Arrival and Hotel

Introduction
Arrival and Hotel
Day I and Day II
Day III and Day IV
Going back home

As soon as I woke up, me and my family headed to Toluca Airport - just as a FYI, it is Mexico City's smaller regional airport-. 

The check in with Interjet was pretty fast, they offer a very good service, though they just have some routes to the U.S. (O.C, Miami, Las Vegas and NYC).

Gladly for us, the airport has an American Express Centurion Lounge (there are 6 in Mexico, only one in the U.S.), where if you have any American Express card you can access. They offer small breakfasts, internet, Tvs, free (short) massages. 

I've been to several lounges all over the world, and I haven't seen any (I'm sure there are) that the security point is actually inside the lounge. 

So of course, the security process was a bliss and within minutes I was seated on the plane.

The flight was under two hours, but I was next to a 5 kids flying alone (all siblings) and they treated the steward like their own butler and sang One Direction Songs, not cool. 

Anyways we arrived at the airport and headed straight to our rental car: Alamo.

We found a great price, 34 USD for 4 days, for a midsize car! 

Pretty great, huh?! 

Specially in a place where the taxi to the hotel costs over 80 USD roundtrip.

Well, of course no insurance was included, and because our credit card included some (no CC includes 3rd person accidents) we weren't really going to pay for insurance, but apparently it was compulsory. No I have rented cars in Miami and Vegas with no insurance from them, so I was a bit shocked to see my 34 USD rate go up to a 120 USD rate. 

We were given a 2009 Nissan Sentra that wasn't in the best shape, but at least it worked.

We took the "toll" Highway (waste of money) and arrived at the hotel 30 minutes later. 

We chose the Hotel Hacienda Encantada, because of the offer we found at Jetsetter.com 

200 USD, with taxes included, and All-Inclusive. http://www.jetsetter.com/invite/83914758ap9742vd9xz9

Now, the rate was great, but I did not see the small print

I selected 3 people, and still in small letters it said that the reservation was quoted for 2 !

So I ended up paying 36 USD more per day, which for what it includes it's ok. 

Still, it's not great to be charged extra, and be treated badly by a bitchy front desk girl. 

I wrote a pretty large review on the hotel on Tripadvisor, which I hope it will be helpful to any one going to Cabo. 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g152515-d671119-r166556337-Hacienda_Encantada_Resort_Spa-Cabo_San_Lucas_Los_Cabos_Baja_California.html

Our day ended with a nice lunch by the pool and basically an afternoon of pure relaxation. 

Room

Hotel Grounds

Cabo Trip !!!

Introduction
Arrival and Hotel
Day I and Day II
Day III and Day IV
Going back home


How many Californians have ever been to Cabo?
A lot
How many Americans have ever been to Cabo?
Many
How many Mexicans have ever been to Cabo?
Not many
And not surprisingly, this was my first time in Los Cabos.
And yes, I do live in Mexico City with a flight less than 200 USD roundtrip and 2 hours away, and I've never been to this amazing place.

So a bit of background, shall we?

Summer was coming pretty fast, ( FYI it was already June), so we wanted to do something for July, preferably in Mexico.
The common, cheapest option for us is Acapulco, but we searched some flight options and found a nice 200 USD roundtrip flight from Mexico City to Los Cabos, and also found an awesome deal at Jetsetter (please visit http://www.jetsetter.com/invite/83914758ap9742vd9xz9) 200 USD for an oceanview room  All-Inclusive rate in a Non-Inclusive hotel (which makes everything better).

