Miracle Review april 3 room 6333 aft - part 1

[serene56]

Sharonfamily- I agree with you on that. I took my kids on a cruise.. 2 were marines at the time.. and I too made them stay with me in the ports. First off--it was a family vacation- 2nd- I paid for it so I got to call it the way I wanted. Maybe it will be different if they paid their own vacation.

Good for you.

 

PS-- my kids didnt mind doing what I wanted.

[sharonfamily]

I will try and finish my review sometime this weekend. Wow! I can't believe over 900 people have read it. Now if I could just get some posts. I would love to answer anybodys questions. Doesn't anybody neeeed meee! Just kidding. Thanks everybody for all the sympathy but like I said it was definitely hectic but we still had a great time. I wish i was there right now. It has rained straight here for over a week now it seems.

[stlrboo]

I'm almost afraid to post as there must be two ships going under the Miracle name, and I was most certainly on the one that you weren't!! WOW, what a difference. :)

This was our third Carnival cruise, and we just LOVE the food... That is one of the reasons we go on cruises.. Our 'Miracle' ship had excellent food.. Sorry you missed that. The Lido Breakfast Buffet is pretty basic and repetitious daily, but we certainly were able to have something different every day. Dining room is always good, and we try to go there as much as possible.. I wouldn't even consider missing dinner in the Dining Room! It is always a highlite of the day.

We were in cabin 6264, which would have been the cabin next to yours. Minor vibrations, etc., but nothing we didn't get used to quickly.. :p

I'm totally amazed.. If anyone saw my review of our April 17 cruise on the Miracle, they'd know for sure that there were two different ships!! What a difference two weeks makes..

[sharonfamily]

Belize continued

 

We were tired after our day of tubing and didn't really want to dress up. It was formal night again. However, we wanted a famiy portrait with Sierra in it so we did. When we picked Sierra up from camp carnival at 5 she had not had a nap all day. We went back to the cabin and she fell asleep around 6. We wanted for get the pictures done and they were open from 7-8 so we had to wake her up to take her. She was not very happy and would not smile for anything. After much debating we decided to just eat in the buffet because we were so tired. We grabbed a bite to eat and went back to our rooms. We went to sleep at 10 and set our clocks for 11:45 for the Gala buffet. When the alarm went off, I dragged everybody out of bed and we went down. We put Sierra still sleeping in her stroller with a blanket. We walked in the long line to see it. There was a huge ice carving of a dragon in four sections. It was beautifully laid out. The watermelon was carved into an indian and had bananas coming out of his head. The vegetables were carved into beautiful flowers. We took pictures and got a video of it then went back out to wait for it to open for eating. We waited in line about 30 minutes before we got to the food. I got some filet mingon and some mashed potatoes that were in the shape of a pear. I also got a fruit shishkabob and several deserts. Everything looked delicious. We sat down and ate. The steak was good as was some kind of chicken I had gotten. The potatoes were ok. The deserts were pretty good especially the chocolate cake. We ended up taking a whole plate back to our rooms. Sierra slept through the whole thing. We put her back in her bed and she never woke up.

 

Last day at sea

 

This was a sad day getting ready to go home. We looked at pictures again and bought our last ones. We got our account statement to make sure it was correct. Not including tips, we spent @400.00. Half of that was in photographs. We went to the pool for the last time to work on our tans. We found the chocolate fountain and had choc covered pineapples, bananas, and doughnuts. They didn't have any strawberries. We took Sierra to camp at 7 and began to pack. This time nothing was put in neat. I put all our dirty clothes in one suitcase and randomly threw everything else together. Almost half of what we had packed we hadn't worn. We got two bags together to carry off to hold us over on the way home. We sat our luggage out around 11. We ordered room service for the last time. I got the tuna and my husband got the blt. Their blt is really good and has a lot of bacon on it. We also got chips and cookies. We tried the vegetables and dip one night but that was a joke. You got one celery piece cut into little teeny tiny strips. There was also one carrot and pepper cut just as tiny. It would make a good snack for a child. We also tried the fruit once. If you like melons it is ok because that is what it mostly is. We tried a couple deserts which weren't any good. We spent some time out on the balcony for the last time and took pictures of the sunset. It was sad watching our last day fade away. By the end I had gotten used to the vibration in our room and didn't mind it. In fact, the first night I got home it was so quiet that it was hard to go to sleep agtain. The next morning we got up around 7:45 and went down to eat. We ate in the buffet. I just got cereal. We got back to the room around 8:30. I started to eat a peach I had gotten from the Gala buffet which looked good but found it was rotten inside. We stayed in the room until 9:15 and then we were asked to wait downstairs. We waited down there until 10 at which time they opened up for everyone. I know there were many people leaving with the self assist who should not have been. Many of them had no luggage except for a small bag and should have been waiting but they were letting everyone go through. This slowed things down for the people who were carrying their luggage. We were also slowed down because the escalaters had shut down and people were waiting on elevators. It also took awhile to clear customs. Apparantly there was this one lady who was supposed to go through early and didn't show up. They kept calling for her and announcing her room for 45 minutes. We walked off the boat and took the elevator down stairs. All the luggage was laying out on the floor arranged by the colored tags. It took us about 10 minutes to find all of ours. A person loaded them up for us and took them to our car. At 10:25 we were on the way home. We drove straight through that day and got home to Kentucky at 2:00 a.m. so the kids could go to school the next day. I was glad to be back home. A vacation is great but the best thing is that it makes home seem a better place to be - at least until you plan your next vacation.

