December 2021

Then we stopped in PV during a cruise from Los Angeles to Chile in November 2019. We took the bus (10 pesos, about 50 cents US) right on the street outside of the cruise terminal to go into town (any bus that says “Centro” will work). I remember two things about this bus trip: (1) a guy got on the bus with a guitar & started entertaining the busload of people with songs and stories, (2) we thought we missed the stop we wanted (Cathedral) and ended up getting off too soon. Luckily, downtown PV is not big and we did find the church without too much difficulty. We walked around mostly covering the area known as the “Romantic Zone” mentioned in this walking tour article down to Cuale River Island, then came back around to the coast to a restaurant for lunch. Caught the same bus (toward “Marina”), checked out the shopping center across the street from the cruise terminal, then went back to the ship.

Frankly, I hadn’t paid much attention to the cruise stops on the way to Chile in 2019 because our main interest on that trip was Patagonia after getting off the ship. In December of 2021, we did a cruise leaving from Los Angeles just going up and down the western coast of Mexico. This meant each port stop deserved a full attention, and I decided to do a more comprehensive visit of Puerto Vallarta that I could fit into a day.

My plan started from the northern end of Malecon. It was a 10-15 minute cab ride (130 pesos) from the cruise terminal to Hotel Rosita behind which on the waterfront we found the sculpture below.

From here on heading south on Malecon, we saw a series of bronze sculptures by various artists. It’s an easy walk that will not take more than 15-30 minutes – depending on how much time you would want to spend with each piece, of course.

We stopped at the Friendship Fountain and went across the street to enter Plaza Principal de las Armas, the main square of downtown PV. From here we could see the Cathedral but did not go in because we had done that last time. If we added the Romantic Zone walking tour mentioned above at this juncture, that would have added about a half an hour, maybe.

We stepped back to the waterfront and continued walking south encountering a few more sculptures, then we arrived at Muertos Beach pier that looks like a metal sail in the photos below. We did not hurry to get here, but the whole trip just took a little over an hour. We were not hungry yet, thus, we sat on a bench on the pier and watched people having fun: swimming, laughing, sailing etc. We were even getting some kind of free WiFi signal here intermittently.

When we finally got back on track, the walkway ended in a few minutes at a restaurant called La Palapa. It is a nice looking beach side joint, and we had margaritas and some fish tacos. The prime location of the place was reflected in the menu prices. In hindsight, we should have had just drinks here and find fish tacos at a local hangout. One possibility for this: Marisma Fish Taco. Maybe next time.

We did find a nice cafe nearby La Palapa, though, and, had wonderful freshly made churros and hot chocolate at La Romantica Churros & Cafe.

The cab driver who took us back to the cruise terminal made a stop at a taco stand to order tacos for his lunch. I wish I could remember where that was! He drove us up and down mountain roads to avoid traffic, he said. He charged us 200 pesos. Our excursion took us about 3 hours. Combining the Malecon walk and the Romantic Zone walk, plus eating & drinking and some shopping, one can get a good sense of the place in 5-6 hours. English is widely spoken in this city.

I can see why Puerto Vallarta is popular among American expats: a nice beach town with warm weather & some local culture so that you can retire comfortably on social security in a place close enough to the U.S., yet, far enough to feel you are on a perpetual vacation. Over 30,000 have chosen this path according to public records, I have heard.

March 2020

As we were sailing east, we were informed that the ship had successfully added two additional ports.  The first was Khasab, Oman and the other was a return to Abu Dhabi. “Khasab? Where’s that?”

Khasab (population: 17,700) is situated on a peninsula jutting into the entrance of the Strait of Hormuz.  The peninsula is disconnected from the rest of Oman and is completely surrounded by the UAE.

Rather than waste more time trying to cancel flights, we booked a 3 to 4 hour dhow trip ($25) at the port through the Strait of Hormuz, viewing what were called fjords, a dolphin area, and, what turned out to be, an opportunity to go snorkeling.  Unfortunately we were not prepared for that.

On the way back to the ship, we were able to see some of the town and visit a “hypermarket.”

Khasab ended up being the highlight of the whole trip – a relaxing day on a floating dhow surrounded by unspoiled natural wonders. We will be happy to repeat the experience if there ever is another chance.

Trip route: LAX -> Vilnius -> Dubai -> Abu Dhabi -> Khor Fakkan, U.A.E. -> Muscat, Oman -> “Almost India” -> Khasab, Oman -> Dubai -> LAX

February 2020

Epilogue:

In late 2019, or possibly early 2020, we came across what seemed like an amazing cruise deal.  A 14 day round trip from Dubai, stopping at three ports (New Mangalore, Goa, Mumbai) in India, including an overnight in Mumbai, balcony cabin, for under $700 each, including taxes. This was on a cruise line we had never sailed on before, MSC, and one that didn’t have the best reputation, but the price was right and we had never been to India, so we obtained Indian visas and YK began planning the trip.

