APRIL  7: SUNDAY AND BACK IN CALIFORNIA. 

Well there would be no Fun Times to view today...they were officially kicking us off the ship so I'll give you debarkation information instead.

We were up a little before 7am and coming into port. 

We headed up to get some breakfast and I had one of my favorite breakfast goodies that I've always liked on every cruise I have been on. No they are not sugar free. Yes, I cheated most of the cruise.

After pulling into port we headed back to get our things out of the room. 

At this point I stopped taking notes and my mental capacity is in overload so hopefully I'll get the days events in order from looking at my pictures I took that day. Sorry in advance if I miss something or get them out of order. I always find that last day of getting off the ship and trying to get to the airport in time a mass blur filled with various emotions and anxiety and hoping that nothing goes wrong.

As we waited for them to call us to depart from the ship, I looked at my hub app and noticed the times had changed. Ok, now what's going on here? That's not what the app had told me before when I booked.

I would notice that they were calling self assist off the ship before they started calling those who had checked their luggage. Was there a blooper in the scheduling system when I had decided to check our luggage over self assist with the times? I'm not sure. That was the only reason why we had picked that instead. I know I was getting worried for sure.  

Eventually we did make it off the ship and winding our way to the lines inside the port. 

Now I know this was a topic of conversation on these boards about whether or not to use a birth certificate or a passport. What WE experienced was the passport line was extremely long and somewhat slow moving...from the time we got off the ship and all the way down the winding ramps inside the building. They had us move aside, to the left, and made the right side the birth certificate line. The people with a b/c was just zooming past us all. Like there was barely a line. I can remember back in the day, when we first started cruising all the time, barely anyone had passports and we were the one's zooming by everyone. It's a different world now and I guess everyone has decided to get a passport. It really had me wondering if we would have been better off with our b/c instead. I know there's more involved at security with a b/c, but I still believe they moved quicker. 

Once we finally made it up to security it was easy-peasy with facial recognition and then we were out the door. I summoned for our Uber and he was there within 5 minutes. Some have said it's easier to just walk over to the Queen Mary hotel area and be picked up, because of the traffic jam at the port, but it didn't affect us at all. 

Arriving at the beautiful airport at Long Beach...gosh I love this small airport!

After checking in and getting our tickets, we headed over to security and we noticed something...Karl was considered VIP this time with a TSA precheck listed on his ticket. Hmmm, that was weird. Did they just give this to him because we had it? They sure didn't do that on the way to CA.

I found it weird that they had people line up in the middle of the walkway instead of over by the windows like it usually is at most airports.

It was time to board the plane and back outside we went to head up the stairs...I find boarding outside instead of walking down the loading bridge so Caribbean style. I love it!

Off we went...

We could see the cruise port in the distance:

And of course our beautiful Panorama:

It was a fairly short flight over to Las Vegas and the scenery along the way was absolutely gorgeous!

Just look at those beautiful mountains!

I think it was around a hour and a few minutes flight to Vegas and we could immediately see the "strip".

Both Sakari and I were trying to find 1) The Luxor, which we stayed in when we came to Vegas once and 2) the new giant sphere they built since we've been there. We managed to find both easily.

And we had officially landed and I managed to capture the plane going by the Luxor.

I honestly did not realize the airport is THAT close to the strip. I knew it was close and you can see the planes coming in and out from the hotels, but geesh this seemed very close. 

I believe we had something like a little over 5 hours to wait for our next plane to home. We explored the airport, got something to eat (of course and Karl ate twice I believe), charged our phones and....

....actually made some money while we waited. We went to play the slots several times during our layover and walked out with more than we walked in with so that was a plus. 

There was a little "store" that was a self serve check out. I've never seen anything like this before. You put your items in this area and it scans everything there and somehow knows what you have and then gives you the total price and you pay using your card. 

As we continued to wait for our plane, we made new friends and talked cruise and Caribbean talk. She and her friend were such lovely people. I told her about our adventures and my website and cruise critic and she told me of all the places they've been. Hi Debbie if you managed to find me on here.  👋

Then we got a notice on our phones...our flight was delayed. We were supposed to leave at 6:25pm, but now...it would be 6:47pm.

Well, it wasn't much longer and we had yet another delay...

Our time was getting later and later to arrive back home. It was definitely going to be a longer day than expected. We were now going to arrive back to our home airport of Columbus at almost 2am!! Yikes!! 

We were boarding the plane by 6:33pm and time to give us a little bit of luck and safety. 

The sunset approaching was giving off a pretty pinkish color to the mountains in the distance. 

We took our spot in the Southwest line of planes and awaited our turn for take off. 

We were airborne at 7:10 and FOUND THE SPHERE all lit up.