 

Please do not let me discourage anyone from cruising on the miracle. We did have a good time even though at times it may seem like we didn't. The ship is absolutely beautiful. The food is adequate with some great points and some not so great points. I guess it just depends upon what you are used to. There is definitely room for improvement but I don't mean to complain about it too badly. The rooms are great! The pools are cold and small and we hardly used them. I don't think my teenagers got in once. We meant to try the water slide but it was so windy that we just never got around to it. Everyone was nice and polite except the man at the shore excursion desk. We left our tips on our credit card and gave our room stewart an additional 10 - not that he deserved it but because he looked as if he needed it. We gave camp carnival $20.00 and just put $5 in the envelope for the Matre'd (sp). Our waiter in the dining room was happy because he was going to get to see his wife and infant son. They were flying out to visit him and I think were going to be coming on the boat. The entertainment was pretty good. We went to both main shows and they were good although we were ready to get up when they were over. We threw away about $40.00 in the casino pretty quickly then stayed away from there. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Do bring a light jacket for the evenings on deck because it does get cold. Also bring one to the shows unless you want to freeze. The bungee cord for the balcony door came in handy and was used a lot. I will never book a cruise without a balcony. It was never windy on the balcony and we usually had a little of both sun and shade which was perfect. On the last day we were in almost direct sun for half the day which was perfect for laying out. We always woke up with our balcony wet in the mornings. We also saw a few cigarette buts and a little bit of black ash or something. We had to wipe our seats off a few times before we sat in them. I would not recommend sleeping on the balcony like I heard mentioned because of the wetness. It also felt very damp and muggy out at night and was pretty cool. The sound from the ocean and the engines was pretty loud out there so we always shut the door to sleep. In the gift shop we bought a couple shirts and some pens with a carnival ship inside them. I guess that is all I kind think of to say. I hope this review has been as helpful to everybody as others was to us before we left. Please feel free to comment.

[voyagerfl]

Steward....Steward.....Steward :D

[aqua]

Sharon, Thank you for taking the time to post your review. We look forward to our Miracle cruise next month!

[sharonfamily]

Thank you for reading it. I just hope I can be helpful to others. I know I enjoyed reading every review I could get my hands on before our cruise.

[sharonfamily]

hello

[just4kixx]

Thank you for your review. I didn't have time to read the whole thing, but will come back to it later today. Can you tell me something about your cabin? Was there a pulldown bed? Or just the sofa bed?

 

Gotta run! Thanks!

A~:)

[winewanderer]

Sharonfamily,

 

Just curious, I haven't been to Chankanaab Park but have snorkeled many times in Cozumel and many places in the Carribean, Mexico and Hawaii.

 

You said the snorkeling at the park was nice but you've seen better. Where have you had better snorkeling experiences? Cozumel is always on the top of my list for snorkeling although I loved Maui but the water isn't as calm as I like.

 

Thanks. Enjoyed your review. Sorry the week wasn't more relaxing.

[sharonfamily]

We did not have a pull down bed in the room. We had the two twin beds put together and the couch made into a bed for our 2 year old.

 

 

There is a park in the Florida Keys (I can't think of the name of it right now) where they take you out a little ways and you snorkle on a beautiful reef. It is in the upper 1/3 of the keys. It is very beautiful and worthwhile to see.

