Carnival Spirit Reviews of Mexican Riviera Ports

[bbiggar]

I know the Spirit has just started cruising to these newer ports and hope to hear some things that past cruisers are finding to do there.

 

I'm sure many people are waiting to hear from you all. Thanks

[glrounds]

Myself included. Would especially like to learn who the CD is and what , if any, ports are tendered. :)

[S.S. Cruisers]

Gary: Acapulco and Manzanillo are dock ports and Zihuatanejo is a tender port. At least they were last time we went.

[kajsb]

Add me to the list. I've booked the Spirit for January 2006.

[Bucky3]

Me too! We're doing the Christmas cruise. Haven't cruised Carnival for several years, so any/all information about the ship will be appreciated. Hope all you recent Spirit cruisers will write a review of the ship AND ports for all of us who are looking forward to this trip. Do the cabins have refrigerators?? Thanks in advance for all information you provide.

[arcone]

Hi

 

You may want to review post of carnvial Spirit. It has some info that you may be interested in. We sail in 9 days.

[Bucky3]

To which post do you refer??

[Bucky3]

First San Diego Spirit cruise must be back! Welcome Back all you Spirit cruisers. Now, tell us all about your cruise, the ship, ports, and anything else we need to know. We're all looking forward to your reports. Thanks

[Z'Loth]

Somebody let us know about the excursions like the departure times.

[Shadowfyre]

Ok where are those people that got back from the Carnival Spirit yesterday?

 

I am dying to hear about port and ship reviews :) Leaving 11/01 and wish I had left on the ship yesterday!

[lvrgrl]

I just went on the Carnival Spirit 10/16-24. It was awesome! The Cruise Director, Todd is great! The assitants he has on there are Darci, Shannon, Erin and Tina. They are all so full of energy, super friendly and a blast to be around.

I didnt want to get off the ship! Shannon was really cool!

 

Acapulco we rented a van and drove around and went to the Princess Hotel and many other places. The Princess Hotel is gorgeous! A lot of famous people have stayed there. We want to go back to Acapulco and stay there. Here's the link for the hotel that I got from Roberto at the Acapulco Port Authority... www.fairmont.com Click on Acapulco. We got some good souvenier items at the Port Store right there!

 

Manzanillo we drove to see Las Hadas but didnt stay on the property. We ended up going to the beach and just shopping. So no tips on what to do there.

 

Have a blast and tell the CD and the assitants that Noah and Julie said hello!

[lvrgrl]

They have a bar fridge. It was full of items. Our cabin steward moved some stuff around for us to put some of our items in there. Our friends cabin steward took everything out and they used the entire fridge. It wasnt very cold tho.

I'll go online later tonight and do a review. But if you go to 'Roll Calls' click on Carnival and look for "Spirit 10/16/04 Exotic Mexican Riviera"I believe someone put a partial review on there. I might post mine there too. I loved this cruise! I did NOT want to leave! Everyone that worked on the ship was soooo helpful!

[Bucky3]

lvrgrl - Thanks for your report. Look forward to more reviews. Did you reserve a car online before you left? Who did you rent from and where did you pick up van in Acapulco? Was driving easy there? Did you rent vans in the other ports as well? Thanks for any info on this subject.

[Goofballs]

My wife and I just returned from the October 16th sailing of the Spirit. In return for the tremendous amount of information I was able to glean from this board and from individuals whom I contacted, I pledged to write a review and offer to answer questions. Here is the review and please feel free to ask questions, which I will try to answer. E-mail address at end of post.

 

 

 

I begin by saying the information taken from this site made my cruise considerably better than cruising before I learned of these boards.

 

 

 

We booked an 8I (extended balcony) cabin on the forward port side of the ship. Cabin 8152 is 40 paces back from the front elevators. I paced it one day to see what was directly above us. It was a table and chairs on the Lido deck. That explains the noise above. Not a real distraction, but next time I would consider the 7th deck. Then again, it was awful convenient to run up one flight of stairs when the midnight snack thing hit.

