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Crystal Sympnony 2010 Cabo San Lucas

January 1, 2011

Our first stop on this 10 day Mexican Riviera Cruise was Cabo San Lucas. Many people stayed on board.

They were the smart ones.

I used to love Cabo San Lucas. A few visits later, I liked Cabo San Lucas. Today I joined Crystal and have no plans to come again. Cabo has a construction jones. Stuff pops up with no particular guidelines, and thus, like a weed, comes the ugliest building in North America.

The immediate port area is jammed with merchants pushing tours, taxis, hats, and blowing whistles. Most tourists bustle by.

Not too long ago there was a definite presence of Army personnel, AK 47’s at the ready. Today only two military guards were visible, and they were Navy.

Never mind, Christmas is coming to Cabo.

Christmas is also coming to Symphony. Everywhere you look, some effigy representing the season stares back.

Chanukah wasn’t ignored,

but it has past. So my question is, when Christmas is over, do we continue to say Merry Christmas?

The food in the main dining room is delicious. The wait staff efficient, and my waiter, Jose, each night has a recommendation for the main dish. He never misses. As well as the main dining room, we have Prego, Silk Road, and Sushi, or one can order from the main menu comfortably tucked away in their cabin. Surprise for sure, there is no evening meal served in the Lido. This is unusual for any cruise ship.

We had a couple of “meet and greets”. Cruise Critic is a web site that has roll calls for cruisers sailing on the same ship. There is a get together and the ship provides cocktails and canapés. The Captain and sundry officers usually stop by.

Mostly, we all say hello and then goodbye and that’s kind of it.

Later, in the evening, single and unaccompanied guests were invited to a cocktail party to get together with the Cruise Director (an old friend), the Ambassador Hosts (they dance with single ladies), and members of the Crystal Ensemble of Singers and Dancers (the production show performers).

That last got my attention. I mostly avoid cruise ship shows as they are kind of goofy, but this group was outstanding.

They got a standing ovation…well that was actually me standing and applauding. Then, some others got to their feet, but they were leaving.

Now was my chance to meet the group (girls) in person and give them my accolades. We eagerly waited for the performers.

Well, one showed up,

but we didn’t talk.

Adios Cabo San Lucas.

Posted in Cabo San Lucas, Crystal Cruises | Leave a Comment »

Crystal Symphony 2010

January 1, 2011

This is the last time Crystal will visit the Mexican Riviera, at least for the foreseeable future. Last, but not least, as this is a 10 day cruise and includes ports in the Sea of Cortez.

Fifteen years ago, my wife, Michael, and I sailed on Symphony’s inaugural out of New York to Los Angeles. I remember walking onto the ship and seeing the rain of water next to the sculpture. That is about the only setting that I still recognize.

This ship has changed quite a bit since 1995 (as have I), and the “new” Symphony is stunning. More about specific changes will come later.

My wife and I have made the trip to the LA Cruiseport numerous times. For some reason this time I put the place name in our navigation system. Did I put Cruiseport? No. Did I put Port of Los Angeles? Yes. OMG!!!

I won’t go into the near dissolve of my marriage, but I kept telling Michael to “go left, go right, NO!! I said right”. You get the picture. We ended in a strange area, no ship in sight, lots of oil tanks, and a building. The Port of Los Angeles. Nice office.

From that point it was a nightmare. We kept trying to get back to the freeway, navigation system be damned. Not good, the city of something was having a parade, and each turn we took, after a few blocks, had floats, police, barriers, etc. Do you know how hard it is to hear marching band music with your wife screaming?

At last the ship. Although I had left home in plenty of time, the long trip ate that up. I was the last to board. Once on Symphony, the stress faded. I’m on Penthouse Deck in a lovely and spacious stateroom.

Bags arrived quickly, and I unpacked. Oops, somehow I totally forgot to bring a razor and shaving lotion. Forgetting the razor was a $15 mistake. If this happens to you, I suggest buying in port rather than on board.

