Catalina/Ensenda Cruise (Compliments of Studies Weekly)

 We had a unexpected surprise come our way through Kent's work. His company CEO announced that the company had met its goals and he would be taking anyone that wanted to go, and a companion, on a 4-day cruise to Catalina, California and Ensenada, Mexico. We were very excited to have this adventure. We all flew in the day before into Long Beach, and took an Uber to the hotel. We stayed at the Long Beach Hilton. Having the whole day ahead of us, we decided to go to the aquarium and see a little of Long Beach.

Long Beach Hilton

We splurged and had a room service breakfast

A view of our ship and the Queen Mary

The next morning we all got on a bus and headed to the Carnival Inspiration. Embarkation went pretty smoothly, but since we always end up in the "special needs" line, not sure how it went for everyone else. We ate lunch and soon we were in our room. It was the Grand Suite and the only accessible room left for that cruise. Kinda felt guilty having such a nice room while most of the others in the group had inside rooms, but mostly grateful for the opportunity. Here are pictures of our room and first day on board.

We didn't leave until after dark so didn't get many sail away pictures. Still it was pretty to see all the city lights. Also had dinner before we sailed. It was anytime dining so it was just the two of us although we saw many of our Studies Weekly friends in the dining room. The food was "okay." Not as good as we remember from our first Carnival cruise but we didn't starve.

Carnival still does the cute towel animals

Our first stop was Catalina Island a whole 29.3 miles from where we started. We must have been crawling there over night.  It was Kent's first time and DeeAnn's second time there. We tendered into the area and the tender boats were actually (well, some) accessible. We, and a coworker Marta, rented a golf cart, strapped the wheelchair on the back and toured the island.  It was quite pretty.

Studies Weekly gang on the tender shuttle

Our balcony was the last couple of windows

View of ship from a lookout point on the island

Lots of trees and plants you don't find in Utah

A sweet little pet cemetery

This cat was on a perch watching all the golf carts go by

ADA parking for golf carts, something you don't see everyday

We found a good Mexican restaurant while in Catlina.

More ship pictures and a very pretty sunset.

CEO, John, in his Elvis duds

Towel animals surrounded the pool one morning

The next day was Ensenada. Looked a little rainy but we ventured out anyway since at that point it was only sprinkling a bit. We bought a few trinkets and headed back ... by the time we got back to the ship we both looked like drowned rats.

 

The 3rd day was a sea day. We woke up to a gorgeous sunrise and treated to a few dolphins near the ship. We relaxed, visited with friends and ate (probably too much). The Carnival Inspiration's buffet was quite small compared to other ships we've been on but we seemed to manage to eat enough, plus got our daily ice cream cone. They also had a mini Guy Fieri's hamburger restaurant which was quite good. All in all it was a fun get away.