Our Trip of a Lifetime has begun . . .

Ruth & I left Santa Barbara today around 730pm on a late Coast Flyer Bus. And for the first time I got a queasy tummy sitting in the back of a bus. The bus driver put on a film for us to watch, “Blades of Glory” . . . Remind me never to rent this movie! We arrived at LAX between 930 & 10pm & headed upstairs to the Intl Airport Lounge and found the computer section and now we both are up & running.

~ Currency Converter ~

~ Flags from 10 countries along 1 South America Cruise ~

~ Our Cabin Panorama 1005 Door Sign ~

~ Maps & Itinerary of our cruise ~

Our Passports & Brazilian Visa's in Hand

Ruth & I are both breathing signs of relief . . .

After much hand wringing ~

Due to an Embassy in SF losing Ruth's passport & Brazilian Visa . . .
& me not hearing a word from ZVS for close to 40 days ~

The wait is now forever over.

Ruth's new passport & her necessary 3 Visa's arrived Monday ~1/19/09 and my passport & Brazilian Visa arrived today ~ 1/21/09.

Hallelujah!

Except for finishing packing our suitcases
& making sure they each weigh no more than 50 lbs ~
We are pretty much ready to go . . .

* 10 days and counting.

Can anyone spell E*X*C*I*T*E*D!

So you will know Who is Who :-)

Top picture is Grace & bottom picture is Ruth.

The Beginings Of Our Cruise Review ~

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

Our trip begins with leaving Santa Barbara, California on 1/29/09 via “Coast Flyer” heading towards the Los Angeles Airport. In the wee hours of the morning we will wave goodbye to Los Angeles & land for a spell in Dallas Fort Worth & end up in Fort Lauderdale on 1/30/09.

We are meeting up with 290 + fellow Cruise Critic . 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 29, ... Los Angeles
Jan 30, ... Los Angeles to Ft Lauderdale
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 ~ Chancellor Hotel
Mar 22, ... San Francisco, Ca ~ Chancellor Hotel
Mar 23, ... San Francisco, Ca to Santa Barbara, Ca

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 hover your pointer over the cameras to see what the ship looks like . . .

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)

Or ~ Enjoy the following ~

Gail / Cruisinlivin ~ South America website ~ for all 3 legs of our Carnival Splendor Cruise

http://www.zedinc.com/mgadventures/2009southamerica/

"Carnival Splendor Round The Horn by ZydecoCruiser" ~ will be joining us Feb 17th - Mar 3rd & they have all kinds of information & pictures on their site ~ Enjoy!

http://www.zydecocruiser.com/splendor_09/index.htm

*Please feel free to come back here often to read up on what exciting things Ruth & 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.