2009 Mexican Riviera "sisters" Cruise

2009 Carnival Splendor Mexican Riviera "sisters" cruise: Puerto Vallarta; Mazatlan; and Cabo

Dec. 6-13, 2009 became our first 3 "sisters" vacation. It was the first time Carolyn and I got Jane (our sister-in-law) to come along with us. I'm very glad she was able to make it. Carolyn and I had done this same itinerary last year on Holland America so we knew a bit of what to expect---at least from the itinerary. At first I was a little disappointed to be doing the same itinerary, but it turned out to be alright. We were able to do some different things and since I was more familiar with the area, I didn't mind not doing organized tours.

Pre-cruise I met up with Jane at LAX and spent the night in a LaQuinta Suites Inn for $60 for the night. My flight from STL ended up being a little more exciting as Texas was hit by a 6 inch snow storm the night before. Some day I'll learn not to schedule myself through Texas in the winter (was stuck there during a couple ice storms in the past, as well as a couple snow storms)! But I ended up being able to catch a flight to Denver (where they're equiped for winter weather) and then on to LAX, getting there only about 40 minutes late.

Sunday morning we met up with Carolyn at the embarkation station. We were there early, so were able to register quickly and sit around outside for a couple hours visiting before boarding the ship. Jane and I did walk over to the Queen Mary (now a hotel there) and enjoyed wandering around in it. They were having a buffet breakfast there and there were lots of x-mas decorations, even carollers. Looked like it would be a neat place to spend the night. I found out after we got back that the firm Angie works for is doing some renovating to it.

Embarkation went quickly and easily. Fortunately we didn't go on the cruise the 2 weeks before this one or the one after it as there were problems. 2 weeks before, the ship had run into another ship in Puerto Vallarta, then later in the week the captain had a heart attack and they had to turn around and head back to Cabo making them several hours late getting back into Long Beach. The cruise after ours ended up staying over night in Puerto Vallarta after the ship ran into a dock and had to have repairs done before it could leave. Fortunately nothing unusual happened during our cruise.



Dec. 6-8, 2009  Embarkation and around the Splendor ship

Dec. 9, 2009  Puerto Vallarta

Dec. 10,2009  Mazatlan

Dec. 11, 2009 Cabo

After another day of sailing, we were back in Long Beach. There I parted ways with Carolyn and Jane. They flew home together out of Long Beach and I caught my shuttle back to LAX. There I was able to catch an earlier flight and get home a couple hours sooner. Thus ended our first "sisters'" trip with myself, my sister, and my sister-in-law.  I hope they had as great a time as I did!

Dec. 11, 2009  Cabo

Next morning we woke up in Cabo. Again Jane and I went to breakfast waiting for Carolyn to get up. After checking on her, she said for us to leave without her again. This was a tender port and a short stop (all aboard by 2). Jane and I wandered around the shops and she picked up more Christmas presents. We also hit Hard Rock Cafe for a free burger and a couple more drinks.  There's much more to Cabo then I realized from my last trip here.

As we tendered in, I marvelled at the beaches just past the town. If I get back to Cabo, I hope to spend some time on the beaches here.

This is a view of the town from the tender. Once you get back off the marina, the number of street venders declines significantly. I even found another little internet cafe along our way and was able to spend another 15 minutes on the net for $1.

As we left Cabo, we got to see the famous Arch.

Cabo is a really neat "little" city!  Very walkable easy for Americans to enjoy!  So glad Jane wanted to go explore the city.

2009-12-10  Mazatlan


Next morning we woke up in Mazatlan. Jane and I headed to breakfast, giving Carolyn a little more time to sleep. When we went back for her, she cancelled out on us. We had planned to go to Stone Island and spend the day on the beach with a pina colada or margharita or 2, but our plans ended up changing. Jane and I disembarked and planned to try and find the Gold Zone and get our free charms from Diamonds International, then come back and go to Stone Island. Instead, we were confronted with a city tour guide that offered us a tour for $20@ which we decided to take . It turned to be a really good tour. Much better then the bus load tour that Carolyn and I went on last year for twice as much.

It took us to many of the same places as the tour we took last year, but Jane wasn't with us last year so it was all new to her. At this lookout there were beautiful vistas of the ocean. We were able to get away from the vendors by hiking down this trail.

