Travel Rewards

Friday and Saturday were spent at sea. Thy were sunny days and fun days. I neglected to mention that our group was too big to seat at a single table.  Five couples sat at the Captains table on the lower dining room floor. The remainder sat in the upper dining room overlooking our table. The Elevators on the Carnival Spirit are quite impressive. The Entertainment was very good and we enjoyed it every night in the Pharaoh's Palace.  The Spirit has 3 sister ships in the Spirit Class. Each has a slightly different theme for their main theme lounge.  The Carnival Pride is Taj Mahal. The Carnival Legend is Follies.  The Carnival Miracle is Phantom.

The next morning when we arrived in Manzanillo, Mexico at 7:00am. This would be our last stop. ( Well almost - but we will get to that later. ) Once again the sun was out! And once again we were docked. It make getting on and off so much easier. The city of Manzanillo had a population of about 112,000. It is also Mexico's busiest port, as measured by total tonnage and volume of containerized cargo. The city is also well known internationally for deep-sea fishing and the green flash phenomenon during sunsets. Unfortunately we did not get a chance to see the green flash ourselves.  Once again several in our party had signed up for shore excursions.  We opted to go into town with another couple and do some exploring on our own. First stop was to have a Bloody Maria at a street side restaurant. The the ladies wanted to do some shopping. One of skills needed in Mexico is bargaining over the price of a purchase.   If you pay the asking price, you will pay way t...

The town of Zihuatanejo will be added to the list of places to return too. It is the old traditional town. With lots of little shops.  It has a beautiful bay and would be a great place to stay. We did not get a chance to visit Ixtapa because of the weather. It is the new city created by the government. It has all the tall modern hotels and a championship goft course. Map of Zihuatanejo / Ixtapa, Mexico Well moving on. Well sail at 6:00pm for our next port of call; Manzanillo, Mexico.

We arrived in Zihuatanejo / Ixtapa, Mexico at 9:00am Wednesday morning. We would be leaving at 6:00pm. This was a tendered port so it's good be get back a little earlier. The nice thing about an inside cabin, is that you have no realization of the time of day.  Still the body clock woke me at about 7:30am. Once on deck I could see that the weather had turned ugly. After grabbing a bit to eat at the buffett, return to the cabin with some coffee and goodies for my wife. Shortly thereafter they announced that all but on tour had been canceled because of the weather. Normally at tendered ports you have to wait til they have the people taking  tours on shore before you can catch a tender to go ashore solo. Because of the downpour there was little waiting time. We did durchase some rain gear before catching the tender. Once on shore it really started coming down.  We stopped at a little bar and had a couple of rather large Bloody Mary's and watched people. To be conti...

We arrived in Acapulco at Noon on Tuesday and departed at 1:00 am the following morning. Several of the others in our group had signed up for various package tours. Most had returned in time for our 6:00pm dinner sitting. I never have understood why people will go ashore and pay for dinner when they can get five star food on board. After dinner we went back ashore to a restaurant / bar located on the pier. Most of the people in the bar had had at lease a 2 margarita head start. They had a clown walking around making balloon hats for the patrons and placing them on their heads. Later he returned expecting a tip. The dancing continued and the dancing got more erotic as more drinks were consumed.  Finally there was a group of 5 women standing on the bar dancing.  I realy regret not bringing my digital camera along.  We stared for a couple of hours, paid for our overpriced drinks and returned to the ship. The next stop will be  Zihuatanejo / Ixtapa, Mexico.

This Cruise starts our with two days at sea. In my opinion, a couple of days of relaxation after traveling to San Diego was great. It really gives you a chance to unwind. This was our first time on Carnival and we were pleasantly surprised.  We had expected a lot more younger couples.  The food was first class in the dining room. The buffets were good, but there did not seem to be the selection that we had on some other cruise lines. The First Formal night was a challenge. We had spent the night before our departure in Eugene, Oregon since our flight to San Diego left early in the morning.  In the morning rush I left our garment bag in the back of our Vehicle.  At the airport my wife asked about the garment bag. After voicing a few superlatives, I looked at my watch to see if there would be time to grab a taxi and retrieve the missing bag. No dice, not enough time. So the first formal night found me borrowing items from the rest of our party, in order to look ...

This last February we took out 8th cruise. It was an 8 Day Mexican Riviera Cruise sailing out of San Diego.   This cruise was a first for us in several ways. We had always cruised alone in the past, on this cruise there were 15 of us.  We had started out with a couple of couples from our Elks Lodge 326 and then expanded from there. This was our first cruise with an inside cabin. We had previously had either an ocean view or a balcony. This was our first cruise on Carnival Cruise Line. Previous we had cruised on Royal Carribbean, Princess, Holand American and Norwegian Cruise Line. It was also our first 8 day cruise; most of the others were 7 day cruises, the one exception being a 3 day coastal. Just a note, a three day cruise is too short. About the time you remember which drawer you stores your underwear in, it is time to pack up and leave. The ship was the Carnival Spirit. The Carnival Spirit was built in 2001 and is 88,500 Gross Tons.  It carries 2124 passengers a...