Miracle Review, Grand Turk, La Romana,Aruba, Curacao and our AFT!

[xrayvin]

The produce area

 

while on the bridge

 

My mom and I would check out a few things as we walked by. This was not the best place to haggle, I dont think I got any great deals. I did not buy a whole lot, my biggest purcase was some Blue Curacao adn some Ameretto. The boys were not impressed with a slow moving.

 

 

 

 

 

I actually discovered the area right by the pier had the best deals for tinket type items and of course we did not stop there till I had already bought my items. They also had samples of the Blue Curacao here, but for $7 you could get a Blue Curacao Margarita that was very good.

 

Back to the ship and our island adventures were done! Now all we had was 2 Sea Days Which I loved and needed after 4 islands in 4 days!

[xrayvin]

I am going to try and finish this up then I will be able to answer specific questions.

 

 

 

I just realized I never talked about the 1st sea day before we did all the islands! That day was cold in the morning and it even rained, but about 11 am or so the sun came out and it warmed up. It became a great day. It just goes to show you that it just takes some time and things turn around. We had prime seats by the pool (because it was raining and cold) so when the sun came out HAHA here we are!!

 

This is a picture from that 1st sea day..complete with blow fish!

 

On that 1st sea day they offered a wine and food pairing class for $15. This was the best one I have ever been to. I enjoy going to the wine tasting classes so I have done several on cruises. This is so far superior to any I have done, it makes me sad I did not convince anyone to go with me to share the experience. But I went alone. ( I sat with some nice folks Hi Joan if you are reading this) They had 6 wines and brought out a plate with salmon, steak (from nick and nora's and I must say it was outstanding) apple, lemon, ect. The Sommelier discribed the wines, had us taste them...basic stuff. Then she started having us eat something and taste a certain wine. It really changed the way the wine tasted. it was just interesting having the same wine taste 2-3 different ways all in the same setting.

 

We only did the waterslide 1 day. It is not the best (after being on the Dream it is hard to compare) It was slow and sometimes you would actually stop! This is a picture from the Serenity area (ADULT ONLY SHHHHHH QUIET AREA) looking at the waterslide! I found that super funny. It was a good thing it wasn't always busy with kids it could have disturbed the sleeping adults!!!

 

The 2nd sea day was a lazy day here are a couple pictures

 

Mom and I sat in the sun and read (and maybe fell asleep at times)

 

Dad and DH moved into the shade and decided to see if they could drink the ship out of Bud Light..which they did! Actually we had a great bar waiter that knew us quite well. He came over and said they were running low on the Bud Light they could sell for the day so he brought them 2 buckets filled with beer and kept filling it with ice. We carried those buckets around into the evening and the remainder went into our fridge.

 

I am so sad to say this was a formal night and we did not get any family pctures! And my boys looked so nice! I did get a picture of the boys!

[xrayvin]

The last 2 sea days were great. Leaving Florida it felt like the ship was flying! We seemed to be moving so fast and I felt alot of movement. I get motion sick really easy and I never felt sick just alot of motion. It seemed like after we left Aruba for Curacao (the whopping 90 miles or something like that) we never went as fast. The movement lessened. I dont thinkn I was imagining this as DH also made a few comments to the same effect. ( and he never notices things like that)

 

 

Having a little lunch on deck sporting his Patriots Jersey..ready for the Super bowl!

 

 

the super bowl was of course a highlight! They showed it in the Madd Hatter Lounge and of course the sports bar. they had set up buffets and superbowl backgrounds for pictures. It was all over the place. But we did not want to miss our last dinner in the MDR so we did see Eric for the last time.

 

 

The very last day we did a cabin crawl with the CC group. This was a lot of fun and boy did they ever get into it! We had everything from Captain Morgan Bite, Cherry Whiskey, buttershots, apple pie moonshine. And we were able to see some cool cabins! We also did a poker run with this and our team won so we had a little extra money to buy squares for the Superbowl!

 

 

 

 

 

This cruise was outstanding and we had a great time. Here is a picture of us leaving our room for the last time! SO SAD

 

We had an early flight (11:30am) so we had number 2 for our luggage. We went and ate breakfast at 7am and then headed off the ship about 8am. It was simple and easy until the luggage!

 

Just one last thing...on the way off the ship we noticed one bag missing. When we found it we found out it had been seperated because the policce dog smelled weed in it!!! We were detained for a little while they searched the bag...and my nerves about killed me! Of course they found nothing and thanked us for cooperating and we were on our way. THAT was not the way to end our vacation!

 

And this is DS doing homework in the airport! His vacation came to a SCREAMING HALT!!

 

That is all folks! I hope everyone enjoys it. I will do my best to elaborate if needed or answer questions.

