Cruise to Cabo Day 4, Leaving Cabo

Monday September 5, 2022

Brunch wasn't available in the main dining room today, so we ate lunch at Windjammer's buffet. The food was okay. It was definitely not as good as the dining room, but there was a larger selection of food. We didn't want to go to Cabo again, so we wandered around the ship. Erik and I won the tribond competition (with some help from the internet). There was one other group that got all the questions right, so Erik went to the front for the tiebreaker. After 2 tiebreaking challenges, neither Erik nor the other guy could answer correctly, so the host declared both groups winners. Our prize? She wrote "WINNERS" on our paper with a green highlighter. Later we watched from our balcony as we sailed away from Cabo and a Carnival cruise ship dropped anchor right next to where we were.

Erik up there trying to win Tribond. I guess I should have gone because I knew the answer right away. I tried to mouth it to Erik, but I'm unfortunately not a good mimer. No matter, first prize wasn't a prize after all.

Cute Ian caught changing into his swimsuit. Or out of it. I can't remember which. 

Gabe on the balcony, in front of the big carnival ship that pulled in just before we left.

Erik with the arch of Cabo in the background.

The kids wanted to either wander around the ship or go visit their kids' clubs. It seems like we bumped into them several times while walking around. We ate a light, late lunch at the cafe just off the royal promenade. They served small sandwiches and desserts. The sandwiches were just okay, but the cookies were amazing! Unfortunately, we went back a few other times later in the cruise, and the cookies weren't as good. Maybe we just got lucky and had a fresh batch.

Gabe and Elisa wandering around the expensive--and therefore mostly empty--arcade.

Lunch. Elisa enjoying her peach tea I made her and Erik not happy that I was taking yet another picture of him while he eats.

Erik tried to get me back by taking a picture of me while I eat. I was ready for him.

We tried a few more trivia sessions without another victory. Elisa finally decided that she wanted to go ice skating, so Erik got some stickers to reserve her skate time after dinner. Our meal in the dining room was much better than the previous night. The waiter recommended the lamb chops, which were very good.

The tomato soup. It was the okayest of okays. 

The lamb was really yummy. Probably the best entree of the cruise.

My dessert, tiramisu, which was one of the better desserts I tried.

Since we were changing time zones that night, we stayed up a little later and tried several activities. First, Erik and Elisa went ice skating. Elisa skated better than Ian, but she seemed more interested in making snowballs from the ice and throwing them at Ian. I'm surprised no one got in trouble for making ice balls and throwing them. In any case, Ian sure loved watching Elisa and dad ice skate (and high fiving them)! 

Ian is such a silly ham!

Next, Gabe wanted to join his teen club to try boogie boarding and the water slides without having to wait in a long line. Meanwhile, Elisa wanted to go rock climbing, so she and Erik waited in line for a while to do the night climbing under the stars (and against the wind). Ian waited in line with them for a while but chickened out when he realized what the line was for. 

This is a pretty accurate metaphor of Gabe making his way through life.

Elisa is part monkey! Haha just kidding, she did a good job, monkey or no monkey

One of the kids found this rather large moth near the climbing wall.

I see Gabe! Yep, that was Gabe way up there!

A fun water ride!

Finally, we put the kids to bed since they didn't want to watch the evening show. We saw the late showing of "Show Girl," which was a dedication to showgirls past, present, and future. It was really more of the singers performing various top hits (and some oldies) while the dancers did their thing. I thought it was a really fun, entertaining show.

Cruise to Cabo Day 3: Cabo

 Sunday September 4, 2022

The captain had told us the day before that the ship would have to slow down due to the big swells created by the tropical depression that had just hit the coast. We woke up to discover that we were about an hour behind schedule for our arrival to Cabo San Lucas. We got in line for another brunch in the main dining room that morning while Erik stood in line to get tickets to tender off the ship. The kids now knew to ask the waiter for chocolate frosted donuts.

Ian loved those chocolate pancakes! I think he ordered them just about every morning.

