DeSoren Family

A few people have emailed us and wanted to know how much this cruise cost. We paid $549.00 each plus airfare (which was cheap as well, LGB is the best LA airport!). Which worked out $69.00 a day per person. The price covers room & board and all onboard activities. It has been to date the cheapest vacation we have ever taken together. It’s pretty easy to see why people like cruising so much.

Our last few days on board the Norwegian Star were spent relaxing. We got into the habit of heading down to the Blue Lagoon restaurant and ordering dinner and lunch and then hiding in our cabin.

Having the balcony was a HUGE plus for us. It became Joshua’s default position with a book in hand. While Anthony started to work his way though the stack of DVD’s he packed. Most of the time we had the sliding glass door open, day and night. If we ever do another cruise a balcony will not be optional but a requirement.

The last two days were really non-eventful for us. We did a little onboard shopping for trinkets and gifts. We have continued our tradition and got a magnet and coffee mug from each vacation destination we traveled too. The on board market covered that little need nicely.

Anthony attended the future cruise planning seminar, which turned out to be a plug for the new NCL Epic cruise ship. Again nothing helpful other then “Go to our website for more information…”. Onboard internet was free only if you traveled to the NCL homepage. Anything else was a scary 75¢ a min! We checked out the NCL homepage and the speed was terrible for the rate they were charging, their own homepage took over a min to load. We kept looking for the commodore 64 300 baud modem that just had to be attached to the ship board computer.

Joshua became a fan of the cigar lounge and visited it nightly for a cough/cigar and scotch. He even bought a Cuban cigar while we were in Mexico and tried it while on board. Anthony made it every clear that this was a vacation only event and this dirty habit would not come home with us. Both of us are ex-smokers and know how easy it is to start back up.

We attended the on board magic show, which was really funny… but not like you would think. We sat in the side balcony and were able to see how the magician did most every trick. It was pretty funny as we debunked each trick to each other.

We did the Asian restaurant and Anthony had his first taste of Sashimi. Joshua who is a huge fan of Sushi was not impressed.

Thursday night was the Chocolate Buffet. We both got a full plate of chocolate goodies and headed off to bed as the buffet was at 10:30 pm (that’s about hour past Anthony’s bed time).

Disembarkation day was the most “exciting” part of our last 2 days. We woke early again as we wanted to get off the boat during the first wave of debarkation. The process turned out to be a mad house. Half the ship seemed to have the same idea. We are going to a separate blog on the horrific personal behaviors we saw on this trip, debarkation day was the highlight of the selfish nasty behavior we saw in our fellow passengers.

Joshua broke the handle on his suitcase as we tried to take our luggage down the stairs rather then the elevators, which were packed with rude unbudging passengers. It took us about 30 mins to get off the ship, from cabin to customs, which was about 15 mins longer then it needed to be. All because of our childish fellow passengers

Customs was by the way a huge joke. Don’t understand why I have to take my shoes off and x-rayed and scanned if I get on a plane, but take a cruise from a foreign port and they just wave you through. They didn’t even look at our passports!

We had kept the tube that Joshua’s Cuban cigar came in for a kept sake and were worried we might get questioned or have it taken away. They did not even look in our bags. So much for Homeland Security. We could have brought back a case or two of Cuban cigars, or even a global thermonuclear device.

We got picked up by Enterprise car rentals, as we had booked a car for our 2 days in LA. The rental shop was close by and we were driving off to Harbor Avenue in Anaheim within 30 mins. Yes, that makes 2 trips to Disneyland in one year.

OK WE KNOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM…. admitting it is the first step to recovery.

1:30 am ship’s time, we have reached the edge of Hurricane Rick. Huge swells all night had the ship is rocking and rolling like an amusement park ride. According to the ships travel information channel, the ocean water is 86 degrees, the TV did not list the wind speed or swells so we knew it was bad. We should be safely in our sheltered port in 6 hours, but it looks like it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The view of the storm from our balcony is AWESOME, you can see and feel the power of the ocean and the storm, it was a bit scary. We found out later before we arrived back in LA that this night the ship was hit with 70 mph winds and 18-20 foot swells.

After the Joshua had woken up, a 30 min process, we headed to breakfast then de-boarded the ship, into the pouring rain and wet but beautiful Puerto Vallarta Mexico . Luckily we walked right on to our waiting tour bus. This was mixed blessing. It was nice to be out of the rain but this tour was so not our cup of tea.

The tour guide spoke just enough English to lead the tour, but no more. The speakers on the bus were set at 11, normal buses volumes only go up to 10, but this bus goes to 11. So we were deaf about 10 mins into the tour. Once off the bus the tour guide did not have any megaphone so we missed about 2/3rds  of what he said.

First stop was the old town sea wall and then up to the Parish church. Dedicated to the Queen of the Americas. Built by a gentleman named Ramirez.  If you’re a ICS member this should ring some bells and raise an eyebrow or two. The church’s name is the Church od the Lady of Guadalupe..

The parish was lovely, but they only gave us 15 minutes to visit it. They then took us to a jewelry store and gave us 45 minutes to shop. Both of us hated this and wanted to go back to the parish. So we walked around and explored some of the “non-kickback” shops and we found and wonderful working mans restaurant, it smelled amazing!

Back on the bus and off into the jungle to see were “Night of Iguana” was filmed. The movie that made the town what it is today…. apparently. Our next stop was for a free drink before we headed back to the ship. The free drink was offered in a…. Jewelry shop and another 45mins wasted.  We again ditched the group and headed to a drug store and got some soda’s and hit the non-kickback stores for some little items. We did buy a hat for Shawn in the kick back store, and kinda regretted, we paid to much, but he will love it…. We hope.

We both were very unhappy at the commercialism and the spending push NCL sold us. Our tour of the city highlights was more a tour of kick back shops and stores then a tour of the city itself. We would not take the same tour again. If we travel to Purto Vallarta again we will do it alone, rather then with a tour group.

Once we got back to the ship we stood in the rain and got soaked as we re-boarded the ship. We changed clothes and had a sit down lunch on board. After lunch the weather was looking better outside so we decided to go for a walk around the port area. Most of the stores were nothing but tourist  crap-o-la, but just as we had decided to head back we found this little store run by an elderly gentleman and his wife. The items inside were nicer art pieces. And we found a nice vase as a gift for ourselves for LESS then we spend on Shawn’s cheap Mexican hat. It was a real nice find.

We re-boarded the ship changed clothes again, and headed up to deck 13 for the sunset. The weather finally was working in our favor. It was clear and amazing. Joshua got some wonderful shots. Check out all the photos HERE. The mountains and port looked wonderful and we had the deck almost to ourselves.

So just like the day, dinner was a real let down as well. We ate at Aqua, and both ordered the lamb. Both of us were served very very very pink, and Joshua likes his meat pink…. that is medium rare, but this was raw. Worst of all it was served on a bed of cold semi cooked lentils (Joshua hates cold lentils with a passion). It was so bad we walked out and never returned to Aqua for the rest of the cruise.

So we ended the day in our room, Anthony watched a Dr. Who episode on the laptop and Joshua read on the balcony. We have two more ship days before we return to LA, and we are hoping for smooth waters and a speedy trip. We are both looking forward to visiting our favorite Disneyland hotel and of course Disneyland itself.