Another California Adventure! – Baja Mexico & Mexican Riviera aboard the Miracle & Panorama (with pics) – October 2021.

[sanmarcosman]

3 minutes ago, Jamman54 said:

 

Thankfully, yes they are! 

That's great news. We've sailed Miracle more times than any other Carnival ship and we're happy she is staying on the west coast for now.

[Jamman54]

Day # 9  (October 17^th)  -  Ensenada  8 am – 6 pm.

 

We were up a little after 6 am as the sun was beginning to come up in the east. It’s a little bit chilly now, but it’s supposed to be up in the 80’s later today. Here’s the view from our balcony looking forward…..

 

 

This is our view looking aft…..

 

 

Here are some views as we sail into the port of Ensenada…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are early as the ship is fully docked a little after 7 am. They began letting people off the ship right around 8 am.  Here are today’s “Fun Times”…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

 

[IntrepidFromDC]

On 11/11/2021 at 12:49 AM, tinkr2 said:

All right. All caught up. My son and I took a trip to LA a few months back and rode the ebikes all over the beach area and shops. You took a picture of the shop we rented from.

Wow this ship is a little crazy. That dining room is some kind of colorful. I'd forgotten what the full on Farcas ships looked like.😛Ill be on her for New Years.

Is there still an Indian section and salad bar on the buffet?

On Pride there was Indian food on the buffet twice during the cruise, both times near the end of the cruise if I recall correctly.  Plus they have the yummy Indian vegetarian conbo entree in MDR for dinner.

[Jamman54]

We check our mailbox and find three letters in it. The first is a letter that says our shore excursion that we booked today has been cancelled…..

 

 

Bummer! We had booked the VIP Wine Tasting with Gourmet Lunch tour ahead of time. We decide not to book another tour since we’ll be back here in three days anyway, and just use the refund towards our Sail & Sign bill.

 

The second letter is the B2B Information Letter, which I will share with you when we get to the turnaround day. The third letter is about the Covid-19 testing required for those cruisers doing B2B cruises…..

 

 

The letter says to be at the Medical Center at 9 am, so we get there right on time…

 

 

There are only five of us doing B2B cruises so the testing was done fairly quickly, and very gently.  They used the same BinaxNOW tests that we did at the hotel. We had to wait for the results, and later on in the day we had to pick up our official Lab Report. We both got one of these…..Negative!

 

 

Patti decided that she was going to get off the ship and take pictures around the terminal area. I was going to head up to the Red Frog Rum Bar and hang out with Orlando and Cussy. Here is the Carnival Miracle in Ensenada…..

 

 

 

Here are some views of the terminal area itself…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

Here are some views of the port area taken from the terminal…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti comes back on the ship and heads up the elevator to Deck 11 forward. Here she gets some views of the immediate area…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti gets some more views of the port area from up on Deck 11…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She’s looking down at the parrot people…..

 

 

 

 

 

This is the friendly food sniffing dog…..

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Up here on Deck 11 forward you will find mini golf and the basketball court…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti moves aft and spots the towel animal invasion at the mid ship Ulysses Pool…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Here are some more towel animal invasion pictures from the Ulysses Pool…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patti catches me at the Red Frog Rum Bar keeping in touch with my peeps…..

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Patti stops to have a turkey wrap from the Deli for lunch, then heads down to Deck 3 to take some more pictures. Here are a couple of shots of Pixels Gallery…..

 

 

 

Here’s a couple from the upper levels of the Phantom Lounge….

 

 

 

Here’s a few from Gatsby’s Garden indoor Promenade…..

 

 

 

 

Patti heads down into the Lobby where she finds the luggage tags…..

 

 

Here’s Patch again…..

 

 

Patti spots the sign for the special Halloween drinks….

 

 

Afterwards, Patti heads back to the cabin to relax.

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Around noon I was starting to get hungry, so I went over to Chopsticks for lunch when it opened. After I ate, I decided to head back to Serenity and have a beer or three back there. When I got there I heard a racket that sounded like a bunch of seals barking. Sure enough, that’s exactly what it was, so I went to the cabin to get Patti to come and take some pictures…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we went back to the cabin for the afternoon. Patti got some sun out on the balcony, while I worked on pictures and napped. This was a really relaxing afternoon. Just before we sailed, we were treated to another lovely sunset…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

Edited November 12, 2021 by Jamman54

[Jamman54]

It was beginning to get dark when we watched the sail away from our balcony at 6 pm…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moon is not quite full, but it's beautiful…..

 

 

Around 8 pm we decided to head up to Horatio’s for dinner. I had some carved turkey, a pork chop, fried shrimp, and a baked potato….

