Disney Magic - Friday - Acapulco

Disney Magic - Friday - Acapulco

This morning, we got up early (well, early for us anyway) in order to meet at 8:00 for our city tour of Acapulco. The ship left Acapulco at 1:00, in order to book it to the Panama Canal, so it was a quick stop.

Acapulco is split up into three areas - the first part is Old Acapulco, which is, well, old - more run down, compact, and congested. The next area is the product of the first wave of tourists brought on by celebrities who would vacation here - Hotels in this area were built in the 40’s 50;s and 60’s to accommodate the wealthy American tourists and celebrities coming to visit who did not own their own homes. This place now has a real “Spring Break” feel, with fast food (Mc D’s, Pizza Hut, etc.) bars, and discos lining the streets around the beaches. The third area is the newest part to be built up, with newer celebrity homes, and newer resort hotels with golf courses, etc. You can see a real evolution of how the city has grown and changed.

Also as part of our tour, we stopped at the famous hotel to watch the cliff divers do their thing (in the pouring rain!) as well as at a market that was built specifically to get money from us tourists. We were the first cruise ship of the season, as ships do not usually stop there until September, which is when their rainy season ends.

Back on board at 1:00, it was time to find a place to eat - as was everyone else. Unfortunately, because it was raining, many of the outside areas were closed We went to Parrot Cay for their buffet, and we really didn’t have to wait too long. (One major complaint I do have about the cruise is that their buffet hours are way to short. For example, the buffet is only opened from 12 - 2 for lunch. This limit’s the amount of time you can get something other than pizza and burgers, and also makes the area really congested during that time. Also, it takes a bit away from that casual - do what you want, when you want cruise feel because you have to really plan around lunch, too - and if there are activities you want to do during that time, it limits what you can eat and when.)

After lunch, we went up to our balconies to watch the sail away out of Acapulco, and then went to see the matinee of Disney Dreams, another fantastic production show that is only shown on special voyages. (Besides these two Panama Canal cruises in May and and now, it has only been performed on the repo cruises to Europe last summer.)

Next, we went out to promenade deck 4 and read and played shuffleboard - Bobby and Grant were really good! That was fun.

We had dinner at 7:00 at Palo, so we went back to our rooms to shower and change. Palo is the adults only specialty dining venue. Tonight worked well because the dinner menu was Mexican, which Grant hates, so the Italian menu at Palo was awesome. We shared an appetizer pizza (cheese, tomato, and proscuitto), got different salads to share (tuna, shrimp, eggplant, and calamari) and then got different pastas and entrees - beef tenderloin, chicken, veal, and lamb. Everything was excellent. Dessert was the yummy chocolate soufflé, which was delicious! He also brought out a mascarpone and berry dessert for us to taste. Dinner was excellent - it took about 3 hours. From our table we could watch the sun set. It was a nice evening.

Afterwards, we walked out to look at Minnie’s Grand Fiesta Deck party, where they had all sorts of activities going on, from pin the tail on the donkey to kids dressing up and plaint with different Mexican instruments. Also, Quiet Cove had been transformed into a “pool lounge” area, meaning they put some cloths up as a back drop, set put a bunch of fake candles and had a do playing music. Really though, it did make the atmosphere feel cozy.

We wanted to change out of our dinner clothes, so we headed back to the cabin, I think with the intention of going back out to watch karaoke, but I fell asleep! I think everyone else stayed in, too.

Tomorrow - Sea Day!