bluejay555

We did this cruise last year with our teenagers and loved it.  We have also done Alaska with Princess and while Carnival isn't as elegant, we had a wonderful time!  We love Carnival.  There was so much to do and it was very laid back.  Leaving from San Francisco is awesome, sailing under the Golden Gate bridge and past Alcatraz, but the Pacific is very rocky and lots of people were feeling sick the first couple days.  It was also very foggy.  I did a review on our cruise if you're interested.  

I was just on the Miracle and the free stuff was the same pastries offered at the buffet: croissants, apple turnovers, those cinnamon roll things.  The good stuff- cakes and donuts- cost money.  There was only one line for everything.  

My husband makes the best sausage gravy so I am spoiled, but yes, the carnival chefs have some work to do 😂

17 minutes ago, William142 said:

The July 24th fb group has like 20 people 😞

That's a bummer. Hopefully it picks up.  I didn't even know about our facebook group until I met some people at the hotel in San Francisco that told me about it. 

8 minutes ago, LPut714 said:

Too funny I see me in your picture. Right in the middle with cranberry jacket and light blue back pack. Agree once they opened the lines we were non stop till on the boat.

Too funny!  I love that you found yourself in my picture!!!  

3 hours ago, NightOne said:

 

In a good way or bad way? More laid back?

 Princess was wonderful...the food was great, the room seemed a little bigger.  But it was more quiet and more formal compared to Carnival.  Carnival is much more laid back and friendly in my opinion.  

3 hours ago, NightOne said:

 

Came back and booked another Alaska cruise already

 

It goes to ISP and Ketchikan plus the ports we made it to on Miracle 🙂

 

That's exciting!  On what cruise line?  

28 minutes ago, NightOne said:

 

I don't want to run Carnival down here. Let's just say it was death by a thousand cuts and we are just not happy with Carnival anymore. This was our 18th Carnival cruise so we have a decent idea of what a Carnival cruise is past and present.

 

Ironically we were originally booked and fully paid on the Ruby Princess sailing that went out with us. We switched to Miracle a couple of months ago because of a casino offer. Kind of wish we would have stuck with Ruby. (even with the bump at the end)

Fair enough.  That just means you need to do it all over again soon on a diff line 🙂 

I have been on Princess to Alaska and it’s just an all over different vibe.  

10 minutes ago, TreyB said:

I agree it’s sad but you seem to have jumped to a lot of conclusions here based on limited information. Did you witness the fall?  Do you know how long the spill was on the floor before it was cleaned up?  Do you know for a fact that the spill wasn’t reported immediately?  Are you saying unequivocally that crew shortages caused this to take place?

 

Sorry you missed ISP, but calling this 100% preventable and blaming Carnival for it may be a bit premature. 

I have to agree with this.  We actually commented and laughed about the workers constantly mopping the lido deck.  We decided their job was impossible and never-ending.  That deck is never dry, even in Alaska with way fewer swimmers and kids running with drinks sloshing everywhere.  

18 minutes ago, NightOne said:

 

She had a broken femur. Apparently it was a compound fracture. According to the Captain she is doing OK. She slipped on a spill on lido.

 

Clearly the Captain made the right decision and we were super disappointed in missing ISP because we had an independent excursion there that we have been trying to get on for a long time.

 

Now that I have been home a little bit and have learned that there is indeed crew shortages on all of the ships except the newest 3 I am a little bothered by the whole incident.

 

1. Whoever made the spill should have reported it to a crew member immediately.

2. If staffing levels were normal then there would have been more workers on lido and they would have cleaned it up immediately. This should be constantly monitored by staff as the floors can be slippery there and it is also a cleanliness issue.

 

So essentially this is Carnival's fault for allowing this to happen. I got back my port fees just like everyone else and I don't want or expect anything additionally from Carnival but this was totally preventable.

 

We had a good time on the cruise but there were some serious deficiencies on this sailing. I'm not going to go complaining about what I know won't get fixed anytime soon so I just came home and cancelled 3 of my 4 future Carnival bookings (only keeping Jubilee) and am not looking to book new ones.

 

Sad situation all around 😞

I'm sorry you had problems.  What were the deficiencies that caused you to cancel 3 future cruises?  They must have been pretty bad!  I guess I was in my own little bubble of cruise ship happiness lol  

1 hour ago, Haljo1935 said:

Thoroughly enjoyed your review and amazing pix. Thanks for bringing us along - no such thing as too much Alaska!!

Thank you!  I appreciate that.  Have a fabulous time on your end of season Alaskan cruise, I hope you post another review.  

2 hours ago, TreyB said:

This is why you don’t let the kids borrow the car…🤣

 

Seriously though hope everyone is ok. Your review was fantastic, we have an Alaska cruise August 2024 on the Spirit out of Seattle! 😎

 
Right?? 😂🤦‍♀️  Thanks for following along, and have a great cruise next yr!!

