Another Miracle review 2/13/05

[buckeye_chris]

I'll add yet another Miracle review, maybe not quite as detailed as some of the others. Probably add bits and pieces as I remember it, so it will be in parts. Remember, this was my first cruise, so my virgin eyes might see things differently then others.:rolleyes:

 

Arrival

We arrived in Tampa about 3:30 on Saturday, headed straight to our hotel, the Best Western Westshore. As the night wore on, I became less enchanted with this hotel. The service in the restaraunt was lousy, both for dinner and breakfast. We ended up getting our breakfast free after waiting an hour and a half for our food. No extra pillows, and the ones in the room were about the size of a throw pillow. The rest of our party came in a litte later, and the driver that brought them to the hotel was rude, reckless, and threw their bags all over the place (hotel courtesy shuttle)! Best thing about it was the bar. Good drinks, happy hour special, and the food was good. Met some others who were on the Miracle as well, and chatted up about the trip. I had fully intended to meet up with the Partae Pirates later on at the Hilton, but a series of unfortunate events prevented that from happening. ***** happens.

 

Embarktion

I wasn't as suprised as some about the late arrival, as we had notice beforehand that it would be delayed. We were getting married on the ship, and they had to push everything back because of it. I actually had tried to get on the board and warn everyone Friday before we left, but it kept giving me an error and wouldn't let me do anything (sorry guys!). We got to the port about 12:30, someone from Carnival was supposed to meet us there, have a place for us to drop our bags so we could walk around, and we would be the first ones on the ship. Well that didn't happen, a major break down in communication on Carnival's part. Ended up getting on board about 4:00, after several other people. As many has stated, the whole process was a cluster, and Carnival is surely going to hear about it from several people. I am sure it is not like this all the time, but this was a bad first impression for my first cruise.

 

The Ship

I was definately impressed with the size of the ship. The layout wasn't really optimal, in that everything was too spread out. Some bars were on one end, the rest on the other. I can some reasoning in this, but it left the ones by the dining room somewhat empty during the trip. I didn't think the decor was bad at all; the dining room was somewhat 'wierd', but not overly gaudy. I loved the atrium, and the mural that spaned the entire 10 floors. Overall, I liked it.

 

Have to leave work, more to come...

[buckeye_chris]

Entertainment

 

Overall, the entertainment was above average. The clubs and bars were okay, but nothing special. Everything seemed to die down pretty quickly at night, and I am one to stay up all night and party if the opportunity presents itself. I only went to 2 of the shows, the Beatles tribute and the hypnotist. They were okay, I didn't care for all the dancing on the Beatles show. I was expecting more of a musical tribute I guess. I really enjoyed the late night comedy shows. They were one of the highlights of the entertainment. The second comedian they had on (Ronnie Bullard) was hillarious. If anyone was at his late night show, that was my wife and I that he was picking on, and my wife was on stage with him at the end. Definately left us with a lasting memory! The house band (Music Unlimited, I think) was decent. Never did go in the Piano bar, but from what I've read, I didn't miss anything. McGuires was a cool place ot stop in and just hang out for a while. The Casino was...well let's just say the slots took some of my money. Was okay for what it was. If you want to gamble, go to Vegas. I loved he look and atmosphere of Frankenstien's Lab, but it hardly ever had any people in it, and half the people that were there were the Carnival employees. On a couple of occasions it was semi-crowded, but never seemed to gather the crowd I thought it would. Karaoke was, well....it sucked. I don't mind if people can't sing, hell I'm not that good but I will try it on occasion. But they had a handfull of songs to pick from, no selection what so ever. Nothing major, but I guess a gripe all the same. Still had fun there, but that might have had more to do with the alcohol consumption than anything else.

 

I guess above all else, if you don't like one place, move on to the next. I didn't get to do everything on the ship. There is a little bit of everything, and always something to do. We made sure to have fun no matter what we did!

 

Service

I have seen some complaints on the service from the other reviews so far, and on some points I would agree. The first day or 2 , the service was horrible. We ordered coffee the first morning, it was 2 hours late. Wife ordered room service about 10:30 Monday night. I went to the comedy show and the disco, got back to the room, and the room service still had not shown up! I called for the forth time and it was there in 10 minutes. This was not a good start.

Now I must say, after the first day at sea, I noticed that the service was much better. We had no problems from the second day on. I don't know what the deal was the first day, but they seemed to fix the problem after that.

Our wait staff was good. Very friendly, and right there whenever we needed something. Our waiter, Uyang, was excellent. We were at table 163, towards the back of the room. Not the best location, but it served it's purpose.

 

The other cruisers

I have to metion this. I was overwhelmed at how friendly everyone was! We struck up conversations with total strangers and had a great time. I didn't get to meet too many of you Pirates unfortunately. Yes, I'm the shy type, so it's my fault.:( I did have dinner the first night with ....okay, I'm terrible with names...it'll come to me. Mary (the one who was in the hypnotist show) and her sister...grrrrr! Me and my bad memory! You know who you are. Sorry:o

 

Everyone was great and made the trip that much more enjoyable.

