Miracle 12/9/07 Review - Long and Detailed

[last_mango]

Here is our supersized review of the 12/9/07 Miracle Sailing to the Southern Caribbean, or as we like to call it, the “It’s a ‘Miracle’ We Didn’t Get Seasick” cruise. Just kidding (sort of). DH and I are 27 and 28, DINKs, professionals, and we have cruised before.

 

Ft. Lauderdale

When we arrived in FLL, we picked up our rental car from Thrifty at the airport location and headed to Las Olas Blvd to do some shopping and have lunch. This was a great place to shop, plenty of trendy stores and restaurants and on a Saturday, we found parking to be plentiful and affordable.

 

We went on the Carrie B, a paddlewheel boat that I thought would provide a hokey tour. As it turns out, I was wrong – the tour was great, the boat wasn’t crowded at all, and the tour guide was knowledgeable and funny without being corny. I loved ogling the multi-million dollar homes and yachts. I believe the tour was 1.5 hours and cost $18 per person, a trip that was worth every penny.

 

After the tour we drove to our hotel in Sunny Isles Beach (between FLL and Miami), Le Meridien. I can’t say enough good things about this hotel. Its reputation is good in Europe, but the Florida property has received some terrible reviews. The Grand Deluxe Suite was spacious and comfortable with beautiful city and ocean views, and the staff was attentive and friendly in the hotel and on the beach. The gym facilities were excellent. We got the hotel on a popular discount site for $35, so I definitely have to say this was worth the money! If you can get a Le Meridien suite for less than $200 per night, jump on it. The only downside was a small pool area for a resort of that size.

 

Embarkation

We were able to drop our rental car off at the Port Everglades location for no extra charge, so we did that and took the shuttle to the port. On our way to the Carnival terminal we dropped off people at the Princess and HAL terminals, and that went smoothly. The Carnival terminal was a zoo, an absolute madhouse in terms of traffic out front. Chaos reigned here, for sure. Once we actually made it to the curb the lines moved quickly through security, and slowly but steadily through everything else. It took us about 1.5 hours from security until we were on board, which I didn’t think was too bad.

 

The Ship

The décor really is tacky, which makes me laugh now that I'm home. Common areas besides the dining room aren’t so bad, but lots of the ship felt dark to me, even on sunny days.

 

We had a balcony cabin, far aft, starboard side, and were mostly pleased with the accommodations. The room felt more spacious than last time, and the shower had great water pressure. We did have a problem with the smell of the cabin, when we entered for the first time it smelled heavily of fresh cigarette smoke, and the back cushions of the couch and headboard smelled of stale smoke and body odor. The cabin steward attempted to address this, but it didn’t help much so we didn’t sit on the sofa at all.

 

So many on here rave about the Carnival beds…while I thought the linens were quite nice, we both thought the mattress was as hard as a brick. We slept fine once we got used to it, but the first night there was a lot of tossing and turning. It’s definitely not what we prefer.

 

Overall, we were impressed with the cleanliness of the ship. Everything looked fresh and new inside and out. The gym and spa were nice, though the selection of gym equipment wasn’t huge. There always seemed to be only 1 or 2 hot tubs open, though. One appeared to be closed for decontamination through most of the cruise.

 

Dining

My hubby was in the final week of a Biggest Loser contest while on board (he won! We get a free cruise!), so we didn’t eat as much as last time. We mostly ate in the Bacchus dining room, we toughed out the buffet only when we had to because of time constraints, and that was just a few times. He ate strictly from the Spa menu, and said the food, which was a lot of fresh fruit, vegetables, and fish, was good and had lots of flavor for its reduced calorie and fat content. I ate off the regular menu and found most things to be good, if a little unimaginative. The red meat they served wasn’t always the best in terms of cut and flavor, but it was consistently cooked perfectly. They didn’t miss medium rare even once, so I give them credit for that. Desserts I would rate higher, most nights they were very good. I had some seafood that I would rate as excellent, particularly the snapper and sea scallops. Pasta and chicken dishes were generally just okay. Dinner portions from the regular menu were large, the Spa menu portions were just right.

 

The buffet was the buffet, what can I say about that? The food was okay for what it was. The pizza was the most disappointing thing, it smelled so good but tasted like frozen pizza. One piece of that was enough for me.

 

The midnight gala buffet looked tasty and we took plenty of pictures, but didn’t sample any of the food.

