Miracle 12-17-06 review - LONG

Carnival Miracle Review – Western Caribbean 12-17-06

Nutshell: This was my first cruise, and my whole family had a fantastic time. We loved all of the ports, and the weather was pretty much perfect all but one day. We really enjoyed dining in the Bacchus restaurant and our head waiter Anthony. We are already planning on another Carnival cruise for next December.

Background: There were 6 people in our group: my parents who had both cruised before, my sister, myself and our boyfriends. This was our first cruise. The four of us “youngins” are all in our mid-twenties. My parents still act like they are in their 20s, and needless to say, we all had a blast together on this vacation!

Tampa: We flew into Tampa a day early and stayed the night at the Springhill Suites Westshore. They have a free shuttle from the airport. It was a nice hotel with spacious rooms. We were walking distance to the Westshore Mall and other stores. We spent the day walking around the shopping center and stopping by Walgreens to pick up a few odds ‘n ends that we forgot from home. Next to the Walgreens there is a nice wine shop (sells hard liquor too) to pick up some wine for the trip. We relaxed out by the pool at the hotel after we were done shopping. They served a hot breakfast in the morning that had the usual bagels, cereal, oatmeal, eggs, sausage, etc. Nothing spectacular, but it was enough to hold us over till we got to the Lido deck.

Embarkation: The hotel arranged transportation to the port for us for $5 pp. We left the hotel around 10:30am and got to the port at about 10:45am. There was a line outside the terminal doors, but it moved very quickly. The whole process was VERY organized. Once we got in the main terminal building and through security, we walked right up to the check in desk. We were in boarding group 3. We sat in the chairs by the window marveling at the size of the ship. We were called to board in about 10-15 minutes.

The Ship: I thought the ship was wonderful. Everything was very clean and well kept. We always saw people cleaning throughout the ship. I read many reviews so I pretty much knew to expect “Vegas style” décor. I still thought it was nice and not too overdone. There was a lot of purple in the Bacchus dining room, but I thought it looked fine. At least the lights were dark purple instead of pink as others had mentioned before. To me, they did resemble grapes.

Our cabin: My BF and I were on the Riviera deck in cabin 1205 OV midship. It was a very nice room and it was in great condition. It reminded me of a lot of rooms I have stayed in while vacationing in Europe. It was not as spacious as a “normal” American hotel room, but at the same time it was very space efficient and did not feel cramped. The closets were laid out well with shelves and hanging space. There was plenty of room for all of our stuff. The bathroom also had nice shelves for toiletries, so we did not need an over the door organizer. Our room steward kept the room clean. Every time we left we could tell that he had been there. We had a new towel animal every night and our bed was always turned down by the time we got back from dinner. The only complaint about our room steward that we had was that he did not formally introduce himself to us. This really wasn’t a huge issue for us since he did such a good job otherwise, but it would have been nice.

Food: The whole dining room experience was wonderful for us. The 6 of us had our own table #302 on the upper level at the 8:15 seating. Our head waiter was Anthony from India and he was excellent. Our assistant waiter was Paula from Croatia, and she was also a lot of fun. The service was always great, and they were also very personable. We don’t like to be too serious, and they would both joke along with us and have fun as well. Our food was always delicious, and the desserts were divine! The first night, my mom was reading the dessert menu without knowing that Anthony was standing behind her and said to us “the warm chocolate melting cake sounds good.” And just at that moment, Anthony turned around and sat a plate of the cake in front of her. She was completely shocked because he had not even taken our dessert orders yet. My favorite dishes were the sun-dried tomato soup, both the veal parmesan and the other veal dish, and the warm chocolate melting cake. We also ate breakfast in the dining room most of the week. It was a nice relaxing breakfast before a busy day. Even if we were not seated in Anthony’s section for breakfast, he would always stop by and say hello.

We found Horatios to be nice. We really didn’t eat there very much. My favorites were the grill (great cheeseburgers and fries!) and the deli. The grill was always open when we returned from port and was a great snack option before dinner. I read a lot of good reviews about the grilled Rueben’s, so I had to try one. They were very good. The desserts at Horatios were hit or miss. Some were very bland. I never tried the pizza, but my dad told me the pizza was “the best.” We all enjoyed the 24 hour ice cream/ frozen yogurt stations.

Entertainment: We thought the entertainment was decent, but nothing to write home about. We thought both of the adult comedy shows were hilarious! Ticket to Ride was also good. Generations was decent. None of us really cared for the dancers at all, but we enjoyed the music in Ticket to Ride.

Ports:

Grand Cayman: We all went on the stingray city and island tour through the ship. We went to stingray city first, and it was unbelievable! There weren’t very many boats there when we arrived, so there were tons of hungry stingrays to play with. It was amazing how soft and silky their skin is. We had fun picking them up and giving them kisses. Don’t forget a waterproof camera for this! We had two and used them both up. After the stingrays, we visited Hell. We didn’t stay there very long, but it was nice to say we’ve been there and saw what it looked like. The last thing we did on the tour was go to the sea turtle farm. I loved it. I think it’s great that they are trying to replenish the Caribbean with them. They were a lot bigger than I imagined, and they even let us pick up and hold the smaller 2 yr old ones! Once we returned to the port area, we didn’t really have time to shop before getting on the tender back to the ship. If you want to shop, arrive a little bit early and do some shopping before your tour is scheduled to leave.