[buckeye_chris]

Food

 

I, for one, wasn't that impressed by the food. Some nights were good, others were not. The first night was the best food, despite all the problems with boarding. The sweet and sour shrimp were excellent! I was dissapointed in the lobster, too tough and chewy. Steaks were good, and I tried just about everything. Definately had my fill of seafood. Nick and Nora's did have good food, and the lobster was 10 times better than in the dining room. I could have done without the 2 1/2 hours to eat dinner, but I'm not the kind of guy to waste my time like that. My biggest gripe; why should I have to pay extra money to get the good food? I expected this everyday, not when I shell out another $50 for dinner! The extra's (piano, singing, 'presenting' your meal, etc.) in the Supper Club I could have done without, but that is just not my style. The buffets were okay, hit or miss mostly. Deli was good, as well as the hamburgers. Why couldn't they have kept this open later? I would go to the deli, get some swiss cheese, have em throw it on a hamburger, and make myself a swiss mushroom burger every so often. There were a couple of evenings I would have rather done this than go to the dining room. And the 'Grand Buffet'? The biggest waste of time I seen on the trip. The food wasn't all that special, I geuss it was mostly for show. The line was rediculous! Overall, I was a little let down by the food. Expectations too high maybe?

 

The Ports

 

I loved every single stop we made for one reason or another. 4 ports did seem to be a little much, but we had fun everywhere we stopped.

 

Grand Caymen

We decided to do a resort couse scuba diving in GC. After checking with Carnival on what they offered, I booked for 4 of us through Eden Rock Diving Center. $80 dollers apiece, best price I found for GC. WE were scheduled for 9:00, got there early and got started. Our guide/instructor was a little french woman named Valerie. She was awesome! Friendly, joking with us all the time, but always making sure we were comfortable and prepared. We dove for about 50 minutes after the instruction part, got some decent pictures and had a blast. Eden Rock really took care of us, and I woud highly recommend them to anyone looking to dive in GC. They were about a 5 minute walk from the pier. After the dive, we did a little shopping and went back to the boat.

 

Costa Maya

We got in and started with a little shopping at the pier. Big mistake as we should have went straight to the taxis. Everyone has already mentioned the PITA with getting out of the port. After about 10 minutes of waiting in line for tickets to have the right to ride the bus, we decided to walk to Mahuhaul. 5 minutes into the walk, a shuttle coming back from the town stopped and picked us up and took us into town. We beat the bus by half an hour. Once there, we had a great time. Sol, chips and salsa, and massages on the beach. Had guys coming up playing songs on the beach for tips. We had more 'solicitation' here than anywhere else. Everyone tried to pull you aside or sell you something. Not much in the way of swimming that I seen, they did have jet skis and parasailing. Great day for laying on the beach, and good items for sale.

 

Cozumel

Since this was my birthday, I had decided to .....well, get drunk! The ladies in our group were going to swim with the dolphins, so we headed to Paradise Beach. What a great place! We got there around 11:00, so we had no problem finding chairs and umbrellas. Buckets of beer later, we did some snorkling and some more drinking. Did get to talk to PB Tom for a minute, although again I missed all the Pirates! Highly recommend Paradise Beach, very clean and friendly place to hang out. The ladies loved thier dolphin experience. We booked that through Shoretrips.com, $99 to swim with the dolphins. A little bit more shopping and we were back on the ship.

 

Belize

We had booked cave tubing through Shoretrips.com, $79 per person, includes lunch. We met our first guide (Marsha) at the pier, set out on an hour van ride. The whole time there Marsha is explaining the local culture and pointing out significant landmarks to us. We meet our river guide (Leroy) when we get to Panther Paw and get ready to hike. The Carnival tour takes you to the same place. However, there were busloads of people with Carnival, we had 8 with us. We also walked another 10 minutes, and got to explore a second cave. Leroy was again pointing things out and explaining things to us as we went along. Incredible time, and again I would highly recommend them for this tour. Lunch was great as well, BBQ chicken and rice.

 

Disembarktion

 

Again, as most have mention, this was the polar opposite of the experience getting on the boat. Our's were the first colors called, we were off and through customs in 10 minutes. On the bus to the airport in 20. The only problem I had this day was with the times we booked flights. Our TA told us not to book before 2:00. We could have booked at 10:00 and been on time! As a result, we didn't get home until 10:30 that night. After a long day, we were glad to be home.

 

This was a wonderful trip, and despite the small problems that were had, we would go on a Carnival cruise again. Great time was had by all, my only regret is not doing it sooner!

 

I will have pictures to post sooner or later. And I'm sure I left something out...oh, I remember. A BIG thank you to this board! You guys provided so much useful information. The tips made my vacation much more enjoyable! Big thanks to everyone!

[TexasRed]

Chris, glad you have such a positive review, all things considered. We loved this cruise, and had the best time, made tons of new friends who I hope to cruise with again someday. Next time, don't be so shy!!

 

I was determined to not let that disaster of a boarding ruin my week. Not even waiting till 6 to hear our names, nor walking on at 6:25. Not even the final straw, which was a room that we could not access upon arrival. :) I was soooo close to tears at that point, but my wonderful friends made it pass into a memory.

 

Thanks to everyone for making this a week I will never forget. And a special heartfelt thanks to Randy for going above and beyond for us....we love ya man!

[slnsap]

How strange! We stayed at the Best Western Westshore and was married on the ship as well! Did you have a disaster like us? How did the wedding go? Is Carnival going to compensate you at all for the mess? We are going to write a letter complaining. It was terrible!

[Kjsnbrd]

Why did you chose not to do the carnivals resort dive? I'm scheduled for it and really have not heard to many reviews on it. Also.... How was the timing with the Belize cave tubing through shore trips- I would just be worried about missing the ship. Were they careful to get you back there on time????:confused: