As Mark writes throughout his blog the experience on Carnival exceeded our expectations. The food was fine dinning quality at every meal and though I prefer open seating, it was nice to have the same wait staff nightly remembering our lemons for our water and decaf cappuccino for Bob and regular for me. My partner of 23 years and I did also enjoy the ports visited but were glad we didn’t spend too much time in each one. Our favorite, (it seems everyone’s favorite) was Zihuatanejo being a quaint fishing village and reasonable shopping outside of the docking area. It’s always best to walk a few blocks out of mainstream tourism to get the best values and authentic local meals. Acapulco was a bit of a personal disappointment. I had been there years ago and even the area of the renown “El Presidente” was extremely run down. We had taken a local bus to the Condessa Beach area enjoying the “local” experience (having studying in Mexico years ago I particularly enjoy “blending in” with the locals), red hair and all! We did appreciate the bus drivers and all of the vendors accepting our American dollars so we did not have to exchange our money. As far as Acapulco went, I feel the best experience was seeing the bay magically lit up at night from our deck.

Manzanillo was also not the town I remembered years ago having stayed near Las Hadas earlier. So docking near the actual town of Manzanillo wasn’t quite the experience we had all hoped for, but again, we did enjoy the local mingling and commented how courteous the drivers were. All of them!! I was also able to purchase Mark’s final touch to his Hooter Girls costume, a pair of knee-high stockings in a local grocery store. Manzanillo is Mexico’s largest Pacific port so the port was not the tropical setting as others.

Back on board we never felt uncomfortable being a gay couple however I do feel one of the best costumes on board was overlooked possibly due to the Carnival staff being too conservative. Actually, other straight guests approached us saying they felt we were discriminated against (talking about the retired Hooter Girls) and should have made the top five finalists.

Our extended deck stateroom was terrific! The size and layout was the same as other outside rooms on other levels but the extended deck off the back of the ship allowed us to see well overhead and almost both left and right horizons. The back of the ship was sloped allowing us an over head view while still being private. There was plenty of storage room and space in the closets for our empty suitcases. Even the bathroom had plenty of space of all our lotions, potions and hair gel.

The conversation at our last breakfast together included talk of our next cruise all agreeing that location and on board ship time is most important.