April 28-29

All aboard the Carnival Splendor Cruise Ship!  Brian and I got turned on to doing cruises when we found out it fit our criteria for a great vacation.

1.  It is the ONLY way to completely unplug.  No internet, no phones, no email, no distractions.
2. ALL YOU CAN EAT FOOD! All day!! (And usually endless ice cream…and if you know Brian…..). Nowhere else can I order 4 lobsters for dinner and then also have 6 desserts and not spend a million dollars!
3. No decisions!  My least favorite thing about vacation is making daily decisions. Where do you want to eat? I don’t’ know. What should we do next? I don’t know. Before you know it it’s midnight, we’re starving and we still haven’t decided what to do.  But not on a cruise!  It’s all planned for you! Just check out the daily menu and GO!
4. If you don’t drink…..or shop…..cruises are the CHEAPEST way to travel to multiple locations.  Where else can you stay for 7 nights with ALL food included for $300 per person?!! A hotel alone would be over $700 for the week! It’s a steal of a deal.

The BEST part about a cruise is going with friends!  Thanks to our cruise director and friend, Captain Tandy, we were off on a 7 day Mexican Riviera Cruise with 3 couples and 6 kids!

Side note… this backpack I got for Riley on her first cruise when she was 18 months old.  It’s STILL on amazon.com and is the best little backpack for kids. It comes with a leash…if you’re that type of mom. Or have that type of kid :).

Day 1 and day 2 were at Sea. We hit the links, the water slide and went up and down the elevators 100 times to test all the buttons (much life Will Ferrell on Elf). All in all, if you know our kids…the bulk of the day was in the pool.

Carnival has an AWESOME kids club.  My social kids were so excited to go each day.  Here’s a tip. Everyone drops their kids off at 8 am and the place is insane. Most kids get picked up about 11 am to go get lunch and take naps. SO, if you plan just right, take your kids at noon.  They will have kids club to themselves until 4!! Genius!

Riley loved Pirate and Mermaid day where they got full face painting

The sad news was that she fell asleep so fast that night, that we didn’t have a chance to wash it off. The next morning was very confusing for her! (hahaha!)

May 1

First stop was Cabo San Lucas!  Early wake up and breakfast buffet, then down to get in line to tender to the city.   The kids thought the boat was so fun!  Once on land we went to find a glass bottom boat..

What we found wasn’t really a glass bottom boat. Basically a fiberglass boat with a small window to a very murky ocean view.  No matter. All aboard the “Sex Machine Too” (which is very funny to read on a 2 yr old life jacket…).

We rode passed the famous Arch of Cabo San Lucas at high tide. We asked if we could be dropped off at nearby Lover’s Beach, which had great reviews. The boat driver said that it was much too dangerous with children.

After much convincing the boat driver agreed to drop us off at the beach (when he realized our kids are not normal kids…or that their parents are more like 1970’s parents).  We arrived at the beach and had to time our docking just right as the waves were crashing pretty hard on the beach.  Men out first, then kids tossed to them, then backpacks and wives.  It was a bit adrenaline riddled, but added to the adventure.

The beach itself was a narrow gap between two large rock formations. The beach was a steep uphill from the waters edge and the waves were the kind that knock you down hard. No one, and I mean no one, made a pretty exit from the water. One of the trickiest things in the ocean to do.

Capt. Tandy brought a raft for the kids to sit in so we could take turns snorkeling and tugging them along.  The kids lasted about 5 minutes, and the swim against the current wore us out quickly. We soon reserved to basking in the sun and watching others get tossed by unsuspecting waves.  My favorite past time.  Nothing makes me giggle more than someone trying to look Baywatch coming out of the ocean and then getting toppled over by a sneaky wave and being pushed up the sandy beach in a hot mess tumble.  It’s happened to us all! Near 2 pm our boat was back to pick us up. This is when it got really fun.  The boat had to pull in when the waves came in and would back out with the waves as well so we had to time boarding just right. These kind local men started grabbing kids and holding them in wait for the boats so we could all hop on at the same time. Unfortunately many of the kids were not aware that this was a kind gesture.  Fearing they were being kidnapped screaming quickly ensued!  It all happened in a matter of 5 minutes and I was so thankful for those extra hands that helped us board the boat.  The rest of the ride back to Cabo took some kid soothing to ensure them we weren’t leaving them in Mexico. Poor things! Next time I’ll know how to prep them better!

May 2

Next stop was Mazatlan where we all hopped in a taxi van to Bruja Beach!

Most people told us to be weary of Mazatlan when we said we were going. Not once did I feel fearful for my life!  Then again, we didn’t really go out at night or go to shady back alley’s.

It actually felt like a beach day in Oceanside CA!  The only difference was that here I could buy a beach condo for $250k instead of $2 mill.  Maybe we should move to Mexico….

There was a surf break just north of the jetty that Brian and I had our eyes on. We tried to find some surfboards, but the shop on the beach was closed that day for some reason. Maybe they have a hard “locals only” surf club here.  I was tempted to go offer someone $20 for their board for an hour. I wonder if they would have taken my offer….

