Carnival Miracle May 26 - June 2 2019

[goofdad]

Carnival Miracle

May 26^th – June 2^nd 2019

7^th Cruise for myself and my wife, Ages between 45-50

Cruising with our 2 Daughters, 1 Son, and 1 Son in Law, ages 18-25

Cabin 8162

Tampa Debarkation:  It was the smoothest of any debarkation we have ever experienced.  We took a shuttle service from the hotel we stayed the night before.  Our check in time was 11:30-12:00.  We arrived at 11:15 and we continually were moving forward through the process from the moment we exited our shuttle (passenger van).  I think we were on the Lido deck within 30-45 minutes of the time we arrived.  Everyone we encountered was very friendly and helpful.

Cabin:  We have cruised with Carnival before and we have chosen a balcony in recent cruises.  Everything was exactly as we expected it to be.  Our cabin was an extended balcony and it met all of our expectations.  We only spent time in our cabins to sleep and get ourselves ready, and it worked great for that.  Our cabin steward Juan was great.  The first afternoon he introduced himself and asked us some questions about our preferences, and after that he made them happen without us every asking our thinking about it again.  He was in and out of our cabin taking care of it without us ever noticing.  We would see him out in the hall at times and he always greeted us by name and asked if we needed anything.  Juan really was great.

Entertainment:  We went to most of the evening shows in the Phantom Theater.  They were OK, but not something that I will rave about.  We didn’t regret going to see any of them, but we also didn’t find them fantastic.  We spent some in the piano bar.  That was fun.  But the favorite for our group was hanging out in the Red Frog Pub where the Wet Bandits played most nights.  One evening we went to see the comedian.  It was good, but very crowded.  We would have gone more often to see the comedian, but we didn’t want to commit our time to going early to get seats to wait for the comedians to start so we did other things.

Dining:  We ate in the MDR each evening.  We found the food to be good, and the service to be excellent.  After a full day in the sun and bustling around during the day, our group enjoyed shedding the swim suit and flip flops to wear something a little nicer while taking our time and be waited on for a leisurely dinner.  We were never in a hurry and we found the length of time in between courses and pace of the meal to be just right.  And our family, in particular my two daughters, really enjoyed the Elegant Night.  I won’t say dining in the MDR was “fine dining”, but we were being waited on and we weren’t the ones cooking it so for us it was a great experience.

During the day and evenings we found the other dining options to be consistent and good.  We preferred the Deli and Chopsticks, but trust me we tried it all at one time or another during the week.  On our first Sea Day we did the Sea Day Brunch in the dining room and we thought the food was very good that morning.

To repeat my original comments regarding dining:  The food was good and the service was excellent.

Ports of Call:

Grand Cayman:  We had looked ahead at forecasts for our cruise week and we were concerned with the weather forecasts.  As it turned out, we should not have even looked ahead.  We had a brief shower in Grand Cayman, but it lasted 30-45 minutes and that was the only rain we encountered.  We took a taxi to the Turtle Center.  We did not do the full entry, but the version that allowed you to see and hold the turtles and some of the educational exhibits.  After this we took the public bus to Seven Mile beach.  We didn’t spend a lot of time here, but walked the beach a little and relaxed.  Then we took the bus back and shopped a little bit before taking the water shuttle back to the ship.

Isla Roatan:  Here we took walked from the ship to the beach near the dock.  Not necessarily the most fantastic beach we have ever been to, but we had a great time.  We found some chairs in the shade which was our preference, relaxed, had a couple drinks, spent a little time in the water, and then hung out for several hours.  A great day.  Then we went back to the ship, after cleaning up and getting a bite to eat we went back and walked around the shops a little bit in the late afternoon.  Weather was warm and sunny all day (would almost say HOT, but it is supposed to be at the beach right?)

Belize:  Through Carnival we booked the snorkeling excursion to Rendezvous Caye.  We were picked up at the ship and we boarded a boat that took us on about a 40 trip to the island where we snorkeled.  The “island” was about the size of a football field roughly and looked like something off a postcard.  Once we were there they divided us into groups with guides. We had some in our group that had more experience than others snorkeling, but everyone in the group was confident in their swimming abilities so we went one of the Experienced Groups.  We had a GREAT time doing this.  The guide was great to point out things that we may not have seen without his assistance.  Our group was probably 15-20 people which can start to feel a little crowded when swimming together, but still a great experience.  We would definitely do this again.  A lunch was included which was chicken, rice, and beans.  Nothing spectacular, but we ate it all as that much time in the water gets you hungry.  The weather was warm and sunny, a perfect day to be in the water.  After the excursion we were taken back to the ship.  About half our group wanted to take a nap before dinner and a few of us took a water shuttle to Belize City to walk around a bit.

