Ok so we we headed to Los Angeles to get settled in for our last cruise of the Season. We are cruising for a week on the Royal Princess. Greg randomly emailed Princess Cruises back in September asking if they had a match program and they did so he sent in our offers from Celebrity and they offered us a free cruise which we booked right away. At the same time in September I did the research and made sure we always had somewhere to park the van. In this situation I booked a room at the Quality Inn with 7 days parking and a shuttle to the cruise port. It was a package deal that they offered on their website and I booked directly through Choice Hotels which is the group name for their Quality Inn. If you already read the last blog then you know that the Quality Inn did not honor my reservation. He kept insisting that what I paid was too low of a price for what they were offering. I kept telling him, it didn’t matter what he thought because I have 3 confirmation emails stating the price that was agreed upon. I felt like I was in the Twilight zone. I called Cooperate from the parking lot and the lady called him and still he wasn’t budging. It was so bizarre. So I refused to pay the extra money and cancelled my reservation and off we drove to the Cruise Port a day early. We stopped at Target, had some dinner and I gave Greg a haircut in the van.
We then headed to the port and found a spot for the night in the cruise lot which was 22 dollars a night. Normally we look for cheaper alternatives but really had no choice. The next morning we woke up to sirens. A huge house fire across the way!
Thankfully the wind was blowing in a different direction and we weren’t smoked out of the van. We were glad for the early wake up because we both still had to pack which we did then headed out of the van and into the very long line to get onto the ship. It was an hour long line but we did finally get on and headed straight to our room on Deck 15 to unpack. The room was nice, the bathroom was the smallest of any room we have ever had.
We had a nice lunch and then sat on the deck to watch the boat sail away. They play the Love Boat theme on the ships horn when they leave which is fun. They also have every season of the Love Boat on the TV in the room.
It’s a great ship. I would rate it top 3. (After the debarkation, the ship is no longer top 3, keep reading) I love that they play movies and concerts at the pool during the day instead of crazy activities and loud DJ music.
The Pacific Ocean ports in Mexico have been pretty good compared to the Atlantic Ocean Mexican Ports. A lot less hawking. In Cabo we had to take a smaller boat over to the port. There was a giant Marina with many yachts. They did a ticketing system to get off the ship so basically we just waited by the pool until all the ticketed people got off. We watched Lilo and Stich with an interruption announcement every 60 seconds to announce what ticket was boarding. This went on for hours. We finally got off and had a nice time walking among the yachts
Next day was Mazlatan. We waited again till after lunch to go onshore. Greg went first to see what it was like and then reported back to me poolside. I had the whole pool to myself so wasn’t I a rush to get off.
We were able to get some WiFi at a coffee shop and checked our emails and social media.
Next morning we woke up to the ship docked in Puerto Vallarta with a Walmart across the street.
That’s the only photo we took. We did find a nice beach within walking distance of the ship and the current and waves were way too strong for any kind of swimming so we searched for sea glass instead. Found about 5 pieces and then headed to Walmart for some skittles.
That night we saw another really bad magician. We have been on a roll for bad magicians on the cruise ships.
We did a little gambling after the show hoping to make enough points to get another free cruise from Princess. We have 2 more Sea days to get back to LA and the slots have been pretty tight. We made most of our points the first two days and since then the machines have been gobbling up our money which means less points. So we will see what happens these next couple of days.
Woke ip at 9 am. That is unheard of for me!! This is the benefit of the interior room. Complete darkness and silence. I plan on sitting by the pool all day today and watching movies and concerts on the big screen. The sun is currently behind the clouds. Hopefully it peaks out at some point.
Brrrrrrr. Cold day at sea for the most part. Did some daytime slot machine play and won over and over again. I had a very lucky day but still would have preferred sitting by the pool soaking up the sun.
