Hi just got home last night from our cruise and we had a great time. 

There were concerns because of Hurricane Rick but our capt steered a course to miss most of the storm though we did have a bit of rocking.  A little sea sickness but not much.  I had the patch and wrisdtbands and drank some gingerale.  Acapulco was not great and I wouldn't go there again but the other 2 ports were interesting and not seedy even in the poorer areas.  The cruise personnel were great!!  The food wasn't(other than the chocolate melting cake YUM!!) and I heard the same opinion from veteran carnival cruisers.  It was our first cruise so we didn't have cruise comparison just decent restaurant comparison.  I heard alot of cruisers mentioning how carnival had really scaled back on quality of the food.

Now the drinks though expensive were good and they didn't skimp on the booze as far as I was concerned but I am not a major drinker so there may have been others that thought so.

We never made it the meet and greet that had been set up on cruise critic and this site so I didn't get to meet  those nice people I had posted with, sorry abiout that.

We will definitely cruise again because we didn't cruise for the meals but for the fun and experience.

I did Karaoke for the first time on the ship and had a blast.  Kay that was in charge of it was great!

Our room was great and our obstructed balconey was just fine and we spent time out there alot when we wanted quiet time or just to see the beautiful views.  Even in the middle of the night we were out there it was so warm.We are insomniaca sometimes so it was nice to have the balcony to relax on. 

We got caught up in Patricia and many people got sea sick. One time during the dinner it felt like the ship was out of the water and then shook for a few seconds.It felt like a california earth quake. Wish I had a picture of people's faces.

I agree with you about the food but the prime rib was good and the flat steak was good too. Our waiter nitin (Nick) offered to get us more or another dish. The entertainment by our waiter was great.

Our meet and greet was messed up by the lifeboat drill the first sea day but people recognized me by the charger jerseys we had on. That was fun and we all took a group shot the last sea day. I'll post this someday soon.

We bought the drink coupons and except for the ultimate martinis we never had to pay the extra money so that turned out to be a good deal.

Where was your room located? 

I'm sorry you didn't make your meet and greet.  It was one of my most memorable parts of my cruise.  What a great group of people.  We still have our roll call going.  Since I don't get to restaurants often I found the food on the Splendor great.  My cabin mate wasn't real thrilled.   I think the Spirit will be my next cruise

You'll like the Spirit. It is pretty easy to get around and lots of places to sit and people watch.

Glad you had a great time!!!

Mamamo, thanks for your review.

We're heading out on the same cruise next month.  Been on 10 cruises, but this is our first to Acapulco.  Not crazy about Mexico, but my son wanted tropical for his 21st birthday.  Being that it leaves from our hometown, it makes this particular cruise very affordable for the 4 of us.

After about our  5th or 6th cruise, we stopped getting dressed up for the formal/elegant nights and just did our own thing. BUT...we have a 1st time cruiser with us, and I think that she should partake in that for at least one of the 2 nights - of course, we'd do so also!

My question to you (since I haven't found it answered elsewhere) is, what nights are the formal nights on this cruise?

 Thanks in advance!

 Yes the formal nights were first full day at sea and day 6.  The first one everyone at table dressed up the 2nd there was a miscommunication and my spouse and I were the only ones at our table.  The rest of our group was waiting for us on lido deck( I misunderstood the plan)I felt bad.

We will definitely go on another cruise.  Yes there is lots of places to sit and people watch on the spirit.

 Our room was o 5th floor rm # 5168.  We were very happy with room and with obstructed balcony.  We sadly will always plan on having a balcony and have to pay the extra but DH and I agree it is worth it.  Our steward John was excellent and alwaqys so nice.

 Thank you both for the info!  I think we'll do the first night dress up.

My husband and I are on the Spirit right after Thanksgiving!  Glad to know the formal nights.  We had an obstructive view but the price dropped on the supersaver and we got upgraded to the Veranda deck and onboard credits!!  We are platinum cruisers but have never done a west coast cruise.  Are the waters more choppy than the waters of the Carribean???  Is the clift diver dinner excursion worth the $70??  Any suggestions on tours? 

We did the aztec dinner and cliff divers, but did'nt really enjoy, and the tour guide we had gave me the creeps.  Acapulco seemed really seedy to me and the people we had encountered were very aggressivce and pushy and wouldn't take no for an answer.

In that port are duty free shops and one jewery store there offers you a free ride to their supposed factory which is actually their downtown store not a factory.  They were so aggressive we didn't even take the ride back to the port and walked instead to get away from them. 

We really liked the other 2 ports though.

The waters were a little rough at first but, we heading toward hurricane rick.

mamamo,

   that shop has been around for years. We went there 7 years ago and actually got a fantastic deal on tanzanites. Now you have to be really careful because you can get a better deal in certain shops.

  I also agree about the pushy-ness in Alcapulco. We weren't on a tour, but just getting through that one area after leaving the galleria reminded me of a gauntlet to get through.

  Our sailing also was a bit rough due to Patricia.

 They did have nice jewelry but, I felt a bit intimidated as did my DH.  It wasmy firsttime out of the country and I felt out of my element a bit.  Not like that at home usually.  Our next cruise we know what to expect and won't be as overwhelmed by it all.

Where was your cabin 4bolts on the spirit?

We had 7128. Far enough back that people couldn't see into our balcony from that extended side of the lido deck. Now we'll always have a front of the ship room. Where were you located?

The problem with those shops are they ply you with tequila to try and get you to lose your senses. Then your judgement is impaired and you over buy and the quality s  k s. They plied Tony with the alcohol and tried with me. (don't drink that stuff) Then the good quality stuff originally shown and priced, they tried to replace with inferier(sp) items, but I was watching them and so it didn't work.  This is when we were first into buying Tanzanite and had almost got burned here in the states.