Just of the Carnival Spirt 8 Day Mexican Riviera

[itsmecatrina]

Unfortunately my vacation has come to an end :( so i thought i would share my experience here on cruise critic.

This is my first time posting a review so please bare with me...

 

We originally booked this cruise as a small group, 6 cabins , unfortunately as the final payments came due we had some back outs so our group was a total of 4 cabins, 10 guest in all.

 

We are all from N. California so the majority of us drove. We left real early ( 3:30 am :eek: in fact) and arrived in San Diego around 2 pm.

We had booked 2 rooms at the Hampton Inn (Sea World/Airport location) due to my parents past experince with the Hampton Inn and the price was right. Most location near the marina was either full or way beyond what we would want to pay for one night.

I was pleasantly surprised with this hotel, I had read some reviews , good and bad, so the min. we drove up I was on radar mood... but it seemed that all the good reviews where spot on.

THe lobby was big and very welcoming , the staff very friendly and they offered 24 hour coffee ( always a winner in my book)

In the lobby they have two computers avail. free of charge for all guest along with a printer , also free of charge.

The rooms where nice and clean and big enough to accommodate 4 adults with out feeling crowded.

The pool and hot tub are a good size for this small hotel.

They offer a great breakfast in the morning, beyond your normal free hotel breakfast.

The only real complaint i have is the balcony furniture needs a little upgrading .

The hotel is located in a very traffic area, right off the freeway and during commute time it gets real busy. There is a jack in the box, Denny's, subway and Mexican restaurant all located with in walking distance.

On bad review i read was about a strip club right across the street, and it's not, it's down the street around the corner.. only visible if you actually walk or drive over to it , you can not see it from your hotel. But, being that the area is a military area we past Many strip clubs and adult book stores while exploring and searching for a walmart.

 

Ok,enough on our pre arrival on to the important review our Cruise :D

 

It was a quick 10 min drive to the Park and Go ( located right across from the airport)

The planes land very low so if you ever park at this location be prepared to hear some planes :)

 

We had to wait about a half hour for the shuttle to take us to port, once we where able to board the shuttle the driver explain to us that we could not be dropped off in the normal passenger loading zone, which we where already prepared for this... and expected it due to arriving before noon.

 

Nothing beats the first glimpse of your new home for the next 8 days

all that anticipation was finally coming to an end.... There she is.. just waiting for you :D

[cruzerfromcruz]

Thanks for posting your review. What did you do in the ports? I noticed in one of the pictures that you were traveling with teenage (or older) boys. We are sailing on the Spirit in December with our two boys, ages 17 & 21. Any comments/suggestions for them? They are well seasoned cruisers but the older one has not been on this particular ship. Thx.

[itsmecatrina]

We we let out right in front of the cruise terminal, not able to drive up to the actual "unload" zone due to past guest still coming off.

 

Once off the shuttle everything went 2 quick , walked through the first check spot, no problem , then we dropped off our baggage and where allowed to start our check in process , I would say the time was around 10:40- 11 am ..

First your normal check in, and then off to the metal detectors, which my belt set off :o so I was lucky enough to be dragged to the side ... and then my carry on was sent to be expected :(... I had scissors in my bag .... I was holding my breath while they measured them .... I almost lost my favorite pair... that will show me to keep my needle work case in my carry on....

 

after that everything went into turbo mood... we got our sign and sail card and where sent to a waiting area

We only waited for about 40 mins... but this was worth it, checking it was a snap so waiting in a nice seating area beats waiting outside or standing in line.

 

 

This was my first time on a Carnival Cruise ship, at this point it was the same ordeal as our Princesses cruise two years back, nothing was diff.

Of course until we walked on board

I had seen photos of the atrium on the Spirit, and I have to say... that photos pretty much say it all.

 

We where of course told our rooms would not be ready till 1:30 and lunch is avail. on the lido deck... so of course we where off to lunch... and where very happy we had arrived early as we looked out to the crowd growing outside .

a little visitor we met while exploring deck 10

[itsmecatrina]

Sign on the hall way

 

We where let into our rooms at 1:30 ... at this point my 15 yr son was ready to drop the carry on I made him carry.

