Carnival Spirit
February 10-18, 2008
Mexican Riviera – Acapulco, Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo

Precruise – We flew into San Diego the day before the cruise. The airport is very close to the downtown area and the cruise port. We stayed at the La
Pensione Hotel in the Little Italy section of downtown, about 4 blocks from the cruise port. Taxi to the hotel was $8.00 and to the cruise port from the hotel was $6.00. We like the hotel just fine, the rooms were small, but it was clean and the staff was helpful and friendly. It was a bit noisy, especially since there was a train depot only 2 blocks away and you did hear the horn all hours of the night.

Embarkation – The morning of the cruise we walked to the port from the hotel and had breakfast just across the street from the ships. The dock is right on the street, so getting a good view of the ships in port was nice. There was a sign warning that there was no dropping off of passengers before 11:00 AM.
We were dropped off by taxi at 11 on the dot. We left our luggage with a porter who refused our tip. I was pleasantly surprised by this…he told my husband to “spend in on her”. After passing through the security line, we were given a card with Zone 9 on it. We got our Sign & Sail cards without waiting in any line and were then directed to seats to wait until our zone was called. This took about 20 minutes and we were walking on board. All in all, it was a very easy embarkation. We left our carry on in our cabin (we didn't wait until 1:30 to go in) and headed up to the Lido deck for lunch.

The Ship – Our cabin was and 8A balcony #4171 on the Main deck. It was nice, the same as any other balcony cabin I’ve had on Carnival. Roomy enough and efficient with closet space and drawers. Outside the cabin door were windows that looked down on the atrium. This location was good for us, close to elevators. I liked the layout of this ship…easy enough to learn to get around after one afternoon.

Food – We always found something we enjoyed to eat. We had breakfast in the dining room a couple of times. I enjoyed the Eggs Benedict. The buffet was standard fair for breakfast. I usually got a fresh fried egg from the omelet station. Dinners in the dining room were good and there was lots of variety. Don’t miss my favorite dessert, the Bitter and Blanc. It’s a brioche bread pudding with warm vanilla sauce and a dab of bittersweet chocolate in the bottom of the ramekin…just delicious!

We ate in the Nouveau Supper Club the last night of the trip and found it well worth the $30 up charge. We both had the filet mignon, cooked to perfection. The New England Crab Cake appetizer was out of this world. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this 5* dining experience to anyone.

PORTS

Acapulco – We arranged a private tour with a local tour operator, Rosie Diaz, prior to our arrival. dew_days@hotmail.com. She was waiting outside the terminal holding a sign with our names on it. We piled into a 12 passenger van and off we went. The driving is pretty wild here…I wouldn’t recommend anyone try going on their own. Rosie took us to many highlights of Aca, including the Hollywood Gang hotel where Johnny Weismuller (Tarzan) and John Wayne, etc. used to hang out. It was a beautiful hotel high up on one of the many hills in Acapulco. We also visited the mural done by Diego Rivera and a beautiful chapel. She was very knowledgeable about the history and culture of her home town. After a long afternoon with Rosie (1:30 – 6:30), she dropped us back at the ship to have dinner and freshen up. She picked us up again about an hour later and took us to see the cliff divers. This is an amazing, not to miss show! It was truly breathtaking watching those men dive from those ragged cliffs into the water from such heights.

Zihuatanejo – This was my favorite port. We got off the ship, via tender. You have to get a tender ticket and wait for your number to be called. It took about 20 minutes from the time we got our ticket at about 11 AM. We walked from the tender dock to find a taxi. Our plan here was to go to Playa La Ropa. I was told that a taxi should cost $3.00 to this beach…that’s $3.00 per taxi, not per person. After negotiating with drivers all the way from $50 to $20 to $5.00 we finally agreed. Just keep walking away from the dock and the taxi prices get less and less.

We went to La Perla restaurant at La Ropa. We paid $5.00 for an umbrella and 2 chairs for the day. We ordered 4 sodas, 1 margarita, chips and guacamole and our tab was $13.00 US when we left. La Ropa was a pretty and clean beach with a great view of the ship in port. It’s about a ½ mile long, lined with restaurants and very calm water. There were a few vendors, but none that didn’t accept a polite “no, gracias” and keep walking. At the far end of the beach there is an alligator preserve where you can see one of the alligators and pet a baby one. There is parasailing offered here as well as banana boat rides.

When it was time for us to go, there were many cabs waiting in the parking lot and they offered the same $5.00 fare. We asked to be dropped at Tamales Atole Y Any for a good tamale snack before returning to the ship. We enjoyed our lunch there a lot. The restaurant offers 30 different kinds of tamales as well as other Mexican fare. It seemed to be frequented by locals and tourists alike. The walk back to the tender pier from there was just a few blocks.

This is a lovely, laid back, fishing village and small town. It was clean, the locals were friendly and there were many shops along the way. We walked back to the ship by the beach used by the local fishermen. I really loved the quiet of this port after the hustle bustle of big city Acapulco.

Manzanillo - This is a very industrial port that you dock in. You have to take a shuttle from the ship. The cost is $4.00 per person, round trip. The shuttle takes you about 1 ½ miles into a downtown area with shops and an information table. We elected to take a taxi to Las Hadas resort while in Manzanillo. We shopped for souvenirs and then headed to Las Hadas. It was a beautiful resort with a huge pool. The pool had a little island, a swim up bar, a waterfall and a rope bridge across it. There is a beach area here also. The cost of admission is $30 per person. You are given coupons for drinks, food and beach chairs worth $30.00 per person, so it’s a great deal. We enjoyed a relaxing day at the pool, eating and drinking. There were many others from the ship there too. The taxi cost $10.00 to the resort from downtown and $7.00 directly back to the ship from the resort.

Weather - Embarkation day in San Diego was about 75 and sunny. The first day at sea was a bit chilly, in the low 70’s, but the second sea day was much warmer as we headed south. In all the ports it was sunny and 85 – 90. Again it was cooler heading back to San Diego out at sea, but nice and sunny. The seas were calm with the exception of one morning on a sea day.
We saw whales off the coast of Cabo San Lucas heading north and dolphins as we approached Acapulco.

Misc. - I signed up for the Ocean Players Club prior to sailing. They delivered one dozen chocolate covered strawberries to our room as a welcome gift. Also, at dinner the first night, they delivered a coupon worth $15.00 off a photo. We bought an 8x10 from one formal dinner for only $6.95 (regular $21.95).

There were 2 formal nights, Tuesday and Saturday.

We enjoyed the shows we attended. On sea days we played trivia games, watched a movie, attended tea one afternoon and gambled in the casino a bit. It was a very relaxing itinerary for us with all the sea days.

Post Cruise - San Diego

We spent 2 days post cruise in San Diego. It's a nice city, I enjoyed it a lot.
The first day we took a taxi to the zoo. It's a great zoo and well worth a day spent there.

Day 2 we took a Trolley Tour around the city for the day. It made many stops along the way and we stopped at the Coronado Hotel. The grounds here are beautiful and interesting with a few shops. We also stopped in Old Town, a State Park with shops an old Mexican village setting. Lots of Mexican restaurants line the Main Street outside the park itself. We drove through Balboa Park and I wished we'd had more time, we would have like to have seen more of this park with many museums and beautiful grounds.

All in all, everything went as planned, the weather cooperated and we loved the ship. It was a great vacation.

Here is a link to my Webshots album of photos from this cruise.

Carnival Spirit pictures, photos, and videos, from friends & fun on webshots