Tuesday, April 9, 2024 – Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico
Total Solar Eclipse & Mexican Riviera 10-day cruise aboard Discovery Princess – April 3-13, 2024
We take a walk along the harbour front Malacon near the pier after breakfast before it gets too hot. There are lots of big tugs in this busy freight harbour – Mexico’s largest as it turns out. The shops are as expected – t-shirts and trinkets, OTC medications from numerous pharmacies, restaurants and snack bars. My friend is looking for a gift to take home, but he finds nothing to his liking. The gift shops on the pier are actually the most appealing, but no sale from either of us.
We spend the rest of the day aboard ship. I take lots of photos of birds circling in the harbour, mainly Magnificent Frigatebirds and Laughing Gulls. I also explore the ship. The Promenade Deck is essentially not usable for walking, since it’s so narrow and it doesn’t go all the way around the ship. The harbour traffic provides me with lots of photo opportunities – in addition to the seabirds, there are lots of tugboats, pleasure craft, and other working boats to watch.
The Piazza is the 3-level atrium midship on Discovery Princess, which is very impressive with marble floors, brass and glass everywhere, and big chandeliers and staircases. Lots of activities and performances happen in the Piazza. The International Cafe, Gelato Dessert Cafe and various bars are located on the various levels. The problem is that it’s very noisy, otherwise I would spend more time here. We both have free access to the Gelato Dessert Cafe, so we sit down and have some ice cream, which is very good. They also serve amazing 12-layer cakes, and dessert concoctions that would put me to sleep, since they are huge and loaded with sugary treats.
We both have the curried fish in the International Marketplace on Lido for dinner, which is probably the best-tasting meal we’ve had on the cruise. I had the fish over coconut rice, which made it extra fine IMHO.
