My Carnival Miracle Review 10/5/2011-10/13/2011

[tracyanns]

I am going to do a decent size review without going into day to day details, just overall details about everything...

 

BUT first is my disclaimer...please be advised that this is only my opinion and the way each person perceives something is different than others so please understand that you may or may not agree with some or all of the the things I am about to say...;)

 

Also I would like to preclude this review by stating this is not our first or first 10 cruises...we have sailed on CCL many times, RCCL and NCL along with Disney and Celebrity so we have some experience and know what we like and don't like.

 

PreCruise...we live in South Jersey so it takes us about 2 hours to get to the Lincoln tunnel. I decided that I didn't want to wake up at 6:00 in the AM to start driving and then stop to get breakfast and I SURELY didn't want my DH to have to drive in Manhattan. So, looks like it was going to be about $250 to park for the week. We found the Comfort Inn and Suites in Elizabeth with a cruise and park special for up to 14 days parking. They also have a car service that can take you in to Manhattan and pick you back up as part of this package...with the hotel and round trip transportation into Manhattan it came to $20 more than parking, plus I was only 10 minutes from the Lincoln tunnel and not 2 hours...So, we booked this and it worked out well as we got to sleep in a bit and had a free breakfast that was more than adequate to hold us over until we got onto the ship.

 

We had asked that the driver pick us up at the hotel at 9:30 as we wanted to be at the pier by 10:15ish...I would rather wait at the pier than at the hotel. Traffic in Manhattan was horrible and he called and was stuck in traffic and didn't pick us up until 10:15ish...took almost another 45 minutes to get to the pier...the hotel is only 14 miles from the pier but that is how long it takes so I am REALLY glad we didn't drive or DH would have been pissed! Anyway, got to the pier at 11:00ish, he unloaded our luggage with a porter and we set up a pick up time and off we were into the pier. We went to the VIP check in and there was NO ONE checking in, walked right up, took about 5 minutes to get us checked in and get our cards and they walked us to the VIP room. It was now about 11:15ish...we went to the bathroom and about 10 minutes later we were being lead to the ship...

 

Yay...VACATION has officially started when we walked into the atrium! PLENTY of smiling helpful faces to guide guests in all directions...FIRST TIP...if you want to go to the buffet as soon as you get on the ship, walk to the back elevators and go up to deck 9, they open right up to one of the buffet entrances and no one had found them right away...everyone seemed to be waiting for the elevators right in the atrium.

 

Lunch the first day was pretty uneventful. It wasn't quite ready when we go onboard so we grabbed a table and sat for a little bit. Once everything was out it we went and grabbed some lunch. We hit the salad bar and the buffet station...it had some roasted veggies, roasted potatoes, some kind of baked chicken that was pretty good along with some spicy chicken on the bone and a few other things...I do remember they had a WONDERFUL foccacia bread almost every day that is simply AWESOME!

 

We ate, we cleaned off our table as people we looking for tables at this time and we walked right out the aft doors to the rear of the ship. We grabbed some lounge chairs and a drink and chilled until 1:30 when the rooms were ready.

 

We went to our cabin, 5299, and aft, extended balcony, not an wrap and we opened the door. For some reason I was expecting something special about the aft cabins, but they look the same as the other balcony cabins. So, we checked out our goodies. I had pre-ordered DH the Coronas in the cooler and got DD some soft drink coupons so she could get some Shirley Temples during the cruise. I had also brought onboard a 6 pack of water along with a 12 pack of Arizona iced tea boxes and a 12 pack of Pepsi Max...our room steward came in to introduce himself and cleaned out the fridge/mini bar for us and we put our stuff in. We also brought on 2 bottles of white wine but decided to leave it warm until the day we were going to use it. Anyway, 1 of the guys I worked with surprised us with some drink coupons...they worked out pretty well. I will tell you that EACH time we used them and we had about 20 of them, they charged us the difference from the face value of the coupon to the price of the drink and that was in almost every bar on the ship...

 

Once we checked out the cabin and dropped off our carryons we went back up to the Aft bar for a bit. Hung out until muster, did that and then went back to the Aft bar for sail away. Got done sail away about 5 o'clock and went back down to the room to see if our bags were there...they were all there. So we decided to hang out and unpack for the next hour and we then went to dinner. We had the Any Time Dining on deck 3...we had the BEST waiter of all of our cruises and asked for him each night from that point on...he remembered us the second night and always had the iced tea and lemons ready for us at dinner.

