Carnival Miracle March 11, 2017 Review w/ Pics!

[Alexv500]

Hey everyone! Decided to finally start my review from my recent cruise aboard the Miracle. There's not many picture reviews or reviews in general on the Miracle on here, so I am sure this will be of great help to others who are interested, gotta give the Miracle some love too! Also, I just want to share with you all the wonderful experience we had on this trip, and all the great pictures I took as well!

 

Not sure if any of you remember me from last year when I did a review on the Glory (of which I still need to go back and finish!), but my name is Alex and this'll be my third review that I've done on here. My reviews are more of a story broken down into a day by day basis, I try my best to go in depth, but not too the point where it's super long- so I hope everyone will enjoy this review! Also, with that said, it does take me some time to make these reviews as best as I can, so bear with me if it takes me a while!

 

About me: I am from Southern California (born and raised), 18 year old college student who is obsessed with cruises and traveling in general, and going to school to work in the aviation industry because besides cruise ships, I am also in love with planes too. This was my third cruise, my first cruise was also to the Mexican Riviera in 2015 aboard the beautiful Ruby Princess, and my second cruise was last year in 2016 to the Eastern Caribbean aboard the Carnival Glory (what an amazing trip!). I've been obsessed with cruise ships since I was about 8 years old, and it took several years for that dream of mine to finally go one to become true, and since cruise #1, I just simply became addicted with cruising!

 

Who do I cruise with? Every cruise I have done I have sailed with my amazing grandma, she's my cruising buddy and cruises have become our thing together! We have been blessed enough to go on a cruise every year for my Spring Break, so let's begin on the story of this year's cruise.

 

Soooo why did we choose this particular cruise?

When we were planning this year's cruise, the planning began right after we got off the Glory. I had my heart set on doing an 8 day Southern Caribbean on the brand new Vista and my dates worked great for that cruise, however, my grandma didn't want to fly because it can be tiresome for her. So, with Vista or any Caribbean cruise out of the question, Miracle was our choice. Since we live only an hour away from our homeport of Long Beach, CA-this cruise was going to be a lot cheaper for us since we didn't have to fly anywhere this time. Also, since we had done a Mexican Riviera before and fell in love with Cabo and Puerto Vallarta, it only made sense to go back for another visit! We booked in July, and with extra money in the cruise budget, I booked us in a balcony cabin for the first time ever, so I was super excited about that since we have only stayed in interior cabins (More on the balcony later!). We booked our cruise, and now all we had to do was wait 8 months!

 

As I said, I LOVEEEE cruising and am simply obsessed!! The 8 months went by pretty fast surprisingly, and as the days got closer, my excitement would grow stronger each day. What made the time go by a bit faster was having a Facebook group for our cruise, so all of us in the group patiently waited and would share our excitement with one another-such a great group!

 

Finally, before I knew it, we were finally just weeks away and finally March arrived! As you can imagine, all my excitement and joy I felt as the week of the cruise was finally here, the packing and preparation begun, and on Saturday, March 11th, the DAY WAS FINALLY HERE AHHH!!

 

Up Next: Embarkation Day Woo!!

[Alexv500]

EMBARKATION DAY: March 11th, 2017

Before I officially start this review, let me break down the itinerary of this cruise and tell you all where we going on this trip:

 

 

Sat, March 11-Long Beach, CA

Sun, March 12-Fun Day at Sea

Mon, March 13-Cabo San Lucas, MX

Tues, March 14-Cabo San Lucas, MX

Wed, March 15-Puerto Vallarta, MX

Thurs, March 16-Fun Day at Sea

Fri, March 17-Fun Day at Sea

Sat, March 18-Long Beach, CA

 

 

This itinerary is a bit different than the previous Mexican Riviera cruise we did, this time instead of going to Mazatlan, we did 2 days in Cabo which I was very excited about because last time we did not get simply enough time to enjoy Cabo.

 

 

Anywho, let's begin day 1!