When we travel to a cruise, we always add other trips to each end to make the most of our plane fare. So YK dutifully booked an around the world itinerary.  We were to fly to London (Gatwick), then take an almost 2 hour train and bus ride to Luton where we would catch a flight to Vilnius, Lithuania.  After two nights in Vilnius we would join our cruise.  Following the cruise we were to fly to India for two nights, then Bangkok for three nights, then back to LA, with a plane change in China.  Things did not go as planned.

brown dots on this map show the actual route we ended up taking; the orange dots show the portion of the original plan that we had to give up.

The flight to Dubai (from Vilnius & via Stockholm) was another overnight flight arriving in the early morning.  Since we couldn’t board the ship until mid afternoon, YK had arranged for a hotel room where we could nap.  Unfortunately, when we got to the hotel we were told we couldn’t check in until 3, making the room useless.  YK had explicitly arranged for a morning check-in, but the clerk knew nothing about that.  She said we could wait in the lobby and she’d see what she could do.

After about an hour we did get a room, took a nap, had lunch, and headed to the cruise terminal.

Boarding:

This was Feb. 29 and the coronavirus had just begun its worldwide spread.  We had to fill out health questionnaires and have our temperature checked before we could proceed to the checkin counter.  It was there that we discovered we had an additional problem when YK handed over her Korean passport.

We were taken aside by a ship’s officer who explained that India was not permitting Koreans to enter the country and we would have to be denied boarding.  We explained that YK lives in the US and hadn’t been to Korea in 6 months.  We produced her green card and her passport showing the date of her last entry into the US.  We could show that we had flown from the US a few days ago and that she could not possibly have left and returned to the US since her last entry stamp.  This discussion went on for an hour or two with the officer leaving from time to time to confer with someone.  Eventually we were allowed to board.

We were not assigned a stateroom when we booked the cruise, just that we would have a balcony.  Given the price we paid, I assumed we would get a low end balcony room, but when we received our assignment the room was described as a suite.  

While I wouldn’t call our stateroom a suite, it was by far the largest stateroom we’ve ever had on a cruise.  Not sure how that came about.

As I mentioned earlier, MSC does not have the best reputation.  They certainly provide less.  I was surprised to learn that they do not serve water with meals.  If you want water, you need to buy a bottle.  For some reason, possibly related to our being in a “suite,” we received a “water package” and free bottled water at lunch and dinner.  I’m used to free use of the sauna for all passengers.  On MSC it was 10 euro an hour.

MSC advertises that it will match your status on another cruise line.  We used our elite status on Celebrity and received gold status on MSC.  Calling it a match, however, was not entirely accurate.  Our status on MSC entitled us to one 45 minute prosecco “hour,” two free pens and two free hours in the sauna.  On Celebrity we get a two hour cocktail hour every night and some free laundry and internet.

Still – the MSC cruise was significantly cheaper and if it had worked out it would have been fine.  But it didn’t.

Read about our time in: Abu Dhabi, Khor Fakkan, Muscat

Next on the cruise schedule were two days of sailing east across the Arabian Sea to India.  At dinner on the second day we received a message to report to guest services that evening.  Once there, we were informed that YK would not be permitted to disembark in India, again the Korean passport thing.  To verify how silly this was, I asked and was told that I could disembark, never mind that I had been sharing a cabin with her for a week.  The fear appeared to be the passport, not the virus.

This was more of a setback than you may realize.  I do no planning for these trips.  YK figures out destinations, transportation, etc. and I merely follow.  The thought of entering a strange city, in this case, New Mangalore, without her, was daunting.  To make matters worse, she was giving me assignments, places to call, sites to visit in order to cancel our now useless return flights.

In the end it didn’t matter.  The next morning the captain came on the PA and announced that India had just closed all ports to cruise ships.  We floated around for a while looking for alternative ports, but Sri Lanka and the Maldives were also closed.  So, we turned around and spent another two days heading back west.

Read about our time in Khasab and Dubai

At no time during the two weeks we were on the ship or at port, did I  have any concern about the virus.  There was never any illness on the ship and there was never a major virus threat in the UAE, Oman, or Turkey, where we changed planes on our return flight.

The first time I felt at risk was at LAX where we were crammed together for two hours in the immigration line with people from all over the world, very few masked.  Fortunately, we got home safely. Then the lockdown began.

Trip route: LAX -> Vilnius -> Dubai -> Abu Dhabi -> Khor Fakkan, U.A.E. -> Muscat, Oman -> “Almost India” -> Khasab, Oman -> Dubai-> LAX