Just off the Miracle 2/20/05

Hi everyone!

We're just off the Miracle 2/13-2/20/05 cruise with the partae pirates.

Other than the worst embarkation we've ever had, this was one of the best cruises we've been on. The decor on the Miracle is not as loud as other Carnival ships and the entertainment was very good.

Bring on the questions!

Lori

Worst embarkation? Explain please. And do you and the pirates live the ship intact? Did you close down the night clubs every night???

June

Hi!

So glad to hear you enjoyed the Miracle! I'll be sailing on her again in 5 weeks! Yaaaaaayyyyy!

Embarkation was to start at 1:30 with the ship departing at 8 p.m. We arrived at 1:30 p.m. with the ship just then coming in to Tampa bay. We were told when we checked in that we could check in (which we did) but we were not given our Sail and Sign cards and were told to return at 4p.m. for embarkation. We came back at 4p.m. to the terminal to the sounds of someone reading off names. When they read off your name, you were supposed to go get your sail and sign card and then board the ship. We were told that this was being done in the order that people checked in.

After about and hour of listening to one person read off names in a very crowded and noisy waiting area, they made an announcement that all people that checked in later and had already received their sail and sign cards could board while those of us that checked in earlier in the day, had to wait until those people boarded and they would start to call names again for those of us who didn't have sail and sign cards. Needless to say, the large crowd of us who checked in when we were supposed to and didn't get our sail and sign cards at that point (because Carnival's computers were down) had to wait longer for board. They finally called our names about another 45 minutes later so we boarded right before 6 p.m. The cruiseline was still taking everyone's pictures upon embarkation which slowed everything down and the entire process was disorganized. Also, Carnival offered nothing to any of the passengers who had to wait for hours to board. No credit, no drinks (not even water or sodas). I'm not the type to expect free things but some kind of acknowledgment from Carnival that they messed up and were extremely sorry for inconveniencing the majority of their passengers would have been nice. Just clear communication on what exactly was going on would have been appreciated. Also, because of the late boarding, our lifeboat drill was done Monday morning at 9:30 a.m.

I don't know the exact details of the cruise before ours, but the dining room staff was a little off for the first couple of meals. The service was slow and we had to ask for things like toast and water several times before anyone came around. By the end of the first full day though, things seemed to be back to normal.

On the flip side, our debarkation went off without a hitch. No tankers in the way. We did the self checkout which was extremely fast (off the ship in 10 minutes with our luggage).

Why did she sail at 8PM? Doesn't she usually sail around 4PM?

My hubby saw her this morning (very early) as he had to be at channelside

for a meeting, He said she is a really large ship. I can hardly wait til we sail

June 12th. Gosh I hope she is in port and not at the back side of the port like

she is sometimes. Glad you had a great time. We sure are counting the days-111 to be exact.

What did you do in each port? Any advice on things to do in Costa Maya?

Dot,

The ship was coming from Ft. Lauderdale if I remember correctly because of the Superbowl jaunt and the cruise after the superbowl. Normally she sets sail at 4pm. She is quite beautiful and not as "loud" as some of Carnival's other ships. I was very happy to not have the typical orange bedspread but a nice down-type comforter. Only wish I could have fit it in my suitcase!!!!

lol!

Ports:

Grand Cayman - we have been here twice before and done the stingrays, Hell, turtle farm, etc. so we only got off to shop for a little while. There is still alot of hurricane devastation visible but the shops near the pier are being rebuilt and new ones built as well.

Costa Maya - We did the Jungle Beach Break for $39. This was by far the most cost effective excursion we've ever done. It included air conditioned bus ride to/from the beach (about 45 minutes each way), lounge chairs at Uvero beach and a full open bar as well as non-motorized sports like paddle boats. Snorkel gear was available for $10/pp and they had jet skis, banana boat, etc. that you could do for a small fee. There was also a restaurant there with authentic mexican food or cheeseburgers. My husband said it was the best salsa he's had in years.

Cozumel - my husband did the beginning scuba excursion while I did some relaxing on deck. DH said the scuba was awesome and that the guides were really good. We then took a cab to the forum shops downtown for $3/pp and walked/shopped down to Carlos and Charlie's and took a cab back. Then, we did some shopping at the plaza area at the pier and had a drink at Fat Tuesday's. There were 8 ships in port that day so the shopping at the pier was actually less crowded than the downtown area.