The number I like to see on my cruise countdown! :cool:

 

So I awoke at around 9am, full of excitement and ready to go, the day I have waited for 8 months was finally here, I was finally about to go home (well to my second home that floats and takes me to new places). Bags were packed and ready to go, my grandma and I went to breakfast since our check in time was not until 12:30pm, so we had some time to kill before beginning our 1.5 hour journey to Long Beach. We left our house around 10:30am, because knowing how lovely traffic is here in Southern California, we had to leave early. And as expected we did run into quite a bit of traffic on the way there, and I was super anxious and excited, I just wanted to get to the port already! Luckily, we arrived a bit early at around 12:20pm, so just in time for our check in slot we picked! I saw the Miracle and the Queen Mary as we arrived and my excitement continued to grow, today was the day and in a little while, we would be boarding! I was just so excited!!!

 

Getting caught in some traffic, luckily we're almost there!

 

There she is, my first time seeing the ship! Lady Miracle awaits us.

 

We pulled into the drop off area, I said goodbye to my parents, and dropped off our luggage with the porter. Lots of hustle and bustle, everything was happening so quick! After dropping our luggage, we proceeded to get in line to enter the terminal aka the big white dome here in Long Beach. Previous to our cruise, I had read that embarkation in Long Beach was a mess and the lines were insane! Not anymore!

 

However, a few months before our cruise, Carnival implemented their staggered check in process here, which was a brilliant idea. (Last year on our Glory cruise, we experienced staggered check in and were highly impressed, the process was just so easy! )

 

Me and grandma!

 

So, we waited in line for about 10 mins, got our boarding passes checked upon entering, and we were inside the terminal! Wow! That was quick! We went through security, and then off to officially check in and pick up our sail and sign cards. On this cruise, we would be getting our red cards, so being the cruise geek I am, I was super excited to get my red card! We waited in this line for about 5 mins, gave the check in agent our boarding passes, health questionnaires,and passports and were given our sail and sign cards and got our pictures taken! Next, we went up the escalator and onto the gangway to board the Miracle. WOW!! What a quick check in process! Now to board the ship, I was so excited to get onboard and check out our BALCONY ROOOM!!

 

I cannot express how impressed I was with the entire check in process here in Long Beach, it was super quick, efficient, and painless! From the time to arriving to boarding the ship, it all took 25 minutes, I even checked with the pictures I took on my phone that showed the times, super impressed and happy with our check in experience for this cruise. This was the fastest I ever got onto a cruise, who needs FTTF! I'm still tripping out at how quick we got onto the ship, Long Beach does a great job!

 

Next up: Getting on the Ship!

[Club Disney Chandler]

I really enjoyed reading your last trip report and hoped you'd finish it. I look forward to this one as well. I really want to try a Spirit Class ship and hope to see lots of great pics. Thanks for taking the time to write this Alex.

 

 

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[Alexv500]

Embarkation Day (continued)-Boarding the Ship!

 

The long awaited moment had finally arrived, and the best part of any cruise-BOARDING the ship! Long Beach has a pretty cool gangway, which is open aired unlike most other gangways which are glass. I was too busy filming with my GoPro and posting pictures on my Snapchat to show off to my friends that I was going on a cruise, just so much excitement! Upon boarding the ship, my first order of business before anything was to head down to the Shore Excursions deck to book my behind the fun tour before it sold out! There's only 16 spots available, so if anyone is interested, I recommend signing up when you first get onboard, surprisingly I was the second one to sign up! I wanted to do this tour last year on the Glory, but you have to be 18 or older to do this on your own, and at the time I was 17 and no one in my family wanted to accompany me, but luckily this year I was finally 18 lol!

 

Our home for the next week!

 

After booking our excursion, we did a little exploring of deck 2 and stopped by the Bacchus dining room to see our table, and we were so happy to see we got a table for 2! It was only 1pm so we still had about half an hour to kill before our room would be ready for us, so we headed up to the lido deck to check out the serenity deck, which was beautiful! The serenity deck on the Spirit class ships are very nice, even with its own private pool and jacuzzi and located at the back of the ship away from all the busy-ness of the main lido area.

