We drove to Long Beach on Sunday. The trip only took us 8 hours including all stops, so that was pretty good! We stayed at a hotel in Long Beach for the night. We didn’t have to be to the ship
until noon, so we slept in until 8am. The trip to the Carnival terminal was pretty smooth. We decided (or I decided and Michael didn’t
care) that we should just handle our own luggage, so that we could go straight
to the room to settle in. That ended up
working well for us. We got in the
Faster to the Fun line (I paid extra for it—it’s a VIP service and it made it
so we had shorter lines and our room would be ready as soon as we got on the
ship) by about 11:45am and got through pretty quickly. Then we had to wait.
Waiting to board
Carnival Inspiration
They didn’t start loading until 12:30pm, and
by the time we got through security and on the ship to our cabin it was about
12:45pm. It took forever waiting for the
elevators (they kept skipping our floor!), but we went straight to the cabin to
unpack. We had two cabins. I had hoped to get adjoining ones, but there weren't any available. Our cabins were right next door to each other, though, so that was nice. I had Emily and Jonathan in mine, and Michael had the other three boys. We
had lunch at the Lido buffet and it was great!
Our first meal onboard
After lunch, we explored the ship.
I stopped at guest services (where we had our own super fast separate line because of Faster to the Fun) and set up our account so each kid had their own budget for spending during the cruise. Our Sail and Sign cards were our room key and also how we paid for extras while aboard. Michael, Nathaniel, Emily, and I all used the Carnival Hub app’s
chat feature while at sea and it worked really well. After exploring, we went back to the cabins and
the boys all put their swimming suits on and we headed for the Muster Drill to learn about
emergency procedures.
Jonny waiting for everyone to get ready. He loved his pull-down bed!
Then we took
the boys to the water slides. Jonathan
didn’t want to get off!
Hot tub
We finally pulled
Jonny away and went to get dressed for dinner. We started dinner at 7pm, but the kids (and I)
really wanted to go to the Hasbro Family Game Show at 8pm. We told our waiter Armando, and he got us our
food quickly. I had the miso salmon and
duck potstickers, Michael had the fried shrimp, Jonathan had the lasagna, and
the rest had the flat iron steak. It was
all so amazing! Jonathan couldn’t finish
his lasagna so Nathaniel and I helped him, lol.
Our first dinner
Random funny pic of Nathaniel
We had a great time at the Hasbro show.
They asked trivia questions, and if you got it right and were enthusiastic enough,
you could get on stage to play. After one of the questions, the hostess
couldn’t decide between Daniel and Andrew, who were both jumping on their
seats, but she ultimately chose Daniel. His team had to play a Skee Ball-type game, and they won. Then they chose a Monopoly piece to see which
one had the bigger mystery points. The
winner had 26,000 points, and Daniel was so close with 25,500. The other little girl won a $150 gift card
for Hasbro.com.
Daniel with his medal from the game
After the show, we
looked around the gift shops. Andrew and
Emily went to Circle C, their kids’ club.
Daniel and Jonathan went to their
own Camp Ocean activities and Nathaniel went back to the cabin. I looked for our pictures and bought two and
a lanyard (I only brought three lanyards, assuming that Nathaniel and Emily
wouldn’t want one, but Emily did so I needed another one). We were all back to the cabins by about 10pm. Jonathan went right to sleep. Funny of the day: Daniel using his butter spreader as a spoon during dinner.
On
Tuesday morning, we were up by 8am. I went to work out in the gym, and Michael and Andrew came, too.
We left by 9:30am and went straight to
breakfast in our workout clothes. We
went back to the cabin to get dressed and ready. We headed
to the tender boat at 11:05am—we were supposed to leave one hour before our
start time of 12:15pm. We sat and waited
a while on the boat.
View of the ship from our tender boat
We got to Catalina
by about 11:45am. We took some pictures
and then Michael and the three older boys separated from us to go to their
snorkeling excursion.
For our Dolphin Runner adventure, we
rode in a RIB boat that had saddle seats.
They got pretty uncomfortable by the end. Michael and the boys’ snorkeling didn’t start until 1pm, but by the time
we left we saw them getting into their wet suits. Michael said they all loved it, but Andrew
had trouble with the swimming and had to use a life vest. Our Dolphin Runner adventure was
fantastic! They took us out past the
cruise ship, and we saw a huge pod of dolphins right away. We must have seen about 50 of them! I had a great video, too, but sadly it didn't survive the SD card debacle.
Emily and Jonny loved it!
We rode around to another place where the
currents meet, but instead of seeing more dolphins we saw a family of sea lions
floating on their backs.
