A Trip Down Memory Lane – Day 12

We were up bright and early again, but this day we needed to be. We had an early start for an excursion to one of my happy places. This also happened to be my birthday. We got up and ready. Then we headed to the crown lounge for some coffee and a pastry. Graham had a fruit Danish, and I had a chocolate donut. Then we went down one deck to the Royal Theatre as this was the meeting point for our excursion. We got there quite early, and I wondered if they were ready for us. The door closest to us was locked, but there was a table set up on the other side. We checked in and were sent to another table inside. There they checked our tickets again and we were given stickers with the number of our excursion. We were then directed to as specific section of seats. Our meeting time came and went, and we were still waiting. Some other excursions had been called. Initially, it was quite slow, but then they called a few groups together including ours. It was a bit of slow down and hurry up. That gave us the opportunity to quickly get a couple of photos. Once we left the dock, things started to move a bit more. When we got to the marina, we had another short wait. There was still another tour boat at the dock where our boat was supposed to go, but fortunately this moved away shortly after we got there. Soon our boat was docked, and we were able to get on board. Shortly afterwards, we were on our way to Las Caletas.

The first part of to 60-minute boat trip from Puerto Vallarta to Las Caletas was quite bumpy and I did start to wonder if this was another wash out in terms of snorkelling. However, things got a lot calmer as we got closer to Las Caletas. Pretty much as soon as we had left the marina, I got a special “birthday present”. A blue-footed booby flew across the bow of the boat right in front of us a few times. They are absolutely gorgeous birds that have feet that are a true Tiffany blue. Our visitor did not show us his blue feet, but they have very distinct facial markings, and this is definitely what this was. When we encountered them previously, we were also docked at Puerto Vallarta. The Marietas Islands National Park is about 28 miles outside Puerto Vallarta and consists of a number of uninhabited islands. One of those islands is home to a breeding colony of blue-footed boobies. When we went there back in 2011, blue-footed boobies could only be found there and on the Galapagos Islands. There range has fortunately expanded since, and they can be found from Southern California all the way down to Peru. They are still not all that common outside their traditional breeding areas and seeing of them so close to land was a wonderful treat.

During our trip across to Las Caletas, they served a variety of juices. They also did their best to sell us additional services. All the crew members were introduced together with information with what they did at Las Caletas. I was only mildly tempted by the sea lion encounter. We had done this in 2014 and it was an amazing experience. However, at that time, we had to go across the area where the interaction took place on a small boat. Getting on and off this boat was not a lot of fun even in flat calm water. I most certainly did not fancy braving this with rougher conditions. It turned out that no more boat is required as they have built a path that links the two areas. I did not find this out until it was nearly time to leave. Still, I have no regrets. I would not have changed anything about the day and doing the sea lion encounter would have eaten too much into the day.

At some stage, the photographers that came with us took photos of everybody on board. As we got closer to Las Caletas, the person in charge gave us a quick run-down on where to find everything. He also gave us an overview of the timeline of our visit. As we approached the bay where Las Caletas is located, the sea was suddenly very calm. We got our first glimpse of Las Caletas, which to me is a little slice of paradise.

Las Caletas is part of the mainland, but due to its location and surroundings, it can only be reached by boat or by hiking through the jungle. The home of Hollywood director John Huston was once located there. Caletas is now leased and operated by Vallarta Adventures, and they have the exclusive usage rights. This means that the number of people that are allowed every day is very limited. As a result, there are no lines for anything, and it is easy to find somewhere to sit.

The first thing that we noticed had changed from the last time we visited is that they now offer welcome tacos. This sounded great when this was mentioned, but they were not yet ready when we got to the restaurant area. In the end, we decided not to wait, but headed straight to the sports beach to do some snorkelling. This turned out to be a wise decision. We  were the first people in the water. We left our stuff on a round lounger nearby and then decided to test the water. It was a pleasant temperature and not too bumpy. Graham offered to go back to get our snorkelling stuff. I took him up on this offer. Once we had our snorkelling stuff, we got told off. We were told that we needed to life vest. It seemed a little silly that you could swim without a life vest, but you needed on for snorkelling. Still, it is their resort and their rules. Something good came out of it as well. They had some pigs out on the path about the sports beach and I stopped for some photos.

