This is the little village of Sayulita, Mexico.
And I’m walking along the road to Playa De Los Muertos…
Beach Of The Dead!
We don’t have anything like this back at home, that’s for sure!
And if you look next to the road there, yes, that’s a cemetery.
Look close enough in the trees… and eventually you might find an iguana!
I was here with two of my favorite people: my brother-in-law, and my sister...
And their knowledgeable local driver and tour guide, Archie.
Getting here was a lot of fun!
Spoiler alert: there was a cruise ship involved!
But I really need to wind this all back, and tell the story from the beginning…
Our voyage began in Long Beach, California…
At Carnival Cruise Line’s recently modernized terminal right next door to the RMS Queen Mary.
Under that big white dome is the check-in facility and a pretty nice VIP waiting area to relax in until boarding begins.
Our ship for this 7-day Mexican Riviera cruise was Carnival Panorama...
The newest ship in Carnival’s fleet.
Because we're platinum in Carnival’s loyalty program, we were among the first people onboard...
And quickly made our way to Guy’s Burger Joint.
They serve the best burger I’ve ever had…
Better than Five Guys, better than Shake Shack… even better than In-N-Out.
After the mandatory safety drill was completed…
They dropped the lines, fired up the Azipod propulsion system…
And we headed away from the dock there in Long Beach.
We made our way past the breakwater and out to open water just as the sun was setting.
It was really beautiful.
For dinner that night we headed to Guy Fieri’s specialty restaurant, the Pig & Anchor.
I had eaten at the Pig & Anchor on Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon…
And had been looking forward to this for months.
The trash can nachos are fantastic!
After dinner, we enjoyed some music at Ocean Plaza.
This band, called The Night Shift, was quite good…
And I especially enjoyed listening to them when they were joined by three guys on horns.
The next day, Sunday, started out with omelets at the buffet.
This was a sea day as we headed down to Cabo San Lucas.
Since we hadn’t yet gotten very far south, the weather was still mostly cloudy and fairly cool.
People enjoyed the hot tubs, but nobody was using the pool at this point.
I saw something I had never seen before!
It actually scared me at first.
I thought there was some kind of fire at the ship’s navigational bridge.
I saw what looked like smoke.
It turns out it was some kind of steam cleaning system they use to wash the windows outside the bridge.
I jokingly call this guy our emotional support parrot.
He kept watch over our patio.
All these patios in the Havana area look the same.
And it’s hard to tell which one is yours!
Yeah, I know they're numbered, but if you’re not paying full attention…
It’s easy to walk on to the wrong one.
The parrot helped me to more easily identify which one was mine.
We had a beautiful sunset that night.
These people were smart to watch it from the hot tub in the Havana area.
With the location of the Havana area at the back of the ship…
You have such beautiful unobstructed views of everything behind the ship.
I really love it back here.
Later that evening, we went to the ship’s main theater to watch a show.
We had horrible seats up on the upper deck… With a big pole blocking part of our view.
We learned our lesson, and arrived early for all the other shows…
And got good seats down below.
On Monday morning, the ship arrived in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Royal Princess was there waiting for us.
It turns out Royal Princess was on the exact same itinerary we were…
Visiting all the same ports on all the same days.
It was fun to see Royal Princess because my next cruise after this will be on Royal Princess.
That’ll be our group cruise in Alaska, this July.
The weather in Cabo San Lucas was excellent. It was sunny and warm.
That was exactly what I needed because just a few days earlier...
At my last day at work before vacation…
It had been cold and raining.
Rather than go ashore, Kellyn and I just stayed aboard Carnival Panorama.
We had everything we needed… food, drinks, and a very uncrowded Havana pool to enjoy on a beautiful day.
There was a beautiful sunset that night.
When you’re watching it in real time, you don’t actually get the full effect.
Sit back for about the next minute and a half…
And enjoy this time lapse video I shot…
Which does a pretty good job of showing how the colors of the sunset changed over time.
For the 2nd night in a row, we had dinner at Guy Fieri’s Pig & Anchor restaurant.
There were so many things on the menu I had been craving for months…
Since our last Carnival cruise.
This time, I ordered the brisket and Kellyn had chicken wings.
And again we went to the main theater to see a show.
This time we got there early and got great seats down at stage level.
After the show, we headed over to the Limelight Lounge for a stand-up comedy performance.
And after comedy, we were in just the right mood to catch some karaoke…
And boy, did we walk in at just the right point!
This girl did an incredible performance of the song “Rock Lobster”.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with that song. It wasn’t that big of a hit in the United States…
But it made it all the way to #1 on the charts in Canada back in 1979.
I was impressed with this karaoke performance because this girl totally committed to it.
She really put herself out there!
I got a big kick out of seeing it.
We also listened to a few songs by The Night Shift band.
Then Kellyn called it a night, but I stayed up for the Mega Deck Party because I was really curious to see how Emma, the Cruise Director, would handle it.
I’ve seen some lame deck parties on some cruise ships...
And I’ve seen some great ones that were a lot of fun.
Emma did a fantastic job, and people seemed to really enjoy the party.
