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Kathy's Cruise Blog - Review of the Carnival Spirit Cheap Cruise to the Mexican Riviera.

Well it finally arrived .. today we fly south for our adventure (or misadventure if you insist) on the Carnival Spirit, our experiment with cheap cruises


The flights went off without a hitch, met up with Chris and Claudia (son and DIL) in Sacramento and arrived in San Diego for our night at the Holiday Inn on the Bay.  When we got to the hotel, our CC buddies were waiting for us and we had an interesting evening at Dick's Last Resort (food is nothing to write home about but the waiters make it special in their own way.)

Fun with the fog

Finally, finally it is here the morning when our ship will come in and we can sail away to the Mexican Riviera.  We woke up at o'dark thirty to watch her dock... and wait a minute what is this??? Where is the Dock???? Where is Anthony's ?? For that matter .. who moved the BAY!!!   It was totally fogged in.  We deduced (with, I might add an bit of discussion) that the ship might be a teensy bit late .. the fog would have to clear somewhat.  Little did we know that the ship would not dock until 10:00AM and that is when the fun started.  

The Elation had docked about an hour earlier and were still disembarking passengers and now the Spirit had many anxious guest who where going to be in flight H*** if they didn't get to the airport SOON.  It quickly became a madhouse with the line for the embarking passengers stretching past the Maritime museum.  We elected for the sunny patio at the Holiday Inn on the Bay and a few more drinks while we watched the Teeming hordes continue to line up in the slowest moving line I had ever seen.  We had 8 people and all of the luggage so we had decided to take the shuttle. 

Our cheap cruises experiment begins

We talked to the shuttle driver about 2:30 and he said .. I  just went up in the elevator and you don't want to go yet .. I will come and get you.  About 2:45 he deemed it appropriate to cross the street and we began the process. 

Since we were taking one of those "cheap cruises" we got a suite! This enabled us to use the VIP line. which went rapidly,  however from the very fast and efficient check in .. we needed to wind our way through hundreds of passengers with zone numbers and for some reason most of them seemed to feel that it was important to carry their own luggage on board further jamming the limited space.  We finally made it about 3:30 on board and headed straight for the nearest DOD.

Son and wife and Daughter and Husband were not so lucky.  They were in fact among the last to board the ship and crossed onboard as they were announcing Muster Drill. 

Finally all the formalities were over and we could start to relax as we sailed out of San Diego on a lovely warm evening.  Oh yes, we had late seating for dinner which worked out well, since we sailed at 6PM and those with early seating had dinner at 6:15.  To say there was much discussion and grumbling would be to put it kindly but then this is going to be a kinder gentler review .. heck I am on Vacation on a cruise ship under blue skies and warm sunshine .. I can't really find much wrong in my world, even if it is one of those cheap cruises. More about the first sea day goings on later.