Instead we watched the kids get smashed by more waves, tried to surf on an inflatable raft, and got some much needed sun! (All seen in the photo above if you look closely).

Our cute cab driver took us through town on the way back to the boat. He had a soft spot for kids and hopped out at a shop for us.  He came back with coconut marshmallows and other local favorite candies.  They were demolished by our very happy children. I love when people go out of their way to make an experience great for a child!

Back on the ship it was time for naps, more food and kid splash pad hour.

May 3

Welcome to Puerto Vallarta!  I’m not sure why, but this feels like the fanciest city I’ve been to in Mexico.  From the cruise ship I could see a mall and a TARGET!! I knew everything as going to be okay.

We took a taxi van and headed to Playa las Gemelas.  The taxi driver thought we were nuts because it was hard to access the beach due to lots of stairs. He didn’t know we were from California and were USED to going down 3 flights of cliff like stairs to get to the beach.

This stairway down was REALLY cool. It felt like going down ancient stone steps in a movie.  Each stone had either a design or cool feature to it and the jungle covered us overhead as we tunneled our way down 100 steps to the beach.

The beach was EMPTY. Just our group and maybe two other couples.  The water was crystal clear.  Brian would pull Riley into waves to body surf and you could see her full body hovering underwater as she swam through the waves.  Fletcher preferred to just sit on the beach and wait for them to break on his head and get washed ashore.

Soon Riley joined in as well.

Brian even got Riley to try snorkeling for a bit. She was still a bit nervous about breathing but she did okay.  Later I went for a quick snorkel session. Nothing feels more freeing than flying underwater looking at bright colored fish. AHHH! I still wish I were a fish!

We got back to the boat about 3 pm, took naps and cleaned up a bit.  The cool thing about cruises is the dinner.  The cool thing about Carnival is…they feed your kids dinner at kids club. This means every night can be adult date night! We took full advantage of this offer.

After dinner we took the kids exploring around the ship to see the night life.  We found an empty disco club where Riley could practice her dance moves.

Good thing too, because we took her to the show in the main theater that night which happened to be an 80s themed singing show.  She couldn’t sit in her chair and dance the whole way through each song.  My heart couldn’t have been happier.  Fletcher meanwhile passed out in Dad’s lap. Too loud!

Kids went to sleep about 9 pm and the 3 moms decided we needed a girls night out. We hit the comedy club in our mom finest. That means yoga pants and hoodies.  Sat at our own little table in the back and laughed away at the comedian of the evening. I loved it!

May 4

At sea day and our final full day on board.  As we headed back up toward LA it got colder and colder outside.  We woke up pretty cold and decided to find a hot tub to warm up.

What we didn’t realize was that Carnival only sets the hot tub temperature at 80* F!! So while it was a BIT warmer, we now found ourselves in a pickle.  The water wasn’t warm enough to stay in very long….but getting out seemed much too cold.  We were trapped! For hours! In a good way.

We bundled up in our warm clothes and headed to the main theater where they were doing a book reading of  Dr. Seuss’s, Horton Hears a Who.  It was pretty cute. They had kids dress up and come on stage to be part of the play while the MC read the book.  Not everyone was as excited about it.

We ran to the buffet for yet more food and ice cream and then Brian and Fletcher headed to the cabin for a nice long nap.  This left me and Riley some alone time!

Let’s just say that Brian is Riley’s favorite parent.  I haven’t been able to have one on one time with her much since Fletcher was born and I saw this as such a treat!  We found our way to the library where she schooled me at Old Maid.

And then surprised me with her surgical skills while we played Operation!  She got the butterfly on the first try!

Around 4 pm they said there would be a big event in the atrium. Riley and I ran to wake up Brian and Fletcher…but they were out cold so we decided to go ourselves. There were tons of people packed in this little area and they had all the kids on the floor dancing to fun music.  Then they did a count down and dropped THOUSANDS of balloons! It felt so magical!!

Kids went nuts popping them for the next 20 minutes. Riley included.

Riley and Fletcher headed back to their last evening at Kids Club dinner so Brian and I could have a fancy dinner that evening.  The dinner staff has such a hard job! Not only do they bring us countless plates of food, but on this ship they also do full dance sessions in the middle of the meal! One such waiter had some serious moves. We loved watching his skills each night.

Since Brian’s birthday was last week we surprised him with a birthday song at dinner and some MORE cake. Not that he’d had enough. 

This is nearly the only photo of us on the whole trip. I need to work on that!

We picked the kids up from their dinner and headed to see another show. Riley danced the whole time to the pre-show warm up songs and even made it on the stage camera.  She LOVED it.  She sang the whole way through the show…again.

This time we didn’t forget to wash their faces after kids club. Though I love that Fletcher has to match his sister all the time.

If Riley get’s a butterfly mask….

Then Fletcher does too!

HAHAH!!

I love my little weirdos.

May 5

It seems odd that we were back in the states for Cinco De Mayo. I would suspect it may have been more fun in Mexico?  Either way, we were all excited to get home and get back to the Maj.  She must miss us terribly.

We got their passports stamped and then headed to load up and drive home.

I think the kids were ready.  We’re coming MAJ!!