I coped better with the time change this time out but still got up about an hour too early. I was rewarded with a nice sunrise shot from the porthole.
The ship is still really moving to make her arrival time.
Fortunately, the Windows Café opened at 7 AM this morning so the wait to go up was minimal. I don’t know why the early start because we are tendering today and it takes time to get the tenders in the water and get rolling. As usual, a wonderful (and consistent) breakfast.
I ate inside – cool outside – and got a nice view of the scenic sail in. It was a bit hazy outside but still nice.
We dropped anchor very near the famed Los Arcos rock formations.
There are four ships here today: Viking Sky (which has been sailing parallel to us) – 930 passengers;
Carnival Panorama – a big ship with 4000 passengers;
Carnival Firenze (a former Costa Ship – still has the Costa Stack – and picked up by Carnival in early 2024 – it’s a hybrid Carnival/Costa Ship – 4100 passengers. It even says, "Sail Italian Style" on the side of the ship.
These ships, if
everyone got off in Cabo would add about 10,000 people to the population.
The tender process was now operating
and about 10;30 AM, we went to Deck 3 to hop on a tender. There was a super long line on the stairs of
people waiting for the next boat. The line moved a bit and then we were told
that it would be about 18 minutes for the next shuttle. I checked with the
security folks and they said that Onward was operating three tenders today and
the long waits are due to traffic in the bay.
We finally boarded the tender for the short ride into town. Got some nice shots of Onward from the tender.
The traffic was indeed scary (check out the number of boats close to our tender and how fast they are going).
The Viking Sky was using its lifeboats as tenders
while the Panorama was using Cabo Tenders, a local business, to ferry people back and forth. Not sure what the Firenze was doing but I
think it was also using local tenders.
When we got to the tender dock, every mooring was occupied with either
lifeboats or local tenders. Ships moving in the bay were perilously close to
each other and we were sailing the wake of several other boats as we made our
way into Cabo.
The crowds at the pier were the biggest we have ever seen. Apparently, a large percentage of the ship’s passengers decided to go ashore.
We decided to not go on the
boardwalk – solid humanity – but rather take the street behind the stores - Paseo de la Marina - and
parallel to the boardwalk. This reduced
the amount of foot traffic significantly.
We got to the hotel where the Tequila Shop, the Beauty Massage Spa, the
fish, and Cabo Sign are and checked out a couple of other spas (for cleanliness
and ambience and price) before circling back to the Beauty Spa, a known quantity and a place we have been to several times in the past. I was a little surprised,
with all the people in town today, that they had openings for us.
We both had very nice
massages (Ellen really liked hers) ($40 plus $5 tip).
From there, we walked back toward the pier on the boardwalk. This gave me a chance to get a picture of the Cabo City Sign,
the Tequila Store (with a “Cabo Supports Israel” sign),
the Cabo Fish,
and shots of the harbor and marina.
We were in the shortest line at the pier (the line for the Panorama was as long as the pier) but still had to wait for the tender. Our tender pilot took several tries to pull alongside the pier. Finally, we were on our way back arriving at the ship at 2:20 PM. On the way back, I sat next to the woman who takes the Patio Orders at lunch and she said the Patio would be open but the buffet was going to close.
We hustled to the buffet as
it was closing – Ellen got some food but all could get was focaccia and oil and
vinegar. I ordered a Beyond Burger at
the Patio and had that with a Stella. It
was good. I finally got a burger without the shredded cabbage on top.
I watched the Carnival Panorama leave early. We have had some really short days in Cabo in the past.
The superyacht, Palladium, is anchored in Cabo Bay. The yacht is worth $200 Million.
As the sun was setting, I got even more dramatic shots of Los Arcos.
Tonight is the White Nights
Party so we cleaned up and, instead of dealing with the lines at the deck buffet (where it was unlikely we would find anything we could eat), we went to the Discoveries Restaurant. Ellen had asked the Hostess to see if I could
get the Halibut without ham and shellfish.
The best part of the meal was the Portobello Mushroom (fried) and the
thin but tasty Gazpacho. I have had a
lot of halibut and I was sure that my fish was something else. We’ll get something at the Party for dessert.
We went to Deck 10 and found
that there were no open tables.
Fantastic Beats were vibrating the deck with their amped up music. One of the servers found us three chairs, two
to sit on and one to hold our dessert.
Ellen tried a lot of things but I mainly stuck with the Crepes Suzette
with Grand Marnier and ice cream.
It was a nice clear night and you could see the Moon and Venus above the Cabo skyline.
Our two companions are still here, the Carnival Firenze
and the Viking Sky.
At 8 PM Darrin and the Signature Singers took over and went through their mostly familiar song list. Even so, they did a great job on the songs. Darrin introduced the new Assistant Cruise Director (didn’t get his name) who will be taking over for Lee who is going on vacation. The new guy can really sing and dance and he should be a nice addition to Onward.
We were wearing windbreakers because it was actually cold. We stayed for the March of the Staff
and some more songs and then it got too cold so we
went to the room.
Two good things – I am off
tomorrow and there is no time change tonight.
The ship departed at 10 PM on her two-day journey to San Diego. The engines are a little louder but the seas are smooth.
No comments:
Post a Comment