BUT anyone sailing on the Miracle you will LOVE it...enjoy your Cruise and I sure wish I had another to plan!

[xrayvin]

Love your review. We will be doing this itin. in Nov. on the Freedom. So happy to see your pictures and to hear you enjoyed Dreams. That is our plan for La Romana. Can you tell me if you ate at Dreams and your thoughts on the food. Also did they have kid friendly food..ie pizza, nuggets etc?

 

We did eat at Dreams. We did the World Cafe which was a buffet so we did not have to spend alot of time eating. It had some good things on it. Everything was a little different for DS but he found things he liked. They also had burgers and things on the beach. I did not spend anytime looking at what all was offered so I am sure there were better places to go then where we did. But it was fine.

[Ladybug75]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for your review! So glad that you and your beautiful family had a great time on the ship. I am doing the same trip in just a few weeks so it was very helpful to read your review about the ships and the ports. THANK YOU!

[VIQT]

Thanks for this review. We have this itinerary on the Breeze next year. Your son is a cutie. Definitely looks like y'all had a lot of fun.

[ldeanda]

Thanks for the review and pics xrayvin! Fun to see the ship and ports we will be enjoying in March. :)

[ibcnusoon]

Beautiful review and beautiful family! Some of the pictures of your son are fabulous, he certainly looked like he was having a great time .. you all did!!

 

We were thinking of taking this cruise but I don't like getting to Aruba at 1pm (2pm by the time you get off the boat). Since Aruba is the highlight of the trip you'd think Carnival would schedule enough time to do things during the day.

[mara93]

Thanks for a great review. Loved seeing the ports, I don't think there are many pictures of these ports hovering around CC.

Looks like you had a great vacation & you have a beautiful family.

[jolyroger]

Thanks for such a great review!! One of the bests I've read and seen in a long time, great blend of pics and Review, I know I said it before but I loved it!! Looks like your little guy had a blast!! Side question for you , you by any chance have any of the FUntimes for the Camp Carnaval?? Looking to find some to see what I can share with my 8 yr old daughter...(she seems to think its gonna be like school when and if she goes) But I want to show her its not and all she could be doing!

[dst]

xravin, we were on the same cruise, as a matter of fact we are in your opening picture by the bar in the background. Ariel was also our room steward since we were just down the hall in 4228. He was the best wasn't he? :) The two day prior my husband and myself had room 4232, I hope we left it in good condition for your parents. I believe we met your parents one night, but I can't remember when or where. (I remember meeting someone in the room we had vacated the cruise before)

 

 

Hi XRAYVIN - we were your neighbors in 4230 and with BBiggar in 4228 :) I was going to make the same comment about us sitting at the bar waiting for the 8 dayers to jump on :)

 

It was nice to meet you - although to short :)

 

By the way you little guy was always so well behaved and truly a great kid! I believe he gets that from his parents :)

 

We loved the cruise, the ports and Ariel was wonderful ......all in all one just another great vacation. Thanks for sharing the photos, I feel like we are on the ship again

[ReadytoGoAgain]

Thanks for the great review! We leave next Thursday (3/1) on Miracle doing the same itinerary! Your pictures were fantastic! Your son is so cute. It always looked like he was having a blast! I loved all your pictures! You really covered a lot of information! Thanks again for posting your review!

 

Jean

[xrayvin]

Hello everyone!

 

It was fun meeting everyone, especially when we had chatted prior. DST and BBIGGER were great neighbors!!

 

By the way you little guy was always so well behaved and truly a great kid! I believe he gets that from his parents

Thank you so much. He loves cruising and he does have a blast. Although he started to get annoyed when I would pull the camera out! Getting it from us :rolleyes: We are RARELY behaved....

 

Thanks for such a great review!! One of the bests I've read and seen in a long time, great blend of pics and Review, I know I said it before but I loved it!! Looks like your little guy had a blast!! Side question for you , you by any chance have any of the FUntimes for the Camp Carnaval?? Looking to find some to see what I can share with my 8 yr old daughter...(she seems to think its gonna be like school when and if she goes) But I want to show her its not and all she could be doing

 

DS loved the camp. I think as an only child he loves anything where he can play with other kids instead of hanging out with the adults. The area the Camp is in is SO different from the Dream. It is almost hidden at the very front of the ship (deck 5) The room is smaller and of course it is older looking. I was concerned when we dropped him off the first time. (especially since he was the only kid at first)

 

On the first formal night he was there from 8-12. He was playing a video game and as I mentioned prior we had a TON of motion. I think it was the combination but he started to not feel well. They sat him down adn gave him some ginger ale and all was good again. From then on we made a big deal about eating a BIG piece of ginger before he would go to Camp. He was told this would help him not feel sick and of course he never did again!

