Miracle Review april 3 room 6333 aft - part 1

[sharonfamily]

I am just now posting my miracle review. Ever since I got back I had not been able to post for some reason. I think it might of had something to do with my cookies. Overall, we had a great time. We are a family of 5 from Kentucky. There is myself - age 39, husband - age 40, teenage son - age 18, teenage daughter - age 15, and 2 1/2 year old daughter. We had great weather the whole trip and had a good but hectic time. We drove to Tampa and arrived two days early. We went to Bush Gardens on Saturday and had a great time. It is a beautiful place. we stayed at a Hampton Inn halfway between bush Gardens and the ship terminal (about 10 minutes from each) at a rate of $89 per night. It was so nice to be back in Florida again. We try and go there at least once a year. Now that the time to cruise was finally here I was so excited. I had read everything I could for the past 5 months so I knew what to expect. We booked directly through carnival and will do it again. We also booked all our excursions online a couple months in advance. They were all booked through carnival and I would never ever chance another company. It is scarry enough making sure you get back to the boat on time while on a carnival excursion. We arrived at the Pier around 10:45. We were unsure what to do and got turned around a couple times. Finally a guy pointed us in the right direction to drop off our luggage. We had seen the ship docked in front of us while driving in. We couldn't see all of it. We were so excited. It was huge. It looked like a giant hotel because we couldn't see any water. We circled around the parking garage once and finally found the entrance and parked on level two. We had a little walk with our carryon luggage but it wasn't too bad. A stroller definitely came in handy. We were asked to see our tickets and told to proceed into the terminal. We took the elevator upstairs (not excalator because of stroller) and checked in. We waited in line about 3 minutes and it took us about 5 minutes to check in. I was sooo relieved when that was over. I had nightmares about not having the right documents but it was really easy. We then were told to take a seat until they started boarding at 12:00 which was @45 minutes away. At 12 we boarded in group two and quickly got our photos taken and were aboard. It felt like we were boarding an airplane walking though the little tunnel thing. we took the elevator to deck 9 for the buffet. We didn't do any walking around because we had too many carryon pieces with us so we parked ourselves at a table. I don't remember what we ate but the food was pretty good that day. I loved the fruit punch and drank that most of the cruise. I didn't miss soft drinks at all. We had packed some and ended up carrying most of them back off the ship. We could have carried wine or anything on board because other than xray, our bags were not searched at all. We went up to our room around 1 and it was ready (we were told 1:30). It was a nice room but I didn't really care for the orange but got used to it. Some nice greens and blues would be nice. We explored the room and unpacked some of our carryons. We put our daughter down for her nap and sat on the balcony while she went to sleep. She is sometimes hard to get to sleep but it worked out fine. We loved our extended balcony and would never cruise without one again. It was neat talking to the people outside our balcony. Everyone was yelling out and introducing themselves. I could see the aquarium from our balcony. It has an outdoor water area for little kids and looked really neat. I would love to have gone there but didn't have the time. Our daughter woke up around 3:15 and we got ready for the lifeboat drill. We had our life jackets on and found one in the room for our daughter. It seemed big for her but said it was for her weight. Our steward bought us a life jacket and seemed puzzled when we told him we already had one. We had met him in the hall when we first got to our room. He was friendly but didn't talk a lot but took good care of us. He didn't give us a towell animal until the 2nd or 3rd day. We did have to ask for ice most of the time. Our room was always made up nicely which I am sure was hard to do with all the mess from our 2 year old. We had a lot of trouble keeping things organized and I could never remember where I put something. We had way too much stuff and didn't use half of it. I realized the twin bed had drawers under it the second day of the cruise which made things easier. Before that I was having trouble figuring out where to put everything. There were 3 closets. One had 3 shelves and I wished at least one of the other ones did as well because that is where I kept most of my outfits (shorts and shirts). There were plenty of hangers for our few dress up outfits. The bathroom was very nice. It had glass shelves with plenty of storage. The shower worked great. We got the basket of freebies. I used the razor because I couldn't find mine and got a rash under my arms. It was just a cheap disposable. I used some of the lotion and shampoo. The dental floss toothbrush was neat. My daugter and son shared a room and didn't know they were free until the day before the cruise is over so she bought them all home. They were across the hall and around the corner from us. Back to the drill... because we had two rooms, we had to go to two different locations. My husband was booked in the inside room with the teens and me and my 2 year old were booked in the balcony so I had to do the drill with her by myself. She was not too happy to wear the life jacket and not fully awake. The drill didn't take long at all and she was given an arm band. At first they put it on too loose and I had him redo it because I knew she would pull it right off. She had to wear that the entire cruise. I didn't like that because it is in all the pictues. I took it off a day early because she started getting a rash on her arm and two weeks afterward she still has a red place. When I took it off I realized that you can probably peel it off and put it back on. We didn't like going to two different locations because if there is ever an emergency we would be in two different lifeboats. When we got back to our rooms at almost 4, we immediately started to sail.

