A Cruise Vacation in the Mexican Riviera

This is a guest post by Kay from Bucksome Boomer.

Cruising is one of my family’s favorite vacations. We enjoy unpacking one time while visiting several cities or countries on the trip. Every time we take a land-based vacation it doesn’t beat the value of a cruise.

The Cruise

The Radiance of the Seas in Cabo San Lucas

Our last cruise was a 10 night cruise that left San Diego and visited five Mexican ports before returning.

After more than a dozen cruises on five different brands, we have formed cruise routines and favorite activities. But we are careful to be open to new experiences and second chances.

Our first cruise with Royal Caribbean was disappointing in terms of the food and cabins. Understanding it was an older ship and that they’ve revamped the cabins led us to give them another chance on this cruise. We’re so glad we did.

Another change in our cruise experience was selecting the unscheduled dinner time instead of one of the traditional seating times. Through this option we met three wonderful couples we dined with the rest of the cruise.

Our new friends on formal night

During sea days, we took advantage of the ship’s library and cinema for books and movies. I attended enrichment lectures on various topics. We also relaxed and soaked up sun poolside while sipping libations.

We had our choice of the indoor pool….

or the outdoor pool area.

The service, entertainment, food and ambiance were just right for us and this trip is right up there as one of our favorites.

Mexican Riviera Ports

My husband and I previously visited Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco on previous visits. We were excited to stop at Zihuatanejo for the first time as it is much less developed than the other ports.

We are beach people so we hit the beach at every port except Puerto Vallarta. We’d been to this port too often and instead enjoyed having the ship to ourselves.

In Mazatlan we taxied to a all-inclusive resort and bought a day pass for $35 each which included drinks and food. The beach wasn’t that great but we met this guy.

Sunbathing Iguana

Cabo was beautiful as always and we had a great view of Lover’s Beach and the arch.

Arch at Cabo San Lucas

Acapulco is not the safest Mexican city right now but we felt safe walking to the nearby beach from the ship. This is the stop that was not as geared towards tourists.

Radiance of the Seas in Acapulco

Zihuatanejo is a beautiful port that we would love to visit for a land trip. I had an ocean view massage after a couple of margaritas and was in heaven! That’s me in the first green lounger below.

Relaxing in Zihuatanejo

The view was amazing from this chair…

Tips to Save

1. Keep track of the charges and total on your on-board account throughout the cruise. Don’t wait to check it until the last morning because mistakes do happen and with the hurry to get off, it may not get resolved. This will also keep you from overspending

2. Cruise off season. This is a slower time of year so we got a great price on the cruise.

3. Arrange your own tours. We didn’t take a single ship’s excursion and saved a lot of money by arranging our own.

4. Cruise from a local port and save on airfare and pre-cruise hotels. Of course, I do want to go other places so don’t always follow this one.

We’re already planning our next cruise for the late summer to Alaska. It’ll be a different experience due to weather, location and travel companions. No matter where the ship goes, a day aboard is better than a day in the office!