 

I am going to be honest and tell you that I really don't remember what we ate each night, all I now is over the ENTIRE 8 night cruise, we never got something that we didn't like. I will get more into the food later. After dinner we went to Camp Carnival to check it out and went to the gift shops to get DD a neck thing to hang her S&S card on...we spent the rest of the first night exploring the ship and checking everything out and went to bed early around 10:30...I have to say it took me a while to get to sleep. When I was just hanging out in the room or taking a shower I didn't notice it much but when you laid down you could feel the vibration on the back of the ship and it seemed a bit of a noise...bad thing was you had to get past that to get to sleep...good thing was once you got to sleep it seemed to help you sleep.

 

Overall the first day was great. The weather in NYC at sail away was mild and the ship was VERY clean. You could see some wear if you looked for it but they did a good job at keeping everything in good, working order. We were very happy with our choice in ships for this cruise.

 

To be continued....

[gail811]

I am a big fan of the Miracle and love reading others reviews. Great job so far!

[tracyanns]

OK, so part 2, which is also day 2...

 

So many things going on today...elegant night #1 and our Cruise Critic meet and greet. We opted to do the 2 hour open bar party and WOW did we get our monies worth. We had so many drinks on our table we actually ran out of room at some points...it was a lot of fun meeting people and seeing them and chatting with them again throughout the cruise.

 

Actually, we all enjoyed it so much that we booked another one for later in the week so we could hang out and get our drink on some more.

 

We had the meet and greet at 3-5pm both days so it wasn't too early and led up to dinner. It worked out pretty well. We became pretty close with some others in the group and would always stop and chat with everyone we saw around the ship. It worked out especially well for my DD as the group we hung out with had 2 boys, one that was only 1 year older than her and they became great friends!

 

Anyway, most mornings without a port we slept in until around 9:30 ish...most nights went to be around 1ish...DD got a lot of use out of Camp Carnival Night Owls program!

 

I don't want to do a day by day breakdown so I am going to try to just write down a bit and feel free to ask questions if you want.

 

Breakfast we ate in both the buffet and MDR...buffet was fine as it was so much faster but it was nice to be waited on in the MDR, plus I had to get my eggs benedict fix...TIP...ask for the hollandaise sauce on the side so your english muffins don't get mushy...worked like a charm! Food was pretty much the same in both places...I did learn to appreciate the eggs over medium at the Omlette Station...this was a stop each day in the buffet when we were there for breakfast...coffee was STRONG! Figured out 1/4 cup coffee, 1/2 cup hot water and 1/4 cup cream and worked out really well. Juices in buffet were VERY sweet...add some ice or water.

 

Lunch...never did get to have lunch in the MDR and that is the one thing I wish I had done...I heard the cheesesteak was awesome! Anyway, they had the buffet stations (changed everyday) , they had the deli (the veggie sandwich is SOOO good, but HUGE!), they had the grill outside that had hotdogs , cheeseburgers (the grilled chicken breast is GREAT) and this is where they also had the chicken fingers, nacho and french fries, all which were very good! Of course they also had the ice cream machine along with the pizza! Pizza was OK, not the BEST, but at 2:00 in the AM it was AWESOME! Also had late night snacks at that hour in the buffet like cheeseburgers and stuff!

 

We never ate dinner in the buffet. We had dinner every night in the MDR except the night we went to Nick and Noras steakhouse.

 

Nick and Noras was AWESOME! They did charge us the $14 corkage fee for bringing our own bottle of wine, which I expected...DH got escargot, lobster bisque, filet minion and mashed potatoes. He got chocolate ice cream for dessert...hs is so predictable! And the funny part was they didn't even have it that night, I guess they change the ice cream flavors each night so they had to go down to the buffet to get it for him...:rolleyes: I got the spinach salad, the 24 ounce porterhouse, the baked potato and the chocolate sampler...All of it was awesome...when they brought the steak it was HUGE but after you cut around the bone and the fat it was not that bad...I can tell you one thing...you didn't walk away hungry. Service was great and we really enjoyed ourselves. It took about 1hr and 45 minutes from start to finish.