 

 

 

We landed at San Diego airport and went to the curb with our bags, deciding to forego the Carnival Spirit bus that was available. If you want it you will see a nice gentleman with a sign walking back and forth. You can book right there and I think they charge to your account. We wanted to stop and get 12 sodas and two bottles of wine. We did and no one even looked at it. We could have brought on a litre of gin.

 

 

 

We took a cab for $10 bucks total. About halfway there the cabbie asked if we were on the Gay cruise? He went on to tell us that there was a Gay cruise leaving that day. As it turned out the Carnival Spirit was not the Gay cruise, it was the Radiance of the Seas which was parked right next door. They went to their ship, we went "straight" to ours. (get it?)

 

 

 

Embarkation was a snap. We jumped out of the cab and by the time we hauled our bags to the curb a guy with a cart was there. He made sure we had our tags on the bags and whisked them away. We went into the terminal building, allowed the lady at the door to direct us to the registration line. There were probably 30 or 35 registration people available and about 50 people in line (it's then about 4:00 pm for a 9:00 pm departure) so we were through in a snap. Have your Fun Pass filled out ahead of time online and give them the copy that you print off the Web site. They reviewed our birth certificates and sent us on board. Within 30 minutes of walking into the terminal building we were onboard. And surprise..we went directly to our cabin and out luggage was there waiting for us.

 

 

 

EMBARKATION – A+

 

 

 

We opened the cabin door and absent was the smoky or musty smell I had read about on the board. The cabin was neat, clean and smelled fine. It looks just like the pictures on the Web site. I immediately headed for the balcony. A nice teak wood floor, clear glass panel under the wooden hand-railing, opaque floor to ceiling dividers between the balcony and the balconies on either side. The divider goes right up to the railing making it very hard to see any activity on the balcony on either side. Very private. Two resin (K-mart) upright chairs, one resin lounge chair and one small plastic resin table. Total cost of desk furniture--$18 bucks max.

 

I also brought a bungee cord. Two, in fact. I figured as valuable as previous posts made them seem, I would sell one on board and pay for my cruise. As it turned out, I didn’t use mine.

 

The pro to having a bungee is you can have your balcony door open. I tried it. First, you hear the waves—and it’s pretty loud. My first challenge was using my bungee. I finally figured that looping one end around the door handle was easy, but what to hook the other end to??? I looked for a hole or a opening in the opaque divider but found none! NADA. So I ended up stretching the other end to a small metal bracket where the opaque divider attached to the railing. Then it slipped off, almost killing me. I bent it and put it back on, only to find that having the door all the way open was no big deal. I couldn't relax, always waiting for the bungee to release and put my eye out. I finally put the bungee away by day two and stuck a tennis shoe in the door when I wanted to hear the ocean. The bungee was overated in my opinion.

 

 

 

And about the “refrigerator magnet” to cover the sensor (allowing the air conditioner run while the door is open). GOOD LUCK. I looked that door over, stood on the chair, examined the areas with my fingers that I couldn’t see and never did find any sensor to cover. All I accomplished was demagnetizing my Sail and Sign card twice when I placed it in the same pocket as the magnet. That was two unnecessary trips to the purser’s desk. And let me say that I really don’t care if you have your door open and your air on. You are on a ship with redundancy upon redundancy. You are never going to hurt the electrical production of the Spirit. And you are living eight days of excess, so who cares if a little cool air escapes because you choose to leave your door open. There are worse things. But I truly thought the refrigerator magnet idea rated just a little below the bungee cord idea.

