I keep trying to get my wife to try a cruise, but she is still not interested. The opportunity came up for a group of friends to venture off to Mexico on a cruise so I decided to join them. Anyway, my friend Ed and I drove to San Pedro from our home in Northern California and went on a short cruise to Mexico. Stops included Cabo, Mazatlán, and Puerto Vallarta. It was a fun trip–we ate a lot of good food and were able to relax and enjoy the ocean views and the things we saw in the ports we entered. I would probably not take another cruise in the near future because I really don’t like the waiting in line for special side trips and I would like to follow a time table more to my choosing.
Prior to this trip, the closest that I came to a cruise was our kayak trip on Prince William Sound in Alaska. Every day or two we would see a cruise ship off in the distance “cruising” along while we were either stopping off on an island or paddling. Paddling was hard work, but at least we had as much time to enjoy the scenery as we wanted.
I didn’t dislike the cruise, but I think of some of the places where I’ve been such as Puerto Vallarta, Kona, Cancun; where I avoided the cities when the cruise ships were docked. The port towns became excessively crowded, and now having been on a cruise, I know how rushed our jaunts into the cities were.
I do regret going into Puerto Vallarta and not taking an excursion to Old Town where I had been six years prior. I didn’t feel like paying an extra tour group to venture to the place where I had been able to spend leisure time. The same goes for friends of mine that have cruised to places like Budapest. I know that I was able to see much more of the city while in a travel group such as Rick Steves.