The Sweet Life on Deck with the Davenports

Part 3 of the DFVE (please refer to earlier posts today) was the cruise on the Carnival ship the Splendor. We sailed from Long Beach and our ports of call were, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. We had three sea days where we veged on the ship while heading to our destinations. There were three pools on the ship and 5 hot tubs. The pools were nice and warm, but the pools were filled with salt water. It's a cruise thing because they can empty them and fill them right up with filtered sea water rather than hauling fresh water. There was also a big water slide on the ship that the kids loved. If the kids were still awake we would go to shows in the evenings (PG-13 shows due to costuming, ask Tara for more info). We saw lots of dolphins from the ship as well as schools of flying fish.

The first day at sea was chilly, 75 degrees, but with the breeze coming from a moving ship it was colder than it seemed. The next day we were further South and the temperature was in the 90's. It was toasty after that. PV was 101 degrees and Mazatlan and Cabo were in the 90's. We had a sad incident on board during our second day at sea. That evening or rather morning, 2am, there was a ship-wide announcement, even in our rooms. The cruise director said and I quote, "Pardon the interruption this morning, but some of you may have noticed that the ship is no longer moving. The man-over-board alarm has sounded as someone witnessed a man jumping from the ship. We are now commencing a search and rescue effort and a lifeboat is in the water." That was freaking scary. It is pitch black on the ocean at night and we were 50 miles from land. The crew searched from 1:00am until 9:00am that morning and never found the man. It was actually a crew member who jumped, suicide most likely. Sad, but on a funnier note, we told the girls before the cruise that if they didn't behave nicely and politely that the captain would throw them off the ship. They were very well behaved after our 2nd sea day.


There was a mini golf course on board, just 9 holes. We played that a bunch. The girls got better each time they play, but of course I totally dominated. Surprisingly, no one hit a ball of the ship.

Here we are standing in front of the Grand Atrium in the middle of the ship, 10 stories high.

I took this picture from the top of the Grand Atrium with the zoom. Tara and the girls are down there somewhere.

The girls were very excited to go back to our staterooms in the evening to see the many varieties of towel animals. The hanging monkey was a favorite.

Nearly every night our waiting staff did something crazy, sang a song or danced. Here are the girls dancing with our waiter and busboy.



They made Kaitlyn Minnie Mouse ears every other night at her request.

This is Chris. He and his family sat with us for dinner ever night. His mom was really impressed with our family and wanted her older daughters to settle down and have kids. She almost cried on the last night of the cruise.

Up on deck as we came into Cabo San Lucas.

Here we are gathered for muster stations. If you haven't been on a cruise ever, before you depart you must gather at your muster stations. This is where you must go to board the lifeboats if you have to abandon ship. In the past they even made us wear the life preservers, but I guess they are required to anymore. They did give each of the girls a green wrist band to wear with the letter "G" on it. "G" was our muster station and if we were ever separated from the girls and there was an emergency, the crew could get them to the right boats. They wore those for the entire cruise.

It felt like we were eating all of the time. It was great. The food in the dinning room was nice, but the buffets were reminiscent of Chuck-O-Rama.