Tips, Tricks, and things they don’t tell you for the First time cruisers or Cruisers who will visit Mexico for the first time.

Just back from the Carnival Spirit cruise to Mexico 8 days to Acapulco/Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo/Manzanillo cruise and was a first time cruiser.  Boy did I learn a lot!  Thought I would pass along some things for other first time cruisers who are considering taking a cruise to Mexico, some pros and cons to consider.  This is only MY personnel opinion; others who have taken this cruise might feel differently so take it for what it’s worth.

1. Embarkation in San Diego was fairly easy-we got through security in about 30 minutes.  However, until they are ready to board folks, they will give you an embarkation number.  They call 2 embarkation numbers at a time, but don’t be surprised like I was when they call your number and you get shuffled into a tent to sit and wait some more.  After waiting 20-30 minutes here, you will be shuffled into another tent where they will take the first of many pictures on this cruise.  Then they will have you scan your sail and sign card and will take your photo for later use when you get on and off the ship. After all this, you can then proceed to the ship.  Your room will not be available until after 1:30-2:00 p.m so if you are one of the first on the ship, you will have to go up to the buffet area for lunch and wait until cabins are available.  (they will be cleaning them from the previous guest who just got off hours before you got on).

1. If you are looking to book excursions, out of these 3 ports I highly recommend booking excursions in Acapulco and Manzanillo.  (More on this later)
2. If you are looking to just get off the boat, explore, shop, or find a beach without the shore excursion, I HIGHLY recommend doing so in Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo. There are shops and beaches here just a few hundred feet from the ship after you get off.  The other 2 ports are much more difficult if you are looking to shop or explore.
3. When you get off the ship at ports, you use your sail and sign card at the security check point so they know who is on and off the ship.  They compare the picture you took at the port before getting on to how you look at the time you go to get back on the ship.
4. If you have a bad back, bad knees, feet, ankles, etc cruising MAY NOT be for you, as I found out the hard way.  I have lower back problems and it took over 24 hours to get used to the motion of the ship on the water.  I did not get sea sick and did not have patches, pills, etc.  I did however have very stiff and sore muscles the entire cruise.  Because the ship is always pitching left, right, up and down, you always have to compensate to maintain your balance, whether you are sitting, standing, or lying in bed.  You WILL use A LOT of muscles to do so.  As the ship hits a wave and goes down, gravity will pull you force you down and as the ship goes up, your muscles are stretched out as your body lengthens.  Add the side to side motions to the up and down and you will get a work out like no other so if you have any medical issues with back, knees, feet, be warned.  It was most unpleasant.  Lying in bed was like doing side crunches as the ship would pitch with the waves and you try to keep yourself in bed.  I did find the rocking of the ship to be very peaceful and could fall asleep fairly quickly, but my back and thighs paid the price and are still sore 4 days later.
5. It will take some time to find your sea legs if you have not cruised before.  Funny thing is when you get off the ship and back onto the dry land, you will still have the sensation you are moving up, down, side to side as if you are still on the ship.  After 4 days off the ship, I still haven’t fully found my land legs yet.
6. If you get off the boat in Mexico without any planned excursions, be FULLY prepared to be bombarded!  You will have a ton of locals wanting to sell you things or offer you taxi, boats, jet skis, etc.  THEY WILL NOT LEAVE YOU ALONE!  Even when you say “No Gracias!”   They will still hound you and hound you trying to get you to buy something from them.   Best advice if you really want to venture out, find a cab driver and bargain with him to get a really good price for the entire day you plan to be at the port of call.  They will take you any where and will stick with you the entire day, even if you want to go the market or go dine somewhere.  For 6 people for 6 hours to sight see all over Acapulco Bay area, dinner at Senor Frogs, and a trip to the Cliff divers and back to the ship was $50.00 (without tip) for all six hours you have your own tour guide and body guard who will take care of you all day.  Just be prepared.  They had 2 year olds trying to sell chic-let gum to you and don’t try to take a picture of any of the locals because they will want you to pay them for the picture and they will follow you all day if you are out walking around.
7. For those wondering if you need to convert money to Pesos, the answer is no, however it is easy to bargain with them if you have Pesos, but they will take the American Dollar.  Just make sure you know the current exchange rate when you go so you don’t get ripped off.  All the locals know, so educate yourself or they will take advantage of you if you let them. 
8. Don’t be afraid to bargain/negotiate with them.  If there is an item you would like to buy, say a hat or a blanket, don’t be afraid to negotiate with them on the price. They will start out very high, but if you make a low offer, they will come down.  Best practice if they are high is to let them know it’s too much and start walking away.  They will do just about anything to make a sell and will follow you making lower and lower offers to you as you walk along. When you find the right price, say ok and pay. 
9. There will be a lot of locals selling the same exact merchandise; rings, necklaces, blankets, sun dresses, bags, hats, sunglasses, etc so again, negotiate.  Also, if there is another vendor nearby with the same stuff for sell, talk loud enough for them to hear you so when you start to walk away from a sell that is too much, they will come to you and offer it to you at the price you suggested.  Again, they will do just about anything to make a sell.
10. If you think you are going to lie on a beach and enjoy the ocean and the sand/sun, think again.  Unless you are at a private beach like Club Med, all the beaches will have locals who walk up and down trying to sell you items.  They show NO MERCY!  They WILL NOT leave you alone to enjoy the sun in peace. If you see a tent. Cabana, chairs, they will charge you for these and will try to make you pay a lot for them.  This is where bargaining will come in handy, but it does not keep them merchants from harassing you.  Be prepared.
11. Food on the Carnival Spirit.  The dinners in the Empire Dining room were really good.  Not excellent, but good.  The buffet left a lot to be desired and was not good at all.  Most of the food was old looking, bland, over cooked, undercooked, greasy, and cold when it should have been hot, hot when it should have been cold.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I give it a 1.5.  Yes, there is pizza but it is not 24 hours a day like they suggest. They close to clean it from 5 am to 10 am.  If you have ever had pizza at Chuck E. Cheese, it’s about like that.  Not good at all.  The bacon at the buffet was never crispy and it tasted weird.  It was always chewy and way under cooked.  The scrambled eggs were powered eggs I’m sure.  The 24 hour soft serve ice cream never worked right, was always messy with melted ice cream everywhere, and it was almost impossible to find a cone despite there being 4 different soft serve stations. 
12. The pool water is very high in with chlorine, as my kids found out the hard way.  My son had some mild sunburn on this neck so he wore a t-shirt into the pool to protect the back of his neck.  Within 2 minutes the blue shirt was gone and tie-die shirt was left in its place because of the high chlorine level.  Also, the water in the pool is straight from the ocean so it is salt water with chlorine and it burns your eyes terribly so if you have kids or little ones, be warned.  Also, the Jacuzzis were also salt water and were not hot.  One couple said “False advertising!” so if you are looking for a hot soak, probably not going to happen, it’s just a lot of bubbly sea water.
13. Be prepared to have your picture taken EVERYWHERE YOU GO!  Getting on and off the boat, at the dinners, just hanging around the ship, they will take your picture everywhere you go all day long.  Pictures taken when the day you embark on the ship are $9.95 for  a 4X7.  Pictures taken around the ship like with the show girls or with the Mexican girl dressed in traditional Mexican clothes is $11.95 per picture and the 8X10 pictures taken at the Captains dinner, the return guest dinner, formal night, etc are $19.99 each.  They charge a fortune and will take a ton! Be prepared! Nice photos, but not worth what they charge.
14.  Duty Free/Tax Free Shopping.  Ok, this was new to me and I learned a lot.  Although I am not a drinker or smoker, there were a lot of folks on the ship who were.  Alcohol and cigarettes were a lot cheaper on the ship and you can by as many as you want.  They have signs everywhere that say duty free/tax free.  If you are like me and are not familiar with this, things are sold at a much lower price because there are no taxes on the for import/export taxes, sales taxes, liquor taxes, etc.  Although they are a good deal, they DO NOT tell you when you buy that there are limitations for duty free/tax free items (or allowances) per person you are allowed to have.  I saw a lot of folks who bought wine/liquor or cigarettes by the cases and the night before our cruise was over was shocked when they had to fill out the duty free paperwork you MUST give to port authority folks before you get off the ship.  You must declare the amount of money you spent on the ship and if you bought alcohol or tobacco products, how much you bought.  You are allowed one 1.75 bottle of alcohol and 1 carton of cigarettes, 100 cigars, duty free/tax free.  If you buy any additional items, the port authorities will make you pay the duty/taxes on the additional items before they will allow you onto US soil.  Something they don’t tell you when you are shopping thinking you are getting really great deals.  Keep that in mind before you buy up too much.  Check the internet for the Duty Free/ Tax free allowances and educate your self before you buy. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
