January 3, 2008: Day 6 – Took us 25 years to get back to Puerto Vallarta

Docked once again. This 3 days a row in port starts to get tiring. I finally rolled out of bed around 8:30 and took a shower, Gary then finally opened his eyes around 9. He never even heard the PA announcement and the ship being cleared just after 8!

We had breakfast in the Windjammer, took a stroll around deck so see how huge the city has become and then disembarked and caught a shared cab downtown.

My has PV grown. Took about 15 minutes to get downtown, lots of traffic and people but it was great looking about and seeing what we could recognize. Saw the resort we stayed at, Pelicanos, also the 2 hotels that bordered ours, Sheraton Bouganvillas and Fiesta Americana. PV has become very Americanized, saw 2 Starbucks, Chilis, Outback, McDs of course and lots of other stuff. After being dropped off we walked around and tried not to get attacked by time share vultures. Gary got snagged and it only took 5 minutes to get him away. I took lots of photos of the beach area and downtown. We didn’t buy anything, just looked about.

We had our returning cab drop us at Wal-Mart, about a 15 minute walk from the pier. There we looked around at their liquor prices, etc., but we didn’t buy any. Did buy some chipotle sauce, dulce de leche sauce, hat for Gary and some Pepsi Lights (hate the coke products on the ship). Walked back to the ship and ducked into a souvenir shop where I picked up some vanilla, two small handmade bowls and a couple of bracelets. Thus was our trip into PV.

After dropping everything we ventured up to the Windjammer for lunch and then back to the Centrum for an attempt at the internet, no such luck again.

We decided to get dressed early and then have a drink before dinner, like normal people do. We had a Key Lime Martini which didn’t taste nearly limey enough for me. Unfortunately in his attempts to wave away a gnat that was flying about his face, Gary sent his glass flying to the floor and the carpet got to drink his martini instead. We attempted to go into dinner at 6 pm only to realize that since we were in port so late (8:00 pm) that dinner was changed to 6:30. Instead we stood out on the deck and watched the sun set which was awesome.

Dinner tonight consisted of Spinach Salad, Maryland Crabcake and the Grilled Pork Chop with Apple Cranberry Relish. For dessert I had Dulce de Leche Cheesecake. Had a rousing conversation with our tablemates about movies tonight. We have somewhat similar tastes.

After dinner we strolled around the shops, then claimed our seats for showtime. Tonight it was Roger Behr, a comedian, musician and impressionist. Gary recognized him from the movie Defending your Life (we checked his Zune later, sure enuf it was him). He was very funny and I’m almost certain we’ve seen him perform before.

After dinner we had a nightcab in the Schooner Bar and then went up on deck to Dancing Under the Stars, a deck party with a rather large buffet. We listened to some of the music, then I grabbed some fruit, cheese and a dessert and we headed down to our cabin. Finally off the bed around 12:30 pm.