| Puerto Vallarta looked really pretty. There was a map of Mexico on the ground. But why on earth were there only one little man per rope? We did have a giggle when one our end had to stop lugging his to help his colleague. |
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| We had a quick breakfast in the Windjammer before going back to the cabin to pick our stuff up then didn't take any chances this time waiting to go onto the dock for the Town, Country & Tequila excursion. Our guide this time was Victor who was very funny. |
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| We drove through some really nice places as we were shown the rich areas first. Victor made us all laugh a lot but also pointed out how the poor people are happier than those rich ones. He was very frank but in a pleasant way. |
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| We went to the Hacienda Doña Engracia for the tequila tasting! This is what Amy had been looking forward to for weeks, except we hadn't expected it to be breakfast. First stop was the toilets and we came across another Brit in front of us. Her husband was from Portsmouth - hiss! They were a nice couple really. Amy's toilet had cockroaches on the floor and it was generally a mess, as you can see from her photos. Mine was fine hence no pics. |
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| We were then given a lesson in tequila and about the blue agave plant. Pure tequila contains 100% agave and the salt/lime is only used to get rid of the taste of tequila with less than that. Also tequila doesn't contain a worm or scorpion in the bottle. That's mescal, which is similar. After a small tour we went for the tasting. |
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| While Amy was about to spontaneously combust at the sampling, this was the part I wasn't looking forward to as I can't stand strong alcohol. However this was no problem to down. It was very nice. First of all we were given Blanco followed by Reposado and finally Anejo. The last was the strongest. |
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| Then an Albert Steptoe lookalike took over for the flavoured versions. I kept expecting him to shout, "Haaaaaaaaaaarrrolllllllllllld!" but in a Mexican accent. The first we were given this time was Almond then coffee and chocolate and lastly peach. I wouldn't have minded buying some coffee and chocolate but I had a flight to catch and bottles are banned in hand luggage on flights from the US unless bought once past security. Stupid really. This factory don't export either. |
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| After the tasting we went for something to eat and had some tortillas. It was such a lovely place to sit and watch the world go by. As we headed back to the coach afterwards, Amy was called by one of the sellers whose jewellery she'd been looking at earlier and bought some after he reduced the price. |
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| Victor pointed out to us that Pemex is the only petrol company in Mexico. |
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| Mad toilet dash again by our coach party when we arrived at the shops. There was one ladies and one gents so, as there were more women than men, we ended up using the men's which for once didn't smell too badly. Again there were these recommended scam shops. As Amy was wondering around in one direction, I went another and discovered we were being invaded by Princess passengers. I took the opportunity to ask some if they knew why they were anchored rather than docked. One of them replied they had no idea and were told nothing. Sounds like our crew! I told them we were originally going to be on that ship until they wanted to rip me off for not being an American which they thought was appalling. So no joy there. Then as I was leaving, having lost Amy by now, I came across a tour guide who works for Princess so asked him the same question. He said Dawn Princess had technical problems. Ooo-er. Glad we were on Ducky Bum then! |
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| Then we were off again towards the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadaloupe in the centre of Puerto Vallarta, passing run down and better areas en route. |
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| We arrived in the centre and disembarked from the coach. Here we would have a walk to the Cathedral then back to the meeting point by the seahorse. |
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| Because of the other coach picking passengers up at the spot, our driver had to go to a narrow street. We all walked back the way we'd come, crossed the road and waited. It was a difficult turn but he made it and we all gave him a round of applause. |
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| So we were back and it was all go down below our balcony. One of Dawn's tenders had a near-collision with the pleasure craft, Vallarta Adventure. We don't know what happened. He may have lost control or the wake of the other one sailing could have caused the tender to head straight for the boat. The boat's crew immediately leapt onto the tender to prevent an accident and pushed the tender away. The crew of the boat then noticed they were being watched by us and one made to drop his trousers but thankfully didn't. Shortly afterwards they all moved the boat backwards out of harm's way. |
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| We went up on deck to await our sailaway complete with cocktail. It was pretty much deserted with a lot of people on first sitting. As the light slowly faded, Dawn's lights came on making her look gorgeous. I wish we could have seen how we looked from her perspective. |
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| Well he did it again - left early! Our ropes had been gone quite a while but at 6.50pm we began to move. By now it was pitch black but disappointingly, after the display the day before, both were silent. |
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| Once we'd dropped the piloto off, the little boat parped at us so we blasted back. It was so cute really. So that was that. Last port of call and now we were going home. |
