Day 4 - Cabo, take 2

Today was our second day in Cabo with perfect weather! Unfortunately, we didn’t see or do much. We both woke up with colds this morning, and were achy and running low-grade fevers. We did get off the ship and doddered around Cabo for about 2 hours, including stopping for lunch (shrimp tacos!). Back on the ship we loaded up on sunscreen and ibuprofen and headed up to the deck chairs. The warm sun felt good but, without the ship moving, we could only spend about 90 minutes out before we were well crisped! After a nap we went to the past-guest party that Carnival always offers. They had out free cocktails and appetizers, have a band/dancing, and then show a video of all the ships in the Carnival fleet.

From the past-guest party we went for an early dinner, which we both found we didn’t have an appetite for. Now it’s 7:30 pm and we’re back in the room with mugs of Neo-Citron. Tomorrow is a full day in Puerto Vallarta, and we’re scheduled to do a whale watching expedition in a Zodiac. We’re both looking forward to that so will call it an early night and hope for a full recovery in the morning!

Mr

The Famous Cabo Arch

Sea Lion colony. Look close - they're the brown blobs on the rock.

Stingray

Andrew petting a jellyfish

Wall o' fish.


Chef's Table

Salmon tar-tare

Roasted tomato and Poblano soup

Shrimp benignets with prosciutto and dried tomato

Greek salad with lemon dressing

Chilean sea bass with lobster foam

Filet mignon with pepper coulis trio



Dessert - sponge cake with marscapone filling and raspberry sorbet with coconut gelee strip

Day 3 - Cabo

Today was our first port – Cabo san Lucas. Cabo is a beautiful port with golden, sandy beaches and friendly people. We had 2 dives booked today so were off the boat (after the gym and breakfast) by 10 am, ready to go. We met up with everyone after the tender (ships do not dock in Cabo as it is too shallow, so they take you to shore in smaller vessels) and headed over to the dive shop to get fitted for gear. For those of you who have had the good fortune of never having to fight your way in to a wet 5 mm suit, consider yourselves lucky. Nothing will test your dedication to scuba like this 5 minutes of sheer agony. I have personally lost all the skin off of several fingers completing this stunt in the past.

Once we had wriggled our way in to our suits, we headed back to the dive boat and then out to the first dive site, the North Wall. The beautiful thing about diving with a tourist excursion, such as a though the cruise line, is that they do everything for your in terms of readying your gear. Really though, after struggling in to your wetsuit, that should be all that is required of me. After everyone was suited up we jumped in to the water, which was 70F and cold enough to take your breath away. Once we got going it was a little warmer, and we spent 30 minutes under the water. It was very windy in Cabo today, so the visibility was limited. Despite that, we saw some jellyfish (new for us), a stingray, and a lot of snappers, angel, and parrot fish.

After changing out tanks and grabbing some crackers and a drink of water, we headed out on the second dive at Pelican Rock. We had originally planned to dive near the sea lion colony, but the waters were very rough today, due to the wind, so our dive master moved us to a safer location. Somehow the water seemed even colder on the second dive and, even with a 5 mm suit, boots and a hood, my teeth chattered through the whole 35 minutes! On the second dive we swam through a wall of what was likely more than a thousand fish. With the limited visibility, I thought it was a reef wall at first, so was awed to see it turn in to individual fish!

After the second dive we headed back to shore and then took the tender back to the ship. We rinsed all our dive gear and had just enough time for a quick nap before it was time to get ready for Chef’s Table. For those of you who have followed this blog in the past, you know that Chef’s Table has been one of the highlights of our trip; this time was no exception! We had 7 courses of amazing food over the course of 4 hours; each one more awe-inspiring than the next! Only 12 people are permitted at each Chef’s Table event, so the group is small and the company is good.

We’re now back in our cabin, stuffed to the gills and anchored just off the coast of Cabo. Because of the recent shooting in Mazatlan, we’re spending tomorrow here as well. We’ll post pictures tomorrow when we head back in to Cabo to sightsee, as we saw several places advertising free Wi-Fi. Good night!

Day 12 - Sea Day

A completely lazy day at sea today. Despite that we were up early and I was at the gym at 6 am. This ship has the best gym I’ve seen on a ship – great equipment and lots of it! After my workout we had breakfast and then spent a couple of hours exploring the ship. We have not been on the Splendor before and will say that we like the layout very much. There are two pools and 5 or 6 hot tubs, as well as a kids “splash” area and the waterslide. They also have an outdoor big-screen. During the day they show TV programs and, on certain evenings, they play “movies under the stars”. Unfortunately it was only 55F/13C at noon today so a bit chilly to swim! There are a few photos posted below.