 

 

 

Back inside I found the cabin to be spacious, much larger that my last sail on another line, but then again it was a different class cabin. I have had nice hotel rooms with less space. The bathroom is roomy and the shower is very roomy considering some I have seen. There are two terry robes hanging in the closet for free use, but not permanently free. I don’t believe there was an outlet in the bathroom. I know my wife did her hair/make-up at the desk, which has a full size mirror surrounded by make-up lights. Additionally the bathroom has dispensers in the shower, one filled with shampoo and one filled with Lever 2000 body soap. Both had a nice aroma and worked fine. Towels were in abundance. The sink had a small seashell shaped bowl containing some coconut scented body lotion, a couple disposable razors, some toothpaste, some Tylenol, and maybe another thing or two. These are one time items only, meaning as they are used they are not replenished daily as they are in a hotel.

 

 

 

Storage was available in excess. As you walk in there were three floor to ceiling closet across from the bathroom, each about 26” wide. The one closest to the door had one hanging rod for long gowns, coats, etc. (the life vests were on the shelf above). Closet number two had two hanging rods, one high and one low. The third closet had four or five shelves.

 

 

 

Next to the closets was a desk with a standard desk try drawer (containing a Bible and a few other items). Down the side were four drawers, the top of which has a hair dryer. The hair dryer provided in this drawer is permanently “plugged-in” so there is no need to bring your own.

 

 

 

The ONLY outlet in the entire cabin is located on the wall, just under the mirror and at desk top level. As you sit on the small stool with your hands lying on the desk, the outlet is there at your fingertips. ***This may pose a problem for some. Read on***

 

 

 

If you are like us you had a cell phone, a digital camera, a video camera, a curling iron, a flat iron, and my wife’s favorite hair dryer (?). That’s a lot of items for one outlet. Thanks to this board I bought a $8.99 electrical plug strip and boy was I happy!!! If you bring nothing else, remember your electrical strip. One guy was complaining that he had just one item to charge—his video camera---but he said the plug was actually a 3 inch by 4 inch plug and it wouldn’t plug in considering the outlet was so close to the desk top. I think he got an electrical strip from a cabin steward that someone else left behind.

**continued due to length of post**

 

 

[Goofballs]

Above the desk was a TV mounted in the cabinetry and below was a small mini bar. The TV programming leaves something to be desired, since there is very little of interest to watch. Granted, we don’t cruise for the TV, but there is tremendous repetition. You get network TV sporadically. One day it's there, the next it is simply closed circuit, on-spip programming. One day we has channle 2 out of New York and another day we had channle 7 from Nashville. Hard to figure out. In addition to replaying a few movies, the Spirit crew immediately begins videotaping things like the Not-so-Newlywed game and the Cruise Director’s talks, and replays them adnauseam. I can appreciate replaying the shore excursion talk we had on the 2nd day for those who might have missed it, but it was still playing on the 6th, 7th and up to the moment we disembarked. You get the point.

 

The mini-bar was medium cool, as someone mentioned earlier, but we kept a few sodas in it at all times. It saved us from having to buy a soda card for $50 bucks. When we went ashore in Manzanillo we replenished it with another 12 pack and we had soda left when we ported. We pretty much had juices or tea with meals.

 

 

The bed was firm but certainly comfortable. I saw upon disembarking a neighbor had requested one of those egg-crate things, but our bed was fine. Plenty of extra linen was stored in the two large drawer under the pull out sofa.

 

 

 

CABIN B+ (only hit the electrical outlet and TV programming).

 

 

 

The ship is beautiful. I read earlier reports that said it was too gawdy, too glitzy, like Las Vegas, too this or two that. I found it to be beautiful. The decorator has used rich, deep bronze tones throughout the main cabin areas with an incredible amount of marble flooring. No place is left undecorated, but I found it to be tasteful. Having just come off of the Star Princess I found this ship (Carnival Spirit) to be more beautiful. The only decorating item I found to be of lower quality than I expected was the ten story mural from the atrium floor to the ceiling. It has pastel colored lines with people (angel like) as though they were ascending towards the sun at the top of the mural. It looked like something you would see on the side of a skyscraper in some city—a civic-pride look—but what the heck. You only had to look at it when riding up and down in the glass elevators. It wasn’t that bad. Especially since you were usually looking down at the activity in the atrium.

