Carnival Miracle 5/6/18 - My Review and What I Learned On This Cruise

Okay, just a couple things I learned with Cheers:

 

We had Cheers for the first time this cruise and it was nice to get pretty much what we wanted and not worry about the price tag. I feel we got our money's worth out of it even with 4 ports. We learned that if you order an alcoholic drink, you can order a non-alcoholic drink at the same time without having to wait 5 minutes between (say for example, you can get a cocktail and a soda together or a beer and a bottle of water together) or if you order a specialty coffee you can get a bottle of water with it. This wasn't a case of just one bartender skirting the rules, it was anytime we ordered at any bar. This is something I hadn't heard about before going and I don't know if it's something new, so I'd thought I'd share that.

 

We hit up the coffee bar a good bit and learned you're not just limited to the menu, you can pretty much customize your drink in several ways, my morning go to was a triple espresso with amaretto syrup and milk. Everything at the coffee bar is all included in Cheers, with the exception of one thing, Odwalla bottled smoothies, they are $3.99 a piece.

 

I'm gonna take a break for a bit, when I come back I'll cover the ports and the spa.

That’s good to know about ordering two drinks. I’m always amazed people buy water at $5 a clip but not the cheers package when they don’t drink that much and there are ways around that. Triple espresso?!! Wow good for you.

Sent from my iPhone wishing there were more swingers.

Sounds like y'all had a pretty relaxing time. Thank you for all the info

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

Triple espresso?!! Wow good for you.

Hey, you need it after the previous night of your bar staff starts bringing you doubles after you tip a couple bucks :D

When it says on shore time 815 are they referring to you WILL be on shore at that time or they don't let you start getting off the ship until that time?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

When it says on shore time 815 are they referring to you WILL be on shore at that time or they don't let you start getting off the ship until that time?

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

Well, if they dock or drop anchor at 0800, they expect to start letting people off or loading the first tender around that time.

Gotcha.. thanks

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

Did you venture into the Alchemy Bar at all? Just wondering who was on staff and how they were? Thanks, I'm really enjoying the review!

Did you venture into the Alchemy Bar at all? Just wondering who was on staff and how they were? Thanks, I'm really enjoying the review!

We went twice, the bartender that was there both times we went pretty much just seemed to be going through the motions just making drinks, no showmanship or any real personality. Really disappointing compared to the guy who made our drinks on the Ecstasy last year who was a real character and made mixing a drink very entertaining.

Okay guys, I'm not really sure what else to write about, but if anyone has any questions or wants to know anything about something I have or haven't covered, I'm more than happy to respond!

I'm working on going through, editing and uploading some pictures, but it's going slowly. I'll post links to them as soon as I'm done.

Thank you for reviewing your cruise.

Hi schazzy. We're planning to to go the beach by the port in Roatan like you did. Can you give us any pointers on that? We've been to this port before but not to that beach. Also, do we have to take the chair lift or is it accessible by foot?

Hi schazzy. We're planning to to go the beach by the port in Roatan like you did. Can you give us any pointers on that? We've been to this port before but not to that beach. Also, do we have to take the chair lift or is it accessible by foot?

Chairlift isn't required, the beach is accessible by a footpath, and if I remember correctly, the entrance to it is near the ticket booth for the chairlift. Once you are there, there will be some free-to-use loungers down on the beach.

Like I said, we had the package that included the clam shell, loungers, and floats. But, even if you don't get a package, you can still rent any of those things once you are there.

There are some food/drink venues there you can walk up to, prices were a bit high to me, and I'd recommend using cash, they wouldn't take my MIL's prepaid international debit card. If you are out on the beach, there are waiters who will come around with menus, take your order and will bring your food/drinks right to you.

Ok, good to know. I am not a fan of heights so the thought of the chairlift scares me a little. I saw that floats are rentable. We have 2 inner tubes packed along with a portable hand pump to inflate them. Most places don't seem to mind if you bring your own; I hope they don't mind either. :D

Thanks for the review. How was debarkation? Did you do self assist? We always have but it was such a mess on our last cruise (Sunshine).

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for the review. How was debarkation? Did you do self assist? We always have but it was such a mess on our last cruise (Sunshine).

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

It wasn't bad, we did checked bags, had way too much to self-assist.

Following. Can’t wait to read your review!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Okay, on to dining.

 

I would love to be able to say that we had an awesome overall dining experience, but unfortunately, I can't. Some was really good, some was average, some was pretty disappointing.

 

MDR: We had early assigned dining and were seated in a booth for 4. We only ate dinner here the first 3 nights, after that we opted for the Lido. This is why; we had a team of 3 waiters who were very disorganized, the first night I can forgive and understand, but they made little to no effort to try to remember our names or preferences for the next two nights after that. The Head Team Waiter acted totally disinterested and almost to the point of being rude, the Assistant Team Waiters were friendly enough, but English was definitely not their strong suit, they were very hard to understand and we had to repeat ourselves a lot and really seemed like the head waiter had to tell them how to do everything and he acted very frustrated with them. That part aside, the food came out pretty quickly, but the quality was inconsistent, now most dishes we had were good, there were others that totally missed the mark. But really the overall experience was kinda poor compared to previous cruises, so when it got to the fourth night, we just didn't feel like going there anymore and gave the Lido a shot, now this is were it gets better.

 

Lido dinner: OMG! The food was surprisingly good! This was some of the best food I have ever eaten in a buffet, some things were the best I've eaten period! a few of the highlights from the 3 nights we ate there were; perfectly cooked salmon, moist and delicious, the flat iron steaks, I got med rare and DH got med well and both were perfect, we forgot to grab steak knives, but it didn't matter, because we could cut them with our butter knives! The carvery items like roast pork leg, leg of lamb, and roasted turkey were excellent! Other items of mention were fried shrimp, spanakopita, fried stuffed mushrooms, frutti di mare pasta, and veal parmesan that was better than what I had in the MDR. I can highly recommend having dinner in the Lido on the Miracle!

