Miracle to Hawaii 9/18/14 to 10/4/14 with pics

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

J.R. said cabin 7258 was his favorite cabin location ever. We always book a mid-ship balcony &7258 is listed as mid-ship but is more aft than what we usually get. It was two quick flights of stairs up to the Lido & a few down to the Dining Room.

 

We quickly unpacked & headed up to the Lido to get a huge salad at the salad bar. By then our new cruisin' buds, Lynn & Mitch were on-board so they joined us.

 

We went to the muster drill & it was quick & painless. Then we went to Deck 10 AFT for our roll calls M&G sailaway. Unfortunately some of our roll call members could not find us but we enjoyed meeting the ones that were there & we had a Cash bar M&G scheduled for the next day so we knew we would get to meet the others then.

 

A lot of us wore the t-shirts for sailaway that Dottie on our roll call designed. She did a great job & we all loved them. I bought Aloha beads at Party City & told everyone we would be wearing our group t-shirts & Aloha beads so we would be easier to spot.

 

We always get a drink of the day for sailaway!

 

Showing off our group shirt.

 

And off we go!!!

 

 

 

Bye Vancouver!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

J.R. & I usually bring on bottled water because we seem to drink more water if we have bottled water in the room. The water on the Miracle is good but after a late night of dancing we sometimes forget to go by & get water from the Lido.

 

This time I decided to save J.R.'s back & I ordered the H2O Party Package from Carnival's Fun Shops for $25 before we left & it was delivered to our room the day we sailed. It consisted of two large bottles of Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine Spring Water (2 - 50.72 fluid oz. bottles) & one 24-pk of Nestle Pure Life Purified Water (24 - 16.9 fluid oz. bottles). It was wonderful to not have to lug water on-board & well worth the price!

 

[babsee101]

I am super excited about this review! This is one of my bucket list cruises!

Great job so far. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. :)

[boaterette]

I am loving your review. I am sorry though that it was a blood clot that got you to write it. Hope your recover soon.

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

We did the 15 day cruise out of Long Beach on the Splendor (before the Splendor and Miracle switched places) last year....and spent an additional 10 days in CA. Very interested in your point of view. We loved, loved, loved the sea days and never felt it was too much. Made many friends and always kept busy or lazy....which ever we decided to do for the day..lol.

I think most of the group we ran with thought Hawaii did not live up to the hype (although we loved the whole cruise Hawaii included) & we would probably stay with Caribbean cruises since they are so much cheaper & closer to get to but since we have been back we are all texting & emailing thinking about another cruise to Hawaii. :D Maybe a January cruise when it is cooler? It was HOT when we were in Hawaii! J.R. will tell you 'lazy' is not in my vocabulary. I bet sometimes he wishes it was but he humors me. We probably averaged 5 or 6 hours sleep a night on this cruise but we had sooo much fun & I would not change a thing!

 

I am super excited about this review! This is one of my bucket list cruises! Great job so far. Thanks for taking the time to share with us. :)

Thanks. It was on our bucket list to & we are so happy we went. It seemed like one minute we were planning it though & the next minute it was over so enjoy every second. I know we did! :)

 

I am loving your review. I am sorry though that it was a blood clot that got you to write it. Hope your recover soon.

Thanks. I usually write reviews on new places because I gain so much from reviews on Cruise Critic that I want to give back. I am super involved in a Christmas charity though & this is almost 'the busiest time of the year' & between that & taking care of my dad I didn't think I had time to write a review this time so thanks for bearing with me & my lack of organization this time. I do have some really cool pics from Hawaii! :D

[Crusin Karen]

Enjoying this review! I read another review of yours (I recognize you!) Not sure which one, but I found it very enjoyable. We had the bowling alley cabins on 2 of our Miracle cruises but on deck 8. Thanks for sharing this cruise with us and congratulations on your anniversary. Love your door decorations! ;):)

[edinboro cruiser]

Doing the 15 day from LA in Jan 2016 in a corner suite on deck 7 to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Can't wait to read your whole review and hopefully get some great tips

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

I forgot to mention that as soon as we got onboard we went to the excursions desk & booked the Behind the Scenes Tour. I had always wanted to do it & we booked it one time on the Fascination but we got another offer & they cancelled it for us so we could attend a special brunch. This cruise they offered it two times & said if they had enough interest they would have a 3rd one. We decided to do the 2nd one on the 1st sea day back so we would have something to look forward to after our days in Hawaii! I will post the info about it later.

