My wife and I used the Northern Kentucky Airport(CVG) to fly nonstop to San Diego, CA for our 31 January 2009 sailing on the Oosterdam. We left one day early to avoid winter travel problems and made it to the gate with only about ten minutes extra icy weather, from that point on the trip was a joy. We stayed one night at the San Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina. We had a 17th floor balcony room overlooking the bay and Coronado. The hotel was beautiful and lunch and breakfast there were very good.Saturday morning (predawn) we walked the waterfront for exercise and watched the Oosterdam arrive in port. We took a taxi($11.00) from hotel ship (5 blocks). Total time From getting out of taxi to finishing the check in was less than 15 minutes. Ten minutes more and we were in our cabin(6099). Our cabin was roomy with 3 cushion couch 3 chairs desk separate balcony door and another window. Bathroom had 2 sinks full tub w/water jets and a separate shower. Dressing area. We stayed on the extra large balcony a lot, no need to leave the room. Our shipmates were overall a friendly and slow-paced group. We are 50 and felt like young children compared to the others. The average age on this cruise seemed to be far older than on our other 8 cruises. We choose early fixed seating for a change and loved it. All week the food and service were great. We ate dinner in the main room every night . Specialty venues stayed mostly empty. We never saw a crowd at the Lido breakfast and lunch was easy, no hunt for a seat. We thought entertainment was not very good at night. The Ocean bar dance and music area was elevator music, no vocals. Most of the chairs stayed empty when they played and the musicians looked very bored. Other little shows were not much either. The Vista lounge show on the 2nd formal night was very good. Each port day we booked a tour online from home with Johann an Sandra Tours. They were very easy to deal with over the phone and online. We had no problems finding or using the tour in port. Same tours offered by HAL ,but, much cheaper. In Mazatlan we took the Blue Agave tour. About five hours in and out of town in a half empty 15 passenger van(6 tourists on board). We went to rural tequila farm and then to small town at least 20 miles from a main road. Lovely. The town was about three blocks square and managed to have traffic blockage, 5 cars behind us someone kept blowing the car horn. It was the Mexican version of police. Instead of getting out they blew the horn then turned around and drove away. It was Federal government cash hand out day for seniors and the town center was full, 15-20 police with machine guns watching everywhere, Interesting. In PV we took a city tour. 5 hours in out of town on and off a large bus a lot, still easy about 11 people on full size coach. A bit to many stops at targeted stores, we walked around instead of being herded into them. Cabo San Lucas was a stop we did not like all. Took a 6 hour tour to a town called Todos Santos(Hotel California)4 people in van with one driver,1.5 hours each way passing cactus. The small town was interesting for 1.5 hour guided tour part, but, the 2 hours "to eat lunch" was boring, then complete silence from the driver on the return. Disembarkation, no crowd at the Lido grill, nearly empty at 7 am, nice. When the call to leave came at about 8 am it took about 5 minutes to get off ship and onto the bus buying the no touch luggage handling we picked it off the rack at CVG .Problem: airport bus loaders and drivers standing around talking to each other(wearing jackets that completely covered all ID marking making them look like part of the crowd) allowed for much confusion to many passengers and created a 30 minute sit and wait period after getting on the bus. We had a fine cruise with great service and food. Seeing the Mexican Riviera one time was enough ,will not go back on land or sea!