I’m no longer a Warm Chocolate Melting Cake Virgin! (Spirit Mex. Riviera 3/3/10)

[MaiTaiMary]

Took a taxi back to the ship so we could shower & change before headin’ out for the evening. We had a great taxi driver so we told him to come back for us in an hour. (Raul 1988).

 

He took us to see the cliff divers. I’m glad we went because I was curious, but honestly…. we coulda skipped this. The view from El Mirador was wonderful. Service and drinks were not.

 

Raul recommended an awesome restaurant for dinner- Las Castanedas. Loved it!!!!!! Our best meal the entire trip. Real Mexican food!!

 

 

 

 

 

Walked back to the ship. Felt very comfortable and safe in Acapulco.

[MaiTaiMary]

alrighty. Gotta get the kids to bed then I'll finish up later. :)

[amc80]

Love this review, keep it coming! I'll be on this ship on November 28th :)

[TheTravelista]

Loving the review and pictures . I've never done the Mexican Riviera but I'm definitely looking into it now.

[phinfan63]

gosh I hope people are reading this

 

I am reading it and I love all your smiley icons (spending time reading what they say too!)

[Wirral Girlie]

Loving your review :D

 

We are doing the same cruise in October and are so looking forward to it. Can't wait to see what you did in Manzanillo as that's the port where I'm not yet sure what we are going to do!

 

 

Kim

[NYGoose82]

Awesome review, can't wait for some more!! :D

[MaiTaiMary]

OK, lemme see if I can get another day or two in before the kids wake up....

 

 

Sunday, Day 5

 

 

Pulled into the Zihuatanejo harbor early, around 7:00a. It was gorgeous!! Very quiet and tranquil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, this is a tender port. Got a tender ticket at 8:00a. Off the ship around 9:00a. Not bad.

Vendors were a little more aggressive than I expected. Lots of them! We wandered around the shops for a while (anybody who knows me knows I HATE shopping, so this wasn’t exactly a highlight for me…) We priced out some bottles of tequila, but they were MORE expensive than on the ship!

 

 

this is what I was starting to feel like after so many heavy meals...

 

 

 

We ended up taking a local bus (which was fun) to Playa La Ropa. Walked around a bit. Great beach! Parked it at La Perla. They wanted $5 to rent chairs, an umbrella, and a table. Spent the next 4 hours or so sitting her. Nice! View was gorgeous, but service was very, very slow.

[MaiTaiMary]

 

 

 

 

 

Took a taxi back into town. Ate at a restaurant recommended by our taxi driver and one of the local vendors- La Ceneda Gorda (the fat mermaid). OMG, stay far away. Bad, bad food. Bad. Fish smelled like cat food. Chicken was so oily it made my stomach churn. Really gross. The place was nice and clean and looked good, so we were really surprised!

(soooo avoid this place!! )

[MaiTaiMary]

Back on board the ship by 5:00p (we sailed at 6:00p).

 

 

 

 

Tired after a long day in the sun!

 

Showered and watched a bit of the Academy Awards.

Went to the MDR around 7:00p. Time to strap on the feedbag again! Got a pager, but only had about a 10 minute wait. Another nice meal!

 

 

 

Appetizers:

Me: Caesar salad

DH: Smoked duck

 

Main:

Me: Pasta with turkey (pretty good)

DH: Salmon

 

Dessert:

Me: Bitter & Blanc. (Disappointing. Not nearly as good as I had heard).

DH: Tiramisu (YUM!)

[MaiTaiMary]

Monday, Day 6

 

Started the day with more room service, thankyouverymuch.

 

Docked in Manzanillo at 7:00a. Lovely, lovely port! Gorgeous time of the year to watch the graffiti change color! ( OK, anybody who has been to the Manzanillo port can understand this. Very industrial and dirty. Nothing like pulling into Zihuatanejo).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ladies and gentlemen..... I bring you.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MANZANILLO!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MaiTaiMary]

Manzanillo was seriously a pit. Didn’t look like a place we would want to come back to. Luckily we had a good plan for the day!

 

Got a taxi to Las Hadas (haggled a great price!)

Took about 30 minutes to get there from the port.

 

They’ve changed the way they do things and now there isn’t a “minimum charge” for people who want a day pass. We were told we can lay out at the pool and just “pay as we go”. I was worried it would be too crowded with the ship in port, but it was empty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[framerman]

Great review..........keep it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MaiTaiMary]

Ahhhh! My new favorite salsa!

 

 

The resort is definitely older and not shiny and fancy, but its very nice! We had a great day here. Pool area was gorgeous. Beach…. well it was basically just a bay. Nothing exciting. We stayed by the pool and had a few pina coladas and some nachos. OMG, nachos were excellent!!

 

Spent about 5 hours here. Read, read and read some more. Very relaxing.

 

 

 

Leaving Manzanillo:

[MaiTaiMary]

Back to the ship for some pizza. Yum! Pizza is much better here than on our last Carnival cruise. Very good!

 

Dinner (yes, dinner in a couple more hours. We did NOT go hungry on this trip ) in the MDR at around 7:30p. Didn’t get our usual table and wait staff this night. Bummer. We missed them. Kinda fun to chat with some other passengers and hear about their trip, though.

 

 

 

Appetizers:

Me: Chicken tenders with thai spices (good!)

DH: Tomato & mozzarella cheese

 

Main:

Me: Fillet mignon and short ribs (short ribs were excellent!!)