 

I also went to meet with ‘my new best friend’ (J.R. teases me that I meet a new best friend daily), Ruzica Jeftic, AKA Rose, who is the Guest Services Group Events coordinator & she was WONDERFUL to work with. We had to change the date for our Cruise Critic roll call cocktail party because Carnival changed the date for the the VIFP party & we did not want to have the cocktail party on the same date. She was so helpful! She also came to every function we had to make sure it was set up to our satisfaction.

I watched her interact with other passengers & she is such a caring person. I have been the care giver for my 85 year old father for the last several years & he recently moved to an Assisted Living. It was really questionable if I would even be able to go on this cruise due to his declining health & I have to admit I was a nervous wreck worrying about him. ‘Rose’ asked me every time she saw me if I had any contact with my dad & if I wanted to use their phone to call him. She also sent J.R. & I a bottle of champagne & a hand written card for our anniversary. What a genuine person & I truly felt like I left a friend behind on the Miracle so if you need to arrange anything for a group on the Miracle or just need help with anything Rose at Guest Services is the best!

Juli

[MaiTaiMary]

I'd love to see pictures of the ship! :D I'll be on the Miracle in 5 weeks. Thanks for the review!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Itinerary

Thursday September 18, 2014… Depart from Vancouver at 5 PM

Friday September 19, 2014…Sea Day

Saturday September 20, 2014…Sea Day

Sunday September 21, 2014…Sea Day

Monday September 22, 2014… Sea Day

Tuesday September 23, 2014… Sea Day

Wednesday September 24, 2014… Arrive in Kauai 8:30 AM Depart at 6PM

Thursday September 25, 2014… Arrive in Maui 8AM Depart at 11PM

Friday September 26, 2014…Arrive in Honolulu at 8 AM Depart at 11 PM

Saturday September 27, 2014… Arrive in Kona at 8:30AM Depart at 6PM

Sunday September 28, 2014… Arrive in Hilo at 8AM Depart at 6 PM

Monday September 29, 2014… Sea Day

Tuesday September 30, 2014… Sea Day

Wednesday October 1, 2014…Sea Day

Thursday October 2, 2014…Sea Day

Wednesday October 3, 2014…Sea Day

Thursday October 4, 2014…Arrive in LA (Long Beach) 9 AM

 

We were the only ship in port everyday.

 

Notes…

 

Weather...We had almost perfect weather on all of our sea days. I think the 2nd sea day was a little chilly & drizzly & the 2nd to last was also but I had expected the first & last couple of sea days to be bad. There were still people out in the pool on the last sea day. I thought they were crazy because I stuck my toes in & the water was cold but it was definitely sun bathing weather.

 

We had fairly smooth sailing too. A few times we were rocking & rolling a little but nothing like what we have experienced on some other cruises.

 

Time Changes

Carnival did a great job keeping us from becoming to sleep deprived. We had to change our clocks back one hour (I believe) on the day we left Vancouver, the 2nd sea day & 4th sea day on the way to Hawaii. On the way back (I think) they changed the times on the 1st, 2nd & 4th sea days.

Since I did not plan on doing a review my few notes are jumbled so don’t hold me to the exact days but they changed by one hour three times on the way there & on the way back.

We are on Central time so we were already behind two hours when we got to Vancouver so by the time we got to Hawaii our 2PM was their 9AM. It was really hard giving up those hours on the way back!

Juli

[Scott D]

Good info thanks:)

[Captain Carnival]

Aloha and Welcome Aboard! You guy's got on the ship just as we debarked from Alaska around an hour before (I'm still working on my review) and looking forward to yours!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Entertainment…

 

I know entertainment is subjective but there was something for everyone as far as entertainment on-board went. We LOVED Music Unlimited in Frankie & Johnnie’s & our group spent most nights in there. We have cruised with them before & all four of them are so talented!

 

 

We usually enjoy the Piano Bar but Bistra Mileva was the Piano Bar player & she was probably the worst Piano Bar player I have ever seen. I googled her before our cruise & found some youtube videos but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt but she was horrible! IMHO (& everyone else we spoke with) she can’t sing & does not have a personality for a Piano Bar player. She seemed to yell the words & she played way to fast & definitely did not encourage singing along.

