My wife and I took this itinerary because of the price and never having been to the Mexican Riviera. This is our 13th combined cruise and have sailed only RCCL and CCL before trying Norwegian. It is definitely different and has its fine points and low points. We arrived in LA the day of the cruise at LAX at 9am and booked transfers from LAX to the port with NCL. It is $50pp round trip. The bus didn't arrive till about 10:30am and then it took approx. 45 minutes to get to San Pedro. Took about another 45minutes to get on the ship. Once you get your room card they give you a group number to await the actually embarkation. We got group number 4 and it took about 20 minutes to get to our group number once they started. Lots of inpatient people. They started to board the handicapped and everyone with any and all group numbers started rushing towards the boarding area. A lady had to get on the PA system to tell everyone to sit down. Jeez, your on vacation, what's the hurry? To go get a free buffet? Believe me the buffet is better on both RCCL and CCL. More on the food later. Like I said, it only took 20 minutes to get on after they called group 1. Once on, cabins weren't available till around 2pm. We walked around and got the lay of the ship. It was cold and misting at sail-away so we sat up front in the Spinnaker lounge. We didn't go to any shows or contests so can't tell you anything about that. First two days were at sea. First day was to cool to do any sun stuff outside. Second day was much warmer. The temperature everyday was cool to warm with little humidity. Felt like AC to us, but both being from Texas we might be more used to heat and humidity.Enjoyed laying out in the sun and playing Blackjack at sea. They have two blackjack tables they set up on the port side of the pool area. You can sit there with your swim suit on and play Blackjack. Drink prices are outrageous. I don't mind paying bar prices, but strip bar prices and more are what they charge. A red bull and vodka was $11.21, a domestic beer is $5.18 and a import beer is $6.33. No wonder people try (and succeed) in smuggling liquor on board.

Shore Excursions-Tendered in Zihuatenejo and Cabo and at the pier in Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta Acapulco Acapulco is a dump. Except for the mile or two of the newest hotel zone the rest is typical Mexico. We opted for the tours running from the cruise terminal. They charge $25 dollars pp. and from what others told us is basically the same as the $59 tour the ship provides. Go to the info booth at the center of the cruise terminal and they will set you up. You can go as a couple and pay more or you can wait till they get a enough people to show up and go with you. We waited about 10 minutes and were paired with 5 others from our ship. Loaded into an air conditioned Chevy Suburban and headed out for a four to four and a half hour tour. Very good tour guide and he took us to see the highlights plus whatever we wanted to see. Took us to the old hotels the 40's and 50's movie stars hung out at. Mostly worn out by the years but the views were great. Went to the afternoon cliff divers show for $7. Got a free beer for that price. Almost beat the price of the ship since it was an import. Wasn't impressed with the cliff diving, but didn't think I would be. Went to a arts and craft market. Walked in and walked right back out. We didn't have to stay or see anything we didn't want to so in about 15 min. we were on to something else. Ended up at Senor Frogs for a snack and drinks. Great view of the whole bay from there.

Zihuatenejo Had a dive scheduled here but bad visibility cancelled that excursion. Went instead on the Canopy excursion to Ixtapa. I've been on two other zipline excursions and this one is WEAK. Safety was a concern because of only one line and pulley instead of two like others. The lines were short and low. And they made you hook and unhook yourself to the lines?? Bus took us on a quick ride through Ixtapa then back to Zihuatenejo. They're only 10 min from each other. We walked around another typical Mexican arts and craft market and found a bar called Bandidos right across from the market and next door to a church. Had some fantastic guacamole and 4 drinks for $26US. Walked down to the beach and found $1 beers and some shopping. Nothing really had good prices so we just window shopped. Read more