Quick Glimpse of Serenity

My grandma and I relaxed at serenity, well she did- I didn't because I was too excited and hyper so I begun exploring the lido deck while she relaxed at serenity. I went around and start taking some pictures and video chatting my best friend showing her around the ship well the Lido! My grandma and I were just so excited and happy to finally be onboard, and finally it was 1:30 and we headed down to deck 6 to go see our room for the first time! One of my favorite parts of embarkation day (besides boarding the ship) is checking out our room for the first time!

 

My grandma had NO IDEA I booked a balcony this time, so was convinced we were in an interior again, so what I did was head to a random interior cabin and put my sail and sign in, and obviously it didn't work so I played dumb as was like "Grandma our key don't work!" so then I continued playing dumb and went to our actual room and made her open it. She opened the door was quite surprised to see we had light in our room, she was confused and I was like "SURPRISEEEEEEE!!!" And I was also super excite because I was finally staying in balcony!! I had always dreamed of staying in one, just the thought of being able to walk outside and see the ocean pass by and listen to the waves, all while sitting on the balcony eating some food (LOL!). My dream had come true, and I already knew this was going to be a great week and a wonderful cruise! The room was very clean, beds were separated just like I had requested, and not a complain!

Home for the next week, sorry it's a little messy, suitcases had just arrived when I took this pic!

Balcony Selfie!

Our room steward was Atak, he came and introduced himself and asked us if we wanted to have our room cleaned in the morning or in the evening. It's a new thing they're doing, because before on our previous cruises our cabin was cleaned twice a day. Luckily, thanks to my fellow cruises here on cruise critic, I was already aware that Carnival was doing this, which honestly I don't mind because we aren't messy people so we picked to have our room done in the morning which our steward said would work easier for him. The stewards work very hard, so I am honestly glad they are given the option to clean cabins once a day instead of twice, just to ease their work load because I can already imagine how tiring it is cleaning 20 cabins or so in a day, imagine twice a day? YIKES! Our room steward was great, very friendly and would always say hello to us when he'd see us, also he would greet us by our names which I greatly appreciated! He also brought us our 2 giant bottles of water for being returning guests on Carnival, which I was thought very nice because I honestly love getting freebies ( I mean who doesn't love freebies??)

 

Our luggage also arrived very quickly too, before the muster drill! Everything today on embarkation day was very quick, and I was super impressed with everything, so far so good!

 

Well guys, I think I am going to stop here for today, hope everyone who's reading is enjoying so far! Sorry the pictures aren't the best quality, the ones I've posted so far except for the one of serenity were all taken on my iPhone 7, but don't worry, lots of great pictures from my Cannon Rebel T6 will be featured soon! If anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

 

Next up: Muster Drill

Edited March 31, 2017 by Alexv500

[Alexv500]

I really enjoyed reading your last trip report and hoped you'd finish it. I look forward to this one as well. I really want to try a Spirit Class ship and hope to see lots of great pics. Thanks for taking the time to write this Alex.

 

 

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Aw thank you! I definitely am going to go back and finish that one! I really enjoyed sailing a Spirit class ship, the layout was so easy and getting around the ship was also super easy and smooth, I do recommend sailing this class of ship, they're very cozy. Hope you enjoy the review! [emoji1]

 

 

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[crusing48/51]

Thank you so much for doing a review of the Miracle. You are correct, there aren't many to be found! Will be sailing on her in December of this year and again in December of next year, so very excited to see your photos.

 

You're off to a great start. I know you and your grandma enjoyed that balcony. Serenity looks very nice. Will be following your adventure with you.

 

Thanks again!

[louanne93]

We were on the sailing after you. Can't wait to see how you enjoyed the Miracle! She is my favorite ship because of the crew! They are amazing:)

[tonit964]

I love your reviews! You and your grandma are so cute and its awesome you cruise together, so special!

