Quote:
Originally posted by LindaS26:
Hello everyone. This cruise will be my second cruise. We took a Western Carribean cruise in Dec 06 and loved it so much. We are going on a Mexican Riviera Cruise Dec 8-16, 2007 from San Diego. Anyone have any reviews about this destination?
We will be travelling with 4 children and 1 senior.
TIA!
Linda
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My husband and I took this cruise (at almost the same time of year) in 2005....I wrote a review right after, but about a month or two after it was posted, some glitch in the website made it disappear and my review became a duplicate of another person's review! *LOL*
So....quickly: this was actually one of our favorite cruises we'd taken to that date, for a couple of reasons. Number one, it was 8 days -- and a longer cruise is almost necessarily a "better" cruise, IMO! Number two, it left from San Diego. We live in Southern California and took the Amtrak train nearest us (maybe 20 minutes from the house) to San Diego. The Amtrak terminal in San Diego is about a block from the hotel we had booked, which was -- literally -- right across the street from the Carnival port. Not having to hassle with freeways or airports was heavenly. Our hotel was nice, and the next morning we looked out our window and the Spirit was docked! When it came time to see if they were boarding yet (must've been as early as 10:30 a.m.) we didn't even have to bother with a shuttle or taxi. We literally walked across the street with our luggage. And we began the process within 10 minutes of arriving there.
All our previous cruises had been in the Carribbean, and we travel (by car) to Baja California regularly, so I was a little fearful that I would be disappointed in Mexican ports, and I worried that the Pacific would not be as beautiful or warm as the Carribbean (in southern California it sure isn't!).
As it turned out, although the color of the Pacific was not that incredible turquoise that always blows me away in the Carribbean, it WAS just as warm, once you got far enough south!
Our cruise happened to make an unscheduled medical emergency stop in Cabo San Lucas our first night at sea. It wasn't cold, but it wasn't tropical. I was concerned. The next morning I realized I would have nothing to worry about.
Hubby and I both loved Zihuatanejo, although the snorkeling where we were wasn't the best ever. The village was charming, and we found great bargains there.
Acapulco was pretty, but we no longer have a desire to go there (but that's just us). We saw the cliff divers, we took a little tour of the bay, and our driver took us to the mercado. The vendors were VERY aggressive. Although hubby and I would take this cruise again, I wouldn't feel compelled to leave the ship while in this port. But like I said, that's just us.
Our favorite port was Manzanillo. The port was certainly nothing to write home about -- clearly a working port. The shuttle took us into the town where we enjoyed shopping. We got the feeling this was where local shopped, not just tourists! Then we got a taxi to go to Playa Audiencia, the beach made famous by simply being underneath the feet of Bo Derek as she ran (in slow motion) in the movie "10"...There we enjoyed some cerveza and chips, and later arranged to be taken out on a skiff to the same reefs and rock formations that the ship shore excursions were charging twice as much for! It was, perhaps, some of the best snorkeling we've experienced ANYwhere. Lots of varied marine life.
As I said earlier, this was our favorite cruise to that point. I hope you have as great a time!
I'm hoping that our cruise (that sails in less than 3 months -- woo hoo!) will be our new favorite. 12 days on the Mediterranean! It will be our longest and most exotic cruise itinerary yet!
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