Our vacation actually started on Saturday Feb 26th on our drive down to Long Beach… Patrick was still a bit under the weather from a cold so he slept for 2/3 of the 7 hour drive! We arrived in Long Beach and stopped to visit my friend Shirley and her son William (also 2). Great weather and a nice visit. Patrick enjoyed playing with William’s toys! Uploaded with ImageShack.us We headed to the hotel at 5pm to check in and get some dinner… We ate at a nearby Mexican Restaurant - very popular and crowded!

Patrick fell asleep in our bed so we all slept a little lightly in the hotel Saturday night. Up for breakfast at the hotel - pretty good! We were VERY excited to get to the ship but our shuttle didn’t leave until noon so we packed up at our leisure, checked out at 11 & waited in the lobby. Patrick played in the car - we wouldn’t see it again for a week! The shuttle was running late due to traffic down by the dock so we played in the parking lot… we met a nice young couple from Canada who became our buddies for the cruise.

Finally arrived at the dock at 1:15pm but they ship was not yet boarding due to some customs trouble during the debarkation! Apparently the crew has to pass thru customs every 90 days and, because it had been in dry dock, this was overlooked (?). It was CHAOS at the terminal. The line to check in stretched for an hour. After check-in, people were placed into zones… we were in zone 28. Everyone was cranky, hungry (lunch on the Lido deck, anyone?) and getting cold. I took Patrick for a stroller walk and he fell asleep! I found a very interesting Russian submarine and a nice view of the Queen Mary: and a beautiful park with a lovely view on the walk. :) Waiting in the endless line was much easier with a sleeping boy. 

We finally boarded at 4pm and were were hungry! We checked out our room (our bags were on-board well before we were!) and went to the Lido restaurant for a bite before our scheduled dinner at 6pm. At 5:15pm we were all called to our mandatory muster station safety drill. Some passengers were still cranky and did not take the drill seriously… uh, did you people miss the memo that the Splendor was on fire 3 months ago? You’re not in a hotel, you’re on a ship. This is important, know what to do in case of emergency… We set sail about 5:30pm, an hour late, and had a beautiful sunset view of Long Beach harbor. Uploaded with ImageShack.us

We made it to dinner at 6pm. We had a booth to ourselves on the second floor of the Gold Pearl Restaurant, the bigger of the two on board. I missed the conversation at a larger table but Patrick was a handful at a sit-down dinner, so it was for the best. No room for dessert tonight! :)

Back to our room to unpack and get settled. Patrick finally fell asleep at 10pm (late for him) and Kevin and I sat on the balcony and had tea for a bit. The seas were rocky but we didn’t feel ill and it was very nice to be rocked to sleep!