns and papaya salpicon, black and blue onion soup, New Zealand double lamb chops, red skinned mashed potatoes, creamed spinach, followed by warm chocolate mousse trifle.

Day 2 - I ain’t afraid of no ghost

October 31, 2021 - Halloween

What an absolutely gorgeous day today aboard the Majestic Princess. It was a sea-day, so that meant a day to relax and to explore the ship.  We walked every public deck of the ship, inside and out.  Much of our afternoon was spent on the Lido deck soaking in the fresh air and sunshine.

Check out this amazing chocolate dessert from Bistro Sur La Mer.  It was not only beautiful, but so creamy and delicious!

Today is Halloween, and that was an obvious site. From Cruella de Ville to Freddie Mercury, the venues on Princess were filled with Halloween fun, music and dancing.  Tonight was also formal night, and guests were given the option of wearing their favorite Halloween costume or going formal.  We chose costumes.