Tuesday, February 3, 2009 – Puerto Vallarta

Karen and I were both very excited to get to Puerto Vallarta, friends of ours from the bike tour, Walter and Geri spend their winters about 20 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. We had contacted them before we left and made arrangements to spend the day with them. The ship was scheduled to dock around 10:00 am, but got in earlier. Karen wondered out and took some pictures of Puerto Vallarta from the ship.

Here are some other boats as we are pulling into the city. Here is the Holland American ship we saw all week. Different view of the city Here are some partially built high rises. This area was booming until the recession hit and now there are many building that sit half built. If you are looking for some real estate in Mexico, not is the time to buy. This is a pirate ship - I think you can do that as an excursion. The beach – with a boarder of foam type block. Here is a close up of the blocks. This looks more tropical. For the crew the highlight of this port is the nice, close Walmart. Rex our room steward told me he gets off the ship once a week to go to Walmart here. We got off the ship and quickly found Walter and Geri. It was so nice to see them. Karen had spent 9 weeks with them over the summer, but it was September when that time was over.

We let them be our guides for the day. First they took us to walk down the touristy section.

Here is the beach. Another view. Here are some very cool sand castles. It is amazing to see all the details that go into them!!
This is the touristy walk. Here are Karen and I on a little bench. In the back is street in town. A view up the street. This is me with Walter and Geri walking. Here is a building on a corner. Each Mexican city, village, town has a square in the middle that is the hub of the communities social interaction. In Puerto Vallarta, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church sits on the square. Karen and I walked up to get some pictures.

Here is another picture of town as we were moving from the touristy section to where the local’s go. Walter and Geri brought us to one of their favorite places to eat, a lovely outdoor place. They had great Margaritas. Here is Geri showing off all our drinks. After lunch we headed up to Walter and Geri’s. Here is some of the traffic. During the bike tour, Walter and Geri took their motor home across North America and during the day Walter would park it along the route and it served as a rest stop for the cyclists. Early on the tour Walter had watermelon for the cyclists one day. It was such a big hit, he started having it every day and it earned the nickname “Waltermelon” Everyone on the tour stopped to visit Walter at the motor home (I even did when I drove the route.) Well after the tour Walter and Geri turned in that motor home for a new one. It is gorgeous!

Here is their sign outside. Walter, Geri and I inside. Yes those are marble counter tops!! We found this on their counter – so true for them!! This is their seating area outside. Their set up is so great – I could totally live there. After visiting at their place for a while we walked down to the beach and then into their town’s square. We wondered around the market and visited the stall where the school children sold things. I bought a bag for my niece and a little case that is perfect for my ipod.

They showed us the local school and told us how the kids only went to school half the day, some the morning and the rest in the afternoon because they didn’t have the resources for all the kids to go to school all day. They also told us how they and their neighbors were raising money to build an orphanage. It is amazing what they have been able to do. We drove over to where they are building the orphanage and we could see the progress they were making. The stories of the children and how they were just abandoned by their parents broke my heart. In fact the whole day really touched me. I know I am very fortunate to live in the United States and that is one thing this trip really helped me realize – both by seeing the real Mexico, not just the touristy spots and in talking to Karen about life in Canada. I kept going back to that great American spirit and drive. That you can do anything, if you work hard and make good decisions you have the opportunity to be successful. I can’t even imagine what those kids who only have the opportunity to go to school half a day can hope and dream to aspire to. What their standard of a better life is compared to mine. It made me really sad for them and so very thankful for the opportunities I have been blessed with.

After seeing their home, Walter and Geri took us back to the ship. Here they are with the tracker that also crossed North America over the summer. We had a great day and got back on the ship for another fun night.

Monday, February 2, 2009 – Fun Day at Sea

Monday was a second day in a row at sea. Karen got up early and went and exercised, I slept in, but was up and ready in time for morning Trivia at 10:30 am. We again joined Ally, Rich, Nancy and Rick and we were on fire!! We totally won the game and walked away with the highly coveted luggage tags.

