Carnival Splendor ~ Photo Review 1/13/13

[portlandpete]

That is so sweet! Beautiful ring!

[CWcruisers]

That is a beautiful ring. Congratulations on that milestone.

 

The sea lion in your photo is Poncho. He is the only male sea lion in the marina. All the others are his harem of girls. Poncho learned how to get up on the back of the fishing boats from his father and he is a pleasant end to a fishing trip, especially is your day wasn't so lucky. When I was there in December, I noticed that one of the "girls" has now learned how to get on the back of the boat, it's really something to see two of them begging for fish. Poncho is not starving, as evidence in that picture.;)

[gusandgidgetsmom]

Very pretty ring. Congratulations on your anniversary.

[QTPieRye]

That is a beautiful ring. Congratulations on that milestone.

 

The sea lion in your photo is Poncho. He is the only male sea lion in the marina. All the others are his harem of girls. Poncho learned how to get up on the back of the fishing boats from his father and he is a pleasant end to a fishing trip, especially is your day wasn't so lucky. When I was there in December, I noticed that one of the "girls" has now learned how to get on the back of the boat, it's really something to see two of them begging for fish. Poncho is not starving, as evidence in that picture.;)

 

LOL~ I will have to remember that next time I go to Cabo! You are right~ he is definitely not starving!

[swedish weave]

LOL~ I will have to remember that next time I go to Cabo! You are right~ he is definitely not starving!

 

How true !!! And Pancho doesn't stop with one boat. He follows any and all that will put food on the transom for him !!! He is a professional beggar !!!:D

 

Pics and review are great ! You have a very nice family !

[QTPieRye]

I've checked with all of my kids and apparently we got zero pics of the inside cabins.

[cooltj]

I had pre-booked the Buccaneer Queen Pirate Ship Adventure to Chileno Bay. The tour was scheduled to depart at 12:00 Noon, but we ended up not leaving on time due to a few passengers not arriving on time. Had I known they would wait for everyone, we could have simply walked the marina, but we were on Mexico time… which apparently does not exist! LOL

 

From the time we set foot on the shipt was fun. They had an open bar the entire trip, served lunch, did games, dancing, etc. Overall it was a fun experience and the kids had a blast! The snorkeling at Chileno Bay was much better than our past experiences to Santa Maria Bay. One of our guides got into water with us with food and there was an army of fish surrounding us. They also had a rope swing which was a lot of fun  On the way back, they did a cute little pirate show and had everyone dancing on the stage to Follow The Leader.

 

 

 

Once we arrived back at the Marina, we opted to walk back. It took us about 25 minutes to walk from Dock 1 back to Dock 5.

 

Once back on the ship, we ate dinner on the Lido and then headed out for our evening of fun!

 

Thank you for the review...

 

One question, can you please tell me who you booked the pirate ship tour with and how much you paid? I am thinking of booking this on our up coming cruise in April.

 

Thanks.

[gapearl]

I forgot to add that on the 14th of January, which was our 21st wedding anniversary and originally scheduled to be formal night, DH surprised me with this :) It was waiting inside of our cabin when we arrived (it's no wonder he insisted I went to guest services right when we boarded). LOL Even after all of these years, I am so in love!

 

 

WOWZA, what a rock! Hubby did good! :D Nice review!

[cvpends]

Thank you for your review. It brought back many happy memories :)

[gusandgidgetsmom]

Thank you for looking. I am going to take a deep breath and tell myself to stop re-hashing this. I made a decision and I best stick to it!

Your review is great that you for doing it. Your family looks lovely as well. I think it is great that you all cruise together.

I've checked with all of my kids and apparently we got zero pics of the inside cabins.

[QTPieRye]

Thank you for the review...

 

One question, can you please tell me who you booked the pirate ship tour with and how much you paid? I am thinking of booking this on our up coming cruise in April.

 

Thanks.

 

Hi there... we booked through cabosanlucastours dot net ~

 

If you book online, you get a good price :)

[QTPieRye]

Day 4- Continued

 

I forgot to mention that today was also the VIFP Past Guest Party which was at 4 p.m. in the Morocco Lounge. In the past the party was in the main theatre, but I am guessing that the implementation of the VIFP program, the numbers weren’t as big as in the past. Interesting to note that the drinks at the VIFP party were full size, where in the past they were always served in little glasses. It was the same old show, but always fun to meet other frequent cruisers and hear from the Platinum cruisers :)

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Day 5- Sea Day

 

We had a lazy day, relaxing watching movies in our cabin and laying out in the sun on our balcony. Wondered the gift shops, went to the watch sale, lost $30.00 at blackjack (I think this was the first time we gambled on a cruise ship~ probably the last with $6 minimums), overall just enjoyed the ship and each other’s company! Had a burger and husband had his plate of ghoulish, which he loves so much :)

 

 

[QTPieRye]

We went to the show in the theatre Vroom with the kids ~ we saw it last year so it wasn’t anything new to us, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. After the show we went back to our rooms to get stuff packed and ready for debarkation the next morning :( We had Group 19, so I knew it would be a while before we got off the ship. Since my mother was picking me up at the port so I could go get our dog, I decided to do self-debarkation with my youngest daughter and get a head start on my way home. This is when I made a very bonehead mistake… which I will post in detail. Meanwhile I wanted to share some more pics of the cruise ship and our trip :)

 

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Our cabin is between the "L" and "S" with the 3 hearts :)

 

 

[QTPieRye]

 

 

[QTPieRye]

 

 

[QTPieRye]

Disembarkation

 

Like I mentioned earlier, the night before DH and I decided that I would self-disembark early since my mother was picking us up from the port. Even after reading the entire disembarkation information the night before, and making sure that everyone had their photo ID's as stated in the paperwork I made a critical error! Being a frequent cruiser, I should have known better, but boy did I mess up..... I arrived at customs with not only our photo ID's, but also ALL birth certificates!!! On snap!

