Long Miracle review 6/4/06-6/11/06

[GingerPJ]

I have a bad habit of being overly wordy, so this is going to be long. So be warned. :)

 

Day One: Embarkation day, so not much to report. We got to the Port of Tampa around 11:30am and were on the ship by about noon. Our cabins weren't going to be ready until 1:30, so we headed for Horatio's on the Lido deck to have lunch. Afterwards, there was still some time, so instead of lugging our carry-ons all over the ship, we went back to the Promenade deck and had a seat in the Metropolis Lobby. The Miracle's theme is fictional characters, so every room is named and decorated accordingly. The Metropolis Lobby is near the center of the ship, and has a huge, eight-story (or nine?) atrium topped by a pink-glassed skylight. Think the Titanic's grand staircase, only with glass elevators instead of stairs. And much more gaudy, but the decorations never bothered me very much. They're not afraid of color on that ship, that's for sure, but I kind of liked it.

 

It was finally late enough to check our cabin. We'd booked an Inside Stateroom Guarantee, but had been upgraded to an outside room on the Riviera deck. It's the lowest deck, but we never minded. To go along with the ship's theme, each hall of staterooms had paintings between doors of various fictional characters. A little tacky, but actually very useful. Every time we'd get off an elevator on our floor, or come down the stairs, we'd stand there for a minute trying to figure out which way to go. Our hall was always the one with the Phantom of the Opera painting showing in the doorway, no matter what end of the ship we were on. I assume that was done intentionally, but either way, it was very handy. You learn little tricks like that as the cruise goes on to find your way around.

 

The room was narrow, but big enough that two of us could move around easily. The beds are very comfortable, just like everyone says, and there's a ton of closet and drawer space. More than we could ever use. There were alos way more hangars than I had expected, though only one had clips for pants/skirts. I'm glad I brought extras for those. There's also a clothesline in the shower for bathing suits, but no clothespins. Something else I'm glad I brought. Thanks to the tips on these boards, I had everything with me that we could have needed.

 

Our first "official" cruise activity was the First Time Cruisers talk in the Phantom Lounge, with our cruise director, Mark Hawkins. Since this was our first cruise, I have no means of comparison to other CDs, but I can't imagine any being better than Mark. He was absolutely hysterical. Every activity he hosted, every talk he gave - even the potentially boring debarkation talk - was entertaining, almost like being at a comedy show. He wa salways full of energy, bouncing all over the place. I absolutely loved him.

 

One thing about the Phantom Lounge, as well as most of the ship: if you get cold easily, bring a sweater. Being from Florida, it doesn't take much to make me cold, and I was freezing in nearly all of the indoor rooms. I think they keep the A/C at 70 on board. Brrr! There's a thermostat in the cabins you can adjust, and we found ourselves bumping it up a little every day.

 

After the muster drill, we went back to our room to wait for the ship to leave port. I'd read that seeing the Sunshine Skyway Bridge pass by was a must, because it's so low it looks like the ship will hit, so I wanted to be sure to be up on deck. We were lounging on our beds, reading books because there was nothing worth watching on TV, when all of a sudden I glanced over and realized the view from our window was no longer the Channelside mall area, but open water. I still don't know how long we'd been moving, but neither of us had felt a thing. The ship was that steady. We ran up on deck and made our way to the uppermost level, near the middle of the ship (the bow was too crowded by then) and copped a squat on an empty bench to wait for hte bridge. And waited. And waited. Eventually we gave up and went back to our rooms, but shortly thereafter, the captian made his welcome aboard announcement and told us we'd be psasing under the bridge at 6:20. We hadn't missed it after all. We killed some time wandering the ship while we waited, then went back up in time to see it. They're not kidding: it really does look like the bridge is going to hit. Very cool.

 

My memory of the rest of the day is kind of hazy now. We joined a trivia game and checked out the shops, then got ready for dinner. We had the late seating, which I think I might change in the future if I cruise again. I don't know how other ships are, but the Miracle tended to schedule a lot of activities during the late seating that I would have liked to have attended. I'm a big trivia buff, and it seemed like all of the trivia meetings and game shows were either around 9:00 or during the afternoons while we were in port.