Belize City - we did the Altun ha/City tour excursion. The ruins were awesome and you are still allowed to climb 2 of the buildings. The bus ride was about 1 1/2 hours each way with about 1/2 of the trip on a very, very bumpy road. Our guides were very informative and you can see how in a couple of years Belize is going to be a prime stop for western carib itineraries. Our guides told us that Carnival is going to be building a pier to go out 3 miles from the current pier so that the ships don't have to do tenders. I don't know how probable this is but they indicated this new pier would be done within about 2-3 years. There isn't much shopping at the pier currently (about 10 shops total) but the people in Belize were very nice. They are a very proud people and are very appreciative of the tourist dollar.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Lori

Hi Lori,

Thanks for taking the time to write. I have a question about Belize. We're interested in taking a water taxi to Caye Caulker for the day. Do you know anyone that did this? We're concerned about the time factor. Where was your cabin located? Did you have any problem with noise?

We sail in 5 more weeks and can't wait!

kim

Hi Kim,

Unfortunately, I don't know of anyone who did a water taxi. We were at Belize from approximately 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. although the last tender to the ship was at 3:30 p.m. so you really only had until 3:30. There were passengers let off the ship before some of the excursions so you could probably get of the ship by 8:00 a.m. and then take the tender to the pier (about 20 minute ride) and go from there. There aren't really any beaches near the pier that I saw so you'd probably want to go to one of the caye's.

We were in cabin 7240 on the Verandah deck (port side a little further back from the atrium). We didn't have any problem with decks above or below us although our neighbors were constantly in and out of their balcony to smoke and would always let the door slam. 4 people in and out constantly so that was annoying but no other noise problems to speak of.

Hope this helps.

Lori

Lori: Sorry I didn't ever get to meet you. We had a wonderful time too besides the disasterous embarktation. I don't plan on ever sailing from Tampa again. Carnival has already been notified & I am sure many complaint letters will be sent to Uncle Bob. Staff on ship said they were not aware of the problems going on in the terminal.

In response to previous question about late arrival. Ship returned from Super Bowl & then 3 day cruise empty. Ship didn't arrive until 2:00 & we had already been informed that we would not sail until 8:00PM but were supposed to be able to board at 1:30. What a nightmare!

Ship is beautiful. And dinner the first night was great but lacking a little on a few other nights. We were in cabin #8129, directly above gangway for Cozumel. It was blast watching passengers return from Carlos & Charlies.

Loved the self assist debarktation. Off the ship by 8:00 and at the airport with bags checked in by 8:30 for 10:45 flight.

Yes, we closed disco & clubs at night & the casino last night. Tired here from my 2 hours of sleep but well worth it. :D

Glad you all had a great time. We go in a couple of weeks.

What time were the shows in the lounge. I know they were trying something new. 7:00 show for late dining and 8:45 show for early. Is that still going on?

JeanG,

I think the shows were 7 and 8:45 except for the shows on Monday night which were 8:45 and 10:15 if I remember correctly.

Brenda,

Hmmm....I thought they had disembarked in Ft. Lauderdale that morning and then came to Tampa, interesting. No wonder the crew seemed a little rusty the first couple of meals. lol! It looks like the problems with the tankers are corrected, at least for now. I really liked the self assist debarkation. Being from Tampa, this will definitely make it easier to get home quickly. Hopefully, things will get smoother at the Tampa port authority the longer they have larger groups of passengers in and out of channelside.

I'm TIRED!:eek: ....but we were just laughing about all the fun we had this last week....Gotta catch up on email and other things and REST!!!!!!....but had a great time!:D

We just got home from our Miracle also. It was the perfect cruise vacation. After finally getting on (which we were one of the first 10 onboard-which was nice so we didnt have to listen to the hundreds of names being called after us. Tha day it would have been nice if the workers at the pier all knew the same story but you got numerous attempts of information for very few people. Even when checking in we got information VERY different from the people that were checking in beside us.

But after getting onboard the week was grand...even the weather was great.

We got to disembark at the terminal-which was nice coz I been hearing about the Citgo problem. We were the last color called off and off by 10:30

Carnival has changed to their new menu starting this week. Even Nick & Noras (all supper clubs) did away with somethings and didnt add much more but the dessert menu is all new and improved... I dohave a copy of all the dining room menus and the new Nick & Noras. GIve me a few days and I will get them posted. I also grabbed all the kids camp activity sheets so I will also get them posted.

Jean: What you heard about the shows is correct. Since we had early dining it all worked for us.

