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!

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!