PuroEsq
The Member Formerly Known as "JAEwing"
As many of you saw earlier this year I posted a thread indicating that my in-laws took my entire family (wife and kids and I) on a Mexican Riviera cruise. We just returned and had a great time.
Before I get into the details I want to say a special thanks (again, since once, twice and three times will never be enough) to those BOTL, and you know who you are, who very generously send me some ISOM to share with my father-in-law. I brought them along and surprised him with a great selection of ISOM cigars to smoke on the cruise. It was definately a high point of the cruise for the two of us.
Now to the details . . .
I was advised by reading many posts here that the ports of call on the Mexican Riviera are NOT places to be purchasing Cuban cigars. However, I did look and found many vendors claiming to sell real "Cuban" cigars. I tried discussing the fact that the cigars were not Cuban with the vendors but I was assured that they were in fact legit. I brought to their attention that Cohiba cigars do not come in glass top boxes, that Cuban cigars generally have a triple cap, that the bands on real Cuban cigars do not look like they were cut by a guy that was blind in one eye, and that generally Cuban cigars (or any decent cigar for that matter) do not give off a barnyard aroma. Still I was assured that these were in fact real Cuban cigars. Oh well . . . I passed of course but saw many other passengers later on deck proudly smoking their "Cubans". Since they all were very proud of themselves and appeared to be enjoying their cigar I did not have the heart to tell them the truth.
I also saw at many vendors a vast a varried selection of Rolex watches. I again questioned the genuineness of the watches and claimed that they were fake. I did get a few to admit that they were in fact "Mexican Rolexes" :laugh:
The cruise line (Carnival) was great and definately geared toward the family. This was by no means a luxury liner but it did have all of the ammenities that you would come to expect (gym, spa, salon, pools, bars, clubs, shows, food food food, etc etc.) from a cruise. We especially liked our stateroom. We had an outside room with a balcony overlooking the sea. It was really nice to have my room service coffee and an ISOM on the balcony every morning before breakfast.
If you are not with children and do not want to deal with the younger crowd you may want to look to another line. However, Carnival has done a great job of making a cruise affordable for just about anyone and if you have kids they make it very easy for the parents to enjoy themselves without having to chase the kids around.
Thanks again for the generous donations of the ISOM.
Jason
Before I get into the details I want to say a special thanks (again, since once, twice and three times will never be enough) to those BOTL, and you know who you are, who very generously send me some ISOM to share with my father-in-law. I brought them along and surprised him with a great selection of ISOM cigars to smoke on the cruise. It was definately a high point of the cruise for the two of us.
Now to the details . . .
I was advised by reading many posts here that the ports of call on the Mexican Riviera are NOT places to be purchasing Cuban cigars. However, I did look and found many vendors claiming to sell real "Cuban" cigars. I tried discussing the fact that the cigars were not Cuban with the vendors but I was assured that they were in fact legit. I brought to their attention that Cohiba cigars do not come in glass top boxes, that Cuban cigars generally have a triple cap, that the bands on real Cuban cigars do not look like they were cut by a guy that was blind in one eye, and that generally Cuban cigars (or any decent cigar for that matter) do not give off a barnyard aroma. Still I was assured that these were in fact real Cuban cigars. Oh well . . . I passed of course but saw many other passengers later on deck proudly smoking their "Cubans". Since they all were very proud of themselves and appeared to be enjoying their cigar I did not have the heart to tell them the truth.
I also saw at many vendors a vast a varried selection of Rolex watches. I again questioned the genuineness of the watches and claimed that they were fake. I did get a few to admit that they were in fact "Mexican Rolexes" :laugh:
The cruise line (Carnival) was great and definately geared toward the family. This was by no means a luxury liner but it did have all of the ammenities that you would come to expect (gym, spa, salon, pools, bars, clubs, shows, food food food, etc etc.) from a cruise. We especially liked our stateroom. We had an outside room with a balcony overlooking the sea. It was really nice to have my room service coffee and an ISOM on the balcony every morning before breakfast.
If you are not with children and do not want to deal with the younger crowd you may want to look to another line. However, Carnival has done a great job of making a cruise affordable for just about anyone and if you have kids they make it very easy for the parents to enjoy themselves without having to chase the kids around.
Thanks again for the generous donations of the ISOM.
Jason
