Navigator of the Seas (Lap 1)

Port stops on this cruise (which i’m going to refer as Lap 1) were Ensenada, Cabo San Lucas, and Mazatlán. We stayed onboard the ship in Ensenada since Justin was working late that day but Cabo was on a Saturday, which gave us enough time to head out and walk around the marina at a relaxed pace.

One of the highlights was stopping into Puerto Paraíso, the mall near the marina, where we visited a gallery featuring Sergio Bustamante’s work. I’ll do a separate post about our visit. I absolutely loved it.

Mazatlán ended up being a shorter stop for us because of Justin’s work schedule, so we only had a few hours to explore. We walked a bit through the port shops, market and ventured across the street to Oxxo, a 7-11 type of convenience store in Mexico, for a quick look around, and then headed back to the ship. Our first impression was that the area felt a little run down and not especially full of things to do beyond a hop-on hop-off bus, but we plan to give it more time on our next cruise, especially since he will have a holiday off and we can explore more properly. I was also able get cruiser recommendations for excursions they took so that we can find things more suited to our interests since the short excursions offered by the ship were sold out.

It’s lovely when port days, even short stops, can still offer something memorable. Cabo gave us art, scenery, and a relaxed marina walk, while Mazatlán gave us a first impression that we can revisit later with more time.Read more