MaiTaiMary

Appetizers:

Me: Onion Soup (very thick!) and Caesar salad (very good. Prepared table side)

DH: Shrimp cocktail (good) and Escargot (good)

Now THAT'S some cheese!!!

Main:

Me: Fillet Mignon (good, but not great. A little tough) and baked potato

DH: Surf and Turf (lobster was good, but filet mignon was a little tough, too)

Dessert:

Me: Chocolate sampler. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Oh my stars it was goooooooooood. Oh yeah.

DH: Cheese platter. Very good. The server gave DH HUGE slices of cheese. I think he ate his weight in cheese that night.

Past guest party tonight. A dud. I don’t think we’ll go to it again. Drinks were warm and flat. Presentation wasn’t interesting. Only lasted 45 minutes. We’ll pass on this next time.

Elmo at the past guest party:

Reservations at the Supper Club tonight. Overall it was enjoyable and worth the extra $30/per person but I can’t say the food was as spectacular as I was expecting. We enjoyed ourselves and glad we went (and would recommend it!!) but I don’t think it lived up to the hype.

Friday, Day 3

Changed time during the night and lost 1 hour.

Went to the gym again. Still was a wait, but not as bad. Didn’t care for the set up of the gym that much. On the Elation, the treadmills were set up so we could look outside to the ocean while running. I missed that! Here we just got to watch the fat sweaty people dip into the spa. Not quite as nice.

Overall the spa was a little disappointing. Nothing really spectacular. A locker room, steam room, sauna, and the treatment rooms. (More on that Day 7)

Ended up going to the MDR for breakfast by myself tonight. Service was pretty bad, but breakfast was good. Belgian waffles w/ blueberries and bacon. Yum! Had to fuel up for another grueling day of laying in the sun, drinking beer and reading.

Brought some Coronas up on the deck and just chilled that afternoon. Weather was a little warmer, but still cloudy and windy.

Minnie enjoyed it.

As did Elmo.

Pool:

Tonight was the first cruise elegant (aka “formal”) night. I was surprised at how dressed up people were! Arrived at the MDR at 6:30p. Got a pager and was seated at about 7:10p (we wanted the wait staff we had the night prior and a table for 2). Enjoyed people watching again!

Appetizers:

Me: salad

DH: chili relleno (good)

Main:

Me: Prime rib (a little overdone, but good!)

DH: Lobster (good, but not great)

We started to make a routine of having cappuccino with our dessert every night. We totally miss having that after dinner every night! :D

Gotta love that room steward!!!!

Decided immediately that I can’t eat like I did yesterday for the entire cruise. Ugh! Yummy, but very rich and heavy.

Had some coffee out on the lido deck. Saw a whale and a few dolphins. I thought maybe we’d see more whales, but that was it for the entire cruise (and I was looking!).

8:00a- Went to the gym. 8 treadmills for 2200 people wasn’t enough. Waited it out managed to get a run. Didn’t quite combat all of the fattening foods, but I guess it helped soon.

Light breakfast on the lido deck followed by a strenuous afternoon of laying on a lounge chair and reading. Chilly, but relaxing. $10 bloody mary “deals” today.

Missed lunch in the Empire dining room by 3 minutes so we ended back up on the Lido deck. Good food again.

At noon the captain said it was 65 degrees. Felt very cool in the shade but nice when the sun peeked through the clouds.

Played our first game of Bingo. Not a winner.

Got a free deck of cards at the Pursers desk and played rummy. Very relaxing day!

Thursday, Day 2

Woke up early. Tired, but what a wonderful view from our aft balcony!

As I mentioned early, we left our 3 year old, 4 year old, and 5 year old at home with Grandma. They wanted us to take their special "friends" with them on our trip. So we showed Elmo, Ariel, and Minnie a great time. :D

Here they are enjoying the morning sunrise!!

Service was “not rushed”. At first I thought we were getting poor service and was getting a little impatient. Then I quickly reminded myself to switch to “vacation mode” and realized that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the service, its just that I’m used to eating with a very demanding 3 year old, 4 year old, and 5 year old and we eat our meals very fast! As soon as I switched to that “vacation mode”, I was very relaxed and really enjoyed the whole dining experience.

We had a table for 2 on the upper level that overlooked the lower floor. It was a lot of fun to people watch from up there.

Walked around and explored a little more.

Back to the cabin. Bed was very comfy but OMG! The vibration was out of control. Luckily it wasn’t like that the entire cruise, but wow… that first night everything was rattling like crazy. Woke up a bunch all.night.long.

