Our ship pulled into SUNNY Cabo San Lucas yesterday.
It’s nice getting into the shelter of the Baja peninsula. The seas calmed to the point that we can barely tell that we’re underway. If it weren’t for the rumble of the engines vibrating the ship, we would have no indication that we were moving.
Last night, somewhere in the wee hours of the morning (you know, when you just gotta go wee before you can fall back asleep) I leaned against the cabin wall. Since we didn’t have far to go and most of the ship was asleep, the engines were running quietly. With my ear pressed up to the wall, I could hear the sloshing of the bow cutting through the shallow waves. Our cabin is forward on deck five, right about where the waves foam out after being sliced by the bow. I could imagine our sleek white bulbous bow gently shoving its way through the waters as we headed toward Mazatlan last night.
Back to yesterday and Cabo.
As we neared the Cabo coastline, most of the early risers were up and past breakfast. I was wandering deck 7 with my camera at the ready, working on ship décor photos. A woman along the railing, near the aft Art Gallery doors, pointed excitedly at the waves. I spied the mist of a marine mammal’s blowhole discharge. Camera up, waiting. What kind of creature was it? A whale of some sort? A porpoise? A Mexican version of Nessie?
It breached just enough to breathe again, then the flukes of its tail appeared and went upright, perhaps in a wave to us, just before it slid under the surface again. I spent another moment or two scanning the waves for another mist cloud. Nothing. So I kept walking forward.
Eventually, I found my wife sitting on deck near the doors to the Stardust Theater, reading in a lounger, near several other people. One woman had her chair pulled up to the railing. Her left hand had four fingers stretched out, with her thumb tucked in as she stared out at the coastline sliding by.
After a few minutes, the woman at the rail sat bolt upright. Her right hand, with the index finger rigid, pointed out at the waves. “Another one, there!” she exclaimed. “And there!”
She turned around to a friend sitting near us in the loungers. She held up her left hand with all finger and thumb splayed out, joined by a single finger held aloft on her right hand. “That’s six, so far!”
Wife and I had moved to the railing by then. We debated what type of critter we were seeing. (folks that went on a Whale Watching excursion said they were humpbacks) I surmised orca based on the dark tail with white splotches I had photographed waving. Wife said she thought the larger shapes were brownish in hue. Somewhere during our discussion and guesswork, a porpoise breached the waves in a series of leaps. I managed to get a few clicks of him doing his dance.
I wondered if the Jewel was stirring up plant life in the shallow waters, which got the fish out to feed, and brought out the porpoise and his buddies to dine on the fish?
But, the Jewel and her captain weren’t here to whale watch. He kept the ship on course, and as we rounded the final outcropping and turned toward our anchor spot off Cabo, we watched other small vessels converge on the area where we had seen our finned buddies doing their dance.
“HOLA!” the voice from the ceiling greeted us. Sin had us all trained well. Everyone around us yelled “Hola!” back, despite being on deck, when Sin was tucked inside an office somewhere broadcasting instructions throughout the ship. Tender tickets were distributed, and several of the Jewel’s lifeboats and some of the Cabo boats would spend the day transporting cruisers to and from the ship to the shore.
Wife and I dined again in O’Sheehans. I had the corned beef on rye, wife had the chili dog.
After lunch, with Sin’s voice from the ceiling still calling tender ticket numbers, wife headed up to the pool deck to catch some sun (and a nap). I wandered the decks some more, looking for bits of the ship that had been upgraded since our last visit in ’08. I found a few.
One of the worst changes is how the casino expanded into the “hallway” along the starboard side of deck 6. That used to be a good way to get from bar city (Magnums) to the Stardust Theater. Even though the casino was full of smokers, one could make a quick walk either way in a straight line, and minimize exposure to cigarette smoke (I’ve got asthma, and cigarette smoke is a trigger for me).
Of course, our cabin is near the forward elevators. To avoid having to dodge and weave our way through the casino that has expanded into the former walkway, in order to get to Magnums from our cabin, we’re running up to deck 7, through the walkway on Fizz (exposing ourselves to Karaoke, which in some cases is almost as deadly as smoking!) then down the grand staircase. Oh well, I can use the exercise, but I’ll try to avoid lower decks in the fore of the ship from now on since we tend to spend a lot of time near the piano in bar city.
Dinner was back at Tsar’s. I had the striploin steak, and wife enjoyed the Whole New York Striploin Roast with taters and broccoli. Carrot cake and caramel brownies rounded out the meal. The best part about not getting off the ship in Cabo (besides avoiding the tenders) is getting in to eat before the crowds. We enjoyed a window seat on the port side and got to watch the sun set behind the Cabo mountains.
We caught the “Funny Fiddle” show with Chris Pendelton. I won’t spoil it, except to say that my only disappointment was that the fiddle didn’t tell one single joke. The comedian was funny, but a name like “Funny person with a fiddle” just doesn’t have the same chutzpah as “Funny Fiddle.” If you’re on with Chris and the fiddle, definitely catch the show.
We headed up to Spinnaker for the Beatles tribute. It was standing room only. Next Stage, the party band with one girl and four guys, was mysteriously missing the lady. Then it dawned on me. Doh!
They had a lot of energy and got the crowd dancing. It’s interesting hearing the Phillipino accents in the songs when our brains are used to the English accents of the original Fab Four. All in all, a good show, once my brain got used to the changed accents.
Following that, was the Love Boat Dating Game show. It was OK… painful at
times, but still funny. Typical set up: one “bachelor” and three mysterious “bachelorettes” on the other side of a screen (followed by vice-versa with the genders). Questions like “If you were a Super Hero, what would your name be, and what super power would you use on me?”
Of course, being a real bachelor/ette wasn’t a requirement for being a contestant – and having a mom with pre-teens in the audience be in one of the three chairs killed off a lot of fun answers from one contestant. Some good laughs, but I’m not sure this is on the must-see list until they eliminate the under 16 patrons to get the parental angst out of the room.
After that, we caught more of Marissa in the Crystal Atrium. She’s got a good vibe and an excellent range. I spent some more time looking at her song list, and see that she’s got about 40 songs, ranging from Johnny Cash to Adele, Janis Joplin to Tom Petty. Good variety for guitar and vocals. She connects well with the audience, and loves little tykes in “Footie-Jammies.”
