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Miracle Review 10/08 - Late and Long

cathyoo

By cathyoo,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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cathyoo

cathyoo

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I was going to forego writing a review one - I waited too long and two - my writing skills pale in comparison to many on this board. I changed my mind because reviews are favorite posts and I want others who are not authors in disguise to continue to share. Figured if they got intimidated by the witty writers they could say “at least I’m better than that Chatty CathyOO.

 

Background on me and my scruffy bunch

 

Cathy –56 that’s me. My favorite pastime, my passion, my joy is watching people make wonderful last forever memories. I tend to be the planner in my scruffy bunch and I also worry about others not enjoying themselves.

.

Joe – that’s my DH.. 58.. he loves cruising that is his passion. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary on this cruise. This was our 5th cruise, four with Carnival, one RCI.

 

Mae and Peg.. my mom and sister.. who live in Florida. I talked them into coming North for a cruise.. so a worry for me. Why would someone fly from Fl to take a cruise out of NY? They wanted to sail with us as we celebrated our 40th.

 

Phyllis and Pete : my sister and her husband. They are not so cruise enamored as the rest of us. In fact, my sister did not plan to go on this cruise until I had a life/death incident and she made a promise that if I pulled through she would go along. So, now I have another worry.. was she going to regret making that promise.

 

Jean, my sister in law is a fairly recent widow. When her husband was alive we did everything together. Joe and Cathy, Jean and Steve. This would be her first solo cruise. I really worried about her. I worried about my DH. Steve was his buddy and he still really misses him.

 

Ryan and Kelli my nephew and his wife.(SIL’s son) were unable to get off of work for 8 days. They were flying to San Juan and meeting the cruise ship there. Now that’s a big worry.. What if we don’t make that port? What if they don’t make it to San Juan on time.

 

Dave, Shannon, Frank and Nicole, my nephew’s friends (leaving with us from NY) first time cruisers. What if they didn’t like cruising, what if they didn’t like hanging with us old folks..

 

Add to those worries all the worries I managed to pick up from Cruise Critics.. worries about traffic in NY, rough seas, rude fellow passengers, terrible embarkation, bad food, etc, hideous décor, rambunctious kids, and smoked filled walkways. .

 

We had a nice on the quiet side roll call. We called ourselves the “MerryMakers”and I was setting up a slot pull. Okay, what if no one has fun, what if they lose their money and that ruins their cruise????

 

Joe and I have had balconies the last few cruises and this time we were going back to an OV. In fact we were on the Riviera deck, better known as the steerage deck. Would we regret it? Everyone says once you have a balcony you can’t go back.

 

For the first time I went with guarantee instead of a hand picked cabin. I ended up in a forward cabin without other cabins above me (1179)

 

So that was my very worried state of mind on the morning of 10/8/08 when I woke up and realized it was today, my very long and much waited for Miracle Cruise.

 

That’s it for today. Tomorrow I’ll talk about our first day and what worries got put to sleep.

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cathyoo

cathyoo

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Oct 8th and our transportation in picking us up at 8:00 am. The Florida cruisers had flown in the day before and my sister and bil were meeting at my house. My SIL, and my nephew’s friends (the Kids as we called them) were traveling directly to NY from Quakertown. Ha, big surprise, WORRIES.. what have I forgotten… to pack.. to do at work.. to tell my children… to do at home.. More worries.. my sister and I are splitting the transportation. $778 to take us to NY. One of my selling points was not having to pay air fare… My sister is the most generous person in the world but she is not frivolous with her money. She would go the cheapest way possible. I have to say my DH is not so generous but does not like inconvenience. He did not want a shared ride. God Forbid a stranger would talk to him. He really wanted to get a limo but there is no way I was telling my sister we were paying $1200 for a ride to NY. I’ve read about the terrible NY traffic. Would waiting at the airport end up being preferable than the ride to the Big Apple.

 

The morning itself was a GIFT.. gorgeous, beautiful, sit in the sun and dream day. We have only cruised in Jan, Feb and March. Now my BIL and DH start discussing how much better it is to leave cold weather for the nice weather. Gotta say it was such a nice day I was actually reluctant to leave my porch

 

Everyone from this scruffy half met at my house to wait for the transportation. It was also my idea to leave early. The rest of my scruffy group only wanted to be there before the ship sailed. None of them are sit and wait type folks.

