Mazatlan, Mexico

We don’t do it often. Stay on the ship, that is … when we are calling on a port … especially if it is one we’ve not been to previously.

Mazatlan was to have been new-to-us port #5. But I am not going to count it as such since we did not venture into the city to explore it.

Why? Call us chicken, I suppose … which is surprising, because we don’t scare easily. But after reading about last week’s cartel violence in Mazatlan, Mui and I were spooked for some reason.

Yes, it is true that Oceania would have pulled the plug on this port of call in a heartbeat had there been any real danger to us. Yes, though some of the Oceania tours were canceled, others proceeded as planned. Yes, there were two other ships sharing the port today — one from Carnival and another one from Holland America. So, we weren’t solo in the decision to stay the course. As Mui said later, we might have been more willing to risk going into the city had the mega-ships not added to the swell of tourists today.

No matter. Considering the number of things I wanted to accomplish, staying on the ship afforded a productive day for me. Including contacting tour operators for those ports where our plans had to be adjusted due to the changes in arrival/departure times for the next segment. I even managed to remember — before it was too late — to call mom for a chat … she is 10 hours ahead of us in Turkey now.

Once we took care of the to-do’s, we went up to enjoy tea in the Horizons Lounge … with the string quartet entertaining us. Oh, and for lunch, Toscana’s spaghetti Bolognese was being featured at the Terrace Café … thank you Chef Josue … better known as David aboard the ship.

We planned to have wine and snacks on the veranda in lieu of going to one of the restaurants tonight. But when we heard that Executive Chef Farid and his culinary team were cooking up Singapore noodles on the Terrace Café deck … well, we just couldn’t pass it up.

In short, no regrets about how our day turned out.Read more