DH: Fillet mignon and short ribs

 

Dessert:

Me: Warm chocolate melting cake (I wish I could just put this stuff in an IV and have it all day long)

DH: Raspberry chocolate thingy

 

 

ahhh. I miss our nightly cappachinos!

 

 

 

After dinner we saw the show- a prop comedian. Wasn’t as bad as the other comic, but not good. Enjoyed ourselves, though!

[Palmfam]

I am enjoying your review, can't wait to read the rest!

 

Photo reviews are my absolute favorite-you've got great photos! :D

[djmaine]

I am really enjoying your review and pics. I'm sitting here just waiting for lunch your making me hungry. lol

[rdreid]

:D We did this cruise 4 years ago, but I am reading your review and loving it. I love the toys you took along for the kids that is soooo sweet. Keep it coming.

[lcbandt]

Loving your review!!!

[grandcayman10]

gosh I hope people are reading this

Im reading! Love the review! :p

[MaiTaiMary]

Tuesday, Day 7

 

Sea Day. Headed home.

I was up early today (earlier than usual, that is). I was out on deck by 5:30a. Coulda done w/o In Sync and Michael Jackson blasting at that early hour while I drank my coffee. But still nice to sit out and watch the sun come up.

 

Headed to the gym.

Painful!

 

Tried to lay out at the pool, but it was very windy. Just couldn’t get comfy.

 

We ended up getting a couple of frou-frou drinks (my first Kiss On The Lips!!!!! Yum-o!) and headed back to the cabin. Ordered room service for lunch. Oh, how we loved having people bring us “free” food! Got a hot pastrami sandwich and a shrimp salad sandwich.

 

Sat out on our balcony and read. Decided what we really needed was a glass of champagne. Popped open our bottle and life was good.

[MaiTaiMary]

Then life got hot.

Very hot!

Holy crap did it get hot out on the balcony that day!

 

I loved it!!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2010 by MaiTaiMary

[MaiTaiMary]

3:00p- Headed up to the lido deck for the ice cream bar. They had this every sea day at 3:00p. Couldn’t pass this up, being the ice cream-aholic that I am.

 

Tonight was the second elegant night.

 

Dinner (time to strap on the feed bag again! :o )

 

 

 

 

Appetizers:

Me: Corn chowder and Caesar salad

DH: Escargot and some tuna thingy

 

Main:

Me: Chateaubriand (kinda tough)

DH: Chateaubriand

 

 

Dessert:

Me: Amaretto cake

 

DH: Diet cheesecake (NOT good. )

 

 

 

Saw a little bit of the show “The Big Easy”.

 

Ended up changing back into comfy clothes and playing cards in the “Jungle” until the comedian started.

 

Comedian (Meryl Hobbs) was the "R rated" comedian. He was kinda funny, but we were expecting a little more.

[MaiTaiMary]

Wednesday, Day 8

 

Had a 8:00a spa appoint. Headed out around 7:15a so I’d have time to get a cup of coffee and watch the water a bit before it was time. Found out when I got upstairs that we changed time again and it was only 6:15a! Pleeenty of time to sit and watch the world sail by.

 

Spa. $129 for a 50 minute massage and 25 minute facial. Wasn’t that impressed with the spa. Nothing fancy. Massage was alright. Facial wasn’t that great. Pre-consult was all about finding more out so she could sell me stuff.

 

Weather was COLD and very windy when I left the spa. Turns out all of the decks were closed due to the winds. Came back to the cabin to find DH laying in bed sick. Seas were VERY rough!

 

 

Not a lot to report on for day 8. DH had a spa appointment around noon. He started the appointment by vomiting in the masseuse’s sink. Niiiice. (I meant to ask him if he tipped her well at least.)

 

He spent the day in bed and I just explored the ship some more on my own. Went to bingo, a game show and on a tour of the galley.

 

DH didn’t feel well enough go to the MDR for dinner, so we just did the buffet. Had that wonderful pizza one last time. Not nearly as fun/nice as the MDR, but it woulda been a lot easier to exit the lido deck if he had gotten sick!

 

Day 8 wasn’t great. Just too windy, cold, and rocky. Overall the cruise was WONDERFUL…. just one.day.too.long. (But not Carnival’s fault there were rough seas, of course!)

[MaiTaiMary]

Afterthoughts...

We had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! We actually got to relax for the first time in years!

 

The ship was a little more confusing that I thought it would be. I had read good things about the Spirit class, but we got turned around quite a bit.

 

The kids on the ship were great! No problems with out of control kids running around unsupervised. There appeared to be very few and the ones we did see were very well mannered.

 

One thing that was needed a LOT was our dollar to peso conversion feature on our phone. We used this a ton to figure out how much we were being asked to pay. Converting to pesos was worth it, but you need some kinda help with the conversion. I was surprised by the lack of English when we were in ports. I figured since the ports are high tourist areas, most cab drivers and vendors would speak fairly good English. I was surprised when they didn’t, but it was actually kinda fun having to rely on our Spanish.

 

This was only our second Carnival cruise and overall we were very happy. We were thrilled that they had improved the food so much since our last Carnival cruise!

 

Next cruise we’ll take the kids. Gotta do the Western Caribbean now! Thinking of the Dream October 2011. Thoughts??

 

 

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Edited June 22, 2010 by MaiTaiMary