lilitheden

There’s a nice play area near the Big Flag in Ensenada. Leaving port, cross the black budge towards the Flag.

 

There is a children’s science museum at the entrance to the port. It’s the huge white building. Might be a bit old for your child but there’s enough for them to keep their interest. The museum is geared to upper elementary school. Lots of interactive exhibits.

That's incredible! I didn't know this. A couple years ago when we did this cruise my daughter (then age 9) really didn't enjoy Ensenada. She has intense anxiety and just knowing we were out of the US freaked her out, then on top of that all the begging people in the downtown area upset her. We're doing the same itinerary next year and she asked to just stay on the ship this time. But I think she'd love this museum.

I've posted this before. It's a spreadsheet to help you calculate although someone pointed out a formula is missing somewhere but it gives you an idea at least.

That's a really handy spreadsheet! Thank you for this!

May I ask how recent the drink prices are/what year this represents?

I was just on the Miracle on the 3/18/17 sailing and was surprised to find my door was not magnetic. I came prepared with magnetic white boards so other people in our group (32 people altogether) could leave notes for each other on them, but it wouldn't stick to the door. It did stick to the wall next to the door, though, so it wasn't a total loss. But I was glad I wasn't prepared with a bunch of magnet door decorations.

Carnival is a family cruise line; they're not going to change that. If you want an adult only cruise ship, look elsewhere. But since you seem to be booking with Carnival may I suggest selecting a ship that does have a pool in the Serenity area. I was just on the Miracle and it had one; I'm sure there are others in the fleet, too. It was a pleasant surprise after cruising on the Imagination, which only had the hot tub. Seriously though, if your life is so great that your biggest frustration is whether or not you have a pool to yourself on a family cruise ship, you're living a pretty good life.

It must be disconnected now. All the places I go for ship webcams just say "coming soon" for the Pride ship.

I have nothing to share as I haven't sailed on the Miracle yet. But I'm booked with my daughter and a group of 7+ other families on 3/18. Sounds like around when you'll be going, right? We're also on Deck 5, obstructed view balcony.

Anyway, thought I would post so I can get notifications when others share their experiences. We sailed on the Imagination last March and are very excited to enjoy a longer cruise.

Do you have pictures from room 5229? I'm booked in that room next March and would be interested to see the poor view you described, as it doesn't seem to mesh with other things I've heard.

I'm sorry it seems you had such a miserable time. I hope there was at least some good that was had.

I sailed with my daughter (9 at the time) in March out of Long Beach on a closed loop cruise. She and I have different last names.

We both have passports, I have full physical and legal custody with certified court documents that state that, and I had a notarized travel document signed from her father stating I had his approval to take her on the trip. I went way overboard in covering my bases and ended up being asked for nothing other than our passports.

Still, I felt comfortable knowing I had enough documentation to prove I had the right to travel with her if the question came up. I was really worried I'd get to port and be denied boarding with her for lack of paperwork. If you are able to get the notarized letter from the father, you should, just to be on the safe side. It's only like $12 for a notary fee and you can print something out from the internet easily enough.

Go ahead and get the SeaBands. They're med-free so there's no side effects. They're little wristbands. My daughter (she was 9 when we cruised) gets really, really bad motion sickness so we put those on her before we boarded and she wore them the entire time. She never experienced seasickness.

There was one day with really high seas and the ship was rocking really badly - so badly that they had placed boxes of barf bags all over the place - so on that day we also used homeopathic drops behind the ears and she was fine.

She really hates Dramamine because of the drowsiness and flavor. These two items did the trick with no side effects or unpleasantness.

Here's a link for the drops we used:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002D6M94E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2UILHLLDUMCAM

That was a great video, thank you for posting! I really enjoyed seeing the different areas of the ship and the different cabins.

I had never heard of a cabin crawl before, though; what is that about? Do you meet up with people you already know or cruise critic people or just random strangers on the cruise? It looked really fun and festive!

I had a blow dryer in my inside stateroom on the Imagination, and was so excited, but it didn't work. I had actually brought my own so it was a non-issue for me, but other people in my party with similar rooms did not have hair dryers. If you need one, plan to pack your own.

I'm really enjoying your pictures and review! Thank you for posting. I was on Imagination in March, before the upgrades, and now I need to go back! Booked on the Miracle next March, but hoping for a chance at another quickie on Imagination soon.

I used the basic $5/day social media package and it worked great everywhere I was (on Imagination). It included Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, but not Snapchat. I was super sad as I live on Snapchat, but oh well.

I had told people back home (including work) that if they needed to reach me, the only was was a private message through Facebook so I checked that once a day in case there were emergencies (I'd never taken time off work before, in 9 years, and was nervous).