We didn’t see
any more dolphins. It ended up being
more like an hour and not an hour and a half as advertised. That was fine with me, though. Emily and I had a good laugh about our messy,
nasty hair. We caught a tender back just in time.
Jonny being silly on the tender back to the ship
We stopped at the Pizza Pirate for a late lunch. The pizza was available 24 hours a day. The buffet was closed when we got there, but
it was open by the time we left so we had dessert. Then we went back to our cabin to rest.
Jonny loved the towel animals waiting for us every day
I took Jonny to Camp Ocean at 3pm and the
others came back. Emily and I both had
to take a shower and wash our hair because it was so nasty and stringy. I picked up Jonathan and took him to Build a
Bear at Sea. Daniel came, too, but he
changed his mind about buying a bear.
Jonny chose The Cat in the Hat at Build A Bear
We came back to relax and got dressed up for
Cruise Elegant night. We left at 7pm for
pictures. We did the white, piano
(Andrew really wanted that one and it turned out great!), and black backgrounds.
The dinner line was really long, but even
though they told us it would be a ½ hour wait it was only about 15
minutes. We had Nelcar as our team head
waiter this time. Michael had the sea
bass, I had the prime rib, Nathaniel had duck, Emily had spare ribs, Andrew and
Jonathan had the flat iron steak, and Daniel had a kid food feast—hot dog,
fries, cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, and more fries (that he gave to
Emily). Toward the end of dinner, the
waiters all got up and sang and danced for us.
After dinner, Andrew went to Circle C and the rest of us went back to
the cabin. We had an early morning the
next day, but later Michael, Nathaniel, Emily, and Jonathan all went to Pizza
Pirate again—after our big dinner!
Crazies! We were in bed by
11:30pm. Funny of the day: During our
very late lunch with Emily and Jonathan, I said “Don’t eat too much right now
because we’re going to a fancy dinner again tonight.” Jonny looked at me and said, in all
seriousness, “Don’t worry, Mommy.
Jonny’s always hungry!” Bonus
funnies: At our elegant dinner (tablecloths and everything!), I told the kids
to put their napkins on their laps.
Without missing a beat, Nathaniel and Emily both said, at the exact same time, “That’s too
fancy!” Also, Jonny was getting anxious
and wanted his steak. He kept asking us
and we told him they would bring it when it was ready. That wasn’t good enough for him. A little later, he raised his hand for the
waiter, who came up to him and asked what he needed. Jonny said, “Excuse me, but I was wondering
if you made my flat iron steak yet?” It
was hilarious but also a little embarrassing.
On
Wednesday, we had to get up early for Ensenada.
We were up by 7:30am and ordered breakfast from room service. I sent Michael a message about it the night
before, but they didn’t order. They went
to the buffet for breakfast while Emily, Jonny, and I got ready. We met in the Paris Lounge at 8:30am for our
tour—La Bufadora Adventure. Beba
was our guide. She had us wear stickers
with her name on it, which we later figured out was probably for her to get credit from
the vendors we shopped at. Our first
stop was at an old casino: Museo de Ensenada, built for Americans during
Prohibition. The building was
beautiful. After the tour, we went out
to the courtyard to buy souvenirs.
Daniel and Andrew each got a ukulele, Nathaniel and Jonny got a mini
painted skull, and Nathaniel also bought a name bracelet as we left.
Shopping for souvenirs
Museo de Ensenada
Emily thought it was funny that Peter and Parker were next to each other--Spider-Man--get it?
The ride to La Bufadora was about 45
minutes. Jonathan fell asleep on the way
there.
The curvy road on the way
there was pretty treacherous. Michael
called it the “winding road of death,” lol.
Once we got there, she took us down a gauntlet of shops, selling
souvenirs and food. It was pretty
overwhelming. I did enjoy the samples of
churros! We took pictures of La
Bufadora, which is described as a blowhole, and can shoot water upwards as high
as 100 feet.
La Bufadora
Great view!
We didn’t have much time to buy
souvenirs, so we didn’t get the deals we could have. Andrew wanted a poncho, and we got BYU bags
for all the kids except Jonny—he got a Pokemon one. We hurried back to the bus to get there on
time, and ended up waiting another 20 minutes for other passengers. I felt a little car sick on the way
back. Jonathan fell asleep again. We could have walked to the downtown area, but we
all seemed to prefer to just get back on the ship. We had lunch at the buffet. Jonathan and Daniel went to Camp Ocean, and Emily
and Andrew went swimming. Later, Emily
and Andrew came back and Andrew, Emily, and Nathaniel went to the arcade. We picked up Daniel and
Jonathan by 3pm when Camp Ocean closed, and we all came back to the cabins for
a rest. I took a nap. Andrew went to Circle C again. We went to dinner at 7:30pm.
