Mexican Riviera Cruise

Hello! We're back! The Richmonds just got back from a wonderful sunny holiday spent on the Mexican Riviera. We cruised on the Vision of the Seas for a week after a day spent in Disneyland. The Disneyland day was overcast but thankfully dry. Unfortunately however, I never found the note that my gorgeous friend Jeni left me at the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean! Although I started to giggle as I lifted crates and barrels to look for it while onlookers gazed at me with a look that said "that girl should be committed!".

Last Sunday we boarded the ship on a windy L.A. day which did require us all buying wristbands (just to be safe, waves against the ship were 8-12 feet high!)and the pampering began!To summarize, the food was fantastic, the cabin was the roomiest one we've ever had (kids had bunks above our bed and we had our own couch), and the entertainment left my stomach hurting from laughter. I made a pact with the kids that they had to order at least one new food every day. Ok, they didn't quite keep completely to the pact, but they did both try chilled Strawberry soup and Zachary had a Chicken Marsala which he quite enjoyed. Brooklyn tried several new things.

The kids program was awesome, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it and Brooklyn even ended up singing and dancing to a song from the musical "Wicked" in front of 500 people in the Masquerade Theater. And we all tried the rock climbing wall, with Zachary and Darrell regularly ringing the bell at the top!Our first port day was Cabo San Lucas where Zachary got to hold an iguana (in a sombrero) and two guitar players serenaded us at lunch. The second port was Mazatlan and we chose to take a shore excursion to Stone Island where we did a 4 mile kayak trip around goat island followed by tropical fruit and drinks served under the palapa on the beach. This might have been my favourite day - we had a boys vs. girl sandcastle contest (just Darrell & Zachary against Brooklyn & I!) and enjoyed dancing in the waves. Puerto Vallarta was beautiful and after walking through the downtown area and taking photos of the beautiful buildings, we went to a private hotel and got a deal on a cabana on the beach. Such service and beautiful surroundings are hard to beat. There we got to use the 3 pools at the hotel and relax in the sun while watching parasailers float by us. And Darrell even got a free massage on the beach!A couple of other perks of the ship - the kids preferred the kids program to the shows so Darrell and I had date night in the Theater each evening before picking them up again at 10pm. For my birthday Darrell bought me a spa session and so after our kayak trip, I got to receive a back massage, facial, foot/ankle massage and deep scalp treatment. Divine! On the second day on the ship there were flowers delivered to my cabin by my wonderful husband. Could it get any better? Oh - I almost forgot - it COULD get better - we saw 4 pods of dolphins off the back of the ship, jumping for 10 minutes right in front of us!So, although we are glad to be back in our beds and drinking GOOD tea, I have to say that coming back to the rain is a bit of a 'downer'. But that is why we have digital cameras, to live off of the memories. ADIOS AMIGOS!