 

Service

Our cabin steward did a fine job turning our room every day, but did not introduce herself to us until my husband sought her out several days in to our cruise. Past experiences told us that was a bit strange, but whatever. She also consistently took our beach towels and did not replace them. Every day we had to call for new beach towels because she took our dirty ones and didn’t leave new ones. Eventually the purser’s desk was tired of us calling at strange hours for towels and delivered a huge stack of them at once. At the other end of the spectrum, she did replace towels that I used and hung back on the towel racks to use again. I would have preferred to use the same towel twice to save a little water (as suggested on the card hanging in the bathroom) but she took the wet ones every time.

 

Dining room service at dinner was excellent, we were impressed with and appreciative of the service provided by our waitress. Dining room service at breakfast and lunch was less than stellar, though. Wrong orders, missing items, and slow service was the norm rather than the exception at those meals. I would have given up on eating in there if not for DH.

 

Bar service was consistently fast and friendly. We didn’t use it a lot, but when we did we certainly had no complaints. Room service was the same. Continental breakfast was delivered exactly on time when we ordered it, and other orders (including those from the bar) never took long.

 

My husband utilized the spa and was quite happy with the services (he had a seaweed wrap and a full body massage).

 

Entertainment and Activities

Sadly, I can’t comment much on these. We only went to a few shows and the activities we did were mainly the trivia contests and karaoke. The Village Idiots comedy and juggling show was not very good, in our opinion. There were a few funny moments, but overall we were wishing we had done something else with our time. The Ticket to Ride Show was very enjoyable, though. The music was great, the dancing was good, and most of the singing was good.

 

Karaoke was good most nights, we thought the hostess rated really high on the unintentional comedy scale, so we had a good time there. The clubs and lounges seemed to be rather dead most nights.

 

In general, nightlife seemed nonexistent.

 

 

Ports of Call

St. Maarten – We loved St. Maarten! We would both love to take a land vacation there some day, we thought the island was beautiful and there seemed to be a lot to do. We did the America’s Cup Regatta, and for anyone who is even remotely interested in sailing, I can’t recommend this excursion enough. We truly had a blast doing this, and it is one of the few shore excursions we would do over and over again if given the chance. Don’t miss this one, seriously. After the excursion we wandered off the beaten path and into less touristy areas, and found everyone we met to be friendly and helpful. Shopping was good and plentiful here. If you want cheap booze and designer knockoffs, this is your kind of port. Even the shopping near the ship was good, with reasonable prices.

 

St. Kitts – This was a beautiful island, though certainly poor and not at all touristy in comparison to St. Maarten. We took the St. Kitts Scenic Railway excursion, and we enjoyed it more than we thought we would. It was a nice ride, we got to a see a lot of the coast line on the train ride and a lot of the villages on the van ride back to the pier. The interesting thing is that since tourism is fairly new to the island, you don’t see the high rise hotels and condos, the tacky beach motels and all that. Some of the real estate with the best views of the ocean is occupied by low-income housing built by the government. If you want to see the mostly unspoiled beauty, get there soon because plans for racetracks (horses and dogs) and big hotels are in the works. While I understand their economy needs a serious boost from tourism, it’s sad to think that many of the beautiful views will be hidden by development in the near future.

 

St. Lucia – We enjoyed St. Lucia, but I’ve got to say, it seemed an awful lot like Jamaica to us. We hired a private taxi to take us around the island – we went to a banana plantation, up into the mountains for nice views of Marigot Bay, and to Reduit Beach. Reduit Beach was very small, but there were lots of facilities and chair rentals available. We bargained with the guy to get a cheaper price on chairs than he was asking. However, there were lots of local vendors and they didn’t leave us alone the entire time we were there – everything from palm leaf origami to jet ski rentals was offered to us every few minutes. Shopping near the cruise pier was okay, but there is a flea/craft market in downtown Castries and you can do much better there. I wish we had time to get out to the Pitons, but we didn't. Our day of island fun cost around $110, including tip and chair rental.

 

Sailing through Tropical Depression Olga

I don’t get seasick, so I didn’t mind this at all except for the fact that we couldn’t really go outside for the first 2 sea days. The cabin tv showed winds of 65 kph at one point, and waves splashed up to the portholes that look out from Gatsby’s Garden. Apparently a lot of people were seasick the 2nd sea day, and many told us that was the worst weather they’d been through on a cruise ship. We still thought it was better than being at work. I do have sympathy for all who got sick, though. Motion sickness sounds terrible.