 

 

Hallelujah, starting off well. Van is on time, all of our luggage fits and we are not sardines. Big sigh of relief and we are OFF. What a great start, a perfect ride. Not even 10:00 and we are arriving at the port in NY. “Oh, look, cruise ships”. “What pier?” oopps, the Limo place told me they take folks to the Carnival Miracle all the time, I thought they knew. Okay, ships are big the pier is not that long, we’ll find her. NO MIRACLE. Joke becomes “Cathy got the day wrong”. HA!, HA!. Driver finally asks and is told the ship is not here yet. Ouch.. I alone know that means a very long wait.

 

We get dropped off. Six scruffy travelers and lots of luggage. My sister is recovering from a bad leg break and has a cane. We found her a chair and start trying to figure what we do and where we should go. Then I saw her, my long awaited MIRACLE. She was slowly, oh so slowly, making her way to me. As she pulled into the dock I could see people waving down and taking pictures of us.

 

Suddenly, a very sad feeling came over me. I had been planning this cruise for 18 months and in 8 short days I was going to be standing on that deck, looking down at this pier and it would all be over.

 

Joe asked someone who looks like they might know, what we are supposed to do. See my scruffy bunch thinks the ship is here, lets get it started. I keep trying to break it to them .. “it’s a wait.” We are directed to take an elevator up to the second level. Off we go.

 

When we get off the elevator there is a little snack bar with coffee. Some head there, others went to check out the building. I had heard there were not many chairs and I was determined if I had to wait for hours it would be sitting not standing.

 

The terminal was very empty and when I found some chairs there were no more than 50. Oh, this doesn’t look good. Found out this was the waiting area before the waiting area. My SIL calls to say her part of our scruffy bunch had arrived. Joe gets in trouble for using his cell phone in the terminal. Ahh, another worry gone. SIL here and safe.

 

The terminal is starting to fill up. They still haven’t opened the x-ray machines or the final waiting area. Of course they wait until my mom and sis go outside for a cigarette. We were probably the first folks into this terminal and now there are a hundred people in line ahead of us. I tell our scruffy party to go ahead. I’ll wait for my mom and sister.

 

I resisted the urge to either go join my mom and sister for a cigarette (quit smoking 8 years ago but haven’t quit wanting to smoke) or to go hurry them. The whole time I’m waiting the line keeps filling up. I have visions of no chairs on the other side and me standing for three hours. Or even worse my scruffy group standing and regretting they ever listened to me.

 

First a line through the x-ray which moved very quickly. Then we were given a number. Mom and sister get 5 (they are in front of us) we get 3. Go figure. Now we wait in line to get our sail and sign. The rest of the scruffy bunch finish and are directed to chairs. I tell them to save us some seats (there a few hundred empty chairs). We fly through the check in process. Would have taken 3 minutes instead of 6 but I couldn’t remember whether I used my credit card or Joe’s and to add insult to injury I couldn’t remember our room # and had to dig in my bag for our regular boarding docs.

 

After we checked in our first hitch of the day (beside Joe getting in trouble for his cell phone) There was a woman directing us to a group of empty seats. I smile and walked past her to where my scruffy group was sitting (the smokers are still in line checking in). While I am scolding them for not saving seats the woman is having conniptions because we did not go where she told us to go. I said okay, come on scruffies. Our seating general snapped “no, they are sitting right here, YOU have to go over there.” Okay, what the hay, I’ll go. She leads us to an area of chairs that was just starting to fill up. I tried to go to an empty row so I could have seats for the four of us (mom and sister were just about done checking in). It was directly in front of the row the Seat General wanted us to take. Again we get scolded. When I tried to explain “NO! you will be in the same room. You don’t need to be next to each other. I am terribly annoyed at this point. But Dh shrugs and says “okay”. I got over it in minute or two but it was an annoyance and who wants to start a cruise being annoyed.

 

We started our wait. Not a problem for me. I do enjoy people watching. I especially enjoy watching families with small children. There were a fair amount of children with that “Christmas morning” excitement. It was a good-natured crowd at least from my viewpoint. Of course I was sitting in a chair not standing for hours in the long check in line. And I owe that to these boards. They check in a certain amount of people and the rest are left to stand and wait.

 

After a few hours and a few announcements about the boarding procedures they started to call the zones. #3 and we are on our way to our MIRACLE. With a quick prayer to say thanks for this wonderful vacation and a quick wish upon the gangplank that all the scruffies have a wonderful time and we have arrived. Oh that oh so wonderful feeling. “here we go hon” another adventure for us”.