You mention your cabin # was 8129 and you had fun watching the passengers board the ship in Cozumel. Did they have the gangplank out on the starboard side? That's what side our cabin is on. We are hoping to have a good view in Cozumel. Thanks again!

kim

I just want to know if Paradise Beach in Coz is still standing????...I understand the Partae Pirates showed up in mass!!! Hope PB Tom is still smiling!

Glad you had a great cruise once you got on the ship!

Laura

til the Glory!

Did you need to have a passport (especially in Belize)? We just obtainted new copies of our birth certificates and want to avoid getting passports. We leave on the Miracle on 6/19.:)

Paradise Beach was awesome!!! Tom is a super host, don't forget his craving for mini-ravioli, we made a can pyramid and had our pirate flag right on top! Had a wonderful relaxing massage on the beach, $1 a minute.

We had #8130, just opposite Brenda, it was only noisy early in the morning as the people slammed balcony doors, otherwise it was nice and quiet. We had a great view of the party boats and catamarans coming back to drop off passenegrs, had quite alot to laugh at. :)

No passports are needed for Belize, just your birth certificate and photo ID.

Judy

Hoping the embarktion isn't a complete nightmare when we board her on April 3.

Sounds like you all had a wonderful time. I cannot wait! Hard to believe that I am down to only 41 days. I read one of my first posts and I was 200+ days out. :)

You talked about them taking things away on the dinner menu? Anything special that they removed?

Would love to have copies of the menus and the camp carnival (have 2 13y.os and an 8 y.o.) you could email me them if it's too much problem to post them

nairbud@aol.com

The flourless choc cake is gone- they call iit something else now. It didnt even resemble let alone taste the same.

Also the Choc decadence which was served the first night for dessert is gone along with the alaskan flambe.

In Nick & Noras-- all those desserts were replaced with new ones and they no longer serve Crab legs.

I know I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO looking forward to some more pumpkin soup, but it was NOT good on this cruise... tasted burnt, just not great. The flourless choc cake in the dining room was not great, but it was really good in N&N's (one of the 3 served with the Chocolate Tarte dessert which was fabulous. I will admit, it was difficult eating anything in the dining room after experiencing N&N... what a FABULOUS meal!!!!!! Oh I really didn't want to get off that ship :(

You mention your cabin # was 8129 and you had fun watching the passengers board the ship in Cozumel. Did they have the gangplank out on the starboard side? That's what side our cabin is on. We are hoping to have a good view in Cozumel. Thanks again!

kim

Yes, gangway was located directly below us on 2nd floor. Cabin was great but I didn't care for this class of ship. Designed to allow more balcony cabins & inconvenient to reach cabins without making lots of turns instead of straight hallways. I must say, the ship was absolutley beautiful & spotless. Hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. :D

Do away with anything, gold by the inch, the captain, even the lifeboats! But don't take away the flourless chocolate cake!:eek::D

We just got home 1 hour ago. What can I say... It was a great trip!!

We agree on the embarktation and disembark! Hopefully, we'll never have to go through the hassles of getting on-board, like that again!! It was extremely frustrating!!! :(

There were things we liked about this ship and things we weren't so thrilled about. We loved the location of our cabin (#8134), but we were disappointed with the view from our balcony (view to the front of the ship was blocked by another balcony that was extended out further than ours). Our balcony was also smaller than the balcony that we had on the Conquest.

Our cabin was basically the same as on Conquest... with the exception of the door and entryway (narrower on Miracle) and we liked the Down Comforter too. Overall... we loved the easy access to the Lido deck.

I agree with BrendaB1, about the ship layout to the cabins... I like the straight hallways better. On the other hand... we liked the Lido Deck on the Miracle better than the Conquest...was easier to find chairs to lay out on and really enjoyed the layout.

We also thought the food was better on the Miracle!!!

Nick & Nora's... absolutely wonderful!!! :D This was truly worth every penny spent, to dine there!!! I definately recommend everyone enjoy this experience!!! We had to walk the Lido deck a couple of times to wear off some of the over-eating effects.

PB Tom is a fabulous Host!! We had a great time there!!! Thanks, Tom!!!

Costa Maya... we loved the swim-up bar!!! We all had a great time there!!!

What we really loved about this cruise.... was all the fun and wonderful people we met in our group and many others that we met on this trip!! We made many new friendships and can't wait to see our new friends again!! This is truly a cruise we will never forget!!! :D