Miracle to Alaska August 27, 2013

Alaska was on my hubby's bucket list so we booked the Carnival Miracle to Alaska August 27th-September 3rd. I thought when I booked our Alaskan cruise in February we got an incredible deal for our mid-ship balcony cabin but we got $700 in price drops before we cruised! Yay! What a way to start our trip! :)

It looks like we are Miracle stalkers because we cruised on her from Fort Lauderdale (great itinerary) in 2011 & from New York City (hubby wanted to go to NYC so I booked a cruise from there) in 2012. We are also booked on the Miracle for September 2014 to Hawaii (always planned to celebrate our 30th anniversary in Hawaii)!

Here is one of my favorite new pictures of the Miracle.

Or maybe this one is my new favorite! :D

Juli

We flew to Seattle three days pre-cruise & stayed at the Homewood Suites on Pike St. We used Flat Rate for Hire to get to the hotel. We called them when our plane landed & they were waiting on us after we got our luggage. The driver was friendly & the cab was clean. The charge was $29 total (plus a tip) for the two of us & our luggage.

Speaking of luggage we did have a lot more than usual. We had one large & two medium suitcases & a carry-on. :eek: In my defense we attended a five day convention in Anaheim & two days in Huntington Beach prior to our arrival in Seattle so the luggage was for an 18 day trip with very different places!

We really liked the Homewood Suites. The location is great & we walked almost everywhere (albeit uphill going back to the hotel).

The rooms were spacious with a separate living room/kitchenette & the beds were extremely comfortable. I have a comfy fleece blanket at home that I like to cuddle up with & they had one in the closet. I felt right at home!

We did hear quite a bit of noise from the street below but I brought a sound machine & turned it up. If we stayed there again I would ask for a room that was not facing the highway.

They have a free hot breakfast & it was good. I was surprised at the variety. They even had cinnamon, raisins & walnuts to add to the oatmeal & the fruit was very fresh & tasty. They have a reception Monday-Thursday with a light dinner & beer or wine. We did not try it but it looked good. They also have complimentary wi-fi.

The most comfortable bed of our trip

And a nice big bathroom!

We were starving after we checked in so we walked down the street to the Cheesecake Factory & had some yummy pasta. We had pre-booked the Duck Tour for our 1st day in Seattle to get an overview of the city so we walked to Westlake Center to catch our Duck. We passed some people smoking marijuana on the sidewalk. I knew it was legal in Seattle but it still caught me by surprise!

We walked down to the waterfront after our tour & wandered around. We wanted to go in the Blues Club but it was too early & after walking around for a couple more hours we decided we were too tired so we went back to the hotel. My DH ran out & brought back a chicken salad from Six Arms Restaurant that is close to the hotel & it was delicious!

We had breakfast at the hotel the next morning & picked up our Hertz rental car in the basement of our hotel (very convenient) for our day trip to Mt. Rainier. We stopped at a Subway for a picnic lunch. It became more overcast the further we drove but Mt. Rainier was still majestic. The waterfalls were beautiful. It started drizzling pretty heavily while we were in the Visitor’s Center so we took a shorter hike than we had intended. I especially loved the Grove of the Patriarchs. The trees were massive! My DH always laughs at me for taking so many pics but he took about a zillion that day so we did not get back to Seattle until after dark. Our trip to Mt. Rainier made for a really long day but it was incredible!

Our 1st glimpse of Mt. Rainier

Me taking a pic of J.R. taking pics! :p

We were dressed for slightly different climates!

This waterfall was beautiful!

Our picnic in the park

Oh my - can't wait to hear more about the Miracle! We're flying out this Sunday to do the 15-nt Vancouver - Hawaii cruise on Tuesday and I'm so anxious to hear how you like the ship. I keep looking for new reviews in the review section, but not many are writing lately. We're first-timers on the Miracle, only 2nd cruise on Carnival (although about a dozen on various other lines).

Pretty cool!

It was way too overcast to see the top of Mt. Rainier.

But we did get to see the beautiful wildflowers.

The next morning after breakfast at the hotel again we set off to explore Pike Market. What a place! If we lived in Seattle I would be a frequent visitor there. We watched the fish throwing which was a hugely popular attraction. They have the most beautiful, ridiculously cheap flowers & the produce doesn’t even look real it is so fresh & picture perfect. They were giving away slices of peaches & they were so good we ran back down there the morning of our cruise to get some to take on-board (like we needed to take food)! We had to sample several of the food places I had read about too. We also bought several souvenirs from the little shops.

Everyone has to take a pic with the disgusting gum wall.

Never could get a picture of anyone catching the fish!

The flowers were beautiful & CHEAP!

The veggies were as gorgeous as the flowers!

Pike Market was a happening place!

