Just off the Miracle: First time with a little one

[SnowWhiteNYC]

Just off the Miracle this morning, finishing our fifth trip on her, but our first cruise with our newly adopted five year old son. Here are a few of my impressions in no particular order:

 

Embarkation: easy...arrived later than we wanted...about 11 am. We are VIP/Platinum and were up on Lido by 11:30. The rest of our group, non-VIP, joined us by 11:45. Rooms were ready at 1:30 exactly and our luggage was all delivered before the muster drill.

 

Muster drill was quick and painless. Sail away was beautiful. Nothing compares to sailing out of NY Harbor. We passed under the Verrazano and were able to make it to our 6pm seating for dinner with no problem.

 

Meals/Food: Our servers were pleasant and hard working. However, compared to my previous 16 CCL cruises, the service was slower than ever...We had "new" menu items and were told that was the reason for the slow down. We never made it out of dinner before 7:30 any night. The new items were meatloaf, mac and cheese and a few others(both listed under "comfort foods") Universally hailed at our table as delicious. All the food was very good, some more so than others, however, the portions seemed smaller than on previous cruises (not necessarily a bad thing). My DH was upset that the shrimp cocktail is no longer an everyday item. Loved breakfast on Lido (seemed to be offering some new items there as well, like mini quiches, breakfast burritos etc...these may have been there before, but I don't recall them). Had lunch in the Dining Room each day...loved the philly cheesesteak sandwich!

 

Camp Carnival: Cannot say enough about this experience! We were nervous about leaving our 5 year old son there as he has only be with us 6 weeks and his English is limited at best. The ladies were lovely and caring and assuring! Daniel loved his time there. Every session had a theme and the activities were educationally based and fun (they made something everytime he was there!). We were able to balance his time there with his time with us and the rest of the family so that we all had a fantastic time. As a side note, this whole experience improved his English dramatically in just the 8 short days!

 

Entertainment: IMHO a little lacking...the two production shows were very good (we have seen them several times each). The punchliner comedy club was okay, but there were a few nights with no comedians scheduled, at times it was too crowded to get in unless you went to the earliest show and stayed. This is the first time I saw guests "carded" if they appeared to be underage at the 18+ shows. Not much else going on compared to my previous cruises. The ventriloquist was good and the Legends show had some performers with very good voices. The CD did a show one night that was funny, but not up to par with other cruises and the entertainment I have experienced. The CD has the potential to be one of the best, but at times he was nowhere to be found and almost non-existent. When he was around we found him to be enthusiastic and entertaining...

 

We did have an itinerary change so that may account for the seeming lack of entertainment especially during our 3 port days...no art auctions, not much on Lido deck, nights with no entertainment except the deck party...A little "dull" at times....

 

Did two roll call cocktail parties and had a blast! Great people from CC and memorable times drinking together at Sam's piano bar!

 

Lido deck and pools crowded on sea days as was to be expected. Chair hogs everywhere and no one policing the situation. But if you didn't want to be by the pools, there were chairs to be found.

 

Debarkation: Smooth and painless again. We left our room at 8:30 and made our way to the Lido deck. Enjoyed breakfast and one last ice cream cone. We were zone 1 and the rest of our group was zone 6. We waited with them and were called at about 9:40. We were at the car by 10.

 

We love the Miracle and have grown fond of her purple grape themed dining room but this may be our last sailing on her for a while, at least until she goes through her major dry dock.

 

This all being said, we had a great cruise and a great vacation. Met wonderful people and spent cherished time with our family. Given a choice, I would be back on her again right now, in a heart beat.

 

Spent the afternoon unpacking and planning our next cruise....thinking Magic out of Galveston....

 

Snow

[TOYCRAZY]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time on the Miracle SnowWhite,looking forward to my first cruise ever, we are sailing on Miracle to Bermuda in September. I keep reading some really nice reviews on this ship so I think I made an excellent choice. Looking forward to sailing out of NYC. I visit there for a day or two two or three times a year, pretty sure it will be my husbands first time ever to NYC so it will be a great way to see the NY sky line, Statue of Liberty and sailing away under the Verrazano.

[jetsfan]

Susie, It was great meeting you and your husband and Daniel is a beautiful boy.

 

Our two cocktail parties were great and I wish you smooth sailing in everything you do.

 

I will be doing my review once I wade through our mountains of laundry and mail!

 

Be well. Mary

[VickiD59]

Yay.. so glad to see Miracle postings. As always people have wonderful things to say about this ship. I agree with you about the Lido "night life".. I kept thinking I missed it, but I'm beginning to think there wasn't any :confused:. The night we left San Juan there was a sail-away party, but we were in the lounge seeing a juggler (Marcus Monroe- excellent!!), missed sail-away completely. Oh well... next time :)

[Ykgorbie]

Thanks for your review and congrats on your new addition ! We'll be on the Miracle, our 2nd time on her, in just 82 days (but who's counting;))

You mentioned that the Miracle is going into dry dock - do you know what they plan to do to it in dry dock ?

[CECRN]

Looks forward to your review jetsfan, we will be sailing on this ship in a little over 50 days and am reading everything I can about this ship and ports!

[pe4all]

Congrats on your new son! May you have many joyous moments with him!:) We sail on Miracle on 8/26, and can't wait. Thanks for the mini-review.

[gail811]

Congratulations on the adoption of Daniel! What a great way to celebrate! The Miracle remains one of my all time favorite ships too! The grapes have never been offensive to me and we hope to sail her out of NYC some day. Enjoyed your review...thanks!