Richjoxyz

They did not use the American Table menus.

The Krystal charged $6 Dollars per person to use the pool and facilities.

Food in the dining room for dinner was good, but during the brunch wasn't that great. The steak was cooked well done when asked for MR, the eggs benedict were very dry, like they had been sitting a long time.

Yes, a couple times.

Carnival Miracle Review 9-26-15 to 10-3-15

We just finished our Carnival Miracle sailing. It was a nice trip with great weather. Here’s our quick review:

Pre-Cruise:

My wife and Mother in Law stayed in Palos Verdes with friends for a few days. I flew in on Friday. This was my first time flying into Long Beach airport and it was great. It’s a small airport. I exited the plane and used steps down to the tarmac, walked through the terminal to a covered outdoor baggage claim turnstile, and then called my wife. To my surprise, I could see her sitting in the car about a 100 feet away on the street! I grabbed my bag and rolled over to the car.

We went to the Long Beach Marina and had dinner and beers at the Yard House. They have a great beer selection, about 100 beers on tap. We made our way to Costco and picked up some wine and then went to our friend’s home for the night. The next morning it was time to head to the ship.

Boarding:

We arrived at the port around 11:00, dropped the bags with a porter, and parked in the garage. We checked in at Priority and stayed in the air conditioned waiting room. We have been platinum for a couple years. Boarding was delayed as they claimed the escalator was not working in the terminal. It seemed to drag on forever, we waited for about one and a half hours. At 12:30 they allowed boarding.

Priority was not handled well at all. They simply said we could board and asked us to walk over to the boarding lines. The problem is that many people had crowded all the boarding areas. There was no roped off area for priority. The Carnival reps were yelling “priority only”, but there was no way to get to the front of the crowd. We finally boarded and were on the ship around 1:00.

Cabins:

We had two cabins, 7106 and 7108. This was a great setup for us. 7108 is the forward most balcony and it has a connecting door to 7106, an inside room. We had two bathrooms, and lots of space. One balcony was fine for the three of us, and Mom enjoyed her private room, as did we. No complaints about the rooms at all. Our service was great all week.

Boarding Day and Sea Day 1:

Boarding day was the norm, get on board, go to the buffet, and have a drink of the day. It tasted like cough syrup with an umbrella, but who cares! We unpacked, went to the drill, and to the dining room for dinner. Dining room food was very good, and our service was also very good.

Sea day was also very relaxing. We went to the gym and then had the Sea Day Brunch. Somehow the morning turned to afternoon and I sat on the balcony with my DW and DMIL and cracked a bottle of wine. They did their nails while I drank wine and watched the ocean. The weather was calm, clear and perfect. We went to dinner and again the food was good and service was good.

Cabo:

Cabo was great! We used priority tender to the marina, and took a water taxi to the Sand Bar. We had beer and taco’s, and had fun in the water. It was HOT! The water was clear and a little too warm. It was hard to cool off. Later we took a taxi to the Monkey Business bar, rumored to have the best margarita in Cabo. They use all natural ingredients, no mix, and 100% blue agave tequila. They were great! I asked a Mariachi to sing for us. He played and sang while we drank margaritas and tasted tequila. We went to a local taco joint around the corner and then back to the ship. Went to 88 Keys production show after dinner. Not impressed, it was a little too karaoke like, and too many lasers flashing in my eyes all night.

Mazatlán:

Man, it was super-hot again. We got an air conditioned cab and asked to go to El Cid. He drove right by the El Cid and said the El Cid Marina has a better beach. Whatever, I just went with the flow. We arrived at the El Cid Marina. It was really nice, with a big open air lobby, and great view of the marina. No beach in site! We walked through the lobby and down to the marina. I noticed a sign pointing to the water taxi that goes to the beach. We took the water taxi and walked around a little path and there was the beach! There we lots of palapas, big ones! The nicest I have seen. One palapa provided shade for three loungers. We grabbed one and started ordering drinks. Little did we know but we had crashed the Carnival Beach Excursion and drinks were free! I tipped heavily and drank ice cold beer all day. Each Carnival excursion would come and go with limited time at the beach, but we stayed all day. Caught a cab back to the central shopping district, had some local tacos, and went back to the ship. Had one last margarita at the pier shopping area while DW and DMIL shopped. We went to dinner and again the food was good and service was good.

Puerto Vallarta:

Okay, did I say it was HOT! Man, was it hot. We went to the Krystal Hotel near the port, stayed in the pool all day, and then walked back along the beach to the ship. We were going to go inside, shower, change and then go to the Malecon. We made it to the bar at the port and called it quits. DW and DMIL shopped a little, I drank a couple beers. The Malecon will have to wait. We went to dinner and again the food was good and service was good. I went to the casino and lost a couple hundred bucks.

Sea Day 2 and 3:

Sea day on Thursday was a day of rest. Four days of hot humid weather, drinking, and Mexican tacos had caught up with me. This was a chill out day. However, DMIL had bought a bottle of pink wine, so we opened it and went to dinner. After dinner we went to the 80s show. It was much better than the 88 Keys in our opinion. Sea day 3 was the last day. No explanation needed. However, I did attend the new Platinum party, and they allowed the non-platinum spouse to attend. I also managed to win some of my money back from the casino

Highlights:

The ports were great. We usually do the Caribbean, but I would do Mexico again in a heartbeat. I think I would go in November to see the heat go down a little. The dining room food was very good, as was the service. Room steward was very good. Connecting rooms with two bathrooms was good. Comedy shows were good. Ship was in good shape and very nice.