[sharonfamily]

It was so neat watching the ship pull out. We stayed on our balcony for about an hour. We saw a lot of sea gulls chasing the ship and filmed the view with our video camera. Finally, I remembered the bridge we would be going under and we went on the top deck. I think it was around 5:30. When we got up there we saw it a mile in the distance. It was very windy on top. We hear the wind sound in our camera. We had taken the stroller and had to carry it up the steps to the top deck. We folded it up under some stairs so it wouldn't blow away. There were only a couple other people up there. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the bridge and it was neat going under it but almost not worth the wind. When we came back down we saw a sign and realized we had been on the topless deck. We walked around some and went back to our room. I noticed a slight vibration in our room especially when I leaned against the bed or a piece of furniture. The ship picked up speed and got really rocky. My 15 year old started feeling sick. She just laid around and we gave her a pill and had to almost force her to go to dinner with us to get some food in her stomach. Me and my husband were getting worried because we were feeling a little sick also but we didn't take anything. We went to the dining room at 8:15 and met our waiters. He was very friendly - almost too fiendly. He entertained my two year old by making birdie noises and pretending to hide the bird under her napkin. That was great but he kept coming back constantly and talking to us and we didn't feel that great and just wanted to be left alone. For appetizer, I ordered some kind of fuit dish and I got a strawberry cut in half, a couple blueberries, a few bites of melon which I dislike with some sauce drizzled on it that tasted like wine. It was beautifully arranted but not worty eating. For my salad I got lettuce with dressing already on it and a little cheese and one bite of tomato which the waiter brought back for me. Also not worth eating. I think I got the steak to eat and it was good and cooked right and a good portion. I also got a small backed potato with nothing on it. There was butter on the table and 10 minutes later they came around with watery sour cream which they smothered it with. I poured most of it off because it tasted wierd. For desert I think I had chocolate cake which was fair. I did not like most of the deserts on the entire cruise. They all tasted like they came from a cafeteria and not flavorful at all. I was really disappointed. I did like the flourless chocolate one night. It is basically a half cooked brownie and is pretty edible. The chocolate chip cookies from the buffet are good and worty going back for more. The deserts in the gala buffet were also good. After dinner we hurried back to our rooms and went to bed. We were really rocking good. You could feel the ship swaying going down the halls. i thought maybe if I went to bed it would feel better but it only got worse. It felt like the whole bed was vibrating from the engines and swaying back and forth on top of that, I hardly slept all night long. I know I was still awake at 2:00. I was laying in bed thinking this was going to be a horrible cruise and that I was so glad my parents decided not to come along after all because they were worried about sea sickness. I did finally sleep and because I woke up and realized that it was dead quiet. They had finally turned the engines off. I started to notice the room getting a little lighter and then the engines started up again. I tried going back to sleep but didn't make it. My two year old woke up a little later and was ready to go. By the way, the beds were very comfortable. There were only sheets and the comforter, no blankets but they were not needed. The matress was perfect and the comforter was nice and thick. The air conditioner worked great and got too cold at times. When i turned it down, it took a long time for it to quit and for the room to warm up. I think when we were sailing it seemed to come on full blast every time. I get cold easily but did fine. We left the balcony door open several times and that always warmed me up. Hint: do not open the balcony door and the door to your room at the same time. It gets very windy and everything starts blowing all over the room. I am tired now so I will write some more tomorrow night. Feel free to ask any questions.

[kjunea]

Thanks for the review! I look forward to reading more of it. We go in 4 weeks on the Miracle!

 

June

[luv2cruise03]

Enjoying your review...We leave on May 29th...Can't wait!

[TPFilm]

When you wake up... post more. We are on the 9/18 sailing.

[sharonfamily]