 

In the dining room the food was overall VERY good. There were some nights that I didn't see anything that popped out at me but those nights were good for the flat iron...that was always done well. Hubby loved the lobster and shrimp, and they have shrimp cooked all different ways during the week. He also had the flat iron a few times. He liked the escargot and some of the fish that he had...he didn't care of the lagostino cocktail or the crab cakes. I really enjoyed the ribs, although there were a lot of them and I LOVEDDDDD the bacon mac and cheese...OMG...I got it as an appetizer and he said he just brought out the whole bowl and I could eat what I wanted...I ate the WHOLE bowl! For desserts the white chocolate bread pudding was my favorite, second to the grand marnier souffle and then the creme brulee...had the warm chocolate melting cake which was fine, but that is not really my thing. Some of the after dinner shots that walked around with were also very good!

 

The entertainment on the ship was spotty...some nights the disco was really happening and others not at all. The Adult comedy shows were HILARIOUS...we say 1 each night and they were great! The other shows were OK, but we have sailed CCL enough that we have seen most of them. Frankie and Johnnies was almost always dead except for people smoking and a few dancing. I was really disappointed in the piano bar, normally we love to hang out there but there were never more than 5 people in there at any give time:( We kind of hung with our group and made our own fun but if we didn't know anyone we might have been bored in the late evenings...

 

To be continued...

[galawdog]

Enjoying the review. It's nice to hear objective reviews from experienced cruisers.

[tracyanns]

Continued...part 3...

 

Ports...we had 2 sea days down and then stopped in Grand Turk...not a big fan of the early off, early on excursions...not the nicest weather either, pretty cloudy. We got off the ship around 8:30 and walked straight to Margaritaville. We claimed 15 chairs and waited for the rest of our party to arrive...which they did about 9:00. We got settled in and went in the pool...the water was clean and a nice temperature. A little bit of sun pokes through and we head to the swim up bar at 9:30...jello shots for all...and some more jello shots and then some more and some other drinks...Now, jello shots were $1...and made with tequila...didn't see that coming, usually made with vodka but it is Margaritaville so I guess it makes sense...

 

Anyway, fast forward through some more swimming and drinking and around noon the sky opens up and it downpours...who cares, we are dancing on the wet bar and having a good time, we are already wet, we're in a pool. Now, here is the bad part...they run out of jello shots! So, my friend wants a different shot for $1...after talking to 3 managers she buys 30 shots at $1, I still don't know what they were, they were red and they were good and for a buck they were strong. Now, we have 30 shots, 3 buckets of beer and only about 5 people still drinking...UGH! Around 2:15 I decide it is time to stop drinking and go to the gift shop and spend my $100 on 3 T-shirts and back to the ship...in the rain...woohoo...we were feeling no pain. UNTIL, later that night. We tried to take a nap but couldn't so we just hung out and relaxed and did an early dinner and now lost our buzz and were totally bloated. We tried to start again later but it just wasn't going to happen...so of course, this is the night the seas are ROLLING and the boat is rocking. You know when the vomit bags are on the elevators this is not going to be good! Anyway, we made an early night around 11, figured we had to get up for HALF MOON CAY in the AM so better get a good nights sleep....

 

To be continued....

[IsItTime]

Great review and LOVE the tips you are giving!

 

We bit the bullet and recently booked our first Carnival cruise on the Miracle in February! We are bringing 3 of our kids along and it will be their 1st cruise. (DH and I have been on 2 cruises with RC...but the last was about 19 years ago!)

 

I have the opposite worry of most...and am worried that their won't be enough kids onboard...but hey....they're lucky enough to get to go on a cruise, so it's just a little worry. Looking forward to reading the rest!

 

Thanks for taking the time!

[gelo7]

Great start, looking forward to the rest.

[OnePsychLynne]

Love your review...the Miracle is my favorite ship:)

[dceeeee]

Good review, Tracy....when you are done, I may add some of my input....or just do one of my own, but it would be awfully similar to yours, I'm afraid. (Note to others...we were on this same cruise)

 

IsItTime....We had that same worry...that there wouldn't be enough kids, since school had already started...but it was a needless fear...PLENTY of kids, and my 2 grandsons (4 and 7) had a fantastic time!!!!

[tracyanns]

Continued Part 4...