Not so good:

Our only real complaint is the lack of variety in the buffet and brunch. It was always the same food and just not a lot of yummy flavor. We always get full, but we are not saying yum yum, I have to have more of that. Celebrity and HAL have much better food in our opinion. And the entertainment has been reduced to the lowest they can provide. There is not anything upscale or surprising on Carnival. The whole fleet is completely predictable with regard to entertainment and food.

With all this being said, we are booked on two more cruises with Mom, and she likes Carnival, and we like Mom so Carnival it is. We had a great time and I would recommend this ship to anyone not expecting high end services and entertainment. I suggest Carnival management consider upgrading the Carnival experience, rather than the continual downgrades.

Is it safe to have a margarita on ice, or drink the water? I have a friend who claims he got sick and recommends sticking to beer.

Is there a reason you NEED too be 1st off? If not...take you time...it's much easier!

Sure...waiting in long lines and spending the morning lounging around in the main theater waiting for your ticket to be called is what I would rather do if I had earned the right to priority tendering!

Check with Celebrity or RCI. We've taken the Celebrity Summit out of San Juan, and a few RCI ships also. We would prefer any of them over the Fascination.

The Fascination is fine for a three or four day trip, but for seven days there are better options.

430 days until I sail away on the Carnival Ecstacy.

Not to rub it in, but we only have 2!!!!! :D

Thanks for the feedback, this will help with our upcoming Miracle trip.

Guest Services is the Priority line at the pursers desk, correct?

What is the process to use Priority Tendering? We are platinum but have never tendered while platinum. Do we go to the tender boat and cut in front of everyone, or do we check in someplace and get escorted?

We normally leave it in the safe. We take drivers licenses, cash and credit card. All of those are in my zippered pocket in my swim trunks, so they are always on my person. If someone stole our bag while we are swimming, they only get basic and replaceable items, but not our passport!

I figure the risk of having my bag stolen is higher than needing my passport, but never had either problem as of yet. Makes me wonder if the passport is waterproof, maybe I can keep it on me while swimming.

If you have to fly the day of, take the earliest flight you can book, IMO.

We took a HAL cruise out of San Diego many years ago. We had an early morning flight scheduled the day of the cruise. We figured an hour flight, no problem.

The flight was delayed, and then delayed again. We finally got out about 1:00 and made it by 2:30, another 45 minutes to get our luggage and a quick trip to the port, and we made it, barely. never again.

You will probably make it, assuming no anomalies. I would never do it, would be a nervous wreck. If one thing goes wrong you miss your cruise.

We sail the Miracle this Saturday and are flying into Long Beach airport on Friday.

We also find the steel drum music outside the Long Beach Dome to be a very odd choice.

Mariachis and margaritas anyone?

My parents live in Florida and we cruise B2B for Christmas every year. Most of our trips are out of Port Canaveral to minimize drive time.

The ship is decorated, but not enough in my opinion. Nor is there enough Christmas festivities in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy Carnival and I am not bashing them, but we have had more "Christmasy" cruises on HAL.

The crew will usually self organize some kind if Christmas Eve service. Once there was a bible reading on the small landing above the atrium bar. This was the only time in my life I sat at a bar, and had a drink for the Christmas service! Gotta love that!

Is there anyplace we can use a pool while in Cabo?

How much is a land taxi from Tobasco's back to the Marina?

We'll be on the Miracle soon with three stops in Mexico. We purchased 4800 Pesos at our bank for $313 dollars. We paid about $20 Dollars in exchange rate differences and fees. (Ended up getting a final rate of 15.3 Pesos per Dollar.) We should make up the $20 Dollars, and then some to come out ahead using Pesos due to poor exchange rates at restaurants and bars.

Mostly we just want the convenience of using Pesos! If we use Dollars we are forced to use the restaurant's exchange rate, which might be as low at 10 to 1. There is no arguing with them if they want 6 bucks for a 66 Peso menu price.

It will be fun using pesos rather than dollars, all part of the experience. We don't want to spend time going to the ATM, and not sure if it will have an English feature either, so we just paid the fee at our bank.

Any leftovers will be used on our Christmas cruise!

We'll be on the Miracle soon with three stops in Mexico. We purchased 4800 pesos at our bank for $313 dollars, we lost about $20 dollars in exchange rate differences and the fee. We should make that up and come out ahead using pesos due to poor exchange rates at restaurants and bars.

Mostly we just want the convenience of using pesos to pay the menu price. If we use dollars we are forced to use the restaurant's exchange rate, which might be as low at 10 to 1. There is no arguing with them if they want 6 bucks for a 66 peso menu price. It will be fun using pesos rather than dollars, all part of the experience.

Any leftovers will be used on our Christmas cruise!

I was on a gambling ship out of Florida many years ago and there was a drunk kid playing fourth base, or whatever you call the last position. He was betting BIG...anywhere from a couple hundred to one thousand per hand.

His strategy was NEVER HIT! He never hit...EVER! He would stay on a 6!

He walked away $18K ahead! I am not recommending this of course, and obviously I did okay too, as the dealer was busting a lot.

I have learned not to get too worked up when other players don't play by the book. If it gets bad, I leave, but it is their right to play however they want.

I usually laser etch the info onto 8 1/2" x 11" sheets of 10 mil titanium, then attach to suitcase with 48 fire hardened steel rivets.:D

Do you also purchase the optional embedded microchip enabling GPS tracking??

why not just use your room card?

Pretty unlikely you will lose it. More unlikely that if found, the finder will figure out what room you are in. Even more unlikely that the finder is a thief and use it to enter your room and your safe! I guess it is possible...

Is that the reason not to use the card, or am I missing something?

I'm not picky. I've been on the Mardi Gras to the Dream. I am happy on any cruise ship.

I prefer mid size ships.

I don't like anything in the aft. :o