Day 9 – Manzanillo
November 29, 2006
Today was our final port of call in Manzanillo, Mexico. The ship docks in a large industrial shipping port and getting off the ship can be a pain in the butt. You get off and get on a bus that transports you to the center of town where you can get on a taxi or bus to where you want to go.
The main thing to do in Manzanillo is to go to a resort hotel and spend the day on the beach/ocean. The kids said they were beached out and would rather spend the day on the ship. Since Suzanne and I have seen Manzanillo before, we readily agreed to a day on the ship.
We participated in some trivia games and the kids spent a lot of time in the Kids Club. Suzanne and I spent a couple of hours researching our next cruise after the upcoming June cruise on the same Celebrity Mercury to Alaska. We have gotten so used to cruising on Thanksgiving that we almost expect it now. So, we began looking at some options. The leading candidates at this time are a return to Hawaii like we did last Thanksgiving with a 14 night out of San Diego, a 10 night Caribbean cruise out of Tampa that would allow us to visit with Grammy also, and repeating this same Mexico cruise.
We really like days at sea and fewer ports, so the Mexico cruise would be a possibility since we wouldn’t feel the need to see the ports. We loved Hawaii and get 9 days at sea with that one. In addition, they have changed the itinerary a bit since last year and now include an overnight stay in Lahaina that would allow us to go to a Hawaiian Luau on shore. The Caribbean cruise is attractive because of the visiting we could do with Grammy, plus it has a fair number of sea days and we haven’t yet cruised the Caribbean. In addition, its easily the cheapest of the cruises.   We will look at them some more during our next two days at sea and I wouldn’t be surprised if we booked one during this cruise.
We enjoyed yet another fine dinner last night and attended the comedian show in the theater. The comedian did the somewhat familiar routine of cruise ship life. I smiled most of the time, but didn’t have any outbursts. Suzanne had a few, but the majority of the crowd was in full laughter most of the time. I don’t know if being somewhat frequent cruisers and having heard most of the cruise jokes before had us not in full laughter, but the show was still enjoyable. Sean liked the show, but Savannah had decided to go to the Kids Club instead.
After the show, the girls turned in and the boy went up on deck for the Party Gras celebration. We enjoyed some good time together and Sean did some dancing. It was fun and we finally turned in about midnight.
Tomorrow, we will enjoy the first of two sea days on our return to San Diego.
Day 8 – Zihuatenejo
November 28, 2006
Today, our ship, the Celebrity Mercury, docked in Zihuatenejo, Mexico. This town is a small, quaint little fishing town on the coast of Mexico. It looks almost the same as it did 3 years ago when we last visited. Most of the other ports we had visited, had changed somewhat in the past three years.
I suspect the reason it hasnt changed, is because the Mexicans dont want it to change. To keep it the same, they started another town on the other side of the peninsula called Ixtapa. The Mexicans see Ixtapa as the Western coast version of Cancun or Cozumel and have master planned it that way. They have the standard big resort hotels and chains (Senior Frogs, etc). A lot of growth continues over there, but Zihuatenejo remains the same. It is a short walk or drive from Zihuatenejo over to Ixtapa.
We had planned a relaxing day at the beach in Zihuatenejo with no plans to go to Ixtapa. The kids, however, were a bit tired and wanted to take it easy and not swim. So, Suzanne and Savannah went ashore in search of their doll. They spent about 3 hours and were sucessful in finding the Guerrero doll as well as some other souveniers for everyone. Sean had been looking for a chess set that depicted some Atztec and Spanish history and they finally found one for him. I think Savannah has now expended her souvenier money but Sean still has some left.
Sean and I stayed on board and did some cool father/son things. We played ping pong, board games and particpated in a spelling bee where we came in second place. We enjoyed a lunch together of Cheeseburger and french fries. It was an ejoyable morning and early afternoon with the just the two of us while the girls were off shopping.
After another enjoyable dinner, the family enjoyed a couple of hours of board games, playing some Carcassone, one of our favorite games. The girls retired for the night after the game while Sean and I went to catch the cruise ship version of the Newlywed – Not so Newlywed game. This hilarious game is patterned after the old TV show except they chose four couples with various marriage times from 9 days to 57 years. It was a lot of fun and I havent laughed that hard in a long time. The cruise director was very funny as the host and kept it very lively. I think a lot of the jokes went over Sean’s head (or at least I hope they did) but he still laughed hard and had fun. One of the funniest moments was when they asked this one old guy what his favorite condiment was and he replied “Trojan”.Â
Tommorow, our final port of call on this wonderfull cruises is Manzanillo. Based on the fun we had on board playing games and relaxing and such, it is doubtful we will even get off the boat. The girls may make a quick souvenier run but we will have to see.
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