mkcurran

I hear you! Love them and hate them. BUUFFFFAALLLLOOOO!

A programmer from Central California. If you work with an Agricultural Software I've probably cussed you for the reason on your shirt. 😆😆

Long beach could learn a few things from Seattle. Some things while it was alone. 😆😆

Best to let Kylie and Co off first. Just to save your ear drums. 😆😆

Extra fuel for the extra weight your breakfast added?

You got my attention at Jack Stack. I miss good BBQ.

Stay safe!

Yup.

So sorry for your loss. Your daughter should definitely seek Txteach out, if for nothing else, survival tips. Teaching is a hard profession. I'm sure Tx has a few stories and tips to pass along.

Is that a regular interior cabin? That's nice!

Not the Maya. That driver bribes port workers with cookies. Fast lane all the way!

Nice!

Also happy to see you made it on board.

Wise advice from the birthday girl. (Happy Birthday!)

Now to get you on Celebrity, to add them to that comparison.

If you can get park and cruise, do it. 3 weeks ago, we had to wait in the back-up just to get a piece of paper to tell us where we were parking, which wasn't the convention center. Rumor has it Ubers are not taking people to the port, but they will take you to the edge of the parking lot of the Queen Mary.

We hit the back up at 10 am. As for the space in the dome, boarding was an hour later than typical. The ship arrived late that day, and I'm sure that set off a chain of events. The floor was as comfortable as the benches, just harder to get up from. 😆

Let's hope Patti heals quickly!

At least I got on apology about the parking situation.

I was with him when we parked the truck. Thankfully we drive a very compact pickup, so we fit.

Final thoughts: I am beginning to see why people are saying Carnival is cutting back. I felt a slide in overall quality. The biggest difference I felt was the fact that the employees didn't seem to have as much time to interact with the guests. There have always been smiles and greeting from all of the employees. We got to hear their stories. We got to know them a bit. Not so much this time. There were a few, but not as many as normal. They all seem so busy all the time now. The cruise director. I've sailed with good one, I've sailed with bad ones. Dion used to be a good one. He seems a shadow of his former self. Marty last year was not the life of the party; be he was more personable. The parking situation. This could have been handled better. More than two days' notice would have been nice. It was actually a week's notice, since the web site changed on 4/16. If I had known when we booked the cruise, we would have booked a park and cruise hotel. Once we knew it was too late to change plans. Will I cruise Carnival again---maybe if I get a good enough deal, but unlikely until the menus change again. Will I sail out of Long Beach again? Highly unlikely. The parking situation is a mess and Carnival refuses to own it. The have the lease with Long Beach, they should have a bit more control over the execution of the plans. When is my next cruise? No idea. Waiting to hear if the grandkid is doing a semester abroad in Ireland. If that happens all vacation dollars will be going that way. Although if I get a bonus anytime soon, we might squeeze in a fall ABC cruise. Thanks for reading my rambling, if you made it this far.

Debarkation continued. This is where thing went sideways. We just missed one bus. Porter unloaded us in a spot, talked to someone, and told us to stay put. They would get us on the next bus. Except no one knew which bus was next. They had people marching back and forth. The couple in front of us who just missed the last bus found the proper bus one stall over. We haul all of our bags over and load up. K has decided, B, T & me are going to wait at the curb, while he retrieves the car. The bus is loaded. K, again, helps others getting onto the bus. Nothing mobility friendly here folks. The we head back to the garage. Where the bus gets lost along the way. We make circles. We end up on a corner that's close enough to count. We get off, get our bags and get met with a wall of impatient people trying to get their bags. We are trying to get out, you'd think one of these people would step aside and let us through, nope. But one does go off on K. Yelling and screaming. I thought she was going to throw down. K had a look like he was going to move this lady out of his way. Everyone is defending K, saying he didn't do whatever she was accusing him of doing. I grab K by the shirt, break his attention on this lady and get him out from in front of her. At this point I grab a couple rolling suitcases say, excuse me and try to make an exit for the curb across the street. Excuse me doesn't work so I start walking a yell, "Watch your toes." This worked. Everyone follows my lead. My group is now safely on the other side of the street with all of our stuff. We are breathing, collecting ourselves and the crazy lady come over. "Ma'am you need to walk away." CL: "I was just going to apologize." Me: "Okay, now please leave." CL: "But....But...but...." Someone from her group gather her and got her away. K got the car, parked in the street, and we loaded up and left. The rest of the ride home was blissfully uneventful.

Debarkation: Saturday came and it was time to kick us off the ship. This would be our first experience with digital debarkation. I'm not a fan. Estimated times meant nothing. I had to switch on and off the Carnival wifi to check for our notice to vacate. Somewhere around ten we just decided to head down closer to the doors. As luck would have it, we got our eviction notice on our way down. Lines were confusing. We got yelled at a couple of time because we stopped to find B & T, after they got separated from us yet again. I really need to put trackers on them. Once in the Dome we got separated into the passport line and the birth certificate/ID line. All the way down the ramp. This turned out to entirely unnecessary. B & T got to the luggage area and waited on us. I finally got down the passport line, left K, as they said leave one person in line and have one get your bags. I grabbed a porter, sent him to B & T, the went back and grabbed K out of line. We took the $20 porter short cut out and he dropped us where the bus would pick us up to get back to the garage.

Last sea day: From the picture I took, I think I spent the whole day in the casino. I remember trying to watch movies out on the deck, but boy do I miss the retractable roof on the Splendor. It was too cold on the way back to spend much time outside. I did find some heat in the Casino.

Cabo Day Continued: Is any Carnival vacation complete with-out ice cream? Sailing away This was the second formal night, otherwise known as lobster night. B had to take a call on the Shell-phone The food in the dining room was nothing special. A couple of the new pasta dishes were good. The everyday steak was often tough, over cooked, and usually flavorless. We were all disappointed in the food for the week.