Tuesday, January 28, 2020; Puerto Vallarta
We awoke to find the ship tied up at the Cruise ship terminal with Walmart just off the bow of the ship on the port side. We met for breakfast at 8am. George had booked a snorkeling excursion that left at 9:30am. The rest of us walked off the ship at 10am and headed south on the main road. The old town center was 3-4 miles to the south, but Janet had heard that there was a nice paved walkway much of the way, so we pushed Betty’s wheelchair to see how far we could go.
The Cruise ship terminal was nicely paved, so there was no trouble with wheeling Betty in her wheel chair, but the first sign of trouble was as soon as we got out of the terminal and had to descend some very steep “ramps” to reach the main street that runs between the cruise terminal and the old town. While there is a sidewalk running along this street, it is quite narrow in places and there are not uniform cut outs or ramps at intersections, so in several places, we had to “fly” Betty in her wheel chair with one of use lifting each arm and a third holding the push handles on the rear.
About 3/4 of a mile down the road, we crossed a small stream and then encountered a nice paved walkway that lead to a small public beach access next to a hotel. This allowed us to wheel Betty to the top of the beach where you could see the breaking surf and paragliders in the sky above. Unfortunately, the walkway ended at the loose sand, with no way to go up or down the beachfront. The adjacent hotel had fencing to discourage anyone who was not a guest from traversing the beach in front of their property. So we headed back towards the main street. Between the street and the beach was a nice open air shopping mall with paved walkways and ramps, but inexplicably all the stores required a 6” step up at the doors. We wandered through a couple of souvenir shops and a Mac store, that wasn’t an Apple store.
By the time we had circled around the shopping mall, it was approaching lunch time and Betty was pretty worn out. So we abandoned any attempt to get all the way to the old town area, and returned to the ship. As we entered into the cruise ship terminal, a large crowd swept in ahead of us, surrounded by security personnel and photographers. This as a group of important government officials who were attending a luncheon and folkloric dance performance in the center of the Cruise ship terminal. So we were treated to a brief folkloric dance show featuring musicians on drums and flutes and dancers dressed as a deer and hunter.
We had lunch at the Alfredo’s Italian restaurant in the Piazza. It wasn’t really the best place for Betty because it is hard to blenderize a pizza or calzone, but they did have some soups that we used as a base for her lunch. She was able to enjoy dessert though with tiramisu and an apple tart that was mostly flan.
After lunch, Betty was ready for a nap. We also took a brief nap, but then got off the boat to visit the Walmart, since that seems to be something everyone has to do. There is a Sam’s Club next to the Walmart, and they didn’t seem to require us to produce a Sam’s Club card to enter. It is like a Costco, but they also have 5 gallon containers of fabric softener and 3L bottles of soda. There are also shelves and shelves of Tequila and other liquors.
The Walmart has a very large grocery store which includes a meat and seafood counter that looks like an open air market. It was odd to see sliced meats and chops on a non-refrigerated table top. They were in trays that had ice under the brown paper, but we certainly aren’t used to seeing cut meats laying out uncovered and unrefrigerated.
The Walmart did have free wifi, but the connectivity was a little iffy. Ben had lost a lens cap somewhere in the cruise ship terminal, so he ordered one from eBay using the wifi at Walmart.
After returning to the ship, we met up with the rest of the family for a Folkloric Dance show with local artists in the Vista Lounge. It was a good show, and it was interesting to find out that the man who created the dance troupe, which has toured world-wide, had originally gotten his start as a room steward on Princess in the 1970’s. He got the idea of putting together a cultural show for cruise ships and Princess Cruises was the first to use his show in the early 80’s.
Since the folkloric dance show as during our usual dinner seating, we ended up having dinner in the buffet, and then attended the early performance of “The Secret Silk” Princess Production show. It was Ben’s second time seeing the show, and it seemed to make more sense the second time. There are a lot of gimmicks borrowed from other shows like puppets that look like they were taken from the muppets and The Lion King. Some of the music seems a bit of a stretch for a show that is set in the orient, but it is all popular music that is well performed. The dancers are stuck with rather drab costumes and background dancing for most of the show, taking a back seat to the show’s attempt at a progressive story line. Ben still prefers the Magic to Do show, which is another Princess/Stephen Schwartz production.
Tomorrow, we arrive in Mazatlan. Ben and Janet have an excursion booked to learn how to make salsa, and also dance the salsa. Franklin, Dave and George will explore the port with Betty.