Look how big it looks from above:

We arrived in Columbus safe and sound but man was we tired! It was such a long day.

The time change difference really throws you off for sure. At least we had grown accustomed to the California time zone and it felt as if it was only around 11pm, that's still past our bedtime.

Even though Columbus is a major city, our airport is pretty small compared to others. I honestly don't think a lot of people fly into it during the very late night hours. It always seems so abandoned after getting off the plane. 

We always try to have a "different" colored luggage than most so that we can easily spot them. I would notice that people are starting to catch on to this and there was a lot of color on that baggage carousel. Sometimes it's hard to spot your luggage now. 

We were in Karl's suv and our normal food stop on the way to our city was closed. It was later than we've ever arrived at home. We went ahead and headed home, greeted our eager dogs at the door...then back out to find SOMETHING to eat because we were all starving at this point. We ended up at Waffle House and I believe the kids darn near fell asleep at the table. Poor babies. They were so tired. 

We eventually made it home and in bed by around 3:30am....and life is back to normal. 

I hope everyone enjoyed the review and maybe found some of the things we did interesting and it possibly helped you in deciding if it is something you might (or might not) want to do when in some of these ports.

As always...happy cruising and enjoy the memories!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Whew what a trip. I love "firsts"! I have been saying I'm expanding my travel horizon...except not on the Horizon but on the Panorama this time.

I have to say this was definitely different than what I had expected. I expected to have some chilly weather here and there. I expected to have cooler water temps. I expected to not have blue water. 

But I don't think I really expected it to be THAT cold for THAT many days during the trip.  I definitely didn't think the sea water would as cold as it was either. For a family that lives in the water...I'm pretty sure it threw me into depression. The color of the water...I was actually pleasantly surprised for the most part. It was definitely pretty (except for the green cloudy water during scuba). With it being so cold outside, it made it impossible to use the pools or the water slides, which we really wanted to do but wasn't willing to take on all the shivering afterwards. 

So my conclusions on cruising the Mexican Riviera...I will NEVER go again for Spring Break. It's just too cold for my liking. I WILL go back however, maybe during the summer, warmer months.

The PORTS:

CABO: I really had the most amazing time here. Seeing the show the whales put on is at the top of my list (and yes I have a very long list) of one of the most exciting things we've done. Never in my life have I experienced this and I highly recommend going during whale season. You won't be disappointed. If it's not whale season, taking a boat ride over to the arch, past the sea lion colony and pelican rock is still a great thing to experience. I really hope some day to go back and make it to Lovers/Divorce Beach. It looked a lot more beautiful than Pelican Beach. 

LA PAZ: I guess there's not a lot of beach choices for beach-y people like us but the one that we went to was definitely beautiful along with everything around it. Had the water been warmer, we would have definitely stayed longer and enjoyed our time there. Walking around the Malecon was beautiful and all of the statues they have there makes for a good day of exploring the area. Had the statues not been there, well I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it at all. The free bus service is an added plus and super simple to use...even with a long line, it moved rather quickly I thought. Hopefully they will continue this service.

MAZATLAN: Going to the aquarium was a good day/choice of things to do. It might seem a little on the expensive side to visit such a place, but we enjoyed ourselves and it gave us something interesting to do. I'm still amazed at the parrots that flew so far and managed to come back. The sea lion show was good, despite not being able to understand what they were saying. The aquarium itself, which is the highlight of the place, had so many aquatic animals to see and it was definitely worth it. Walking along the Malecon afterwards was pretty as well with the waves crashing against the rocks, various statues, and visiting the "Beatles" area was unique and great opportunities for pictures. I'm sad that we missed the cliff diving so we may have to give that another shot on a different trip.

PUERTO VALLARTA: If you have a chance to either snorkel or scuba at Los Arcos...you MUST go. Simply amazing. I've never witnessed anything like that before...even in Roatan. You won't see the beautiful coral as you would in the Caribbean but the traffic jam of fish definitely makes up for that! All the unique fish we've never seen in the past...so many firsts for us!  If you ever want to see a puffer fish...THIS IS YOUR PLACE!!  I have to make note of that unclear green water on the swim there though is less than desirable. Just saying...   Of course all the things I said I had on my list do to...I'm definitely going to have to return here one way or another (either by ship or land vacation). I will one day make it to Bandaras Bay/Marietta Islands some day and I will make it to Las Caletas Beach (during the day) to experience what a beautiful place it seems to be and also going back at night for Rhythms of the Night. On my bucket list of things to do for sure!!!

EMBARKATION: It was super simple and super fast, other than our blooper of not printing off our boarding passes on separate pieces of paper. Oops. I'll know next time to change my printer settings. I know people have said it was a cluster...but our experience was totally opposite. Maybe it was because we were a little late to arrive at our scheduled time and we were catching the tail end of our group going in? The traffic...well, that's another story. People are not lying when they say they waited in traffic to get there...forever!

