Curd Family Cruise - Mexican Riviera

After 2 full weeks of back to back travel to different universities for campus recruiting, boy was I ready to take a personal FUN vacation!! : ) There were nearly 50 in our Curd/Morgan group traveling on the 7-day Carnival Splendor cruise from L.A. Longbeach to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We left on 10/10/10 and spent the first couple days at sea getting settled in our rooms, navigating our way around the ship, playing at the casino (or really watching for me, ha!), enjoying the hot tubs and lido deck pools, playing miniature golf, dinners at the Gold Pearl dining room, 24/7 ice cream, all-you-can-eat buffets and just enjoying the beautiful weather with yummy Piña colada's and Cruisers. : ) Late at night on our last night at sea on our way to Puerto Vallarta, we received a message over the PA system of someone jumping overboard, so we stopped the ship for about 8 hours so that they could search for the person, who turned out to be a new crew member. Unfortunately the man was never found. More details are in our cruise director's blog: http://johnhealdsblog.com/2010/10/13/a-very-sad-day/ We arrived to Puerto Vallarta at 2:30pm rather than 8:00am, but it all worked out as carnival worked to get our excursion rescheduled for that afternoon!

Puerto Vallarta: We took a boat from the port to Nuevo Vallarta where we had our Dolphin Signature Swim excursion. WOW! We were able to hold the dolphins, pet their belly, kiss them, dance with them, take a belly ride and watch a show at the end of all the dolphins doing tricks for us! Interesting fact: Dolphins never sleep! They let one half of their brains sleep at a time so that they get the rest they need, but are still conscious at all times. We then looked around a few of the shops and relaxed with some coronas on the patio at a local mexican restaurant before returning to the ship.

Mazatlan: We took a tour of the city of Mazatlan then went to Stone Island for an all-inclusive day on the beach. We had an authentic mexican lunch, all-you-can-drink at the bar, boogie boarding, banana boat ride and an ATV ride along the beach.

Cabo San Lucas: We took a boat ride to Lovers Beach to spend the afternoon. What a beautiful place!! I have never seen waves this big in my entire life. We went snorkeling and played in the waves. Then we had a mexican lunch with Pacifico's and hung out at the local party place, Senor Frogs, for some music and Piña colada's before getting back on the ship to head back to L.A.