So, we booked it and we were ready to go

Day 3 Cruise At Sea

Introduction/ Arriving at Chile

1st Day

2nd Day La Serena/Coquimbo

3rd Day At Sea

4rd Day Puerto Montt- Christmas Eve

5th Day At Sea

6th Day At Sea (Straight of Magellan)

7th Day Punta Arenas

8th Day Ushuaia

9th Day At Sea

10th Day At Sea

11th Day Puerto Madryn

New Years Eve

12th Day At Sea

13th Day Punta del Este

14th Day Montevideo

15th Day Buenos Aires

2nd Day in BA and flight back to Mexico

Well first of all the sea sickness didn't go completely so we didnt have a very good day.
 But we did went to the Bingo, I'm not going to lie, it's like the best thing for a first time cruiser, even for kids. But it is wasting money, pretty damn fast!
But this is an adult's cruise, so although 1/4 of the cruise were minors, there were not a lot of activities. I heard that there was a club where you could play Wii and Xbox, but seriously, why would your kid come all the way from America just to play Wii :/
Fortunately, the weather was still nice, middle 80's, so the pool was a nice option.

Apart from that, we just rested, tried to defeat sea sickness, and relax (kind of boring for kids).

Day 2

Introduction/ Arriving at Chile

1st Day

2nd Day La Serena/Coquimbo

3rd Day At Sea

4rd Day Puerto Montt- Christmas Eve

5th Day At Sea

6th Day At Sea (Straight of Magellan)

7th Day Punta Arenas

8th Day Ushuaia

9th Day At Sea

10th Day At Sea

11th Day Puerto Madryn

New Years Eve

12th Day At Sea

13th Day Punta del Este

14th Day Montevideo

15th Day Buenos Aires

2nd Day in BA and flight back to Mexico

Well after a bad night of seasickness of my kids, we got to La Serena, Coquimbo.

 First of all we had breakfast, and after that we decided to descend to La Serena, well practictly is Coquimbo but the nice city is La Serena, like New Jersey and NYC lol.

 When we arrived at the port we went to the exit were bunch of taxis were and for 20 dollars per hour we made a city tour, to different points of the city. The church, the center, the little market, there was not too much too see, but well we finish up in 3 hours, for 60 dollars, and Celebrity was giving the same excursion for 45 dollars each person, but well they have a professional tour guide, but personally I will save the money for other parts.

The principal attraction

v.s.

The "adult" pool (On the cold sea days, expect kids)

If you ask me I would not go to La Serena. Some cruises offer Port Stanley instead of this small place. So enjoy the nice hot weather and stay by the pool, which was kind of cold when we came back (or the jacuzzis) 

The worst part of this day was leaving the port, not because we liked the city, but because of the movement of the ship. We all felt bad, took pills, chocolate and nothing! 

So I wouldn't imagine feeling like this the whole trip.

1st Day

Introduction/ Arriving at Chile

1st Day

2nd Day La Serena/Coquimbo

3rd Day At Sea

4rd Day Puerto Montt- Christmas Eve

5th Day At Sea

6th Day At Sea (Straight of Magellan)

7th Day Punta Arenas

8th Day Ushuaia

9th Day At Sea

10th Day At Sea

11th Day Puerto Madryn

New Years Eve

12th Day At Sea

13th Day Punta del Este

14th Day Montevideo

15th Day Buenos Aires

2nd Day in BA and flight back to Mexico

To start I arrived like at 4:00 p.m., so I had the "luck" to be escorted to my room.
 And I had quite a surprise when I entered my room , I thought it was going to be super small and it was a little more longer, and it was the smallest room category with a balcony. After that I went to make a tour of the ship.

Wow!, was the only word that came into my mind. The Infinity is very big but still not overcrowded as some of the Royal Caribbean Cruises. At first, like everyone else,  I got lost and to be honest it was so tiring to go from one point to the opposite one, but we finally we did it and in a few word its a very good ship and Celebrity is an excellent cruise line.
And after touring the ship around we had the typically drill and then the cruise ship left Valparaiso. And I don't know if it's because we were on the Pacific Ocean, but right away you could feel the ship moving A LOT! So we hit the room early and went to sleep

Celebrity Cruise Intro/Arriving at Chile

Introduction/ Arriving at Chile

1st Day

2nd Day La Serena/Coquimbo

3rd Day At Sea

4rd Day Puerto Montt- Christmas Eve

5th Day At Sea

6th Day At Sea (Straight of Magellan)

7th Day Punta Arenas

8th Day Ushuaia

9th Day At Sea

10th Day At Sea

11th Day Puerto Madryn

New Years Eve

12th Day At Sea

13th Day Punta del Este

14th Day Montevideo

15th Day Buenos Aires

2nd Day in BA and flight back to Mexico

Introduction

A couple of years ago I took a cruise from Chile to Buenos Aires through Cape Horn with Celebrity Cruises. I also blogged about it but in a very simple way.
So I'm changing some stuff and putting it all on my blog

Arriving at Chile

After arriving from an 8 hour flight I arrived at Chile.