15. Sun bathing on the upper decks.  If you intend to sun bath on the upper decks, Carnival policy says guests are not allowed to reserve or hold chairs at any time for the sake of other guests, but I can tell you the other guests do not care about this rule and will hold 5,5 sometimes 10 chairs at a time for friends and family.  It was very frustrating when you had you book and just wanted to go up on deck to read in the sun.  All the chairs were taken by 10 a.m.  I spent 2 days early in the morning on deck just watching people.  They would take the carnival towels from their room (yes, you can do this, they give you 2 big beach towels per room to use, but if you don’t bring them back they charge you $22.00 each so be sure to keep track of them if you use them) and lay them on the sun chairs early in the morning around 7:30-8:00 am.  Then they would leave and go eat and go to the cabin and not come back until after 11 am.  There were a couple of arguments the broke out on the sun decks with people who wanted to save seats/chairs at or near the pool.  Just a heads up. 
16. If you want to sun bathe, don’t be afraid.  There were all types of people at the pool in bathing suits who were sun bathing.  It didn’t matter if they had big guts, fat thighs, fat butts, hairy chests, stretch marks, cottage cheese legs, scars, it didn’t matter.  Everyone was letting it all hang out at the pool.  Sometimes it could be a little scary.  Don’t be afraid to join in and bathe in the sun whatever your body type.
17. Be prepared for high prices~!  If you don’t get the drink card on the first day, the cost of a coke is $1.95 plus tax, plus tip cost of 1 can of coke was almost $3.00.  One beer with tip/taxes (mandatory) was almost $10.00.  On day one we got a bucket of beer, 4 cans of Heineken was almost $25.00 tip and all.  That was insane.  We did not drink much on the ship.  You can bring one bottle or wine or one bottle of champagne per person 21 and over and yes you must be 21 on the ship to drink and you must bring it as carry on when you get on the ship.  It’s easy.  You can drink in Mexico at the age of 18 ( for all the college kids who want to know). You must be 20 to book with carnival otherwise you will need  an adult chaperone.
18. If you buy alcohol from the duty free shop, don’t think you are going to take it from the shop to your cabin.  They will not give it to you until just before you get off the ship.  Sorry folks.
19. If you don’t get sea sick, always keep your eyes on the waters outside.  We saw 2 different schools of dolphins, each school having 1000+ (yes, one thousand plus) dolphins jumping and playing in the water.  They like to play in the bubbles the ship makes so at the back of the ship is where you see them most.  We saw whales, sharks, sea turtles and my favorite, the flying fish.  You have to be patient and keep looking. If you don’t look, you will miss them.
20. Check your daily fun times (it’s the daily paper that tells you what’s going on around the ship that day).  It will tell you about sales around the ship. Get the early if you plan to shop or you will miss out.
21. If you have kids and plan to send them to the arcade.  The arcade only takes tokens and the average cost to play a video game (like Mrs. Pacman) is $1.50.  I went with my son thinking we could play a couple of games with the $4.00 in quarters I had left from doing laundry, but 2 minutes of playing need for speed was $2.00.  All  video games took $1.25 or more to play so it can get WAY expensive for really old video games.
22. Cost of ship to shore phone service.  On the average, if you use the phone on the ship to call someone in the US while out to sea, the average cost per minute, yes per minute is almost $9.00 per minute.  They have internet on the ship and you can use your sail and sign card to purchase minutes.  55 minutes was $110.00.  If you choose pay as you go $.75 per minute, $3.95 set up fee, know that the internet is VERY VERY slow and so just trying to check your email will take you at least 10 minutes just to log into your email account. 
23. Monarch room.  Is just a small room where you can play games like Monoploy, Sorry, Battleship, etc.  The ship has board games in cupboards available in this room.  Be sure to check it out if you get board.  It’s on deck 2.
24. Mexican Military-don’t be alarmed when you get to Mexico and get an escort into the port by Mexican military men with LARGE guns.  It freaked me out  when I was in Mexico, at all ports and there were all these AK47’s everywhere you went.  It’s for your safety, but when you are not used to it, it can be intimidating. 