I woke up this morning feeling tired from my sleepless night. My 15 year old said she slept good and was feeling better. We went down to breakfast in the buffet. I enjoyed the omlettes and bacon. I didn't really care for the sausage. It was like a fat sausage link and just tasted fatty to me. They also had potato circles and pancakes. That was basically all of the hot stuff. On another buffet they had cereals and tasteless breads and crescent rolls and the cheap pastry doughut things you find in hotels. Nothing looked very appetizing. They did have some fruits and I enjoyed the fresh pineapple. They had orange juice to drink which was fair - not fresh squeezed or anything and some kind of mango juice which was pretty good. They also had milk containers. I swiped several of the chocolate milks at times to keep in the fridge for my 2 year old. After brealfast we went to the pool area. I decided not to take my 2 year old to camp carnival yet because I wanted to spend some time with her. It was very windy on deck and the pools were very cold. This was the case the whole trip. We always ended up sitting in the hot tubs. The sun felt great laying out by the pool but I rarely had time to do this with a little one. It was hard to find a chair. Once I grabbed a chair from one pool area and pulled it to another one where it was less windy. The pool in the middle of the ship got the less wind and the ones at the end were pretty bad. For lunch we ate in the buffet which was pretty good. I don't remember what we had. We did have the chocolate chip cookies this day. They only had them 2 or 3 times. The second time when I finally found them again, I got a cup and filled it full of cookies and kept it in my room. I had even tried ordering room service some days to get them. They would tell me yes they had chocolate chip cookies but when it arrived, it would be something else that wasn't worth eating. I tried several of the deserts on the buffet for lunch but most of them were pretty tasteless. Some of them we took one bite and wouldn't touch it again. A few of the chocolate ones were alright. Camp carnival was open at 1 but I couldn't take my daughter because it was her nap time so she napped from 1 to 3. It was formal night so we got dressed and ate in the dining room again for dinner. We dropped our daughter off at camp carnival around 7 and left her until 10. We had filled the paperwork out earlier in the day at a carnival talk. During the talk, I could hardly hear a thing. Everyone was rude and kept talking. You could tell that the lady speaking was aware of it. I was hoping she would tell everyone to please be quiet. I only heard half of what she said. The camp carnival room was long and narrow. It was very bight and attractive. It had round skylights in the ceiling which was very neat. They had a name tag waiting for her since I had filled out paper work earlier in the day. She went in just fine and didn't mind my leaving her. She will be 3 in June. She is not quite potty trained and I didn't want to run her to the potty every 30 minutes the entire cruise so I put her in pullups for the duration. She seemed to always enjoy going to camp and even asked a couple times if she could go and play with the kids. Once however, she told me that the kids were closed meaning she did not want to go. She made several art papers during the time she was there but nothing much different than she would do in daycare. Nothing that really stood out as new. The last day she was given a cup to color (she didn't do it there because we picked her up early that day), and a t-shirt she had colored and a backpack. I had heard that there was supposed to be papers and things to color in the backpack but hers was empty. While she was in camp that first night, we went and got formal pictures made of the rest of the family. I wish now I had gotten my 2 year olds that night as well. The pictures didn't start until late and I really wanted her to go to camp to have some free time to myself so we figured we would get hers done on the last formal night. At 7 we went to the captains cocktail party which was nice. They passed out free drinks and appetizers. I tried two of the drinks but didn't care too much for either one. I am not a big drinker. They had some kind of pizza rounds and meatballs and a few other things to eat. The show lasted about 30 minutes and alot of the crew was introduced and the captain spoke for a moment. During dinner, I got strawberry bique (I think thats what it was called) for an appetizer. It was basically a melted strawberry milkshake. I ate half of it. I then had the basic salad again and got some kind of chicken and string beans and sweet potato that was all pretty good. The chicken had a good flavor. For desert I had the flourless cake which I liked pretty well. After dinner we watched the R rated commedian and he was pretty good but it didn't last long enough. I ordered a strawberry daquari which I usually love but it just didn't taste that good. Another night I got a raspberry daquari and I didn't care for that either. It was too strong to taste any of the flavor that might have been in it. We had figured on spending around 100 - 200 on drinks but ended up spending only around 40 or 50. We finally got to bed that night around one and had to get up early the next morning for Grand Cayman. We had gone to a talk earlier in the day and were told to look at our tickets to see where to meet and to be there 15 minutes early. We were to meet in the Phantom Lounge at 8:00 so we were to be there at 7:45 or so I thought.

[bluehorizonlover123]

Cant wait to read more of your review when you finish it.

[sharonfamily]

Just to let everyone know, I am a little fuzzy on details and may have gotten a few things out of order. I am not sure if the captains party really happened on the day at sea or today. If I am off a day on anything please forgive me. I know I am also jumping around a lot but I want to get some things down while I am thinking of them because I might forget them later.

 

Grand Cayman

 