Next day was debarkation day. They gave us a ticket for walk off group C at 7:40 am. We had never been given tickets with assigned times on any other cruise ship so we thought it was going to be very organized debarkation. The exact opposite was true. What a mess!!! Total chaos. No one directing where to go. Crazy long lines. People cutting. It was just a ridiculous mess!!! Nobody even looked or checked the lettered ticket to get off. Nobody adhered to their given times. There were no consequences to people being on the line that shouldn’t have been on the line. It was a completely terrible disbarkation. It really ruined the feel good feeling of a cruise and probably because of that I won’t sail Princess again. When we did finally, after an hour, reach the security point where they check you off, I said to the guy, “is anyone gonna check these tickets they gave us?” He said no. So I asked him then why do they even bother handing out the tickets if no one‘s gonna check the tickets? He didn’t have an answer for me. It’s like making a car reservation at a rental car place and then you get there and there’s no car available. Anyway, once we got off, we were right there in the parking lot which was nice so we hopped in the van and we drove away. Los Angeles traffic is not as bad as New York traffic so we got to our destination in three hours with a few stops along the way. Our next stop was the fountain of youth RV park and resort. Barbara and Frank were meeting us there with their camper and we spent a couple of days. They have two really nice pools and lots of different hot tubs at different temperatures and they have a couple of steam rooms and Pickleball courts and a library and laundry. A lot of stuff to do here.
They even have a snack bar with burgers and chicken wings. We went swimming in the pool and laid in the sun and then we took a ride over the next day to slab city. It’s hard to describe slab city it’s like an off grid lawless land where people come and live and do art installations everywhere. It’s pretty cool. A lot of the sculptures that are made of junk are really cool to check out. It’s amazing what you will find.
We headed further south to some BLM land just west of Yuma, Arizona. We found a nice spot in desert not too close to anyone else but also not too secluded to be afraid. The weather was awesome and we spent 6 days enjoying it. We drove into Yuma with the bikes and took a nice bike ride in a park with great bike trails all along the channels of water. They redirect a lot of the water from the Colorado River to bring it to all the farms. Yuma is the lettuce Capital of the world so they need that water.
We had a nice Mexican lunch in town afterwards and then headed back.
Next day was another wind-less day so Barbara and I were able to put together a puzzle. Then we went for a long truck ride down a dirt road for over an hour to check out a volcano.
The sunsets in this area have been amazing every night. The wind picks up at night so we’ve been watching movies in Barbara and Franks camper.
Next day Greg and I made appointments to head over to Algodones, they call this place Molar City with over a hundred dental practices all within walking distance of the border. Barbara and Frank came to enjoy the food and shops which was fun for them. Greg and I had some major dental work done so not so fun. I have some gum disease and bacteria so they had to do a deep cleaning and get rid of that tarter that was under my gums. 8 shots of Novacaine later and the work was painlessly done. We have to go back again today to get some crowns and a few extractions. Going to the dentist is never fun but atleast here in Algodones they do not empty out your entire savings account like they do in New York.
Next day we survived the dentist. I had some major infections and bacteria and wiggly dead teeth so I had to have 4 extractions done. I’m extremely happy with the results and the price and I’m happy with my new partial for my upper teeth. It’s still new but it feels pretty good.
Greg had 5 crowns put in and also had a wisdom tooth pulled. They put in temporary crowns the first day and he went back for permanent crowns the next day. It was a lot of work we had done. All that work for a thousand dollars each in a clean, professional, friendly and efficient dental office. I’m gonna put the link below of the place we went to. They also pick you up and drive you back to the border. They have a giant secure parking lot on the American side for 10 dollars a day and you just walk from there. It’s so convenient.
I’m gonna post the link to their price list page on their website for anyone that’s considering dental work in Algodones, Mexico. There’s atleast 200 dental offices in that town. We did a ton of research before settling on this place.
Barbara and Frank went out for a fancy schmancy Valentine dinner and we stayed back to keep an eye on Piper and to allow our mouths to heal up. Piper is a good girl.
Today we are heading to Yuma to get some laundry done and to get to the library to send out the blog. Then we will probably stay in this area for a couple more days just incase we have any issues with our teeth. If no issues we will probably start heading north to Vegas and Death Valley. We want to see the Wizard of Oz at the Sphere so that’s the plan for now. Library was closed for Presidents day so after laundry we had a bite to eat, (soft foods for me) and then did a little fake shopping and headed back. Im currently sending this out using Starlink in the desert. Tomorrow we head to Mittry Lake for a couple of days. Read all about it in the next blog.
The Van Stops Here 
Feels like months ago that we did that cruise! Great pictures!!!
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