Just returned from Miracle -cruised 12/19 - 12/26

[kedmondson]

I went with my husband (we're in late 40's), 2 sons (16yrs. & 20 years) and my 25 year old niece plus a 16 year old friend of my son's. We were on the empress desks. My husband and I had a balcony cabin 6115 which adjoined by a door with 6109. The children's cabin was an inside cablin and ours was a balcony. It allowed our balcony to be extra long. The other cabin we had was also an inside cabin 6117. We can't say enough about our room steward- Clarance and his staff. He was super and always was cheerful and willing to do anything for you. First thing I did was tip him $10 to remove all the stuff from the refrigerator so the kids wouldn't be using the high priced stuff in there. We got through the embarking line by 12:30 and kept sitting in a holding area until the captain gave an all clear. Finally about 1:00 we were allowed to go on the ship but asked to go to the top deck to eat lunch. At 1:30 we were down to our cabins and met our room steward. The muster drill occurred about 4:00. It went pretty quickly. I've heard people say that the gaudiness of this ship has ruined their experience. Yes it is gaudy and the formal dining room is very gaudy but there are too many fun things to do to let the decor get one in a bad mood.

First stop was Grand Cayman- My kids went to Stingray Alley and snorkeled other stops. My husband and I rented a car and drove to Eden Rock, Cemetary Rock and other good places to snorkel from shore. It is very sad to see how badly hit it was. They have masses of work to do still. It was quite an adventure to drive on the left but we made it and visited 4 snorkel spots. The coral by shore looks gray and dead with little fish.

Next stop was Costa Maya. Since we were a party of 6 we took a taxi into the fishing village of Majahaul. There is a taxi stand where they understand English well. We hired 2 separate taxi to take us to closest ruins, wait for us for 90 minutes and return us back. (paid each taxi $100) We also hired a great little guide to lead us through the ruins. One could easily just walk about oneself, but without a guide you miss out on so much information! The taxi returned us to Majahaul and we had some food/drinks on the beach. It's a beautiful beach.

Next stop Cozumel. We went to the Chanukaanab Park. We rented 3 scooters and drove there ourselves. (This option is fun but definitely a LOT more $$ than a taxi) We had some great snorkeling, great beach time, great food and drink plus our sons swam with the dolphins! A great day!

Next stop was Belize. Boy is the tendering far away! It's about 30 minutes into Belize City. My husband and I took a snorkel tour through Carnival to Goff's Caye. They picked us up right on the Miracle and off we were to Goff's Caye. It is quite a ways out there but it is pretty amazing! It is a tiny island about the size of a football field. There are 2 outhouses, a pier and a covered area. That's it. Your choice is to go out on the boat and snorkel in deeper water and right on the reef or snorkel from the beach. Either is great. My husband snorkeled from the boat and saw baracudda, squid. I snorkeled from the island and saw a flounder, nurse shark. The little island has lots of pelicans too. We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and were returned to the Miracle. We cleaned up and went out into Belize City. They have a clean, beautiful tourist area. When you step outside that area you see the real Belize- very dirty, lots of begging, enormous poverty. It's sad to see. My kids saw more of the city then we did because they took the cave tubing through x-treme sports. They drove through much of the city before getting out to hike through the forest to the river. They floated through 2 caves. They enjoyed themselves except that they made the last tender (which worried me to death!) and were quite cold.

I've been on other Carnival cruises and I'm not a really picky person. I felt like the entertainment wasn't nearly as good as former shows I've seen. We ate in the formal dining room every night. I also don't feel like the entrees were as good as usual-- I had quite a few dishes I took one bite of and that was it. I would not avoid this cruise but am just commenting that I was surprised that it wasn't up to other Carnival cruise standards I've had before.

Our last night was very rocky and stormy. I felt sorry for the entire crew! We had freaky 82 mile an hour winds just outside of Tampa- we had to dock in a temporary area until the winds died down. Lots of water damage, things broken in gift shop etc. Plus we docked much later. I was one of the last group called off and it was 11:30. The poor workers were trying to clean up, repair and get ready for the next group all with the former cruisers still on board. What a stressful time for them. I hope things worked out okay for them.

All in all I'd recomment this cruise- we had a blast!