We were trying to finish in time to go to the comedy show at 9pm, as
that was the last family-friendly version of the show. Emily and Daniel skipped dessert so they
could make it on time, Andrew went back to Circle C, and the rest of us got to
the show at 9:15. It was over by
9:30. What we saw was pretty funny. Michael took Jonathan back to the cabin, and
he fell asleep right away. He had been
pretty grumpy at dinner.
On
Thursday, I got up at 7am so that I could work out again. By the time I got there, I only had 20
minutes to work out. I was relieved to
find out that I didn’t gain any weight since Tuesday. Michael was already there
on the elliptical. We went back to the
cabin to get ready for the Cat in the Hat breakfast at 9am. It was super cute!!! 
Michael and I had the Fox in Sox filet mignon and eggs; Nathaniel and Daniel had green eggs and ham; the rest had Truffula tree pancakes. Most of us weren’t feeling well that morning. Andrew left first to go back to the cabin, and Emily and Nathaniel soon followed. Daniel needed a Dramamine, so he had to learn to swallow a pill. He finally did it, thankfully!
Another towel animal for Jonny
After breakfast we went to play mini golf. They didn't have score cards, but that didn't stop us from competing, lol. We just kept track in our heads. I won, and Emily was a close second.
We went to Harry Potter trivia at 10:30am. It was pretty hard! We didn’t even get half of them right. Jonathan went to Camp Ocean, I went to the arcade with Nathaniel, Emily, and Daniel, and Andrew went back to Circle C. Everyone went to lunch around 1:30pm.
I loved my dessert swan
Afterwards, Nathaniel took Daniel and Jonathan to the water slides, and Michael and I went to the Serenity Spa, which was for adults only. By 5pm, everyone but Nathaniel went to play Cranium. The girl who was running it had no idea what she was doing, so that was frustrating. We still had fun, though. We joined teams with a family from Mesa with five kids.
Jonny being silly in our hallway
I took Jonathan to the kids’ dance party in the Rock and Roll lounge at 7:15pm. We all got ready for dinner and picked Jonathan up at 7:45pm.
Camp Ocean
Our last dinner
Jonathan was so upset that he had to leave Camp Ocean, so our sweet waitress named Dolma brought him his pizza right away and Michael took him back to Camp Ocean. Michael made it back before we got our entrees, and we had a nice dinner together. I loved those family dinners! The food was amazing and we were able to sit and relax and enjoy each other's company. We looked at our pictures one last time, then picked up Jonathan and went back to the room. We did some packing to prepare for the next morning.
On Friday, I was up at 5am to shower, pack, and eat our continental breakfast room service. I tried to let Emily and Jonathan sleep as long as possible. We made it to the Mardi Gras dining room by 7am, which was the earliest we could leave the ship. We carried out all of our own luggage.
Waiting for debarkation
Cell service! The teenagers were happy about that.
We had to wait about ½ hour, but we got through customs and pulled out of the parking garage by 8:10am. We stopped for lunch at Burger King in Blythe. While we were eating, we saw another family from the cruise. Jonathan recognized them right away. He knew one of the girls from Camp Ocean, and the older sister, Madison, was the same one who won the Hasbro game show! Michael drove the whole way home, for which I was so grateful! We were home by 4pm, so it was a great trip home. Funny of the day: We were talking about stopping for lunch in Blythe, and Jonny said, “Mom, I want to eat at the Broken Barrel!” It took me a minute to figure out that he meant the Cracker Barrel, lol!
I am so glad I got to go on a cruise. I have wanted to for so long! Michael took some convincing, but I think even he had fun. He especially loved the snorkeling in Catalina! The kids had such a great time and I know we will remember it forever!
Family favorites:
Jonathan—Camp Ocean, water slides
Daniel—Ensenada and Catalina, Hasbro game show, water
slides
Andrew—Circle C, mini golf
Emily—relaxing, dinners
Nathaniel—snorkeling, unlimited food (I think he ate 6
meals one day!)
Christine—dinners, not having to cook, dolphin runner
Michael—snorkeling
Loved reading your version of the cruise! We had all adults so it was different in some ways but we did many of the things you did. Now everyone wants to go on another one! Barbara Gibson
ReplyDeleteThank you! I definitely want to go again some day. Michael said that he would go again, too!
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