I read about the Curry Beef Hombows at Mee Sums Pastry so we had to try one. They are very unique & tasty!

We loved the goodies at Three Girls Bakery too. I got the Cinnamon & Honey Walnut Rugula. It was delicious & only cost $1.50. Of course J.R. liked what I ordered better than what he got. He always does! He should just let me order for him! :p

J.R. wanted to try the chowder at Pike Place Chowder but the line was a mile long!

Of course everybody has to get a picture taken in front of the original Starbucks!

Beautiful pictures!

Oh my.....this is my DREAM vacation aboard my DREAM ship (I am a Miracle stalker too-sailed on her 4x and only reason I am not sailing her again is because she moved out west! :p) I don't think I will ever be able to do this cruise, or visit Seattle, so I just have to content myself with Caribbean or Bahamas cruises from our homeport of Manhattan, hence I live vicariously thru these reviews and what an AWESOME start. Your pictures are beautiful. Can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing!

Great review so far! I have never been on the Miracle, but I've been on the Pride and heard that it looks just about the same. DH is dying to go to Alaska, but the cost to get out there is crazy. Hopefully one day.

We went on the Underground Tour & it was very interesting. It was $17 pp. & is a guided walking tour beneath Seattle's sidewalks & streets.

We agreed we would like to go back to the late night adult only tour & hear more about Seattle’s early adventures!

It was funny to hear who the biggest contributor to the school system was in Seattle! :eek: But there was never a school named after her! :p

This is a pic of the skylights for the underground & they are still visible on the sidewalks in Seattle today.

By the time our tour was over it was almost time to go to Ivar’s for the M&G with our roll call group. It was great to put names with faces & we had a good time. Our roll call organizer Todd was easy to spot! Unfortunately I have no pic to post YET! :D

J.R. finally got his chowder!

Aww he let you borrow his jacket, can't wait to see the rest of trip and pics :).

Seattle also has an interesting story to tell about this totem pole! :eek:

The next morning (the day of our cruise ) we walked to the Columbia Center to check out the view at the Sky View Observatory since we never made it to the Space Needle except as a drive-by on the Duck. The entry fee was $12.50 pp. or $9 pp for students, military or seniors & the ticket is valid all day. The Columbia Center is two times the height of the space Needle! The view was spectacular! The Observatory is on the 73rd floor & is the tallest public view on the west coast. They have binoculars available to use. It is shaped like a horseshoe so we had a great view of the Space Needle & guess what we saw waiting on us out in the harbor? Our home away from home for the next week, the Miracle! At that point I was ready to get on-board but J.R. was still in picture taking mode!

Once I saw 'our ship' I was ready to go!

We ran by Pike Market to grab our peaches & raced back to the hotel for our luggage & caught a cab to ‘our ship’! The cab fare was $14.50.

Oh my - can't wait to hear more about the Miracle! We're flying out this Sunday to do the 15-nt Vancouver - Hawaii cruise on Tuesday and I'm so anxious to hear how you like the ship. I keep looking for new reviews in the review section, but not many are writing lately. We're first-timers on the Miracle, only 2nd cruise on Carnival (although about a dozen on various other lines).

We LOVE the Miracle. Spirit class ships are our favorites. We love the size of the ship & how easy they are to navigate & just wait until you see the purple grapes in the dining room! You will grow to love them! :p

I do have a lot of pics of the ship & just for you I will do the cruise part of my review & pics of the ship 1st & the excursions last. :D But if you want to see some really great pics of the Miracle check out Mike's review from our 2012 Miracle cruise. He took pics of EVERYTHING & is a really good photographer.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727784&highlight=mikeya53

Be sure & come back & tell us about your cruise to Hawaii as we have that one booked for September 2014.

Beautiful pictures!

Thank you. I have a ton to weed through.

Oh my.....this is my DREAM vacation aboard my DREAM ship (I am a Miracle stalker too-sailed on her 4x and only reason I am not sailing her again is because she moved out west! ) I don't think I will ever be able to do this cruise, or visit Seattle, so I just have to content myself with Caribbean or Bahamas cruises from our homeport of Manhattan, hence I live vicariously thru these reviews and what an AWESOME start. Your pictures are beautiful. Can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you. We loved our cruise on the Miracle out of NYC last year. My DH wanted to visit NY & I LOVE to cruise so we combined the two. We were probably the only two passengers on-board that flew north to cruise south! :p

Great review so far! I have never been on the Miracle, but I've been on the Pride and heard that it looks just about the same. DH is dying to go to Alaska, but the cost to get out there is crazy. Hopefully one day.

Thanks. Alaska was a once in a lifetime trip for us but was definitely worth it!

Juli

Now it is time to get to tell about our amazing Alaskan cruise that I spent months researching! All the planning definitely paid off! :)

We had the most wonderful cruise with absolutely perfect weather almost the whole week. It was in the 70’s everyday & sunny all except the day we were in Juneau & late in the evening in Skagway when it rained.