We went in there two times & stayed about 10 minutes & left. It was always deserted. I filled out the survey Carnival sent when I got home & the only complaint I made was about how bad Bistra was. Definitely not a fun place!

 

The DJ in Frankenstein’s Night Club did a great job & it was fun to dance in there.

 

There were eight different comedians on-board over the course of our cruise. We usually love going to the Comedy Shows but they were definitely hit or miss with some of them being down right bad. The one that twirls his hair (sorry for my lack of notes) was really funny though.

 

Pirate Night & Hawaiian Night were sooo much fun! More on that in a few!

Juli

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

The crew were all wonderful & in high spirits. Their excitement was contagious. Most of them said they were so excited to be going to Hawaii after doing Alaskan cruises all summer.

 

Food

Food overall was very good. We thought with so many days we would get tired of the food in the dining room & try the steakhouse but we never even came close to that. Matter of fact I kept meaning to order things off the everyday menu & only did one time. They changed the menu every day & there was only one day we looked at the menu & thought ‘meh’ & decided to just do the lido deck. We ate in the dining room every night except that night & the night we were in Honolulu.

 

It had been a whole year since we were on the Miracle & I was starting to have 'ugly grape withdrawls'!

 

 

 

We had YTD & after the first night we found ‘our’ waitress Kristy (Kristianti from Indonesia) who anticipated our every wish & we requested her from then on. The morning after our first dinner with Kristy as our waitress we were getting breakfast on the Lido & I heard someone say Ms Juli. I had on a ball cap & glasses so I have no idea how she recognized me. She asked me where J.R. was & told me she just saw Lynn & Mitch around the corner. I was so impressed!!! My name on my card is Julianne & J.R.'s is John but she called us Juli & J.R.!!!

 

Pankaj was our assistant Maitre’ d & he was the most personable Maitre’ d we have ever had.

 

Hint...on the night they offer the corn chowder or the broccoli cheese soup order the corn chowder. I love Carnival's soups & I ordered the broccoli cheese but Kristi brought me the corn chowder too. As usual she was right. And the guys in our group will tell you to watch those things that have a heart beside them. :p More on that on Pirate night.

 

I was a 'little' disappointed that Bitter & Blanc was only on the menu one night. I LOVE it! But it was not to huge of a disappointment because there were plenty of desserts to choose from. I never did order the banana split off the kid's menu either like I usually do.

 

Brunch was served Sea Days 1 & 4 & on Sea Days 7 & 9 on the way back. I love the brunch & would not miss it!

 

Juli

[SadieN]

You didn't have brunch every sea day?

Does that mean that the Hawaii cruises have some sea days with separate breakfast and lunch menus?

 

We're sailing on the Miracle to Hawaii on Saturday. It would be great news if the steak salad was back.

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

We also enjoyed the Taste Bar on the nights they had it & the servers there were so nice & friendly. Made us want to come back every night to visit with them!

 

The Salad bar is always so good & fresh!

 

We tried the Quattro Fromaggi pizza for the first time & it is amazing. Thin crispy crust with 4 cheeses and a garlic sauce (rather than red tomato based sauce). We would get a few slices & sit on our balcony.

 

We always order room service a few times & eat on our balcony & I thought surely we would this time with so many sea days but we never did until one of the last days when I realized I had not had my BLT & chips & veggies & dip yet. It was so yummy! I am going to embarrass myself by posting a really horrible pic of me on our balcony with our room service order.

 

It was hard to find a table on the Lido deck a lot of times. Pet peeve. So many people take up a whole table reading a book or a couple playing a game. Please move when you see people scrambling trying to find a table while balancing a tray of food. There are a lot of places on the ship to read/play games.

 

I think it was one of our first cruises that we hardly ever saw our cabin steward, Gilbert. Our room was always clean & he provided the ice that I asked for on the 1st day but I bet we did not see him 3 or 4 times in 16 days. I did talk to one of his assistants one day. She was adorable & I asked her if she was excited to be going to Hawaii. She said she could not wait to get there. She said she & a lot of the others get seasick & have to take seasick pills so she was looking forward to docking after five sea days!

 

The lines to book a future cruise were insane & people were irate. It was absolutely ridiculous! We thought about booking a Jan/Feb & a Sept/Oct 2015 cruise but no way am I going on vacation to stand in craziness lines! I really wish Carnival would go back to the Future Cruise Certificates!

