Just got off Miracle - any questions?

[dadofgage]

[quote name='Nisi']
Did you spend anytime in the pool area? I am MomofTate and although we went for Tate's 2nd birthday, I can definately understand people who travel without their kids. We had extended family there, so we passed the baby around. But we may take a short cruise with just the two of us.
[/QUOTE]

We were travelling in a group of 32 adults and made this specifically a no-kids trip. There were three couples (including us) that have 10-year anniversaries this year so it was a celebration for us but the reason for the trip was for a friends suprise 30th birthday party/celebration.

My wife and I went swimming in the pool on the day we got back to the ship from Belize but other than that, our group mostly hung out on the topless deck. Not because all the women wanted to sunbathe topless, but it was an easy place to get a ton of chairs and be where we wouldn't disturb anyone else. (We were a loud group with many people consuming much alcohol).

Props to you, most people don't figure out that dadofgage means my son's name is Gage! :)

[Nisi]

We had so much fun. We spent most of our free time at the pool closest to the bow. I had my best vacation EVER. But props to you for taking time with adults, I think Tate had fun, but I wish he had been a little older and could have taken advantage of the Camp. Every night we went to Bacchus, but almost every night we had to leave early because (I mean REALLY) he could only take so much of sitting still and waiting. Our waitstaff was great, though. The one time we tried for Bacchus at lunch, he started yelling and the hostess had our entire 4 course meal sent to our stateroom. I was so impressed with how the staff aims to please. When we left the ship and got to the airport, it was a major culture shock.

[dadofgage]

[quote name='Nisi']We had so much fun. We spent most of our free time at the pool closest to the bow. I had my best vacation EVER. But props to you for taking time with adults, I think Tate had fun, but I wish he had been a little older and could have taken advantage of the Camp. Every night we went to Bacchus, but almost every night we had to leave early because (I mean REALLY) he could only take so much of sitting still and waiting. Our waitstaff was great, though. The one time we tried for Bacchus at lunch, he started yelling and the hostess had our entire 4 course meal sent to our stateroom. I was so impressed with how the staff aims to please. When we left the ship and got to the airport, it was a major culture shock.[/QUOTE]

Understand, our daughter is almost 2 and we are going to wait until Christmas 2006 to take our next Disney cruise so we can take advantage of the childcare/club.

Well, if anyone else is reading this and was at the late dining time, I apologize for the noise/ruckus that our group caused. :o

[CruisinRin]

[quote name='jgbulls']We're leaving on July 31 on the Miracle. We were looking at the Cabe Tubing in Belize and booked it through [url="http://www.cave-tubing.com/"]www.cave-tubing.com[/url] rather than Extreme. What were the pros and cons with Extreme? The only negative I heard was a long hot bus ride followed by a long hot walk with some question about the quality of the tour guide. I read good information but too fast? I'd like to hear your feedback. Thanks!
JGbulls[/QUOTE]

I was on the same cruise as Dadofgage and I want cave tubing with Yhony from cave-tubing.com. I had no problem getting off the boat. We were on a tender by 8:20am beat time. We met up with Yhony outside of terminal 1. We left shortly after 9:00 on our hour long drive. WE did some sightseeing along the way. His assistant Junior was so friendly and knowledgable. The van was nicely air conditioned, not even close to hot. The walk was only about a half hour and you are in the caves about an hour and a half. We got back to the tourist village with more than hour until the last tender. No fears with Yhony, go and have a great time!

Please feel free to ask me any other questions that you have about cave-tubing.com!

-Corinne

[Sea Turtle]

[quote name='serene56'] I had friends on the Miracle with us in February and they did not have robes. They requested it with the cabin steward and were told no. Same with the Legend but I thought it was because it was only a cruise to nowhere.[/QUOTE]

Odd how things such as a robe or not can be so different between dates and between ships. :confused: Perhaps Miracle has added them to the inside cabins since you cruised in Feb, serene56. Thanks for the response.

Enjoy the evening.

[serene56]

I think a cruise itself is different from week to week,. On our cruise to nowhere we had a cabin steward that went nowhere. Tips were madatory prepaid... we got no service at all with the cabin steward. but others who sailed the same time== got great service.