 

I explained what I had done with the customs rep and asked what I could do. Basically I was told nothing at this point because I was already off the ship and had cleared customs. I was also told that I would not be allowed to wait in the secured customs area... double snap! Not knowing what else to do, I found my bright red suitcase in Group 19 luggage and put the BC's and consent forms, etc. in the front pocket then called my husband and told him what happened. Although we knew there would be a problem, never did I imagine it would be such a major headache for my husband and kids!

 

When they got to customs, they explained what happened and were immediately escorted to what my husband called "cruise prison" where they were interrogated by customs officials and my 18 year old daughter was harrassed because she did not have a driver's license. They said that had she had her DL, and not her high school ID, then none of this would have happened because they could have cleared her without her birth certificate!!

 

When they finally went to pull our luggage to get the birth certificates, they treated my son and daughter's bf like criminals, searching their bags intensively, the liners, etc. asked if they had smuggled drugs, etc. etc. Seriously...... I understand that they may look like gangster thug drug users to some people (YOU'VE SEEN OUR CRUISE PICS SO YOU CAN SEE CLEARLY THEY DO NOT)...honestly, the way my family was treated was a bit extreme and in my opinion completely unnecessary!!! But whatever, you live and you learn.

 

Lesson Learned here is that we will NEVER travel again without a passport. When I got home I re-read the disembarkation hand-out and it says (i.e. passport). I truly believe that if anywhere on that form or during the cruise director's talk, it mentioned "birth certificate" MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, I would have used my brain :) But like I said, I made the mistake and should have known better!

 

All in all we had a wonderful cruise! We were sad our trip was shortened by 1 day, but when cruising, I've learned to be flexible with everything :)

 

Incidentally, my dog had a great time at my parents... here is what I came home to :)

 

[tanyaewa]

Great review. Thanks for that!

Super bummer about the debarking though :(

 

Why was ship late leaving and missed PV?

[BaldByChoice]

Thanks for your review and your pics...we were on the same cruise and in spite of the delay and other hiccups along the way, my fiancee and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Of course like everyone else, we were disappointed by the day-shorter itinerary, but we rolled with it and spent the scheduled bon voyage day at Disneyland.

 

And loved the picture of the warm chocolate melting cake....that I could not get enough of...!

[QTPieRye]

Thanks for your review and your pics...we were on the same cruise and in spite of the delay and other hiccups along the way, my fiancee and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Of course like everyone else, we were disappointed by the day-shorter itinerary, but we rolled with it and spent the scheduled bon voyage day at Disneyland.

 

And loved the picture of the warm chocolate melting cake....that I could not get enough of...!

 

Just curious what you thought about the cruise director WooHoo Malcolm?? He has been the least favorite of ours to date.

 

Also, we got the feeling that the overall crew was ready for Hawaii and was pretty much done with the Mexican Riviera. Several comments were made by servers, customer service, etc. throughout the week, that gave us the impression that they just wanted our cruise over so they could set sail for Hawaii.... (can't really blame them I guess. LOL)

[BaldByChoice]

Just curious what you thought about the cruise director WooHoo Malcolm?? He has been the least favorite of ours to date.

 

Also, we got the feeling that the overall crew was ready for Hawaii and was pretty much done with the Mexican Riviera. Several comments were made by servers, customer service, etc. throughout the week, that gave us the impression that they just wanted our cruise over so they could set sail for Hawaii.... (can't really blame them I guess. LOL)

 

Didn't really hear much from Mr. WooHoo the last couple of days---not sure if he drank the Mexican agua, or what was up. He was okay--my first cruise, so don't have anything to compare him to in that regard, and never saw him in person...just on the endless loops on the Carnival channels on the stateroom TV, and heard him on the PA the first few days---mildly amusing, nothing more, nothing less.

 

Hard to tell with regards to the crew as to their thoughts on this trip versus the upcoming (and now of course, in progress) Hawaii cruise---I know they work some long, long hours in broken-up shifts through the day, so honestly don't know what sort of down time they are given during any given cruise.

 

I wrote a review where my thoughts on the staff overall were above average to outstanding in a few instances, with a few negative nellies here and there. About what I would expect from a staff tasked with dealing with an endless array of varying personalities over their 6-month assignments.

 

If it were me, I would certainly be looking forward to Hawaii...definitely was after getting off the ship and seeing the basta---er, I mean, the next cruise's passengers already in line....

[chipq]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[CWcruisers]

Thanks for sharing your doggie's picture with us. That is precious.:)

 

You certainly are a trooper about the whole customs thing. I too was harassed by customs getting off a cruise in Miami because I had the nerve to buy jewelry from the on board shop, which did not exceed my customs limit. Long story short, same degree of harassment and the bottom line from the officer was that it's their opinion that if you bought one expensive piece of jewelry, you may have bought more. In the FL ports, they are all about collecting the duty tax. Lesson learned by me, never again will I buy something from the on board shops.

 

Love your attitude and hope to cruise with you someday.:cool:

[QTPieRye]

Thanks for sharing your doggie's picture with us. That is precious.:)

 

 

Love your attitude and hope to cruise with you someday.:cool:

 

Same to you :)