We snorkelled for about 45 minutes. We saw all kinds of interesting fish. To the naked eye, the water looked crystal clear, but on the photos, it was actually pretty cloudy. At some stage, a photographer waived us over and we took some photos. There was a bit of a current building and we decided that we had done enough snorkelling. The ocean was still calm out in the bay, but it had got quite bumpy near the beach. Getting back out to the beach was not a mean feat. I decided that I was done with the sea, but Graham went back for a swim.

Once Graham had enough of the sea as well, we decided to go and do some more exploring. Not far from our lounger was a series of tide pools that were nice and sheltered. We explored that area and saw a lot of crabs. Nearby in the shallows, they had set up some hammocks. This was very tempting. The hammock was actually surprisingly comfortable. I lounged for a while. There were some photographers in the area as well and we got some more photos.

We spoke with a family from Kentucky for a bit. They were first time cruisers, but had caught the cruise bug. They recommended that we should try the starfruit margarita. When we said goodbye to them, we headed back to our lounger. It did not take long until a bartender came by, and we did order a starfruit margarita. It really was amazing. We relaxed for a while and then we decided to slowly head back towards the restaurant area. It was not long before they were due to start serving lunch. I took some more photos on the way.

It was still a little early for lunch when we got there, but we were shown to a table with a very nice view over the bay and a bartender took our drinks order. I had a mango margarita and Graham had a beer. We were quite happy to just sit and relax. Once the buffet was open, we went to get some food. Graham had grilled fish, salad, bread, onion rings, fried chicken, and some tortilla chips. I had some of the fried chicken, Mexican rice, carnitas, taco meat, beans, tortilla chips and guacamole. Everything was tasty. I ended up having some seconds of the chicken, tortilla chips and guacamole. The desserts were nothing to write home about. I could not even tell you what it actually was what I had.

By the time the restaurant started to get busy, we were almost done. Once we were finished, we still had about an hour left. We decided to head towards the wildlife trails. They have a number of animal encounters there. On previous visits, they had snakes, monkeys, and parrots there. This time round, it was all birds. We met a parrot first followed by some lorikeets. The highlight though was meeting their Harris hawk. Most people in the area watched this bird from a respectful distance and could not be convinced to come closer. I happily took them up on the offer to provide a perch for the bird as this Graham. Because there were no other willing volunteers, we got to spend quite a bit of time with the Harris hawk. This was an amazing experience. 

Once we had said goodbye to the birds and their handlers, we just had enough time to use the bathroom before the signal sounded that summonsed everybody back to the boat. We made our way back to the dock and were among the first people back, which meant that we got some nice shady seats.

As much as I love Las Caletas, I detest the boat trip back. The crew always puts on a “show”, which boils down to people with very little talent making a lot of noise. This is definitely not my idea of fun. They also have an open bar on the way back, but not even all the alcohol in the world would make this bearable. We passed on the free-flowing drinks.

The photographers were making the rounds on the way back to encourage people to look at their photos. They had set up a number of laptops in the bar area. They did not do a great deal of business, but we went to have a look. The price for the digital package was fair. Graham said that if I wanted the photos, this could be the final part of my birthday present. I took him up on the offer. The bird photos were missing, but they managed to find them and added them to my folder. I had to fill out an order form. They used to send the photos on CD in the past, but they have now entered the 21st century. They are now sending the photos by email. There was just one issue. The form had to be filled out on paper, which is not an easy feat on a moving boat. I was advised that I would receive the email with the photos later that day. When I checked the following morning, there was no email. They obviously could not read my handwriting. To give them credit though, when I sent them an email quoting the order number, they replied straightaway and an hour later, I had my photos.