We used it on our cruise last March on the Imagination. My daughter gets really, REALLY bad motion sickness so we used the Seabands (accupressure wristbands) for the whole cruise. But there was one day where it was really high seas and the ship was rocking real good so we also used the drops behind the ears. She never had any seasickness. I also used them that day, even though I don't normally get seasick, just to make sure I didn't end up feeling the effects of the high waves and I felt great too. No drowsiness or other side effects that I could tell.

I can't find him either. HEALD?

 

 

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I think this is it:

https://www.facebook.com/JohnHeald/?fref=ts

I can't believe I pulled it off, but I was finally able to get my whole family to take advantage of the $50pp deposit, and we are booked for a family cruise 3/3/18! We have 20 booked so far, and there will most likely be a 21st added. Our reservations are linked so we can be seated together, but HOW will that actually work out?! :eek: I'm certain no one table can seat us all. Has anyone cruised in a party this large, and how did the dining room handle seating?

 

Thanks!

I sailed with a group of 21 people in March and it was just as others said: multiple tables near each other. Kids at one table, and then split the adults up - sometimes ladies at one table with men at another, or mixed couples.

The hardest part was for US to figure out what time to dine; we had any time dining. After a couple nights we decided to split off because it was too much to try to coordinate everyone's activity wishes. This actually became the biggest challenge, splitting our group in their dining computer. The first night we dined separate (as two or three groups), we showed up after others, and were told we'd already dined for the night because the other people had checked in as our group. It was a lot of confusion to realize we needed to be split and let us in. I kept pointing to the table of our friends and saying to the maitre d, "look, they're right there at a table for 4 and we're clearly not with them". It all got resolved, but just keep it in mind in case you need to split your group at some point.

Ohhhhhhh........ I forgot to mention we left a bit late from Catalina Island as the ship’s one anchor did not come up. We were sitting at an angle for about an hour which was a little interesting in the Main Dining Room. Soon enough those it was repaired, both anchors up and away we went! Our Cruise Director Robin was extremely good at keeping us informed and updated throughout!

I was on this cruise, too, and this was a pretty exciting experience. We were sitting at a table up on the Lido deck, looking out across the pool towards Catalina Island and suddenly realized we could no longer see the island (but we weren't moving). Then we realized all the water was pouring out of the side of the pool. We asked a waiter who passed what was going on and he said nothing, but then pretty soon here comes the announcement about the anchor being stuck. Haha! We knew it! It was pretty extreme feeling up that high, but kudos to the crew who fixed the problem and got us back to smooth cruising. :)

I'm enjoying your review and pictures! This was my first cruise and we had so much fun! We're booked for a longer one on the Miracle next Spring Break.

Yes and yes. The reason I did both is that you are only allowed to buy $500 in cruise cash. I wanted the whole cruise paid off beforehand so I purchased the $200 bar cash!

If you set up this cruise cash (and bar cash, etc), then do you also need to have a credit card on file for the sign & sail card, or is this sufficient?

Would we cruise Miracle again? HECK YEA!! I am going again in March! We are also booked for the Magic in 2018 and I am afraid that the service won’t be as personal. I hope this is not the case and we find the Magic “Magical”!

I'll be on the same cruise with you next March! I just took my first cruise ever in March this year; we did the 4 night on Carnival Imagination and just had the best time. So, my daughter (10) and I will be back for more fun and we can hardly wait!

Thank you for your very detailed review. I especially appreciate the info on what to do in port. I'm looking for fun, easy, inexpensive options since I'm trying to stay budget friendly on not book crazy excursions for each port. I told my daughter we can pick ONE of those (she wants to do the snuba in Cabo) and otherwise we're just exploring on our own.

See you there next year!

Question about the plugs/outlets. Does anyone have a picture of what it looks like? Trying to envision if there's one outlet convertible into both Euro and North American, or two separate ones of each. Also need to know WHICH Euro It is, mainland Europe, UK etc.

 

I have the converters for USB to Euro, so if there's one of each I will bring my converter and we can charge both our iPhones, done.

 

Otherwise I have this guy - technically it has surge protection so I don't know if I can.

 

http://www.belkin.com/us/BZ103050-TVL-Belkin/p/P-BZ103050-TVL/

I don't know about the Miracle, but I had that exact power strip thing when I sailed on the Imagination earlier this year and it worked great.

We're in 5228. If our view is the same as what's posted in the video we will be fine! Lesson learned though with the guaranteed balcony.

 

 

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I'm in 5229 next March. I'm hoping you can report back and let me know how it is. Pictures wouldn't be so bad, either. ;)

I'm actually pretty excited. My last cruise we had an inside cabin; it was nicer than I expected (me and young daughter only). But this time I decided to splurge a bit and get the obstructed view balcony so we had the fresh air, plus a bit more space.

I'm loving the app you're using to track the ship. Can you share the details of it? Thank you!

Before heading to bed, I decided to check up on where Imagination was. Looks like it's inbound towards long beach.