Cologne was a different issue. Faced with a penny candy smell shelf,

I went by label alone. I have a bit of a sinus problem and am aroma impaired. God knows what the result of a squirt of Joop is, but it looks cool on the bathroom shelf.

My butler, Teodor, introduced himself. He’s from the UK and has an accent that completely eludes translation. And he speaks rapidly! It’s like watching a foreign movie without subtitles. He asked me something, and without a clue as to what he said, I um-hummed yes. Ten minutes later a bottle of vodka appeared.

Dinner was sushi. Nobu is a famous sushi creator and oversees preparations. I heartily recommend the “house special”.

Be careful of the wasabi. It has twice the zing of any I’ve had ashore.

The TV has “cable” channels, so Sunday night football closed the curtain for me. A note about the TV; its flat screen faces directly forward

and thus is difficult to see from the bed. Pull it straight out, do some twisting,

and line of sight is from pillow to screen.

Tomorrow a look at the ship, but let me leave you with this. President Obama has the Bush tax problem. Enough already!

Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Crystal Cruises | 2 Comments »

Bye bye Mexican Pie

June 15, 2010

by Geoff Edwards

Did you know that years ago, “Have a nice day” and the smiley were generated out of a California advertising agency? Almost as ubiquitous is “Mexican Riviera”. I have no idea where that tag came from, but it set up the whole area of Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Ensenada. They are visited by thousands of cruisers every year, but change is in the wind.

Royal Caribbean’s 3,114-passenger, Los Angeles-based Mariner, the largest cruise ship operating Mexican Riviera itineraries, will move to the Mediterranean beginning in January. It’s the third cruise line to give up on the in the last seven months.

Norwegian Cruise Line announced in March that the 2,240-passenger Norwegian Star would move to Tampa in October 2011, and Carnival’s Elation

has already moved to Mobile and is happy in the Caribbean.

How bad can it get? Well, badder. Princess says that when potential passengers see “Mexican Riviera” on the visit list, they look for other itineraries. Seeing the empty cabin future, pretty soon Princess’s Panama Canal trips will completely bypass Mexico.

Count on an extra day at sea.

This is bad news for Mexican merchants, but good news to shoppers; the fewer the buyers the easier the bargaining.

Cabo will take a huge hit.

Will all cruises to Mexico cease? We’ll see, but if you want to be sure you get to the Riviera ports, do it in style. Crystal’s Symphony is making three 7 day round trips from Los Angeles to Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The first goes November 21. and everyone on shore will be happy to see you!!

Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas | 1 Comment »

Train, Boat, Five Days in Cabo (not) Day 4

September 2, 2009

Close to 3,500 people live in Catalina

with one barber shop, one theater, and as far as I could tell, one Vons.

This population swells to around 15,000 in the summer.

Never mind all the cruise passengers that stroll around three times a week.

I realized, as many times as I had been to Catalina for a buffalo burger, I had never been downtown. It was easy to see how one would want to live in this small, but bustling town atmosphere.

You have your beach,

your boats,

your stores,

and tons of restaurants specializing in seafood; Mexican; burgers; and whatever else will fill your plate. Eric’s on the pier was one of the few that cooked buffalo burgers.

In all honesty, recalling all the “burgers” I’ve downed; tofu, beef, veggie, and even tuna,

this was the worst I’d swallowed.

And I swallowed it with difficulty. There is a sign that says “Please keep Avalon clean, don’t feed the birds”. No problem here, nary a bird would touch a crumb from my plate. Maybe because the “crumb” was half the food there. To put it in popular vernacular, it didn’t meet my expectations, it blew them up.

Dinner helped erase the memory meat, and was again excellent. The chef makes very tasty soup, and I found a lovely Chardonnay to balance my meal. It’s Australian named “Promised Land”. I hope I can find in what is left of Canyon Country. What wine pairs with falling ash?

The night burst out with the blues band of Bobby Whavers from New Orleans.

A seven piece juggernaut of jumping blues that had the intimate Romeo and Juliette room rocking. I’m sure we moved the ship, and some, not in the room, thought the sea had come up. Anytime you get the chance to see Bobby Whavers take it. I’ll be heading to Itunes when I get home.

