03.02.2017 update

After we posted on Monday, we saw Steve Larkins, the Freddy Mercury impressionist and he as good as we remembered.  Neither of us ever saw Queen live, but just on YouTube.  He does a great  job, looks like Freddy and even has the teeth like Freddy.  A  great show and the audience seemed to like it.

Tuesday was Puerto Vallarta and we played tourist.  We took a shuttle bus to town and walked around a bit, looking at what has changed since we were last there.  And, not much had changed.  Same shops, same street vendors.  We rode into town in a nice and clean vehicle.  When we came back we were in a total beater, a no A/C cab and a driver that said not one word.  No grunts, nothing. There was a guy on the street corner that acts like a dispatcher and does the price arranging, where are you going, etc.  ICK! 

We talked to Steve Larkins on deck 7, the promenade deck when we were on a walk around the ship .  Nice guy, no pretensions.  He mentioned how uncomfortable he felt in a competition against the other three entertainers.  They all support other entertainers and don't like to compete with them.

The great entertainment continued.  We saw  Robby Printz on the big stage and Cheaza in the lounge on Tuesday.  Both were good.  The nice thing about Robby is that his humor is 100% clean, no bad language or off-color jokes.  Cheaza is very high energy and a wonderful vocalist.

Wednesday was March first, Colleen's first day Medicare eligible.  We received, online, our secondary insurance's invoice and it was 50% of the last one, the amount we have been paying since her early retirement ten years ago.  Nice way to start the day.

We were in Mazatlan Wednesday and had arranged a local guide through 'Tours by Locals' , a company we have used in the past.  They are generally less expensive than a ship sponsored tour and it was just us and the driver.  We were able to have his total attention and asked all the questions we wanted. He spoke excellent English.  His mother is from Minnesota and only speaks English, so he learned from her.  He spent some of his early years there.  Mazatlan is coming out of a tourist slump.  In the off season he has a friend in Bothell who puts him to work.  He is able to work in both countries and has dual citizenship.  We saw all the normal touristy highlights as well as some beautiful homes in the newest parts of town.

Our social schedule is getting quite full.  On Wednesday was the Captain's Circle Cocktail Party right after the Steve Larkins second performance, then a Production show called 'Magic to Do'.  Dinner finally about 9pm.  On Friday there is another Cocktail Party for the twenty most traveled passengers, and we both made the invite list.

Our favorite room service waitress, Sonja delivered another of our dinners.  She suggested she set up the dinner on the balcony.  It was very nice.  She delivered some peanut butter and chocolate ice cream for John's dessert and indicated that she likes peanut butter and chocolate.  We give a goodie bag of chocolate as part of our tip to all those that deliver our meals, we added a Reese's peanut butter cup to the next one if we are so lucky to have her again.

Cabo San Lucas, our third and final foreign port was visited on Thursday.  Another beautiful day, calm seas.  The weather has been perfect and the sailing smooth.  We tender in to this port as they have no dock or pier.  They use a combination of the ship's life boats and some independent tenders from Cabo.  A quick and easy trip in as we were the last ones on with no waiting.  Coming back was just as easy.  But we went in at 9:30 and were back on the ship at 11:30.  All we did in town was walk, looking into only a few shops. 

We really haven't been shoppers on this trip, breezing through the flea markets.  The products are largely the same from port to port and we have been here before.

John & Colleen