My friend and I just returned from a cruise to Acapulco, Ixtapa/Zihuantanejo and Manzanillo on the Carnival Spirit. We had a wonderful time! This is our 4th cruise together, having experienced Carnival, Princess and Royal Caribbean. This was my 9th cruise and I've been on Carnival, Princess, NCL, Celebrity, Disney and Royal Caribbean.

I enjoy reading the Cruise Critic reviews before I travel - I find them helpful to a certain degree, especially with tips about ports. Too often, however, I've noticed that many of the reviews linger on the negatives, so I wanted to post one which was complimentary to the hardworking people who work on the ships. During this cruise, just about everyone on the service side of the ship met us with a smile and a hello - often by name (which always blows me away). All the common areas were clean and a pleasure to be in.

I did have a pre-cruise concern about our cabin, which was on Deck 1 (Riviera) and showed that it was very near a wall of the disco (when I looked at the map of the ship pre-cruise). My concern about potential noise in the cabin was completely unfounded. It was a great cabin in what turned out to be a great location. The window was a real treat and our cabin steward, Sudhendri (Henry), took good care of us. We were only one floor from the dining room and very near an elevator bank that took us anywhere we wanted to go! Read more