On the Miracle we had a cabin steward that had 26 cabins. His name was Mario- nice but he would not open the balcony dividers. would not get friends of ours lounge chairs for their balcony.

If inside cabins are supposed to have robes and they requested them and was told no==they probably had a lazy cabin steward....or do you know if RObes are in the inside cabins for busy times like spring break and stuff>? I know the week before our cruise it was the Super Bowl stuff... so maybe it was just that particualr week

[willowcreek1955]

[quote name='dadofgage'][list]
[*]Dress up on the formal nights - that is part of the whole cruising experience!
[*]Bring your sense of humor and do crazy things that under normal circumstances, you may not do.
[*]Relax on one of the upper decks at night time.
[*]Bring a power strip - you'll need it.
[*]Take your beverages with you - we packed 30 cans of coke, 2 bottles of wine, 10 bottles of water in one carry on and then also a bottle of vodka and a bottle of rum in each of our checked bags. By doing this, our drink bill was very low for the week.
[*]Do go to the rated-R comedy night the first night they have it - it was hilarious. Do skip the other nights - they weren't that funny.
[*]Do go to the shows. You may like them, you may not, but give them a shot. We loved the 'Generations' show and the 'Beatles' show but we left after about 1/2 of the 'Idol' show.
[*]Always bex max coin on the slots - it sucks winning $50 when it should have been $500 if I was betting max coin.
[*]Don't enter the blackjack tournament. $20 to enter and they only pay $500 to the winner. They had to make a ton of $$ on this.
[*]Do eat breakfast in the dining room - not necessarily better food but a good way to met other people.
[*]Go off the main roads in each of the ports - you'll get a much better idea of what that place is like.
[*]Do eat at Nick and Nora's - it is worth the extra charge.
[/list][/QUOTE]
Why do you need a power strip? what do you need to plug in beside a razor?

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

[quote name='willowcreek1955']Why do you need a power strip? what do you need to plug in beside a razor?[/QUOTE]

hmmm...

the following are NOT used all at the same time.. but you get the idea!

laptop
sound system for computer mp3's
fan
curling (flat) iron
camera charger
night light
etc....

(power strip AND an extension cord actually...:D )


Tom

[dadofgage]

We charged our cell phone so if we had service we could call our kids.

My wife used it for her curling iron and hair dryer so I could use the bathroom to get ready while she fixed her hair.

Since we had an inside cabin, we also took a digital clock so we knew what time it was and it also served as our nightlight.

[dadofgage]

Funny how you mention that from week to week a cruise could change.

I think that it will even vary on the same cruise.

I thought that our dining service was average at best and pretty bad a couple of the nights.

Other people that we ate breakfast with that sat in a totally different area of the dining room (and other reviews that you have read) raved about their dining room service and how great their servers were.

I know that as the week went on, it got considerably better than it was the first couple of nights.

Go figure.

[F5Loar]

We need extra outlets for those electric air freshners. Should you get a room that had heavy chain smokers the week before you, you'll be glad you took a few along if that sort of thing bothers you. While Carnival and most other lines do a good job at ridding the stale, rank, burnt odor of cigarette smoke from the cabins sometimes a heavy chain smoker saturates the room so bad they'd have to ripe the walls and ceilings out to get rid of it. Sad but true. If only Carnival and other lines would follow the current trend in hotels and Disney Cruise Line and offer "non-smoking" cabins I'd leave my air freshners at home.

[corina27]

[quote name='F5Loar']We need extra outlets for those electric air freshners. Should you get a room that had heavy chain smokers the week before you, you'll be glad you took a few along if that sort of thing bothers you. While Carnival and most other lines do a good job at ridding the stale, rank, burnt odor of cigarette smoke from the cabins sometimes a heavy chain smoker saturates the room so bad they'd have to ripe the walls and ceilings out to get rid of it. Sad but true. If only Carnival and other lines would follow the current trend in hotels and Disney Cruise Line and offer "non-smoking" cabins I'd leave my air freshners at home.[/QUOTE]Bravo way to Hijack a thread!:rolleyes:

[F5Loar]

I thought you would like my clever way of doing that! One more for the non-smokers!

