Well, lets start by saying I think I am in mourning!LOL  Along with the rest of the family.  We had an Awesome time!!!  Everyone on the Spirit was great.  We get sad when we have to leave.  It feels like we are leaving good friends.  Our waiters were super, Vladamir and Maksim.  And our steward, Riv.  We had 3, 20 year old girls with us that made ALOT of friends and had a ball!  We met Jim, Kellin and their son Jeff(who the girls hung out with)  You are a wonderful family!  Looking forward to seeing the pictures Jim took on the boards here.   And Laurie and Jan.  Two incredible ladies!!!  I hope to keep in touch with them all.  Food was great as always.  Acapulco is a very big city, need almost two days for seeing it.  Fell in love with Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa Island!  I would move there in a heart beat.  Manzanillo is more of a commercial city, but we found a very nice beach to swim and did alot of shopping.  They have this giant fish sculpture at the port thats pretty cool.   I am jealous of all who still get to cruise there, Have a blast!!

Happy cruising!

Kim :-)

Hi Kim. We are so excited to read your post! We are leaving on the Spirit in 12 days doing the same ports! I am so glad to hear you had a good time. I was wondering if you have any experience to share as far as what you did in port what you liked or didn't like as well. What you would change. Did you do the ship side trips or book your own? We have booked our own for Acapulco but are undecided about the rest.

When we got into Zihuatanejo we walked through town and did some shopping.  Its very nice there to walk through right off the docks.  Then we got a taxi over to Ixtapa Island.  The taxi driver was great, spoke very good English.  His name is Raymund and here is his email if you would like to set something up before hand raymundo11119@hotmail.com  He dropped us off at a beautiful beach and then we set a time for him to pick us up.  Parasailed right off the beach for $25 a person.  Big beach, water was perfect!!  Did some swimming.  Went to a nice open restaurant back in Zihuatanejo right on the walkway.  Good food, name of the restaurant is Porto Di Mare.   As for Manzanillo, I think I would have booked an excursion for this port.  Not as many taxis as the other two and the ship docks right by the shipping yards.  You  take a bus or van to town.  We did like walking around town and taking the taxi to the beach to swim.  All the beaches are very nice, but a bit far from the ship.  But, it would have been better if we had booked something.  Thats all I can think of.  Hopefully Jim posts his excursions, they did some different ones and had fun.

Hey Kim,

Thanks for the great info.  I have never been on this cruise but leave in 5 days!  Well, 5 days and 15 minutes!  I have an excursion booked in Acapulco but nothing in the other two ports.  I was thinking about an inclusive resort when I can eat, sip, swim, and burn (tan/relax).  I have heard great things about Ixtapa Island.  It sounds like you met nice people.  I have always met great people on the ship.  However, I have never been on a cruise this long.  I'm sure the passengers are a little different on longer cruises.

I booked this cruise while driving home from my Cabo cruise in October.  I was having withdrawls as soon as I stepped off the boat.  I figured the best cure for that was another cruise.

Thanks again!

Brandon

Thanks for the great info.  We are on the 3/4/09 cruise and are very interested in the excursions, so hopefully others will post their info and recommendations to help us decide!!

Kim, it was a real pleasure to meet you!  You really got our cruise off to a fun start when you recognized my wife from her picture...  when we had been onboard less than a half hour.  And I think it goes without saying that our son's cruise was ten times better than it would have been if not for your three lovely girls to spend the week with.

I've posted my pictures (and a video!) at this page on my web site.

Jim Zim

Hey Jim!  So glad you posted your pictures and Video!  We watched it and cried!LOL!!  The pictures are Wonderful, of course.  Alot of great info on your site for others to read.  So, when are we booking for the Splendor.  Take care!

Kim :-)

We are taking this same cruise Jan. 31. I can't wait. We have booked excursions in all of the ports. I was wondering about Acapulco, our excursion gets back in the afternoon and I wanted to see the cliff divers. Can we walk to these or will we need to get a tour or hire a taxi? I thought I read somewhere that someone had walked from the dock. Any ideas?