Fortunately, once we saw the first buildings of Puerto Vallarta, the “show” stopped and peace and quiet was restored. It did not take long after this until we were back at the dock. They were running golf carts back to near the ship. Even though we did not have that active a day, I was grateful about the prospect of not having to walk back to the ship. The golf cart that was there when we got off the boat was full, but we did not have to wait long for another one to arrive. We got dropped just outside the gate to our dock. I managed to get some more photos of our ship and then we headed through the little market that had sprung up in this area. We only stopped at the stall of a local animal sanctuary that had brought some of the parrots that they care for. They offered photos for a donation, but neither of us had any cash on us and we passed. We headed back to the ship and even though there was a bit of a line, it did not take long until we were back on board.

We headed back to the cabin.  We had acquired quite a bit of sand and also needed to wash off the salt. We took turns getting showered and then we already got changed for dinner. We then headed up to the solarium bar. I had not had as many Lime and Coconut cocktails as I had planned, and I figured I should at least have one on my birthday. The solarium was pretty busy. We took our drink to the area between the solarium and the main pool area and enjoyed the view while we had our cocktails.

We got to the Schooner Bar well ahead of evening trivia. This had the advantage that I managed to get one of the bigger tables that had plenty of space for the whole dream team. Everybody was present as well. We both had a desert pear margarita while we waited. While we were waiting for evening trivia to start, the host decided to ask if anybody was celebrating something. We had three birthdays, and the Schooner Bar sang happy birthday to us. We did great with the trivia that evening and scored 18 out of 20, which was the winning score. The price that evening was gold medals. They did not have enough for everybody on the team, but as we have a couple of those already, we were happy to pass. We were joking with the host that now we needed to complete the collection and get silver and bronze medals to. She did have a bronze medal in her back, which actually looks more like rose gold and she gave this to me.

The rest of our team had to leave to go to early dinner, but we went upstairs to the Star Lounge for Ultimate Disney Trivia. This was a huge trivia with a mix of songs, video clips and trivia questions. We did not do well with this and only scored 26 out of 67. The winning score was 60.

As we came out of the Star Lounge, I decided to peak through the window in the door of the crown lounge. Not long before this cruise, there was a major storm in the teacup when the former diamond lounges were renamed to crown lounge and not long after this, there were reports that one cruises with a high proportion of diamond and above Crown and Anchor Society members, diamond members were excluded from the crown lounge during the evening happy hour. Personally, I could not care less about this. We like the crown lounge during the day for casual breakfast or to get some decent coffee. However, we can count the times we went there during the evening happy hour on one hand and have fingers to spare. This is just not our scene. I can understand that in the past this would have been attractive as they were serving unlimited complimentary drinks during the evening happy hour. However, by the time we were eligible for access to the diamond lounge, they had changed to a system where they added three free drinks coupons to your Sea Pass card every evening. Pre pandemic, these vouchers were only valid during the happy hour and could only be redeemed for a limited drinks menu, but they were valid at any bar, and we preferred this over the diamond lounge. Since the pandemic, the vouchers are valid all day with the same caveats than the drinks package. They also upped the allowance to 4, 5 and 6 vouchers a day respectively for the three highest tiers. If you have a drink in the crown lounge, this comes out of this allowance. The only added benefit of the crown lounge is that they offer a selection of hot and cold canapés. However, neither of us feels the need to have canapés just before a multi-course dinner. When I peeked through the window in the door, it looked empty. We decided to go in and indeed, we were the only people there. We sat down with a cup of coffee before heading for dinner.

Graham had suggested that we could do a specialty restaurant for my birthday, but the menu that evening was A Taste of Italy, which is one of my favourite menus and I passed on this idea. Dinner was nice again. Graham started with crispy Parmesan arancini, and I had the vegan golden polenta fries with a chilled creamy hazelnut red pepper spread. For his main course, Graham chose the vegetarian option, which was a creamy mushroom risotto. Rohan suggested that he could add some grilled chicken breast and Graham took him up on the offer. I had the chicken Parmesan with spaghetti and marinara sauce. For his dessert, Graham had the lemon curt tartlet with torched meringue,  and I had tiramisu. Dinner was very nice again.

After dinner, we stopped for some photos. They had three different backdrops out that evening. Then we went back to the cabin and headed for bed.