Puerto Vallarta

Who says you can't find parking at the mall? We woke up in Puerto Vallarta on Wednesday August 20, parked right at the mall. And Walmart. Could you ask for anything less authentic?

Puerto Vallarta was a long port stop – from 9:00am to 1:00am. This was one port we had decided to do an excursion, so we were off to our Pirate Boat Sail & Swimming excursion first thing in the morning. It was a short walk from the Magic to the pirate ship “Magilante” parked at the next dock. We boarded and waited quite a while, as everyone boarded. There must have been close to 200 people on the ship!

The nice thing about this excursion was that everything was included – breakfast, lunch, drinks (soda, beer, mixed drinks) and so we could just have a good time. It was quite a long ride to the beach, with entertainment from the pirates along the way. There was a big show with pirates everywhere on board, swordfighting, jumping overboard. Not Disney quality but fun nonetheless.

Unfortunately, on the ride to the beach Brandon wasn’t feeling well. Or at least he was acting like he wasn't feeling well. We weren’t sure if it was real or not, he does this sometimes when he's not happy with what we're doing. It's one of those things that is hard to tell. He managed to survive the ride and by the time the show was ending he was watching and enjoying himself.

We arrived at the Las Mahautas beach – a secluded resort beach that several boat excursions seem to use – and we went ashore via boats to the beach for playing in the water and sand. Patrick and I enjoyed floating around in the waves while Brandon played in the shallows and in the sand. We met some nice people and chatted for a while. Just as I was in line to ride the Banana Boat it was time for us to board again. Once aboard, we rinsed off and then went down to lunch in the galley. The food was not bad, although I would have loved some Mexican food and it was normal cruise fare (chicken, fish or steak).

The ride back was enjoyable – Brandon was feeling fine, very animated. We heard the story of the ship and how it came to be in Puerto Vallarta, the kids got to play a while, there was some final dancing and games with the crew. Patrick and I had quite a few mixed drinks – Pepe just kept bringing them to us! We could see rain moving in over Puerto Vallarta as we cruised back and just as we were getting close it started to rain. I was on the edge of the cover and it dripped down and drenched me. No matter – it was warm, I was already wet from swimming and had a little alcohol in me so I was fine. The only problem was after so much work to keep my Birkenstocks dry (since I didn’t have water shoes yet!) they were soaked. Oh well.

It was 5pm by the time we got back in. We were going to go explore Puerto Vallarta in the evening, but between the rain and being tired out from the beach we revised our plans. It would have been nice to see the city, it's the one port we really didn't explore, but it seemed the best choice at the time. Patrick and Brandon went back to the ship to shower and get ready and I ran across the street to Walmart to get myself some water shoes since it was clear I would need them. So, would you believe, being parked at the mall came in handy after all!