Since this is a vacation trip and one of the purposes of a vacation is to releax, we arrive in San Diego the night before the cruise. There are a few hotels within a couple blocks of the cruise pier that offer 'snooze and cruise' specials so compared to the parking rates in the area it is like getting a free nights hotel stay. By staying the night before we have the luxury of a relaxing embarkation day. No worries about getting to the ship on time and no stress of driving.
Although allt he Carnival information states that embarkation does not begin until 12:30, we head to the pier shortly after 11:00. Some times, when the ship and all the non-US citizens clear customs in timely fashion, they will begin to board earlier than 12:30. This day we were lucky and we were able to checkin around 11:30 and given a boarding number and held in a waiting area for about 20 minutes then our boarding number was called and away we went. After verifying our boarding numbers the first stop was the photographer who gets everyone to stop in front of a life saver ring with the ship name on it. Go ahead, it doesn't cost anything and they will display the embarkation pictures by the next day for viewing. The next stop was the Carnival picture station where they take your individual mug-shot and link it to your sign-&-sail ID card. This card is how they check to see that everyone who has gone ashore at a port has returned to the ship prior to sailing AND it is the on-board charge card. Spending priviledges are customizable for the kids. You can totally restrict spending or you can place a dollar limit on each kid or you can give them carte blanche.
Now after the sign-&-sail picture station we are on our way onto the ship and we are up at Lido for lunch slightly before noon time. We get a good table on the outside area of the Lido deck so we can watch the busstling pier side activities. My wife and I both hit the Deli while the kids went straight for the pizza. We were off to a very good start.
San Diego Bay was busy with many small sail and power boats cruising by the Carnival Spirit. This really puts into perspective how large the cruise ships of today really are. From the Lido deck these small private boats looked the size of the toys the kids used to play with in the bath when they were small. The cruise out of San Diego Bay is very beautiful in the late afternoon and the last part of the channel before hitting the open water is the US Navy submarine base which had two subs tied up on this night. That was pretty cool.
This cruise started with my favorite part of cruising with two at-sea days. No phones, no computer, no watches just the wide open sea. Two full days of lounging around the pool with a decent book listening to the deck band which comes on shortly before lunch time.
The first port of call is Acapulco which is a big city right on a beautiful bay. The Spirit ties up at a pier which is right across the street from the old Fort de San Diego. Between the fort and the cruise pier runs the main bayside street which in a big city is very busy. The pier itself was busy with excursion companies, a mariachi band and a vendors area in the building adjacent to the pier set up simialr to a small swap meet.
Having been to Acapulco a couple of times in the past, I was intersted in getting out of the city and it did not take too long to find a tour vendor who provided us with a sea turtle santuary and magrove tour for a little more than half of what the cruise line excursion would have cost. The santuary about an hour south of Acapulco in city traffic had a presentation about the different kinds of sea turtles found off the Pacific coast and the measures they were taking to ensure their survival. At the end of the tour and presentation each person was given a freshly hatched sea turtle to release into the sea. That was cool and a huge hit to my animal loving 9 year old daughter. The mangrove tour was equally beautiful as we boarded a 10 person panga (boat) and had an hour cruise through the mangrovve an saw scores of bird life and load of iguanas through this expanse of fresh water nature preserve.
Cruisers Save Up 50% On The Same Shore Excursions Sold By The Cruise
Line. Get The Insider Knowledge That Most Travel Agents Dont Even Know!
Click Here!
We returned to the ship around 6:00 pm and freshened up for dinner after which the kids ditched the wife and I to go to the Kids Club. No problemo. The ship did not sail until 1:00 am so the wife and I went to the bar right at the end of the pier for some margaritas and beers at 1/3 the price of the ship's bar prices. The place was hopping with live music, dancing and lots of drink specials; a good end to a fun day.
Our next stop was in Zihuatenejo. This was my favorite of the three prots that we visited. It is very small on a beautiful bay that the ship needs to tender the passengers to the pier. The town is an easy walk to explore the bayside areas of restaurants and shops and they had a vendor area just outside the tender pier set up like a swap meet. We did a lot of window shopping at the stores then stopped for a couple beers and some fish tacos then went to the swap meet area which was about two blocks long. Now this applies to dealinig with most all vendors in Mexico. First, you should know the exchange rate for dollars to pesos. All the vendors will gladly take US money but your change will be in pesos so knowing what the rate is helps you to avoid getting short changed. Second, don't be afraid to negotiate for a better price than what the vendor first quotes you AND don't be afraid to walk away if the price for an item is not what you want to spend. Finally, make sure that you carry small bills, mostly ones and fives. This limits the amount of change in pesos that you will be stuck with.
The final port of call on this cruise is Manzanillo, a busy industrial port along Mexico's central coast. I believe one of the locals told me that they were the busiest port in all of Mexico. There is not alot to do right in town so most if not all the excursions travel up the coast for fishing, snorkeling and beach adventures. The city town square is almost directly in front of the cruise pier so like zihuatenejo we window shopped the locals and stopped for an ice cream then some lunch across from the pier.
First, the brand of Carnival is that they are the 'Fun Ships'. It is not designed to be the world's finest floating restaurant but they prepared very good meals in our case. I am just a regular guy, not by any means to be considered a foodee. I just enjoy good tasting food that is hot when it is supposed to be hot and cold when it is supposed to be cold, simple.
