Day 7 – Acapulco
November 28, 2006
Today our port of call was Acapulco, Mexico on our wonderful cruise to Mexico on board the Celebrity Cruises Mercury. The weather continues to be outstanding though it was overcast this morning. However, the clouds burned off by noon and the sunny weather continued. The humidity has also risen to high numbers, but its bearable.
For Acapulco, we didnt have any excursions booked, but still had a full day planned. The day started with Suzanne and the kids getting off the boat and going across the street to the historic Fuerte de San Diegeo and its museum. This fort was built by the Spaniards to ward off pirates of their lucrative trade from Acapulco. Mr Papa really doesnt like to do museums, so he passed and got caught up on some relaxation time up on deck.
When they returned, we all went back ashore, grabbed a taxi driver with a van and made arrangements for him to spend the day hauling us around. First, we had him take us to the Acapulco Cliff Divers as we wanted to catch their early afternoon show. We went to the restaraunt and had perfect front row seats for the diving while we ate some delicious chicken tacos (though we would call them tacquitos). The divers put on a nice show althought a bit short at only 20 minutes. I dont know if the night shows are longer or not, but we were impressed but surprised at the brevity of it.
Then we had the driver take us to a few tourist shopping areas as Savannah is looking for a Mexican barbie type doll in every stop wearing an authentic folklorico dress of the state we are visiting. However, we were not able to find one for Guerrero which Acapulco is in. Hopefully, we will find on in Zihuatanejo as it too is in Guerrero.
Suzanne had also located this little hidden away place on the internet that is supposed to be the best spot in Acapulco for snorkeling, so we had the driver take us there. The place was Boca Chica. It’s basically a small, hidden, out of the way hotel/resort. It cost us $30 to get in the place, but it also meant that we could get up to $30 in food/drink while there for free. The snorkeling was an additional $15. I chose to sit at the bar and drink some Pacifico Cerveza while they snorkeled. That would also give me the chance to take some pictures and video.
The kids really enjoyed the snorkeling. After they were in the water for about 15 minutes, one of the guides that runs the place came out into the water and gave they a guided tour of the whole area. They got to see a bunch of stuff they would not have seen if he hadnt led the way. Three Pacificos later, they were done and we were ready to leave.
Suzanne and Savannah got dropped off at a marketplace near the cruise ship to continue their doll hunt while Sean and I got dropped off at the ship. The girls struck out again. The entire time the guy was driving us around, he was telling us about Acapulco and some of the history. It was a wonderful way to see the town. He spoke good English and we kept trying to use our broken Spanish which made if kind of fun.
Dinner continued to be amazing. I cant say enough about the quality of the food on board Celebrity ships. The service staff continues extremely friendly and helpful. This is a major reason why we choose to sail on Celebrity if possible. I also guess we must be doing something right with the kids because not a dinner goes by where some other guests come by and compliment us on the behaviour of the kids and how nice it is to see a family on a cruise experiencing it all together. They really like seeing the kids dressed up in the dress code of the night and displaying good manners at the table. We must be their worst critics because we always hope for more, but the compiments are definitely showing the kids to be capable of handling themselves on the cruise ship.
Tonight was the big Mexican fiesta night. Sailing time wasnt until 11:00pm with a big sail away party up on deck. Also, the entertainment in the theater was Mariachis and Folklorico dancing. They were wonderful and the kids had a ball watching them as they currently are taking Folklorico dancing. After the show, the Mariachis moved to the top deck and played some more. Savannah requested some of the songs that she knows Mexican dances to. Her and Suzanne then proceeded to entertain the party goers with their Folklorico dancing to the Mexican Mariachis. The musicians were impressed with their dancing and suprised some Gringas would know their dancing.Â
It was a big party with an excellent turnout from the passengers. After departure, we enjoyed a wonderful view of Acapulco at night as we sailed away. Savannah managed to stay awake until about 11:30. The rest of us stayed up on deck partying until about 1:00 am before we called it quits.
Tomorrow, we make our port of call in Zihuatanejo, Mexico.
Day 6 – At Sea
November 27, 2006
And a gloriuos day it was. The weather remains perfect and yesterday was the best day of the cruise for me. I just love days at sea. They are so peaceful and relaxing. One is free to do what they want on the ship. I like to spend time just staring at the ocean of the Mexico coast as we pass by approximately 15 NM offshore.
We actually slept in until about 9:00 in the morning and just plain skipped breakfast. It felt pretty good to skip a meal as we have eaten lots of good food already. The kids spent most of the day in the Kids Club doing a lot of fun activities. They had a ship building contest, pirate fun and other stuff. Suzanne spent the whole afternoon in the cabin sleeping. That’s not my idea of fun, but thats what is great about sea days – do what you want. I walked some laps on the exercise track, stared at the ocean and had a couple of beers at the sky bar. All in all, it was a very nice day.
Prior to dinner, we went to the Captain’s Club Reception. They provided some munchies and champagne. With all the concern about Norovirus on cruise ships these days, this was the first time you couldnt shake the Captains hand as you entered the room. The kids and I still had our picture taken with the Captain. Suzanne wasnt in the picture as she wasnt quite ready in time.
I sound like a broken record, but dinner was again fabulous. Everyone but me started with Frog Legs. For the main entree, Savannah had Rigatoni Amatricianna as did Sean. I actually had them bring me a small plate of that as my appetizer as it was my second or third favorite pasta dish when visiting Rome on business. Suzanne ordered the quail for dinner and I went with the filet mignon.
So, being a day at sea and not a lot of activity to report on, I thought I would pass along a few other tidbits that may have flown under the radar in previous posts about the cruise thus far:
- Mercury is scheduled for 2 weeks of dry dock in April. We have gotten conflicting reports on the extent of the dry dock. We are curious because we will be sailing her again in June to Alaska. We do know that all the interior public areas are going to be redone. A couple of Celebrity folks told us that the back public areas behind the aft cabins will be converted to balconies for the aft cabins. We like that since we have booked the exact same cabin for the June cruise. However, the cruise director said no cabins will be touched in this dry dock or balconies added. He says that will occur about 15 months later.
- While in Mazatlan, the Carnival Pride and a Princess ship were also docked there. Lots of discussion about cruise line comparisons between various folks from the ships. Celebrity was the hands down winner from the folks that had sailed on multiply lines. Lots of complaints about the food on Carnival and Princess. Well, to be fair, not really complaints, just statements that Celebrity had better food. We also got into discussions about the number of kids/families on the cruise ships. Here is where I talk out of both sides of my mouth. One of the reasons we like Celebrity is because there are less kids running around on the cruise ship, yet we take our kids with us. On our cruise, there are 103 kids on the cruise. On the Carnival Pride, there was over 700 kids on the ship. Wow, thats a lot of kids.
- At the Captains Club reception, they awarded certificates to frequent cruisers. The most cruised couple was this old lady and man from Japan. This was their 250th cruise. Another couple was given a certificate as they had sailed on Celebrity more than 25 times since 2003. Wow, thats are a lot of cruises. This cruise will count as our 5th on Celebrity and will get us to the next Captains Club level.
Tomorrow our port of call is Acapulco. Its an all day affair with arrival at 7:00 am and departure at 11:00 pm with a wonderful sail away party Mexican style.
-
Subscribe via Email
Sign up to receive the latest Mr Papa's World site updates! -
Subscribe via RSS