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SheriNtexas

SheriNtexas

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Thanks for the review so far, Cathy! I sailed on the Miracle 10/20 and I was thinking it is too late to do my review, but seeing that YOU did your review, I'll do mine too, sometime this weekend! I love reading reviews, even if it is of a ship that i know I will never be on!:D;)

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pe4all

pe4all

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Thanks Cathyoo! Better late than never with a review. We can't wait to sail Miracle. Believe it or not, it was cheaper to sail from Florida than from NY for us - even adding airfare on! Keep the review coming - love your style of writing - it is like reading a novel. Looking forward to the next "chapters".

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cathyoo

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With radar like precision we head straight for the Lido deck. I know it will soon fill up and I’m worried my sail and sign card won’t work. What should I do? Ahh, silly me.. I need to test it out. Yes use this card for the first of MANY of those wonderful cocktails. Another worry laid to rest… this sail and sign works perfectly.

 

We can’t all sit together so our scruffy bunch got broken up into two groups. All of the scruffies have on Madi gra beads. That’s the Merrymakers identifying markers. I’ve told the scruffies in addition to being a scruffy they are also a Merrymaker. But I don’t think any of them really got it. They just put the beads on to humor me. Imagine the confusion when someone asked a scruffy if they were from cruise critic. However, since I am famous in my family for my invisible (on line) friends the Merrymaker got directed to me. So my first half hour on the cruise was exceeding my expectations.

 

Another worry put to bed.. the ship’s décor. I’m not one to pay attention to décor and stuff. But after reading some of the reviews here I was afraid some of the scruffies might want to gouge out their eyes. But not a complaint to be heard and just smiling faces. No one seemed too upset with the embarkation delay and I even talked some scruffies into admitting getting there early and sitting was better than getting there late and standing. Not all but enough to make that worry go away.

 

Filled our bellies for the first of many times and set off to see our rooms. We were scattered all over the ship. The elite scruffies headed off to their balcony cabins and the steerage scruffies (me, Joe, my mom and sis) headed down to the dungeon. Our room was fine for us. Carnival cabins tend to all look alike to me. Bathrooms are a decent size and there is plenty of storage.

 

I will say that if you are a light sleeper or if noise bothers you cabin 1179 could be a problem. There was a fair amount of overhead noise. Loud thumps every once in a while. I did worry the first night that I was going to have trouble sleeping but that never happened. I feel asleep easily and was never awaken by overhead or outside noise. In the cabin next to ours was a family of four with a baby. For the most part we never heard anything from their room. There was one day when DH was trying to nap and he said the baby was very unhappy. He said it felt like the baby was in the room with him. We felt bad for the baby and for his parents. I also worried that the forward cabin would have a lot of motion. There was a fair amount but it never bothered us. In fact it was nice being rocked to sleep.

 

Our luggage arrived and within 15 minutes we had made that OV cabin into our home away from home. I decorated our door with some 40s and some wedding decoration. It was quite fitting for us to be celebrating our 40th on the Miracle cause believe me the fact that the two of us lasted that long is a true Miracle. Forty years two juvenile delinquents with $370 between them thought it would be fun to make it legal. The only one who thought it was a forever deal was Joe. One of the few times I’ll have to say he was right.

 

We checked out our bed, flicked through the tv channels and said hello to the Denver TV station. Hennrick our cabin steward introduced himself. I asked for the ice bucket to be kept filled. We are sort of low maintenance and don’t really expect a lot. We a couple of minor snags. Ice bucket wasn’t always filled at night. I took to leaving a sticky on it. We are truly creatures of habit and left our cabin early every morning and came back around 10, we left for dinner every night around 7:30. It seemed like every day we had to ask the steward to come back later. Especially true in the evening. The steward would always come around 6:30/7:00.

 

Funny episode when we were in St Thomas. That was our actual anniversary. We had put the do not disturb sign on in the morning while we getting ready to go ashore. We forgot to take it off. My SIL had ordered “happy anniversary” decorations for our room. When we returned from St Thomas and I opened the door I don’t know what shocked me the most… the unmade room or the decorations.

 

 

Muster Drill…already planned to leave early so I can take the elevator to deck 4. My knees occasionally decide to pay me back for making them carry an oversized load and I could already feel them gearing to make me pay. Nope too late.. so up the steps we went. Ahh, what a wonderful day.. even the knees took mercy on me. It was the most wonderful of all muster drills. Over in 5 minutes. Oh and another worry put to rest… I had read about sailaway happening while you were at muster. Not to worry the muster ended long before the ship left.