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| Since being told in the shop they hadn't had a delivery of postcards, Amy decided to ask at reception to see if they had any. No joy. This is also a black mark against them. They do this every week, as I've already stated. So to not have a delivery is pathetic. If we'd known this at the start we would have bought up all the ones at Mazatlan featuring our ship. Amy wanted to go to the casino to kill time before dinner and we bumped into Maria and Jack so chatted with them a while. When it was time to go to the dining room, we found the boys already there. It was Baked Alaska tonight but no parade. Rainer asked after dessert if we all wanted something else so we all, apart from Georges and Amy, had seconds of our delicious puddings. Then we all headed up to the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge where they were playing some game involving teams having to rush forward with things like men wearing lipstick, someone carrying shoelaces, false teeth etc. One a man ended up being kissed by a load of women. When asked by John if he enjoyed that, he asked his wife! Then he was kissed by men and said some needed a shave. One of the last games was men having to dress up as women then they danced to YMCA. One was a judge and another a soldier. After that was a 50s Sock Hop, which I'd done on Constellation. My side were up and downers but it wasn't as good as Constellation's had been. It was shorter with less of a fun atmosphere. Although they did have a Hula-Hoop contest which Constellation didn't. It still was missing that certain something found on the other ship. After that it was bed. |
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| The next day was pretty lazy. Amy forgot to order breakfast so we ended up going for lunch at the Windjammer with Claude and Georges joining us. In the afternoon while Amy had a doze, I had a mobile internet signal so looked to see if the remaining 2009 itineraries were online yet. P&O and Saga were so I could check what was available for my birthday on Aurora or Oriana and also make a note of the dates all those ships would be in. In the evening we went to the Centrum to meet the boys even though no one said where anyone would be. And guess what Amy saw out of the window? Yes another Carnival! She always spots them like she has a Carnival radar. We have no idea which it was. Possibly Carnival Spirit but we wouldn't swear to it. |
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| We had another parade tonight, this time of the galley staff. Amy also thought Rainer was flirting with me as he brought another dessert without asking me or anyone else if they wanted one. Maria then asked for another of what Jack had. The Maitre'd came around from India and when I said I was from Southampton, he knew Vision had her maiden voyage from there. |
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| So karaoke in the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge and finally we would get to hear Claude as there'd been none when we'd visited ports. Maria and Jack had been right - his voice just blows you away. It is truly excellent and he should be a famous singer. He's certainly got the talent, unlike so many around these days. Then it was Amy's turn singing an Alanis Morrissette song. She got a good round of applause too. |
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| As we walked back to the cabin after wishing everyone goodnight, we noticed the emergency lights were on. HELP! Ship stalkers with cameras and videos first because we have a duty to perform! When Amy opened the door she screamed there was a monster in the room. |
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| We had breakfast in the cabin on the last day. The weather wasn't as good as it had been. We had a force 5 so were rocking quite a bit. That pleased Amy although she would have preferred my force 11 in January. Still it was better than the nothing we'd had up until then. |
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| We decided we wanted to see the Parade of Flags after the noon announcement in the Centrum so went to wait. As we did John and a cameraman were going around asking passengers if they wanted to comment on a film for head office in Miami about a member of the staff who made their cruise. Amy had already said if we're asked I had to do it. Well we were and I nominated Rainer because he was just so funny, friendly and we had a good time being served by him. Then we were joined by the boys. After a while I noticed the sides were beginning to fill up so told them I was going to find a good spot to record the parade. I have to admit, as much as I adore Aurora, I do prefer the Centrum on Vision. It is so light and airy thanks to the windows. It also makes it better to me than the Royal Promenade on the Voyager and Freedom class ships. It may not be as big but it doesn't feel as crowded either even when it's packed as it was that day. |
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| The parade was led by the captain, who we were told would be leaving Vision soon for another ship. I asked a crew member afterwards which and after going to find out, told me Rhapsody of the Seas. The parade was quite fun. They all represented each nationality working onboard and as a Dutch crew member read out the list of countries, every so often a piece of music would start and staff from that country would dance in the centre. For some reason the UK had Three Lions which is actually an unoffical England football team anthem. The UK representative didn't budge though. Pity. |
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| I went back to where I'd left the others only to find they'd disappeared. After looking around and waiting for a while I gave up and went shopping. They stayed on to watch the towel animal folding lesson. |
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| Meanwhile at the Masquerade Theatre, the flags had been unceremoniously dumped in a bin. |