 

Thanks for writing it. :)

[theosonthego]

Looking forward to your review. We are sailing on the Miracle in August on the same itinerary.

 

Thank you for writing one!

[pcvtmom]

I'm enjoying your review of the Miracle. Thanks for taking the time to write it and to include such nice pictures! It's wonderful that you are making great memories with your grandma.

[camijo]

Great review so far. I love that you and your Grandma cruise together; that's awesome and great bonding! Can't wait for more!

[JaniceB]

Great start to your review. I love the spirit class, the serenity area is the best. Patiently waiting for more!

[Kfxduners]

Great review so far Alex! So very cool that you and your grandma can share such a wonderful experience together... priceless memories ♡ Thanks for sharing how the check in at the terminal was. We have been wondering about it as we leave this October on the Miracle to Hawaii♡. Keep up the great reviews!

 

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[pghsteelerfan]

Alex, so happy to see you're doing another review, and of Miracle/Mexican Riviera!!! We cruised on Miracle in 2006 to the western Caribbean out of Tampa and just love her. We've also done a Mexican Riviera out of Long Beach in 2000. Yeah, I think you were just about a year old!!! :') We went on RCI's Rhapsody of the Seas and stopped in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. Sooooo, I am really looking forward to following along with your review to "relive" two of our past cruises. Don't know if Mazatlan was one of your stops yet or not, but I'll soon find out. And yes, I'm still looking forward to the rest of your Glory cruise. BUT I do realize that college is a lot of work, and probably much more important than doing a review on CC, so I will not be twisting your arm. Thank you for taking the time! :)

[Preca]

Where is the excursion desk and what is included in the tour?

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Alexv500]

Hey everyone! I am back to work on some more of the review! Thank you all so much for the kind words, definitely put a huge smile on my face, and makes me so happy to see some of my past readers back again to read another one of my adventures! You guys are all great, your kind comments truly made my day!! Thank you all so much, and thank you so much for reading!

[Alexv500]

Where is the excursion desk and what is included in the tour?

It's on Deck 2, and the tour includes a behind the scenes tour of: the backstage of the theater, galley, engine control room, crew lounge, laundromat, where the food and drinks are kept, and also (my favorite part) the Bridge! Also, they take photos of you and give them to you complimentary, and they also send some chocolate covered strawberries to your cabin as well. I'll discuss it in the review :D

[Alexv500]

The Fun Continues! Muster and Sail-away!

So after settling in and some exploring, it was time for our muster drill at 3:30. On Princess, the muster drill is held in the comfort of a lounge and they scan your cruise card to make sure you actually attended the drill, and this is my one thing I don't like on Carnival is their muster drills. (I know I'm being a whiner, but this is my only complaint I have!) However though, I believe on their Dream class ships, they do the muster drills in lounges, so hopefully they can start doing that on all the ships too! For example, last year on the Glory, muster drill was HELL! Just imagine being packed like sardines smushed with all these strangers, in the hot Miami sun + humidity, yeah not a very pleasant experience LOL! And on top of that, last year on embarkation day I had a sore throat so I was not a happy camper! Also, my poor grandma can't really stand up for long periods of times, and I later learned on the Glory that they offered a muster drill in the comfort of a lounge for seniors and handicap who can't stand up, so I made mental note of that. Soo flash forward to this year, we were luckily able to do our muster drill from the comfort of Gatsby's Garden here on the Miracle, while everyone else got to stand outside packed like sardines haha! Grandma was very happy she did not have to stand this time, and I was happy also, #PerksOfTravelingWithGrandma.

My obligatory pre muster drill selfie for Snapchat

After our lovely muster drill, it was almost time for sailway! After the muster drill, is when the vacation pretty much officially begins, and everyone is in great spirits and just ready to set sail, truly a wonderful feeling. So with muster drill being over, let the vacation begin! We headed up to the lido deck to watch the sail away party and watch us set sail from Long Beach, so while we waited for that, we went around and explored the upper decks and I started shooting some pictures with my fancy new camera I got specially for this trip and for my next cruise I'll be doing in June on the MSC Divina.

