Carnival Miracle Mexican Riveria cruise just completed

[Rescuedogs2]

Anyone else just returned from the March 29th 7-day to Cabo and Puerto Vallarta? We enjoyed both ports, especially and surprisingly PV. If you're planning this trip, the cruise-sponsored whale watch excursion and Cabo sea lion experience were highlights for us. This was our 11th cruise, mostly on Carnival. It was our least favorite ship experience. The Carnival transportation purchased was terrible. The driver never greeted us and got lost. He actually had to pull over and call for instructions, never telling us the problem. We waited to board at the Long Beach port a very long time - outside. We were sent to a restaurant shopping village to wait, but it was all boarded up with nothing open. We were greeted in our balcony room with a bad exhaust smell and the water from the faucet came out orange!! My hands were coated in gunk. They sent someone in twice to work on it. Not the best first impression. We noticed a decline in customer service throughout the ship. In the past, the room steward called us by name. Never this time. The dining room experience was also poor. It took two nights to figure out who our waiter was. Our table seemed to be the forgotten one. The last night, traditionally everyone asks the waiter to take a group photo of table mates. We were shocked the waiter we asked acted visibly mad and very reluctantly took two photos. Being a VIIP or whatever its called is kind of a joke. The only benefit was one free drink only for breakfast or brunch in the dining room. We redeemed it one morning and had eggs and pancakes that were not good. The returning cruiser party was a joke, too. The crew was just lined up and was not openly friendly. The only benefit was a $1 off one drink coupon. In the past, there was an actual party with dancing and unlimited free drinks. The Serenity area was not serene. No music at all. Only the sound of a loud motor or something, and dirty dishes clanking around in the wind. No one seemed to be monitoring the area for dishes. There were also no waiters around, as in the past, to take drink orders. The comedy show was just too low of humor for us, and we've been to many others that had bad language, but were still ok. The F word was in every sentence in this comedian's act. The open karaoke also played one especially vulgar song very loudly with many young children in the area. It was in just very poor taste. The ship decor was very strange, but it was clean. Debarkation was the most smooth we've experienced. Overall, I would rate this cruise a 5.

 

 

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[johnieo]

My wife and I also went on this ship the week of feb 8-15 and our trip was the complete opposite of yours. My wife and I were totally amazed at how wonderful everything was. we are Platinum members with 12 cruises just on Carnival. we have a total of 19 cruises all told and we have had not so great a time on cruises . It's really sad that you had a horrible time, I'm sorry

[Lerin]

Sorry it was miserable for you.

We did this cruise a few months back and I wrote the review that is in my signature.

Some problems I noticed were the same as yours (boarding, room steward, dining servers, comedy show...) But we still had a great cruise. :cool:

[TPFKAH]

We were simply disappointed with the ports, but enjoyed our on board experience, so we were the opposite of you, when we cruised another time.

 

This was the Miracle? Who was your cruise director?

 

You you had a less than stellar experience. Make sure you note it either on your comments or in a letter.

[Laurie S.]

I was on the same cruise in February and had none of those problems. I don't care for the decor on Miracle, but that's the only "complaint" I would have about the ship. We had a great time both on and off the ship, stellar service, and good food.

[ccruisequeen]

I loved the decor, staff, food EVERYTHING on the Miracle Feb 8. We had a bit of delay in embarkment but that was because they told us the ship was being inspected and to come later. Ship was a bit cool but I got a carnival jacket.

 

[JLee1973]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the ship. The Miracle is one off my favorite ships and had a great experience in Oct so much so that I booked the same itinerary again.

 

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[WindsorFred]

Sorry you didn't enjoy the ship. The Miracle is one off my favorite ships and had a great experience in Oct so much so that I booked the same itinerary again.

 

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Sorry your experience was not the best. We were just on the Miracle to Hawaii this past January and had a great time. Great crew and even though the ship was showing some wear we found the ship in great shape for her age. We were on her once before and neither time were we disapointed in the least.

[Rescuedogs2]

Wow, we'll I'm glad others had better experiences! As I mentioned, our excursion days were very fun:)

 

 

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[samiam0403]

DH and I were on the exact same cruise as you, OP. I would agree with a few of your comments. We had the same problem in the dining room - we were consistently the last table served in our area of the dining room. Even on nights when only us and one other table showed up (they were late, BTW) in our team's section, we were last. As in we still were eating dinner when the waiters went off to dance, and the other table had been served and left. :confused: Should we have complained to the maitre d'? Sure. But we took the easy route and ate up on the Lido deck a few nights instead. Honestly I wasn't impressed with the MDR food this trip anyway, other than the sea day brunches which we thought were fantastic. That surprised me because I've always loved the MDR dinners on Carnival!

