HangryGrl

Oh right! I had forgotten we didn't get a picture. Overall if I remember correctly we didn't really enjoy the specific brunch items as much as the regular breakfast items and started just ordering basically the same things for each breakfast.

This is no longer true with the roll out of the new Vegan menus last fall. Tons of options now.

See my review from October. Lots of new options with the new vegan menu rollout!

Yes, you can bring a 12 pack of sealed 12oz (or less) non-alcoholic cans per person on board at embarkation as well as in each port if you like. On our October cruise we brought a 12 pack of Coke Zero and a 12 pack of Red Bull on at embarkation. It was a 15 day cruise so we also restocked once we got to Hawaii.

For us it depended a lot on how fast we were moving. We were in the very forward deck 5 balcony on Miracle to Hawaii in October. We were clipping along pretty good on the way out and back and the balcony was basically unusable. Super windy and cold. We even had a block on the forward side by part of the ship. When we were going more slowly in Hawaii it was better but still windy. We definitely did not get the use out of the balcony we normally do.

27 Waterfalls of Damajagua - IGUANA MAMA SHORE EXCURSIONS Second vote for the waterfalls in Amber Cove! Definitely in the top 3 excursions we have ever done!

We did the 15 night Hawaii on the Miracle this past October. Flew into Long Beach from Denver (Southwest) and stayed at the Renaissance in downtown Long Beach. Long Beach airport is super small (8 gates I think?) and it was really crowded the day we flew home. Possibly from a bunch of other cruisers also trying to get home. No where to sit at the gate so we ended up sitting in the open-air breezeway between the 2 "concourses". Our flight didn't leave until 4pm so we hung out at the Long Beach Exchange for quite a while. Long Beach Exchange (thelongbeachexchange.com)

I can't help with menu's but I think my husband brought home most of the Fun Times. I don't really want to take pictures of every side of all 15 days but if there is something specific you are looking for I can check.

Interesting. How long ago was this? We went on Miracle right after the menus were released (weren't even available on the app yet) so I wonder if it was just a training/newness of concept issue?

Yea, we were told everything on the vegan menus for all meals was order ahead only. We ordered both breakfast for the next morning and dinner for the next evening at dinner each evening. The very first day we went to see the maitre'd during their open hours and they had the menu available for us to order for the first evenings dinner.

Did you ask the night before for the following evening? They won't let you order same night. We did have some evenings it wasn't available but we were thinking it is because they probably only have 7 nights worth and our cruise was 15.

There are some amazing vegan chesses now but whatever Carnival used did not melt well. It tasted ok but I also have issues with that weird texture so I mostly picked things without the vegan cheese or asked for it without (breakfast sandwiches). My husband doesn't mind the texture as much so most of those pics were of his food. We just picked up the new oat milk Diaya last week and highly recommend!! It melts super well, tastes great and has much better texture melted than anything we have had so far. We even made quesadillas and mu husband was in heaven! 😄 I still prefer Vio Life for unmelted applications but that is just my preference.

We did not book a time, just showed up and let the wait staff know we had pre-ordered. I think we only had one super early morning and we skipped the dining room and just got some fruit and stuff from the buffet. My husband was able to get almond milk in the dining room one morning and I know they had soy but I am not sure about oat milk. We don't do a lot of plant-based milks aside from using them for cooking occasionally.

Yay! That is my review! Glad you enjoyed it! OP - Please feel free to ask any questions and I will try to answer as best I can. 🙂

We just did this cruise in October. Miracle is great and very unique in it's décor! We loved it but have heard others call it "ostentatious" or "gaudy". Lots of fun areas to hang out in for whatever your mood is. Dinner was pretty casual for the most part. Hubby wore nice jeans with polos most nights and dockers type slacks with a button down shirt on formal nights. I wore casual skirts with nice short sleeved tops on causal nights and semi casual cocktail type dresses on formal nights. There were people dressed more nicely and more informally than us each night. The captain, his wife, some of the officers and their families ate dinner in the MDR (late seating) at least half the nights and were all dressed very nicely each evening (evening dresses, full hair and makeup for the ladies, uniforms for the officers). Let me know if you have any specific questions and I can try to answer them!