 

Next on my agenda was the meet and greet. Our roll call was on the quiet side and I was very happy to get to meet the folks that I did. It was very nice to put a face to the name. We had planned a bag exchange for the next day and a slot pull for the third sea day. I was a little disappointed that I the meet and greet was larger but having friendly faces around the ship is definitely a cruise bonus.

 

Than sail a way began. A little windy but nothing was going to stand in my way. New York harbor has the same vibe as the city. That vibe that makes you think you are a part of something so much bigger than yourself. Watching the Statue of Liberty come into view was truly amazing. Realizing that years ago the grandmother I never got to meet stood on a deck of ship and looked at the same sight filled me with a sense of awe. So many years ago Catherine Van Arsdale looked out at this brand new country and wondered what type of life was in front of her. Now her daughter and granddaughters are sailing past the Lady of Liberty on a luxury ship (at least to us). It amazes me to think of how many people have stood on the deck of a ship in awe of our Lady. I decide I don’t care if my scruffy bunch would rather have sailed from a Florida port. My heart will remember this forever.

 

Windy but wonderful and than back to our room to get ready for dinner. Worry again.. Will the new cruisers like the dining experience? Will my mother like our waitstaff (on her first cruise her waiter was WONDERFUL and every cruise since the waitstaff has come up short. Will the singing and dancing get on everyone’s nerves? Will we get done dinner in time for the show?

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cathyoo

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We dressed and started our first ritual …. Meeting for a drink in the Jeeves lounge before dinner. Great place to people watch.. Since joining CC I’ve started to pay more attention to people’s attire. Fair share of dungarees, sleeveless tee shirts and other very casual attire. This was the first night and luggage could be an issue. I didn’t see anyone turned away. Subsequent nights I still saw a few underdressed folks. My husband’s HATES the pajama in public wear and we actually saw some passengers going to dinner in their flannel pj bottoms. Lots of jeans and jersey sort of wear. Not a lot of tuxes on formal night. I really enjoyed watching the families that got all dolled up. It makes something special even more special.

 

The scruffies were broken into two groups. The kids at one table and right next to the old scruffs. We were 7 at our table and one of worries had been them squeezing 7 into a table for six. But we were fine. Our waitstaff was W&W Watson and Wlyam. I enjoyed them very much. My mother thought they were “okay” but she had that legend of a waiter so I take her opinion with a grain of salt. The kids absolutely loved their head waiter. I didn’t get his name.

 

Complaints from the board about the Miracle dining room include the horrendous décor. Not sure how I would have felt if the grapes were still Pepto Pink but the purple grapes were fine to me. It felt a little cramped to me I think because the ceilings are low but this is not a complaint just an observation.

 

Another complaint from the board and from scruffies had to do with the singing/dancing waiters. I admit I would love to have my coffee served before the festivities. It sure appeared to me that most of the wait staff really enjoyed putting on the show. Fifth cruise and this was the best dining entertainment yet. I loved Frankie the Maitre’d. He was very personable and had a wonderful voice. So did Watson our waiter. Even my scruffies got a little pleasure from the nightly entertainment.

 

I also read complaints about the food and unfortunately that worry did not get relieved the first night. All of us who ordered the strip steak found it to be extremely grisly. The warm chocolate melting cake was also a disappointment. It was more like chocolate soup. During our 8 days we found this dessert to be hit or miss. When done correctly it was fantastic but more often than not it was undercooked. Not a complaint just an observation.

 

After the first night the food was excellent with an occasional “wouldn’t order that again”. The flat iron steak on the alternate menu was a BIG hit and ordered quite a few times. My DH absolutely loves the Pasta dish as a starter and had a sausage and pasta dish the first night that he still talks about. Dining with my family is one of my heart’s pleasures. Every night I felt like I was burst from happiness (it was probably from eating too much but I told myself it was joy).

 

Some scruffies like the shows (DH and I included) other scruffies liked the casino and the kid scruffies liked the bars. We absolutely loved the Welcome Aboard Show. We enjoyed the cruise director Lenny. Although I must say we are partial to John Heald. I love the live music and hope Carnival never does away with it. After the show we headed back to our new home and it already felt very much like home.

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cathyoo

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I thoroughly enjoy the Carnival beds. Not such a fan of the pillows. A little too soft for me. Just a preference not a complaint. There was definitely some motion and I found out the next day we had gone off course because a passenger had to be taken via helicopter to land. But we had a very nice sleep. Dh and I are early risers but habit not choice. On our previous cruise (the Legend) we had enjoyed getting the made to order eggs and the specialty coffee. Unfortunately, the egg station and the specialty coffee both were scheduled to open at 7:30. Disappointed but we were happy to wait. The egg station opened about twenty to 8 but we finally gave up on the coffee shop around 8:05. Breakfast was fine but we found we enjoyed eating in the Dining room most mornings. In fact my DH LOVED the Eggs Benedict.

