HangryGrl

On 5/3/2024 at 4:57 PM, Drew B 58 said:

It was actually your review (which I appreciated, so thank you!) that spurred me to start this thread.  You posted the vegan breakfast menu, but not the one for brunch…. You said this:

 

“There is also a Sea Day Brunch vegan menu that we did not get a picture of.”

 

That’s what spurred me to search!  😀

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.

On 5/1/2024 at 8:03 PM, MadManOfBethesda said:

AFAIK, there is no special Vegan menu for brunch. In fact, you can't even get a veggie burger in lieu of the beef burger. The seaday brunch is a complete waste of time for Vegans.

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.

9 minutes ago, MadManOfBethesda said:

That wasn't my experience at all on my 10-night Christmas cruise on Venezia. While I occasionally ordered the night before because my wife needed to oder her gluten-free items in advance, I normally just waited until the same evening to order off of the vegan menu. The only pushback I received (if you can call it that) was that I sometimes was told that it would take longer to receive my entree'. But I was never outright refused the option of ordering from the vegan menu for that same night.

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?

33 minutes ago, MisterOJ2 said:

We didn't. I didn't realize it was the sort of thing you had to order the day before. We just saw a couple things that looked tasty on the vegan menu when we pulled up that night's menus in the MDR. The servers didn't say that we had to order off that menu in advance. And I don't remember seeing that noted on the menu or in the app. 

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.

19 hours ago, MisterOJ2 said:

We were on the Spirit last month and tried ordering from the new vegan menu a couple of times. But each time we did, our waiter looked confused, walked away from the table for a minute and then came back and said that it "wasn't available." So we just stuck to the regular menu after that.

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.

3 hours ago, Bollycats said:

Not the OP but I do have a question based on your pictures in the review. I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years and the last time I tried vegan cheese was probably 25 years ago. It was horrible! It looked like plastic and didn't melt at all. Just recently I was thinking of trying it again, thinking it HAS to be better all these years later, but based on your pictures it looks like it still doesn't melt real well. Can you tell me your thoughts?

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.

1 hour ago, Sonyar said:

Hi, Carnival first timer here.

If you preorder the port day express breakfast do you book a time?

Oh and is oat or almond milk available please?

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.  

7 hours ago, pirate4me2 said:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2974723-carnival-vegan-menu-review-w-pictures/

 

I loved this fairly recent (Nov 2023) review!

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!!  🙂  

On 12/9/2023 at 11:33 AM, mayja0619 said:

You said something about ordering the vegan breakfast the night before. How and where do you do this?

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.

23 hours ago, markwfpb said:

Thanks for all the details and pics - Carnival has never been on my radar but we'll definitely consider it now. 

We've had mixed results with vegan meals on NCL and Holland America after talking to the maitre D and servers. Lots of pasta, fake beef and cobbling together salads and sides - you know the story. 

What determines when Carnival offers the vegan menu - meal time, sea days vs port days or something else?

Thanks again! 

 

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.

On 11/18/2023 at 11:50 PM, momof3cruisers said:

That seems like a lot of great options. I’m not a vegan or even vegetarian but I think it’s really cool that Carnival is doing this. Do other lines offer similar vegan options?

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.

On 11/17/2023 at 7:43 PM, pinto18 said:

Thanks for the pictures and reviews! Looks like there was a good variety , even with some "misses". I am hoping my two vegan sons will cruise with us so this will help

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