Cozumel:  We had all been to Cozumel before so we just got off the ship and walked around a bit here.  We had a couple beers at one of the close by bars and enjoyed it being another beautiful sunny day.  After a bit we got back on the ship had lunch and spent the afternoon resting/napping in a lounge chair by the pool.

Debarkation:

Debarkation was just as smooth as embarkation, just a little less excited and happy since the trip was over.  We had a later flight so we didn’t rush to leave.  We had breakfast in the dining room, then took our things from our cabins, and then chilled out on the Lido deck for our zone to be called.  I don’t remember the exact time we left the ship, but probably before 10:00 a.m.

Overall Experience:

It is not the newest ship and it doesn’t have some of the options offered on some of the ships in the fleet.  But we never felt wanting for things to do and we felt very well taken care of with good service from the staff and crew.  We would like to have used the Serenity deck, but it was always very full when we checked it out.  We did use the chat feature for the Carnival Hub App, and it worked great for our group and coordinating between us. 

Pros:

Good Service

Excellent weather (Carnival had no control of this, but it was a positive for our trip)

Nice itinerary

The Carnival Hub App was very efficient

Cons:

CHOGS – I don’t know what more Carnival can do about this, but it is part of it.

Programming at SkyBox Sports Bar.  I don’t go on a cruise to watch sports even though I am a sports enthusiast, but holy cow there were several of us St Louis Blues fans that showed up there one evening to watch the Stanley Cup Finals game to find the options of College Softball and Soccer. 

 

We had a fantastic trip and will do it again.  Next time it will be different ship and itinerary only because variety is the spice of life. 

[modernscarlett]

I was on this same cruise, and we had an outstanding week!

 

[hotsauce126]

Going on this in August, glad to hear a good report. Did you ask the bartender in the sports bar to put the hockey game on?

[goofdad]

3 minutes ago, hotsauce126 said:

Going on this in August, glad to hear a good report. Did you ask the bartender in the sports bar to put the hockey game on?

 

Unfortunately he mentioned that they play the broadcasts that they have access to.  I am sure he would have if he could have.  It did not ruin our trip or anything, we went next door to Red Frog Pub with some other fans we met there and we kept track of the game together while we listened to the band play and had a few drinks.

[goofdad]

I thought some folks may want to see these, so if you are interested here these are.  Apparently I did not take pictures of the last two days.  I may have them at home and will add them if I can.

[Djptcp]

We love the Miracle and sailed on her in April. Sorry she is moving out of Tampa, but the Legend is taking her place and we love her, too. We also think the Port of Tampa is the best port in FL - fast, efficient, friendly ground crew!

[mcship]

We are taking the miracle in sep, same itinerary. 

Thanks for posting the fun times!!!!

By chance do you know where and when the meet and mingle was held?

[lennythenose]

On 6/12/2019 at 2:22 PM, goofdad said:

Cabin 8162

 

Cabin:  We have cruised with Carnival before and we have chosen a balcony in recent cruises.  Everything was exactly as we expected it to be.  Our cabin was an extended balcony and it met all of our expectations.

Did you have any problem with noise from the lido deck above?  We have an extended balcony on deck 8 booked for next year. I usually try to book one deck lower to minimize noise potential. 

[dara90210]

Glad to read such a fun, positive review!  We are on the Miracle in November to Mexico out of LA.  Getting excited!

[lazydayz]

Thanks for the review.  We live in Tampa and love departing from here.  Our Miracle cruise is coming up on Sept. 29, 13 nights,  going through the Panama Canal then flying home from Long Beach.  This is a Journeys cruise so they always add extra activities to keep the fun going! 

[goofdad]

On 8/16/2019 at 2:56 PM, lennythenose said:

Did you have any problem with noise from the lido deck above?  We have an extended balcony on deck 8 booked for next year. I usually try to book one deck lower to minimize noise potential. 

We did not have any issues with noise from the lido deck.  We really liked our cabin location.

[bstel]

we cruised on the Miracle about 2 weeks before you.  was great and pretty much agree with everything you said.  we spent most nights in the comedy club and agree that it was crowded.  First couple of nights if you arrived about 15 minutes before you could get a seat.  By the end of the cruise people were starting to try and find seats for the next show before the show before it even ended, which was a little crazy.  we stayed on the Serenity deck during the day and didnt really have any issues with the CHOGS.  Also to note if you want to be on Serenity and use the "cabana lounger" bubbles they are pretty popular, but if you go up one deck on the stairs (port or starboard) from the Serenity deck there are about 4-5 more of these covered loungers on each side which were usually empty and it was just as quite as the Serenity.

 

[msled]

I'm assuming with this many people you had two rooms.  Were you able to adjoin the balconies on this ship?

Thanks