 

 

 

Pharaoh’s Palace is the main auditorium and is equally as beautiful as the rest of the ship. A shiny marble entrance way with brightly painted and chrome larger than life “mummy case” replicas line the entrance. It is well laid out but has a few obstructed sight lines from upstairs, so get there early for a good seat if you like the upstairs. The downstairs is roomy and the cushioned sofa type seats are very comfortable. And there is room between rows that one can walk to the middle of the section without tripping over others all the way across as you would at a theatre or sporting event.

 

 

 

I didn’t use the casino, though a gentleman won $80,000 on the cruise. He was also the first act in the talent contest on night 7. What did he sing? “I Feel Good” by James Brown. What else would he sing after winning $80K?

 

 

 

Club Cool is a small lounge with music with a guitarist and his wife, Donnie and Darci Belle from Nashville. They played music to dance to if you are 35 and above. It wasn’t Bing Crosby, but it wasn’t 50 Cent either. It ranged from Linda Ronstand to Bonnie Raith, from Elvis to Chicago to some 50's and 60's. We dropped in a few different nights and enjoyed it each time. Donnie and Darci have that home-spun country charm that's hard not to like.

 

 

 

We didn’t sample the pools until day 6, the first of the two sea days returning. The domed pool was open-domed, but a little crowded. Due to the doming, about 1/3 of the lounge chairs are always in the shade. Good or bad, depending on the weather. You are located right next to the burger bar, so that’s nice. The spa is nice but the pool water was very chilly. Since our only real hot days were also shore days, the pool seemed to get less that capacity use on the second part of the trip. (I didn’t even visit on the first part). We didn't visit the other pool other than to walk by. We spent some time on the fantail by the fantail pool but found the wind drove us back inside.

 

 

 

The gym is beautiful. About 30 machines, Mostly cardio. I few dumbbells and a couple weight machines. Small spa in there. Croweded in the early part of cruise, lots of room as cruise progresses.

 

 

 

Lido Deck (deck 9) has La Playa Grill, where you will find 24 hour food. It is set up to have separate but complete serving areas. They have from one to all of the serving areas serving depending on the time and the other dining activities. The pizza grill is 24 hours a day. Despite the raves, I found the pizza to be just O.K. Not even real good, just O.K. And know that I tried it on at least three, maybe four different times. It was consistent, but consistently average. But I like pizza. Even average pizza, so I still enjoyed it. They als have Casear salads at the pizza bar but you have to ask.

 

 

 

The deli grill was good, though I used it just once (pastrami on a grilled baguette). I heard others say good things about it.

 

 

 

Taste of the Nations served a different ethnic menu each day. I tried the Indian and Mexican and found both to be good.

 

 

 

The dessert station on the Lido Deck was very good. Though the deserts in the dining rooms were nice, we often left the dining room and had dessert on the Lido. Lots of fresh fruit - melon mostly - always available.

 

 

 

The Burger Bar served dogs and burgers. Certainly adequate but not special. They served those thin French fries that get cold by the time you leave the end of the serving line. I think the fatter ones are better, but that’s me. Try the grilled onions. Sweet.

 

 

 

We tried the ice cream on the Lido. It was in a cone. I think it was more ice milk, not actually ice cream. I found it to be grainy and didn’t finish it but I saw a lot of people eating it.

 

 

 

I realize I have jumped from cabins to pools to restaurants, so I blew my grading system all to heck. All those things above---solid B.

 

 

 

Two last things I will comment on—three really.