 

The Bacchus Restaurant is... interesting. The cruise director actually went so far as to call it ugly, but mostly it's just very pink. There's a picture in my album that does a better job describing it than any words would. Most people thought it was tacky, but it amused me. We were seated at a table for 6, and got along very well with our four other tablemates. Our wait staff was excellent, always teasing and joking around with us. And every night (except for the first), they would all dance before dessert to entertain us. I'll miss that. No one dances for me at home before dessert! Heck, I don't even get dessert at home!

 

The Welcome Aboard show that night was very good. The singers and dancers were fantastic.

 

The second day was a fun day at sea. We spent most of it outside, either at one of the pools or out on the bow, looking at the water. The first pool we tried wa sone of the middeck ones, which allows kids. I don't necessarily mind kids, but as small as the pools are, it's impossible to avoid being splashed if there are a bunch of them all playing nearby. So word to the wise, if you want a more peaceful pool experience, go to the adults only pool at the aft end of the Lido deck, out on the fantail. They have staff watching to make sure the kids stay out. Be careful where you drop your stuff, though. All the soot and ash from the engines blows to the back of the ship and settles on the deck there. They wash it down periodically, but I'd left my beach bag on the floor, and the whole bottom of it was smudged with soot when I picked it up again. Still, that was my favorite pool on the sihp. The view from the rail is amazing, and the water of the Gulf on that first day was the most glorious, deep blue I'd ever seen. There are also plenty of decks at the bow of the ship that are good for water-gazing, which we did later in the day. We spotted another cruise ship that looked like it was sailing towards us, but it turned out to be a Disney ship that had stopped (rumors were that they'd seen a raft in the water and stopped to check it out, but I'm not sure if that's true or not). Whatever the reason, we passed them by, but they caught up to us at Grand Cayman the next day, so I assume everything was fine.

 

Day three; Grand Cayman. Here's where we hit a little glitch. We'd booked one of Carnival's reef & wreck excursions for noon. Apparently, not enough people were interested in that one, so it was cancelled. They called us the night before while we were at the show and left a message, so by the time we got it, it was past midnight. I went to the purser's desk to find out what we could do, and the woman there was very helpful. They had one at 10:00 that was still going, but because we already had the island tour booked from 8:15-10:15, this wasn't possible. In the end, we cancelled it and got our money refunded. I'd done a little reading on the boards here about each port, so I knew there were places near the port you could snorkel on your own. Our second glitch, which was somewhat ongoing, was that our steward never brought us dry beach towels. When he did the turndown service the night before, he left the ones we'd used that day hanging, still soggy, on the bathroom door. And because we got to port so early, he wasn't on call yet when we got up the next day. (We'd tried calling him the night before, but he was off duty by then and room service was no help, even though they said they'd call housekeeping for us). We went back to the purser and they called our stewerad, who brought us towels just as we were about to leave for the tenders. Though to be honest, I still don't know if he was our actual steward or just someone else who worked that floor. While everyone else we talked to got to know their stewards well, we never officially met ours. He never introduced himself to us, and the few times we had to request something, different people brought them.

 

Anyway, that's not a big deal. It was a minor inconvenience in an otherwise wondeful trip. Grand Cayman was beautiful, and our bus tour was very entertaining. We went to Hell, the Tortuga rum factory (really just a gift shop) and the Turtle Farm. Hell isn't much to see, but it's fun to buy a shirt there or send a postcard. The Turtle Farm was short, but also fun. Also, as it turned out, we were there on 6/6/06. Creepy, huh? The post office was closed (maybe in observance of the "holiday?") but the shops had stamps and postcards, so we were still able to mail stuff. Our tour guide had no other tours that day, so he extended our an extra half hour, drivign us around to other parts of the island to show us more. He even stopped off at a little cove so we could take pictures. Again, I was awed by the blueness of the water.

 

Once our tour was over, we found a tourist information booth and asked the lady there about places to snorkel. She directed us to the wreck of the Cali, just five minutes (on foot) from the pier, so we headed over to check it out. There was a restaurant there that rented equipment and had direct access to the water. We had our own snorkels, so all we needed were fins, which were $5. They even threw in lifevests for free. We gave them our bags to look after (I didn't feel unsafe leaving my stuff with them at all), and were off. As it turned out, that was the same wreck our Carnival tour would have visited. But instead of only getting 30-45 minutes at it, crammed into a large group, we were on our own for nearly 2 hours before decided to pack it in. Some other tour groups came and went while were were there, but we stayed out of their way. I'd never snorkeled before, but after that experience, I'm dying to do it again. It was amazing. And instead of $42, it only cost us $5!!!

