Honeymoon: Part One

We are back, refreshed, and full of good food and memories to share with you all from our Mexican Riviera honeymoon cruise! We actually started planning this trip in February – before we were even engaged or thinking about wedding plans. When the time came to choose a wedding date, we knew if we got married right before this trip it would make a dreamy honeymoon. The timing was perfect!

Princess Cruises has over 150 itineraries all over the globe. Our cruise left from San Pedro port in Los Angeles and traveled down the west coast of Mexico. Our itinerary looked like this:

:: Two days at sea

:: One full day in Puerto Vallarta

:: Half a day in Mazatlán

:: A Morning in Cabo

:: One day at sea

Our ship was the beautiful Ruby Princess, one of 17 ships in the Princess Cruises fleet. I have been on a number of cruises in the past, and this was the nicest sun deck I’ve seen. There were three pools, tons of hot tubs, and plenty of places to lounge and relax.

We boarded Saturday afternoon. The first thing we did was hit the sun deck for the set-sail party!

After we were out to sea, we explored the ship a bit and unpacked into our stateroom. Our room was lovely!

You always hear that cruise ship rooms are so cramped, but ours was completely comfortable. We had a mini-suite that included a balcony and separate sitting area. There was plenty of storage in our room (shelves and cabinets and a full closet), so we were able to completely unpack and put away our suitcases for the week.

The balcony was a totally game-changer, and I highly recommend one if you go on a cruise! Thomas and I LOVE a good view! (It’s what we always look for when we shop for hotels) and there is nothing like a view from the middle of the ocean. The sunsets were epic, and if you missed this video from Instagram you’ll want to check it out! : ) We played lots of Chickapig on our balcony!

A post shared by Kath Younger, RD (@katheats) on Oct 21, 2017 at 4:11pm PDT

Having breakfast outside was amazing. Room service is standard on Princess Cruises, and we lovedit! You can just see the ocean below us in this picture:

Our first day at sea happened to be NFL football Sunday, and you can imagine how happy my husband was to discover that they were showing the big games of the day on the big Movies Under The Stars screen. We joined a ton of other fans in the stadium-like seats on the deck to watch. (He watched the game – and I read my book, drank a beer, relaxed, and napped!!) They showed a bunch of different movies on this screen, so you could literally float in the pool and enjoy them!

Snack hour!! 🙂

We dressed up for dinner and headed to the dining room. In contrast to Traditional Dining (where you have an assigned table and time for dinner each night), we had Anytime Dining! We could go to dinner whenever we were hungry.

I loved this crab and artichoke dip!

There was plenty of seafood as well. Surf and Turf!

And as always, we had to have dessert. Thomas had the heart-shaped ganache (the “Love Boat”) almost every night! It was divine.

I tried to balance all the courses with healthier breakfasts and lunches when I could. Cereal with fruit was my pick for several mornings.

I also had a few lunch salads, like this one that featured bacon, blue cheese, and avocado with a creative presentation on the endive.

Fast-forward to our first port: Puerto Vallarta!

We booked an all-day excursion through Princess Cruises to Mahajuitas Beach for snorkeling. Yelapa, a small fishing town only accessible by boat, was also on the list.

We sailed along Banderas Bay on a big catamaran for about 45 minutes, taking in all the beautiful scenery along the way.

Our tour guide, Pablo, was awesome! He was hilarious, entertaining, and took us on a great nature swim while we snorkeled. He grew up in the water, which was clear to us because he would dive down and pull up a sea creature and give us a nice marine biology lesson. I held a starfish, and we saw another one that looked just like a spider! Thomas and I spotted an octopus too.

The sandwich buffet on the boat was great while we cruised to our next stop. I made a cheese and veggie sandwich with fruit and chips. (Plus cerveza!)

Yelapa was a quiet beach in a cove where we lounged on the beach for a bit, taking it all in.

I had a margarita on the ride home!

We enjoyed the lovely entertainment of the crew – they were great and put on a Rolling Stones variety show.

We set sail for Mazatlán once we were back on Ruby Princess! I will tell you more about that whole day tomorrow.

This post and our trip were sponsored by Princess Cruises and SheKnows Media.