After trivia we decided to lounge around at the pool for a while. It was really busy, which was not surprising since it was a beautiful warm day. We grabbed some pizza for lunch and ate by the pool. The downside of making friends with the cruise staff is that they come to you when they need participants for the silly contests. At 1:00 there was a battle of the sexes cocktail making contest. Sean came over to us and said we are short one woman, we need one of you to do this. I convinced Karen since she knows more about drinks she should help. So Karen became one of the contestants. I became Karen’s official photographer.

The basis of the contest was that each group had a bartender who told then how to make a drink and they had to make it as fast as they could, then the next person would come up and make another drink. It was like a drink making relay. Once the drinks were all made the teams were judged on taste, look and presentation. The contest itself was a mass of flying drinks and ice, people running all over the place and the crowd cheering.

Here are the women intently listening to the bar tender as he explains how to make each drink. One of the other women making her drink. Here is Karen’s finished drink. The women soliciting support from the crowd. Here is Karen smiling for the camera.
It was a close call, but the men just edged out the women for the win.

After the drink contest Karen and I continued our lounging.

Eventually we made our way back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. On our way to dinner I had Karen take a picture of me in my blue dress. This was a dress I bought before the Alaska cruise for $12 and I loved it, but I didn’t have any pictures of me in it.

Here I am in the blue dress. Karen and I ate dinner, just the two of us and then headed over to Club Fusion for the Majority Rules game. This where a question is asked the answer the most groups come up with is the right answer. If you had that answer you get a point. Part of the fun of the game was that someone from your group had to run the answer up to the front and everyone would race up there. Trevor was the cruise staff running the game after everyone turned in their answers; he would read them aloud and tally the votes. We joined the regular group and Rich and I took turns running the answer up. Most of the questions were pretty funny and some lead to some rather adult answers. One of our answers was a bit questionable, so when I ran down there and handed it to Trevor I simply said, I’m sorry. He flipped it over and just started laughing. When he read the answers out loud he needed to paraphrase ours, which of course lead our table to cheer. Again we were the loud ones. We did not win this time, our streak was over, but we had a lot of fun.

After the game Karen and I went to the production show “Do you wanna Dance?” It was a good show with lots of great music and dancing. After the show we headed to the second heat of Princess Pop Star. The round was not as entertaining as the first one; Marcus tried again, but still did not win. After Pop Star we went up to Skywalkers. Karen went out on the deck and took this picture of the moon off the back of the ship. It was another late night and the next day we were in Puerto Vallarta, so we did not stay out too late.

Sunday Night

While we were getting ready for the formal night, we did have the game on and saw the last few disappointing minutes. Once we were ready we went down for dinner and ran into Nancy who had a table for 4 with the her and Rick, Ally and Rich. We asked the Maitre d if we could join them and he put another table up and we joined them for dinner. Dinner was lots of fun and the dessert was great.

Here is Karen’s love boat dream.

Here is mine.

After dinner we all made our way up to club fusion to play Jeopardized Gameshow. Like trivia you can have teams of 6, so we were all a team. I hate to say we were the loud obnoxious group but we were. Sean and Jorge were the cruise director staff on our side and so we wanted to help them have the loudest side. I have to admit it was lots of fun. It also helped that we were doing good – in fact we got every question right. Then we bet all our money on the final question and got that one right too. Then the announcement of the prizes came – first of all the table with the most spirit – we lost we could not believe it, we by far were the most obnoxious table. But then they announced the winner and it was us. We were told we could not win both prizes, but were really the table with the most spirit as well. Our prize was a bottle of Champaign, which Ally took with her, and we never saw it again. :) It was fun to be the winner.

After Jeopardy was the first heat of Princess Pop Star – the ship’s passenger singing competition. In Alaska it was like pulling teeth to find people to compete, but on this cruise people were coming out of the woodwork and they were good. The first singer was Chantelle and she was good, I mean really good. You could tell she was a professional singer. Once I got home, I found her online and she has quite the story, here is her Wiki entry….

Chantelle Barry is a Perth, Australia-born singer-songwriter and actress best known for being in the original line up of girl group Bardot before departing in sudden and controversial circumstances only weeks after the group was formed on the first season of the Australian version of Popstars.

Rumors in magazines and newspapers suggested that Barry had been caught stealing items from other members (whom at the time were forced to live together) and was ordered to leave the group. Barry remained silent on the issue until 2006, when she appeared on the program Where Are They Now to speak for the first time about the incident, in which she claimed to have accidentally kept member Sophie Monk's money allowance with the intention of giving it back to her, but forgot to do this and was therefore removed from the group. She was replaced by Tiffani Wood in the final line up.