I still had trouble sleeping. The bed still vibrated all night except for a few hours right before dawn. The ship was still fairly rocky but not as bad. It really goes fast through the water. I tossed and turned but got a little more sleep than the night before. I was just wishing they would shut off the engines for a little while so I could get some sleep. I have been on the Big Red Boat in the bahamas which is my only other cruise before this one and never even knew the boat was moving. On the Miracle, you definitely noticed it constantly. We got up at 6:30 this morning and had to make ourselves start moving. I had meant to get up early and watch the sunrise but didn't make it. I did get to look out in time to see the islands approaching in the distance. We ate breakfast again in the buffet and had the same thing as the morning before. My husband and 18 year old son were going Scuba diving through carnival and me, my 15 year old daughter and 2 year old daughter were going to swim with the stingrays. I was a little worried about going off by ourselves but figured I could handle it. We arrived in the Phantom Lounge at 7:45 and a man up front was quietly talking and making jokes. There weren't many people there (50) and I figured we were one of the earliest excursions to leave. A little after 8 he told everyone going to the stingray sandbar to follow a certain lady. I asked the lady if it also meant the Stingray, turtle and hell expedition and she looked at her paper and said yes. I knew there were several different stingray excursions. A large group of us followed her out. We punched in our cards and boarded the tender boat. It was almost full but there was plenty of room for all. I set up front where it was protected to be out of the wind since it was still early and not that warm yet. I guess it was in the mid 70's. We got off the boat and people were holding up sights with your excursion name on it. I didn't see mine and a carnival man asked me what I was looking for. I told him and he told me that tour had left 45 minutes ago. He said I was supposed to have been at that point at 8:00. I was very upset. I told him my ticket said to meet in the Phantom lounge at 8:00 and that I had even been told that. He said it is different in the Caymans and that I should have received a paper in my mailbox the night before. I told him I had never received anything about it. He told me I could take the next one at 10:30 so I decided that was what I would do. So I had a 2 hour wait in a strange place with a heavy bag to carry (snorkles, goggles, 1 towell, clothes for 2 year old, sun screen, camera, and 2yr ho doesn't like to walk far and no stroller. We sat down for awhile to watch for my husband to come across because we were worried that he had missed his trip as well. After 45 minutes, we walked around a little bit and bought some chips and a drink from a vendor my 15 year old was already starving. I didn't go far because I didn't want to take any chances of getting lost and it was getting hot. We sat back down and after a little bit we ran into my husband and son. They had waited in the lounge for an hour. They were told that they hadn't missed theirs. They only had a few minutes wait and a lady held up a sign beginner scuba diving which they had been told to go with even though they were doing the atoll two tank dive. They were supposed to have met at 8:15 in the lounge and it was now around 9:30. We waited some more and talked to people and finally, it was 10:30. We lined up against a building. I bet there was over 100 people all crowded in. My two year old had fallen asleep and I was carrying her. We stood in line for awhile and were told that the busses were running late. I was about to die. My child weights 32 pounds and got very heavy and it was hot. Finally I found a place to sit. We finally boarded a small bus at 11:15. Our trip was supposed to last 4 1/2 hours and the last tender to the boat we were told was at 3:15. I was already wondering how we were going to make it and had thought many times about just forgetting it and going back to the ship but I didn't. The bus held about 20 people. I sat in the back row. They even opened up middle seats so you were definitely crammed in with nowhere to go. There was no aisle space. I was so glad to sit down. I checked to make sure I had everything with me. I was so worried I would lose our cards and kept checking them every chance I got. We had about a 20 minute ride. We went to Hell first. Our driver was very nice and informative about the area and the hurricane damage. There were still many spots with trees down. I saw several people up on rooftops working. The driver said the salt water killed a lot of the trees when it blew in and that it would be many years before it could ever grow back. When we arrived in Hell, our driver told us our bus number and said he could only give us 20 minutes because of our limited time. We were parked between many similar busses and I was worried about finding the right one and getting back on time. We looked out at the rocks which was kind of neat and took our pictures. Then we went into the very crowded gift shop to try and pick out a post card. This was no fun with a 2 year old. I hurried up and posted one and my older daughter just bought 3 to take home. My mom still hasn't received the post card yet. We then rushed back to the van. On the way to the van, my daughter took another picture and told me she could not find her sail and sign card. She said she had put it in her camera case. I was about to panic. We ran and looked for it some and then rushed back to the van because they were almost loaded up. People had to get up from the middle aisles so we could squeeze into our back seats again. I saw my carnival towell laying where I had left it so I felt certain I was on the right bus. I then noticed that people looked different. I asked them if they were from the Miracle and they said no. I think my heart about stopped beating. Then they said they were joking. Some people had just switched seats around. I did not think it was a bit funny at that time even though it was. I was already worn out and hungry for lunch and not able to enjoy myself. I checked my daughters camera and did not see the card. I was scared to death that we wouldn't be allowed to get back on the boat. I knew that most likely we would not have a problem but was still terrified of the possibilities. We had only a short 5 minute drive if I remember right to the turtle farm. This place was neat but was worse than Hell (ha ha). It was very packed. It was also very hot. I tried to forget about my problems and enjoy myself. It was neat seeing the turtles and we got some good pictures. My 2 year old got to hold one and she really enjoyed herself. We only stayed outside about 20 minutes because it was miserably hot. We then went into the crowded gift shop where it was cool. There were a lot of neat things to buy but long lines and I didn't want to take the time to buy something. After about 15 minutes we went back to find the van and sat there about 5 minutes then the driver came and we all boarded up. I sat there and looked through our things again and found my daughters card in a pocket in her backpack purse. I was never so relieved in my life. I now felt I could relax and half way enjoy myself. We drove to the boat and ours wasn't ready so we had to sit in the van about 15 minutes. My 2 year old was getting really restless. Finally we got on the boat and there were hardly any seats left. We had to sit in a middle aisle with no back bumping up against some other people. The water was beautiful when we got going and it was nice and cool. They played a one song I had never heard something about sailing on the ocean that was really neat. The rest of the times it was just regular everyday songs. My two year old fell asleep in my arms after about 5 minutes. The ride was about 30 minutes long and I was tired of sitting upright holding her. We finally got to the sandbar. It was neat. You could see where the shallow part began because their were waves breaking into it like on the beach but it was very calm on the sandbar. I blew up a round ring I had bought for my daughter to help me hold onto her. When we got off the boat the water was cold for a second but we went quickly in. I could barely touch the first 5 feet and quickly got us to a shallow area. It was beautiful and there were maybe 10 stingrays around our group of people. My 2 year old was afraid of them. She said they would sting her. I told her they only sitng other fishes to satisfy her with their name. A man would hold up a stingray and people could stand in front of it and have their pictures taken. They had a lot of time holding them still and we had to have 2 shots taken because we didn't look at the camera the first time. The man seemed a little irritated and told us not to look at the stingray to look at him. We did pet the stingray briefly. The rest of the time we walked around some and tried to touch a few of them but didn't have much luck. As far as I knew, nobody was feeding them. My 2 year old had enough so we went back to the boat. My 15 year old swam under water taking pictures of them. On the boat, I took someones seat with a back. I was sorry but was really tired and needed it. I think it would of been nice if someone had offered me one on the way out. After 10 minutes everyone was loaded up and ready to leave. At most people were in the water about 30 minutes. On the way back I got a little drink of juice. We also looked at our pictures on the computer. I bought mine for $15.00. It was saved to a cd to print out at home. When we were almost to land I noticed that it was already 3:00 and the last tender was in 15 minutes. I was starting to get worried again. By the time we boarded the busses and got back it was about quarter till 4. The ship was due to sail at 4. We took the tender to the ship and made it ok. I went up to our room and it was empty but my husband things were in the room. A few minutes later he knocked on the door and said he was never so glad to see me. He had been watching from the upper deck and never saw me come in. He had been back for about an hour and said he enjoyed his dive so he did get on the correct one it was just over an hour late. I was so tired and hungry. We took showers and I finally got to eat lunch and dinner at 5:00. We just ate in the buffet. I sampled a few different dishes but nothing was that good except for some kind of pork dish. I didn't think there was much to choose from. There was the salad bar, the different nations buffet with about 7 items, and the desert bar. There was always the hamburger grill and the place to have sandwiches made. I felt there were never enough vegetables. There was mainly only salads and potatoes. By the end of the cruise I was dying for some regular vegetables and was happy to one day see simple peas and carrots. I would have loved some fresh green beans or vegetable soup. They did have sweet potatoes oncewas good. After dinner we dropped our little one off at camp and went back to the room to relax. We later walked around and looked at our pictures from the night before. They were really good and we bought one for $20.00. It was horrible having to throw away the ones we did not want. We picked up our daughter at 10:00 and went to bed. Or at least tried to. I had to kind of stay awake to check on our teenagers to make sure they made it back to their room at a decent hour. Neither of them seemed to be making any friends as of yet and i was worried about them. The next day we were going to costa maya and didn't dock until 10 so I planned to sleep in some.