Being in an 8 person van for this tour, we were able to go places the bus couldn't, such as this area for a overlook of our ship.

We did the cliff diving thing again---we didn't dive, just watched.

We also went to a section of town the busses couldn't go to that they say is their "European" section because of the design.

Carolyn and I had gone to this church on our last tour, but this time it was nearer to Christmas and it and the surrounding area was decorated for Christmas. I loved this huge tree made out of bottles of colored water.

We were told about a huge flea market on the other side of the church so we were able to check it out quickly, too.

Since all was going well with the tour, the driver asked if we'd like to extend our tour and go to lunch. The 8 of us agreed and were taken to this restaurant in the Gold Zone. We were given a free drink (did get my pina colada and it was very good!). Jane and I also shared 2 appetisers.

Back at the ship the sun was beginning to set so I went up to the lido deck and caught a sunset before joining Jane and Carolyn in the diningroom.

Aside from the mahi mahi which I got 3 times, this was my other favorite meal---flank steak. The grouper fish dinner was good, too. On one night I had prime rib but it was cooked much more then I'd prefer.

Here are our waiters (Hector Lito and ?) entertaining us as we ate dessert. Is Carnival the only line that does this now?

Another great day!  I like going  to repeat ports and winging it.

2009-12-9  Puerto Vallarta

 After 3 days of cruising at about 21 knotts, we arrived into Puerto Vallarta on Wed. morning. We had decided ahead of time that we would take a cab to the Malecon (boardwalk area) not too far from the ship. So when we got off the ship we found a taxi (not hard to do) and told him we'd give him $8 to take us to the Malecon.

Our taxi dropped us off at the far end and we walked our way back slowly.

The waterfront was beautiful. We even waded in the water a bit.

The water was quite warm and inviting.

All along the Malecon were some pretty interesting sculptures. It was sort of like walking through a sculpture park with an ocean next to it. And it was free!

I'm not sure what most of the sculptures are, but they made for an interesting walk. We got to spend about 20 minutes in this area last time Carolyn and I were here when we were on a city tour. I looked forward to going back here and spending more time along the beach.

We also spent time on the other side of the road running along the beach. There were lots of tourist shops and restaurants all along the way. We even stopped into Hard Rock Cafe to get a cold drink and share a nacho before heading back down the Malecon. They even had really good live entertainment while we were there.

When we'ld gone far enough, we caught another taxi back to Walmart across the street from the port. There we got a few things like bottles of soda, nose spray (getting ready for the head colds that plagued me the rest of Dec.), lip screen, post cards, ... . Note, they will take your American money but will only give you pecos back.

After going back into the secure area for boarding the ship, I noticed an internet cafe. Since the price of the internet on the ships is ridiculous, I found the port internet cafes a great place to spend about 15 minutes. After firing an email home, we were heading back onto the ship. We boarded too late for dinner in the main dining room, so settled for dinner in the Lido buffet.

I know Puerto Vallarta has been plagued with problems for visitors, but our day there was really nice. 

2009-12-6  Embarkation and around the Carnival Splendor Ship


Here we posed for our first of many pictures. It was a bit chilly that day---probably about 60 degrees---not what I expected for Long Beach. Soon we were on the ship and heading to the Lido buffet for lunch.


One of the things I'd read a lot about this ship was the "pink" decor. That didn't seem to be that bothersome to me, but I did think the pink zebra doughnut shapes all over the place were a bit tacky. Especially since it kept leaving us with a desire for doughnuts and there weren't any on this ship.
This was the biggest ship I'd been on at 113,300 tons, 952' long, holds 3006 passengers and has 15 levels. Perhaps too big for the captains, too (seeing as they keep running into docks lately)?!

We were assigned the first dining slot. In a way that's good in that you can get by with just eating breakfast and dinner, but it did seem to cut into a lot of evening activities---like watching sunsets and catching the last hours of sun by the pools. Jane and I did use the jacuzzis, but ended up having to go after the evening shows. Then we did usually look for a snack after the pools closed, but the only place open late night was the hamburger/hotdog bar and the pizza bar---all of which we tired of quickly. We did have a very lively lady at our table for 4. Her name is Lucy and she was very active on the cruise critic website. She made a point of getting up and dancing with the waiters every evening and said this was her 48th cruise. Here she is coming back to our table after the evening dancing.