We decided not to scrimp on excursions since Alaska was probably a once in a lifetime trip for us & while our excursions were much more expensive than we are used to in the Caribbean they were all amazing & worth every penny!

This was our itinerary…

Tuesday.........Seattle, WA

Wednesday.....Fun Day at Sea

Thursday........Cruise Tracy Arm Fjord

Friday............Skagway, AK

Saturday........Juneau, AK

Sunday..........Ketchikan, AK

Monday.........Victoria, BC, Canada

Tuesday........Seattle, WA

We got to the ship a little before 1:00 PM so there was hardly any wait to get on-board. Miracle had FTTF & we are Platinum so our cabin would have been ready early but we got there so late it didn’t matter.

We probably looked like we were taking a year long cruise with all of our luggage & our bag of peaches! J.R. wanted to get some flowers at Pike Market for our cabin but I vetoed that one. We did not have a spare hand to carry them!

We had a carry-on full of loose cokes & waters but they never even opened it when we boarded. We went through security & we were in our cabin in about 20 minutes & our cruisin’ buds Robin & John from California who had flown in that day met us there. Yay! It was great seeing them again.

We also got to meet our cabin steward, Rodrigo (AKA A-Rod). He was the most efficient, personable, visible cabin steward we have ever had. We absolutely loved him! We asked for an ice bucket & he kept it filled after that. We saw him in port in Juneau & it was like greeting a long lost friend!

Spirit class ships are our favorites. We love the size of the ship & how easy they are to navigate. We even look forward to seeing the ugly purple grapes in the dining room on the Miracle each cruise!:p

We were in cabin 7222 & Robin & John were in 7224. I loved the location, mid-ship & around the corner from the Atrium elevators.

Of course we had to decorate our cabin door.

We asked to have the divider opened between our balconies & it was opened right away. I enjoyed being able to visit with our friends on the double balcony but I am not sure I would open the divider again. The opaque door opens to the outside so our cabin then had a partially blocked view. We hardly ever used our balcony the whole cruise (but J.R. insists on one every time anyway) but I do like to look out the window. I also had to make sure I was dressed before I opened the curtains! :eek:

Notice the divider door is on the left.

The naturalist on-board, Michelle was very interesting & informative. Her announcements are broadcast on the decks & on your balcony but you have to tune in to the TV when you are in your room which I liked, that way you had the option of listening or not when in your cabin. We had quite a few whale sightings off in the distance & she made sure to let us know when she spotted them. We had a port side cabin & most of the sightings were starboard but we stayed on deck most of the time anyway.

These were taken from our balcony. They were off in the distance but at least we saw WHALES!

I thought the food on the Miracle was very good. Next cruise I am going to book the steakhouse for the 1st night as that is always my least favorite menu. I don’t eat seafood but of course the lobster on the 1st Elegant night is always a big hit (if you like seafood!) One night J.R. devoured his escargot so quickly & practically licked his plate so the waiter brought him a second one.

Our favorite night at dinner was probably the night they had the Chateaubriand & some kind of chicken. Sorry I don’t remember what the chicken dish was but it was DELICIOUS! I had some notes about it on the IPad I got the night before we left for our trip & it ATE them!

I cannot believe I did not order the warm Chocolate Melting Cake one time! I was trying to be broaden my horizons on desserts! I did not pass on the Bitter & Blanc though. I wish it was offered more than one night. Of course calories do not count on a cruise! I also ordered a banana split off the kid’s menu one night.

We had YTD & we never had to wait for a table. The wait staff was not as good as our previous Miracle cruises. We had to repeatedly ask them to refill our water glasses & most of them were not very personable at all. We usually find a wait staff we like & request them every time after that but we did not find a waiter we really liked until the next to last night.

I was really looking forward to the Comedy Brunch because we love the menu but I don’t think it was held the 1st sea day unless I missed it & we had breakfast in the dining room that morning. They did have the brunch the day we stopped in Victoria & we were able to have the scrumptious carne y huevos .

I also love the fruit platter on the Brunch Menu. I struggled with not ordering the macaroni & cheese with bacon too but I would not have been able to move if I had eaten that much! They did have the mac & cheese that night for dinner. The comedian came on for his token few minutes & while it is usually awkward he told a few jokes that were actually pretty funny.

We had omelets on the lido deck several times. Always yummy! The omelet station towards the back of the ship had the shortest lines. We also had sub sandwiches & pizza & I ate my weight in chocolate yogurt cones!

Oh, thank you so much for the review of the food - making me so hungry!!! My husband said he's already gained weight just looking at your photos! Can't wait to see and read more.