DEBARKATION: It was a lot slower than getting on for sure. But, we were constantly moving for the most part and it was super easy to walk up to security, scan your beautiful face, then walk on out. 

THE SHIP: Oh the ship. What a beautiful and clean ship she was. With over 4000 people on it, and during Spring Break, I have to say I was a little skeptical about how crowded it would be. I had read that the flow of the ship makes it feel like there are not as many people on there with you...and people were right. We never really felt overly crowded and needless to say, I was shocked. It was pretty comfortable. The elevators, I think during the muster drill, there needs to be a short presentation on how to use them so that everyone knows...push the button for as many people as you have in your party and life will go so much better. The non-existent bar in the casino was definitely an issue and if this is going to be what they do, they need more bartenders running around. The service was terrible and those people were running around trying to please everyone. I definitely didn't get my "free drinks on us" from the casino as much as I had planned. 

OUR ROOM: Our room steward was great. Always cleaned everything nicely and even left clean towels...even when we would hang them back up saying we'd use them again. He always spoke to us in the hallway and was always pleasant. He brought me ice daily and even gifts we had no idea where they came from...too bad it wasn't something we could use. LOL We were excited to see a new towel animal each day. We definitely picked the right side of the ship to be on while cruising and I was happy about that. 

The shows: Ehh, they were ok but not as good as other ships we have been on. I felt like only a few of the singers could really sing. They were all very energetic though and put on quite the show so props for that. My favorite was the show with the drones. The comedian was good and we enjoyed him. Jonathon Timpanelli has an AMAZING voice and we liked his show. Tenna Torres had an amazing voice as well...just it wasn't an interesting show. 

THE FOOD: To us, it was a hit or miss. Some days were good and others not as good. This is in the buffet. I mean it kept us alive, but.... Now the MDR the food was always good but the service was a hit or miss. You win some then you don't. The Dr Suess Breakfast just wasn't the same and I will not do that again...especially for the price. We all know the JiJi story so I'll let that be.

THE PARTIES: They were all fantastic and Dion knows how to get the party going. He is entertaining, can really sing and dance and we had a blast. Just the repeated singing at the end after the music stopped and him getting carried away was only funny the first few times. Just saying... His announcements that always started out with "Heyyyy yaaaaaaa'lllll. I sAid Hey" got to be a little annoying...especially when my kids would non-stop say it after the first few days. I've heard enough Hey ya'll's to last a lifetime by now. Of course our absolute favorite party was the Silent Party. We will always seek this out now for sure.

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS: I normally don't mention them too often but they were amazing and took so many pictures that you are sure to get a good one that you liked. Bravo! It wasn't a click one and done type of deal. 

FLYING INTO/OUT OF LONG BEACH: We absolutely loved it. I love small airports. It seemed to run efficiently and didn't seem too crowded. I will probably always do this when I take a cruise out of here. 

HOTEL: We really enjoyed our stay at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach. It was a beautiful hotel. We loved the location and being within walking distance to almost anything we needed. It was an added plus that they had the swan boats there as well. Even though it was colder than all get out, it was fun. The staff there was so amazing and friendly and the room was clean. There was only the one blooper with no electric during the middle of the night (although I should have been in bed sleeping) but management did reach out to me via email after our trip apologizing and told me there was some type of outage in the area and it had never happened before. Of course I did get a discount during check out so I was happy about that. I would 100% stay here again in the future. 

That's all I can think of right now. It's been a busy day at work and my brain is spent for the day. If you have any questions, please let me know and I'll try to answer them the best I can. 

Yes, I will be back to the Mexican Riviera. Yes, I will repeat this cruise some day in warmer weather. Until then...it had me wanting to head back to the Caribbean. 😄

I'm looking into doing a land vacation next. Probably some time in August. So many things swirling around in my head for options:

Curacao

Bonaire

Anguilla

Dominican Republic

Turks & Caicos

Costa Rico 

Some of these Southwest fly to and others do not. Sometimes that's a factor on what we decide...sometimes not depending on the price. 

We were looking at a few older vacation photo's with Karl and he loved the idea of trying out a SeaTrek walk too. They do have them in Curacao, Anguilla, DR. But he's just excited to go anywhere again at this point. All he has talked about it trying scuba again. I told him I think I'm going to take him to the local dive place here (where Sakari first took her PADI seal diving classes when she was 8 years old) and have him to a few Discover Scuba Dives there in the pool to get used to it and actually SEE what he's supposed to be doing. I think that will help him a lot. 

Until our next adventure...HAPPY CRUISING!!