Cruise back to LA

On the way back to I started to learn a lot more about the cruise lines. It was one one of these nights that I met a good portion of the crew at the dance club. I would have to say that my dancing is rather enhanced by the slight rocking motion of the boat. It was a really good time.

Up until this night in particular, the crew was forbidden to interact with the passengers socially. Since this was the Cruise Director's last voyage, there was something of a farewell party. Later that evening, when hanging out with the Cruise Director, I got a number of financial figures about the boat out of him. There was a great deal of speculation amongst our party regarding how old the boat was and what time period the decorations were from.

The Carnival Pride is a $440M boat, 2001 model. Newer, nicer boats run as much 800+M.
As I suspected, the crowd is drawn with food and shows, and the staff is primarily international workers with a lower than average wage (too low for land, but includes free stay and food, and rates are more competitive internationally). It takes something like 18 years to pay off a boat, and older, cheaper junk boats are pure cash cows. At most they get 6 years of profitability out of them, often times due to service and pressure for upgrades, only a short while.

The ticket prices range from $750 - $2500 and on the whole, a small loss is taken on the tickets. The profit comes from the $2.5m in incidentals (primarily alcohol and gambling). I should have noted while all the food is free on the boat, the drinks are fairly pricey. I suppose a $6 margarita is not bad, but the prices can quickly add up. If one is in to soft drinks rather than water or juice, a refillable mug can be purchases for $45 and used for the duration of the trip. Alcohol may be acquired in port, or even purchased duty free on the ship, but it must be stowed for the duration of the trip in a special locker.

I have to say that bar none my favorite experience was sitting up on the bow of the boat late at night by myself. Sailing through the night air at full steam into a sea of blackness is great for thinking. As the warm breeze blew in my face, I would try to spot contours in the water and stretch my mind to invent distant thoughts and visions until the sunrise came. It was definitely a calming and meditative experience. I was very surprised to see few if any other guests come to that area of the ship, and enjoy the ride. They seemed to be more interested in drinking and dropping cash at the casino. There were certainly a lot of seedy characters along for the ride.

In all, when I left I felt rather relaxed and recovered from China. It was the perfect recovery from the whirl wind touring. I had great food, warm weather, and time to think and to sleep, and to process the experiences I had been through.

As I left the ship I was pleasantly surprise to find that I had been credited $35 to my on ship account automatically. Since all I had purchased was a single Jack and Coke, I returned triumphantly with a $31 check from Carnival in hand. Many of my friends had multi-hundred or even thousand dollar bills. At that point, I was definitely glad I hadn't felt like partying on ship.

Cabo San Lucas

What can I say about Cabo? Cabo was pretty decent. Fairly popularized but not so bad. The port is too shallow to draft a cruise boat, so you have to be shuttled in on little transport ships. You can always tell when you're in a real foreign tourist trap. Despite Cabo's appearance, the fact that all merchandise was labeled and denominated in US dollars rather than pesos was a pretty clear signal. I wandered all around Cabo by myself looking for the best Cuban cigars. I ran in to all sorts of people and got into a few spot conversations in Spanish.

I had people trying to sell me cigars out of vending refrigerators and convenience store counters. Most of them were worthless and dried out beyond belief. I finally found two local locations with a walk in humidors and a fine selection. I bought cigars from both, though I paid a bit above market. The first location was the cheapest, but in hindsight, it was worth paying more for the quality of the second. I talked to the shop owner and she advised me as to how much Cabo had been and would continue to be increasing in real estate value.

On the way back through town I ran into some friends at a open air restaurant a ways off the path. We enjoyed quesadillas and mariachi music. We walked back towards the ship and tried to avoid all the nick-nack peddlers and drunk people stumbling out of Sammy Hagar's Mas Tequila experience.

Mazatlan

I really got into Mazatlan. The area was less developed and far more "authentic". I took an open air taxi into town with a friend. An open air taxi is translation for souped up golf cart with chrome wheels and a ghetto rigged stereo. The first sound I heard in Mazatlan with Eminem and 50 Cent bouncing out of the cab's stereo. Watch out for these guys, a ride in to town should run about 30-40 pesos. If you don't say anything they'll charge you 100 or so. By comparison its 7 pesos for the bus. Jet Skiing or Paragliding on the beach runs about 35 pesos.

We started by heading down the to Market. Mazatlan still has a traditoinal Mexican market, complete with counterfit merchandise and butchered pigs heads greeting you at every turn. You can truly get lost in its sometimes crowded and twisting aisles, until suddenly you appear outside again.

After the market, I headed down to the beach. We found a gap between building and got our feet in the sand. I haggled for a pair of sunglasses and headed towards the center of the action. There we met up with other friends and I enjoyed a rather large and rather strong $6 strawberry margarita. We sat and watched as local boys played soccer in the sand, and visitors took sailboats out in the breeze.

Puerto Vallarta

To be honest, I didn't see much of Puerto. What I did see, didn't look too appealing. Sprawling habitation, a Walmart and a Sam's Club were on the north side the pier. The on-ship internet is ungodly expensive so, I went just off the boat to a $2/hr internet cafe and took care of some business. At the cafe, I met eyes with who I thought was an attractive Mexican girl.

I would find out later that she was actually a ship employee, and from Estonia (or Latvia or one of those Balkan places). Whoops.

Each day in port there are numerous shore excursions. You have to pick one, often times the best ones book up fast. I actually skipped out on these and caught up on rest from my Shanghai all nighters. Most were rather expensive, and the crew memebers I had met indicated they were rather lame. I would later recieve mixed reviews from friends.

The on-ship entertainment however, was rather good.