 

Half Moon Cay:eek:

 

OK, so we wake up to not so sunny skies at about 7:30AM and a lot of wind. I looked at my DH and said we should just go back to bed. He said no, we need to be down at the theatre at 8:30 to get our tender tickets to go to Half Moon Cay...I said, did you go outside, there is no way we are going. Of course as I am saying this he sees the crew going over on the tender with the drinks and food for the BBQ so he says it is on and we see a bit of sun in the distance that seems to be moving our way.

 

So, I reluctantly wake up DD and we get dressed. We head up to the buffet for breakfast around 7:50 and have no problem finding a table. We have a quick breakfast as DH wants to be on an early tender so we can get to the island and relax. We head down to the theatre at 8:15 and we get number 4...so we sit and we sit and we sit, now start with the announcements about the wind has shifted directions and we can't tender so they are going to wait and see what happens. I look at him with that I TOLD YOU SO look and I say, lets get out of here, we are waiting for nothing...he says to wait for a few minutes. After about another 15 minutes they make another announcement that they have started the tendering process back up as it is now safe. He gives me the look in return and I tell him, we are not going...I will bet you on it!

 

So we wait and no numbers have yet to be called. So right now, about 45 minutes after tendering should have started they are still on the early excursions, not even the numbers yet. I get up to leave...DH wants to know where I am going, I tell him I am leaving because the lady next to us smelled like dirty feet and it was making me sick...so we go to the waiting area outside of the theatre and sit by the window...here we can see the tendering. I see a boat coming back and then I see the crew boat coming back, and finally the announcement that we cannot safely tender to HMC...which I already knew.

 

So, no HMC, but that was really not my frustration, my frustration was they never made an announcement until about 20 minutes after all the tender boats came back...so a lot of people sat in that theatre for a LONG time and were not happy!

 

We have tendered to many of the private islands and I can honestly say we have missed them more than we have gone to them...the seas really do need to be just right...HMMM...lets build a dock!:eek:

 

Anyway, it was raining there when we left and looked like it was going to be crappy all day. So, the good news is the captain did sail us into sunshine so all was not lost, we missed HMC but I would prefer to be onboard in the sun than on the island in the rain...

 

I did suggest to one of the officers that the captain make a call to Nassau to see if we could arrive early and we could stay overnight there to try to make up for a little of our disappointment. He said he would make a call, he actually found us about an hour later by the pool and explained about how the docks work and certain ports have to have a certain amount of notice as they have more taxis and employees at the dock as we would not be arriving until later in the evening it was too late to get things together or get the required staff to the dock...Oh well, I tried and I was impressed that he came back to us with an answer...atleast they didn't ignore us.

 

So, we spent the day on the deck, hanging out making up for the sunburn we didn't get the day before and resting up for our trip to Nassau tomorrow. We ate, we drank and we cruised...enough said!

 

TIP...this was the perfect example of why you don't get bent on things you can't do anything about. No matter what we said or did we were not going to HMC, so ALOT of people really let it ruin their day and even a few days...just let it go and go on with your vacation...it's not worth it!

 

To be continued....

[tracyanns]

Good review, Tracy....when you are done, I may add some of my input....or just do one of my own, but it would be awfully similar to yours, I'm afraid. (Note to others...we were on this same cruise)

 

IsItTime....We had that same worry...that there wouldn't be enough kids, since school had already started...but it was a needless fear...PLENTY of kids, and my 2 grandsons (4 and 7) had a fantastic time!!!!

 

Hello there! Feel free to just add on, I know I will miss plenty. I wanted to do the whole day by day thing with what we ate and all that, but honestly, I don't remember what sea day was what!:D

 

We did have plenty of kids onboard, but they were very well behaved and seemed to be staying out of everyones way.

[tracyanns]

Continued Part 5...

 

Nassau, our last port stop.

 

Now, after the rain in Grand Turk and missing HMC I prayed that night for good weather atleast in Nassau...this was our last stop and really wanted to enjoy our day. We had planned to go to Atlantis for the Aquaventure and had the room booked through Comfort Suites already.

 

So, we wake up and I hesitantly open the curtain and walk out onto the balcony and I see light rain and clouds. I look a bit futher and I see sunshine in the distance. So, I decide it is going to be a good day.

 

I go back into the cabin and wake up DD & DH and get them ready. We are meeting our friends for breakfast at 8:00 so we can leave the ship to catch a cab by 8:30...all goes well. We all eventually get there, eat and then walk to the cabs. We find a driver that has a 16 passenger van, which worked out perfectly as there were 16 of us in total.