[serene56]

What a hectic day in Grand Cayman you had.. But I dont understand that if the excursion was to leave earlier then what your ticket said..and the carnival rep said becuase you are on Cayman time...

DId your Captain change times on the ship?? I thought the Miracle stayed on Ship time so how would you know that the excursion will be earlier then what was stated?

[GoinCruisin]

You should have tried the dining room for lunch, yummy fresh veggies :D

[BettyB2]

Thanks for the review!

 

Making me a little leery of having booked an aft cabin on the Empress deck on the Triumph....was is really "THAT BAD" at night to sleep?

 

If it is I will probably just have a couple strong cocktails before I turn in ;)

[TPFilm]

Gotta love the cattle call cruise line excursions! Overcharge them, load 'em up, pack 'em in and herd 'em through!

 

Great review. Can't wait to read the rest of it. Sorry that you weren't able to have to much fun in Caymen. Your 2 year old sounds like she was a trooper (as much as a two year can be... we have a 14 month old... we understand!)

[sharonfamily]

Yes, the ship stayed on their same time and for some reason we were supposed to have known to be there an hour early. The man I spoke to kept saying "see it says so on this paper" something he had and we didn't. He also said we should have received something in our mailbox. I guess he didn't believe we hadn't. I kept trying to ask him how we should have known and he seemed to be getting upset with me. He asked me if I had a good time and I said "No". (How was I supposed to have had a good day with missing lunch, having to wait, and being rushed all the time. I should have been back by 12:30 at which time I would have gone back to the ship to meet my husband, eat lunch and put my 2 year old down for a nap and relax. I might have even gotten to meet up with my husband if his scuba diving hadn't been late and eat in the Caymans and do a little shopping. As it was, my 2 year old had potato chips for lunch and a little kool-aid and soda.) I was hoping he would give me half of my money back or something or at least admit to some fault. The money wasn't that important to me so I didn't push it. I just wanted to get it behind me and forget it.

 

 

The bed vibrating was really bad the first few nights but I did finally get used to it and slept good towards the end. The first night after I got home I almost even missed it. It seemed so quiet and still I couldn't hardly sleep again. I still liked the aft cabins best because they are extended and I loved the view. I would pick one again. I don't think I will cruise on Carnival on my next cruise because they all seem the same from what I hear. My aunt and her family cruised on the Conquest the same time at us and everything is almost identical. Their food was the same and they had similar shows. I will probably come back one day but like to try something different. I probably won't take another cruise for a couple years. I will wait until my youngest gets a little older. Also, my oldest will be going to college soon and next time we can get one room instead of two. Two rooms are expensive. Are we allowed to say the prices here? We have a large camper and like to use it a lot. We plan to travel back to Florida (Panama) immediately after school is out and camp for a week on the beach. Crusing is alright, especially to get away in the winter and escape to a warm climate, but I don't think I would ever do it in the summer.