The bad thing was that they received us with another hour just to pay a tax for Mexicans, U.S., Canada and Australia citizens. After that I met with some friends that they just moved there, and they took us to the hotel (you can check my reviews at http://www.tripadvisor.com/members-reviews/charal95).

I stayed 3 days at Santiago. I went to the Turistik in the mall, and took a tour in the city, we also went to the Cerro San Cristobal. We also want it to go to a Viña (Vineyard ) but we didn't have reservations 

Well the 3 days passed fast and Im sad because Santiago is a beautifull clean city.

On the last day we went to Valparaiso, (I notice something in Chiles ports, that they have the port city and next to it a nicer city: Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, Puerto Montt and Puerto Varas, Coquimbo and La Serena)

We only went to Viña to the beach and to eat and after that we went to the cruise, when we get in Valparaiso it looks like a insecure city and also a not world heritage. When we get to the port we did the fast check in (oh if you were Captains Club you need it to wait more) and then boarded a bus and finally to the ship.

For all the info about the ship wait for my next days.

Analysis: US Airways merge with American Airlines

Last year I was actually pretty excited about the merge of United and Continental, but little did I knew that mergers do affect travelers' economy... A LOT!
Flights that were 330 USD (almost all the time) went to 550 USD.
Now a flight that was 380 USD from Mexico City to Houston (2 hours) is now over 650 USD!!

So I'm totally against this merger,
Yes it would save thousands of jobs, although many jobs including those at US Airways will be lost.
And I wouldn't imagine in just 4 mayor airlines (UA,DL,SW,US Air).
Of course prices will be higher, and not only from US Airways but from the others too.

And of course I would feel bad for OneWorld, that if this merger would go on, it would lose the only North-American carrier and one of its most important members.

So this just means

*Higher prices
*Less flight options
*Less award-flight availability
*Lost of US Airways jobs.

Do you think the merger should happen?

Do you think that one of the current airlines can become one of the big main airlines? Which one?

Airport Review/Guide: Denver International Airport

As something new I decided to create airport reviews. I do reviews for hotels, attractions, restaurants, so why not review airports?

To start off, Denver International Airport or locally known as DIA is very different than any airport in the U.S. The check in, TSA check -point and baggage claim of all airlines is located in one medium size terminal: Jeppesen Terminal.

Here you can find Rental Car options, restaurants, etc...
And here is where you have to arrive to do the check in and to be picked up.
United is the main airline here, Southwest and Frontier are also the big bosses.
United offers plenty of room to check in with almost no-wait at all even if you fly in coach.

One of the great features is that in the TSA checkpoint there is a Pre-Clear line plus a Business/First Class/Premier line, which saved me at least 15 minutes.

After the TSA checkpoint you can proceed to your terminal.
You can walk or take the train if using terminal A.
And you must take the train (ONLY OPTION) to go to terminal C and B(United and US Airways only).

Of course I just visited terminal B, which is huge. And thankfully there are two well located United Clubs. But apart from that there aren't too many options. The only shops are the typically airport stores but it does have a lot of restaurants but only one Starbucks and it's not in the middle of the terminal.

This airport is good to say the least. Although because you do have to take the small train and walk a bit more, I would arrive at the airport at least 1 hour and 15 minutes before the flight. 

But most important, it offers one thing that I think we all look at an airport:

FREE INTERNET

(although it didn't worked on mobile devices)

FOOD: 4.5

SHOPS: 3.7

ENTERTAINMENT: 4.4

SERVICE/EFFICIENCY: 4.5

LOCATION: 4.0

"WALKING"(the least, the better): 3.7

OVERALL:

4.1