 

Michelle, the Naturalist, gave talks about Hawaii daily on the sea days switching to talks about Alaska the last day or two. If you miss her talks they are replayed on TV.

 

I am going to review the 1st five sea days next & then the islands & then the last five sea days.

 

Juli

[Jenny in TX]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to the rest!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Enjoying this review! I read another review of yours (I recognize you!) Not sure which one, but I found it very enjoyable. We had the bowling alley cabins on 2 of our Miracle cruises but on deck 8. Thanks for sharing this cruise with us and congratulations on your anniversary. Love your door decorations! ;):)

Thanks. I remember you too because you are always so positive! What a great trait! I wasn't quite ready to give up our door decorations so they are on my bedroom door now. :D

 

Doing the 15 day from LA in Jan 2016 in a corner suite on deck 7 to celebrate our 25th anniversary. Can't wait to read your whole review and hopefully get some great tips

Happy Anniversary! Hopefully you will get to see whales in January! Two tips...If you don't have anything booked in Hilo or Kona book with Mary Lou's Tours TODAY & do NOT book a rental car through Dollar in Waikiki! Lots of pics & info to follow.

 

I'd love to see pictures of the ship! I'll be on the Miracle in 5 weeks. Thanks for the review!

I do have a lot of pics of the ship that I can post at the end if you want. Some will be scattered throughout my review. I did a review of our Alaskan cruise last year & have tons of pics of 'our' Miracle in it & it really has not changed so I did not take as many as usual of the ship. Enjoy your trip.

 

Good info thanks:)

Thanks for reading along. :)

 

Aloha and Welcome Aboard! You guy's got on the ship just as we debarked from Alaska around an hour before (I'm still working on my review) and looking forward to yours!

Thanks for taking care of her for us! :D We did the roundtrip Miracle to Alaska last August. It was beautiful!

 

You didn't have brunch every sea day? Does that mean that the Hawaii cruises have some sea days with separate breakfast and lunch menus? We're sailing on the Miracle to Hawaii on Saturday. It would be great news if the steak salad was back.

Brunch was only served four times on Sea Days 1 & 4 & on Sea Days 7 & 9 on the way back .

The other sea days had the breakfast in the dining room from 7:30-9:30AM & lunch from 12-1:30PM.

The days in port breakfast was served in the dining room from 6:30-8:30AM. Lunch was just on the Lido.

Sorry I don't know if they had the steak salad but I don't recall seeing it & I love salads. It could have been on one of the two days we missed though.

Juli

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

The Welcome Aboard Show was the 1st night & Troy did a good job hosting it. There was only one show & it was at 10PM. Comedians John DiCrosta & Jodi White performed a small skit.

 

Sea Days...

 

The 1st sea day was BUSY! It was Talk Like a Pirate Day & we had our Cruise Critic roll call’s Cash Bar M&G. We had it in Frankenstein’s Nightclub from 2-3PM & Rose from Guest Services showed up to make sure everything was set up as we wanted.

 

Frankenstein’s has two levels & the downstairs is down a spiral staircase which was really not very good planning on Carnival’s part. It was hard for some people to get up & down the stairs & we had a couple of people that were not able to join in the LCR games or the M&G because of this. I wish I had thought about that earlier but our group was too large to fit in the upstairs part & I don’t know where else we could have met. I felt really bad though since I organized everything. I can’t even imagine how the bar wait staff must hate working Frankenstein’s & climbing those stairs with drinks all night.

 

Our M&G was well attended & Carnival gave us 4 bottles of champagne, 4 ships on a stick & 4 medals to give out as door prizes. It was great to connect with all the people we had been chatting with for months (& months) that we had not already met at the pre-cruise dinner or the sail away party.

 

Some of our group came in their pirate costumes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Time for some door prizes.

 

Such a cute pirate!

 

 

Somebody wanted a pic of all the 'Pirates'.

 

 

Edited October 14, 2014 by Cool Breeze Cruiser

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

J.R. was getting in to his character a little to much!

 

 

I don't know how the 'leg contest' came about! Maybe all the Kiss on the Lips & the Sex on the Beach we were drinking? :D

 

We had such a great time at the M&G & we loved getting to know everyone!

Juli

[silvercrikhix]

Thank you for sharing your Hawaii review!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

Our yummy Platinum plate of goodies.