 

It was about to rain, so we cut our shorte visit short and went back tot he ship for lunch. The rets of the day was the usual: dinner, shows, etc. Our mysterious steward left us our first towel animal that night and gave us fresh beach towels. A good day.

 

Day Four: Cozumel. Well, technically, I never actually saw Cozumel, as our excursion was for Tulum, which meant tendering to the mainland of Mexico. The descriptions on Carnival's site greatly downplayed just how much of this excursion is spent travelling. First there's a 40-minute ferry from the ship to Playa del Carmen (a very turbulent one to boot. Half the people on board were getting seasick), then a 90-minute bus ride to Tulum, with a stop halfway at a cheesy souvenir place for about 45 minutes. Out of the 7 hours alloted for the excursion, only 2 are spent actually at the site. That said, Tulum was gorgeous. It was hot and a bit crowded (the Carnival tours alone took 4 huge buses, maybe even 5), but the ruins were beautiful, and the setting was breathtaking the way they were set all on a cliff overlooking the Caribbean. Once again, the blueness of the water stunned me. Our tour of the ruins lasted about 90 minutes, then we had the rest of the time free. Since it was about a 10-minute trip back to where the buses were parked, that meant we had 20 minutes to either wander the ruins, or hurry down to the beach and have a quick swim. We chose the beach. There's no place to change clothes there, so be prepared if you want to do this, and wear your suit under your clothes. The water is crystal clear and refreshing, especially after the heat of the day. It was a little rushed, but well worth the trouble, even if it meant being wet on the bus back to the pier. We were given a small lunch and our choice of sodas for the trip back. Our guide was very knowledgeable, but I admit I had a hard time concentrating on what he was telling us, thanks to the heat.

 

No new towel animal that night, since we hadn't taken apart our bunny. The steward just moved it back onto the bed.

 

Day Five: Belize. Once again, we had no beach towels. Our steward had taken our wet ones away the night before, but never left us new ones, so we tried calling him. I don't know if our phone was just bad, or if it's the way it was supposed to work, but every time we tried calling the cabin steward, it would ring once or twice, pick up for a second, then disconnect. We never did get through to actually talk to him. I wandered down the hall, where other stewards were gathering with their carts to start their work, and asked one for some towels. He tried to direct me to another guy (probably our "real" steward), and he told me he was already on it. I guess he saw that we'd been trying to call him and came to the room while I was out. My friend had told him what we needed, so he returned a few minutes later with the towels.

 

After reading reviews here, I'd decided to move away from the Carnival tours and try a private one. We booked cave tubing with cave-tubing.com, which had us a littel nervous about tendering. Carnival claims only their excursions can get off first, but we went down toward the gangway first thing anyway. While the Carnival groups were all gathering in the Phantom Lounge, we joined 8 or 10 other people who were doing the same as us: excursioning on their own. Some of the dancers were there to direct traffic, and one promised he would help us get on the first tender with Carnival's tubing group. I guess the group was taking too long to leave the lounge, because he ended up letting us all on the videographers' tender instead. So we got to the port before everyone else. We found 6 other people who were doing the same tubing as us and grouped with them to get the lower rate ($45 instead of $55, which is still way better than Carnival's price), and set off to find Yhony's people outside the port.

 

Belize is very poor, but still a beautiful country. Because we were still waiting for some other poeple, Yhony had one of his other guides take us on a quick bus tour of the city. When we got back, we transferred to a smaller, more comfortable van and were off to the rainforest. The drive was about an hour, but Keith, our guide, kept us entertained the whole time. Some of the guides had stayed behind to wait for the rest of the people that hadn't gotten off the ship yet. As Keith liked to tell us, "If you get off the ship early, there's no limit to the amount of fun we can have. If you get off the ship late, there's no limit to how fast we can go." He was right about the fun, that's for sure.