Before lunch Andrew closed up the portholes to form his preferred nap environment (think cave) and I headed up to the Promenade deck to get a latte and read. We had lunch at the burrito bar, which is something we haven’t seen on other ships. Tasty! This afternoon we were able to find a spot on the Serenity Deck (the adults-only area of the ship) out of the wind with direct sun so we were able to sit out and read for a few hours. We did find it ironic that Carnival has designated an area for adults only, named it “Serenity”, and then put the kid-magnet mini-golf course directly above it! It was less than serene, to say the least.

Tonight was our first formal night, although we are “semi-formal” at best. We used to dress up more, however bringing Andrew’s tux takes up a lot of room and he finds the dining room too hot for a tux. We both had strawberry bisque and lobster – all delicious, as usual! Now we’re back in the room for the evening. Tomorrow is our first day in Cabo and we’re scheduled to do 2 dives so we need to get a good sleep. More tomorrow!

Day 1 - Embarkation (continued)

Well, we made it to the port about 10:30 am. Unfortunately, customs was overly-zealous with the passengers leaving the ship today and we were not able to board until about 2:30 pm. It was chilly out for SoCal, about 50F, and we had to wait outside so it was long and frosty. The Splendor was docked right next to the Queen Mary so we walked up to take a look at her. We're planning to tour her next Sunday when we return to Long Beach.

Queen Mary

Once we boarded the ship we grabbed some long-overdue lunch and then got in to our cabin. We have another porthole cabin, like we did on the Imagination in November. This one, however, seems to be larger and has a couch and an actual counter in the bathroom. We'll be very comfortable in this cabin for the next two weeks, and well taken care of by our cabin steward who asked us to call him "Mr. T", much to Andrew's delight!

View from the portholes towards the cabin door.

View from the cabin door toward the portholes.

Shower.

Sink/counter.

Day 1 - Embarkation

We had a long day of travel yesterday. Minnesota and Illinois had some weather issues which caused some flight delays. We left home for the airport at 1:30 pm and finally arrived at the hotel in Long Beach at 11 pm (CST). We had a wonderful driver from LAX to Long Beach. It was easy to tell that he talks to people all day as he was an excellent conversationalist. He made the 30 minute ride fly by!

The hotel is lovely - another great Priceline find for Andrew at $65! Even better, it is about 2 blocks from the cruise port. If we didn't have so much $%#$%* luggage, we could walk there!


This morning we were up at 6:30 am (sadly, habits remain even on holidays). I had a good run and then we walked about a 1/2 mile to a grocery store to get some soda and some wine to carry on the ship. As some of you know, there was a shooting in Mazatlan about two weeks ago and a local man was killed. Unfortunately, the scene was witnessed by passengers from a Norwegian Cruise Line ship and it has caused some issues for the cruise industry. Carnival canceled their stops in Mazatlan last week, as did many other cruise lines. We have been waiting to hear if our stop there will also be canceled, and learned this morning that it will. We also found out this morning that, because Mazatlan is canceled, our itinerary has been flip-flopped and we are going to ports in a different order with an additional day in Cabo to make up for Mazatlan. We are disappointed by this, as we really like Mazatlan and were looking forward to that stop. As well Andrew has been emailing the vendors that we have booked tours and excursions through at the other ports to find out if we can still do them, but on different days. We'll keep you posted on that!

So now we're packing up and are planning to head out for the port in about an hour, via cab. Once we get on the ship we'll have lunch and then should be able to get in to our cabin by about 1 pm or so. Luggage usually comes a couple of hours later so we can typically get unpacked before the muster drill. We sail from Long Beach at 4:30 pm (PST).

Here we go again!

We're off again on another cruise! Originally, we had planned to go to Mazatlan for a week but we came across a great deal on this cruise so are doing it instead. In fact, it was such a good deal that we're doing it twice - back to back. Each cruise is 7 days long, stopping in Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The map of this route on the Carnival website is "currently unavailable", so you'll just need to use your imagination. Or else Google it. :)

We fly out Saturday afternoon and board the ship on Sunday. We'll look forward to having you follow along...