Whale Tail!

What other homeport can you have snowy mountains in the background? You sure don't get this view in Miami!

Almost time to go!

After going around and taking some pictures and FaceTiming some my friend to show off the cool cruise I was on, we were finally moving away from the pier! As you can imagine my excitement to see we were finally moving, Mexico here we come! Meanwhile, my grandma was too busy laying by the pool watching the deck party, I wanted to go up and film our sail away from Long Beach on my GoPro, and just watch this beautiful moment, because to me, I just love watching the sail away, it's just a beautiful feeling you feel when you're about to escape land and home for a week and simply leave all your worries, stresses and troubles far behind you...well just for a week and then you gotta come back and just cry, BUT that's another topic!

 

We set sail around 5 o'clock, and it was truly a beautiful sail away, the sun was just starting to set as the Carnival Miracle departed Southern California for another trip down to the Mexican Riviera, with a brand new set of passengers, but this wasn't any typical voyage, why? Because me and Grandma were onboard, LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED! Adios California, Hola Mexico! All the months of waiting, and just imagining me being onboard already, the moment was here and it was real, finally. This was going to be a great week.

 

Aaaand we're off!

The coolest thing also happened as we departed Long Beach! Since the Port of San Pedro is pretty much right next to LB, I spotted an old friend of mine setting sail as well, the beautiful Ruby Princess! The Ruby is very special to me because she was my first cruise, so seeing her in the distance was very special to me, lots of memories on that ship! It was also very foggy as we left too, you could barely see anything and we were pretty much going right through the clouds, which was pretty cool too, and because of this the captain had to sound the horn every couple of minutes for safety, and I am not gonna lie, that dang horn scared me so bad LOL!

 

Ruby!! You can barely see her, but she's there!

 

We had assigned early dining at 6pm in the Bacchus Dining Room, since my grandma likes to eat dinner early. Tonight's dinner was going to be delicious, we took a peek at the menu for tonight and I saw my favorite: Chilled Strawberry Bisque! YUMMM! So we headed down to our cabin, I put on some pants since I was wearing shorts and didn't wanna get yelled at in the dining room, and fixed up my hair a little since I had some of that famous "Sea hair" from being out in the wind haha.

 

Up Next: Our First Dinner Onboard!

[Alexv500]

Here are some more pictures I want to share!

 

Got my red card!

One of my favorite views, the bow of the ship!

Our neighbor, the Queen Mary.

[Alexv500]

View of Long Beach before we left!

I love sunsets at sea!

Another Whale Tail shot!

The water slide

Quick shot of one of the pools on lido

[Alexv500]

First Dinner Onboard!

 

It was finally dinnertime, and it 6 o'clock we headed down to deck 2 aft to the lower level of the beautiful Bacchus dining room. Grandma and I were both really hungry, we purposely didn't eat much at lunch just for fruit and salad so we could have an appetite for dinner. On our first cruise, we PIGGED OUT to the MAX! We ate like there was no tomorrow, and then on the Glory last year, we still ate like pigs but not as bad as the year before that, so with 2 cruises under our belt, we learned this time around to control our eating a little more, I did not want to go back home looking like a hippo again like last time, last year I thought they were going to have to roll me off the ship and somehow stuff me onto the plane back home to LA from Miami, no joke! Especially with all those amazing guy's burgers I ate on the Glory!

 

ANYWHO, enough with my ramblings, we arrived to our table and met our dining room team who were going to take care of us this cruise. Ellen was our main waitress, and she was great! Very friendly, addressed us by name, and took our order very quickly. Tonight I ordered my favorite Strawberry Bisque for my appetizer, and for my main I ordered the flat iron steak with a side of Mac N' cheese w/ Bacon and also some french fries as well. And for dessert... drum roll please...CHOCOLATE MELTING CAKE! I had been waiting A YEAR to finally reunite with this amazing dessert that's pretty much like heaven in your mouth..ahhh I'm drooling on my laptop just thinking about it!!