My son and I are morning guys so the favorite part of each day was getting up to the Lido deck, outside area of course, and hitting the made-to-order omelette bar with all the fillings and some fresh fruit on the side. My son is a pancake or waffle kid and each morning they had one or the other with varying toppings from strawberries to cinnamon apples or blueberries with a side of home fries or hash browns. They did not fail me at breakfast. Each morning was hot, very good tasting food.
Other than our days in port, our lunches were always out on Lido deck. The grill prepared made-to-order hamburgers and had various toppings such as grilled onions or sauteed mushrooms and they also had a grill buffet with hot dogs, chicken strips and fries. Inside the main buffet area on Lido was the Deli, an Asian themed station and the pizza/pasta station. Honestly about the most stressful part of the trip was trying to decide what to eat for lunch and at dinner. The Deli provided made-to-order sanwiches. The Asian station had different stir fry and sides each day. I had a beef-broccoli dish that was better than our Chinese restaurant back home. The Pizza/Pasta buffet was open 24/7 and they also prepared a very good calzone with fresh pesto sauce.
Each night we ate in the main dining room (MDR) as one of our rules was that each dinner we will have together. I loved the MDR! There was one item that I tried which was not really to my liking but at the insistence of our server I had a different entree and loved it. The best dish of the cruise for me was a New York steak that could not have been prepared better. Very tender and juicy perfectly cooked to medium and it just about melted in my mouth. The lobsters on lobster night were also done very well although on the small side but again at the insistance of my server I had a second one.
On Carnival Cruises we use their 'Any Time Dining' (ATD) option which allows us to arrive for dinner anywhere between 5:45 pm and 9:30 pm. Personally I hate being locked into a set dining time. We give up the opporuntity to meet new people sharing a large table with us as in the early or late seatings but we prefer to eat when we are hungry and not have to rush coming back from shore or the pool etc. In all the times we have used ATD the longest wait that we have had to be seated was about 10 minutes, one time. When we have a server team that is awesome we ask for that same team on the following nights.
If you like a cocktail or a beer with dinner, I suggest that you get it from one of the bars on your way to the MDR. The bar service in the MDR is a little on the slow side. I generally like two beers through dinner so I bring one with me from the bar and the first sight I have of the bar server I order my next beer. Usually just before the main entree as I am finishing my first beer is when the second arrives from the bar service. This eliminates some of the frsutration of waiting.
I was a little hesitant to expect much from the Camp Carnival for my kids. My daughter is a 9 year old social butterfly and my son is an 11 year old reserved analytical type. On embarkation night after dinner the Camp Carnival staff held a kids party for kids thinking about participating in the kid program. The party was held in the disco and they played a handfull of games to get the kids engaged. It was not a suprise that my daughter was out there dancing at the start of the first song but by the start of the second song my son was out there working on his moves! Was that really my shy reserved boy? That party although only an hour long got my kids engaged and the first thing they did when we got back to our cabin that evening was to look at the next day's activity guide and highlight the activities that they wanted to attend. After breakfast that next morning it almost seemed that the kids couldn't wait to ditch their parents.
My daughter made friends with a couple of other girls about her age and the three tried to plan to be at the kid program at the same times during the cruise. My son met a couple of boys around his age that when the Camp Carnival did not have an activity they wanted to do they spent hours playing basketball on the sports deck. The program had video game contests, arts and crafts activities, dance activities, kid karaoke, scavenger hunts and pizza parties. During the cruise the camp participants also worked on acts for a talent show which was held on the last at-sea day of the cruise. That was a pretty fun event where after completing their act, Funship Freddy presented each kid with a certificate of participation. Both my kids ended up spending about half of their time with the new friends from the kid program.
Know that the bar prices on cruise ships are about the same as you would pay if you were out at a bar back in your own town. Now there are some ways to keep your bar tab down. If you are a beer drinker like me you can order a bucket of beer from the pool side bars and get four beers at $2 less than the price of buying those beers separately. I ask the server to only open one beer to start and the others are kept on the ice in the bucket until I am ready to open those. Each day they promote a 'Drink of the Day' (DOD). These look very tempting in the colorful plastic hurricane glass with the fruit wedge and the umbrella but you can ask for the DOD in a regular glass and usually pay $1 less. Before your cruise you can buy drink coupons through the website. You wont save much money if any but it helps avoid the sticker shock on the bill when it is delivered under your cabin door on the last night.
If you have the ability to drag ALL your bags around you can self disembark and not have to wait for your group number to be called. So once the ship clears customs you can be some of the first people off of the ship. The rest of us pack our bags and leave them outside the cabin door on the last night so that staff can collect them and bring them to the hold for the morning. This is the most kaotic morning of the cruise. Most everyone is hanging out on Lido having breakfast waiting for their desembakation number to be called so it is difficult to find a seat if you sleep in a little. The staff needs you out of the cabin by 8:00 am so that they can start setting up for the next load of passengers.
The ship is not cleared until customs has checked in all the non-us travelers. On this trip, they called and called over the PA system for at last an hour for a passenger to report to the customs area in the main lounge. This one person kept the whole ship waiting and waiting. When finally given the all clear, the self-disembark people are released and then the staff begin called group numbers to meter the passengeers off to the pier. Once off the ship you will be directed to the baggage area where all the bags are gathered by the number according to the group you are assigned for disembarkation. It went prety smoothly considering trying to get 2,500 passengers to orderly pass through baggage claim.
This was a very good family vacation with just one small problem. Now my wife and two kids are hooked and very eager for the next cruise. Bon Voage.
No comments:
Post a Comment