The nightly entertainment was ok. Not fabulous, but not bad. I thought the famale lead singer had a fantastic voice, but the choreography seemed somewhat lacking. There was also a comedian who was ok.

The 2nd night was formal night so we dressed up and wandered around seeing if any photographers could make us glamorous.

I actually liked this one so I purchased it. It's been a long long time since I had a studio portrait taken of me.

We had hoped to spend more time at the adult only pool and jacuzzis, but it seemed a bit cool for the pool and the jacuzzi was usually full. Jane and I did go to the jacuzzi here a couple of times, but mostly hung out at the jacuzzis on the 10th level above the Lido pool and big screen. It was a little odd not have a jacuzzi by the main pool and no pool by the jacuzzis we hung out at the most.

The Lido buffet was quite good. Maybe not as good as I remember Holland America being, but good enough to keep me happy. Jane and I ate breakfast there everyday while Carolyn usually slept in. They had a Mongolian Grill there at lunch, at least the last couple of day. Since Jane and I are big fans of that, we did wait in the long long line Sat. afternoon to get our fill. It was very good. A little known about area above the Lido buffet is the Rotissieri. It was very good, too. We did have lunch there one day. This picture was taken from up there looking down on the dessert bar of the Lido buffet.

Speaking of desserts, here's just one of the many choices off the dinner menu. I found the mahi mahi fish to be quite good as well as many of the desserts. I did think the chocolate lava cake that they're so famous for was a bit too sweet and gooey for me, but this raisin rum cake was great.

Another of the ships dancers and singers performances. Seemed like there were fewer variety shows on this ship then most of the other lines. Other than the comedian, I believe all the entertainment was put on by the ships performers. Their last real performance, Vroom, was really good. They also performed with kareoki contestants who won their try-outs as different singers such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Elton John, Brittney Spears, ... . That show was somewhat entertaining, but the kareoki talent wasn't nearly as good as I've seen on most of the other ships.

During one of the shows I remember seeing a laser show, but now I don't remember which one it was. I do like laser shows, though.

After our days of running around, it was nice going back to our room. It was quite large for a cruise ship cabin! Even with 3 of us in one cabin we had plenty of room. There was no tub, but the shower was configured in such a way as to seem pretty roomy. The desk was very long with a safe and a fridge built into it, as well as 4 or 5 drawers. The closet was large and had plenty of hangers for what little we brought. There were also several shelves on one side of the closet for more clothes. There was a hair dryer as well as complimentary accesories like razors, toothpaste and antacids. We did have to leave them a note to separate the 2 twin beds, but they got to it pretty quickly.

The 3rd bed was the couch with the back cushions taken off. I took the couch and found it to be quite comfortable. There were even drawers under the bed which we didn't use.

The first 3 days we were at sea---not normally my favorite part of a cruise, but with my "sisters", it was a blast!

2009 NCL Alaska Cruise

2009 Alaska Cruise --- 7 nt. NCL Pearl; Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Glacier Bay, Victoria B.C.,

August 16-23, 2009----to Alaska on board NCL's Pearl.

I chose this cruise as Ken's first cruise (my 7th)to try and impress him enough that he would want to go on more cruises. With the beauty of Alaska and the ports being mostly American towns (he has an aversion to leaving the states), I figured this might do the trick. It started out as a cruise for just him and myself. As the months went by, my brother and sister-in-law, Aunt and Uncle, and at the last minute my sister also joined us. Although I was looking forward to all my family joining us, I had never cruised with more then 1 other person in my party and was a little apprehensive about how it would all turn out. In the end, I think it went well, although we all did spend lots of time hunting each other out. It also meant wait times at the restaurants and a little more work finding tables for all of us at the buffet restaurant, but it all worked out. It was also nice knowing that we didn't have to do everything together, but that we could probably find someone to do "whatever" with (NCL's motto---You're free to do whatever.) Ken and I usually found Uncle Joe and Aunt Carol in the buffet for breakfast about 8ish. The inside cruisers would usually make their appearance around 10 or later. I even had to call and wake them one day after noon to see if they were joining us in Ketchikan. Ken and I also joined the spa which in hindesite was a waste of money. The spa was nice (love the therapy pool and heated loungers), but we were in port so much and had high waves that caused them to drain the pools the last couple days so we hardly had time to use it. Plus I really enjoyed the outdoor pool and jacuzzis with the gals.