[GoinCruisin]

The time issue is usually addressed on the first page of the capers.... :confused: Was it not? Generally is says... Blah blah blah is one hour behind, stay on ship time, yadda yadda... that is delivered the night before...

[serene56]

The time issue is usually addressed on the first page of the capers.... :confused: Was it not? Generally is says... Blah blah blah is one hour behind, stay on ship time, yadda yadda... that is delivered the night before...

 

 

Thats the part I dont understand...if the capers are telling you to stay on ships time..how do people know to adjust their excursion schedule for a tour using Grand Caymans time. She was told to be in the lounge by 8am... and was. (was the tour for 8am? and she should have been in the lounge earlier)

[bluehorizonlover123]

Sharon - first I want to say you were very brave to do a shore excursion by your self without your husband to help you. And going into the water at the sand bar can be scary too as it does get very wavy there at times. We went when my kids were young and one was starting to drown as he tried to swim back to the boat to get back on. I too was struggling to get back to the boat as I was swimming without an arm to try and keep my camera dry. So having to swim with yourself and your baby must have been very hard for you.

 

I think if it was me I would have rather just stayed on the ship and enjoyed everything by myself with all the people gone. I really enjoy staying back when everyone gets off to do their shore excursions. I have the pool to myself and there are no crowds and it is very relaxing.

 

It can get confusing with the time zones but since you were using a ships tour they should have told you their time to meet not island time to meet. You should really write a letter to them and tell them how confusing this was for you so they can do a better job of clarifying this to future cruisers. They probably don't even realize that there was a problem unless you bring it to their attention.

 

I have never gone to hell or the turtle farm. I heard hell was nothing and my kids didn't care if we went to the turtle farm. We did the sting ray city tour alone. It was a 3 and a half hour tour maximum. We used Captain Marvin when we did the tour.

 

I am glad you made it back. It must have really hurt your back carry your 2 year old while napping. I don't have the strength or energy to do that anymore. I did when my kids were young. But those days are long gone.

[sharonfamily]

Costa Maya

 

We again ate in the buffet for breakfast and I started getting very tired of the same old thing. I vowed to try the sit down dining room soon. After breakfast we went back to the room to get loaded up for the day. We could see land all around us and knew we were almost there. At @9:30 the captain came on and said the seas were too rough and that we would not be able to dock. I was really disappointed because I had been looking forward to this port the most. We were just going to walk off and relax by the beach. I knew these things happened all the time so I was ok. We got $125 back which was nice. It was too late in the day to take Sierra (2 year old) to camp because she would of had to be picked up by 12 so we took her with us.

 

I found it very difficult to plan anything with camp carnivals schedule. If we happened to sleep late, it wasn't worth taking her. When they reopen at one, that is my daughters nap time. She wakes up at 3 but they are closed from 4-5. So the only time that was convenient was in the evenings. I think we dropped her off at 5 this day to eat with camp carnival. They were served spaghetti, pizza or hotdogs. They also had fries. I would have really liked it if they had served my child some vegetables as well. For the price of the cruise, they should have received a platter with lots of choices on it. Some applesauce or peaches or peas would have been nice. I know a lot of kids wouldn't eat those items but some would. There were approximately 8 kids in the dining room when we dropped her off - all ages. While I am on the subject I will get into another issue. I thought camp carnival went up to age 15. It says that in my carnival book. However when we got on the boat we did not receive any information for my 15 year old like we did for Sierra. I later found out that it only went up to 14. She didn't really plan to go much anyway but she was bored the first two day and it would have been nice to have some organized activities. She isn't the type to like to hang out in a disco. Halfway into the cruise I did find out that they had something for kids called club o. After asking 3 times for some information to be sent to my room, I finally got it. It wasn't worth it however because there was only 2 or things listed each day that didn't seem worth attending so she never went. She did however finally meet a lot of friends to hang out with. I think she had 6 at one time. Most of them were a year or two younger but that was fine. She also met a boy who was 17 and who lives in Kentucky a couple hours drive for us. He was very nice looking and polite. She still keeps in touch with all her friends by email. My son finally made a few friends (all girls) and hung out with them in the evenings. However the last 2 days he spent most of the time in his room watching tv and reading. He went to some of the shows with us but my 15 year old was too busy with friends to want to hang out with us.

 

I believe on this day we watched the hairy chest contest at the pool. It wasn't really about how hairy your chest was but how sexy you are and how you move when you walk down the runway beside the pool. It was funny to watch but I didn't like my older daughter watching it because of their behavior. We also played bingo for a prize of $2000. We were close to winning when someone beat us to it. After they were checked out, they asked if anyone else had bingo and they said "going once, twice..." About one minute later a man spoke up and yelled bingo and he was told sorry but it was too late. This man got mad and was arguing for about 20 minutes. They checked out his card and finally I saw someone nod their head yes and the man got up smiling and strutted across the stage. I hope the first person who won didn't have to split it with him because it wouldn't have been fair. I would have been very mad. We also saw the three bears 15 minute show which was kind of cute and we saw something else but I don't remember what it was. I think we ate in the hamburger grill and buffet for dinner.