This is opinion only but I can give you a pretty direct comparison from our experience. We sailed the Reflection last December (11 nights) and the Miracle this October (15 day Journeys). They are very different experiences in pretty much every way. Décor - The Reflection was what you would probably consider upscale and subdued vs the Miracle which is colorful and what some have termed as ostentatious. We actually completely loved the Miracle's décor and are firmly in the "keep Miracle weird" camp! Cabin - We had a larger "hump" balcony on both ships. Balconies on both ships were fine, no complaints. Even though the Miracle is older (built in 2004 vs Reflection in 2012) we found it to be in better shape overall including the cabin. We had zero issues with our Miracle cabin but an ongoing balcony door issue and a squishy bathroom floor (somehow got water under the flooring every time we showered) on Reflection. They tried to fix the door twice and we finally gave up and rigged up a way ourselves to keep the latch closed so that it didn't whistle constantly. We also found that the Miracle cabin felt more spacious. Not sure if it was an actual difference in room size or just size or orientation of the furnishings. The space between the wall and the foot of the bed was the most obvious difference. Staff - The staff on the Miracle was way more friendly. I actually don't think we ever saw our cabin attendant on the Reflection but Jerrymil on the Miracle was our favorite cabin attendant ever! He was present during the day, upbeat and always greeted us by our names. We even found out that he loved ginger ale and tried to grab him some whenever we were off ship. 🙂 Dining staff on the Reflection was nice and helpful but all of our wait staff on the Miracle was just a step above. Our assistant waiter Wanwipa even brought us a cocktail each night to pair with our dinners! We did breakfast in the MDR most mornings and even staff that only had us one time remembered our names and greeted us when we would see them at dinner or in the buffet. Food - We are vegan so not sure I will be much help here but we did enjoy the additional free options (Guys, Blue Iguana, Pizza) on Miracle. The reflection doesn't really have anything along these lines so it is really just the buffet for breakfast and lunch. General- The overall age of the passengers was much older on the Reflection. We felt like we were one of the younger couples on board. Possibly due to this there was basically no nightlife at all on Reflection. Everything, including bars and hot tubs closed super early (8 for hot tubs and bars by 10 most nights) so there was not much to do after. We much preferred Miracle in this respect as there was always a late hot tub open for an after dinner soak and the bars stayed open so you could grab a drink and find some entertainment after 10pm. We also appreciated all the different areas of the Miracle that provided nice places to sit and play a game, read a book, etc. No matter what time of day you could fine a lively space or a quiet retreat. Overall you can probably tell we much preferred the Miracle in all aspects. We have cruised Royal, Carnival and Celebrity and I doubt we will ever go back to Celebrity, just not our jam. Hope this helps. Enjoy the Miracle!! 🙂

You order it from your dinner waiter at the same time you order your dinner for the following evening. If you don't go to dinner I think you could probably go into the dining room during dinner service and ask the Maitre'd if you could order with them. When you go to breakfast in the morning you just need to let your waiter know that you pre-ordered breakfast the night before and your cabin #. Try to grab them when you order drinks because it does take a little more time than the normal breakfast.

So we think that they probably only have 7 nights of the vegan menu and because our cruise was 15 we only had the option some nights. Not 100% sure on that though. Our servers did not seem to know why either. We would have been fine just doing the rotation twice if this was the case. We know the whole thing is still super new and getting rolled out so we were not too surprised it didn't go completely smoothly. It was a mix of sea and port days. The vegan breakfast menu was available every day but it varied between the Port Day menu, Sea Day non brunch menu and Sea Day Brunch menu. 1st 2 had fewer options which I am guessing follows the standard menu.

Royal now has a vegan option for app, entrée and dessert on the MDR menu every night now also. It is nice to have some choice though vs just one option. We cruised on Celebrity last December and they just "surprised" us each night. It was ok but this experience was better. Also the buffet options on pretty much every ship we have been on have not been stellar so we really appreciate the additional lunch options Carnival offers.

I really hope they have enough interest to keep it around long term!

Debarkation Day - Morning Nights - Long Beach We had about 4 hours to kill before we needed to get to the airport and found the Long Beach Exchange online. There are a ton of different restaurants and stores. Lots of places to sit even though it was a Sunday. They even had a little market going on with vendors set up to browse. It ended up being perfect and really close to the airport. They also had an Ike's Love and Sandwiches and a couple other places with vegan options. Salt & Pepper Shrooms. Really good and a huge potion! These were super crunchy and flavorful! Orange Chicken. Also really good! Real orange flavor vs the fake sweet one you get most places. Egg Rolls. Also very good! A variety of different veggies in the filling including wood ear mushrooms which gave it a nice texture.