 

We drive over to the Comfort Suites and are dropped off. We have done this a few times in the past and it has been relatively painless, this time, not so much. They are under construction so the front desk is in a small conference room. They are processing payment the old fashioned way by making a copy of your credit card and then calling for an authorization code...this takes about 15 additional minutes. What I really didn't understand is there were 4 people in the room and 1 working on us and only 1 working on our friends, who had 3 rooms. Now, wouldn't you think the other agents would step in and each take a room...no...so this seemed to take forever.

 

Anyway, we FINALLY get our room cards and walk to the Atlantis. We go to the Royal Towers lobby to get our wristbands...this was quick and painless. We then take a quick tour through the DIG...we have seen it before but the kids have not. We come out and walk over to the towel hut near the lockers and bathroom and pick out a few chairs. DH and I go and get a locker as I don't like to leave my things lying around. $12 for a large and it is LARGE, like a school locker.

 

Anyway, we are done with the locker and are off to the slides. It is about 10:15 at this point and I have to say the place was almost empty. I have found that the smaller slides at the Mayan Temple tend to get longer lines as the place fills up so we went and did those first...on and off, no waiting, it was awesome. We then hit the lazy river. Our friends that had never been there before LOVED this...think we spent most of the day here.

 

Took a break around 12:30 for lunch...grabbed 2 meal deals, 1 chicken caesar wrap and a 1 cheeseburger, both came with a drink and a bag of chips. We also got an order of nachos that was HUGE and we could not finish. DD had the wrap and DH had the cheeseburger and both said they were very good...the nachos were good, but couldn't eat them all. The drinks were fountain with free refills which was nice...I think it cost us about $30 for this which I found to be very reasonable.

 

Anyway, we spent the rest of the day on the slides and river and wrapped up to leave around 4:00...we were meeting a cab at 4:30 so we could have a bit of time for Senior Frogs before we went back to the ship. I HATE the straw market was set up on the street...you seemed to get harrased the entire way from the ship to Senior Frogs and it blocked the ship and water view...our cab driver said the new building was done but they were just waiting on the CO from the government.

 

We bought 2 conch shells in a little alley for $5 each and they engraved them for free...DD wanted one for her teacher and her babysitter. We then went to Senior Frogs...drinks have gone up in price and gotten smaller. I just couldn't get into knowing we only had about 40 minutes...next time we will try to do a cruise with an overnight in Nassau to really enjoy it!

 

Got back on the ship with no issues and went straight to the room to drop off our stuff. Then took showers and got ready for dinner. We wanted an early dinner so we could start drinking early as tomorrow was a sea day and we could sleep in!

 

We went to dinner around 7:00 and around 8:15 stopped in the casino for a few drinks and to play a little. We played the slots and roulette for about an hour each and broke even on both...I was OK with that...atleast we didn't lose!

 

I think a lot of people were tired tonight from getting up the last 3 days as there really wasn't much going on tonight. We had a few more drinks a the adult comedy show then turned in...

 

We woke up on our sea day around 10:00...got ready for breakfast and got some food. Weather was fine so we went and found a chair near the pool so DD could swim. We stayed at the pool until around 3 and then went to try to find something to do inside for a bit... we found the arcade and played for a while...then went back to the room to chill. Got ready for dinner, went to dinner and went out afterwards.

 

DD was VERY upset as this was the night of the sleepover...this is the night she looks forward to each cruise. DH went to sign her up for it at 7:30 when he dropped her off, it was from 10:00 to 3:00 AM and was $33.00. They said they needed 6 kids to participate. We had 3 in our group so we figured it would be fine. One of our friends told us they got a message in their cabin at 10:30 that they cancelled it as they only had 5 kids...REALLY?

 

Anyway, we let her stay until around 2 so she could hang out and just paid the regular rate. There really wasn't much going on tonight either. This was definately the quietest cruise we had ever been on. I am thankful that we had some friends to hang out with or we would have been bored had it not been for them...

 

To be continued...the last sea day :(

[tracyanns]

Before I finish my review tomorrow I am going to try to post pics of the ship and islands and of course, the food! Hopefully later tonight!

[dceeeee]

Nice review, Tracy. maybe I'll do one of my own later since it seems like we did different things...had different experiences.

[LBumb]

good job