Jack writing the Blog

Here is Jack at the Comfort Inn. That purple suitcase is really heavy. It is only 40 lbs but the little one I attach to it must be another 40.

Greenville to Ft Lauderdale.

We took the dogs to Keller's so he could keep them for us. They knew something was up, but it was OK. They would not pose for pictures.

I love it when I am going on a tropical vacation that I have to scrape ice off the car windows to go to the airport. It really gives a sense of rightness to the trip.

Keller took us to the airport, no problem. Got to Atlanta, no problem. Got on the plane to Ft Lauderdale, big problem. There were a bunch of people in the back of the plane with boarding passes for rows that didn't exist. They had to stop boarding and redo all the boarding passes. They handled it pretty well in just over an hour. It looked like they had had that problem before, more than once.

In Ft. Lauderdale, we took the hotel shuttle to the Comfort Inn - Hollywood / Cruiseport South. At $150 a night, it was the cheapest Libby could find. There are 9 cruise boats leaving Ft. Lauderdale and Miami tomorrow. The folks in the hotel are out by the pool getting started on their quota of booze for the week.

It is 83 out now which is a nice change from the 24 this morning at home. We are supposed to go to the Bimini Boatyard Bar to meet up with our group - the Salsa 49ers.

Time differences of the countries we visit to SC

Barbados + 1 hour
Dominica + 1 hour
Brazil + 3 hours
Argentina + 3 hours
Chile + 2 hour
Uruguay + 3 hours
Peru + Same
Ecuador + Same
Mexico - 1 hour

Packed and ready to go!!

Whew..... I think we are finally packed. We ended up with a 25 inch suitcase, 20 inch carry-on and computer bag each.

We are going to spend Thursday night at Keller's house and then he will take us to the airport Friday morning for our 10:00am flight to Ft Lauderdale. After an overnight there we will board the ship on Friday.

Moosie and Reba will be with Keller. They are packed too. They have two months worth of food and their dog beds.

Currency Converter

Flags of the countries we visit.

Door Sign

All the people from Cruise Critic will be displaying signs on their door. This is ours. We are in different cabins on each leg: Leg 1 - 6207, Leg 2 - 9211, Leg 3 - 6371.

Maps of our trip.

To keep me from asking, "Where is that?" Jack made these maps of where we are going.

Weather down there

http://sirocco.accuweather.com/sat_mosaic_640x480_public/IR/isassam.gif
This link will show you the weather down at the end of South America, sort of.

For the Northern part of South America try:
http://www.accuweather.com/world-satellite.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&site=csam&type=IR&anim=1&large=0

Packing

Jack likes to put packing off until the last minute. I on the other hand want it done yesterday. We have managed to fill 3 suitcases. We have mine, yours and ours. No telling how many times it will be unpacked and repacked over the next weeks.

The challenge for packing light is the weather. It will be very cold and windy as we go around Cape Horn. So we need coats and gloves and wool socks. It will be very hot in Barbados.... so we need light cottons. Plus our trip is for 52 days total with visits in cities, countryside, beaches and glaciers.

Planning a trip to South America on the Carnival Splendor

Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Beginings Of Our Cruise Review ~

Read along as Jack & I travel on a Cruise Ship called "Carnival ~ Splendor" all the way around South America.

Our trip begins with flying to Fort Lauderdale on 1/30/09. We are sailing from there on January 31.

We are meeting up with 290 + fellow CruiseCritic.com members. We have chatted with all of these people on this cruise ship chat board for the past year and will board with them on 1/31/09 along with a total of =3000 other cruisers, many of which are staying on for all 3 legs of this cruise just like we are.

Our Port & at Sea days are:
Jan. 31,... Ft Lauderdale
Feb 1, ... at sea
Feb 2, .....at sea
Feb 3, ... Dominica
Feb 4, ... Barbados
Feb 5, ... at sea
Feb 6, .... at sea
Feb 7, ... Crossing the Equator
Feb 8, ... Fortaleza, Brazil
Feb 9, ... at sea
Feb 10. ... Recife Brazil
Feb 11, ... at sea
Feb 12, ... Salvador, Brazil
Feb 13, ....at sea
Feb 14, ....Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 15, ....at sea
Feb 16, ....at sea
Feb 17, ... Buenos Aires, Argentina
Feb 18, ... Buenos Aires
Feb 19, ... Montevideo, Uruguay
Feb 20, ....at sea
Feb 21, ....Puerto Madryn, Argentina
Feb 22, ....at sea
Feb 23, ... Cape Horn Cruising
Feb 24, ... Ushuaia, Argentina
Feb 25, ... Punta Arenas, Chile
Feb 26, ... Strait of Magellan
Feb 27, ... Chilean Fjords
Feb 28, ... Puerto Montt, Chile
Mar 1, .... at sea
Mar 2, .....at sea
Mar 3, .... Santiago, Chile ..(Valparaiso)
Mar 4, .....at sea
Mar 5, .... at sea
Mar 6, .... Arica, Chile
Mar 7, .... at sea
Mar 8, .... Lima (Callao), Peru
Mar 9, .... at sea
Mar 10, ... Quito (Manta), Ecuador
Mar 11, ... Crossing the Equator
Mar 12, ... at sea
Mar 13, ... at sea
Mar 14, ... Acapulco, Mexico
Mar 15, ... at sea
Mar 16, ... Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Mar 17, ... at sea
Mar 18, ... at sea
Mar 19, ... Los Angeles, CA (Long Beach)
Mar 20,.... at sea
Mar 21,.... San Francisco, CA
Mar 22, ... Arrive home in Greenville 11PM

To take a look around our beautiful ship & home for the next 49 days ~

http://www.carnival.com/cms/fun/ships/carnival_splendor/default.aspx?shipCode=SL#

Once there, To see where our ship is ~ on any given day ~
Click on the “Ship Webcam” box on the upper right side of the Splendor page . . .

Or Try this ~

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/carnivalindex.html

On L side of page, Click on Carnival / Splendor & Under picture displayed, click on Bridge Cam (Front View) , Aft Cam (Back View), or Location Map (Where the ship is right now)

*Please feel free to come back here often to read up on what exciting things Jack & I are doing on board ship, what we see & learn about all the ports we will visit along the way & who knows if I figure out how ~ You may even see some pictures posted here that one of us has taken.