 

 

• Dining in the Empire Room and Nuveou Supper Club
  
• Shore Excursions
  
• The Cruise Director
  

 

First, my wife and I had been assigned the late seating when we requested the early. No problem. The night of sailing we went into the dining room and had it changed. Now, the dining room can be entered from either the 2nd deck or the 3rd. I don’t know where our original table was located but since we approached the matrie’d on the 3rd deck, that’s where we were given a table. The third deck is the "upstairs" where you can look down unto the lower floor through the large opening in the center of the room. See the Carnival Web site picture if you don't get a visual of this.

 

We asked for a table with others but there were only tables for two. That turned out to be a wonderful thing as we enjoyed dining with others at the earlier meals, but truly enjoyed dining just the two of us each evening. We had table 419, the first table on the railing next to the piano on the starboard side. We looked down onto the 2nd deck. I really believe it is the best place in the Empire Room due to it’s central location. Our waiters were Carl and George from Nicaragua. They were very capable and while we developed nice rapport with them, we have no one-week bonding stories that some come away with. Just friendly, competent service from two very nice guys.

[Goofballs]

The formal nights are night 2 and 7. I saw more tuxedos than on the Star Princess, which surprised me, but I was very comfortable in my non-black suit.

 

 

 

The Lobster was generous and very tasty, eclipsed only by that served the next night in the Noveau (sp?) Supper Club. The lamb was great, the prime rib superb, and the coffee was perfect.

 

 

 

About coffee—We found coffee in the Empire and at the Noveau Supper Club to be superb. The coffee on the Lido Deck and from room service to be very poor. Very poor. If I cruise this ship again I will definitely bring a small coffee pot for my room. We asked out wait staff about this and they swore it was the same coffee, same machine, same company, etc.. If so, they don’t use the same coffee to water ratio because the taste difference was so obvious. After day two we stopped ordering morning coffee from room service and went instead to the 2nd deck and bought coffee from the Starbucks-like coffee bar called the Fountian Café. It is worth the walk and the $1.50 per cup cost.

 

 

 

The Supper Club is very nice. Since Carnival pulled Ixtappa/Z-nijo as a stop, they gave us $50 bucks credit. I would rather have had the stop, but hey, what can you do? Instead, we booked two nights at the Supper Club. Since formal nights were 2nd and 7th, we booked the Supper Club on the 1st and 6th. We figured we would book early as they fill up, then cancel the second night if we wanted to. But after the first visit I knew we would be back. The staff there is tremendous and the wonderful. You must try it! For $25 you will never have a meal like that anywhere. And in addition to the quality of the food is the way it is presented. We actually took pictures.

 

One note—The second visit found us at a window table on the port side (left) foreward. The table was shaking, almost a vibration, and it was bad in this particular section of the restaurant. The hostess said she would move us if it was too bad. Since this ship has a vibration to it pretty much wherever you are, we must have gotten used to it because we didn’t move. That’s one thing about the Spirit, we felt this vibration throughout the ship. It wasn’t a problem, but it was definitely something that you could feel, especially laying in the cabin, that we had not felt in previous ships.

But the supper club is a must stop. They has singers in there and it is located at the top of the atrium. You can either take the glass elevators to the 10th floor and walk directly over, or take the elevator to the 9th floor and walk the remaining floor up the glass, see-through steps. Trying to walk up glass stairs while looking down 10 stories is definitely an experience.

 

 

Well, I have to sign off for now. I realize this post has been very long. I will add to it tomorrow and address the shore excursions and the cruise director Todd Wittmer. You can e-mail questions directly and I’ll try to answer. Mail me at Goofballs@usa.com

[iamirish]

Goofballs,

 

Great review - I look forward to your second part tomorrow. I am going on the Spirit on November 1st.

 

Tom

[Bucky3]

Thank you for all the great information. Look forward to what you did on shore. Why did you not get to Z/Ixpata??

[cruznon]

Goofballs,

Thanks for the review. We were on the Pride, the Spirit's sister ship and totally agree with you about the lovely, large cabins.

