Publius1787

We took the water taxi last year and the walk to Atlantis was maybe 10 minutes, we stopped at a Starbucks for an Iced Coffee on the walk. Once you are on Paradise Island everything seems to be pretty close.

I suffer from Superior Cancal Dehiscence, which is a small hole has formed in my inner ear canal. I have had a few serious vertigo episodes, but I have never had a problem cruising. I have had a few issues during excursions, mainly from rough bus rides and heights, but I have learned how to deal with it, with a lot of support from my wonderful wife. My Doctor said I probably would not notice the motion on the ship as much as others since I already have a small balance issue from my inner ear issue and this seems to be the case. I have taken 8 cruises in the past 6 years and have sailed in some very rough waters and never had any issues, (knocking on wood!)

We were on the 15 day Hawaiian cruise in Jan and there seemed to be a small amount of kids onboard. School schedules have a lot to do with how many kids can cruise, so I would image that Oct is similar to Jan.

We have completed 8 Carnival cruises in the last 6 years and we have loved each one. We have always had great service and a fun time, there is something fun to do at all times. We cruise for the time to relax more so than ports, we have started to do B2B cruises to get the most time to relax and enjoy ourselves. Carnival overall has the best prices and best overall options to relax and have a good time. We are in our 50's, so we aren't looking for booze cruises, just a good time without too many hassles. My Wife is already Platinum and I will be next year, so we do enjoy the perks that come with that.

We are booked on the Carnival Dream out of New Orleans and we will be stopping in Costa Maya.

We have booked this cruise on the Dream. I can asnwer some of your questions:

We are flying in 2 days early, just because we want to spend time in New Orleans, it's a fun city to leave from.

We had been looking at the Interiors with the Window but decided on a Balcony, but we would do the Interior without hesitation.

Key West is a great place to visit, you don't have to purchase an excursion, you can walk just about anywhere. Freeport you will have to leave the port to see anything and Nassau has a combination of things close by and also around the island.

You do not take your lifejacket to the Muster Drill, they will call everyone, usually around 3:30 to your assigned stattion and it usually takes about 15 minutes.

Embarkation in New Orleans is pretty smooth, we are Platinum but we cruised with non priority friends and they were on not long after we were.

All the pools and slides are salt water.

If you book the cruise you should join our Roll Call here on CC!

You will still be able to see the staff dancing and singing with ATD depending on the times you go they usually do it around 7 and 9.

After the 2.0 upgrades last year they removed the smoking areas on the Conquest from the Lido. It used to be the area where they put the Guy's Burger joint. We were on the Conquest after the upgrades and if I remember they moved the smoking area up to the Panorama Deck 10.

We have a Dream cruise booked for Feb of 2015 out of NOLA that goes to Coz, Roatan and Costa Maya. We wanted to avoid the tender process at Belize on such a large ship. It seems all of the Dream itineraries out of NOLA are 3 port cruises but Costa Maya is only offered 2 times in Feb of 2015.

We loved taking the shuttle and spending the day there. It was cheap, $7 a person for a round trip ticket. It is so much nicer than being accosted by the vendors in La Romana. There are some nice little cafes to sit and relax with a drink or snack and a lot of things to see in Altos De Chavon. The next time we stop in La Romana we will do this trip again.

We just got off the Miracle Sunday after 15 days to Hawaii. We had also been on the Miracle 2 year earlier and we felt this last cruise was a much better experience. We had a great experience in the MDR, our staff was awesome and the food was great every night. We really like the deck layouts on the Miracle, straight paths on every deck. The Lido Buffet could use more seating, there are times when it is very hard to find tables, but we would go out to the Serenity right behind the buffet and find tables there. The staff was very friendly and we hope to book another Miracle trip for 2015 to Alaska. We did not see any true cons other than the lack of activities in the afternoon, but with 10 sea days to fill this is probably not a normal situation for the entertainment staff.

We were on the Miracle trip and it was interesting. 24 hours before heading in to Maui it started getting rough, and around 10PM the night before port we had all the glasses in the room fly off the counter and shatter on the floor. Housekeeping came right away and cleaned up, they said they we getting a lot of the same calls all over the ship. We arrived in Maui about 4 hours late and then we did have to miss the final port in Kona due to the waves and not being able to tender. We made the best of it and enjoyed the trip despite the sometime not ideal weather.

We did one a year ago on the Conquest, booked the same room for each leg. The whole process was very easy and relaxing, we plan on doing another one next year on the Dream.

We are booked on the Carnival Miracle leaving in under 2 weeks from LA on a 15 day trip to Hawaii and back to LA. Carnival offers 2 or 3 of these between Oct and Dec and then another 2 or 3 Jan through April.

Thanks for the review, we will be taking the upcoming Jan 18th Hawaiian cruise on the Miracle and are so excited to read about your recent trip.

We had the room next door, 8272 a couple of years ago and loved it. We booked 8277 for our 15 day Hawaiian cruise in 2 months. It's so nice sitting at the back of the ship, it's not very windy and very peaceful. They have turned the area above on the Lido into the Serenity area, so it won't be very noisy. The location is great, up one flight and your right in the Lido buffet area or the Serenity area.

My wife just made Platinum on Carnival, and has 2 other RCL cruises. I have 7 Carnival and one Princess cruise from the early 80's. Overall we love what Carnival provides us, we probably will use Princess for an future Alaskan Land/Cruise tour, but otherwise we will stick with Carnival. I should make Platinum myself in early 2015, and my wife has said her goal is Diamond someday!

We stayed in 8272 right below the rear of the Lido and never had any issues. We booked 8277 for our Jan 2014 Hawaiian cruise. We love the Aft Ext balcony cabins and we have never had any issues with noise.

We were in La Romana in 2011 and had a great time at Altos de Chavon. We took the shuttle into downtown first and got back on the first one we could find to get back to the ship, the vendors were horrible! We then took the $7 shuttle to Altos and we had the best time there. The ride is about 20 minutes and we probably spent 2 hours walking around. We stopped and had a drink in a local cafe and the people were so friendly. There are paths to walk around the whole village and beautiful views all over. It turned out to be one of our most relaxing and enjoyable ports, going downtown was one of the worst experiences, so it changed 180 degrees by going to Altos. I'm not sure if a taxi will take you there since you have to go into a private community to get to the village, but the shuttle is easy and runs every 30 minutes.

Thanks for all the photos and updates! We will be on the Elation in Ooctober and we enjoyed our last B2B on the Conquest so much we will be spending 2 days before the cruise in NOLA at the Drury! We had so much fun last month, we can't wait to get back in warmer weather.