 

The weather at the port had been kind of gloomy, but the rainforest was gorgeous. We had to walk about 30 minutes along the river with our tubes, and one couple had to stop early and only do one cave, while the other 6 of us went on to a second one. There were 2 guides, so we split into two groups of 3 and each guide took one of us, linking our tubes together, and guided us down the river, through one cave, then another. As we entered the second cave, we could see a cruise group getting in the water behind us. There had to be about a hundred of them, all being herded in by two or three guides. For half the price of Carnival's trou, we got more caves, more time, and a lot more fun. I don't regret booking privately one bit. We were back at the port with two hours to spare, and spent the rest of the day having lunch and shopping.

 

That night was the Bathrobes & Beers part on the Lido deck. I'm not really a drinker or a dancer, but I love music, so I was a good sport and went up in my robe to check it out. The calypso band that plays on the ship is fantastic, and it was a really fun time. They had a huge dessert buffet set up out by the stage, but as late as it was, and as full as I still was from dinner, there was no way I could eat anything. Such a shame.

 

We came to realize the only way to get a new towel animal was to destroy the old one. So with our bunny taken apart, our steward finally gave us something new: an elephant!

 

Day Five: Costa Maya. Finally, a port where we didn't have to tender! Being able to walk right off the ship like that was so much easier. The port at Costa Maya is still very new, and very nice. We did some shopping there after our tour, and I can see why a lot of people like it so much. As a whole, Costa Maya is a beautiful port, one I'd like to visit again some day. It's still so unspoiled, I really hope it stays that way for a long time to come.

 

We had another private tour booked here, the Chacchoben ruins with David & Ivan. We were some of the first people off the ship, so we headed for the shuttle stand and got our $3 taxi to Mahahual. The guy at the Cat's Meow, where we were to meet our group, told us David was on his way, so we sat down under an umbrella to wait for him, just as the rain started. It poured for a few minutes, then stopped. Typical tropical weather, something we're used to here in Florida. By the time our gruop was gathered and David was ready to go, the sky was blue again.

 

I won't gush about how great David is here, since that's more suited to the Costa Maya boards. I'll just say that once again, I was happy we chose a private tour. We got so much on this one, and enjoyed the ruins much more than we did in Tulum. The Chacchoben ruins are in the middle of a jungle, so they're mostly shaded from teh sun and heat, and the ruins themselves are just glorious. You can't climb them, but the lush scenery is enough to make up for that. We spent a few hours there, then David took us back to Mahahual. We ate lunch at the Cat's Meow (delicious quesadillas) and spent the rest of our day shopping at the port.

 

We destroyed our towel animal again and got a duck that night. Our third and last for the cruise. I'm not sure why I'm going into detail about the towel animals, but it was a little disappointing to hear how great everyone else's stewards were compared to ours. We docked his tip a little bit (just a little, since he still did a good job keeping our room clean and tidy) and gave it to our wait staff, who were beyond amazing. They deserved it.

 

That night, the tropical depression that would later become Tropical Storm Alberto showed up. The ship was rocking a good deal all night and well into the next day, but luckily our Bonine worked like magic and kept me from getting sick. I'm usually very prone to motion sickness, too, so that's a testament to how good it is. The rocking was so pronounced that most people couldn't walk in a straight line down the halls. It was like being on a ship full of drunks. Kind of funny, really.

 

Day Six: Another day at sea. We relaxed most of the day, doing a few activities and helping to win some points for our team (they separated the cruisers into three teams based on their table assignments, and had an ongoing contest to see which team could get the most points by the end of the week - usually by winning or participating in activities).

 

The weather was gloomy most of the day, and the sea was still rough, but as the day progressed, it got calmer. We were outrunning the storm, it seemed. The show that night was "Legends," featuring other cruisers who had auditioned throughout the week at the karaoke nights, portraying various famous singers. Some were really good, others not so much, but it was an entertaining show all the same. At midnight, there was an adults only imrov show with some of the dancers and social directors that was very funny.

 

Debarkation the next day went very smoothly. We did self-assist, so we wouldn't have to leave our luggage out in the hall the night before, and were able to get off quickly and efficiently. All we had to do was hand over our customs form at the port and go outside to meet our ride. No x-rays, no searches, nothing. Very easy.

 

Even though the weather wasn't always the greatest, I had a fantastic time, and would definitely cruise again. My only regret is that we didn't book more snorkeling excursions! I'm dying to snorkel again sometime. On the next cruise, I guess. :) The staff of the Miracle are fantastic. They're all funny and friendly and they definitely make the cruise.