Dessert:

Me: *drumroll, please* …………… time for my very first WARM CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE!!!!! And let me tell you folks…. it did NOT disappoint. OMG, I was in chocolate heaven. Rich? Yes, absolutely. But being the chocoholic that I am, I was in h-e-a-v-e-n. Loved, loved, loved it. (It reminded me a bit of a recipe I have for a chocolate pudding cake, actually. Very easy to make and very good. I can post if anybody is interested :) )

DH: Cheese assortment

Ahh.… FOOD! Time for our first (of many) sit down meals.

Appetizers:

Me: Chicken fingers w/ honey mustard sauce (very good!)

DH: Shrimp (good, not great) and salmon (very good)

Main:

Me: Ribs (excellent!! Fell right off the bone. Yum, yum, yum!)

DH: Some sorta pasta thingy. DH talked about this for the.entire.cruise. I wish I would have tasted it, now! Said it was excellent! One of the best things he ate the entire cruise.

Yes, theres's an interest! We don't sail the Spirit till February 2011 on a 9 day itinerary and we go to different ports than you did. Do you have more pics of your room?

I believe so. Lemme post the review and I'll look for some more cabin pics. :D The cabin was awesome!! Loved the location!!

8 days of cruise to post about. :D Gotta go make dinner. I hope there is an interest! I'll BBL to post the rest....

It was COLD!

That didn’t stop us from hanging out outside and watching San Diego and Point Loma pass by.

We had “anytime dining” and it worked out great. Headed up to the MDR around 7:00p. We had about a 10 minute wait (because we wanted a table for 2). It was very different from the usual cruiseship experience! It was nice being just the two of us, but kinda missed the big table experience. I’d chose anytime dining & table for two again, though. In the long run, this really worked out best for us.

Dropped off the bags and headed up stairs to the lido deck for lunch. Grilled Rueben and dulce de leche cheesecake. Yes, my vacation had officially begun! Explored a bit and did some people watching. Quite a mixture of people! Grabbed our first drinks (no, wait… I think THIS is when our vacation had officially begun! )

Set sail at 5:00p (4:00p was the scheduled time).

Wednesday, Day 1

Picked the kids up at school and dropped them off at home with Grandma. 12:30p and after 11 months of planning…. it was finally time to start our vacation!!!

Our first glimpse of the ship.

(yes, I’m taking the picture through the grid of a police vehicle. I suppose I could tell you why, but then I’d have to …. well…. you know how it goes )

Got on board ship after what seems like a looong and grueling wait. I looked at my watch at it was 1:45p when we were checking out our cabin. We were dropped off at 1:00p so I guess it wasn’t nearly as long as it seemed!

We had an aft, extended balcony cabin. Wonderful!!! It was everything I thought it would be. Gorgeous view of the San Diego bay. Kinda made me not wanna leave (well… “kinda”. LOL )

Us: Just DH and I went on this cruise. 39 and 44 years old. Left the kids (ages 5, 4, and 3) home with grandma. Our first real vacation since our honeymoon 7 years ago! This was our second Carnival cruise.

Ship: Carnival Spirit. Left from San Diego.

Ports: Acapulco, Manzanillo, Zihuatanejo

Cabin: 6262 AFT, extended balcony, Empress deck

Brief recap (A-F rating)

Embarkation: A-

Cabin: A

Entertainment (day): C+

Entertainment (night): C+

Service: A

Food: A

Cleanliness of the ship: B

Cruise Director: B

Acapulco: A-

Zihuatanejo: B+

Manzanillo: C+

Spa/Gym: C+

Room service: A

Main dining room: A

Supperclub: B+

Debarkation: C

Grandma: A++++ for staying with the kids and allowing us to go on this fantastic vacation!!!

Alrighty, let’s get down to the real meat of the review! Anchors Aweigh!!

Oh my, oh my. I never posted my review! Only a few months late. Anybody still interesting in reading?

Any more book recommendations? :D

Great tips! :D I love reading all the ideas. I've revised my packing list!

Has anybody else besides goldfi8h been on a tour with this company?

I've seen many posts by goldfi8h speaking very highly of Rudy, but I don't think I've actually found anybody else who has already been on a tour with them.

Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah. (for the women. :D). Loved this book! I just didn't want it to end. I looked forward to reading it every night.

Also, I just finished Maureen McCormick (Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!) 's autobiography, Here's The Story. A very quick, easy read, but entertaining! It won't take long to read, but if you were at all into the Brady Bunch as a child (or adult!) I'd recommend it. Wow! crazy life!

Currently reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah and am really enjoying it.

Oh, I just purchased this yesterday! Glad to hear it's good. :)

Ok, dumb question :o but what do you mean by a "production" show? There is a show every night, right?