Hi, I'm Ken from Northern Viking Explorer and this is my wife Andrea
Hi, we just got off the Carnival Splendor cruise that left from Long Beach, California and headed to Mexico
This is our day 1 blog. So check it out
So hey everyone it is the first day where we are heading to our cruise on the Carnival Splendor out of Long Beach
We are here in Palm Springs at the Staybridge Suites
It's about 7:00 in the morning and we are gonna head to
LAX the advantage rent-a-car and return our Car Rental
We're gonna take our very first Ebor over to the Long Beach port. So we'll head out here shortly and
I just thought I'd show you this. This is the rib in Riverside County
It's the San Gorgonio Pass wind farm with over 3,000 wind turbines
It's pretty cool good place to stop and check out so
Here we are. We are in Long Beach
We took our first uber at a five dollar off coupon and it cost us $22
They picked us up in about two to three minutes is really cool, and we got here in no time
It was nice new Prius and the driver was super friendly he chatted with us
It was great service. Yeah, it was wonderful
We're here actually almost
An hour a little bit over an hour early and you can see there is quite a few people still leaving from the cruise ship
Coming in this morning. Our check-in time is 12:30 and
It is about quarter after 11:00 right now. So we got here in in really good time
We were concerned about traffic. So we left early. We have heard of people missing the ship
Actually, I did see on Facebook that some people did miss the ship because of traffic in LA
Better safe than sorry. Yeah. Yeah for sure. So queen mary. It's right next to the carnival port and
I'll try and grab some pictures for you while we're on the ship so you can see that a little bit more
And this is the I don't know what it's called. I call it the Carnival igloo. It's where you check in for the cruise and
There's also some restrooms over there. It's called the Long Beach cruise. Terminal Long Beach cruise terminal. I prefer igloo
So we're gonna check in here
I know we have to turn off the camera when we go through security as well as they don't allow any plastic beverage container
So if you've got juice or bottled water, you're gonna want to finish that before you head in
Yeah, we're inside we actually had to go check in over here at the check-in counter because our passports from Canada
Didn't scan properly. It's wet to go line up there. Make sure you grab a picture
You can take some selfies here and have a fun time
There's lots of seating. I was pleasantly surprised being that we were early
I was worried we'd have to wait a long time, but we could chill relax there was
Restrooms just right off to the side
Yeah and great
they they gave us number seven group seven to get on and they said it's gonna be about a 20-minute wait and if that's the
Case we're gonna get on to the ship about 45 minutes to an hour early
Which would be awesome its group six, so it's gonna be happening pretty quick here
Yeah, it's an ex quite nice in here they've got big trees and different things so it's kind of a fun place to hang out
Zone seven, here we go. So it's about 45 minutes early, which is awesome
We were thinking we might have to wait around for quite a while
So, you know what? You see quite a few people bringing their carry-on luggage
Not that big of a deal to bring it on. No for sure and
We saw people bringing cases of pop. I think you're allowed up to 12 cans on open cans per person
Also, there's tons of food being loaded on to the Carnival Splendor right now semi load after semi load
I guess they know we're here. Yeah cruisers are here to eat. So
Yeah, there they are. You know, it's kind of funny these people here in front of us in the green shirt
We're from Canada and they were just a couple hours away from us
we also met people on this first day that lived like three blocks from us, so
It's amazing when you cruise how you run into people from
Very close to where you live and we have always done that in all our cruises. So
So we're entering in on the third floor which is the lobby floor
And if you have any problems over here on the right-hand side is the main desk
Checking over there
We are gonna head up to the deck 9 the Lido deck we are hungry
Cruisers so we're gonna head up there and see if we can find the buffet
There's a beautiful elevator that'll take us from dec 3 2014
There's also, if you're looking for hamburgers and hotdogs they've got a little stand here by the
Pool so you can grab that off the grill. We've heard upstairs in the buffet is a really good barbecue house
It's supposed to be really quiet. So we're gonna try and check that out
Here's the main part of the buffet so you've got your salads and your meats
The car very station as well as fruits
But there's this staircase in the middle of the buffet and you can head up there to the barbecue house
It's super quiet up here and
You can just hang out. It's the whole cruise. It was quiet up here, which is awesome
But in this barbecue house, they've got their coleslaw potato salad beans macaroni and cheese
smoked beef chicken and pulled pork with
Buns it was delicious. They've also got some
Specialty sauces that you can put on the meat so really delicious and it was really quiet up there
You can see it's starting to get busier out by the pool
It's actually probably about 12:30 right now
You can see the water slide up there above the movie screen so we'll have to check that out this week
All right, so we're outside you can see the Queen Mary over there and the igloo
It looks like they're working on the Queen Mary
On the backside and long beaches over to the right
What tip though about the Queen Mary if you're interested in doing a tour they will hold your bags for you
Now this look concern to us we are hoping to do some swimming today and it looks like they're painting the pool
This is the adult pool
Being that we're traveling with no kids. We were hoping to use the adult only a pool
So I hope this isn't a cruise long problem, but we'll have to let you know. Yeah
So actually now it is about
Two o'clock. We were allowed to get into our room at 1:30, but it wasn't quite done. So we're gonna
Head into our room. We're down on deck one on
Towards the front of the ship and we'll head in here and show you our room
We did book a guaranteed inside the room which had mentioned yeah it is the guaranteed inside
so it's basically the least expensive room that we could book they picked the cabin for us and
Yeah, so also
Make sure you pre-order your water. I think it was four dollars and fifty cents and you get all that water ahead of time
Whereas if you order it on the ship these ones you take they're off the counter. I think there were three ninety-nine each so
Yeah, it was quite expensive. So if you order the whole case for
For four dollars and fifty cents or something like that. It's it's way cheaper