 

If anyone wants to see my pictures, you can find them here:

 

I have to run off to dinner now, so I apologize in advance if there are any typos. I'm usually good about proofing posts before I make them, but there's no time today!

[Ms_Pammy]

Great review...we are thinking about the Miracle next year.

 

We also used cave-tubing with Ybony & keith in April and its was great. Im with you though...I love to snorkel. Next time snorkel in Cozumel its wonderful:)

 

How was it in GC? Ive only done the sting ray tour there. Did you see lots of fish and such?

[twofit]

Really enjoyed your detailed, personal review. And your pics are awesome!! We're on the Miracle in August - can't wait!

[Rok4u2]

Thanks so much for this excellent review. We are booked in Oct.

[elaineb]

Thanks Ginger! The reviews and the photos were great! Less than a month until our Miracle cruise. I can't wait! I hope we don't have to take apart our towel animals - I like to make a little towel zoo. Our group is doing 2 of the same excursions - the Chaccoben Ruins and cave-tubing with Yvohny - so glad to hear rave reviews about both. Welcome to the world of cruising and I'm sure this will be the first of many more to come.:)

[Procruizer]

Great review!! It might have been long but very entertaining. My family and I were on the Miracle last June. We had a wonderful time also. I will be on the Pride in 10 days. Can't wait!! The count down is on.

[Yankeegirl]

Thanks for the great review. DH and I are going on Sept 10th and can't wait. I'm with you on the early dining. Last year on the Fascination we had dinner at 8:30 and we felt like we missed a lot of things.

 

Thanks again!:)

[IrishDolphin]

nice review here - great photos as well - first time i have bothered to look at Miracle and she definitely looks fab w/ interesting theme :)

[Rescue156]

Awesome review, thanks. We're going in August.

 

Question: How was the talent show set up? Were there auditions, or did you have to be the best in Karaoke and the other activities like that? It seems to vary ship to ship, so I'd like to know.

 

Thanks in advance.

[critcatny]

Thanks for a great review...actually I was on the same cruise and it was great reliving it through your review....We also had an awesome time and will recommend the Miracle to eveyone. The ship is great, clean, new and the staff was great too. The only thing I disliked (but not enough to keep me off it) was the tendering. Took a little more time to get on and off the ports but not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. There is so much to do on this ship, we were dissappointed we couldn't squeeze everything in that we wanted to do...just too much and not enough time. We had a balcony room for the first time and that was awesome too. All carnival rooms are great though-big enough and plenty of storage in the room and bathroom...and the beds are fabulous. Didn't get to see all the shows but what we saw was good. Had the late dinner seating (because on our last cruise we had the early and didn't like the timing of that so we changed to late this time) but that actually didn't work out too well either. I would love a 6:30-7:00 seating...that would be perfect....so we ate only 4 nights in the DR and the rest up on Lido Deck. The food was good all over though. Our room steward was great (sorry yours wasn't) but out DR waiter was not good at all....He was very slow, not around enough, and never smiled....glad yours was better.

Anyway, your pix were great too, thanks...And anyone considering the Miracle...DO IT!!!!! IT WAS GREAT!!!

[GingerPJ]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed the review, and that it wasn't too long. :)

 

Ms_Pammy: The wreck snorkel we did in GC was great. I had no interest in the stingrays, despite everyone saying that's the "thing to do" there. There were a lot of fish at the wreck site - more when a tour would come through and feed them. (Which is not good, from what I've read around here, but I figured as long as it was happening, I might as well enjoy the fish!). There may be reef areas that are better, since there probably aren't as many fish living around the shipwreck, but for my first time, I was very pleased.

 

Rescue156: I never went to any of the karaoke nights, but they did announce every day (and it was in the Capers) which people they were looking for each night. So one day it woudl be Madonna and Elton John, for example, and another they'd be looking for Britney Spears and Tina Turner. So you'd know ahead of time which people they were auditioning for on which day.

 

critcatny: Sorry to hear your waiter wasn't so good. Ours had slow nights as well, and we'd be there past 10:00, but he was friendly and funny, so that made up for it. I guess there's always something that's bound to go wrong on a vacation, no matter how perfect it is otherwise. And I agree with you about the dining times. 6:30ish would be perfect!