Our 25th Anniversary Adventure - Baja Mexico & Hawaii on the Inspiration & Splendor

crucero · May 29, 2019

Your review is just wonderful. Would you recommend the Queen Mary for a family of 4? 2 adults & 2 children (14 & 10). We need one night before our January cruise.

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

19 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Following along! I was so happy to see a post on another thread where you mentioned your review. I’ve been waiting (not so patiently—Lol) for it ever since I heard you were sailing to Hawaii for your 25th Anniversary. And the extra bonus of this shorter cruise was fabulous! My hubby and I are celebrating our 50th Anniversary in March, and had a cruise booked for April 11 for an 8 day on the Magic. After much discussion, we felt that wasn’t enough celebrating, so we added a week on, April 5, to make it a B2B, because these milestone anniversaries require a whole lot more celebrating! We are actually going to drive to Ft Lauderdale, so we are even leaving one week early, and rented a cottage in Florida before boarding our ship. We also added a cruise in February on the Glory out of NOLA, and heading there 3 days prior. I am so excited to be following along on yours and Patti’s celebration!

Love your plan for your 50th, and the fact that you keep adding more time for celebrating! Enjoy your planning.

17 hours ago, Hogladyrider said:

The Queen Mary looks like an amazing experience.

It is for sure!

14 minutes ago, crucero said:

Your review is just wonderful. Would you recommend the Queen Mary for a family of 4? 2 adults & 2 children (14 & 10). We need one night before our January cruise.

Thanks for reading! I would recommend the Queen Mary for one night as it is something different. Makes it very easy to board your ship the next morning.

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

After finishing our breakfast we continued with our tour of the Queen Mary. We head forward to the Model Room. The first model you see is a huge cut away model of the Titanic…..

Here are some views of the large models they had on display……

A couple of Carnival ships made the small model display. Can you name the two classes shown?

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

Here is a replica of the children’s playroom…..

We make our way forward to the Observation Bar…..

We step out on the open deck outside the Observation Bar…..

To be continued…….

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

Looking up at the bridge of the Queen Mary……

Winston Churchill table and chair…..

These are the stairs up to the Sun Deck…..

We are now outside on the Sun Deck…..

Here are some views of Long Beach from the Sun Deck of the Queen Mary…..

To be continued……

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

This is the stairway up to Sir Winston’s Restaurant & Lounge…..

We are heading all the way aft on the Sun Deck……

The Dome and the Carnival Inspiration as viewed from the stern of the Queen Mary…..

Looking forward from the stern…..

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

We are going to check out the Isolation Ward and various displays located all the way aft on Deck M……

To be continued……..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

The Rescue at Sea display……

We make our way back up to the Promenade Deck. We pass the Royal Wedding Chapel…..

They have an original elevator display…..

This is where the Chelsea Chowder House & Bar is located. We will be having dinner here later…..

Here is the Mid Ship Marketplace……

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

We noticed a submarine berthed next to the Queen Mary, so we decided to head out and check it out…..

It is a Russian submarine. This is what Wikipedia has to say about it: B-427 was a Project 641 (Foxtrot-class) diesel-electric attack submarine of the Soviet Navy. The "B" (actually "Б") in her designation stands for большая (bolshaya, "large"). Commissioned in 1971, the submarine operated with the Russian Pacific Fleet until decommissioning in 1994. The boat was sold to a group of Australian businessmen, who converted her into a museum vessel, which was placed on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum (under the name Foxtrot-540) from 1995 until 1998, then at Long Beach, California (under the name Podvodnaya Lodka B-427 Scorpion) in 1998. As of July 2016, the submarine is closed to the public.

This is a great view of the whole area…..

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

Our cabin still wasn’t ready yet so Patti and I made our way to the Observation Bar for a few drinks. We met a couple from Alabama who was also going on the Splendor tomorrow, so we had plenty to talk about.

Around 3:30 pm our cabin was ready, so we went and picked up our new key cards. Our luggage would be delivered to us shortly. Our cabin was on Deck M. This is the hallway leading down to our cabin…….

Off the hallway there is an alcove that leads to our cabin…..

We are in cabin M 131, which is a Deluxe King Stateroom with a Harbor View. It is a very spacious cabin with many of the original fixtures…..

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

This is our bathroom…..

The toilet and flush handle…..

This is the sink and hair dryer…..

Here are the bathtub fixtures. The ones on the right are original…..

I don’t think that I will be using this shower! 😁

Some of the heat and a/c vents…..

This is the view from our porthole…..

We head to the Chelsea Chowder House & Bar for dinner, and are seated immediately…..

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

The Chelsea Chowder House & Bar menu…..

We both had the Caesar salad and bread…..

I had the jumbo shrimp cocktail, New England clam chowder, and lobster roll…..

Patti had the Maryland crab cakes and asparagus…..

After dinner we went to see the “Illusions of the Passed” show starring Aiden Sinclair……

Both Patti and I enjoyed the show and participated in it. Afterwards we made our way back to the cabin for the night. We are anxious to begin the next chapter of our adventure!

Coming up next: Hawaii here we come!!! We board the Carnival Splendor.

Saint Greg · May 29, 2019

22 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

Is that a mechanical bull on the right?

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

2 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

Is that a mechanical bull on the right?

I believe it is! 😁

Saint Greg · May 29, 2019

7 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

I believe it is! 😁

Giddy up!

grandmarnnurse · May 29, 2019

Amazing, viewing a cruise ship of days gone by. Our very first cruise was on a ship that was pretty much the same—the Regent Sun. It is now a defunct cruise line.

blarko · May 29, 2019

The photo tour of the QM is incredible. Are the shows & restaurants open to the public or do you have to be a hotel guest to enjoy them?