My omelet. It was good but slightly overcooked.

We still had time to kill after breakfast, so we spent some more time wandering around the ship waiting to drop anchor. The tender boats approached our ship and connected us to a floating dock. We were able to watch the entire time from our balcony. Unfortunately, we had to wait another hour for the guests with shore excursions to take their tenders to the marina. Finally, it was our turn for a rocking, 15-minute boat ride to Cabo.

Holding on tight while tendering to Cabo

Erik booked a private, 3-hour sailboat tour for us in Cabo. Unfortunately, the tour was scheduled to start at 1pm, but we didn't get there until about 2:30pm. They still took us out to see the arch and to swim by a beach. We couldn't actually go to a beach because the sailboat couldn't get very close to the shallow water. The photographer took a bunch of pictures of us and talked with us every chance he got (clever sales technique). While we were swimming, the crew made us some cheese quesadillas served with fresh pico de gallo and guacamole. We got suckered into buying the pictures. His original price was $200, but he gave us a screamin' hot deal (that was sarcastic) of $100. If he had just a bit more talent as a photographer, it may have been worth it, but a lot of the pictures were pretty bad. Fortunately, there were a couple decent ones:

Sea lions soakin' up the sun

A couple of good ones of the kids, although it couldn't have hurt the photographer to ask them to look and smile, there were too many that were just garbage. I posted only the best here.

It looked like Grandma wanted to push Grandpa overboard, so we were surprised when she kissed him instead.

Cute pic of Elisa, but not really frameable.

A nice picture of Grandma

Gabe loved playing on the floating pad.

Erik did a flip into the water!

In the water. We didn't swim that long. We had to wear the life vests. The water was a good temperature. The kids liked playing on the mat. I thought we would stay longer than we did.

A view of our ship from the boat

We wanted to walk around Cabo after our sailboat tour, so we braved the walkways of the marina only to be accosted by people trying to convince us to buy tours, souvenirs, prescription medications, and hair braids. Elisa got suckered into hair braiding with some lady who offered to do it for $30. I didn't have $30 cash, only $15, but she took what I had and got to work. She was a fast braider and did a good job, I'm still trying to figure out how she weaved in the purple hair so well. I think it was worth $15, but $30 is kinda steep for that. While I sat with Elisa during her hair braiding, everyone else took shelter inside a gift shop where they weren't badgered quite as much. We bought a few small souvenirs, which the owner kept offering lower prices for when we said we didn't want it. Even though the ship would stay anchored in Cabo for 24 hours, we decided that we had seen enough and made our way back. Afterall, there wasn't too much to do in Cabo, especially for the kids. 

Wandering around Cabo

Getting her hurr did.

Being silly on the tender on the way back to the ship

Our tender arrived back at the ship just in time for us to change clothes and head to dinner. This was probably our least favorite dinner, which is understandable since there were maybe 5 other tables in the entire dining room with people eating. Our waiter recommended the Mississippi Mud Pie for dessert; that's all I remember.

I ordered the mushroom risotto. It was okay; I didn't finish it all. It was more of a side dish than an entree. 

My cheese appetizer plate. Not bad. Not amazing, but a few steps up from that "charcuterie" plate I had for breakfast the day before. 

Mud pie for dessert. It was pretty good.

After dinner, we went back to our stateroom to get ready for the evening show. Erik had walked out to the helicopter pad and offered to take Elisa and his parents there. We watched them on the bridge camera channel. The show was the "headliner" tribute to Whitney Houston. The singer did a really good job singing songs like "Saving all my love for you," "Greatest love of all," "I wanna dance with somebody," and "I will always love you." She did a few songs that I have never heard before, which was awkward when she asked the audience to sing along. Overall, it was a good show, but it seemed like she did more talking than singing.

We found a towel-frog in our beds when we got back from dinner.

They're on TV! On the circle, Erik and Elisa are at 12 o'clock, and grandpa is at 3:30.

Erik took a panoramic view of Land's End, the arch, lovers' beach, the sunset, and Cabo.