Cruise part 2

The first elegant night---(notice the pink zebra stripped circles in the background.)

We spent all of Monday and Tuesday at sea sailing towards Puerta Vallarta. We spent our days relaxing by the pools, playing miniature golf, eating, going to shows and exploring the ship. On Monday it was the first of two elegant nights aboard the ship. We had fun dressing up in our nice clothes and going to dinner. Rob loved the lobster that night, Shalyn and I both enjoyed Prime Rib. If I haven't mentioned it yet, the Carnival Splendor is huge! Each week it holds 3300 passengers and 1100 crew members. It is 952 feet in length and has 13 passenger decks. Oh yeah, and it is decorated in thousands of circles of pink zebra stripes. Avery loved camp carnival and wanted to be there as much as she could. Shalyn was a little disappointed in her age group, there weren't as many activities as there were on her last cruise. But she still had fun nonetheless. The more south we got, the hotter and more humid it got.

We docked in Puerta Vallarta on Wednesday morning and had all day to spend there. Initially we were going to go zip-lining through the jungle, but we were worried Avery would freak out so we changed our minds. Instead, we took a cab to the Malecon (boardwalk) in PV. As soon as we exited the cab, we were immediately accosted by vendors trying to push their products on us. Most weren't super aggressive, but a few were down right pains in the butt. They would grab my wrist, put their ugly bracelets on me and beg me to make them an offer. A vendor approached us and asked if our girls wanted to get their hair braided, both did, so we negotiated a price with her and found a place in the shade for them to get braided. After a few hours we were shopped out, tired, sweaty and ready to get back to the air-conditioning on the ship. We made a quick detour to wal-Mart located directly across the street from the pier and bought a few things. After we re boarded the ship we headed straight for the pool to cool down. That night we set sail for Mazatlan.

On Thursday we celebrated Avery's 7th birthday. She wanted to go horseback riding on the beach for her birthday. We found an excursion that takes you to a small island near Mazatlan where you can ride horses along the beach. The port of Mazatlan is an industrial port, meaning you get off the ship and are greeted by thousands of metal shipping containers. You have to take a tram from the ship to the pier terminal. Outside of the terminal, we met up with our tour group. We took cabs (think pick up trucks with long benches in the bed) to a small dock where we boarded water taxis that took us to Stone Island. There were about 25 other people from our ship on our tour. Once we got to the horses they gave quick instructions and help us into our saddles. Avery had never ridden a horse unassisted before and she did awesome. In no time she was yelling hi-ya to her horse and making it run. After riding for over an hour, we stopped at a restaurant on the beach for lunch. After lunch, the girls changed into their swimming suits and played in the water. From there, the taxis returned and we began making our way back to the ship. Rob and I had arranged for a cake to be delivered to Avery that night in the dining room after dinner. Mario brought out the cake, candles and all to Avery. After singing to her we cut the cake. I took a bite, and my teeth hit something hard. I spit it into my hand and found a piece of glass. Rob called Mario over and showed him, he quickly went and got the Maitre d'. They apologized profusely and promised to bring Avery another cake the next night. Later that night when we were in our room, there was a knock at the door and it was a plate of chocolate covered strawberries with 'sorry' written in chocolate in the middle of the plate. We were just glad that I was the one who had gotten the piece with the glass and not the girls.

On Friday, we dropped our anchor in Cabo San Lucas. At this port, the ship anchors in the middle of the water and you have to take a small boat from the ship to the shore (tender). We were only going to be in port from 7am-2pm. Our plan for the day was to go to Medano Beach and spend the day being beach bums. We weren't in any hurry to get off the ship, so we ate a leisurely breakfast and got ready. Around 10am we headed to the theater where they were giving out the tickets for the tender. Right after we got our tickets they announced that a storm and appeared from nowhere and they were temporarily halting the tender operation until the seas calmed. We ended up having to wait nearly 3 hours for the storm to pass. We later found out that the wind had flipped a parasailing boat over injuring 2 people. We sat in the theater and Rob participated in a trivia game. They played little song bits from movies and you had to figure out what movie it was from. Rob got 15/20 and tied for first, winning a metal. Once they storm passed we were able to head to shore. By the time we got there, we only had a hour until we had to get back on the ship. Cabo is beautiful, by far our favorite port. It's actually a place we'd consider going on vacation. Not having time to go to the beach, we ended up hanging around the port area and visiting the vendors. We got hot and hungry so we stopped at a little outdoor restaurant for sodas and nachos. By the time our nachos arrived it was time to get back on the ship so we got a box to go and ate them while we were in line for the tender. They were the best nachos Rob and I have ever had. That night after dinner, true to their word, another cake was brought out for Avery. This time the Maitre d' helped bring the cake and sing to her. No problems this time, the cake was delicious.

Saturday was spent sailing back to Long Beach. The girls spent time with the friends they made on the ship, we golfed one last time and oh boy it was windy up there. That afternoon camp carnival had some family activities planned. The girls decorated cookies and Rob and Avery participated in an ice cream eating contest. The shops on board were having sales so we did some shopping. We bought captain hats for the boys, Shalyn bought some key chains, and Avery bought a pink stuffed dog. We went to the dining room for a final time and said goodbye to our servers and thanked them for the special attention they had given the girls all week. After dinner, we went back to our rooms and packed. It seemed like we'd just unpacked, all too soon our vacation was almost over.Girls saying goodbye to Mario

When we woke up Sunday morning we were docked back in Long Beach. We had a long day ahead of us, so we opted to self-disembark (As opposed to regular debarkation where you leaver you luggage outside your door the night before and they take it and take it off the ship for you). After breakfast we hauled all of our luggage to the 3rd floor and stood in line to get off the ship. Once customs cleared the ship, we were the first ones off (literally). We began our long drive. Our first stop was Buttonwillow to meet up with our boys. We missed them so much! For the most part, things went very well with them and my parents. After lunch and some visiting, we departed for Utah. We finally got home at 12:30am. We were all exhausted, but it was worth it!

Rob and I on Fri the 2nd elegant night

Waterworks on the ship