 

September 19th is Talk Like a Pirate Day & I had read about all the activities planned for Carnival cruises on John Healds blog so I posted the info on our roll calls. Quite a few of us brought pirate costumes & we had sooo much fun being pirates!

 

Carnival did not do a very good job getting the word out about Pirate Day though & people were coming up to us all night & asking where we got our pirate costumes (like did we get them on-board) & how we knew to bring them.

 

They did not make a very big deal out of Pirate Day on our cruise either as I thought they would from Johns's blog. There were a few Pirate deck games on the Lido at 1:30PM but we had our Cash bar M&G at 2PM so we did not go. There was also a Pirate Duck Hunt where you were supposed to find all 12 ducks & turn in your answer sheets as to where you found them at the Fountainhead Cafe.

 

I really don't recall seeing pirate decorations around the ship except at the photo ops but our group had a great time anyway!!! I think we all had a little 'pirate' in us that night!

 

Our group of eight went to dinner in our pirate costumes & from that night forward we were 'the Pirates Aaaargh' to the hostesses & a lot of the other staff onboard & every night when we came in they said, "it is the Pirates aaargh'! I think they had a lot of fun with it too!

 

 

 

 

This is the 'heart' (healthy choice on the menu) dessert. J.R., Brian & Mike all ordered it thinking it was something else (Mitch was smart he ordered a 'real' dessert). They had to all get together & 'pose' for a picture with their fruity dessert.They had a lot of fun with it but they were very leery of ordering the 'heart' choices again!

 

The show in the Phantom Theatre that night was Manuel Zuniga, 'the world's fastest juggler'. He was very good!

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

The 2nd sea day was overcast, drizzly & a little chilly. We received our Platinum gift that day & it was the coffee mugs. I did something (or had J.R. do it) that I have never done before. We asked at Guest Services if we could swap them for something else preferably the Tervis Tumblers that we seem to miss out on every cruise lately. I felt bad asking because to me it is like looking a gift horse in the mouth but I don't drink coffee & the coffee mugs are not dishwasher safe or microwavable & I really wanted some Tervis Tumblers. Yes, I know I could have bought some in the gift shop but they are not the same ones as you get as a Platinum gift. A few days later they showed up in our cabin & I was so excited & we used them a lot the rest of the cruise!

 

The guys hung out in the sports bar for a while that day.

 

Tonight was Elegant Night. I love Elegant Night & seeing everybody all decked out! The 1st picture of the night had to be with our door sign!

 

Then we had our usual stair photo taken.

 

You know how sometimes you meet somebody & know you are going to be 'besties' for life. Lynn & I had been exchanging texts & emails for months & months making cruise plans. I LOVE Cruise Critic roll calls. I have met so many wonderful friends through our roll calls.

 

And luckily 'our guys' got along great too because the four of us were stuck together like glue all week.

[Cool Breeze Cruiser]

This is my adorable friend Rae. Rae & I had also been emailing each other about cruise plans for months & months. Rae introduced me to my new favorite drink(s). It is a toss up between the Tiramisu & the Chocolate Martini. The bartenders in the atrium lounge made the best martini's. Rae's special bartender even put her name on hers in chocolate. Can you believe that drink did not end up on my lap? They really fill them up!

 

'My little Rae' & her handsome husband 'the Captain' Lee. Lee is retired from the military & he looked so dashing in his uniform. We are so proud of him for serving our wonderful country!

 

Fuuny story... J.R. & I had pics made with Rae & Lee in the atrium & then Lynn & Mitch had pics made with the four of us. There were some ship's officers standing on the other side of the atrium & people were going up & talking to them & taking photos with them. Before long there was a line waiting to have their pic taken with 'the Captain' Lee! People were pushing their little kids up there to have a photo with him. lol.

 

We took pics of the four of us from the waist up. Guess who forgot their dress shoes at home? lol.

 

Then our dear friends Sam & Rose got together a special anniversary dinner for J.R. & I along with Lynn & Mitch & Barry & Jacqueline complete with wine, an anniversary cake & a memento photo for all of us. It was such a wonderful night & we were so grateful to be able to share it with such amazing friends!

 

 

 

The show in the Phantom Theatre that night was 'Generations' with the Carnival Miracle Dancers & the vocals of David Cope & Olivia Tenney with live music by JC & the Miracles. We did not got to the show but went to the comedy club & then to our fav hangout with Music Unlimited.