Mexican Riviera Cruise on the Carnival Panorama

Puerto Vallarta -- January 25, 2023

For breakfast, I had a bagel and Travis oatmeal.

We have a pre-booked Carnival excursion for whale watching, dolphins, and snorkeling at Marietas Island. We had a meeting time in the dining room with the others tours, checked in, waited to be called, exited the ship through crew area stairs, and then waited in lines outside. We befriend a gentleman on the tour that we talked with before and during the boat ride. Port authorities came through to check bags for produce. When it was time, we walked to the boat dock. I did not know that were were walking, so I was surprised when we walked passed all the buses/coaches. We did get town wifi on the walk to check messages from the kids and for me to sync my Fitbit. After we arrived, we were assigned a boat or catamaran.

The crew was friendly, handed out snacks, drinks, and lunch was served on the bottom deck around the bar. They had a good DJ onboard. We were approaching Marietas Island. It was about 22 miles away, and trip was rocking and rolling. I got sea sick, yikes! They had small black trash bags that worked well, so the trip was not much fun for me. The original captain let someone else captain for a bit. I considered him the trainee; though I do not know for sure. I thought the original captain was less rough on my sickness.

We did spot some whales on the trip to the Island.

They passed out snorkeling gear for those who wanted to snorkel and when close recommended getting sunscreen on because it was a national park and can't put it on there (sounds like cheating). I had read to get reef safe sunscreen, so got a little bottle. They also gave us a bracelet that we paid/supported the national park. The pictures of the island are very pretty. I knew that we did not get to go on it, but snorkeling, we learned that we could not even get very close to it. Approaching...

There were some interesting big fish snorkeling; not as good as the Caribbean, but nice. If I can turn the go pro videos into pictures, I'll add some. I was afraid that it would be too cold to snorkel and was trying to find the water temperature beforehand -- Puerto Vallarta was supposed to have the warmest water of our stops at about 72F, but still sounded cold to this Texan, who could not get in all the way in the Barton Springs Pool in Austin, in the summer, at a constant 68F. The crew mentioned to someone that they would provide wetsuits if it was too cold. We found their web site before which also mentioned wetsuits; however, they would not let us book direct, boo, and Carnival's excursion documentation did not say either way. When it was time to snorkel, I told myself that I cannot hestitate and had to jump because others were waiting to get in too. I'm happy to report that the water was fine, not warm, but comfortable to snorkel. After snorkeling, Travis did the paddleboat. The guy that we met took some pictures for me since I was not feeling well. Travis had lunch, and pictures on the boat.

The other guy in the picture was my fellow sick friend. Sigh. I have been seasick while whale watching in Hawaii, but I was three months pregnant so did not fully blame the boat. I debated take my medicine before; I should have. I tried some on the boat but did not keep it down. I have done other snorkeling trips without an issue. Frustrating.

Then we visited another island with lots of birds. Blue and cream footed boobies live here. Travis tried to a picture of some blue feet and thought we did zooming on the camera. But, looking after getting home, I don't know. Expand the picture and zoom -- do you see any or can you imagine any?

The crew performed.

After the tour, we walked back to the ship to clean up. After a shower, I went up for a Guy's ringer burger for lunch since I was too sick on the catamaran lunch; Travis traded our towels and joined me to have some tea after his shower.

We got back off to visit the famous Puerto Vallarta Walmart with wifi. It is very close to the port -- walk around and cross a big street where an officer was assisting crossings. Here Travis did a Walmart wifi call with our oldest on his next year class selection. We got some candy, snacks, and the kids a chocolate pop. Note picture vs. reality; the other kid's was not as bad :).

For dinner, I had fried mozzarella -- big and very good, pork chop -- good flavor but I very full from that late Guy's burger, and melting cake. Travis had mussels, wedge salad, finally got his Indian vegetarian (which is two plates), and Bitter n Blanc.

We watched the new comedians that boarded -- Jason Love and Eric Blake. It sounded like they were doing a show together (it was held in the theater to handle a larger audience), but they went one after the other. Jason Love had a guitar for his show that I did not like at first, but it grew on me. In the end, we decided that he was our favorite. Our towel animal and bye bye PV.