There is a safe here. So you can keep your personal belongings safe and
There are many fridges empty, which is really handy
If you want to store your own things in there
Especially since you can bring on canned beverages such as so that if you want, that's right. Yeah
tons of space for all your shoes and clothes
hangers and a couple other closets
And life jackets, I hope we don't need them. No, yeah
So the famous cruise ship bathroom, they're definitely not big
Yeah, so they do have a shampoo and body wash in there for you and actually that
Faucet you can actually set a specific temperature, which was nice
It's a nice deep top. Yeah, there is a plug at the top
left hand side that you can plug a razor and if you need
but yeah pretty basic shower and
bathroom
just even had a shower curtain so nothing fancy, but it does the trick so
So lots of lighting easy to
Excessive
Sands and there's a nice little TV. You got your plugs a phone some beach towels
drawer with your hairdryer in it
Some extra drawers you can store your belongings in it. We use those to keep our papers and mostly
This around two-30 so you can see people are still trickling on to the ship and
Yeah, it's it's just we're walking around kind of checking things out. There's a little bar down there
Actually, this is kind of cool. So we've heard that there's about five weddings going on on the ship
so what happens is people get married on the ship and
then there they have their reception on the ship and then their guests leave before the the cruise ship leaves, so you
there's gonna be a whole bunch of honeymooners on the ship and
This is one of the weddings going on right now
Mm-hmm. It's a pretty cool idea
All right, we are waiting for the sail away party
It supposed to be happening out here shortly. People are swimming already. Mm-hmm
So good tip if you do plan on going swimming
Let them carry on
Yeah, you don't get your luggage for a couple hours after you get your room
So here we are the sail away party started. We've got Cat in the Hat down there and
People are just getting right into this. I am so impressed
We have sailed with a few cruise lines now, and I have never seen such great
participation from all the cruisers like
Carnival cruisers come ready to party they do and yeah people are right into it
I know there's gonna be a conga line happening right here, and that just went on and on it a lot of fun
People are just getting excited. I don't know if it's the alcohol talking or what but the people are getting right into it
People are looking for a good time. It's great. You can see there's children out there. There's parents. They're seniors out there
Everybody is involved and if they're not there watching and cheering on their family members
It's just great to see everyone's super excited ready for a great vacation
Also, I thought that was pretty cool there some life jackets down there
So if you have kids and you're going swimming they did have life jackets on the ship for that
So it is probably about 4:30 4:45, and we are leaving the beautiful Port of Long Beach you can see
send Pedro's over in that direction all the
The docks are over there
And it's just a beautiful sunny day. Definitely
This is one of the harbour boats that's guiding us out and it's just following along the side of the ship here
So on this seven-day cruise we're gonna be hitting on Cabo San Lucas Mads, Atlanta and Puerto Vallarta
And we've got three si days as well. So it's gonna be an awesome time
And you can see Long Beach over there in the background and the
Igloo is the white kind of dome on the left-hand side there so
We're from Canada, so that's why I like igloos
It's time for some coffee we are gonna head down
To deck three, I believe and watch them violin playing
They have a great group. That's here. They're called the mg string trio they were
fabulous fabulous
You could find them throughout the shift throughout the week at different locations from the casino some of the club places
They were they were wonderful
we got chatting with one of them in the hot tub and just beautiful people and
yeah, really a joy to watch so
And it's time to head out for dinner and look who we ran into it is our buddy mr. Potato Head
We are actually on the my time dining. So we head down right at 5:30 we could get in and
We got a seat right by the window it is
We're just gonna enjoy this. So make sure you get there early and
Ask for a seat that you'd like if you want to be by a window put in those
requests or if you want to sit in a certain section, tell them yeah, and for sure and looking at the menu here I
Picked the calamari as well as the braised beef brisket and Henry. Did you have the chicken?
Yeah, so and then you can't forget always order the carnival melting chocolate cake
it is divine it is so good and
there are some things on the menu as well if you're
wanting to pay extra that you have
On this night. They do have a lobster tail our point and you know, they pay extra for there's some calamari for you
The beef and the chicken and the carnival melting chocolate cake, which is amazing
I think Adria had that every single night and I was told you can order it Mickey style
Which means they'll give you two vanilla ice
That's for sure here's that beautiful elevator
Standing up high looking down and it was just fun to ride it and you can see right over the central area of the Chevy
We're gonna head over to the evening show here shortly, but you can see there's some
Movies and different things happening out here and kids are swimming
So it's just a really calm and relaxing out here on the deck
It's not really windy because the pool is kind of located down with
two decks out there, so
Here we are in the in the auditorium for the evening show. They've got some newlyweds playing games and
Dancing and singing. It was really quite a variety show. They call it their welcome abroad show
It really showed you just the kind of different entertainment that is available on the ship during the week
You got a little taste of everything. You can find out what you might be interested in watching or do it
Yeah, and you get introduced to the cruise director and all the main dancers and the main people on the ship
So make sure you check that out if you're heading out on the Carnival Splendor
Now up on the deck they had a couple movies tonight as well book club and pitch
Perfect three. We're playing you can also grab some popcorn
But for us we are gonna hit up the 24-hour pizza place and do that before we go to bed
We're gonna check out here shortly
They had four or five different varieties of pepperoni
Creative names for their pizza. So I think this was like the fun guy. Yeah fungi pizza so that one it was delicious. So
Yeah, enjoy. We're gonna head head to bed and we'll talk to you soon
So thank you for watching this day one blog on our cruise to Mexico
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