[voyagerfl]

Just to let everyone know, I am a little fuzzy on details

 

WoW...and I thought this was a pretty detailed post....LoL ;)

Sorry, It sounds like you did not have a good time.........

[bluehorizonlover123]

Sharon -

 

 

Its OK that you missed Costa Maya. It isnt that great. Did you have fun on your cruise. You haven't gotten to the end of your review yet I am thinking.

[dot]

Wow, it's sounds like you had a week from hell. I am sorry your cruise wasn't a fun filled week. We have been on 8 cruises and never had an experience like yours. They have been nothing but great memories-even going thru hurricane Erin.

Dot

[sharonfamily]

Cozumel

 

 

We got off the ship with the whole family today. We enjoyed seeing all the shops in port. It was a pretty area to walk through. We kept walking and found the taxi stands. We told them where we wanted to go and we were loaded into a taxi to Chankanaab Park. It was only a short 10 minute drive at a reasonable speed and only cost about $12 for 5 of us. We had the stroller and got a taxi van. The Park was beautiful and the weather was perfect. It was in the low 80s. We immediately found a place to sit in the shade under a little hut with lots of Palm trees around. I think we were almost the first ones there. My husband and older daughter went to snorkle and I took Sierra to the kids area. She loved playing in the sand and wading in the water. She was afraid to go out far because of the fish. We had fun collecting some wierd little brown plant or fish creatures in her bucket. At first I thought they were jellyfish but wrong color of course. After an hour I took a turn at snorkeling. I saw quite a few varieties of fish. Most of them were located around the area where you get in the water. Some of them you could almost reach out and touch. It was nice but I have seen better but I enjoyed it. We then ate in the outdoor restaurant. It was a little expensive and was good but not great. The refried beans were really black not brown. They tasted ok but looked horrible. I got a sampler platter for 10.99. We had to wait forever for our bill and then they tried to charge us $10 too much. They add it by hand and I almost believe make mistakes on purpose. After that my husband decided to go scuba diving again. You could rent the equipment right on the beach and it only cost $40.00 including the guide. He got to go to some underground caves and really enjoyed it. He saw a stingray and a rock fish. He recommends it to anyone who loves scuba diving. Our 18 year old son did not have fun. He sulked all day because he did not want to go with us and was mad that we made him. We refused to let him wonder around by himself like he wanted to do. He just sat all day in the shade and didn't do a thing but complain. It ended up that he left his snorkle equipment alone under a tree and went for a walk and came back and it was gone. We looked for it but found no trace. I assume it was stolen. It serves him right except we paid for it. It also had his only pair of swim trunks in it. He was too stubborn to pack 2 pair like we told him.

While my husband was scuba diving, we walked through the trails and saw some beautiful sights. We saw lots of iguanas and got some good pictures of them. We saw a beautiful lagoon that had the clearest water I had ever seen. We stood on a dock and fed them cereal which my 2 year old loved doing. We then went back and bought my older daughter a tank top. It was then time to head back to the ship. We had wanted to try paradise beach also but didn't have enough time. The day just flew by. We took a taxi back and they let us off at the wrong cruise area. We had to walk 2 blocks to get to ours. We didn't have time to do any shopping so we got back on the ship. I think a teenager got caught shoplifting in one of the stores. A security guard kept telling her to come back in and she kept saying she was done in that store. I think I heard her say a few minutes later that she would put it back. I can only imagine the trouble she might have gotten into but never heard anything else. When we got back on the ship they kept announcing for 2 people to call in. They held the ship for maybe 30 minutes and we watched from the top deck but nobody ever showed up. I am sure they were left behind but never heard anything about it. We ate in the buffet again. We had decided the dining room wasn't worty it. We got lots of photos taken and ended up spending a total of @200.00. We did the old time photo where you dress up and got lots of cute pictures of Sierra. I hated throwing away the ones we did not want. I made copies at Kinkos after we got home for $15.00 to give to people. I think this was the night we went to the bathrobe party. It was really fun. Almost everyone wore them. There was a band and a lot of line dancing to see which team could get the longest line. They had a Mexican buffet with the best food of the entire cruise. I loved their chips and cheese dip. The chips were extra thick. I had never had that kind before. They also had some really good deserts. I tried a blue margarita but don't care for margaritas. We picked Sierra up at 1:00 and my husband carried her from one end of the ship to the other back to our room. He was worn out when he got there. It really is a long walk.

