Carnival Splendor, 2012
 
Chapters:
  Getting There!
  Embarkation
  First Fun Day at Sea!
  Cabo San Lucas: Day 1
       
  Cabo San Lucas: Day 2
  Puerto Vallarta
  Zip Line Adventure
  After the Zip Line Adventure
       
  Last "Fun Days at Sea"
  Going Home
  Suzie's Underwear
  Return to Home
 

Inside:
Driving There
Saturday Sight Seeing
 

Getting There!
Spring Break on the Carnival Splendor, 2012


Our spring break cruise almost didn't happen this year. We knew that it would be tough to do spring breaks in the future with both Preston and Brooklyn off to college. So finding a cruise, although easy, was difficult to swallow due to the high cost of flying to Miami and sailing from there. Miami is such a great place to start from. It's a great experience when cars stop along the bridge and get out of their vehicles and wave and shout at you. It's also amazing to pass Miami Beach and see all the activity going on. The cost of flying has changed our style of travel so much lately. We find ourselves driving more than flying.

Eventually, deciding to just drive to Long Beach and sail from there made more sense. We were extremely late in booking, only 50 days prior to sailing. However, Eugene, our good friend and cruise consultant with Carnival, once again came through for us and we were able to get the largest balconies on the back of the ship on each corner.

We have always talked smack about the Mexican Riviera even though we have never done this sailing before. Now that the cruise is completed, we were actually surprised at just how great the trip actually was. The ports of call were actually fantastic and the shore excursions were perfect in every way. The drive to Long Beach only took 10 hours which was much better than the travel time to Miami. Although Long Beach was cold and drizzly, the cruise was absolutely fantastic and could be a return cruise in the future.

 


Driving to Long Beach, CA
Leaving Safford
Shoe Shopping in Phoenix
Squacky always loves to navigate and drive.
Picking up Preston and loading up the Prius.
Visiting the Salton Sea.
 
Greg, Susan and Brooklyn left Safford on Friday morning early. We stopped off to pick up Preston at ASU. Of course, there were a few stops prior to this to let the girls shop for new shoes.

Getting the last luggage into the Prius was a challenge once we added Preston to the Prius. It required sitting on the luggage to compress all the empty spaces. The luggage did fit and it was a blast to drive it back to California where we originally purchased it in San Francisco.

We detoured the Salton Sea outside of Indio, CA. Brooklyn had recently put together a large research paper for English 102 at college and had used the Salton Sea as her subject. Basically, the Salton Sea has become a huge environmental disaster after being a grand success in the 50's and 60's. Brooklyn wanted to take a look at it and see if it really stunk and it did. After the cruise, we would laugh at her because her hands became very chapped and we told her it was because she stuck her hand in the Salton Sea.

We didn't think we would make it to Long Beach that night but we did. We were able to Priceline a fantastic hotel near the Carnival Splendor. A little KFC and we were ready to hit the bed.
 


Saturday Around Long Beach and Driving to Laguna Beach
We spent Saturday morning doing some last minute shopping and meeting up with Mike and Suzie. A storm was passing through California but it didn't stop us from driving around the beach area.

We drove down PCH 1 through Seal Beach, Huntington and made it over to Balboa Island. Greg had spent summers with his grandparents in Corona Del Mar at a house on the beach. Stopping by the house brought back great memories as we walked along the beach.
The shower head in the hotel looked like an alien encounter.
Mike and Suzie flew into Los Angeles in the morning.
The dome behind Preston is where the Carnival Splendor would dock on Sunday. The dome previously house the Spruce Goose.
The Prius getting onto it's first ferry boat ride to Balboa Island.
Greg spent many summers growing up in his grandparents house on the beach at Corona Del Mar.
 
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"Embarkation"
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