Mexican Cruises

No need to fly across the country for a cruise when you live in or near California.

It is the ideal scenario for the car first and who wants a no-muss, no fuss way to test the waters cruise. Our recent cruise Holland America-San Diego was an excellent example - 45 minutes from our house in suburban San Diego and we were ready to board our ship to the Mexican Riviera.

croiseurs de longue date vous dira que les navires et les itinedraires ont chacun leur propre jeu de la dedmographie, et souvent - surtout en raison des vacances scolaires - les modifications a  la clienta¨le par tranche d'acge en fonction du temps de l'annede. Some roads are all the ports while other routes such as the Mexican Riviera tend to attract vacationers more focused on the ship itself.

And then, every cruise line has its own particular niche. With Holland America Line, the niche is "premium" - as suggested by the cruise line is a more elegant, but not as formal as travelers feel for them. Holland America likes to compare its level of service to that of a Westin or Four Seasons Hotel.

Premium means you'll pay about $ 100 more, "said Noel DeChambeau, director of marketing for drawing lines in Alaska." But it's worth. "

Holland America is currently testing the use of larger ships on the way to San Diego Mexican Riviera we sampled - a route which includes Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. Our boat was the Oosterdam, a Holland America's newest and largest and only in service since 2003. While this was not our first cruise, it seems Oosterdam odyssey along the Mexican coast is an excellent and affordable for Californians in the sample of big-time cruise.

In San Diego, we parked our car within 100 yards of the ship and began the process of loading high-tech. Each passenger has presented identification and digital photographs were taken. From that point, every time the passenger has presented its new card Holland-America to leave or re-board the ship, the picture appears on a computer screen, giving the crew a visual confirmation that the card matches the passenger. This process took about an hour, but was relatively painless considering the Oosterdam was boarding the equivalent of two small towns like the one we grew up - about 1,800 passengers and 800 crew members.

This passenger-crew ratio provided a sufficient degree of personal service throughout the cruise of seven days. The smile and the warm welcome we received from members of the crew to board the ship were just the beginning of a nonstop effort by the cabin stewards, waiters, managers and cruise many other crew members to take care of all of us for our stay on the ship. It was just a cheerful "hello" or a brief conversation about the day's activities, meetings with members of the crew were always friendly and the staff seemed really interested in doing that we had a great holiday .

Holland America likes to boast of booths line average is about 25 percent higher than the competition and, in our experience, that seems correct. The room we had - a Deluxe Verandah Outside - was much more spacious than we remembered from previous experiences on other lines. About 67 percent of rooms had verandahs on this ship.

The veranda proved useful during our trip - we often sit there and read or watch the scenery go by, lulled by the gentle waves splashing against the hull of the ship. Inside our cabin space has been used quite efficiently: our room included a king size bed, sofa daveno / bed, bathroom with large bath, many closets and a desk. Satellite TV beams with CNN and several films as well as television camera views of the bow and stern of the ship. Just down one floor was where the Internet Center for 40 to 75 cents a minute, passengers could stay in constant contact with.