Catalina Island Review - Carnival Miracle 1/22

[stampinrobin]

Posting the Catalina Island portion of my review for those of you needing information about this new Carnival stop. DH and I (late late 40’s) cruised the Carnival Miracle on Jan 22. I'm guessing this is the right board, as CI is right off Dominican Republic.

 

 

Catalina Island: I will try to do a very detailed review as I know there isn't much information out on the boards before I left, I kept looking and looking. Before I forget they require your S&S card and a photo ID to get back on the boat, so don't forget it.

 

If you don't have an excursion booked you go to the main theater to get tender tickets. First tender off is at 9 a.m. If you arrive nlt than 8:45 you should be able to get on the first one. The tenders are the Miracle's life boats. Very neat to be able to see the inside of a life boat, more comfortable and open than I had imagined. The sign said they hold 150 people, but they did not put that many people in it (thankfully!). It was a very short ride to the island, tied up to a small pier and off we were.

 

There are lots of chairs and lots of trees. There is also a wood sidewalk that runs the entire length of it to make walking more easy than trudging through the sand. We got off the pier right at the water's edge and started walking along the beach looking for the perfect place to sit. Immediately we were approached by a guy in a yellow shirt, no Carnival name tag, asking us if we wanted a free umbrella. He was very eager to bring us an umbrella and kept pointing out different spots. Finally my DH said no we are going to keep walking, we didn't want to feel pressured to pick out a spot. Heck we were the first one's there and had a wide open choice.

 

The next area we came to a different guy approached us and asked us if we wanted a free umbrella. I deduced these guys are working for tips and the free umbrella service was the best way to get one.

 

So we picked seats in the first row by the water. I didn't feel like the

chairs were too close together or anything, it was very comfortable. Our

umbrella arrived, tipped the guy a few bucks and we were on our way to a

beautiful day on the beach.

 

It didn't take long for us to feel like we would lose our front row area, as the place was filling up fast, so we moved our chairs closer to the water and found one of those guys to move our umbrella. Sorry buddy no tip for that little moving service! If you want to be on the first row, make sure you pull your chairs down closer to the beach or you will have people setting up in front of you later.

 

It was a beautiful looking beach/ocean, we quickly went in, the water is

cold at first but you get used to it quickly. The waves look small but

they are powerful. Back to the chairs to just enjoy the day. After a while I walked to the far bathrooms, clean but on the primitive side. An

attendant has to fill the tank after each flush and there is a sign: no

paper in the toilet.........you are supposed to put it in the waste can

In each stall. But it was very clean and private stalls. DH had used the

main bathrooms, he said they were not primitive at all but you did have

to walk up two flights of stairs to get to them.

 

On my way there I went by the souvenir stands. I was a bit surprised how

aggressive these people were since we are basically on a private island.

But that must be part of the agreement Carnival has with them. I will

say though, they were obviously not allowed to come out of that area, as I

was not approached on the beach to buy stuff like you are in most places,

which was very nice. It was the typical junk they sell, I looked for a

minute or two but didn't buy anything. If you are looking for those

nice scarves that wrap around your waist as a bathing suit cover up they have many pretty ones there. I talked to a lady on the tender on the way

back and she bought a pretty blue/green one, said they were asking $30 for it, she negotiated them down to $22 for that and a painted gourd.

 

I also noticed during this walk that if you go past the far bathrooms it

becomes very less populated and there are plenty of shade trees, even a

thatched pavilion that people were laying under to stay out of the sun.

At the very end of the boardwalk there is another bar. You will see all

this on the map they provide the night before in the Capers, ooops, I

Mean Funtimes.

 

When I got back to our chairs, I noticed that the place had really

filled up and I did feel a bit crowded at this point, but no more so than if I was at a public beach at home. We were far enough from the band area

that we had a nice volume level of music, just enough to enjoy the sound, but not so loud you couldn't talk.

 

I mentioned to DH that maybe after lunch it would be worth packing up and moving down to the less crowded area. He took a walk and checked out. He went further than I did and said if you walk around the last bar, there is another thatched roof pavilion and it s virtually uninhabited on that side.