25. Birth Certificates vs. Passports.  Ok, this question comes up A LOT and everyone has an opinion on it.  The popular opinion is  “Don’t go without a passport.” I am not arguing for or against passports, but rather will answer the question what happens if you don’t have one or don’t get one in time?  You can use just the birth certificate.  My family had applied for passports but ran into a couple of issues that prevented us from getting them in time for the cruise so we went with just birth certificates.  Here’s what happened, we got the port of San Diego terminal to check in for the cruise, we showed our id’s and our birth certificates and the lady at the counter verified them and handed them back, then issued our sail and sign cards.  Once in our cabin, they went into the safe and were never used again.  NEVER!  The cruise ship said if you have passports; DO NOT take them on shore with you when you get off in Mexico.  TOO risky to have someone steal it while you are on shore.  If you miss the ship, they can get into the safe and get it for you if need be.  We had to take the risk of going without the passports because they did not get to us in time (long story for another time).  Yes, it was a risk if something happened to not have them, but my thought was, if I had a big enough emergency that kept me from getting back on the ship for some reason, I had a MUCH BIGGER problem then whether or not I had a passport.  You WILL NOT get stranded in Mexico, but with no passport it will make it a lot harder to get out, especially to fly out.  No passport no flying international, period.  Please don’t post any comments or replies about going without a passport; it’s really not needed especially negative comments about it being dangerous or stupid.  I took the risk and for me it all came out ok.  Trust me, if I could have had the passport I would have.  This is only information for those who don’t want to spend the money or for some reason like me, couldn’t get one in time or had something happen where the passports had not arrived prior to the cruise.  They are always the best way to go, but you CAN go without as long as the cruise starts and ends in the US on a closed loop.  BEST TO HAVE A PASSPORT THAN NOT.
26. Your time dining or set time timing?-We had early dining at 6:00, but next time I think I will go with your time Dining.  The 6:00 dining was ok, but we missed a lot of sunsets and every time we left a port, we missed the sail away because we were in the dining room.  It takes almost 2 hours to dine start to finish.  8:00 every day was too late because all good shows would start at 7:30-8:45 so if you had the late dining, you missed the shows sometimes.  Your time dining gives you the opportunity to go when you are ready and are hungry. 
27. Starboard or Port?-For those who want to know where to get a room on starboard (right side ) or port side (left side)-you really can’t go wrong with either the views are all good, however the starboard side does have the slight advantage. Starboard always faces the shore on the Carnival Spirit so if you want to see the view of Acapulco at night, starboard is for you. 
28. Being Tendered at port?-What does that mean?  It means they use the life boats to take you to shore or shore to ship because the port of call is too swallow for the ship and there is no place to park.  This can take a little more time to get on and off the ship.
29. If you do not have any shore excursions planned then others get off the ship first, it makes it easier for everyone and gets people who have times for excursions to get where they need to go.
30. If you purchased shore excursions through the cruise line, the tickets for your excursions will come to your cabin room and on the tickets it will tell you where to meet and at what time.  It’s easy so don’t panic when you plan activities and don’t get printable tickets or information about them.  They will deliver them to your room.
31. Tipping-be prepared to tip everywhere you go.  The cab driver, the tour guides (shore excursions through the cruise line or not), the maitre d', the cabin stewards, the porters,etc.  We took a shore excursion and took a panga (small boat) to an island and the guys that helped us on and off wanted a tip.  I couldn’t believe how many people did not tip the tour guide and bus drivers of the shore excursions.  If they did a great job, give them a couple of bucks and say thank you on your way out. Ours did a fantastic job.
32. Always check your sail and sign account on the T.V. in your cabin.  Don’t get a surprise bill at the end of the cruise.  Go to the menu button, enter your folio number off your sail and sign card and it will show you a complete list of all the charges to your card.  The guy and his wife one balcony below us got into a HUGE fight the day we were getting off the ship because the bill came and it was over $4000.00.  Even if your credit card limit is not that high, they will allow you to charge and you may get a big surprise if you are not checking it regularly. 
33. NOTHING ON THE SHIP IS FREE!-keep this in mind.  If you have a mini bar-you will get charged.  Other than the food, nothing on the ship is free.  Be careful or you will find you account being charged, like towels, casino money, glasses from your room, etc.
34. Funny smells in the ships bathroom in your cabin.  Best tip I got was to take a small travel can of Lysol or freebreeze with you because the cabin bathrooms smell funny.  There are no fans in the cabin bathrooms.  Also, keep the sink in your cabin plugged with a little water in it. This will cut down the smell a bunch.
35. Bungee cords for balcony door.  If you choose to leave your balcony door open, know that the air conditioning in your cabin room will automatically turn off.  If you want to leave the door open, you will need a bungee cord so don’t forget to pack one.
