Having lived in San Diego for over 6 years, I had never taken a cruise, partly because I thought that a vacation that’s so completely regimented was meant for only families with kids or old retirees. And besides, there were still so many other exciting places in the world that I had not seen yet, which cannot be accessed by the lazy tourists on a cruise ship!
However, active vacations not only require energy during the trip but also plenty of advanced planning. After planning the trip to Europe (Prague and Vienna mostly on our own without resorting to any packaged tours), I did not feel like planning another complicated vacation. Therefore, for this Thanksgiving break, I thought to myself, “well, perhaps it’s not a bad idea to try going on a cruise, since everyone else seems to love cruises.” Besides, I had made a unofficial and loose decision a few years ago to be outside of the United States during Thanksgiving, as much as possible. It was not my hidden Bohemian streak that made me want to defy tradition. I have concrete reasons to dislike Thanksgiving. It’s 4 days long, and yet it’s a nightmare to travel in the States – it feels like a very long 4-day vacation with nothing great to do and nothing good to eat either – the predictability of this holiday could drive me mad. Everything is closed on Thanksgiving day, forcing everyone to do nothing but eat the traditional Thanksgiving fare. I so hate the Thanksgiving fare of turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. – That must have been considered a great meal in the days of the pilgrims but in today’s globalizing economy and global culinary scene, it’s pure torture to have to eat turkey on a day that supposedly celebrates eating. Then there was the after Thanksgiving shopping, which means enormous crowds for mostly useless merchandise. After the 4-day long holiday weekend, I almost always felt worse – bloated from the constant eating, bored from little activity, and incredulous that I had wasted a perfectly fine long weekend without doing anything fun or even eating anything great. That’s why I decided - if I could, that I would try to be outside of the “Thanksgiving country” during Thanksgiving. Indeed that’s how Michael and I had some of our most exciting vacations over a few Thanksgiving holidays (Asia, Australia, Canada, etc) – for example, a trip to Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand) is one that I still rave about today, where we found the perfect combination of scenery, culture and cuisines. I remember distinctively that we were in Thailand on Thanksgiving day during that trip – and how I felt sorry for the people eating turkey and cranberry sauce while we were trying these superb Thai dishes that cannot be found in any Thai restaurants in the US!
The obvious destination for cruises out of San Diego is Mexico. The first time I went to Mexico was just crossing the border from San Diego into Tijuana – it was a very sad place. When I was told by someone from Mexico that what truly represents Mexico is Mexico City, Michael and I took a trip over Christmas one year to Mexico City – seeing a ton of murals by Diego Rivera, visiting Frida Kahlo’s old house, climbing up the pyramids at Teotihuacan, and riding the boat on Xochimilco, while staying in a hotel overlooking the main city square. It was alright – but I was not impressed. Therefore, I figured, perhaps I would give Mexico one last chance by visiting the coastal area – down Baja California and briefly entering Sea of Cortez. The cruise I chose down Mexican Riviera was for 7 days, leaving the Saturday before Thanksgiving from San Diego, stopping by Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallharta.
We boarded the Holland America “Oosterdam” on this bright Saturday afternoon in November. It was an impressive ship, with 12 stories in total, 1600 passengers on board and another 800 staff. There were numerous lounges and bars, a casino, a basketball court, two swimming pools and several Jacuzzis, a library as well as several dining rooms. During the cruise, there would be many activities including art auctions, dance classes, cooking classes, magic shows, dance performances, disco nights, afternoon teas and several formal dinners for which one has to dress extremely formally.