 

Other meals like breakfast, brunch, lunch and snacks were all pretty much of the usual Carnival standard we have experienced before. All pretty good, but nothing outstanding. The old style Off the Grill was pretty good, as was Chopsticks. The deli was still the old menu and every sandwich was made to order, and we enjoyed it. the pizza was as good as always. The regular lunch buffet items that I tried ranged from good to mediocre and the salad bar was good and fresh. Lido breakfast was decent and had the usual offerings. it was good for a quick meal and then off to our port day plans. Sea day brunch was good the first day, the last day wasn't quite as good.

 

I tried the Sushi at Sea one day for lunch and it was really good, equal to the kinda pricey sushi place near home.

 

Now lastly, I come to the steakhouse. Oh I really hate that I can't can't write the glowing review I was expecting to be able to write. We went to Nick and Nora's on the last night to celebrate Mother's Day for my MIL, and we had been looking forward to it all week, thought it'd be a perfect ending to our cruise, but unfortunately it was not. It started well, our servers were friendly and professional, brought us some bread and a pea soup amuse bouche, followed by their Caesar salads and my jumbo shrimp cocktail, all were excellent. That's were the good ended and the trouble began. I ordered the Grilled Prime Cowboy Steak, everyone else ordered the Filet Mignon, and we all got the Yukon gold mash. Well, my FIL and I both ordered our steaks med rare, MIL and DH ordered theirs med well, what we got was bloody rare for mine, medium for FIL, and almost well done for DH and MIL.To add insult to injury, the potatoes were of the consistency and flavor of instant mash. Our server came back over and well, my In-laws are the "we don't want to be any trouble" type and even though I know they weren't happy with it, they said theirs was fine, I pointed out that mine was under-cooked and DH's was over-cooked and she apologized and said she'd take care of it and took the steaks away. I encouraged my in-laws to go ahead and eat so theirs wouldn't just sit there and get cold, and they began to pick at their food pretending to comply, you gotta love them Our server returns a little while later with my same steak, cut out pieces and all, sloppily re-plated, and now just a little pink inside, DH receives a butterflied Filet that is medium and obviously they just tried to cook it on the fly. Okay, I was a little irritated before, now I'm getting upset that now that what was supposed to be a very special dinner was becoming a huge disappointment. I could expect this to happen at a chain restaurant that doesn't specialize in steaks, but at a restaurant that bills itself as a premium steak house, this isn't what I expected. To make a long story short (too late), I spoke to both the maitre d and the manager and they apologized and our meal was comped. We all left very disappointed that it wasn't the perfect night we had thought it would be. I think it must have been an off night for them, because as the manager was finishing talking to me, a server came over and told him that there was a guest who wished to speak to him and I looked over and saw a large party at a table and they didn't look happy.

 

Oh well, we went for drinks and made the best out of the rest of the night.

 

Back with more in a few.

Thank you so much for this great review! We are currently trying to decide whether we should go on the Miracleor the legend in a few months. I had read that miracle had very little food options. I know they do not have two of the newer restaurants that most ships have, but from your review I can see that they still have many of the old options, such as the deli, grill by the pool, Pizza, etc. So still many free options? What about the sushi? The ships we went on always had a little sushi restaurant area that was free. I heard miracle does not have that.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you so much for this great review! We are currently trying to decide whether we should go on the Miracleor the legend in a few months. I had read that miracle had very little food options. I know they do not have two of the newer restaurants that most ships have, but from your review I can see that they still have many of the old options, such as the deli, grill by the pool, Pizza, etc. So still many free options? What about the sushi? The ships we went on always had a little sushi restaurant area that was free. I heard miracle does not have that.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

With the exception of the Steakhouse, Sushi, Coffee bar treats, and some of the room service options, all the other food is included in your fare, granted that's pretty much just the buffet, deli, grill, pizza and Asian food stations on the Lido and all meals in the MDR. But, trust me you won't go hungry, I know I didn't! :D

I replied to your sushi question on your thread, I hope it helps :)

Which ever ship you choose, I'm sure you'll enjoy your cruise.

Hi, What time did you roll into Tampa and what time did they start letting people off? I am contemplating an 11:55 am flight from Tampa airport and wondering if that is too early.

Hi, What time did you roll into Tampa and what time did they start letting people off? I am contemplating an 11:55 am flight from Tampa airport and wondering if that is too early.

We were already docked real early in the morning, not sure what time it was, but still dark outside when I woke up to use the bathroom and looked out the window and saw the lights and noticed we weren't moving. I think the people who chose to carry off their luggage were allowed off sometime between 7 and 8am and we did the checked luggage option and were off and on our way home by 10.

Thanks for the quick reply! That is good to hear , just like in Long Beach we were off by 8 am .

Thank you for this review and the links.

Thank you for such detailed reviews. I really appreciate the information. I will be on the Miracle soon.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Great review - thanks for the info and links to ship docs! You mentioned the Cheers program. Do you recall the price and did you purchase prior to the cruise or once you got on board? Thx!

Great review - thanks for the info and links to ship docs! You mentioned the Cheers program. Do you recall the price and did you purchase prior to the cruise or once you got on board? Thx!

It was $51.95 + 15% gratuity per person, per day by buying it online prior to the cruise, it goes up $5 per person per day buying it on board. We paid $836.40 total for the 2 of us for a 7 day cruise.