Cozumel: We had to tender at Puerta Maya pier. It’s amazing how much damage hurricane Wilma caused, and the island still hasn’t completely recovered from it. We didn’t have any excursions planned. It was nice because the girls and guys split up for part of the day and met at Paradise Beach later. The “girls” went shopping in San Miguel and the guys did a little bar hopping. My sister and I went parasailing at Paradise Beach, which was awesome. Both of our boyfriends speak Spanish and were able to barter for a discounted price as well as letting them tag along in the boat for free to take pictures.

Belize: We went on the Lost World Canopy tour. It was definitely nice to have the Carnival guarantee after seeing the roads on the way to the jungle for ziplining. The tires could have blown and we would have been stuck for a while. We had a nice, air conditioned bus and our tour leader was nice and very informative. There was a section of unpaved roads, though, that were pretty rough. Our tour leader told us to pretend we were getting a free full body massage. The city itself was very poor, but I still found beauty in it and it definitely had character. The countryside was amazing; mountains, rainforests, and fruit orchards. It was breathtaking. Ziplining was also lots of fun. We had to hike a bit through the jungle, but that just added to the fun for me. One or two of the other tour members were huffing and puffing a bit, but nothing bad. It was a great experience, and I would love to do it again. The views from the zipline were amazing.

Costa Maya: In the morning, we visited Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. We all really like ancient history, so it was very nice to have the opportunity to see some real ruins. The setting of the ruins is in the middle of the jungle, which also gives some great views. The site is not fully excavated, but most of the main temples are. It is an ongoing project. In the afternoon, we went to Mahajual, the little fishing village near the port. I’m so happy we did that because it was calm and peaceful in comparison to the port area. There was a long strip of white sand beach with coconut palms and plenty of people offering cheap refreshments. They have most everything that the port area shops have, but it’s much cheaper. I found a liter of very good tequila for $23 at the local liquor store that the port liquor stores were selling for $54. What surprised me is that most cruisers don’t go to Mahajual and just tend to stay in the port area. It’s very safe and the people were very friendly to us. Since my boyfriend spoke Spanish, we ventured off the main street into some of the side shopping alleys and further into the town a bit. We were not really interested in buying jewelry, but we ended up buying some tanzanite jewelry anyway. The original price the man in a shop gave us for one piece was close to $200 and by the end we got that piece and another that matched it for $60 (all bartering was in Spanish). That was the only sale the man made all day, he seemed desperate, and it was a nice looking shop with nice looking jewelry. There were also many places on the beach offering 60 minute massages for $20 and no wait. We spent most of the afternoon just walking around town and relaxing in chairs on the beach. If I had to choose my favorite day of the cruise, this would probably be it.

Complaints: We didn’t really have many complaints, as we are usually very easy to please. We were a little disappointed that our room steward did not introduce himself to us, but it didn’t ruin anything for us. Our biggest complaints were with other cruisers, especially the younger kids and teenagers. In fact, the teenagers behaved worse than the kids. Many of them were rude to other passengers, cut in line (or tried to), and just acted like idiots. There was a group of teenage boys that were drunk on the tender back from Cozumel who were sexually harassing one of the female workers on the tender. I thought one of the male workers was going to sock one of them, and they would have deserved it for the things they were saying. There was also a girl who tried to cut in line while a bunch of us at the grill were waiting for fries. A gentleman behind me in line asked her politely to go to the end of the line and wait with the rest of us. (It would have been all of 3 minutes waiting.) Rather than saying sorry and going to the end of the line, the girl started swearing at the man and refused to move. One thing I really appreciated was the crew member bringing the new fries out grabbed the tongs and handed them to the first person waiting in line while he filled up the bin. That person then passed the tongs to the next person, and so on down the line, until the girl got so mad she swore at all of us including the worker and walked away. None of these incidents were enough to ruin our cruise or even put a dent in it, but it was sad to see people act this way.

Debarkation: It was as well organized as embarkation. We had earlier flights so we had to do the VIP debarkation. We still had to wait for the self assist people to get off the boat, but that did not take too long. We could not do self assist because my father is not a US citizen. Once they called VIP, we were off the boat and found our luggage within 5-10 minutes. Customs was pretty easy as well. If you have anything to declare (we each had more than 1 liter of alcohol), you go to the specified meeting place and talk to a customs agent around 6:30am. Since we only had a few bottles (3 each), they did not make us pay duty and cleared us.

The Miracle is a great ship and it was a great experience for our first cruise.

well written review dutchiegirl! i loved the miracle when i sailed last feb. thanks for taking time to write such an informative and thorough review!

Thank you for your great review. We will be sailing on her in June. Can't wait. :D It's too bad about the rowdy teenagers though but I'm glad they didn't spoil your fun. Unfortunately some people act like idiots no matter where they are.