 

This was our first time with a balocny room, we had cabin 7168 ... location of our room sucked, we were right in the middle of two elevators and the hall ways seem to grow longer EVERY day :(

As for our room, it was great. We org. where booked in a double on deck 8, but had to add our son to our cabin at the very end due to other guest dropping out . This worked in our favor because the only 3 person room avail. had an extended balcony, which we loved.

Along with celebrating Thanksgiving on board we where also celebrating my DH birthday so he had a nice little gift waiting for him.

Room had a good amount of space in it,

 

Although it was not set up for three guest and we had to call our room steward and advice him we had a total of three people , even with that it took him 3 days to finally recognize this by adding a third cup , beach towel and third mint on the pillow.

I will not spend a lot of time complaining about our room steward, i don't think he was all that great ... but that happens sometimes, the room was cleaned every day .. enough said.

( I would like to point out that other members of our group raved about there room steward, so I think we just got the short stick this round)

 

I loved our balcony, comparing it to my parents and aunt, the extended balcony gives you so much more room. We had about 5 people out there at once and it wasn't to crowded, so if you have the option to book extended it's well worth it.

I was also a little concerned about the life boats being directly below us, but they turned out to be no big deal, even when the ones right below our room was used for a tender, we didn't hear a thing .

[itsmecatrina]

after checking out our room and unpacking ( our bags arrived around 3ish, before we even sailed away I was unpacked and ready to roll)

 

We headed up to deck 10 where met with our group for a sail away toast off.

The week prior my mother and I met and made everyone champagne glasses so we could toast to a fabulous vacation during sail away.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised

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Cheers!

We are off let the "FUN" times begin!!!!!

 

We had late dinning so we explored the ship for a little bit , the Spirit is larger then the first cruise ship I had sailed on prior ( the Dawn Princesses)

so there was a lot of exploring to do before dinner.

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[itsmecatrina]

While exploring the ship we ran into the Sushi cart which is located right in front of the sport bar and Fountain stairs.

I am new to Sushi and found this to be good.. so i'm not the best judge when it comes to sushi... i enjoyed and went back many times :)

 

Our first dinning experience was bad... our seat location was the worst.

Our first table was on the 2nd floor, literally right when you walked in... elbow bumping range ... it was bad... and well... my mother is VERY vocal when she is un happy, she voiced her opinion on this location to anyone with a badge on..

But it worked because the next morning we all had a little note letting us know our table had been moved :) --- more on that later.

 

So for dinner, I had

Wedge Salad w/ blue cheese dressing

No complaints on that... just a simple salad

for my next course i had shrimp cocktail

and for my main dish I had Linguine w/ Italian sausage, Bell peppers and mushrooms.

I almost forgot to take a pic but remember a few bites into it

This was pretty good, much better then I expected.

I'm a picky eater so each night was hard for me to decided.. I had to step out of my comfort zone a few times... but very happy that I did.

 

That's if for our first day, we where tired and didn't go to the Welcome Aboard party.

The Caper for the first day will be in the next thread.

[itsmecatrina]

 

 

 

 

[willyguy]

after checking out our room and unpacking ( our bags arrived around 3ish, before we even sailed away I was unpacked and ready to roll)

 

We headed up to deck 10 where met with our group for a sail away toast off.

The week prior my mother and I met and made everyone champagne glasses so we could toast to a fabulous vacation during sail away.

Everyone was pleasantly surprised

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[ATTACH]139513[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]139514[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]139518[/ATTACH]

 

Cheers!

We are off let the "FUN" times begin!!!!!

 

We had late dinning so we explored the ship for a little bit , the Spirit is larger then the first cruise ship I had sailed on prior ( the Dawn Princesses)

so there was a lot of exploring to do before dinner.

[ATTACH]139519[/ATTACH]

Hi enjoy your review but can't open up the attachment.

[cruiselover999]

I was trying to get a larger view of the capers and can't. Any suggestions? Loving the review! We'll be on in Feb!!

