Celebrity Cruise to Mexico
October 12, 2006
Looks like we have finally zeroed in on what excursions we are going to do on our upcoming cruise to Mexico this coming November on the Celebrity Mercury.
On one hand, we did this same Celebrity Mercury Cruise itinerary three years ago, se we dont really want to the same things or even things that are similar. On the other hand, we didnt take the kids on that cruise three years ago, so we dont want to short change them either. We also want to balance the cost of doing excursions a bit. They can significantly add to the cost of a cruise. We would much rather take another cruise than have a big excursion bill. The cost also comes in to play when one considers that we just cruised to Hawaii on the Celebrity Infinity last Thanksgiving and will be cruising to Alaska on the Celebrity Mercury next June. We are also hoping to cruise to New Zealand in 2008, so we decided to try to minimize the excursion costs this go around.
This cruise is an 11 night round trip cruise from San Diego down the Mexican Western coastline. We have ports of call in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerta Vallarte, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo. This is what we have decided to do in each of those ports:
- Cabo San Lucas – Take a water taxi to the famous El Archo , the nice rock formations on the very tip of the baja peninsula.
- Mazatlan – We are going to check out some folkloric dancing troupes while enjoying a nice lunch. Suzanne, Sean and Savannah currently take folkloric dancing classes so they should really enjoy this. We should still have time enough to also go to the beach.
- Puerto Vallarte – We will purchase some day passes at one of the local hotels. You pay a fixed fee for the pass which gives you the rights to use the hotel facilities including pool and beach. You also get some food and drinks included.
- Acapulco – Here, we will visit some Mexican history museums that the kids really want to see and go watch the famous cliff divers. If time permits, we might do some snorkelling but want to be back on the ship for the Mexican fiesta before the night departure.
- Zihuatanejo – We will get another day pass at a local hotel and enjoy the beach once more. The plan includes taking a water taxi to the beach as opposed to a land based taxi.
- Manzanillo – We dont have any big plans here. We will probably do some souvenir shopping here.
This should be an enjoyable cruise and vacation. The family is looking forward to it even more as the date approaches. Now, with these plans finalized, Suzanne can start working on the excursion plans for Alaska. I doubt we will get off this easy on that cruise since it will have been 14 years since our last cruise to Alaska. In addition, we will be travelling with other family members and will probably just try to match their excursion plans.
Weekend Musings and NutriSystem Update
September 25, 2006
Wow! What a busy weekend. It was even a three day weekend for me as it was my Friday off week. Some of the activities though were self-inflicted.
I put myself in a hole sleepwise early as I stayed up until 3:30 AM on Thursday night playing America’ Army. That game can be quite addictive for me and has cost me much sleep. When I get to playing it at night, time just flies. Version 2.7 was recently released and I got hung up trying out some of the new stuff.
I probably wouldnt have even noticed the short sleep except I forgot that the Ryder Cup started on Friday morning from Ireland and I wanted to get up early and watch it. So, on Friday I got up at 6:00 am (yes, thats only 2.5 hours of sleep) to watch the opening better ball rounds. I also got up early at 6:00 on Saturday and Sunday to watch the Ryder Cup too. What a waste! The US team managed to get dusted once again by the Europeans by a whopping score of 18.5 to 9.5. That’s the same lopsided score as last year. The Americans pretty much stunk on Friday and Saturday. They couldnt make a putt to save their skins. The Europeans were on fire and bombing in putts from all over. At least on Sunday, the Americans made a respectable showing, though they were still bettered by the Europeans. If you area golf fan, Sunday had to be fun to watch. The highlight reel is incredibly long. Both teams were making chips and putts from a long ways away. The emotional side stories and the celebration at the end made good TV. Even though the US lost, Sunday was just plain good golf and fun to watch.
I spent a good portion of Friday and Saturday cooking. I made several batches of Italian Foccacia bread, German Butter Cake and Chips and Salsa. Our church was having a special Mass, during which, we would bless the newly acquired land that we would build our church on. Normally, we conduct our Sunday Mass in the local firestation. After the mass, we were having a celebration and fiesta. I was asked to cook some food for the party. No problem – I like to cook. I had also been asked to be the photographer for the mass and festivities. The mass, dedication and party came off without a hitch. Savannah, Sean, Suzanne and their Dance Studio from Sierra Vista provided entertainment during the party. It was a long, fun day. From about 9:15 until about 3:00 pm, I didnt get a single chance to sit down. The only down side was that I didnt get to indulge in my usually Sunday NFL watching. The Lions got beat by Green Bay, so I guess it just saved me some anguish.
Sean’s football team had a bye this week, so nothing new to report there.
On the NutriSystem front, I was really skeptical of getting on the scale this week. I would not classify last week as a good week. The treadmill was down for part of the week and then I had the busy week, so I only worked out once last week – not a good second week of the new exercise program. We went out to dinner one night and I ate way too much. A second night, I threw caution to the wind and ate some chicken nuggets and french fries that I fixed for the kids. Add in some wine on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for Suzanne and I, and I was a bit worried about the weigh in this morning. Luckily, the scale only showed a 1 pound weight gain for the week. So, I am still down 17 pounds. I feel prety good about that, though a bit guilty about my pleasures last week. I have a renewed vigor this week. Back to basics and the workout program. There is still about 8 weeks to the Celebrity Mercury Mexico Cruise.
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