Cabo San Lucas: April, 2008

After a delicious breakfast in the Windjammer Buffet, we picked up tender tickets to visit Cabo San Lucas. Cruise ships are too large to dock on Cabo's shore, so instead they anchor in the harbor and use lifeboats to take people to shore. We followed Princess's direction to not pick up tender tickets until we were ready to go to shore, but if you want to get onshore as early as possible, pick up your tickets when they begin offering them and then go to breakfast. It took an hour for them to put us on a tender. We had reserved an excursion for noon, so we weren't in a hurry to get off the ship in the morning. Despite the delay in catching a tender, we still had time to walk around the marina and still arrive at the Buccaneer Queen's pier an hour early.

We backtracked to a sidewalk restaurant on the harbor to cool our heels. Three sodas and a beer (for some reason, it feels normal to drink a beer before lunch in Mexico) including tip cost $5, busting rumors that Cabo San Lucas has become an overly expensive tourist trap. On a nearby boat, the proud fisherman displayed a marlin they caught, and when Amy went over to snap a photo, they invited her over to have her picture taken with it.

The Buccaneer Queen sailed on schedule at noon, and complimentary drinks were offered from the outset until the end. Used in the Geena Davis swashbuckling movie, "Cutthroat Island," the pirate ship is manned by a fun-loving crew. The disc jockey played lots of good reggae and pirate music, and there was even an upbeat song about Cabo San Lucas. At the famous arch, the ship stopped to allow lots of photos. We enjoyed the scenic cruise along the coast, and the smooth ride left no one sea sick.

Arriving at our destination of Chileno Bay, we put on masks, snorkels and flippers to explore the undersea world. The water on the West Coast of Mexico isn't nearly as warm as in the Caribbean or Hawaii, but it wasn't uncomfortably cold, either. There were plenty of fish, although at first it seemed they were mostly shades of gray. They might be tasty, but they don't make for dazzling shows. We had been warned not to get too close to the rocks by the shore because of jellyfish but I think that was their way of keeping people from damaging the coral in the shallow parts. Because the best snorkeling is always by the rocks, that's where we headed, and we never encountered any jellyfish. It turned out to be a good display, including parrot fish, what looked like some kind of leopard variation of tangs that were extremely large, trumpet fish and many brightly colored fish of several sizes, colors and varieties.

The water was just cold enough to make us happy to get back onboard within the 45 minutes designated for this part of the excursion. On the ride back, they served a decent lunch of chips, salsa, guacamole, fruit and chicken salad sandwiches. I might have been the only one in our family to eat my sandwich, but I thought it was pretty good. I think the others were worried about eating food in Mexico. The crew lead a game of "Name That Tune" on the way back, with wrong answers requiring a team representative to drink a shot of tequila. We never missed a question, but I think some teams were missing on purpose. In the end, I was the only person to be able to identify the song, "Ghostbusters." I thought that was a recent song that everyone knows. I hate to think what that means.

We took a leisurely walk around the harbor heading back to the ship. When we arrived, we saw a massive line, but it turned out to be for two ships that were scheduled to leave before Dawn Princess. We cut through to our line and immediately boarded a tender back to the ship.

On a cruise, of course, a full day at shore leads to a full evening on the ship. After another great dinner (for me, Eggplant Parmigiana, Venetian Bean Soup, Spinach Salad with Vinaigrette, Shrimp in a spicy red sauce and Gelato), we headed over to the showroom to watch the production show, "Tribute."  Another great show with fantastic singing and dancing, this one featured the songs of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rat Pack and the pop divas of the early 1980s. We turned in after the show so we could be fresh for Puerto Vallarta, where we had another exciting day already planned.