I , too, would like to know about no Z/Ixtapa. Is this a permanent thing or what?:confused:

[lvrgrl]

lvrgrl - Thanks for your report. Look forward to more reviews. Did you reserve a car online before you left? Who did you rent from and where did you pick up van in Acapulco? Was driving easy there? Did you rent vans in the other ports as well? Thanks for any info on this subject.

No problem. I promise I'll write more later. When we got off the ship in Acapulco, you walk down and will end up walking through a building (sorry Roberto)...the port authority building?and shops. As soon as you enter and exit that building there are tons of taxi drivers and van drivers willing to take you anywhere. We did not reserve anything beforehand. We had a driver drive us around in the taxi van. So we got to kick back, enjoy the sights, and not have to worry about driving ourselves around. I heard you should negotiate prices before going with them. We got a great deal.

When we went to Manzanillo we walked off and there were no more vans left so our group of 13 piled into 3 different taxis. They have a chart of destinations with the prices listed next to them. We ended up having them drive us around and paid them by the hour. We went to a flea market and to the beach ate, drank and went on a banana boat. Regarding Acapulco we received much informatio and help from Roberto. He has a thread on this board. Go to points of interest and then to Mexican Riviera and then Acapulco. Roberto's screen name here is ACA_Port Authority. Thanks to Roberto for all the info and help!

[Goofballs]

lvrgrl,

 

You can tell people the good experiences in shore excursions and I can fill them in on what NOT to do. We took three shore excursions--all purchased from the ship. We were disappointed in two out of the three. The third was O.K. but we would do that one differently too.

We arrived in Acapulco about 5:00 pm and overnighted there, leaving the next day at 5:30 0r 6:00 pm. This gave us lots of time there. This was caused by a one-time "operational issue" in which Carnival had to pull the Ixtapa/Z-nejo stop. This affected only the first sailing. We heard it had to do with no place for the tenders to dock, but depending on who you talked to you would get a different answer. In any event all others sailing will have the full three stops.

We went on the Cliff Divers Night Trip. A little background is in order here.

The cliff divers dive every day, seven days per week. They dive at 1:00 in the afternoon, then each evening at 7:00, 8:00, 9:00 and 10:00 pm )but it's what they refer to as Mexican time so the time are not real firm). We paid about $40 per person and were told to meet at the pier at 8:15 pm. We get off the ship and walk the length of the ship to a small terminal building. It is a small building containing 10 or 12 shops around the perimeter and a small bar in the middle. Upstairs up a small spiral staircase is a bank of phones, some computers to access the Internet, and a fax machine. I made use of all three services. The Internet is MUCH cheaper here, so if you want to surf the net, catch up on scores or hometown news, do it here instead of the Internet cafe. Anyway, back to the Cliff Divers.

We get on a bus just outside of the terminal building. The tour is billed as cliff divers, a visit to a jewelry store, a "folkorico" show (native Indian dancing) and a free drink.

The bus takes the five minute drive to the cliff diving area, called La Cabrera, Spanish for broken cliffs. There you get off in a parking lot of a jewerly store called Taxco. You get a number pasted on your shirt while exiting the bus. You are told this sticker lets everyone know you are part of a tour and you have already paid a fee, some of which goes to the cliff divers. You then enter the jewelry store along with, in our case, 11 other buses. Everyone has a number. You are elbow to elbow, looking at the highest priced jewelry I've ever seen in Mexico. We have done the other Mexican Riveria tour and shopped Tijuans and Tecate and have never seen such high prices. The drinks are watered down too, but you expect that.

Then you are herded, and I do mean herded, into a stairwell that leads down towards the dive show. Along the stairwell down you pass through five or six levels of restaurant. you simplu peel off when you see a table you like. Most or right along a rail overlooking the cove. You fight for the attention of the waiter to get your first of two drinks provided for free. Tip--even though the drinks are free if you tip the waiter on the first one I promise the following drinks will be restaurant quality, not tour bus quality. No one figured out why my Pina Coloda was taller, with a slice of pineapple and a cherry.