 

Debarkation

We had a late flight and were too lazy to carry our own bags, so we set out our luggage the night before and let Carnival deal with it. I have never been able to stay so late in the cabin before, we didn’t even go to breakfast until after 8:00am. It took a while for our luggage tag number to be called, so we stretched out on the sofas in Gatsby’s Garden and hung out there for as long as possible. That was a great place to wait, there were only 2 or 3 other people up there.

 

Customs lines were long, but moved steadily. There was again chaos outside the terminal, but we made it into a taxi to the airport without too much of a wait. It occurred to us only after we got in the cab that there was a free shuttle going to the rental car sites near the airport. And then we realized there are free shuttles from the rental car site to the actual airport. Cab fare was only $13, but if we had been a little sneakier, we could have gone for free.

 

General Observations

This was certainly an older crowd, most likely due to length of cruise, itinerary, and time of year. There were very few people our age, and very few children, from what I could tell. If children were on board, they must have been really quiet and well-behaved. Middle aged people also seemed to be in the minority. Most everyone we met was a senior citizen (and on top of that, was a Florida transplant from New York or Jersey). The average passenger age probably explains why the clubs and lounges weren’t exactly hopping at night and why the 8:15pm dinner service always seemed half empty. It probably also explains why we saw so many people dressed up for formal night. DH was afraid he would stick out wearing a tux, but we saw a lot of tuxes this cruise.

 

This was also a crowd of complainers, I have never had so many elderly people just walk up to me and start complaining about things (like I, as a passenger, should be interested or could do something about it). I’m just not sure what made so many people so cranky, unless the weather at the beginning just turned everything sour or we just got really lucky in terms of service this voyage. I’m not saying this was a perfect cruise because it certainly wasn’t, but there was a weird passenger vibe on this ship for sure.

 

If you’ve got questions, ask away.

[bubbles1209]

which nights were the formal nights?

[NCTribeFan]

We were on the week after (12/17, special 7-day cruise). I wrote a lengthy review as soon as we returned.

 

I only saw our cabin steward twice, which was fine with me, because he did his job. Last year, on Elation, we never saw our steward.

 

I actually prefer this to having a steward who I feel is hanging around the first day, perhaps waiting to get that "upfront" tip that so many here appear to give!

 

I never sat on the sofa (used it to pile up dirty close and other stuff). We LOVE the bedding (my bed at home is very firm). We could smell smoke on occasion from our neighbors, but not frequently.

 

A couple from our Roll Call were doing the 2nd leg of a back-to-back and were on your week. That week was their 33rd cruise, and she said it was the first time - ever - that she had to take seasickness tablets!

 

Thanks for the review.

[last_mango]

which nights were the formal nights?

 

Night 2 (the first sea day) and night 7 were the formal nights.

[last_mango]

We were on the week after (12/17, special 7-day cruise). I wrote a lengthy review as soon as we returned.

 

I only saw our cabin steward twice, which was fine with me, because he did his job. Last year, on Elation, we never saw our steward.

 

I actually prefer this to having a steward who I feel is hanging around the first day, perhaps waiting to get that "upfront" tip that so many here appear to give!

 

I never sat on the sofa (used it to pile up dirty close and other stuff). We LOVE the bedding (my bed at home is very firm). We could smell smoke on occasion from our neighbors, but not frequently.

 

A couple from our Roll Call were doing the 2nd leg of a back-to-back and were on your week. That week was their 33rd cruise, and she said it was the first time - ever - that she had to take seasickness tablets!

 

Thanks for the review.

 

I just didn't think the motion was that bad, but so many people have said the same thing, that they had never had to take seasick meds before that cruise.

[sunrise2]

Sorry about your smell of smoke. Which floor where you on? Would you take an aft cabin again? Thank you for the reveiw.

[djcellini]

The Miracle is a great ship, I was on her back in May and had a fun time. The fam and I will be on her again next week and can't wait, I had no problems and plan on not having any again..... Bring on the Miracle :D :D :D

[last_mango]

Sorry about your smell of smoke. Which floor where you on? Would you take an aft cabin again? Thank you for the reveiw.

 

We were on deck 6, Empress. I am not picky about cabin location (I love the thrill of booking guarantees ;) ), but I wouldn't mind one in that location again. Actually, I might go ahead and choose one in that location, very convenient to the Dining Room (directly down 3 flights of stairs), and to the lido pools (up 3 flights). No elevators were required for that cabin location.