 

We also had the funky orange water upon boarding, but we just let it run until it was clear. It happened a few other times throughout the cruise, but we didn't worry about it.

 

I don't think our room steward called us by name either, but he was friendly enough and kept our room clean. We didn't see him much as he was always hard at work cleaning cabins. Didn't even really notice the difference until I read your review.

 

Other than some small issues, we had a good time. I think the cruise director we had was a fill-in from the normal guy - her name was Weezie - but I thought she did a good job. Loved her accent! We listened to Vinnie in the atrium a lot and spent some time in the casino. Skipped the karaoke and comedy shows, so no comment there. We were just there to relax and decompress, quite frankly.

 

Debarkation for us was a piece of cake. Set our bags out the night before and strolled off the ship when they called zone 1. Easy peasy. Only not so good part of debarkation morning was the fact that our early morning room service coffee never showed up before we headed to the MDR for our last eggs benedict. :(

 

Overall, I wouldn't rate this as one of our favorites by any stretch, but it certainly wasn't my worst. I hope your future cruises are better for you - sounds like you just had an off cruise. It certainly does happen! Definitely let Carnival know of your issues on your post-cruise survey - I filled mine out last night. Maybe you'll win the free cruise and it'll make up for this one. :)

[n6uqqq]

I was on your cruise also but did not run into the problems you had. We had your time dining and we had the same gal Vivi every night and she was great. We never had to wait to be seated and the food was pretty good. I also enjoyed the seaday brunches. Only saw our room steward a couple of times but he did his job well. We self debarked and it was quite well organized compared to getting off the Splendor. I really noticed the difference having about 900 less passengers on the ship made things easier. The ship is showing her age a bit, but we still had a great time. I know the Beatles show isn't new, but was very good. No orange water on deck 6 port midship. On the roll call I stated the opinion it is better to show up later, and that turned out to be true. Waiting outside for 2 hours is not good!

Edited April 11, 2014 by n6uqqq

[riclop]

Anyone else just returned from the March 29th 7-day to Cabo and Puerto Vallarta? We enjoyed both ports, especially and surprisingly PV. If you're planning this trip, the cruise-sponsored whale watch excursion and Cabo sea lion experience were highlights for us. This was our 11th cruise, mostly on Carnival. It was our least favorite ship experience. The Carnival transportation purchased was terrible. The driver never greeted us and got lost. He actually had to pull over and call for instructions, never telling us the problem. We waited to board at the Long Beach port a very long time - outside. We were sent to a restaurant shopping village to wait, but it was all boarded up with nothing open. We were greeted in our balcony room with a bad exhaust smell and the water from the faucet came out orange!! My hands were coated in gunk. They sent someone in twice to work on it. Not the best first impression. We noticed a decline in customer service throughout the ship. In the past, the room steward called us by name. Never this time. The dining room experience was also poor. It took two nights to figure out who our waiter was. Our table seemed to be the forgotten one. The last night, traditionally everyone asks the waiter to take a group photo of table mates. We were shocked the waiter we asked acted visibly mad and very reluctantly took two photos. Being a VIIP or whatever its called is kind of a joke. The only benefit was one free drink only for breakfast or brunch in the dining room. We redeemed it one morning and had eggs and pancakes that were not good. The returning cruiser party was a joke, too. The crew was just lined up and was not openly friendly. The only benefit was a $1 off one drink coupon. In the past, there was an actual party with dancing and unlimited free drinks. The Serenity area was not serene. No music at all. Only the sound of a loud motor or something, and dirty dishes clanking around in the wind. No one seemed to be monitoring the area for dishes. There were also no waiters around, as in the past, to take drink orders. The comedy show was just too low of humor for us, and we've been to many others that had bad language, but were still ok. The F word was in every sentence in this comedian's act. The open karaoke also played one especially vulgar song very loudly with many young children in the area. It was in just very poor taste. The ship decor was very strange, but it was clean. Debarkation was the most smooth we've experienced. Overall, I would rate this cruise a 5.

 

 

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A 5 and you enjoyed nothing!!?????