The divers appear on the staire going down to the water, they walk down, stopping occasionally to wave. They jump in, swim the 25 feet across the cove and begin their climb to the 126 foot cliff. There are between 5 to 7 divers per performance and they each dive only once. They then get out of the water, run up the stairs and are there as you exit asking for tips. The whole dive show was ten minutes max. The folk dancing thing was colorful but there was no intro, soit looked like people in colorful costumes dancing. Then back through a gauntlet of vendors trying to eek out a living, into a crowded bus for the five minute trip back.

It was oversold by Carnival and the cruise director, Todd. He's a nice guy but he (and they) oversell and overpromise on all of the shore excursions I was a part of.

So, there you have it. Was it fun? Yes. Was it beautiful? Absolutely. Would I do it again? Yes!! But in a taxi cab. Catch a cab, say La Cabrera, go into the five level restaurant there and buy a drink, or a full meal. Enjoy the show and take a cab back to the ship. I mean it. Even a novice couldn't goof this one up. It's the simplest shore excursion you will ever do. You are no more than five minutes from the ship the entire time.

 

Sending now without proofreading - so excuse any errors. It's late.

[bbiggar]

Goofballs, thanks for the tip about the cliff divers. This is why I posted this thread in the first place. Can't wait to hear the rest of your port tours. I hope this thread keeps going and going just like this. I sail the end of January and can't get enough info. Thanks again

[nancyjw]

Goofballs or lvrgrl.,... how is the Cliff Divers after dark. Are you able to see them well enough? We are going 11 Dec and still haven't made up our minds on how we want to see the divers, from the restaurant, from a boat or what. I hate making these decisions, just know I will pick the wrong way to do something, lol. that is why I come to these boards for all of ya'll's help. Thank you.

[Goofballs]

I think either the boat or the shore would be nice. I didn't see any boats, and I watched the show twice (one day and one night show) but they could have been there outside of my view. But you can see fine from the shore. I assume you would from the boat too.It depends on what YOU want. If you want the leisurly boat thing, maybe they drive you around in the boat or serve you a meal, then that sounds nice. Unless your boat holds hundreds of people (which I doubt) you will probably get more personal service on the boat tour then on the shore excursion. The shore excursion is really a cattle call type of treatment, despite how the brochure describes it. We had 4 or 5 days after Acapulco to talk with others and I don't know anyone who truly enjoyed the shore excursion like they thought they would.

Aa for your question about lighting? The entire area is well lighted, so you will have no difficulty seeing due to darkness. They illuminate the entire cliff, landing area and surrounding area. Darkness spoiling the view is not even an issue. The last dive of the evening at night the diver has two torches in his hands. It is beautiful watching him dive from the highest point (there is a secondary point that is 20 feet or so down the cliff that they dive from too) with his torches lit, but it's a 2.5 second flight til the water extinguishes the torches.

The only thing you will get with the shore excursion package that you won't get if you go on you own is some information on the divers. So her it is:

This was started in the 1930 by fishermen diving down to unsnag their lines. It became a competitive thing between divers. The competition eventually became a tourist attraction. There are 53 divers authorized to dive here. They have a union. $2 from each shore excursion payee to the divers. The money is pooled and distributed to the divers. The divers range from 12 to 57 years of age (or 14 to 57 depending on which tour guide you believe). There are 5 or 6 divers per show. They take turns which means they dive every other day.

 

Hope this helps.The cliff dive show is beautiful and shouldn't be missed, it's just how you decide to do it.

[Goofballs]

The divers are reported to earn about $3000 pesos per month (about $300). This is a low to low medium living wage for a Mexican family, so the divers pose for pictures, sign programs, etc. for tips as you exit the show. The tips are also pooled and divided between the divers.

Hope I'm not dominating the board. How about some of you others who were there jumping in??