From talking to people we met on the cruise, we learned a great deal about cruising:
We learned that our ship “Oosterdam” of Holland America was among the most luxurious, in terms of food and service, with other cruise lines such as Carnival and Norwegian being relatively lower-budget with worse food and service. We learned that some people had taken the same itinerary a few times, although they had never been to places like Hawaii – i.e. it’s not that they have ran out of places to visit. It’s only that they like being on a cruise and they like the routine. We learned that some people did not even bother to get off the ship when we stopped at these Mexican cities – they preferred to sit by the pool or watch tv or hand out at one of several bars/lounges. We learned that most people love the idea of fancy dining without having to pay for it – well, we all did pay for it as part of the cruise, but on the evenings of these formal dinners, there was no need to look at the prices next to “surf and turf” or “filet mignon”. There were professional photographers taking photos of people dressed in tuxedoes and evening gowns right before going into dinner, and I marveled at how many women must have spent hours putting on makeup and doing their hair before putting on an elaborate evening gown just to sit down to a dinner that’s mass produced, even if it’s presented as a nice, formal and individualized dinner. We learned that a lot of people get so excited just sitting by the pool, or sitting in the Jacuzzi, for hours on end. We learned that being able to eat any time of the day and night delivers great pleasure to many. We learned that people thoroughly enjoy any shows as long as they don’t have to pay extra to attend them. To be fair, the magician was very good and also very funny, engaging the audience to participate in all kinds of ways. There was a “Joel Mason show” that was highly popular – Joel Mason basically is a musician that tries to imitate Elton John. But the show spent more time on all kinds of silly theatricals than actual singing – I probably would not have minded listening to Elton John’s songs, but the constant silly jokes and parodies got tiresome after a few minutes.
When we first checked in, we got a cabin that’s very close to some machinery room. I felt that even with the ear plugs I could barely go to sleep. However, we were told that all cabins were full and they would see if they could find anyone who’s interested in swapping with us. Finally after 2 days, they found us another cabin – which had handicap access and which was slightly quieter. Later on, I would realize that the constant blowing of air from the ceiling fan was a major culprit – they probably have to install these fans that cannot be shut off because otherwise passengers could suffocate – after all there are 1600 passengers on board! All I can say is that I would wake up in the morning, feeling completely exhausted (due to lack of fresh air and the constant noise), extremely thirsty (due to the perpetual ceiling fan), and quite dizzy (from the motion of the ship). – While I did pretty much nothing else except for lying in bed or in a lounge chair on the last 2 days of the cruise when we were at sea, I was more exhausted on those two days than when we were doing sightseeing at the three Mexican cities.
I have to say that I will be among the few people in this world who would not recommend a cruise to others, including people who are not into adventurous vacationing at all. I am by no means athletic, as I don’t even go camping. I do want nice and clean rooms and interesting and tasty food on my travels. But the regimented way of vacationing – i.e. staying at one place, eating at one place (with many restaurants and many choices but it still felt like just one very stale place) and just going off the ship at a few places for a few hours - really gets old after a couple of days, despite the numerous activities/shows they have usually on board. In the end, the cruise experience was like a Vegas casino experience on the sea – with a smaller casino, smaller pools, smaller (and stuffier) rooms, and all these mediocre shows for free.
And how about my third try in appreciating Mexico? Cabo San Lucas is considered one of the favorite destinations for American tourists seeking some tropical fun. Where the ship docked, the scenery was quite unique with the rock formations, the waves and the pristine sandy beaches – the Lovers’ Beach and the Divorce Beach are essentially connected, with Lover’s Beach facing the tranquil harbor, and the Divorce Beach facing the open sea of the Pacific Ocean. Quite interesting names for these two beaches, I must say.
The town itself is just a tourist town of many souvenir shops, as well as pharmacists selling prescription drugs. As our usual practice, we picked a restaurant that clearly did not cater to the tourists – only local Mexicans were eating there and it looked quite authentic. Of course, that means the menu was only in Spanish and the waitress did not speak English either. I pointed to one dish with the picture of some stew. It turned out to be a stew of mostly beef tripes. Michael’s dish turned out to be some kind of fried chicken – overall the meal was probably authentic, but nothing interesting. In fact, that’s what I would say about Mexican cuisine we experienced both on this trip as well as on the previous trip to Mexico City, when we diligently sampled hidden gems of restaurants recommended by adventurous travelers – even when it’s authentic, it’s nothing interesting.