[Rhorner]

Hi, Catrina I can't open the attachments. Other then that reviews good so far.

About room stewards we were on deck 8 room 8242 our steward was very good he came by one night and found me iceing my foot, he want and brought back extra ice and towel without being ask and did the same the next day.

All in all it was a great cruise one of my best on Carnival.

[itsmecatrina]

Here is a link to view the capers a little larger

 

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1612244021/a=161341510_161341510/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[itsmecatrina]

I am having a problem with these attachments so below is a link to them

 

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1610938021/a=161341510_161341510/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[itsmecatrina]

Our first fun day at sea !! Yippee...

We enjoyed an early morning snack

Danishes ~ which are the same ones you will find in the buffet , My son enjoyed these

Yummy melons

and some citrus fruit for my hubby

My son enjoyed his orange juice delivered to him every morning and I enjoyed my coffee even if it wasn't starbucks :) even bad coffee taste good while sipping it with an ocean view ...

A coffee hint to make it taste a little more desirable.... when getting up on the lido deck buffet add a little hot water to it... it makes it smoother :)

 

then we where off to breakfast in the buffet

There gravy was good and recommend this each morning ( they serve it every other day)

 

For today's activities we simple walked around the boat, till 2 pm and then we set off to do the Digital Scavenger hunt~ which was a blast. I will not share the photos with you becasue that would be cheating... but I will tell you.. DO THE BONUS shots... we where so busy running around and looking for a British crew member we didn't even notice the bonus shots...

It's a lot of fun. oh I'll share one photo with you

[itsmecatrina]

Today was the first of two formal nights so after the Digital SH we once again enjoyed walking around the ship till it was time to get ready.

Water Slide

 

Sports Bar

I expected the sports bar to be very tiny, but it wasn't. They have about 8 TV all along the bar . Even on game day's the bar never seemed over crowded.

It is located right next to the Sushi bar, Karaoke bar and Fountain stairs on deck 2 ( oh and theirs an entry from the casino)

[itsmecatrina]

I really expected to see a lot of people dressed down for the formal nights, after reading many reviews about it I was pleasantly surprised and very exited to see that about 99% of guest all kicked it up for formal nights. Many tuxes, and full formal wear. For the most part men whore jackets and ties and women wore fancy cocktail dresses, and there must have been a memo sent out for everyone to wear Black on the first formal night...

 

Our first night we where very un happy with our location for dinning, so the next morning we all received a note advising us our table had been moved.

Oh boy where we happy , and even happier when we arrived on the first floor of the Empire Dinning room .. .. They set us up at the Captains Table ~ How cool is that.

The Maitre D' is WONDERFUL .. on our last cruise I don't even remember the Maitre D', but on the Spirit I will always remember him. Not only did he provide us with a GREAT table , he check on us often just to assure everything was fine.

 

And for dinner I had

Baked Stuffed White Mushrooms

The best mushrooms EVER!!! I highly recommend ordering this. I wanted to cancel the rest of my order and just have more of these.

 

yet again, shrimp cocktail

 

Broiled Lobster and Tiger Shrimp

Now i hate lobster ( yes I know i'm one of those very few) so I passed my lobster down to my hubby and enjoyed the Shrimp.

 

I also ordered the Chili Rellenos

This was different, it was stuffed with broccoli and tomatoes and I believe potatos... it was good but different. I would reccomend this as a "try" dish.

I can't say much about the rice because I was to full to try it, I wanted room for dessert :p

and for Dessert i had

Caramelized Apples and Puff Pastry w/ caramel sauce

Very yummy, I did not use the caramel sauce and others on my table who did said it made the dessert to sweet... so if you have a sweet tooth this might be the dessert for you.

 

After dinner we headed to the Pharaoh's Palace for "The Big Easy" show.

My son's passion is music, in all shapes and form, and he really enjoyed this one. I would recommend checking this one out... it brings you through the history of New Orleans with singing and dancing... great costumes and stage effects...

 

After we enjoyed the adult comedy show with Tom McGillen.