Jamman54 · May 29, 2019

52 minutes ago, blarko said:

The photo tour of the QM is incredible. Are the shows & restaurants open to the public or do you have to be a hotel guest to enjoy them?

Yes, the shows and restaurants are open to the public. If you are a hotel guest you get a discount on the shows.

Jamman54 · May 30, 2019

Day # 10 (April 27^th) - We board the Carnival Splendor!

We were up at 7 am to a cloudy day with the temperature in the low 60’s. We decided not to have breakfast this morning.

Our first order of business was to repack and retag our luggage for our cruise on the Splendor. We have cruised on the Splendor three times before when she was based in New York for a few summers. Our reviews of those cruises are in my signature if you are interested.

The Splendor has not yet been given the 2.0 upgrades, so she doesn’t have a Guy’s Burger Joint, Blue Iguana Cantina, Blue Iguana Tequila Bar, Red Frog Rum Bar, Red Frog Pub, or Alchemy Bar. To tell you the truth, we didn’t miss them. She will get those enhancements and more when she goes into dry dock in Singapore after a trans-Pacific cruise this October. Afterwards, she will re-position to Australia, so this will probably be the last time we will sail on her.

Around 9:30 am I tried calling down to the Bell Desk but was getting no answer. I walked down there and I could see why. Apparently there were quite a few people who stayed here last night that were cruising on the Splendor today so they were backed up. They took my name and cabin number and said they would be there to pick up our luggage in about fifteen minutes. Looking over at the terminal, I could see that one of the lines was already fairly long. It was the PRIORITY line!

True to their word, in less than fifteen minutes they were at our cabin collecting our luggage. We used Express Checkout, so checking out consisted of dropping our key cards in a box. Soon, our bell man was taking our luggage over to the Splendor’s luggage drop off area…..

Patti joins the Priority line……

Looking back at the Queen Mary…..

I continued following our luggage to the drop off area, where I spotted my buddy Big Al. He greeted me like an old friend, took our luggage, and wished us a great cruise. BTW, all porters and bell men were well taken care of for all of their efforts. Thanks guys! Now I have to find Patti in this long line……

They opened the doors for priority guests at 10:30 am. The line moved extremely fast. Check in and the security screening moved so fast that we were in the Captain’s Lounge by 10:44 am. Great job Long Beach! The Captain’s Lounge is a lot more crowded today than it was on Monday. That’s because there are roughly 750 Platinum and 170 Diamond guests on this cruise. We received an email a week or two before leaving New Jersey that stated that no cabins would be ready until 1:30 pm, but we would be free to drop off our carry on bags. We were good with that.

At 11:15 am they called for Diamond guests to board, so off we went to begin our long walk up the ramps, across the bridge, then onto the ship. Didn’t we just do this? Once up top we posed for our embarkation picture……

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To be continued…..

Edited May 30, 2019 by Jamman54

Jamman54 · May 30, 2019

Once our picture was taken, we were scanned onto the ship, and left the dome. In front of us was our home for the next 14 days, the Carnival Splendor…..

Here are some views as we walked across the long bridge over to the ship…..

We spot the pink donuts so we know we are back on the Splendor!

Since we are now aboard, here are today’s Fun Times. We invite you to examine the Fun Times from this cruise a little more carefully, since there will be many activities and events listed that you will not see on a normal cruise. We will be showing you some of these special activities and events as this review progresses…..

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To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 30, 2019

Here is a map showing where we will be going on this 14 day Journeys cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor….

What a great start to the cruise. Everyone got lei’d when they boarded the ship! 😁 The Journeys cruise banner hangs in the Atrium…..

Here are the first pictures of Patti and I aboard the Splendor….

Our first drinks of the cruise. As always, you use your boarding pass to make purchases until you get your sail & sign cards…..

DJ T-Willy is spinning tunes in the Atrium…..

This is the Shore Excursion Desk….

This is one of several internet hubs…..

To be continued……

AmyJA · May 30, 2019

Woosh...caught up.

Can there be a non-shopper daycare for some of us ladies?

Jamman54 · May 30, 2019

Around 11:50 am our cruise director, Lee Mason, made the announcement that all Diamond member cabins were now ready. We weren’t expecting that. Great job! So off we went to our cabin which was all the way aft on Deck 6, port side. We share a hallway with the cabin next door. We are in cabin # 6448 which is a bowling alley balcony cabin. Cabin 6450 is an aft wrap cabin which we were in on our very first Splendor cruise back in 2013…..

Our Sail & Sign cards were waiting in our mailbox when we arrived. To surprise Patti I had our cabin decorated in honor of our Anniversary. To surprise me, Patti had brought along cabin decorations, which she later hung up. We left the decorations up for the entire cruise…..

Our desk area and closets…..

This was also part of the Anniversary decorations package……

Our bathroom was next to the right side of the bed. It is a typical Carnival bathroom…..

This is our bowling alley balcony…..

To be continued…..

Jamman54 · May 30, 2019

Here is some good to know information for those that want to know…..

We were feeling hungry so up to the Lido Restaurant on Deck 9 we went. I went through the buffet line and Patti got a turkey wrap from the deli. We decided to meet up on Deck 10 because normally the seating there is empty because it takes a few day for people to find it. However, since there were many veteran Splendor cruisers aboard, it was pretty crowded. I was able to procure a table…..