When we docked at Mazatlan, we joined a day-long tour of the Sierra Madre mountains, visiting several mountain towns. One of them (Concordia) is a sleeping little town with an old church in the town square.
Another one (Copala) was all the way into the mountain, where apparently quite a few Americans and Canadians have decided to set up home after retirement. The tour guide also took us to see some local handicrafts (we bought a carved wooden turtle). The scenery along the drive was overall fairly green and not as arid as the area around Mexico City, but it was not luscious like the forests in Hawaii or Puerto Rico.
The last stop was Puerto Vallarta – a major tourist attraction. There is an area of this town that’s mostly occupied by Americans and Canadians, situated on the hill overlooking the ocean. When we passed by those homes, we were surprised to see that inside it was all really nice and quite luxurious even though the façade was as shabby and unconspicuous as other houses. The whole town was on a hill, which means that we had to walk up and down a lot along these cobble-stoned paved streets. The houses were so close together that we wonder how they were built to start with.
Again, we found a restaurant that looked local enough, away from the crowds of tourists. It was perhaps among the most memorable experience in this city. Clearly it’s a family restaurant. The waiter was a teenage boy who hardly spoke any English. In the open kitchen stood two women, presumably his mother and his grandmother. Then another man showed up with some stuff bought from the market. The boy took our order, and then went ahead to pour a very colorful drink from this huge jar sitting there, even though I just asked for a bottle of water. While there were only 2 tables and 3 customers in total (Michael and I were at one table, and a Mexican woman was at another one), the staff outnumbered the customers. They worked very slowly and without any sense of urgency – I assume that in this town no one has any urgent business to attend to anyways. So we waited forever for our dishes, despite the few number of customers! They clearly did no advertising or promotion, and they were not pushy or overly friendly. We ate our food – which was okay but nothing interesting.
The boy asked Michael where we were from, and when he learned that we were from San Diego, he said that he wanted to go to the States too but he could not get a visa. This meal reminded me so distinctively of my conclusion after our trip to Mexico City in 2002 – people in Mexico are very poor, but they are not eager to make money or get rich. They would rather have an easy and leisurely life and make little money, than work harder to make more money. After we were finished with our lunch, we did not see anyone else coming into the restaurant, so most of the staff went away to rest. Maybe the whole family can sustain on serving a few tables each day in a tourist city like Puerto Vallharta. What a dramatic difference between this slow and overstaffed Mexican restaurant and an understaffed busy Chinese restaurant in California! I recall telling friends after visiting Mexico City that while Mexico borders the US, there’s nothing in common between the two countries from an ideological or philosophical perspective. Europe and Latin America are extremely alike in their emphasis on leisure and suspicion about progress, just as America and East Asia (represented by China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea) are extremely alike in their emphasis on hard work, fast progress and getting ahead. Divided by a huge Pacific Ocean, China is actually closer to the US than its bordering neighbor Mexico!
To be fair, I think if we had never been to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or even Mexico City, we would have found Mexican Riviera a lot more fascinating – after all, there is the beach, the Hispanic culture, and the sense that one is visiting a foreign country. We were certainly foreigners in Mexico, and yet sadly, we were foreigners that no longer had any curiosity left for what this country had to offer. It is as if we went to a magic show enthusiastically put on by an apprentice of a magician we have seen before – therefore, when he enthusiastically pulled off a trick, we could at best manage a tired and condescending smile and think to ourselves, “oh we have seen that before, and actually a lot better done than that.”
And that is exactly how I feel about the visit to Mexican Riviera. Perhaps the main lesson to learn as a tourist is to resist the temptation to visit the most exciting places in the world first, and try to visit the least interesting places first, so that one never encounters disappointment.
And as for the cruise experience, maybe I will reconsider it when I am 70 years old, an age that favors predictability, routine and no effort over excitement. Oh getting old does sound so incredibly tedious…
