What do you see there, Boyd?
Cabo San Lucas is a tender port, but tendering on Pacific Princess was never a problem. We never had to grab a tender ticket (only meet our tour group in the Cabaret Lounge on days we booked tours through the ship), and there was hardly a wait for the tender boat - how spoiled we were!
As soon as we exited the secure area of tender, we were bombarded by sales people, yelling at us to choose their tour. Mom was overwhelmed and scurried away. I don't know what it says about me, but I kind of liked the attention and remember smiling at different people like, "Why should I choose you?" But I didn't get to have the big fight-for-me battle I wanted, as Dad quickly chose one man who approached us and did not yell.
We were seated on Mr. Pinguin, and met our friendly tour guide whose name escapes me at the moment... but he was awesome. We had the entire boat for just the four of us!
Our first stop was at this beach to pick up a short-term hitch hiker who needed a lift to work.
Dive Boats! I haven't been diving in over a year - time for Rachel to get her certification so I'll have a buddy!
Here's the beach where we dropped off our hitch hiker -
Lover's Beach -
Got an up-close look of these rocks which are SO COOL!
See the rock? Our guide called it "Scooby Doo"!
Our guide was a very experienced boat driver. He got us up close inside this rock and never touched the boat to the wall.
There it is, El Arco!
We saw lots of seals, too.
Okay, I'm seeing this a little more now that I study the photo, but our guide was telling us that from the other side, the Scooby Doo rock is a hitch hiking boy holding up a thumb. I can kind of make out a thumb and fist.
After a wonderful cruise around El Arco and the rock formations of Cabo, we were dropped off at Medano Beach.
Mr. Pinguin would be back to pick us up. I don't remember the exact time we requested, but all-aboard was scheduled for 1:00 PM, so we only had a short time in Cabo.
We walked just a little ways down the beach and found Cabo Villlas Beach Resort which had rows of cushioned chairs. We asked how much for chair rentals, and were told that chairs were free, they just asked that we purchase food and drinks from them - easy peasy! We ordered two buckets of beer and a plate of nachos, which if I remember correctly came to around $25 - which is an extremely good deal, especially considering chairs included.
Dad was oblivious and walked into my picture here on his way to grab a beer.
Cabo Villas had nice, clean restroom facilities just a short walk from the beach, by the restaurant which overlooks the beach from above.
Perhaps because we were there early in the morning, the beach wasn't too crowded. Maybe it also looked like a private club, so other cruise passengers (remember, small ship, so I recognize them already) who I saw walking by decided to either keep going or just lay their towels in the sand, rather than inquiring about the chairs here. Which is why I find it important to tell you know that if you ever find yourself at Medano Beach in Cabo, Club Villas is wonderful and a great deal, too.
I also want to commend the staff for being excellent. Everyone I spoke to was very friendly and welcoming. Rachel asked a waiter for the wifi password, and he gave it to her, then came back to check that it was working. I also overheard one of the younger staff members talking to a young man who I believe was a guest of the resort and was on the last day of his vacation. They were talking about a girl here that he was trying to get with, and just like on Pacific Princess, it felt so Love Boat. We're in an age where personal interaction between guests and employees is becoming more and more rare, likely because it's frowned upon due to scandals which get blown up in the media, but I think that's really unfortunate. This vacation made me really appreciate personal interactions with crew. I hope that, though not nearly as common as it used to be, that this is something that never becomes extinct.
So Dad wasn't paying attention and remembered that our boat was "Pinguin", but not "Mr. Pinguin". So he saw the boat "Ms. Pinguin" and made us get up. I told him that wasn't our boat, but he didn't believe me. Sure enough, not our guide. Then came Pinguin II. "Oh, here it is!" "No, Dad, we're on Mr. Pinguin."
You've probably picked up on this now, considering how it's been two months since the cruise and I am writing this live and in incredible detail, but I have a ridiculously good memory. Never tell me something that you don't want me to remember, because I'll never forget it.
Rachel is a collector, and one of the things that she collects is shot glasses from all of the places she travels. She has a huge collection. So we went into the market to find her a shot glass. I think this is odd because it goes against our personalities of her being the extrovert and me being the introvert, but Rachel doesn't like being harassed by salespeople (well, really who does?) or bargaining, and I quite enjoy it. So she was moving through the shops quickly, trying not to have to talk to anyone, while I stopped at the shop of whoever wanted my attention the most and entertained them with my interests. I talked a guy down from $7 to $3 on a shooter which I really liked, and I remembered I had a bit of cash in my wallet, so I felt like I had to buy it for myself.
Then I ran into Dad who had bought himself a long-sleeve white tee with a shark on it. I love sharks. They are my favorite sea animal (sorry, dolphin-lovers... I understand that they're awesome, I just dig all of the flipping and chattering). So I wanted the same shirt - who cares if we're twinsies? Dad destroys all of his shirts in a matter of months, anyway, so I might never see him wear it again. "That'll be $15." "$15! How about $12 since I'm smaller and my shirt has less material?" "No, $15." "What about $12 since I'm prettier?" "No, $15." This guy does not negotiate. But I wanted the shirt, so I coughed up the $15. (I was thinking, $3 less, who really cares? But the same went for me - $3 more, I don't really care. It's petty but entertainment, really.)
We tendered back to the ship and headed to the pool deck for lunch. I haven't talked much about the buffet, Panorama, yet. That's because it sucked. The layout was weird, there wasn't much variety, and the food was generally bland and tasteless. Maybe this isn't an issue with other passengers, but I needed some spice. After living in Los Angeles where I regularly eat Korean, Thai, and Mexican, my tolerance for spiciness has skyrocketed, and anything lacking is just a disappointment.
So I ate most of my lunches at the grill by the pool which served burgers, hot dogs, and brats. It was the best lunchtime food on the ship, but by the end of the cruise, it was getting a little repetitive.
I took a few more photos as we sailed away, onwards south!
Cabo San Lucas was absolutely wonderful. It was my favorite port of call of the entire cruise. I am sad that we didn't get to spend more time there, but it is a place that I definitely want to return to. I would love to travel to Cabo and spend a few days because there is so much to do - whale watching, scuba diving, sightseeing, and beaching - it sounds like the perfect vacation spot to me!
Back aboard the Pacific Princess, we spent our afternoon trying to dip our legs into the scorching hot hot tub. It was ridiculously hot the entire cruise. It was dangerous. They did a really bad job regulating the temperature of both hot tubs by the pool, and there were a few afternoons that I couldn't even bear to dip my toes in.
By now, we had made habit of meeting at the casino bar at 7 for pre-dinner drinks. We ordered most of our drinks from the casino bar and would take them with us to dinner.
I cannot remember the night - it might have been tonight - but our head waiter, Nelson, came over to make sure that Rachel and I were old enough to drink. Now that I'm a few years over the drinking age, I tend to laugh and roll my eyes when I get carded. We decided to have a little fun with Nelson.
"How old do you think I am? Guess our ages!"
He guessed me 22 and Rachel 24. I handed him my ID first.
"Oh, wow, 24!"
"Do you want to change your guess for Rachel, now?"
He debated. "You're 27?"
Rachel was so offended. "27!?! That's so old!"
We did mess with him by giving him my ID first. Nelson was embarrassed.
"You owe me a drink!" Rachel told Nelson.
My appetizer, Oysters Rockefeller -
I ate a lot of steak on this cruise. But not as much as Rachel. I think she had steak almost every night.
Grilled New York Cut Sirloin Steak "Marchand de Vin" -
The carrot cake was good. Definitely one of the better desserts.
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