I had read poor reviews of NCL from different travel agencies, but they had the itinerary I was looking for. The poor reviews were for naught, we had no problems with NCL. The Pearl was a beautiful ship. Not any more beautiful then the others I've been on, but just as nice. It's a rather large ship at 93,500 tons and 2,394 passengers, 15 decks, and was only 2 years old.

The NCL Pearl 

2009-8-18 Juneau 

2009-8-19 Skagway

2009-8-20 Glacier Bay 

2009-8-21 Ketchikan

2009-8-22 Victoria,BC

The next morning was debarkation day and the end to another wonderful cruise.

 Why did I pick this cruise? There were a few reasons. First we wanted to round trip out of Seattle. Then I wanted a cruise that went to Skagway so we could do the ride into the Yukon like I did with Dad. I thought that was a really beautiful excursion and thought Ken would enjoy seeing the Yukon. Also I didn't want the Canadian port to be Prince Rupert and this ship went to Victoria, which I love. Lastly, I had already cruised through Tracy Arm Fjord on the last cruise and although I liked it, I'd heard Glacier Bay was a lot better. With all those criteria, this was the only cruise left. In addition to all that, we also got ports in Juneau and Ketchikan. I was not disappointed!

2009-8-22 Victoria, BC

Saturday morning we woke up early to the ship really rocking and rolling. It was rather interesting watching the crew and passengers trying to move about the boat. Apparently higher then expected surf came our way and things were thrown around the ship. The stores were closed for most of the day while they cleaned up the mess. Dishes in the buffet restaurant were thrown onto the floor, so when we got there they were handing them out of big tubs. Potted plants were toppled and rolling around. Even the pool areas (outside and in the spa) were emptied due to the water in them being sloshed out. The pools remained closed the rest of the trip. But by afternoon the surf subsided and the ship was back to being calm.

Saturday was also Victoria, B.C day. Greater Victoria is the 15th largest metropolitan in Canada with a population of over 330,000. It reminds me of a little english town. We were only here from 6pm-11:30pm. Ken took off on the shuttle and walked around the downtown area by himself. David and Jane walked around the area from the ship. Carolyn and Joe hung out at the ship, again. Carol and I did the ship excursion to Butchard's Gardens.

Butchard's Gardens is a National Historic Site of Canada, but still privately owned by family descendants. It has 55 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens. We didn't have much daylight hours there, but it is also lit up at night. We did race around the whole park quickly trying to see as much as we could before dark. It's as beautiful as I remembered. I have been there before, but am a sucker for gardens. Here is the famous sunken garden.

It was even beautiful at night. Here is the entrance to the Japanese Gardens.

Included in this tour was also a fireworks show at the gardens. It was a little odd compared to our US fireworks shows, but still interesting. Considering how large the crowd was at the gardens, it cleared out pretty quickly after the fireworks.

Here we were greeted by this statue as we got back to our ship.

So glad Carol was along to go to the garden with me.

2009-8-21  Ketchikan

Friday was Ketchikan day. Ketchikan is the southeasternmost sizable city in Alaska. It's population is only about 7,500 and it's only about 4 sq miles, but it is the fifth most populated city in the state.

It was a rather short stop, but worth seeing. Even Uncle Joe got off the ship for a change!

Carol had been here before and took over our excursion here. She got the info about taking the public bus to Totem Bight State Historical Park, and we were on our way for $1 each way.

In 1938 the U.S. Forest Services began a program to salvage and reconstruct totem poles. Civilian Conservation Corps funds were used to hire skilled carvers from among the older Natives and totems which had been left to rot in the woods were either repaired or duplicated. A model of a Native village was erected on this site, then called Mud Bight. In 1970 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Pictured here is a clan house similar to what many Indian villages built in the early 19th century. It was a dwelling that served as living quarters for several families of the same lineage. Each family got its own space but shared a common fire. A clanhouse of this size could have housed 30 to 50 people. Each house had a chief.

Although we did run into more rain here, it was an interesting and worthwhile trip.