 

This was our first Sea day and since they are my favorite days I was in 7th heaven. The weather was not so great but there was plenty to keep us busy. I was on a mission to win a ship on a stick so we played all the trivia games we could. I was way out of my league on most of them and after a few days I was about to give up hope. But a mini miracle, something I was decent at.. those word games like 18Hs on a GC. So I got my coveted ship on a stick. It was a collaborative win but the team let me hold the prize. A big hit was the bean bag game played in the lobby. They played it every day and it drew a large crowd. It was a hoot to watch how serious some folks got about the game.

 

We had a bag exchange scheduled for the Merrymakers. Much smaller group than I would have liked but it was fun to hang out and everyone had really neat gifts to share. New Jersey fudge, a Shoo-Fly pie, a Phillies shirt, an Amish doll outfit, cookbooks, etc

 

I still continued to worry about nephew who was boarding in San Juan. A couple of cruises before ours there was a medical emergency and the Miracle missed San Juan entirely. So that was a worry I was not going to lose until he was on the ship.

 

We quickly settled into our sea day routine, which always included a nap for my DH and some down time for me. We ate lunch one day in the dining room but generally we ate in Horatio’s at the buffet. It really got crowded especially when the weather drove everyone inside. I did not see a lot of line butting just very long lines. I do have a complaint.. not an observation.. hot dogs were not HOT. Tried two times and both times the insides were not even warm. It was annoyance to stand in line for 15 minutes to get something I couldn't’t eat. Generally my fellow passengers were polite and a good natured bunch.

 

Formal nights were the first and third sea days. For the most part every one dressed to the casual elegant standards. We had late seating. In the beginning I was disappointed because there a good amount of trivia games during our dinnertime. Once I won my ship on a stick I didn't’t care about missing games.

 

Its always funny to me how those first couple of day actually seem to go by on the slow side. I actually thought 8 days is a nice long time. Than somewhere it changes and time rushes by and it feels like it just began and it is over. I tried to savor every minute of every day but it was like air slipping through my fingers. No matter how tight I tried to hold on it just managed to get away from me.

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cathyoo

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The second sea day was spent much the same as the first. Usually on a cruise I don’t start feeling familiar until it is just about time to say good-by. That wasn’t so this cruise from day one I felt like I was home. I’m not sure if I’m becoming adjusted to cruising, if it is just the spirit class ships, or the fact that my last cruise was on the Legend (sister to the Miracle). Whatever the reason it was a very NICE feeling.

 

We ate, we played games, I margarited, we people watched, I margarited, we did all the casino tournaments, I margarited some more, we ate, I margarited, we napped, I margarited, I shopped, I margarited, we ate, I margarited, we went to the show, I margarited, I gave a contribution to the casino, and we went back to our cabin and met our new friend (the towelie). What a perfect, perfect day.

 

Somewhere between the margariting and the eating we managed to purchase a horse. This is a favorite pastime for us scruffies. We buy a horse at an auction, decorate, create a back story and than watch our horse LOSE. Haven’t had a winner yet but we have lots of memories and have had lots of laughs. This year our horse was “Drunkin Pumpkin”. We actually found a dollar store in San Juan for our props.

 

The slot tournament (both of them )were a bust for the scruffies. But Grandmom Scruffy (Mae) made it into the finals of the Blackjack Tournament. My mom loves gambling but unfortunately on this cruise gambling did not return the favor. Although she did hit Bingo for $100. My mom is also a REAL bingo player.. 50 cards, chips, serious stuff so the on board Bingo gets on her nerves.

 

Our very bad luck actually rubbed off on our Merrymaker roll call. Some of us got together to do a slot pull. Sort of my idea and I worried. Everyone put up $20 dollars and we picked a $1 machine. I think (remember I was pretty margarited) we had about 23 people. Each Merrymaker got to pull the handle 4 times. Something like 92 pulls and $460 dollars. All of those pulls and we got 4 cherries I think.. nada, squat, I felt so very bad. Well the worry at least was over and the worst that could happened happened.

My Merrymaker friends were very nice and no one cursed me (at least not where I could hear). I enjoyed spending time with my fellow Ccers and for a moment we all shared the same dream.. MEGA BUCKS..

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