Awesome review and wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Really enjoying your review! It's important to do good research for the Alaska trip and you really did a great job at that. I recommend anyone traveling to Seattle stay close enough to get to attractions before the cruise and shop shuttles.

Aww he let you borrow his jacket, can't wait to see the rest of trip and pics .

Actually that one was mine but he would have. Don't tell him I said so but he is a pretty great guy! ;) We alternated all day with jackets on & off. It does seem like we would have been chilly at the same time though! :confused:

Oh, thank you so much for the review of the food - making me so hungry!!! My husband said he's already gained weight just looking at your photos! Can't wait to see and read more.

lol. You will have plenty of opportunity to sample everything with a 15 day cruise! We meant to order room service but never did. I love to get BLTs & veggies & dip & eat them on our balcony.

Awesome review and wonderful pictures. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you & you are welcome. I scrapbook & doing a review helps me remember everything when I finally get around to scrapbooking our cruise.

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review!

I have so many pics to choose from. It is a work in progress! :D

I booked another cruise the day after we got home to 'tide us over' until our cruise to Hawaii next year so I am busy trying to book air, hotel, excursions & a rental car but I will add to my review today.

Really enjoying your review! It's important to do good research for the Alaska trip and you really did a great job at that. I recommend anyone traveling to Seattle stay close enough to get to attractions before the cruise and shop shuttles.

Unfortunately I had plenty of time to research. I fell the day we got to San Juan before our last cruise in January & was laid up for MONTHS! :eek: But at least all my research paid off with a fantastic cruise. I love Cruise Critic. There is so much wonderful information on here to make the most out of every trip!

Juli

One of my favorite spots on the ship! I LOVE the chocolate yogurt cones!!! You could find me in line with all the little kids! :p

The Taste bar always has yummy appetizers before dinner too.

The desserts always look so scrumptious at the Fountainhead Café.

Yummy!

This has to be healthy right?

We attended the Cooking Demonstration on the first sea day (really the only sea day unless you count Tracy Arm Fjord). Some of our friends went on the Miracle last year & enjoyed it so we thought we would try it.

It was held in Nick & Nora’s Steakhouse & the Chef made Mushroom Cappuccino, Baby Leaf Spinach & Fresh Mushrooms, Broiled Supreme of Free Range Chicken, Macaroni & Cheese & Tiramisu & gave us all samples.

It was all wonderful & we actually skipped lunch that day because we were full. It is free & is a great way to sample some of the items in the Steakhouse. They also gave us the recipes for the dishes they prepared for us!

It is amazing to see how much time is required to prepare each dish & get the presentation just right!

Nick & Nora's is below the whale tail.

We received our Platinum gift of Chocolate Covered Strawberries & goodies the first sea day. Probably another reason we were to full for lunch! They were much tastier than this photo makes them look! Probably one reason I do not take many pics of food!

We had our M&G get together with our roll call group in Sam’s Piano Bar on our sea day too. We enjoyed visiting with everyone we had been chatting with for months. A special thanks to Todd for organizing our roll call group. He & his cabin mates also arranged for a lot of door prizes for our group. I am not posting pics from our M&G because I forgot to ask our roll call group for permission to post them. If any of you from our roll call read this & want pics let me know.

There were too many things to choose from to do every night! We wanted to do them all! We went to most of the Production Shows. I never get tired of them.

The World’s Biggest Show Off featuring Marcus Raymond is not to be missed! He is a very talented performer! We enjoyed the story telling & singing by Steve Hites about Skagway & the Hypnotist show featuring Jac Rene had us rolling! This was our 3rd time to see Ticket to Ride but it only gets better every time!

We attended quite a few of the Comedy Shows. Doug Williams was really funny & put on a good show. The Comedy Shows were held in Madhatter's Ball.

We went in there one day & ran in to Fun Ship Freddie!

We went in the Piano Bar the 1st night & enjoyed Doug Ross. He seemed to interact with the crowd well but we left to go to the Welcome Aboard Show & never made it back the whole week! :(

We also really enjoyed the band Music Unlimited in Frankie & Johnny’s & spent several nights in there dancing.

The guy playing guitar in the Atrium Lobby was incredibly talented.

We also meant to go but never made it to Frankenstein Nightclub. There were just not enough hours in the day!

The past guest party was held the night we were in Juneau. The party was held in the Phantom Theatre on the lower level. At the doors of the lounge the crew was checking invitations & giving Mardi Gras beads to people as they entered.The drinks they brought around were Rum Swizzles & they were a lot bigger (& stronger) than the drinks they used to have at the past guest parties.

The Groove for St. Jude was held the day we were in Victoria. We gave our $10 donation & received a t-shirt.

The Showcase of Stars was also held that day & we went to watch one of our roll call members sing. Way to go Bernadette! You looked & sounded beautiful!