Day 9

Tender Boats, Tourist Traps and Waterslides 🇲🇽🚢

Since we’d stayed up fairly late the night before, we also ended up sleeping in a bit this morning to compensate. Today was our first shore day of the cruise, visiting Cabo San Lucas.

As we weren’t scheduled to arrive until around midday, the morning onboard was very relaxed. The cruise staff announced that tender tickets were available for collection, but after seeing the enormous queue, we decided there was no point rushing since we didn’t have any strict plans ashore anyway. Instead, we sensibly went to breakfast first and collected our tickets afterwards—which resulted in us receiving tender group number 41!

Later in the morning, we joined Ben, Brett, and a guy named Jonas whom we’d met earlier in the cruise for another round of trivia. After our unexpected victory the previous day, we were probably feeling quietly confident. Ironically, even though we scored higher this time with 14 correct answers, we somehow only managed third place. Clearly competition onboard had improved overnight.

One good thing about our stateroom location was that we could hear the boarding announcements from the room, so we simply waited until the tender numbers reached the high 30s before grabbing our backpacks and heading downstairs. Ben and Brett suggested we all explore together, which sounded like a good idea. One thing that surprised me though was just how many passengers had decided to remain onboard instead of visiting Cabo. Even while we were waiting to board our tender boat, some people who’d gone ashore earlier were already returning to the ship. Looking back, we probably should have taken that as a sign.

Cabo San Lucas itself is located at the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and is best known for its beaches, fishing, nightlife, and resort atmosphere. The area has grown rapidly over recent decades into one of Mexico’s most popular cruise and holiday destinations, particularly for American tourists escaping colder climates.

Once we arrived ashore, we were immediately swarmed by locals selling tours, water taxis, souvenirs, and various other things. We quickly headed toward the marina waterfront where we were greeted by a very relaxed sea lion who seemed more than happy posing for photos with tourists. After that though… we didn’t do much.

One issue was that there didn’t seem to be much direction or signage pointing visitors toward anything particularly interesting nearby. We wandered through parts of the marina area, took photos of a few buildings, explored some side streets, and browsed through several souvenir shops—many of which seemed to specialise in novelty items, including penis-shaped pencil holders.

Unfortunately, the overall atmosphere just didn’t really click with us. I always try to focus on the positives when travelling, but something about Cabo felt very commercial and tourist-focused without much real character underneath. Maybe we simply didn’t find the right parts of town, but the combination of aggressive selling, limited walkable attractions, and intense heat made it difficult to properly enjoy.

In the end, we returned to the ship after only about an hour ashore. Even after looking back over some of the recommended attractions we’d printed beforehand, it still seemed unusual that Cabo is such a major cruise stop—although to be fair, there are probably some excellent excursions available outside the immediate marina area.

The tender ride back to the ship wasn’t particularly enjoyable either. After arriving alongside the ship, we ended up sitting in the heat for over 20 minutes waiting for clearance to disembark. By this point, I decided we needed to do something at least moderately entertaining, so I suggested trying the ship’s waterslides. Ben and Brett were keen immediately, while Ted preferred the idea of relaxing back in the cabin.

I’d wanted to try the slides ever since seeing them towering above the ship back in Los Angeles, so I’m glad we finally did it. They actually weren’t nearly as terrifying as I’d expected, but that suited me perfectly. It was just nice doing something fun and lighthearted after the somewhat underwhelming afternoon ashore.

After dinner, Ted and I both agreed that tonight would be an early one. We arrive into Mazatlán tomorrow morning, so it seemed like a good excuse to get some proper sleep. Although admittedly, I don’t think either of us expected we’d be in bed by 8:30pm.

Still, cruises aren’t just about sightseeing. Sometimes they’re just about relaxing too.Read more