 

That pretty much sums up our first fun day at sea!

[itsmecatrina]

 

for a larger view

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1611421021/a=161341510_161341510/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[itsmecatrina]

We had breakfast in the Empire Room today, I ordered the eggs Benedict

If you enjoy this I recommend ordering it and asking for a little extra sauce... that was the only thing it was missing - more sauce.

Other then that is was very good

 

The hash browns are nothing to write home about... they seem to taste the same no matter where you dine :D

 

We enjoyed most of our day playing games on the Lido deck among all the pool goers. It was very fun and relaxing.

We ordered these fun drinks and I don't know what the bartender was thinking but he loaded them up with so much rum I believe I still have it in my blood stream. They cost $15 bucks and can also be used as a bank ( which is currently being used as my saving bank for my next cruise :D)

 

After a few hours of games and feeling a little tipsy from my drink I enjoyed the water slide... which was a blast ... you have to try it atleast once, and keep your eyes open :) and mouth shut because when you splash down on the bottom all that yummy salt water comes right in...

 

the rest of the day was spent on the lido deck with more games ... but no more booze :eek:

[itsmecatrina]

I actual felt a little sea sick this evening, which was a first for me... thank goodness for sea sick pills..

So i kept it light for dinner

We had a little sushi early in the evening

 

and dinner I had

fried burrito with guacamole

Not to bad, a little different like the Chili Relleno , but you can pass on it for dinner and wait to try it during the late night Mexican buffet on the last port.

for my main dish I had the Pork with jerk sauce.. very yummy if you like the spice. The port was cooked just right

 

 

I took some other pics of my fellow table mates

this was the prosciutto

and this was a sushi dish

did not look very good to me... but for those who ordered said it was good

 

For dessert I ordered the strawberry cheese cake... the sauce tasted like strawberry jam but the cheese cake it self was good... so skip the strawberry and just get the c.cake :)

[itsmecatrina]

We ended are evening by attending the "The unique Comedy & Magic of" Woody Pitman.

He was good, he kept it clean for the kids but tossed in a few jokes only adults would get.

After the show we headed to bed and got our first Towel animal

[itsmecatrina]

 

for a larger view

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1610651021/a=161341510_161341510/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

[itsmecatrina]

I was going to skip my review on Acapulco completely, but decided after all to share our experience.

Our set time was to arrival around noon but we pulled in a little early.

 

 

We had a nice good morning welcome from a school of Dolphins , i took more video then photos but the one below you can see a single dolphin

 

as we sailed into the bay we also had a friendly escort

which become the norm at every port of call.

 

The view of Acapulco was beautiful , and we waited eagerly while we docked

[itsmecatrina]

The cruise terminal is located directly across from the Fort of Diego.

Our plan for Acapulco was to go solo, no tour guide , from prior research it seemed the only way to get everything in was to do it on your own.

 

I'm no stranger to visiting Mexico, and I know how crazy pulling into port can be... BUT this was the worst experience EVER!!!!

First I got seprated from my group... no big deal but by the time we connected on the dock I was a little moody for wasting so much time .. which i'm sure added to the stress of what was about to happen.

 

They guide you through a little shopping center ( which I might add as A/C , cheap drinks and the prices on good's is not to bad)

Once you leave the comfort of this friendly little shopping center you are bombarded with taxi drivers ... to the point of pur confussion and if you are traveling with a group, and you lack prior communication it can be even more stressful...

 

After saying NO, No Thank You, Not Necessary .. bla bla bla bla bla a million times, they don't care...

Our plan for the day was to visit the Fort, take a taxi to the beaches near the hotel zone, return to the ship for a change of clothes, a quick visit to Old Downtown and then cliff divers and then back to the boat before the 10 o'clock show.......... Boy our day DID not go according to plan .

My mother got hung up with a driver who offered to be our driver for the day for $10 bucks a person, i did not feel comfortable with such a cheap driver , I have read to many "bad" encounters with cheap drivers.