36. ONLY ONE OUTLET!  There is only one outlet in your cabin room and I do mean 1.  Not one outlet with 2 places to plug, nope, just one.  There is for the European folks at 220V and a 120V.  Remember to pack an extension cord and a power strip if you want to charge your camera, cell phone, laptop, etc.  The only plug in is on the vanity counter near the beds. 
37. Candles, hot plates, etc not allowed.  It is a ship folks, made mostly of wood so please don’t pack candles or hot plates etc.  The ship will take them from you if they find you with them and they will throw them out at your cost.  Candles can be romantic, but don’t take them on the ship, leave them at home. There were a few folks on our cruise that left candles burning in their room while they went up to the buffet.  Enough said.
38. Smoking-there is designated areas for smoking and these included balconies in all the cabins.  The wind does not carry way the smoke and smell away as fast as you think.  We had people above us beside us on both side, below us or all or the above who chose to smoke.  The smoke would blow right onto our balcony and for my daughter who has asthma it made it very hard for her to stand outside and enjoy the balcony we paid for.  If they are going to allow smoking, they need assigned rooms/balconies away from the non-smokers so it is fair to all. The casinos are the worst and there are no doors to the casino and in order to go to the dining room you have to walk through the smoke filled casino.  If you are a non-smoker or x-smoke , just be aware.
39. Elevators on Embarkation day-the only elevators that will be working are near the rear of the ship in the atrium, the glass elevators.  A lot of folks climbed 9 flights of stairs to the Lido deck for lunch because most of the elevators where turned off for embarkation and they did not know where to go.
40. Debarkation-The night before you will be doing debarkation (or leaving the ship), they will leave new luggage tags in your cabin room with a number, Such as 25, 33, 17, 6, etc.  They will do debarkation of the ship according to these numbers.  You will need your sail and sign card to get off the ship for the last time.  We arrived in San Diego at about 6:30 am on debarkation day and they did not start the debarkation processes until around 8:30 am.   Yes folks, they will feed you breakfast on the last day while they prepare for debarkation so you will not starve.  It helps to kill time.  They will have you set your big luggage outside your cabin room door the between 9 pm and 12am the night before you debark the ship.  They will come around and collect it and when they call your debarkation number, you will proceed off the ship and back into the tents you went through when you got on board.  Inside the tents they will have numbers odd on one side, evens on the other.  Find your debarkation number and claim your luggage and move on.  Getting off the ship took A LOT longer than getting on. 
41. Be prepared for World War III when you debark the ship.  It is a mad house outside at the terminal port so be prepared.  With almost 3000 people fighting for cabs, buses, courtesy shuttles, etc in the heat after a long debarkation process, people get angry and are ready to fight.  They will push, shove, jump line, cut in front and do whatever they have to get the vehicle they need.  There are no signs for the shuttles that says Budget car rental here, Alamo Rental here, Airport Shuttle here.  The shuttles just pull up wherever they can and there are 200 people fighting for 8-10 seats on the same shuttle and it is a mad rush to get to the van or shuttle fist.  It was insane and a fist fight did break out at one point.  It was insane!
42. Bingo on the Ship-for those Bingo fans out there like me, stay away from Bingo on the ship.  The cards are $10 each or 3 or $20 and I do mean 3 for $20.  Not 6 to a sheet and 3 sheets, nope  just three little cards, three chances at Bingo for $20.00 bucks.  NUTS!  You punch and peel back the number when you have one that matches.  No daubers, nothing messy. 
43. Take your patience your gonna need it!  I am not a patient person and I don’t tolerate rudeness or stupidity well so I will pass this along to folks like me.  Be prepared to be as patient as possible.  With over 3,000 guests on the ships (they always sail full), it can be a mad house at times.  Trying to get on an elevator after dinner when you are on the 2^nd floor and need to go to 7 can take some time as the elevators seem to always be full night and day.  People will cut you off in the buffet lines, they will take your stuff at the pool if you’re not careful and they will take your sail and sign card and charge if given the chance.  They pushed and shoved their way out of the ship at every port getting on and off.  No one watched where they were walking and I saw several expensive drinks spilled from folks who were walking and talking not watching where they were going and would run into someone who had a food tray or drink in their hand and it would get spilled everywhere.  You have got to be patient or do like I did and go back to your cabin and hide.

