My wife and 7-year old daughter just got back from a 6-day Mexican Rivera cruise (April 25th - May 1st). This is normally a 7 day cruise but cut out Mazatlan so the ship could get back to L.A. and prepare for a relocation cruise to Vancouver. I would rate this cruise at best a 3.5 star out of 5. I've cruised Carnival before and the food is much better, the ship is much cleaner, and the staff if a bit more professional. As with any cruise, expect a lofty bar tab. $32 (including gratuity)for a bucket of 6 beers...you pay for 5 and get the 6th beer free is how they promote it. Yeah...free beer. NOT! The Freestyle cruise anthem they preach and plaster logos everywhere is really not that big a deal. It is just another chance for them to hook an IV up to your wallet and suck more money out. The ship has three menu style restaurants that don't have a cover charge. The Versailles and Aqua have identical menus so don't let them fool you on saying they are any different. The Blue Lagoon is free and barely anyone goes there because it's...very boring with a limited menu. The other 6 or 7 restaurants all have cover charges. $25 per head on the most expensive and $10 per head on the cheapest. Do the math. Want a good steak? Head to Cagney's Steakhouse where you pay $50 for two, another $50 for an average bottle of wine, and add another $10 to $15 for gratuity for the guilt tip (not guilt trip...guilt tip...they add a line to your bill that says "additional gratuity" to get more than the 18% gratutity automatically added to your bill). After all is said and done, you walk out of there paying $135. Is Freestyle sounding like a great deal anymore??

Some other things to not let yourself get sucked into is bingo. OMG! People were dumping $30 to $40 just for a 6-pack card for 4 games. Some even bought the machine that plays 144 cards at the same time for like $124. Wanna know what the amazing prizes were? $125 for the first game to close to $200 for the last jackpot game! Now imagine winning and finding out you have to split the pot with 5 others who got bingo too. Wooo Hoooo! You've won $25 bucks! Win another $15 and you break even!

The entertainment at the theater was not real exciting. A comedian was decent, the Second City troupe was fun to watch, but stay away from the other shows. The Cirque Pacific act was like watching a production put on by Perez Hilton, Elton John, and Boy George. Just more flamboyant if you can believe it. Read more