5 hours ago, William142 said:

I'm sure you still have to pay auto gratuity even though you are pouring it yourself... ridiculous!

It’s so true!  

6 minutes ago, amcankid said:

It’s a very exclusive group but I’ll give you a referral. Lol

Actually at last count we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 450 people!

Thats about a quarter of the ship!!

By far the largest specific date cruise ship Facebook group I’ve ever been in 

 

Whaaat?  That's a huge group!  Love that!  Thanks 🙂 

So I forgot to tell this story.   the other ship out of San Francisco was the Ruby Princess.  We left at the same time, sailed side by side up the coast, and returned to San Fran on the same morning.  Except...the Ruby Princess crashed into the dock upon arrival.  I read that there was a medical emergency on board and the docking was rushed.  Who knows.  We had a family on our plane that had been on the Ruby Princess and they said they felt it hit and ran out to their balcony to see what had happened.  I joined the Ruby Princess facebook page to get updates (I'm nosy lol) and found out the ship had to have a patch welded on, and couldn't sail away until Sunday.  They were supposed to leave Thurs.  They got to come and go as they pleased, using the cruise ship as a hotel for 3 nights while enjoying San Francisco, and lost all ports but Ketchikan and Prince Rupert, and would receive 75% off, plus 75% off a future cruise.  If they chose to leave instead, they would get $100 back, plus 50% off a future cruise.  From what I gather, most chose to stay on.  I would have too!  Anyway, I thought that was so interesting...

1 minute ago, amcankid said:

Have you joined our Facebook group?

Carnival Miracle August 7, 2023

No, but I will!  

Great review so far!  

25 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

Great review!!  Your DDs are darling and you all sound like it was a wonderful cruise!  Now I need to plan an Alaskan cruise🥰

Aw thank you so much!  You definitely need to!!  🙂 

1 hour ago, vanislandcruisers said:

Thanks for taking us along on your adventure!!!

Thanks!  I appreciate you reading it!!

Woke up bright and early back in San Fran 

We opted to carry our bags off ourselves, and our disembarkation time was 7:30am for platinum.  We got breakfast on the lido then headed out.  It was kind of a cluster. There were tons of platinum/diamond and they had us in a big line that went down the steep theater steps.  We managed but everybody had big suitcases and some were struggling.  Oh well, we got off the ship by probably 8 or 8:30 I think? and right into a taxi to head to the airport.  We saw this driverless car on our way.  So weird!  

it ended up taking us 21 hours to get home to Missouri.  We had delays, a long layover, and then we were told our plane didn’t have a pilot or copilot.  We stuck it out and FINALLY started our last leg around 1am eastern.  We rolled into our driveway at 6am central the next day.  But I’d do it all over again, we had the best 2 weeks ever!!!  Thanks for following along on my journey ♥️

We had a great last day just doing ship stuff- no exciting pictures to share. 

All our bags are packed and we’re “leaving on a funship” 😂 Our wait staff was so great!  We loved all 3 of them and they took good care of us.  

We ended up winning 2 trivias this cruise: 80s movies and Big Bang Theory.  
 

we had never noticed this self-serve beer machine before!  Wonder how many people actually use it? 


one more day at sea, then it’s back to the real world…

Sea day: 4th of July! 
 

I love that they made an effort to have some patriotic desserts for us!

Last crafting day was a bracelet kit that is “Alaskan gold nugget” theme.  It was a stretch lol but fun enough to make. 

I was surprised there was crafting today because we were in port, but it was my favorite one yet!  There were 3 keychain kits to choose from- a bear, eagle, or whale, and you had to see felt pieces together and stuff it.  I took mine to my balcony and worked on it- so peaceful out there.  

That’s a wrap for Prince Rupert!  

Prince Rupert:  we did not have an excursion booked.  The line to get a tender was the longest line I have ever seen to get off the ship.  It was the entire length of deck 2.  It was crazy!  I guess I could have asked about a platinum line but we also were hearing there wasn’t much to do over there.  People said it was Canada Day and most shops were closed.  There was a Walmart that some were interested in checking out.  I heard one lady complaining that there were 4 shops open and only 1 of them was wheelchair accessible for her.  I also heard people complaining about the lifeboats not being easy to get on and off if you have any mobility issues.  I was in a Facebook group for our sailing and there were posts about a lifeboat banging against the ship and injuring a few people, and it didn’t seem like the Carnival workers were trained to drive them efficiently.  Lots of struggles 😂

But on the same token, some new friends of ours went on a whale watching excursion and had the time of their lives.  Others hiked and said it was gorgeous. I kind of am curious and wish we would have ventured over but at the same time, we were content on the ship!