Hi everybody, and welcome to Part Three of our Cruise aboard the Carnival Splendor in August. Sorry it's taken so long to get to part three but, well, it was scary season. We promise the wait is worth it, as today we're looking at our shore excursion in Puerto Vallarta which was all kinds of amazing. And lastly we'll take one last look around the ship which is actually in dry-dock right now getting refurbished before going to it's new home in Australia. Definitely interested to see how it will look when it's done. If you missed Part One or Part Two of our cruise, be sure to check them out!! Written by Gregg Condon Good Morning Puerto Vallarta!! Absolutely beautiful We sat and watched them docking, it was super cool. Amazing music to greet us!! And I met a friend!! Today we are going on a snorkel adventure!! It was nice that we could just walk from one ship to another right in the port. Let's go have some fun!! So at this point of the update, we switched to our 10+ year old Olympus Tough camera. It's not the best camera, but it's water proof and drop proof. Our excursion was put on by Vallarta Adventure and they couldn't have been more amazing. First stop was Majahuitas for a bit of snorkeling. And of course, each update must include a video of me looking like an idiot. =) Oooooh, Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish As you can see, the water was amazing. Floating around in the ocean Then it was off to Yelapa. This looks like a postcard. The only way to get here is by boat, which is kind of awesome. There were two options here, the first included a hike to a waterfall and the second included extra time relaxing on the beach. We took option 2. Is it wrong I want to buy one of those condo's and just work from here? No? Good. We spent the next 2 hours lounging in the sun, enjoying the amazingly warm water and just enjoying our amazing vacation. After finding our relaxation it was time to head back to the ship. These are the faces of two totally relaxed and content people. The crew put on a really fun show as we made our way back to port. So long Mexico, we've got two sea days coming up!! Dinner that night was pasta something, and it was amazing. And bread pudding Rockin' night at the theater. It was awesome!! Over the next two days we spent a lot of time exploring the ship and of course relaxing A LOT. This also included our second formal night. We've come to refer to this as our "Prom Picture". Our last day at Sea Had to get our St Jude shirt!! And of course get a selfie with our amazing Cruise Director Leigh Oh, and Bingo with the amazing Captain Cash (who's a huge Disney fan we found out) Also, just a shout out to the amazing service team at all of the restaurants, our room steward and basically everybody. You get SO spoiled while on a cruise, nothing can prepare you for the amount of pampering. Flatbread, it was so freaking amazing. Baked Alaska Our final Sunset We're not really "party" people, but we had such a fun time the last night at the departure party. Sadly, the next morning we woke up to find ourselves pulling into Long Beach. Get out. We mean, Please, Get out. (a little Jungle Cruise humor) Thank YOU Carnival!! So that's our trip, we hope you enjoyed our adventure and we seriously can't wait until the next one. It's literally our Xmas present to each other this year. Related Videos:
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PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP) is partnering with Carnival Cruise Line, the world’s most popular cruise line, to become the preferred beverage partner for its North American fleet. Beginning in January 2020, Carnival Cruise Line will begin serving a variety of beverages from the PepsiCo portfolio featuring premiere brands from Starbucks ready to drink coffee to fast-growing bubly sparkling water. When the transition is complete, Carnival guests will have a broad selection of beverage choices, from iced tea, sparkling water, coffee drinks and sports drinks to juices and soft drinks, including an array of low calorie and no sugar options.
“At Carnival Cruise Line, we invite our guests to Choose Fun, and now with PepsiCo’s extensive portfolio of brands, we’re able to give them more ways to choose a beverage that suits their taste, mood and preference,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “PepsiCo’s line-up of beverages will give our guests access to leading brands in growing non-soda categories like iced tea, juice and sparkling water, as well as popular soft drink brands that consumers love. We’re also excited to work with PepsiCo on our shared commitment to sustainability, including a reduced reliance on plastics, and alternative ways to deliver and serve water and other beverages.” As they cruise, Carnival Cruise Line guests will be able to enjoy some of their favorite PepsiCo brands such as bubly, Pure Leaf, Naked Juice, Gatorade, MTN Dew, Starbucks, Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, Sierra Mist and Sierra Mist Zero Sugar among others. “Our brands both celebrate having fun and offering something special for everyone, making PepsiCo and Carnival Cruise Line a great match,” said Anne Fink, president of PepsiCo Global Foodservice. “We’re excited to share the voyage as we create enjoyable, seamless experiences for Carnival Cruise Line passengers while they enjoy their fun vacations at sea and ashore.” As “The World’s Most Popular Cruise Line®,” Carnival Cruise Line annually sails more than 5.2 million guests Its fleet of 26 ships will grow to 28 with the delivery of Carnival Panorama in December 2019 and Mardi Gras in August 2020. Today we're back with part two of our cruise on the Carnival Splendor to the Mexican Riviera. For this update we're going to concentrate mostly on