Jim, Your pictures were just breath taking! The dolphin swim was such a great video catch! Your captions were fun and informative. I really appreciated the write up at the end putting it all together! Thank you so much for sharing! We are leaving on the Spirit in 12 days (on the 31st) and we are excited and looking forward to our adventure. The questions we had, you addressed for us! We had wanted to see some of the other areas on the ship that you did capture for us. Great Job! Thanks again. Debbie

Hi

We also just got back from a wonderful cruise on the Carnival Spirit - we have absolutely no complaints - great food - great service- great people. In Acapulco, I had booked an excursion off the ship from Intersol Tours. They took us on a shotover jet boat ride, a mini city tour and then took us to see the cliff divers. Great day!

In Zihuatenejo, we took a taxi to Playa La Ropa, rented some chairs, umbrellas and tables from one of the restaurants and just hung out there for the day.

In Manzanillo we took a taxi ($10) to a resort, Las Hadas, and spent the day there. It was $30 for a day pass and you got $30 in coupons to spend on food and drink while there. Another great day!!

Any other questions, please ask. I'm so jealous...I want to go again.

Stephanie

Hi Stephanie - Thanks for the tips on excursions.  I saw the Intersol tour on the web complete with a video of the ride.  It seemed pretty wild - did you get really wet on the boat? I do have a question about the Las Hadas day.  The excursion listed through Carnival charges $85 per person.  It does say it includes a buffet lunch, but for the difference in price maybe it is better going on our own.  Do you know if the cruise excursion got any other "perks" for the $85 cost?  Did the $30 food/beverage coupons cover all your expenses there, or did you have to pay additional money for meals/drinks?  Also, was the $10 taxi ride the total cost or was that per person?  Just wondering about the difference in price!!  Thanks so much for your help.  Margot

We did the Las Hadas resort tour through Carnival.  It was about a half hour bus ride there, about four hours at the resort, and about a half hour ride back. 

During the four hours at the resort, there was a lunch buffet with some very nice food...  a wide variety.  Also, and here's why it's $85, the entire time there was an open bar.  In other words, free unlimited alcoholic drinks (or soft drinks) during the entire time you are there.  I'm not just talking about beer, either.  There were several bars at the resort, and you could order anything you want as many times as you want from any of the bars.  Needless to say, some of the 20-something males on this tour thought it was THE GREATEST TOUR EVER!  I really don't drink that much, so it was no big deal to me...  but I did enjoy the lunch buffet. 

By the way, this was at the Karmina Palace Resort at Las Hadas.  Personally, the reason I chose this particular tour was I saw in the photos that this resort had a whole bunch of swimming pools.  My fantasy was to spend the afternoon swimming in the pools and lounging around.  Unfortunately, the water in the swimming pools was just too cold for my tastes...  and even though they had multiple pools, not one of them was any warmer than the others.  No jacuzzis, no hot tubs, nothing warm.  The ocean water was significantly warmer than the pools.  So, for me, this was not a place I would want to visit again.  But some people might not mind the pool being that cool, and others would absolutely LOVE the unlimited free drinks...  so, as they say, one man's junk is another man's treasure.

Jim Zim   Thank you so much for the pictures.  We are going to Hawaii Apr 12 09 on the Spirit and the pictures were wonderful.  The Spirit looks like a beautiful ship.  Thank you again.  I REALLY can't wait now!

Marcia

Hi Margot

The Intersol tour was a lot of fun and yes we did get wet but it was worth it. The taxi ride to Las Hadas resort was $10 per taxi not per person. There were 3 or us in the taxi. According to what Jim wrote, I guess the excursion through Carnival takes you to Karmina Palace. We went to Las Hadas resort which was absolutely beautiful also. There was a very large pool with a swim up bar and we also had access to the beach. We had no problem finding lounge chairs (we probably got there about 10:30). The $30 per person day pass includes $30 worth of coupons to use on food and drink. It covered all our food and drinks for the day. They will bring you a menu by the pool and serve your food to you right there. The food was delicious. My coco loco was huge and lasted most of the day. We didn't have any coupons left over but the only extra money we spent was on tipping our waiter. Hope this helps.

Stephanie

Thanks Stephanie - That sounds like a great day.  I think we'll go there too.  Getting excited - we leave 3/4!  Thanks for the info.  Margot