November 05, 2019

Saturday Nov 2 - Puerto Vallarta

We arrive in Puerto Vallarta about 25 minutes late, the ship is quickly cleared by local authorities and 90 % of the passengers soon are off the ship.

The captain's forecast, actually Royal staff in Miami, is for thunderstorms all day. Presently the sky is a little hazy but quite sunny.

I decide to check out the mall across the street. Of course most names I am not familiar with, but a few are universal around the world like Radio Shack, McDonalds, Burger King and Pizza Hut.  I actually decide a Subway sandwich for lunch would be a welcome break. Yes it was!

I have neglected to finish any of the audio books I brought with me, fortunately I am able to renew from here. I have switched to Libby, an app that interfaces with most libraries.  Much easier to use than going to the individual library sites. Thank you Robert.

With message and data service I spend part of the day communicating with my children about upcoming events. Yes I am old enough to remember when it was prohibitively expensive to talk by phone with someone in the next town. Communication with a passenger on a ship, or a person in another country was reserved for extreme life or death matters, not planning parties and juggling schedules.

By 3:30 it is getting a little cloudy. Maybe the captain will get his thunderstorm yet. We will see.

Over a third of the passengers are from countries other than the US, a much larger number than I usually see.

Apparently one couple didn't make it back to the ship. They were paged three times in the last half hour before the ship sailed. I hope they are having a good time.

A very unusual occurance in the Diamond Lounge this evening. A very heated argument built between two passengers, one from the US, and the other from Brisbane, Australia. Something about each's involvement in Vietnam. Intervention by respective wives, ship staff, and other passengers separated them before anyone was hurt.

Time to leave the lounge, I join Chuck and Janice for dinner.

The seas are calm as we head for Guatamala. No it never did rain today. Royals weatherman has a near perfect record of being wrong.

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