| April 2012 - Mexican RivieraMy
first cruise went very well. The trip started Saturday night.
I met my friend Kumi at LAX. Her friend Tracy picked us up
from the airport. After dropping our stuff at Tracy's, we went
out to eat with a friend of Tracy's at Katsuya. (It's one of those places to be "seen" at.) The food was good, but Kumi and I spent WAY more than we should have. Day 1: Sunday, Tracy dropped us off at the Carnival pier in Long Beach. (Thanks Tracy!) We boarded the Carnival Splendor. The boarding process was quick and uneventful. Many pictures were taken. For a fee, you could get some of those pictures from Carnival. Later on, we discovered the Thermal suite and the Thalassotherapy pool in the spa. After a short tour of the spa, we decided to become members... It was a good decision. Day 2: Sea day. Eat, drink, ship activities, more eat, more drink, spa. Day 3: Cabo San Lucas. Cabo's port is not deep enough for large cruise ships. There are tenders (boats) to transport passengers from and to the ship. The first day in Cabo, the tenders started at 9:30 AM. We were going to scuba dive that day. Kumi had arranged four dives with a local Dive shop, Cabo Deep Blue. Unfortunately, it took much longer than expected to get off the ship. So we only got in two dives. The dives were great though. We had our own boat. The first dive site had a lot of boats and people. But once we were under, it was just us and our dive master. We went to a second dive site. Significantly less boats and people, good visibility. Although we didn't get any underwater pictures, the dives were very good. After the dive, we ate, drank, and met up with a couple of Kumi's Cabo friends. Then we went back to the ship. The last tender for the ship was 5:30 PM. The ship sailed out at 6:00 PM to international waters. Day 4: Back in Cabo. Kumi got up early to go diving. I decided to sleep late and stay on the ship. Day 5: Puerto Vallarta. Kumi went diving. I did "Extreme Canopy". Boat ride from ship. Then a shuttle ride to base camp. A mule ride, a little hiking, a few suspension bridges, a couple of rappels, and about nine zip lines. It was great... It would have been awesome if it was less cloudy and the water was a tad warmer... Day 6 & 7: Sea day. Sleep, eat, blog, spa... not necessarily in that order. Day 8: Dock in Long Beach, return home. Some observations about the cruise:
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