This was my first cruise on the 8-day Mexican Riviera cruise. It was on the Spirit and this was the first time I had sailed on this class of ship. Our stops were Acapulco, Zihatanejo, and Manzanillo. 2 couples in our early 50's and two in their late 70's. We drove down from Los Angeles and parked at the Mission Brewery Parking lot. It is a short shuttle drive over to the pier and with the coupon we got online it was $8 per day. The shuttle dropped us off and we entered the security and check in line. Once we got inside the lane wrapped for what looked like miles. I was really disappointed. But Carnival had about 20 check in people working and we were through the line in about 20 minutes then onto the Spirit. As usual, the Lido was packed, but we found a table for 8 and sat down for lunch. Rooms were ready about 2pm and we went off to our rooms. We had 8237 which was a 9A balcony. I have been with CC for many years and learned to really pay attention to what people write about the rooms. Our room was nice, lots of storage (almost more than I have in my Master bedroom). BUT, the complaints of noise from above is true. We were directly next to the elevator (not a problem) and right below the Lido deck. Others have said the room is below the 24 hour pizza bar, but in looking at it, it was a little bit away from it. But we did get bumping and thumping noises all night long. I sleep through most things, but the DW complained daily. We also could not get the room to cool down below about 75 degrees, not sure if it is built that way, but I did not like the temperature. I would not stay in this room again. All of my cruise mates have said several times with NCL and said the rooms on Spirit were much larger with more storage. They were glad they gave Carnival a chance. I found the food, service, shows and cleanliness of the ship to be what I have received and observed on other cruise lines, neither better nor worse. I did notice Budweiser was more expensive than Miller lite, which I had never noticed before. It was only about .50 or .75 difference, but with my bar bill, I learned to like Miller. One of our group is handicapped (uses a walker) and was upgraded from 4 A to a handicapped room on deck 7. Very nice room. Servers and wait staff also made sure he had assistance at the buffet. We did our own excursions so can't report much. All of us had been to Acapulco before so we hired a taxi van and did the cliff divers, Senor Frogs, the old hotel on the hill (old part of town) then headed to a local restaurant and had dinner, then back to the ship. There is a bar at the port, Carlos Obrien's I think, and we drank there the rest of the night. In Zihatanejo DW and I took a cab to Ixtapa and did some shopping. I don't think the cab fare was worth the savings on the things DW bought, but it was a nicer town than at the port. The others went to a local restaurant and you guessed it, ate. Did I mention they all eat a lot? Guacamole and salsa was always in demand. Guess what we did in Manzanillo. Yup, shopping and restaurant. The bus to town was $4 per person, which honestly, I think Carnival should pick up. Don't get me wrong, I thought the price for this cruise was excellent and definitely a value, but Carnival should be able to pick up the shuttle cost so we could go at least get into town. My guess is it was about 4 or 5 miles from the industrial port to civilization. Just my thought here. Getting off the ship in San Diego was excellent, we were off the ship by 10am and on the road home by 10:30. We all had a great time and look forward to cruising again and again ( as long as the senior citizens can handle it anyway).