Ensenada tomorrow.

Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Carnival, Catalina, Cruising in General, Ensenada, Mexico | 2 Comments »

Train, Boat, Five Days in Cabo (not) Day 3

September 2, 2009

Another day at sea, and we are slowly making our way towards Catalina. Although I am sad we are missing Cabo San Lucas, now that the satellite photos are posted, most understand that Cabo would not have been much fun.

Some years ago I flew my Cessna 172 to Catalina’s awkward airstrip just to eat the great buffalo burgers at the airport café. They were as juicy and flavorful as any burger I had ever tasted; worth the trip for sure.

As far as the “awkward” airport, the approach was towards a cliff front that had an updraft. The strip itself had a hump in the middle, so upon touching down (or taking off) it looked a great deal shorter than it was. Misjudgment, going or coming, had built up visible wreckage just off the actual end of the runway.

So for me Catalina will be my buffalo burger stop, but for now, what to do? I have to admit I was seduced by the Spa pitch “Time for Men”. A 55 minute facial, plus double close shave, and face, scalp, and hand massage for $95 pulled me in. particularly as I had a 4 day growth of beard, that while it looked hip, guaranteed my moneys worth.

My “shavette”, Aneeqah, was from Cape Town, South Africa, and queen of the hot towels.

During the process, all tension slipped away, except the constant fear of falling asleep and snoring.

At dinner, neither Natalie nor David

noticed my beard had disappeared. It reminded me of a French movie where a man had a bushy black mustache. He agonized for some time, then shaved it off. He was consumed with what people would think. No one, including his wife and his coworkers, noticed. This drove him to the point of suicide. As I am not French, I am not suicidal, but it does bring up the point that ones ego pays more attention to self than actual people do. Perhaps some part of visualization is habitual. Is there a lesson to be learned here? I hope not.

Talking about visualization, the Elation Atrium has two glass elevators that travel from Empress deck to the Sports deck, some 5 floors. The view from these elevators is charming. After all, that’s what glass elevators are about. I have upped and downed these transparent boxes several times a day, and no one looks out. As in commonplace lifts, all face toward the doors and the floor indicators. Finally I told some kids to turn around.

“Wow, look at that.”

This is a casual ship. There are dress codes for dinner, but they are very relaxed. Even so, some can’t rise to the low standards. “Casual” allows jeans, dress shorts, collared shirts. Not allowed; sleeveless shirts for men. Still and all, I did not confront the guy in the wife beater T-shirt with the tattoos.

Nor did anyone else.

Men are asked to wear a shirt in the Lido at lunch. Uh huh.

Sushi from 5 to 8:15 PM is free and wear whatever.

The pool is the main gathering spot. I like statistics, and will share this one with you. 60% of women wearing bikini swim suits, should not. But, the other 40% more than make up for it.

The slide is always busy, and what goes up, must come down.

Once again dinner was excellent. The Chef understands veggie dishes and since I have had my fill of chicken in any manner, and don’t eat red meat, (buffalo burgers don’t count), I find my eyes sliding down the menu to the Vegetarian section.

The service is prompt and friendly. As a matter of fact, all the crew is friendly, smiling, and “how are you today” flys around the decks.

Other things also fly. In California at the outdoor cafes we have tiny starlings grabbing at crumbs. But Carnival does things in a big way.

I wanted to go to the show. Because of our change in plans, the show nights are back to back. Apparently, we all wanted to go. An hour before curtain the theater was filling up.

I loved the previous presentation, but, even though seating is arranged for waiting, (booth type chairs and tables; lots of waiters with trays of drinks), I didn’t want to hang around waiting for this one to happen.

To the cabin and a laugh at Larry King asking a woman who had come from the grocery store, got into her car, and been jacked by a man who made her drive to a deserted area. He then put handcuffs on her.

Larry’s question? “What happened to the food?”

At the main bar is a sign that says, “Anecdotes are 17% funnier with a drink.”

For me, when it comes to Larry, this doesn’t work.

Catalina tomorrow.