[gatorchic]

Sounds like the son takes after the mother. Was there anything Good about the cruise:confused: :rolleyes:

[kimmimom]

I also agree there must be 2 different Miracles. We sailed on her Jan 15, 2006, nad it was great! We were 5279 (aft) and other than the first night and last night did not have any vibration problems. It was wavy the first and last night as well, but I think that is due to the location and you have to get into caribbean before it smooths out (barring any storms). We loved the food and loved being served and service we received! In fact, dh and i were talking about the burgers and fries from th elido deck and how we would love one of those now! We are hoping to do a cruise for the 2 of us this fall (we took our 11 yo, 6 yo, and 2 yo in Jan). We booked our excursions privately adn had no problems at all.

[walkswife]

I also was on the other Miracle on the March 26th sailing.....

 

The food was awesome....the service was great..... our room was wonderful....I loved the shows.....won some in the casino.... had a great spa treatment ..... the excursions we booked through the ship were on time.....didn't have the time thing happen in Caymen we stayed on ship time..... Never worried about a thing the entire time we were gone it was so relaxing..... I never sleep better than I do on a cruise..... had six cabins with moms and daughters in five and a father and son in the sixth and all had a fabulous time and would do the exact same trip again.......

 

Sorry yours was so stressful:(

[bazarr2]

I also was on the other Miracle on the March 26th sailing.....

 

The food was awesome....the service was great..... our room was wonderful....I loved the shows.....won some in the casino.... had a great spa treatment ..... the excursions we booked through the ship were on time.....didn't have the time thing happen in Caymen we stayed on ship time..... Never worried about a thing the entire time we were gone it was so relaxing..... I never sleep better than I do on a cruise..... had six cabins with moms and daughters in five and a father and son in the sixth and all had a fabulous time and would do the exact same trip again.......

 

Sorry yours was so stressful:(

 

:eek: Wow! I have never read such negativity. The food tasted like crap, the shore excursions sucked, I have eaten on the Victory, which is the same food and I do remember vegetables and there food was pretty good. I would recommend to them is to stay out of the buffet. And we are to be on the Miracle in Feb. and am looking forward to all of it and am going to take advantage of it all. And double check on shore excursions because mistakes can happen, or should I say misunderstandings. Well I know when I go I am going to have a great time because I know I am going to be on vacation and that is always better than at work. :p

[walkswife]

:eek: Wow! I have never read such negativity. The food tasted like crap, the shore excursions sucked, I have eaten on the Victory, which is the same food and I do remember vegetables and there food was pretty good. I would recommend to them is to stay out of the buffet. And we are to be on the Miracle in Feb. and am looking forward to all of it and am going to take advantage of it all. And double check on shore excursions because mistakes can happen, or should I say misunderstandings. Well I know when I go I am going to have a great time because I know I am going to be on vacation and that is always better than at work. :p

 

Don't worry you will love the Miracle.....It was the vacation of a life time..... We did the Reef & Wreck snorkel in Cayman..... went to Paradise Beach in Cozumel.... Cavetubed in Belize ..... and did the Dolphin Swim and went to Mahajual in Costa Maya..... it was all amazing......

[Scorpiorose]

Sharon, I was on that cruise too! I missed not seeing Costa Maya and was thinking of adding it to my itinerary next spring....wonder if it would be better to do the Ocho Rios instead! Sorry things didn't all go as planned! We had problems in Belize....private tour and we waited an hour and a half until we finally figured out that they were over by Valor which landed the same time and we were in port early.....it is all confusing! After I paniced then we found them, we found them....I guess it's just a hit and miss with excusions!

 

We've sailed Royal and yes, I found the food was better! Unbelieveable chocolate buffet the last night, to die for and they seemed to not care about ordering more food, and they had more choices and if you didn't like it order what you like within reason.....but....the ship was not as great, kind of dead, older, not a great night life.....but I only have two ships to compare, Miracle and Manarch of the Seas.....the price is a little higher though because I'm pricing our next cruise next april and it seemed to be $100 and up of an increase!

 

Good luck!

[teanbean16]

I, too, was a bit surprised by the negative comments. All I could think of was how people relate to a glass with water in it: Is the glass half/full or half/empty. Can't please everybody all of the time but it is all in the way you look at things.

[HeidiHo]

As I was reading this review it began to look familiar so I checked the date. This cruise was in April of 2005.