 

Service was a tad bit slow at times during this cruise, but I didn't mind because I understand the waiters have a lot of guests to attend at once, so they have a lot to do in such little time, lots of hustle and bustle. I feel really bad for them, they work so hardand fast and carry a lot of plates at once, they truly do a lot for us and I very much appreciated the service. Their jobs are not easy, I can't even imagine serving all these guests at once onboard a moving ship!

 

Strawberry Bisque

My Entree of Steak, Fries,and Mac N Cheese

Chocolate Melting Cakeee!!(Should've asked for 2 Ice Creams to make it look like Mickey Mouse!)

Oh yeah, and I got thefruit plate too!

 

Dinner was DELICIOUS! Thefood was very yummy, I had read reviews that the food on the Miracle wasn'tvery good, however I found this to be false, and I'm a very picky eater so forme to actually say something is good, it must be really good! I was veryimpressed, everything tasted fantastic and fresh, not a complaint from thispicky eater! Great food, great service, and just spending time with mygrandma and talking to her is what I loved the most.

 

My grandma and I have always had a special bond, ever since I was little, I love my grandma very much, so going on these cruises together is very special to me because we get to spend much needed quality time together that we don’t always get to do back at home, since she’s always working and I have school, so life just gets in the way of these special moments. And, ever since my grandpa passed away a few years ago, my grandma and I have gotten super close and are pretty much like best friends in a way. I miss my grandpa a lot, him and I were also very close too, and on very cruise I do get a little sad that he is not there with us enjoying everything that we are doing. He never got to do a cruise and I really wish I could’ve done at least one with him, but he was never really too fond of the idea of being in the middle of the ocean, so we never got to doing one together. Since my grandpa passed, I also learned to appreciate my grandma more, so just spending time with her and creating new memories together, well I really cherish it and it means everything to me. Cruising is just not about being aboard a floating resort, it’s also about spending time with those you love and creating memories together and having fun together as well, that’s one of the many things that I love about cruising, just brings everyone together.

 

Geez, I am ranting a lotin this review! Anyways! After dinner, we walked around the ship and did some more exploring, it was pretty cold out and very windy and foggy so we just stayed inside the rest of the night. The Welcome Aboard Show was at 10 o’clock tonight so I wanted to go to that. However, my grandma was really tired and was ready for bed, so she showered and went to bed. I went to the show by myself and really enjoyed seeing the Playlist Production performers give us a little preview of what to expect during the week. Also the entertainment staff introduced themselves (aka the Fun Squad!) and they were all great. Our cruise director was Adam Cornes, however, we were told he was not feeling well that night so we did not see him until the next day.

 

After the show, I was pretty tired myself, embarkation day is a very busy day so it drains you out, and I was ready for bed myself! The ship was rocking quite a bit; the Pacific has some pretty strong waves. However, I oddly enjoy the feeling of the ship rocking and moving, I know many do not, but I do haha! Also, it just rocks you to sleeplike a baby!

 

Today was a great day, and I knew it was going to be another amazing cruise! Everything went well, and the cruise was off to a great start. Tomorrow was going to be a sea day, and I loveee my sea days!!

 

So with all that being said.. this brings an end to day #1

 

Also, here's a little video I put together with some footage I filmed on that day if anyone is interested in watching/seeing, sorry it's a little shaky! I do apologize about that!

Up Next: Sea Day #1!

[LaCal]

:DGreat review and photos so far

 

On the Miracle May 20th and can't wait

[h_blond2]

I just love that you cruise with your grandma! :)

[etwright]

Excited for your review. We will be doing the Miracle as a Christmas cruise this year. It will be our second time on the Miracle as we did an Alaska cruise on her a couple of years back.