 

 

We ate lunch, which I will say is very well done. They had 3 or 4

lines, so there was no wait. They grill hamburgers, hotdogs and jerked chicken right in the line over an open flame grill. They had sides of cold

salads, some cooked veggies and chips and salsa. They also had a small dessert selection and very cold water and ice tea. Many people took it back to their chairs or there were four large tents set up you could eat at.

 

My only complaint for the day was this area. The tables and bench seats

Were so close together most of them were practically unusable because you couldn't get between them to sit down. I was rather surprised as I see

so much attention to detail on the ship that they didn't notice this little seating problem. But hey you can see what a great day I was having if that is the only complaint I could muster up! The food was good. They

hoof all that stuff over from the ship, I give them huge kudos for all

that work.

 

 

They offer a limited bar service, beer and rum drinks: pina colada,

miami vice, strawberry daiquiri and the DOD a Yellow Bird. They have plenty of wait staff (from the ship) walking on the beach taking orders. Also sell soft drinks and water.

 

After lunch we packed up and moved down to the more secluded side. It

was really not a long walk at all and it was wonderful! Very quiet and

shady under the pavilion. With our small umbrella we had to keep moving our chairs to stay in the shade.

 

The only drawback to this side would be if you wanted to spend much time in the water. There is a wide line of half buried rocks you have to cross to get into the water, we watched many people do it, but when we went down for a dip it proved too much for me as I'm not very coordinated! But we could sit on the beach and the waves were strong enough to come up over the rocks and drench us, so we got our water fix.

 

 

Liking the quiet as we do, we wish we would have came out here first,

But like Grand Turk, it is nice to experience both sides of what they have

to offer, the busier side and the quiet side. So figure out you which

suits you better because now you know they have both to offer.

 

 

Last tender back is 4:15, we started walking back around 3:30. No line

just got on the tender and back to the ship in a few minutes. They run

these tenders back and forth all day so no worries about getting back

whenever you want to go.

 

Here is my word of warning: The sun is very intense on Catalina Island,

much more so even than Grand Turk. It is only January and we felt it

was brutal. I had on 30 spf and was in the shade 90-95% of the day. I even reapplied sunscreen to my chest area and still ended up with a slight

burn, especially on my nose. If you are a sun lover just beware, you

don't want to overdo it and not feel good for the next ports.

 

Also I only had a few drinks over the course of the day and probably three quarters of the LARGE bottle of water. I definitely felt dehydrated once I got back to the ship. You don't notice it while you are out there, but once you are in the air conditioning you start feeling the effects of the day. We ended up having a quick dinner on the Lido deck and spent the evening in our room. We decided for the next two ports we need to make sure we stay well hydrated during the day and aren't going to drink any bar drinks.

 

But this is just me, most people might not have any issues, I'm just

throwing it out there as a warning, the sun is much more intense than

you realize!

 

Overall it was another great day in the Caribbean, no worries as

Carnival takes care of everything for you on this day, big kudos to them!

[RumpunchGirl]

Thanks for the review! Next year we are scheduled to disembark in La Romana. But this is an excusion. It's good to have all info.

[lovecruzing]

Thanks for your review. We will be there in November which is still a ways off but good to have you confirm that it is sort of like a private island with Carnival bringing the food over etc. I look forward to your review of the other ports, if you are indeed doing one.

 

Bevie.

[CruiseJunkie4]

Thanks so much for all of this information! We are leaving on the Miracle in 10 days and Catalina Island is one of our stops. I had read small bits about there possibly being a lunch provided but couldn't really find anything definite. It sounds like a really nice beach day.

 

Sharon

[cruisetexas]

Thanks so much for the review! Looking forward to being there in a couple of weeks. I appreciate the time you spent filling us in!

Susan

[allenee]

I too will be there in a week,so thanks for the review. It was very helpful.

[File13]

Is this called the "Catalina Island Beach Break" excursion?

[copper6606]

Thanks so much for this detailed review. I have been looking and looking for a review for some time! :D

We are sitting in the Airport in Toronto right now waiting to board our flight to Fort Lauderdale - this review cam at a great time. I'm @ Catalina Island in a few days so I'll send own review along then...

[40yearcruiser]

Thanks for the informative review. We'll be there in a couple weeks on the Costa Atlantica (actually we'll be there twice as we're doing a back to back and both cruises have a stop here). Sounds like a relaxing day! On the first cruise we'll have grandkids with us. Are there beach activities for the kids?