I did the FAA IR in 2 1/2 weeks and a total of 62 hours, it was flying most days and hard work on occasions but worth it. 9 weeks does seem very high to me!
I did the writtens before I went up at Norwich with Tom Hughston, he did a groundschool, mock exams and final exam for the sum of £90, bloody good value in my books. That was over a year ago now so prices may have risen.
When I was in California all I had to concentrate on then was the flying. I was short on XC time sop basically we dissappeared off on trips and combined the traning with a bit of sight seeing (or not if you are under the hood
). The reccommended duration of the couse is roughly 40hours flying but if you have previous experience (such as IMC) and you meet the min requirements to sit the checkride then I believe you can be cut free earlier.
Why not combine doing the IR with some hour building somewhere interesting, can highly reccommend West Coast of US - never got bored and I am off back in May to do some more!