On Tuesday, the ship was in Mazatlan… And Kellyn and I were in the mood for a quiet, relaxing day…
So again, for the second day in a row…
While most other passengers were off having fun in Mexico…
We just lounged around the Havana pool area and relaxed.
In fact, I was in such a lazy mood that that evening…
I didn’t even shoot any video at all… So I have no record of what we did that night!
Now Wednesday was the complete opposite of the previous two days.
Instead of being lazy and just relaxing onboard the ship…
We had a HUGE adventure in Puerto Vallarta! And I’m going to tell you all about it, right after this.
Two of my favorite people in the world… my sister and her husband…
Come to Puerto Vallarta for a couple of weeks every year at this time.
And since we were in Puerto Vallarta at the same time they were, we got together.
They have a driver / tour guide that they’ve worked with for years…
His name is Archie.
You can find his contact information in this video’s description.
Archie took us on a big adventure to the little village of Sayulita…
Where we headed to Playa De Los Muertos… Beach Of The Dead!
To get there, you walk along this road and past a cemetery.
And be sure to look in the trees, for iguanas!
And after some time exploring The Beach Of The Dead…
We headed over to the much more popular surfing beach in Sayulita…
And had a nice lunch there.
After lunch, I had some fun watching people learn how to surf.
It’s a really interesting beach because at one end of the beach the waves are very gentle...
And it’s perfect for kids or people new to surfing…
But folks who are looking for larger waves only need to walk down the beach a little ways…
The waves get larger the further you go down the beach.
After a nice time in Sayulita, Archie, our guide, drove us back to Puerto Vallarta…
Where my sister and my brother in law gave us a tour of the timeshare that they’ve been staying at year after year in Puerto Vallarta.
And it was easy to see why they keep coming back!
From their place on the 25th floor, they had a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean…
The beach…
The hotel’s pool…
And much of Puerto Vallarta.
They also showed me the facilities there. It looked pretty great!
I can certainly see why they spend weeks here every year.
That evening, right after sunset, Royal Princess set sail first…
And our ship, Carnival Panorama, was not far behind.
It was just a little too dark at that point to get good quality video.
The next day, Thursday, was a sea day as we headed north towards Los Angeles.
The weather was kind of lousy. It was windy and cool…
And I was surprised to see people out on the Serenity Deck under fairly miserable conditions.
That evening, we had dinner at the Pig & Anchor again.
Kellyn and I shared something they call “The Whole Smoker”.
Which is a delicious sampler of many barbecued items.
We checked out the Piano Bar early in the evening…
Where this guy was playing mellow dinner music.
They open up the room to the steakhouse next door so folks dining there could enjoy the music, too.
Later in the evening, we came back to the Piano Bar again to watch this very entertaining performer.
We caught another show in the main theater.
And I like that after the show, the cast moves out to the atrium for an after-show performance.
There was also another good performance by The Night Shift band.
And I saw something interesting…
There was one song where the female vocalist did the singing and the male vocalist got to step off the stage for a few minutes.
I saw him using a tablet...
And I realized he was controlling the sound mix from that tablet.
I thought that was pretty cool.
We didn’t have anything like that back when I used to mix sound in the 1970s and 80s!
We also enjoyed some stand-up comedy that night, from comedian Tony Esposito.
And on Friday, the last day of the cruise...
We got lucky and the weather improved a little bit.
So we got to spend a little time out at the Havana pool area again.
Having this un-crowded area to relax in, with no kids...
And not just a pool, but two hot tubs…
As far as I’m concerned, it’s one of the greatest ways to cruise.
Now if money wasn’t a factor, I’d probably do every cruise in The Haven on Norwegian Cruise Line…
But money is always a factor!
This Havana pool area on Carnival is a tremendous value.
I can’t think of any better way to get an uncrowded cruise experience without spending a LOT more money.
Care to guess where we went for lunch on this last day of our cruise?
If you said the Pig & Anchor… you’ve been paying attention!
We love the Guy Fieri food on Carnival.
Lunch at the Pig & Anchor is served buffet style…
And we shared a whole lot of barbecued meat.
Now, for bonus points… where do you think we went for dinner?
Who said The Pig & Anchor?!?!
Yes, I’m not ashamed to admit it.
It was my last chance for Trash Can Nachos before returning home.
I won’t have this opportunity again until the Spring of 2021…
When I’ll be sailing on Carnival’s next new ship… the Mardi Gras!
How would you like to come along with me on that one?
We’re doing a group cruise on the Mardi Gras.
So, if you’re a fan of my videos and you think it would be fun to go on a cruise with me…
Head over to my web site at JimZim.net for more details…
On that upcoming group cruise to the Caribbean.
We liked Carnival Panorama a lot. It’s a ship I can definitely recommend.
If you’re interested in booking a cruise on the Panorama…
Or any ship on any cruise line… Don’t book it directly with the cruise line.
Find out why I use a travel agent to book all my cruises now.
And you are welcome to use my travel agent, Caitlin Gallagher.
She’s really easy to work with…
And there are no additional fees for her services.
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