Day 15: Port Day - Ensenada Breakfast sandwich, avocado toast Avocado toast w/egg, hashbrowns Mojk Vegan Tacos: This place was legit! Every thing is vegan. The menu is all in Spanish so if you don't read/speak Spanish plan ahead or google translate the menu if you have cell service. They also do not speak much English but pointing works. My Spanish is rusty but I can still read pretty well. Speaking not so much so there was a lot of pointing at the menu and using my fingers to indicate how many we wanted. Also they brought everything out one at a time and in the order we ordered. We didn't mind but got our chips and guac at the end when we were already pretty full. Cauliflower "fish" tacos. This was amazing!! Best cauliflower taco we have ever had! Salsa roja and Aji Amarillo (yellow one, so spicy!!!). I hear her say what the yellow one was when she set it down but it didn't register so when I tried it I was in tears! Aji Amarillo peppers are ~50,000 Scoville's compared to a jalapeno which is about 7,000. As soon as I ate it my brain was like "oh she said Aji Amarillo!". Thanks slow brain! Asada taco (left) Chorizo queso taco (right). The Asada taco was amazing! Smoky and yummy! Would definitely get that one and the cauliflower taco again. The chorizo one was good too but we both preferred the other. Dorados w/nopales. The nopales were really good. We added them to a few things. Neither of us had ever had them but enjoyed them. The dorados were good, extremely hot (heat not spice) and stayed that way for a bit! The pickled onions on top really added some nice flavor. Chips and Guac. Good! Night 15: Vegan menu for the last night Fried tomatoes w/Remoulade. These were ok. Kind of bland without the remoulade. I ate mine and Erik's and he had most of my soup. Minestrone. This was ok but I wouldn't call it minestrone. No pasta or beans. Mostly potatoes and carrots. Enchiladas. Again these tasted better than they looked. Erik really enjoyed them. I am not a huge fan of vegan cheese but the sauces were good. Penne w/roasted tomatoes, broccoli & cream. This is what it was advertised as but there was no broccoli, they added the vegan shrimp instead. I would have preferred broccoli. Otherwise it was fine. I probably wouldn't get it again. Shots! Scooby snack and Wanwipa's personal concoction. One had Midori and the other had blue curacao.

Day 14: Sea Day Brunch Huevos rancheros. Good! I really wish we would have tried this earlier! This was our last sea day brunch and it wasn't an option on the regular vegan breakfast menus. Spicy chickpea and quinoa hash. This was ok. Erik enjoyed it more than I did. It was somehow bland and spicy at the same time. Spinach, mushroom, onion omelet for me with "hashbrowns". This is the point in the cruise where I think they ran out of the hashbrowns and switched over to tots. As long as I get fried potatoes I don't care what form they come in! Guys burgers Night 14: Vegan menu! Chicken strips /sweet chili sauce & Asian slaw. This was good. Nice for something different and the sauce was pretty tasty West Indian Pumpkin soup. Good! Stuffed Portobello mushroom. This was better than the smaller stuffed mushrooms. I can't remember what was in the stuffing but everything went together well. Beef lasagna. This was really good, nice that it was different from the 1st veggie lasagna. It had a lot of beyond beef though so if you aren't a fan then you might not enjoy this one. Tequila sunrise I didn't get a pic of this one but it was good.

Day 13: Funghi Pizza Egg rolls Night 13: No vegan menu Portuguese kale soup. This looks like dishwater I know but it was actually really good! Spinach, arugula, strawberry & feta salad. This was pretty good. Nice for something different salad wise. Shrimp creole. This was good but got to be a lot. Erik did not like the vegan shrimp so we actually ended up leaving some of this one. Indian (smoky eggplant and potato curry). This was really good. The eggplant was nice and smoky and the sauce with the potatoes was flavorful. This was probably my favorite Indian dish. Kiss on the lips. Good! Another candy straw though.

Day 12: Spinach, mushroom, onion omelet, avocado toast w/egg Salads for lunch. We brought some of our own dressings that we picked up at Safeway the night we were in Long Beach. Follow Your Heart Ranch for hubby and Makoto Ginger dressing for me. Overall we were happy with the variety and quality on the salad bar. Night 12: no vegan menu Soup (vegetable w/green chiles (mostly potatoes). We didn't get a pic of this one but it was decent. Fideos secos (Spaghetti w/tomato chipotle ragu). This is still pasta but gave Erik a little variety. Chile rellenos, rice, broccoli, carrots. This was a huge gamble. No vegan menu and I told the waiter that I did not want pasta or Indian food again. He suggested we see if they could do something with the chile rellnos from the regular menu. I was pretty worried I was going to get a ton of vegan cheese which I don't really like much. It ended up being a good gamble though! This pepper was huge and filled w/mashed potatoes and some other veggies. Sauce on the side is good, not spicy. Only complaint on this one was the carrots were basically raw. Crème Brule. Same comment as before.