Hello all
I have just come home from a Carnival Cruise on the Elation down to Mexico "Riviera".
The ship was absolutely terrific. There was such a lot of things to do on board that I did not get around to some of them but they then screened them on your TV so if you missed them you at least had something.
The ship was huge and absolutely clean. My one complaint of the ship is that if they had dropped the height of the windows a little then one could have sat in the cabin and looked out which would have been nice. I recently had a cruise on Norwegian Wind in Alaska and they have a table and chairs beside the window which is table height and its lovely looking out along the coast line to Alaska.
However good the ship is though it is held back in terms of " greatness of the trip" by the ports of call and I guess that nothing can be done about that. What I am trying to say is that the Mexico "Riviera" leaves a lot to be desired and is more of a 3rd world area than I imagined. Dirty, run-down, uninteresting but expensive.
Other than that last fact I would go for another Carnival Cruise any time as everything about it was first class

Liz,

Last Oct. we cruised from LA to Acapulco on Princess. Totally agree with you on the ports - by the third port I didn't even bother getting off of the ship.

We're leaving this Sunday for 7 days from Miami to Western Carib. on Carnival Paradise. Am glad to read a good review about Carnival!

LizF: Thanks for the post, was thinking of the exact cruise this comming Spring. Now have second thoughts based on your comments. Why don't you post your comments on the Fodors Cruise Forum, I'm sure you will get more responses.

Carol, have fun on your cruise. My friend and I did the W. Caribbiean on Carnaval a few years ago and had a ball!

This is the cruise mentality, stay on the ship because you obviously know nothing of the world nor have interest in learning of the places or people. Mexico & it's people are great, you just have to leave the "Disneyland" mentality at home.

Henry,

I have been to Mexico MANY times and just elect now to not do much visiting while in those ports! Don't see any reason for your negative reaction, though.

My main reason that I no longer spend much time on land in Mexico is that the last time we were in La Paz I ended up with salmonella poisoning (determined to be caused by shrimp cultivated in a raw sewerage area!). Go through that lovely experience one time in your life, and it's more than enough!

Didn't mean to sound condescending about Mexico in my original response, but we all have our reasons for replying as we do...

In your ear Henry you don't know what you are talking about.