Day 4 - Puerta Vallarta

Day 4 - Puerto Vallarta

Today was our day to sleep in! We got up just in time for breakfast in Parrot Cay (around 10 AM). We had to move the clocks ahead an hour so that helped, too.

Parrot Cay has been wonderful for breakfast. We love sitting by the window and looking out over the port. Ken and I both enjoy having omelets made for us each morning. We are doing well eating SOME healthy foods. Parrot Cay is bright and colorful as well as full of parrots (not live ones . . .LOL). They are carved in the ceiling and painted on the polls throughout the room. When you leave, you can hear the sounds of parrots in the rain forest. The buffet is just what the kids ordered! They can have Mickey-shaped pancakes every day. Peter especially likes the assortment of donuts available. Our only parent rule for meals is that they eat some fruit or veggie with each meal. The peeled oranges and grapefruits are sweet and melt in your mouth!

While the kids headed to their clubs (sounds like they are there a lot, huh?), Ken and I headed out the PV for a quick tour and to see what we could see. We stopped at our favorite jeweler, Diamonds International, to see what watches they had. Ken is looking for a specific new watch. They had so many beautiful things, but we held off from purchasing. We decided to walk down the street to DEL SOL to purchase t-shirts for the boys. On trips like this, I only bring a few t-shirts and buy them at the ports as we go. The boys love wearing them, so it a great way to get useful souvenirs. On the way, we met many friendly locals. One was an American that had graduated from Liberty University! We were impressed how friendly and helpful everyone was with being pushy. It was refreshing after our beach vendor experience the day before.

We made it to DEL SOL and purchased a few t-shirts. Then we realized the time and started looking for a taxi back to the ship. It had taken at least 15-20 minute to make the 3 mile drive to town from the cruise terminal. We wanted to make it back in time to pickup the boys for our 2 PM excursion.

We had the opportunity to do the Zip Lines with our Pirate friends from DIS, but the prices wasn't that much more to do it through Disney. Ken felt safer with Disney so that's the route we took. For our group of 14, we met two OLD Chevy Suburban taxis to take us to the office of our zipline agent. They had great stories about PV flooding and only the Suburbans being able to get people out of the lower hotels.

We arrived at Adventure Vallarta and had to wait about 25 minutes for the truck to take us to the rainforest. It was really a ploy to get us to buy their merchandise while we waited (obvious ploys don't usually work on us).

Then we saw the vehicle we were to ride for ONE hour up into the mountains!! Just imagine the army transport trucks you've seen in World War II movies painted bright yellow and that was what were to ride in!! Our only luxury were the canvas roof and padded seats with seat belts. It was quite a squeeze to get 14 adults and children into this truck!

Now the adventure truly began! We rode for an eternity going up and down mountains. Passing dilapidated Mexican villages. Climbing through rock canyons that looked like they were ready to crash down at any moment. And to top it off, we pulled into a rough dirt/mud road with ruts that looked deeper than the truck's tires. We just prayed we didn't catapult into the ravine as we struggled up and down the mountain to the zipline start point.

Once back on solid ground, we were great by our cheerful zipline guides. What a fun job they had and you could tell they really enjoyed it, too. The guides helped us put on the necessary gear for the ziplines including the bandanna that went under our safety hats (did I mention how HOT it was!). Were still melted from the drive up! The guides then shared a safety lesson and we were off trekking across our first bridge over a canyon.

It hard to explain the sensation of sailing through the air right, under the thick green canopy of the rainforest, only connected to two ropes with pulleys and a safety harness. It was pretty close to flying in my mind! It was fabulous. Kaleb and Peter picked it up quickly. Peter was showing off and copying the crazy antics of the guides. After flying through the air a few times (and find it difficult to stop - I hit a tree instead of a small Mexican guide . ..LOL), we got to do a Tarzan swing. The guides asked Peter if he would like them to spin him, and spin him they did! It was so funny to see him spinning through the air to the other side. He was laughing so hard. They spun Kaleb a little, but Ken was picked up by the lady guide and given a good spin! He said it was wild seeing green spinning overhead into one big circle. I requested NOT to be spun, but the guide didn't pull the rope back up. I ended sliding into the landing on my butt (soooo much dirt on my shorts!!).

As we were finishing the rest of our ziplines, we began to hear rain on the top of the forest canopy. Our last event was to repel 75 feet off the final platform. It was quick and easy, but then the rain broke. It was PORING! I don't ever recall being in such a hard rain. The drops were as big as quarters. At that point we were told we needed to hike back to the base we started. None of the hiking had been easy. Now it was really raining and we had about a 15 minute hike UPHILL to get back. I never knew my shorts weighed so much WET! We were basically hiking through a mountain stream uphill, but we made it. We had earned our dessert that night.

After reviewing the ton of pictures they took, we conceded to purchase the CD of the trip. Then they told us they would MAIL them! We almost didn't spend the $$, but because it was a DCL excursion, we felt pretty safe that Disney would back it up. Then it was back to the truck for the ride back. Now remember it had been raining HARD for about 30-45 minutes. We were concerned what happened to a dirt/mud road when it really rained. We were about to find out. I started out with my eyes closed! We had ridden the Indian Jones ride at Disney Land. We felt like we were back on that ride one more time. The truck lunged from one side to another. We were so glad to see the paved road again. As we drove the rain let up and we started to dry. About half way back, it rained again and stopped and we started to dry. Then right before we got to the port, the skies opened up for a third time. It was raining cats and dogs as we RAN from the truck across the port to the Disney Magic.

So often with DCL it is the little things that make this cruise special. This was one of those times! As we boarded we were handed a big towel . . a bit WARM towel! We were so glad to be back on board. It had been an amazing adventure.

Now we arrived back on the ship at 7:15. Our dinner was scheduled for 8 PM. We all needed showers. We stripped off our clothes (which I ran down to the laundry room to start in the wash) and quickly got showers. We were only a few minutes late for dinner at Lumiere's.

After dinner the kids went, yet again, to their clubs. First, Kaleb wanted to play a round of table tennis with Ken and I needed to finish the laundry I'd started. Ken and I were to meet at the movies to watch Definitely Maybe. We like that we can see many movies while we're on board in a lovely theatre. So how, Ken went to watch the Ventriloquist (which was so funny) and I ended up at the movies on my own. We met up at the end, collected the boys and headed for another refreshing nights sleep. Have I mentioned how well we sleep on board? I don't know if it is the mattresses or the rocking of the ship or maybe both, but we sleep best on the Magic.