[Rescuedogs2]

I said we enjoyed the excursions. The smell in our room and the orange water was just such a disappointment and bad first impression and after purchasing a balcony room. We're not complainers, at all. Usually very tolerant, but this ship was just disappointing compared to others we've been on. The Carnival transportation from the airport was also a bad first impression. We were saying we were glad it wasn't our first cruise impression. We couldn't believe the driver didn't speak and had no idea where he was going. It almost seemed as though just anyone jumped in to try to drive us. Then again, it wasn't as scary as the taxi driver in Mexico with no rear view mirror or working speedometer! Ha ha

 

 

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[makaymor]

The regular Hotel Director must be on his leave. When he is there things are ship shape

[nimiq]

Hello all,

 

First of all it's fun to see you all arriving in port of PV as I am on vacation at my place "Icon Vallarta". I have been here for the past for weeks and have seen the Miracle every week. I love that it now overnight here as it makes it more interesting to discover PV.

 

I am sorry to here that the cruise ship was not that great as this has to be one of my favourite class of ship in the carnival line.

 

I still have one more week at my place so hope to see more cruisers in PV.

 

Sea ya

 

Eric

 

Cunard Queen Elisabeth Jun2014

Royal Princess Jan 2014

Caribbean Princess Feb 2013

Carnival Liberty Nov2012

Hal Westerdam March2012

Ruby Princess Nov2010

Sapphire Princess Sep2010

Rccl Adventure Of The Seas April 2010

Carnival Miracle Feb2010

Rccl Oassis of the Seas Feb2010

Rccl Majesty of the Seas Nov2009

Rccl Navigator of Seas Sep2009

Hal Westerdam Nov&Dec2008

Caribbean Princess Nov2007

Sea Princess Nov&Dec 2006

Diamond Princess Apr2005

Rccl Navigator Dec2004

NCL SUN Nov2004

Visit of QM2 Oct2004

Carnival Victory Nov2003

Golden Princess Apr2003

Celebrity Mercury Nov2002

Carnival Elation Nov2001

NCL SKY Nov2000

[jedreyling]

We did this cruise a few months back and I wrote the review that is in my signature.

[Rosefloater]

We did this cruise a few months back and I wrote the review that is in my signature.

 

There is no review link in your signature.

[Cruznjuly]

We sailed March 22-29, and didn't experience any of this.

 

Loved the ship, loved 2 nights in PV, great service all Around.

 

All shows but Beatles were terrible.

 

 

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[Sheebah]

I'm so sorry to hear you had a bad trip.

We were onboard in November and didn't have issues.

 

 

 

Carnival Miracle video tour:

[Rescuedogs2]

I forgot to mention, the big slide was out of order the entire trip. I felt bad for the kids since its such a big part of the expectation based on commercials, etc. Also, kind of random, but why don't any of the ships have potato chips??? Who eats sandwiches without chips?:)

 

 

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[SadieN]

I forgot to mention, the big slide was out of order the entire trip. I felt bad for the kids since its such a big part of the expectation based on commercials, etc. Also, kind of random, but why don't any of the ships have potato chips??? Who eats sandwiches without chips?:)

 

 

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You can get potato chips (and pretzels) thru room service when ordering sandwiches. We have been known to order the room service fajita wrap and schlep it up to the buffet. Hate eating in the cabin.

 

Could you break up your first post's paragraph. It's hard to read. Thanks.:)

[Rescuedogs2]

Good to know! Out of 11 cruises, we've never ordered room service! I'm not sure how to do what you requested. Sorry! I was being kind of long winded:)

 

 

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[Cruznjuly]

I forgot to mention, the big slide was out of order the entire trip. I felt bad for the kids since its such a big part of the expectation based on commercials, etc. Also, kind of random, but why don't any of the ships have potato chips??? Who eats sandwiches without chips?:)

 

 

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Slide was in order on our trip (March 22-29) but it was so slow that neither of my kids wanted to do it again. Hopefully that makes your kids feel better.

 

I don't know why you couldn't get chips either. We ate them many times. Came with practically everything for room service.

 

 

 

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[n6uqqq]

I noticed the slide was closed the whole week also. After looking at it though, I concluded I would probably have to paddle to keep moving, as the downward angle was so slight. The Spirit has a much faster slide from what I have seen on youtube videos.

 

 

Edited April 13, 2014 by n6uqqq

[SadieN]

Good to know! Out of 11 cruises, we've never ordered room service! I'm not sure how to do what you requested. Sorry! I was being kind of long winded:)

 

 

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Unfortunately you only have 20 minutes to edit a post and it's way past that. But use the 'enter' button between thoughts next time, ok? Lol

Thanks

 

I do not know if you can just get potato chips or if they are only given with sandwiches.

 

Oh, the chocolate cake on the room service menu is awesome.