It will seriously take me forever to post about this vacation. I have 627 photos to go through, vertigo to somehow deal with, a Pudgie boy who is congested and piles and piles of laundry that somehow procreated on board that fabulous ship we sailed on.
I have to start out by saying that this family is seriously FORTUNATE. Tommy works his tail off for the things we have and the standard of life we live. This trip surely showed our kids how privileged they are to have a house with a/c, let alone running water in it. Jax was the one that was most aware of surroundings but Brinkley noticed little things. The most notable was the little girl that I tried desperately to photograph, sleeping on top of a car. She was maybe 5. Brinkley immediately worried for her. Then she wondered if she even had a bed to sleep in. "Be thankful little girl," was all I could even choke out of my mouth as we drove by her in our air conditioned suburban.
Our FIRST DAY at sea was breath taking. The kids wandered non-stop with us. Exploring Carnival Cruise Lines newest ship, 'The Splendor', became Jax and Brinkley's main form of entertainment for the entire week. I know most will be in shock, but we let the two of them go out, alone, but together, when ever they wanted to. Jax is big enough to protect his little munchkin of a sister and Brinkley is mean enough to hold her own. Dinner was casual and we just enjoyed learning all we could about the ship.
DAY TWO brought on all kinds of fun. Tommy's birthday was the main event and then hitting the schacuzzi (as Binky calls it) was next on our list. Pudgie fell in love with the water slide on the top deck and Jax was amazed that he could amble up to the bar, give them his sail and sign card and get a virgin pina colada whenever he wanted to. (NOTE TO SELF: Do not ever tell your children they are signers with free reign on a sail and sign card aboard a cruise ship!!!)
Later that night, we were slipped notes under our door. A tropical storm was unavoidable and the ship would be hit with some serious weather.
DAY THREE brought on the storm. The waves were amazing to watch slamming against the massive ship and feeling the rocking of the boat lulled me to sleep on the balcony off and on during the day. I absolutely loved it, right along with Brinkley. Tommy and Jax... not so much. Dramamine and their beds became their buddies for the afternoon. The sway of the boat was the best thing to me... until we finished our cruise and the earth was still rocking on dry land. That is a whole other story for Brinkley and I to tell.
DAY FOUR took us to:
PUERTO VALLARTA~
We opted out of every ship excursion even though I had saved for almost 10 different ones. We took the advice of many and just exited the boat to find the local tours for 1/10 the cost of the ships prices! We drove through downtown, to flea markets, old town, to the Tequila factory where they gave us samples of REAL tequila that has not been Americanized. This stuff was delicious and I can't gag Tequila down for dollars I tell you! Off to the set of Predator to eat and watch zip liners and see the pools from the waterfalls. Jax's favorite part was when he would get his free gold charms in each port to add to his collection Grampie Frank has started for him. I bought him a beautiful 18kt gold dog tag as a token of being such an amazing son and brother while we were there. A little more shopping and we were set to re-board our ship and get into the cool a/c of the Splendor. I have to say, it was really funny to see the parking lot of ships when we were docked. My kids and I will probably never really understand how those ginormous puppies float! We were over an hour and a half late leaving port. We watched with curiosity as they off-loaded a person from the ship into a waiting ambulance. Off and sailing we were... on our way to Mazatlan.
MORE TO COME FROM OUR NEXT STOP!!!
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