 

 

Patti had always wanted to try the California roll at Bonsai Shushi, so tonight she went for it….

 

 

 

 

She was fine until about the 5^th or 6^th roll when the wasabi kicked in! 

 

Afterwards, we made our way to the Red Frog Pub, where we had a couple of drinks while watching the end of the Braves / Dodgers game. Then it was back to the cabin for the night. Goodnight!

 

 

Coming up next: Turnaround day, and our friends come aboard!

[Linda the Book Lover]

I am enjoying the pictures. I sent my DD the mini golf picture as we always play at least one game. We used to play miniature golf in both of our younger days and my children always caught me cheating. Now my daughter just laughs at me cheat even though we never keep score. I sure am a lucky and blessed mom that my daughter always does this fun event with her on every cruise we take.

[Jamman54]

Day # 10  (October 18^th)  Turnaround Day.

 

We were up at 6 am just as the Carnival Miracle was docking back in Long Beach…..

 

 

 

 

 

A fuel barge pulls up alongside the Miracle…..

 

 

 

 

Here is the B2B information that we received yesterday…..

 

 

Patti wasn’t hungry for breakfast, but I was, so I went up to Horatio’s and made myself a plate. Afterwards, I went up to Deck 10 to take in the views, and Patti met me up there. It looks like the dockworkers are having a meeting before starting their days…..

 

 

Here’s an early morning view of the Queen Mary and Cruise Terminal…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

Looking down over at the gangway, we can see our former shipmates begin to depart…..

 

 

 

 

The dockworkers are unloading the luggage….

 

 

 

Looking across the harbor we can see some type of wave runner event or training going on…..

 

 

 

Per the instructions given to us, at 9 am we head down to the Atrium Lobby to begin the B2B process. As I said earlier in the review, there are only five B2Ber’s. Us and three ladies travelling together…..

 

 

Guest Services hands us our new Sail & Sign cards, then has us pose for a group picture which they will give us for free…..

 

 

Around 9:45 am, after the last remaining guests were chased off the ship, we were led off the ship. They took us across the walkway, down the elevator to the ground floor, and then to the nice customs agent. We didn't need to show any documents or paperwork, just go through the facial recognition process. Once that was done, we were led directly back on board the ship. Now that we are back on board, here are today’s “Fun Times”…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

At the Lobby Bar, they were making mimosas for us to celebrate our B2B cruises…..

 

 

 

 

They said that boarding for the next cruise would start exactly at 11 am, so we would have the ship to ourselves for about an hour. Of course, none of the bars would be open but you could use any of the facilities. We decided to go hang out at Serenity. On the way there we passed through the deserted Horatio’s Lido Buffet…..

 

 

 

We checked out the Comfort Kitchen menu and it was the same as our embarkation day three days ago…..

 

 

The offerings at the Sweet Spot were looking good…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We were relaxing in Serenity until ten minutes before 11 am when an announcement was made for those working the musters stations to report to their stations. We decided to head down and take care of our muster drill and be done with it. That done, we headed back up to Deck 9. Boarding had begun, and Patti took a random shot of the walkway, and the people crossing to board the ship. It was only later that I discovered that Patti had taken a picture of our friends, Jim and Pat, as they boarded the ship…..

 

 

I just want to talk a little about our friends Jim & Pat since you will see a lot of them on this cruise, and on the Panorama. You know them here on Cruise Critic as Webecruzen. We first met them on the Sunshine out of New York in 2016, bumped into them again on the Magic in 2017, and cruised with them on the Pride to Bermuda in 2018. They live in Florida so anytime we’re down there we make a point to meet up with them.

 

Pat had very recently lost her Mom, so understandably we didn’t think they would make this trip. Her Mom loved to cruise, and ironically passed away while on the Carnival Elation. Pat told us that her Mom would have insisted on them going, so with the family’s blessing, they made the trip. We were glad that they did, and we would give them any support that they needed.

 

We had told Jim and Pat that once they boarded, did the muster drill, and dropped off their carry on bags, we would meet them at the Red Frog Rum Bar. Here I am having my first beer of this cruise…..

 

 

 

About fifteen minutes later they made their appearance, and after many hugs, we enjoyed a few drinks together. We were all hungry, so we went to the Deli for some lunch, then back to our cabins, since they needed to unpack. I guess the camera got put away for a while, since there aren’t any pictures of the last few hours.

 

When we got back to the cabin we found that we had received a gift from Hotel Director Thelma Moreki, in honor of our B2B…..

 

 

We went out on our balcony and watched a ray swimming around right below us…..