[jgbulls]

Thanks for the advise DADOFGAGE and Corrine! Sounds like your guide was not as good as others experienced on Xtreme. We'll stick with [url]www.cave-tubing.com[/url] for now as Corrine had a good experience! Thanks again! JG

[serene56]

[quote name='F5Loar'] If only Carnival and other lines would follow the current trend in hotels and Disney Cruise Line and offer "non-smoking" cabins I'd leave my air freshners at home.[/QUOTE]


they would lose money. I dont sail disney for that reason plus they cost a lot more then Carnival and Royal. If you still had a problem with the smell in the cabin you ask the cabin steward to get rid of it. You dont need a airfreshener to do it.

[Lemarier]

Serene What do you mean the cabin steward would not open the balcony dividers? We have two balcony cabins booked - kids in one and us in the other. We want the balcony open so we can go in and out

[MrPete]

The cabin stewards do not do this on the Spirit class ships.

Once you board, make your way to the pursers desk. They will put you on a list, but they only do so many, providing there are no issues with your specific cabin. They will tell you they will do it by the next day, and they do!

They send a maintenance guy with a toolbelt.

[Ltvscout]

[quote name='MrPeteLI']The cabin stewards do not do this on the Spirit class ships.

Once you board, make your way to the pursers desk. They will put you on a list, but they only do so many, providing there are no issues with your specific cabin. They will tell you they will do it by the next day, and they do!

They send a maintenance guy with a toolbelt.[/QUOTE]
I'll put my Nomex suit on because I'll probably get flamed for this.

I plan on trying to open the divider myself. Serene56 has a picture of the screwhead used in the divider. I've read from other women posters here on CC that their husbands had brought a tool to open theirs as well. It's a specialized tool so I've been doing some research to try to find the correct tool. Unfortunately, I've not been able to get ahold of the women who have made the statements of their husbands finding the correct tool. That's a problem with the forum though with not allowing private messages, email, or turning on the function by default that automatically subscribes people to the posts they participate in. That way they automatically get emailed when someone replies to the post they've written in. That's another story though. Anyhow, if I do come up with the correct tool, I will post the info in the Carnival forum. My reasoning for wanting to open the divider myself is many. Number one, I don't want to have to go stand in line at the purser's desk to ask to have this done. Number two, I don't want to take the chance that our divider may not be opened for whatever reason. Number three, I don't want to have to wait till the next day sometime to have it opened. We're going to be next door to friends of ours in Cat 11 suites. We plan on doing a lot of partying together.

[F5Loar]

Loose money by offering a non-smoking cabin? Even if they made it an even split the non-smoking cabins would be booked out quicker than the smoking cabins. I base my opinion on these boards. The non-smokers far out weigh the smokers and that's pretty much the way it is on land too. One smoker makes it seem like there are a dozen around you. You can be in a perfectly smoke free resturant and if one smoker lights up the entire room has a smoke smell within minutes. The Stewards would do less cleaning, so stands to reason they would save money on cleaning materials and time spent to remove stale odors from previous smokers in cabins. Disney has been higher priced than others from the begining and they have yet to have to lower prices and their ships stay full.
Sounds like Disney is making more profit by getting those non-smokers.

[dadofgage]

If you would like to discuss smoking vs. non-smoking, pick another thread.

This thread, by its title, is for those who have questions specific about the Miracle and events on it.

Thanks.

[Tom-n-Cheryl]

[quote name='Ltvscout'] Unfortunately, I've not been able to get ahold of the women who have made the statements of their husbands finding the correct tool.[/QUOTE]

okey dokey....:o ...:D

Tom

[serene56]

Scott- You dont have to wait in the line- You can also call down to the pursers office.

[Ltvscout]

[quote name='Tom-n-Cheryl']okey dokey....:o ...:D

Tom[/QUOTE]
Hmmm, maybe I should've worded that differently. :)

[popcorngal]

[quote name='dadofgage']If you would like to discuss smoking vs. non-smoking, pick another thread.

This thread, by its title, is for those who have questions specific about the Miracle and events on it.

Thanks.[/QUOTE]

Amen and thanks dadofgage!

[Kelynj]

please can you give me some information on an inside cabin - are they extremely dark - are you treated any differently?
many thanks:)