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| If all else fails when you lose your travelling companion, go back to the cabin. They'll always look there for you. I sat on the balcony and Amy came along, saying she tried phoning. I didn't hear it out there. She said Georges and Claude asked us to join them for lunch so off we went to the Windjammer. Afterwards we went to see the 3pm Stars At Sea show, which this time featured the children. We'd missed the one the day before. They were good dancers and the singer, although nervous and stiff, had a very good voice. Back to the Centrum when it finished and Claude felt a little seasick so went for a walk around the deck. Then Amy and Georges went off to buy ice cream leaving me to look after everything and they all returned together some time later, Claude feeling much better now. I was tired so left them to it to have a nap only ended up watching The Great Escape on TCM instead, which I was still doing when Amy returned. She sat and watched it too until the bastards lost the signal at the crucial part as Steve McQueen was about to make his bid for freedom over the wire to Swizerland. |
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| Dinner was casual but before we went, we sat at the back of the Centrum and watched the water running. We had more singing from our waiters tonight. |
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| It was karaoke again in the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge, although for some reason the Compass had it listed in the Masquerade Theatre too. Claude sang then did a duet with Amy. Once they'd finished I left them to it because I was tired. All that lack of sleep since the flight was catching up with me. I put my case out and was asleep so fast I didn't hear Amy come back and she said it was 11.30pm, the time we'd arranged. Early start yet again for the final morning as we came into Los Angeles. My cold was bad again because the air conditioning was blowing cold air after I left it on heat. After some time, Amy spotted the QE2 ahead of our port bow. She was going to arrive first. Crap! Well as it was dark and no good for photos as she was too far away, may as well get the bits of Vision we missed. Well I did. Amy lost patience after the casino because she loves Lizzie so much and went on deck. I took my time because I've been there before waiting to see a ship. No point hanging around in the cold until you're closer to see and record. The casino was the only place I'd seen a sanitiser on the entire ship and then I only saw the one. |
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| Rather annoying the doors to Deck Ten were locked so the only way up was via Deck Nine. We slowly neared LA but still Lizzie was miles ahead with a container ship between us and her. The forward section was blocked off too. I caught up with Amy and because she was cold, decided she wanted coffee to warm up and some breakfast. So we went to the Windjammer. |
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| Finally we were close enough and there was enough light to see Lizzie and get some decent photos wthout the flash. As we passed we noticed quite a lot of her passengers and crew watching us, probably thinking who these peasants are! |
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| So that was that. Mission sort of accomplished although it would have been better if Lizzie had come in after us and turned as we'd hoped when we upgraded to that balcony a year before. But we had a lovely view from it and it was a shame to leave. We could have sat there all day gazing adoringly at the other Southampton girl. We had to get out of the cabin by 8am. Our disembarking colour was yellow so sometime between 8.45-9.45am. It wasn't half a slow process as we waited impatiently in the Some Enchanted Evening Lounge then back on deck for photos. Amy lay on a lounger while I got some from different angles, slowly working my way back towards her. |
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| We went to the Showboat Lounge where we briefly saw Aleksandria and said goodbye. Finally our colour was called and we were out of there! Being a non-American I had to go to another line which was so much shorter. Amy said we were together so queue-jumped. Immigration was pretty fast then we were out. One of the security women at the bottom of the escalator saw my QE2 T-shirt and said, "Hello, Queen Elizabeth". Then we went to fetch our luggage. I really missed a trolley. Dragging it out yourself was as bad as NCL's short trip policy. But at least we were out and Amy was delighted to see Jason again. |
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| So the verdict. Well generally it was a fantastic cruise, made even better by Maria, Jack, Claude and Georges. It always helps when you have great dining companions and hit it off. The ship itself showed her age in places but was very nice and cosy. Amy preferred the food on Monarch. I found it similar to Navigator but the crew friendlier. The only real gripe was the shambles that was disembarking at ports of call. As Vision has more passengers than Dawn Princess, surely they should have a better system of movement. Princess, from what we witnessed on the tenders, wins hands down. Vision leaves Los Angeles later this year to be replaced by Mariner of the Seas from February 2009 doing the same route. Amy can't wait to try something bigger while I prefer Vision to Navigator for cosiness and atmosphere, I have Independence next to compare with. We both enjoyed the cruise and I'm glad Amy had the hairbrained idea in the first place even though it ended up costing us more with the upgrade. We liked Vision so much we nicknamed her Ducky Bum as a term of endearment. She also has one and waddles. I would certainly like to sail on her again given the opportunity. To see photos of Norwegian Star and Carnival Pride as we followed them into the Pacific, click here. For Dawn Princess in Cabo San Lucas, click here. And for Dawn Princess and Golden Princess in Mazatlan, click here. And here are photos of the QE2's last visit to LA. |
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