 

 

 

Around 3 pm Jim and Pat said they were headed to the Red Frog Pub, so we decided to meet them there…..

 

 

After a few drinks, the bartender took our pictures for the honor roll…..

 

 

 

 

To be continued……

[Jamman54]

We all decided to go to Serenity for sail away. It was quite chilly outside. We sailed right on time…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we left the harbor, we all went back to our cabins for a few hours. We decided to meet up at Horatio’s for dinner. Don’t remember what anyone had for dinner. Afterwards, all four of us went to the Casino cage to get our $25 each in cash. We then went to the Skybox Sports Bar to watch Monday Night Football until we called it a night.

 

Our new cruise director is Savannah Mitchell…..

 

 

The Polaris Trio was playing in the Atrium Lobby tonight…..

 

 

The comedians for this cruise are Joe Marlotti and Lucas Bohn…..

 

 

 

Tonight’s towel animal…..

 

 

Coming up next: A beautiful day on Catalina Island.

[sfaaa]

Jeff,

 

We all know you as a very open and friendly guy here on CC. But perhaps you may wish to blank out your personal info and email addy on your lab report in case there is some bad character lurking around here. Just a suggestion.

[rj59]

I'm sailing on the Miracle this Sunday, which should make me nostalgic for the 'unique' Joe Farcus designs of the Imagination/Inspiration (RIP), but without quite so many sculptures of bare-breasted Egyptian women. Hopefully the stowaway food-thief seagulls which plagued the Inspiration/Inspiration going from LB to Catalina aren't a problem on the Miracle--the old ships eventually had to hang ugly nets of fishing line to protect food on the lido and outside buffet areas. 

[Saint Greg]

5 hours ago, Jamman54 said:

 

 

 

 

He does a really good Elmo voice. 

[TennesseeTater]

What a great looking trip Jeff!  Can't wait to see the rest. 

[Jamman54]

14 hours ago, rj59 said:

I'm sailing on the Miracle this Sunday, which should make me nostalgic for the 'unique' Joe Farcus designs of the Imagination/Inspiration (RIP), but without quite so many sculptures of bare-breasted Egyptian women. Hopefully the stowaway food-thief seagulls which plagued the Inspiration/Inspiration going from LB to Catalina aren't a problem on the Miracle--the old ships eventually had to hang ugly nets of fishing line to protect food on the lido and outside buffet areas. 

 

I remember the seagulls and the fishing line from our Inspiration cruise a few years ago. Happy to say that I didn't notice the seagulls on our Miracle cruises. 

 

12 hours ago, Saint Greg said:

He does a really good Elmo voice. 

 

Didn't catch his show this time around. 

 

4 hours ago, TennesseeTater said:

What a great looking trip Jeff!  Can't wait to see the rest. 

 

Glad to see you! Only way this trip could have been better is if you guys were on board with us! 

[Jamman54]

Day # 11  (October 19^th)  -  Catalina Island  8 am – 5 pm.

 

We were up at 6 am as the Carnival Miracle approached Catalina Island. Here is our view from the balcony looking forward……

 

 

This is our view looking aft…..

 

 

Here are some views of the Island as we slowly sailed towards the town of Avalon…..

 

 

 

 

We get a good look at the sun coming up in the east…..

 

 

Here are today’s “Fun Times”…..

 

 

 

Here is the water shuttle information, both the general and priority…..

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

We were anchored off of Avalon a little after 7 am. The weather was a lot warmer this morning compared to yesterday. Here are some early morning views of Avalon taken from our balcony, basically moving from right to left…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water shuttles are supposed to begin around 8 am, but since we don’t have an excursion planned, we’ll wait until the rush is over and go later. Around 8 am we went up to Horatio’s for some breakfast. I don’t believe we’ve shown you the Continental Breakfast yet…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued…..

[Jamman54]

The Breakfast Grill menu…..

 

 

Oh boy…….

 

 

Patti had some French toast and some other bread….

 

 

I had an omelet and all the fixings…..

 

 

Patti and I always meet some of our fellow Cruise Critic members on every cruise we go on. We love meeting and talking to everyone. However, we will never photograph or identify anyone without their permission. That being said, I want to introduce you to Terri, who you know as “AK2CA”. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to you this cruise. Congrats on making the review!

 

 

After we ate breakfast we went up on Deck 10 to check out what was going on…..

 

 

It was a little after 9 and no water shuttles had left the ship yet. The seas didn’t look so rough, but apparently the currents were making it difficult for the water shuttles to be attached to the ship for boarding. We watched as they rolled side to side and up and down…..

 

 

 

 

 

Conditions were such that there was even a lifeguard boat stationed nearby…..

 

 

To be continued……