Tags:Buffalo, Carnival, Catalina, Ensenada
Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Carnival, Catalina, Cruising in General, Ensenada, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Train, Boat, Five Days in Cabo (not) 2

September 1, 2009

This morning I called my wife, Michael, to ask about the fires raging and approaching our area. At the moment, all is cool, well, at 100 degrees perhaps the word should be normal. I let her know I was excited abut the possibility of some high waves in the Cabo San Lucas area because of hurricane Jimena. I’ve got this weird thing about big ships and no motion. I want to feel like I’m at sea, not at home.

Elation is a big ship, almost three football fields long with a normal capacity of 2,052 passengers. We have 2,556 on board. How does that work? Well, our total capacity is 2,606 using couches, pull down berths, the floor, an open lifeboat….So guess how many children we have on board. When I asked a crew member working on the excellent kid’s programs, she said she wasn’t sure, but it is the most she’s seen on a cruise.

The children are running all over the ship with painted faces, funny hats. Their parents are relaxed and out of this particular loop. Grandparents seem a bit more concerned, but then aren’t they always?

What struck me as slightly out of whack was the Little League Championships being watched by adults only. Little Leaguers on this boat were far too busy.

I went to the art auction billed as “The Most Exciting Event of Your Cruise”, and “your chance to fill that empty space on your wall at home.” It was called a rare inventory clearance. Depends, I guess, on what rare is, although I can guarantee they had quite an inventory. I saw the same art I’ve seen on ships for years. My wall’s empty space never looked so good.

A Park West woman stopped me from taking photos; actually standing there making me delete my shots as she watched. Luckily, I am delete impaired, and while it looked like I had succeeded, obviously I had not.

Looks like no waves in Cabo. Captain Garuccio just announced that we are turning around. It looks like Jimena will not comfortably interact with Elation.

We’re out of here.

We are now heading to Catalina, and then Ensenada. Tomorrow we’ll be lolling at sea and saving a lot of fuel.

There are some unhappy people aboard who don’t have any interest in the coming ports. There are groups here and there discussing getting their money back, or at least doing something.

Lines formed quickly at the main desk.

One woman canceled her gratuities getting at least $50 per person off her account.

This is not the fault of Carnival, and all passengers were presented with contract terms before buying a ticket. Very few ever read them. I did feel particularly sorry for the man who lives in Catalina. At least he’ll know a good restaurant in town. I’m guessing that tonight Cruise Director Steve will not be asking if everyone is happy.

So what to do now? Well, there’s Bingo.

I usually avoid cruise ship shows. Actually I do go, but sit in the back so I can escape quickly and unnoticed. The show was at 8:45 PM. By 8:30 the Mikado was full. I saw one seat open…..in the front row. Oh well. Not to worry, this was one of the best shows I’ve seen. The choreography was not the usual frantic arms and legs and head snaps, seemingly put together by a meth addict, but dancing that made sense. The performers lip synched to voices recorded in Los Angeles. It was weird in the front row to have some of them come down next to me moving their mouths with no sound coming out.

The two stars had the mics and the voices. Julie Hughes was outstanding. Staging was captivating, but didn’t overshadow. As the curtain closed on the bows, they got a standing ovation. Unfortunately, as I looked back from my perch, I was the only one standing and ovating.

Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Carnival, Catalina, Cruising in General, Ensenada, Mexico, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Train, Boat, Five Days in Cabo (not)

August 31, 2009

I’ve been wanting to try one of Carnival’s short cruises to the Mexican Riviera, and so jumped at the chance to do the Elation from San Diego. It’s a five day cruise, and since my last cruise to Mexico had all the ports canceled because of the flu, two days in Cabo San Lucas would be the karma I deserve.

Good news, the MetroLink stops about 5 miles from my house. From there to Union Station in Los Angeles, then Amtrak to about 50 yards from Elation in San Diego.

The bag was a slight problem. Not only big, but it determined my seat. The conductor told me to keep an eye on it. (more…)

Posted in Baja California, Cabo San Lucas, Carnival, Catalina, Cruising in General, Ensenada, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

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