Leaving Australia after the scandal, during the next few years Barry continued making inroads with her music and acting career, appearing in a number of independent films and in small roles on the television series Water Rats, General Hospital, Entourage and How I Met Your Mother. She also placed 3rd in the Song of the Year songwriting contest, and reached the quarter-finals in the Music Nation online music competition. Barry also appeared in a pictorial for FHM in the months after leaving Bardot, and made a more recent appearance for the magazine in 2007.

Barry currently plays the recurring role of Nina, a friend of main character Naomi Clark on the television series 90210.

In August 2009, she officially launched her debut solo album 'Simple Things' in the U.S.

After Chantelle sang her boyfriend Scott Whyte sang Suspicious Minds by Elvis. It was so great, so funny. He did a total Elvis impression and was all over the stage talking to different people and just being entertaining. It ends up he is an actor and has been in several shows and movies. Here is his wiki entry...

Scott Whyte (born January 8, 1978 in Manhattan Beach, California) is an American actor who is best known for his role on City Guys where he portrayed Chris, one of the main characters. He has also appeared in other TV series such as That '70s Show, and Just Shoot Me!, as well as appearing in the films D2: The Mighty Ducks and its sequel, D3, although as different characters.

Whyte has spent his entire life living in the South Bay of California. Whyte, always interested in the arts, has been leaping from one form to the other, having spent time in animation along with playing music, all while maintaining an acting career. Whyte also attended the University of Southern California briefly until he landed a starring role on NBC’s City Guys. Whyte made his film debut in the Mel Gibson/Kurt Russell feature Tequila Sunrise. At age ten, after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, Whyte figured he could become the next Indiana Jones. But after breaking his wrist swinging from a tree, he set his sights on the goal of becoming an actor, so that he "could do all those fun things and not get hurt." He landed his first part at the age of 13, appearing in a commercial for Pop Tarts, and later appeared in the television series That '70s Show, Just Shoot Me!, The Nanny, Full House, Locals and TNBC's Hang Time, along with hosting the television series Chicken Soup for the Soul, based on the best selling books. His current films include Reeker, The Fallen Ones, Voodoo Moon, All In, and Death Row.

You never know who you meet on a cruise.

Linda was another contestant. She was so cute, so sweet and so nervous. She started singing and she was so quiet and timid. Then her boyfriend Steve ran on stage and started dancing to take the pressure off of her and to encourage her. It totally boosted her confidence and she did much better from that point on. Steve’s dancing left a little to be desired, but everyone thought he was great for helping Linda out.

Marcus was another singing who was such a hoot. He was trying to get the crowd involved and having a great time. Of course there was a person or two who really should not be singing, but over all it was a really talented group. Chantelle won that round and a place in the finals.

After pop star we headed up to Skywalkers, which was really full. The cruise director’s staff was up there and we chatted and hung with some of them for a while. We also spent some time with Linda and Steve.

Here is Karen with Linda and Steve.

Here is Linda, Karen and I. It was another fun and late night. :)

Sunday February 1, 2009, Superbowl Sunday

Our first full day on the ship was a day at sea. I slept in that morning. Karen was good and actually got up and worked out in the morning. I have no idea what time she got up since I slept through it all – this would be true each morning of the cruise. I would sleep threw all the noise we heard in our cabin and Karen getting up and Karen would wake up with any little noise.

After getting up, getting ready and eating breakfast we went to the morning trivia contest. At trivia you can be on teams of up to 6 people and questions range from very easy to very hard. Some people take trivia seriously – very seriously to win the lucrative prize of luggage tags or if you are really lucky a princess tote bag. Other people, like me just like to have fun. Since it was superbowl bowl Sunday there were some football questions peppered in with the regular questions. Trevor was the host of the game. One of the questions was who is the only NFL team to have a perfect season. I called out the Lions – to commemorate the 2008 0-16 season –prefect losing season. Trevor laughed and said no, perfect winning season. Karen and I had joined with one other couple and we did decent, but did not win.