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you can read these! I thought I would try!

[Mary49]

Love your review and beautiful pictures. I will be sailing on her on April 12th can't wait. I thought they had stopped the smoking in Frankie's and Johnnies but I guess not.

[cruisenanny]

FABULOUS pictures! Thanks for a great review, brought back some great memories to see the Miracle pics! Such a great ship, isn't it?

[jolyroger]

FABULOUS pictures! Thanks for a great review, brought back some great memories to see the Miracle pics! Such a great ship, isn't it?

 

 

Gotta say just read your review (well half of it, gotta do that thing called work) And I"m loving it!! Great pics too, and that cabin, GORGEOUS!!!! I just can't get enough of looking at this ship! It seems to be a favorite of many on the Carnival Boards here!

[w8ing2cruz]

 

 

busy with kids it could have disturbed the sleeping adults!!!

 

 

 

Dad and DH moved into the shade and decided to see if they could drink the ship out of Bud Light..which they did! Actually we had a great bar waiter that knew us quite well. He came over and said they were running low on the Bud Light they could sell for the day so he brought them 2 buckets filled with beer and kept filling it with ice. We carried those buckets around into the evening and the remainder went into our fridge.

 

 

So THAT'S where all the Bud Light went to :D My BIL and a couple other guys in our group were wondering how the heck they could run out of Bud Light!! That's why we couldn't lower any buckets of beer down to you guys ;)

[w8ing2cruz]

Awesome review BTW - and your son is adorable. What great memories to be able to sail with Grandma and Grandpa too!! Glad you guys had a great cruise - we did as well!! Thanks for taking the time to write it!!

[Jamesl5180]

Great Review!! Thanks for all the great pics.

[runamuc]

Thanks for writing a wonderful review. I loved all the pictures and details. The Monkeyheads are doing this same cruise next week and it was so nice to see the pictures of where we are going.

[BabyJacks17]

When we checked in, I had noticed that our S&S card said anytime dining. We had confirmed early seating over a year ago. I had read alot of bad things about ATD and was really afraid having 5 people would make waits very long. We had a couple hours till we could try to change it and during that time we decided to not waste the time waiting in line. Why not try ATD? The number 1 fear was that we would never make the decision when to eat and then it would be stressfull. Personally I LOVE traditional seating. I like the waiter knowing you, the personal attention. Once again, I worry too much.

 

The same thing happened to my family & I. We were on the 2 day to Nassau prior to the 8 day itinerary. We had our confirmed early seating for the 2 day and on the second night (last night before the 8 day cruise started) decided on a whim to find out if we would be at the same table for the following 8 days. In order to find this out I had to go speak with the maitre'd who informed me that we were assigned ATD. I said " I don't understand, this cruise was booked over a year ago with early seating confirmed" and his only response was "Yes, I know." Never did give me an explanation but did say I was lucky to talk to him about this that night because he could fix it, had it been the following day when the 8 day cruise started it probably would have not been able to resolved.

 

So, while this was a first for me, I'd be interested to know if that happened to any others on the cruise too.

[xrayvin]

BabyJacks~ I met several people whom it happened to as well. All had it confirmed at least a year in advance. I would have to ask my mom but I know she was told that there was a certain number ( thats what I would ahve to clarify with her about) in early seating that were "lost" and so people who booked later actually got the confirmed seating, while those of us that booked over a year prior were out of luck.

 

I am sure they had a lot of angry people that Sun afternoon! One lady I was talking to said they were all excited because their table number was 777. They showed up for the confirmed time at 6pm waited to be seated adn thats when they found out they had been confirmed ATD and not early seating. She said they were going to straighten that out (I talked to her at lunch 1st sea day) Well I saw her at ATD all week so I guess they did not resolve it.

 

As I said before, I am very glad that there was the mistake and we loved ATD on the Miracle. It would have been something I would NEVER have tried, and now I can't imagine this cruise if we had stayed early seating!

 

w8ing2cruise~wish we would have met on the cruise you are a riot!

 

I am so jealous of all of you with cruises so close! ENJOY!!

[jigger]

Great review !! What did a bucket of Bud Lights cost $ ?? 5 or 6 beers ?

[Lady_Jag]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you can read these! I thought I would try!

 

Thanks so much for posting these! My daughter gets to move up to the 6-8 CC program on our next cruise, and she is so excited! She will be thrilled when I show her what kinds of things they do on the "other side" of Camp Carnival! ;)

[jolyroger]

Oh great!! Thanks so much for posting the Camp Carnaval Fun Times!! I'll have to remember the tip about the ginger, or possibly get everyone with some kind of anti nausea med before we leave..Not that my daughter has ever been effected , but you never know!!