ACAPULCO, Mexico — When cruise ships like Celebrity’s Millennium are cleared for disembarking at this aged-but-still pretty Mexican beach resort, passengers have two choices. If you’re booked on one of the ship’s shore excursions, you go left. If you go right, get ready to run the gauntlet of what might be called “off-shore” excursions, those run by about 50 local vendors looking to take you anywhere.
They make cruise-ship shore excursions more attractive. The locals are like locusts. If you make eye contact or utter so much as one word, you have become their amigo, and they’ll do almost anything for your business. Noticing the logo on our bag, one said; “I’ll take you to Starbucks!”
This being the tail end of the cruise ship season in Mexico only makes them more aggressive. It’s really too bad, for passengers and for Acapulco, which continues to be diminished from the ultimate beach-party escape it became when Liz and Eddie and Frank and Elvis made it their personal playground in the ’60s.
Once you survive the 100-yard dash through your new amigos, Acapulco has many points of interest, and not all of them cost mucho pesos. For example, the historic Fuerte de San Diego — aren’t all forts historic? — is right across the street from the Millennium and the information panels inside are loosely translated into English for tourists’ convenience. 
That was to be out first stop, along with our excuse for bypassing the vendors, until one of them told us it was closed on Monday. Six days a week, it’s open, close and costs about $2.50.
If you’re fit and don’t mind the walk, you can trek a couple of miles (or take a cab) to see the famous cliff divers, who leap 125 feet into four feet of ocean water, day and night. When you arrive on foot, there’s a minimal charge.
Or even better, you can do what we did, having already seen the cliff divers: Hop on a local bus and ride to the north end of Acapulco Bay, heart of the local-fare restaurants, hotels, shopping malls and night clubs first made famous in the ’60s. It’s easy to find. Just watch for all those traditional Mexican establishments…Pizza Hut, KFC, McDonald’s and Starbucks.
The bus costs 50 cents each way, and it’s also easy to know which bus to take from the terminal. It’s the one that has hand-written in white paint on the windshield… Walmart.
That’s it…we’re done.