After the trivia game I went up to Trevor and asked him if he had been on the Star Princess in September. He replied that he had been the naturalist, he went on to say something about his fiancé and I said Becky? He gave me a strange look and I went on to explain I had heard they were dating. He also said that I was the first person to recognize him. We chatted for a bit and as I walked away I began to think, he must think I am some kind of crazy stalker passenger that I knew who was dating, since I did not explain how I knew. I thought maybe I should explain to him the next time I saw him how I knew.

After trivia we hung out at the indoor pool for awhile. Here we are. We then grabbed some lunch and headed over to Club Fusion to watch the Superbowl. We had made arraignments to watch the game with Nancy, Rick, Ally and Rich, and some of their friends. When we got there, Ally was holding the table for everyone and we sat and chatted with her for a while. The rest of the gang joined us by the start of the game. Rich was a huge Cardinals fan since he had lived in Arizona for a while, so we decided to cheer for the Cardinals (obviously we didn’t care a ton.) Pretty early on it became evident that the feed we were getting did not include the superbowl commercials. I was pretty bummed since that is my favorite part of the game. It was fun to watch the game with a big crowd of people.

Here are some pictures of everyone watching the game. The half time show was good – Journey performed and we really enjoyed it. I love “Don’t stop believing.”

That night was the first of the formal nights on the cruise, so we left during the 3rd quarter to go back to the cabin and get ready for dinner. We did have the game on and saw the disappointing last few seconds. We continued to get ready for the night a head…..

Day 1 – January 31, 2009

The first thing we did on the ship was take part of the Treasure Hunt. Basically you picked up a card that had 10 different locations for you to find and get a stamp for. This brought you around to all the major public places of the ship and was a great way to help you get to know the ship. For me the nice thing was that the ship was similar to the Star and so I felt like I knew where most things were. Karen and I were able to find all the place and got all our stamps.

So it was time for the muster drill. Our muster station was in the Theater and we filed in. A few rows ahead of us where a couple who had just gotten married, in fact she was still in her dress carrying her bouquet. After the muster drill we brought our life jackets back to the cabin, and then headed up to the Sail Away party. It was located at the aft of the ship. Before the festivities really started I quick made my last phone calls for a whole week. When I got outside to the party I saw that Odysea was the band – they were one of the bands on the Alaskan cruise and I had enjoyed them. It does not hurt that the lead singer has kind of a Jon Bon Jovi look.

Here is Odysea performing.
A closer look. Another angle with the crowd in the background. Here is a view of San Pedro as we left. The Cruise Director staff was part of the sail away program. They announced the winners of the Treasure Hunt – which sadly was not us. One of the guys of the Cruise Director Staff looked familiar to me. I knew he was not on the Cruise Director Staff in Alaska, so I just thought he must look like someone I know.

Here is a view of the ocean as we hit the open sea. Here is another. After the sail away we went back to the cabin and unpacked, then went to dinner. One difference between the Star and the Sapphire were the anytime dining rooms. On the Star there were larger dining rooms with tables that sat 8-10 – the Sapphire had 4 small specialty restaurants. Each of them served the same menu on each of the different theme nights, but each one had specialty items that were always available. These rooms had a bunch of small tables and Karen and I ended up eating dinner alone each night. Meeting other people at diner was such a highlight of Alaskan cruise, I really missed it in Mexico.

On the first night we went to diner and on the menu was a Pina Colada soup. I had to try that and laughed when it came out in a glass with a straw.

Here is a picture of my soup (yes I know I look very tired) After dinner we went to the “Sapphire Show” which is a welcome show that highlights some of the performers and the ship’s singers and dancers. One of the singers had also been on the Star, Becky Allen, she is a great singer and I had enjoyed her performances a ton in September. I was excited to see she was on this cruise as well. Once I saw her, all of a sudden it hit me, on who the familiar looking crew member on the Cruise Director Staff, her finance Trevor – who was the naturalist in Alaska. Another Star crew member had mentioned they were dating during that cruise and it made sense that they were both now on the Sapphire. During the show I also found out that Steve Moris, one of the comedians from the Star was on the ship too – I still laugh at his Little Bunny FooFoo act and looked forward to seeing that again.

After the show we went up to skywalkers for a little while and then back to the room to get some sleep.