 

Belize

 

Today we tried the sit down dining room for breakfast. We found that they basically had similar food as the buffet and nothing much better. I got the eggs benedict and french toast and bacon. I did enjoy it but again, I have had better. It was nice for a change. We sat with a couple from England which was neat. We then took the tender to Belize. We left Sierra in camp all this day. Our son stayed on the boat so it was just 3 of us. We boarded some nice size busses and enjoyed our hour long tour to the cave for tubing. Our guide was excellent and we learned a lot about Belize. It is neat that they only have 3 traffic lights in the whole country and we went through all 3 of them. Their schools and literacy rate seemed to be just like ours. Most of the population seemed dark skinned. We saw a lot of poverty. The houses were just square buildings and you could sometimes see straight through the house. Their was a lot of garbage and clothes hanging out on lines. People there only go to McDonalds maybe twice a year. It costs half a paycheck for them. Gas is around $5.00 a gallon. We got off the bus and changed and got our tubes and headlamps. Then we took a very fast paced 30-40 minute walk to the water. Our walking guide was very bad. He hardly said anything and when he did only the two people behind him could hear. He walked at a very fast pace and I was getting very tired. He stopped about 3 times for 30 seconds. I would have loved to have taken my time and enjoy the scenery. We were the first bus to arrive and the first at the cave. He kept commenting on that and I think it was a race for him for some reason. When I first stepped in the water it was very cold. Some people dove in but I tried to get as little wet as possible because I thought the cave might be cold. I eased onto the raft and soon forgot the temperature. We almost immediately went into the cave. I think it was about 1/4 mile long. It was not cold at all and I get cold easy. It was actually kind of boring. I have been in a lot of caves. We spent most of the time paddling with our hands seeming like we were getting nowhere. There were people at different positions in the cave to help pull us along. We spent a lot of time at a standstill. I did see a bat in the ceiling which took off and produced a few screams. I also saw a huge spider on a rock. I was glad when we got out of the cave into the sunshine. we did have a few instances where we picked up speed and it actually got a little fun. However at that point it was very shallow and many people had to walk. My husband got really tired of that. If you weigh over @150 you will catch on the rocks and have to constantly get up and down. Me and my daughter only had to walk once. In the sunshine, Carnival photographers were there and took our pictures. After 30 minutes we got out and changed and got back on the bus. We drove maybe 20 minutes and stopped at the restaurant for lunch. We were the first ones there. We had chicken, red beans and rice, and cole slaw. There was fresh squeezed lime juice to drink. It was a pretty good meal. I enjoyed trying something different but it needed some spicing up. There were several hot sauces on the table but I didn't try any. On the way back we got to see a cashew tree. Each fruit on the tree produces one cashew and the cashew is poisonous until processed. If you eat a whole can of cashews, you are probably eating a whole tree. There wasn't much to do in port so we got back on the ship.

[sharonfamily]

I will try and finish my review tomorrow night. No, actually with all the problems we had we did enjoy ourself. It was hectic but we had fun. We will take another cruise in the future but plan to wait until Sierra is at leat 5 years old. It will be so much easier. Also, my son will soon be in college and next time we will only need one room and it will not be as expensive. We prefer land vacations because we have a large camper and enjoy exploring different areas. However, if you want rest and relaxation, a cruise is nice if you take the time to relax. We did spend a lot of time on our balcony relaxing so it wasn't all busy. We will definitely go again in a few years. It is definitely worth it to escape from the cold. We loved the Miracle. It was a very beautiful ship. The floors sparkled and it was very clean and beautifully decorated. The dining room was beautiful and nothing seemed loud like I had read. I didn't notice a single purple grape. If there were any they did not stand out. The ones I saw looked bronze. Most of the time the ship did not seem too crowded except when something was happening at the pool or in the late evenings. I did notice that there seemed to be way too many people in the 15 - 25 age range. I didn't notice that many children. My aunt who sailed on the conquest the same time as us had a very similar experience. The shows and activities were all very similar. They were also dissatisfied with the food and missed home cooked meals. It is funny because I heard someone complain about teenagers in the elevators on their ship the same sailing date. Unfortunately, my aunt does not control her teens well and she did tell me that one of her sons got thrown off an elevator. I apologize for her for anyone on the conquest who experienced that. I think all Carnival cruises are very similar. I think next time I might try a different cruise line just for something different. Does anyone have any suggestions on who to try. I want a little bit better food and not a whole lot of price increase. I also have to have an aft balcony. Would Royal Carribean be good or Celebrity? Please ask questions and comment back. I lived for these boards before I left and want my cruise moments to last as long as possible. (some of them anyway). Thank you to all who have replied so far.

[serene56]

I have tried Royal Caaribbean and fount the food to be the same as on Carnival. I'd like to try Princess but sure cant get over how much of a price differene there is between carnival and Princess.

[paulam]

Our 18 year old son did not have fun. He sulked all day because he did not want to go with us and was mad that we made him. We refused to let him wonder around by himself like he wanted to do. He just sat all day in the shade and didn't do a thing but complain.

 

 

I don't blame your son at all for having a bad day. If I was 18 years old and not allowed to wander around Chankanaab park on my own I'd be pissed too.

[sharonfamily]

My son did not want to wonder around Chankanaab park on his own that would have been no problem. He wanted to explore Cozumel on his own. This was the only island we were spending together as a family and we wanted him to be there.