Back in Ketchikan, we decided to walk around town a bit and do a little shopping. Joe was on the hunt for pretzels, the rest of us on the hunt for souvenirs and the freebie charms given away in the jewelry stores. Our leisurely walk ended up leading us straight to Creek Street, a wooden board walk in the old "red light district" on which Ketchikan's famous Dolly's House is located. Creek Street today is a collection of museums, historic homes, and shops built on pilings above Ketchikan Creek.

Ketchikan creek was full of salmon. I can see where Ketchikan got the nic name of "the Salmon Capital of the World".

Another view of Creek Street from the other end of the boardwalk.

Back at the docks I enjoyed the puzzle perfect views of the boats in the harbor and the houses on the hillside.

Friday night was the night of the Chocoholic Buffet on board the Pearl. Unfortunately Ken and I ended up at the Liar's club and the Quest Game show instead---neither of which we were particularly impressed with.

Saturday morning we woke up early to the ship really rocking and rolling. It was rather interesting watching the crew and passengers trying to move about the boat. Apparently higher then expected surf came our way and things were thrown around the ship. The stores were closed for most of the day while they cleaned up the mess. Dishes in the buffet restaurant were thrown onto the floor, so when we got there they were handing them out of big tubs. Potted plants were toppled and rolling around. Even the pool areas (outside and in the spa) were emptied due to the water in them being sloshed out. The pools remained closed the rest of the trip. But by afternoon the surf subsided and the ship was back to being calm.

2009-8-20 Glacier Bay

Thursday was another much anticipated day for me---Glacier Bay day! Glacier Bay is America's largest water area park. It is also part of a 24 million acre World Heritage Site, the largest internationally protected area in the world.

We even slept with the curtains open so we wouldn't miss any of the daylight hours. We were in the Summer Cafe by 7 am eating breakfast and looking out at the scenery as we cruised through the bay. This was just one of the many glaciers we saw as we were cruising on our way to Marjerie Glacier.

A zoom close up of glaciers on the mountains tops.

More glaciers along the way.

When we finally got to Marjerie Glacier, I was in awe! Marjorie is an Ice Age giant 21 miles long, a mile wide, and stands 250 feet above water and another 100 feet below water. Since it reaches into the water, it's called a tide-water glacier. This little excursion ship gives some perspective to the size of this glacier! The glacier towered over our 14 story ship.

Layers of rocky debris create interesting patterns in the ice. The glaciers appear blue because the ice in the glacier absorbs shorter red and green light waves. Again we had an overcast day, with lots of wind, off and on rain, and some very cold temperatures. I was afraid the ice wouldn't show the brilliant blue with the harsh weather, but it was still pretty impressive.

We were even lucky enough to witness lots of calving. The sound of the ice breaking sounded like an explosive charge going off. Once we heard it, we would quickly scan the glacier and then see chunks of ice falling into the water.

The waves made by some of the chunks of ice were large enough to rock our boat a bit.

Just another picture showing off the blue of the glacier.

I managed to have company on the 13th outside level for part of the time. Most of them ended up going back into the warmth of Spinnaker lounge. My camera and I stayed outside until we left the glacier.

This calving was an extremely huge chunk of ice. We thought the we had already seen a large calving, but this one was gigantic---probably the size of that excursion cruise ship or even larger.

These were just 2 of the many calvings we saw here at Margerie.

Our time at Marjerie was extended quite a bit, too, due to a medivac taking place here. It was rather interesting to watch the procedure. It did take quite awhile, but that meant more time to enjoy the glacier. Never heard what happened to the passenger who was medivaced. Hope he/she is ok.

Once the medivac was completed, we took off to another glacier. Again we had lots of views of distant glaciers along our way.

In the early afternoon, we reached Lamplugh glacier. It is 8 miles long, 150-160 feet above water, and 10-40 feet below water. Note the kayakers in the left foreground of this picture.

An interesting feature about this glacier is that it has a waterfall coming out of it, much like at Mendenhall Glacier.

The waterfall water was a murky color while the glacier melt water was a deep milky turquise. The distinct line between the 2 waters was rather interesting.

Compared to my previous cruise through Misty Fjord, Glacier Bay was quite a bit more spectacular! Even though the weather on that previous trip was fabulous, we didn't get close enough in Misty Fjord to see much of any glaciers. Here in Glacier Bay we saw several glaciers.

After leaving Glacier Bay, the ship was booking it to make up time. Later that night, we made it to the Sharkbait show and thoroughly enjoyed it.