And these guys where pushy, there where two of them, and anytime i said ANYTHING to my mother or anyone else in my group about WHY i didn't want to do it.. the two drivers would tag team me by rattling on all these diff. things ... the whole time we where at the Fort of Diego they where chirping in my ear... and I REALLY wanted to enjoy the fort but due to them they cheapened the experience for me...

After finally putting a stop to the insanity by simply saying " NO THANK YOU PLEASE LEAVE US ALONE" the driver told me if we changed are minds he would do it for 8 bucks a person, I also found out he did not have a van large enough for all of us, that is why there where TWO drivers hounding us...

Please note, there are TWO ways into the Fort Diego, and I suggest using the nice walk way they have created and avoid the old main entrance, that is a good place to leave but not a great place to get up to the fort....

A few photos of the fort ~ Which I STRONGLY recommend visiting... make sure you check the hours , Sundays are free as well, normal price is $3 usd per person.

[itsmecatrina]

After leaving Fort Diego we headed down the pier , I'm not sure why we didn't just jump into a taxi and head to the nicer beaches , but we wound up at the Beach near the cruise terminal...

 

If you looking for a great beach... this is not the one... But if you looking to soak in the culture this is the beach for you.

 

There are public bathrooms ( which you'll find at all the ports) and the cost is $5 pesos , and this is for the toilet paper ... don't expect glamor :o these are public bathrooms designed for locals not tourist... lol

After a quick stop for a change of clothes we found a nice spot on the beach and enjoyed the local smells.... :eek:

and the very very FRIENDLY local kids... who must have been drawn to my mothers blond hair , while we sat in the water cooling down they kept coming right up to you and talking to her, neither of them knowing each others language but it was a nice experience.

 

After are nice cool down and visit with the locals we decided to head to Old Downtown because it was only steps away from the beach.

This was a big disappointment .

There is really nothing there, expect for a few pretty structors and a beautiful church , that's basically it. Plus being there on a Sunday may have been part of the reason

 

after wondering around old town for about 20 mins, a local tourist advisory ( which you'll find MANY of them in Acapulco, came up to us and started chatting... his English was perfect.

I'm not sure how we started following him, but the next thing we know we are following him to a flea market which was about 5 blocks away ... basically about a mile and half.

It seemed like we where been lead to the worse areas in Acapulco, it was such a shame ... and nothing makes you feel safer then walking up to the flea market to find about 4 Mexican police cars parked in the area... my radar when on full alert...

This market was DEAD... with our group of 8 , i would say there was about 10 tourist TOPS... and of course with no sales the sales people where on high alert .... one guy in shop wanted to charge me 65 usd for a simple silver ring.. OMG in Puerto Vallarta I got one for 8 bucks... i soon learned there is no real good bargins in Acapulco, no one is whiling to lower there prices .... I finally bought the same ring at anther shop for $20 usd ... which I still believe i over paid....

 

After leaving the market our guide lead us through what seemed to be even worse areas , till finally we where back to our ship... THANK GOD... at this point of the day I think we where all wiped out due to the bad experience we had from the start and all plans to go into the more "touristy" areas was pushed away.... it felt sooooo good to back on the Spirit... and we where all starving ...

[itsmecatrina]

We had heard so many good things about the Folk show Carnival brings on board while in Acapulco we stayed on board and waited.

 

This show was wonderful, and Just what we all needed after such a crappy day...

My pictures didn't come out to well but here are a few samples.

I strongly recommend catching this show...

My 15 yr old son did not enjoy it, but my cousin who is 18 did.

 

This dance group as preformed all over the world and has won many awards... there outfits alone are worth checking out.... it was a great ending to a bad day.

 

A shot i took of the coffee bar while leaving the show

 

and our towel animal for the day

 

I'm sure our experience in Acapulco was not the norm, although I did talk with a few other people who also said they had a bad day... I strongly recommend booking a tour or heading STRAIT to the tourist beaches near the hotel zone...

 

and that would wrap up Acapulco , capers to follow

[itsmecatrina]

 

and for a larger view

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1618092021/a=161341510_161341510/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/