our days in Cabo San Lucas and Mazatlan. We'll talk a bit about what we did on shore and some things we noticed that may help future vacationers. Enjoy!! Written by Gregg Condon Pictures by Gregg and Kristi Condon We'll start off this update with a video we did of the ship. It's definitely not the most comprehensive tour of this ship we've seen (that one is linked in the video) but we wanted to show off some of what we enjoyed on the ship as first timers. In addition, I tried a few times to get a sunrise or sunset time-lapse on the GoPro but it never quite worked out. The last morning I was finally up early enough, but of course hadn't charged the GoPro. So this video isn't exactly what we wanted, but I will admit, I liked the set-up I came up with for mounting it. I thought it worked great. If it wasn't for the technical issues on my end. If you're celebrating something make sure the cruise knows, I got a nice little gift card for the spa and for pictures for my birthday. I didn't use the spa one (not really my thing and never really found the time) but we did use the picture one. A little pre-Cabo fuel. =) After being at sea for over 36 hours it was actually kind of nice to see land Hola Mexico The famous arch As you can see, we were quite happy on our vacation. =) No I'm not ignoring my wife, I'm trying to not get too much sun. Trust me, you'll only sunburn your head once. =) Cabo was a Tender port (no, not Tinder) so we had to take a boat to shore. Hi Splendor!! The ship is an older one, but she's got a lot of personality. Will be interesting to see what she looks like after her upcoming refurb. We did not eat here, but we of course had to get a pic. No matter what your political affiliation is, this is funny. I forgot to pick it up on the way back to the ship. Cabo was definitely the most "touristy" of our three ports. I love little things like this that are kind of out of the way. Just on the other side of the harbor area are more classic restaurants and the diamond store. =) Cabo Wabo Policia Not once, in any of our three ports, did we ever feel unsafe or unwelcome. The people of Mexico are amazing. #Cabo We actually took a couple of really nice pics. I'm proud of us. =) After walking what seemed like 10 miles (it was about 2k) we arrived to the restaurant a friend recommended. Aaaand it was closed. But right next door was a beach club, and as you'll see below, we weren't suffering at all. We each had 4 tacos, chips and guacamole and 4 beers (each). Grand total with tip $40. I'm sure we could have found cheaper but we didn't care. It was amazing, the service was great and this would have cost us at least double that at home. We were very happy. After all that there was no way we were walking back (there's really not an easy path from the Cruise terminal to Medano Beach where we ate) so we took a water taxi back. It was $5 each. Again, we probably could have negotiated more than we did, but we were happy to support the economy. Of course, once we were on our driver asked if we wanted to see the arch. For another $20. We politely declined. After doing a bit of shopping it was back on the ship!! We were actually back on the ship about 3 hours before disembark, and it was so nice and quiet. We sat by the pool and relaxed a bit. And took a nap. We don't drink a lot of soda, but can't say no to Mexican Coke. It was 80's night that night, the show was amazing!! We had brought 80's stuff to wear for the glow party, but it wasn't until 11:15pm. And we were tired. Next time!! The next morning after a trip across the Gulf of California, we arrived in Mazatlan. It was absolutely gorgeous. We had booked an excursion this day, to an all-day resort with a pool and beach. Apparently Mazatlan is a newer cruise stop, this is your view at the shore. It gets better than this though. =) On the way to our resort we got to see some of the city. People waiting to pay their water bill. For real. As seen from the bus window After about a 30 minute drive we arrived at our resort, the El Cid Marina. This resort actually had two options. An "all inclusive" option which included a buffet or an "open bar" option. We went with the open bar and got food on our own. This ended up working great for us as the buffet was on the beach side, and we stayed on the pool side all day. You'll see why. Lots of Iguana's wandering around. Be careful, they like chips. We drank a lot of cerveza and ordered some nachos and quesadilla from the menu. Total, $20. We also gave our server a nice tip as we drank free beer for 4+ hours. 2 seconds after this shot was taken I was asked to not jump by the hotels staff. Ooops. The pool was amazing. It had underwater caves, waterfalls and we could even sit on the edge of the pool and enjoy our drinks. And a bonus, the bathrooms were not only immaculately clean, there was also AC in them. Definitely recommend this excursion if you're looking for a nice day to relax in Mazatlan. We've even talked about just coming down to stay at this resort for a week sometime. After a full day in the sun it was back on the bus and back to the ship. There is a nice little flea market outside the cruise terminal so we were able to do some more shopping. We got a 33oz bottle of Pure Vanilla Extract for $12. Don't even want to know how much that would cost here. Back on the ship we took a nap (again) and enjoyed another amazing dinner. We were back to bed a bit early as the next day we had another shore excursion in Puerto Vallarta. In hindsight I think we would have preferred to not have back-to-back excursions but it's hard to argue with the two that we did. As Puerto Vallarta was our favorite as you'll see in our next update!! Until next time ... Related Videos:
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