It wasn’t a really bad experience, but it wasn’t super spectacular either.  These are just pros and cons, tips and tricks I wish I would have known before going that I hope might help someone else out on their cruise.  We had two balcony rooms that adjoined and we were able to have the partition between the two rooms adjusted so we had one big deck between us and that was cool.  They set it up to have 2 twin beds in one room and a king bed in the other (the beds can lock together to form a King).  The comforter and pillows were all down and yes they were very comfy. I have a bad back and I slept really, really well while on the ship.

All the employees on the ship were super nice, very friendly and helpfully.  Kept this big ship the length of 3 football fields, very clean everyday.  Impressive how they run the ship everyday.

I’m happy to share any additional information if you have questions, just let me know.  I will not respond to anyone who wants to make negative comments about me or about this information or post so please don’t waste your time or mine posting any negative comments.

Loved your post.  We will first time cruise in 13 days, and the tips were really helpful.  We have had our share of missed connections, weather delays etc, and have gotten pretty good at going with the flow.  No kids on this trip, which may help with any wait times.

dorsy28:

Loved your post.  We will first time cruise in 13 days, and the tips were really helpful.  We have had our share of missed connections, weather delays etc, and have gotten pretty good at going with the flow.  No kids on this trip, which may help with any wait times.

This post is almost TWO YEARS OLD.  WTH????   Why did you bring this back and respond to it???

  READY FOR THE OLD FOLKS HOME

                  OR HAWAII, WHICH EVER COMES FIRST

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