Carnival Miracle 3/21/15 Photo Review of First Post Drydock cruise

[cdamion]

Well, where to start. I will give you guys a quick review for those that don’t really care about photos and the day-to-day tales.

 

Embarkation:

 

I simply can’t stand embarkation in Long Beach. It remains the worst place to sail from. We had FTTF and got through security around 11. Once inside the dome, they crammed us together and we ended up waiting almost an hour inside before boarding. They should have just left us outside if the ship wasn’t ready. Keep in mind there was no previous cruise because this was post drydock, so there was not a problem with getting previous passengers off the ship, which is another painfully slow process.

 

Dining:

 

Main dining room food was good across the board. There were no misses with anything I ate. Service in the dining room was just great – which is what I expect from Carnival. I was disappointed a year ago on Victory, but this time it was back to being good. Carnival continues to have the best food.

 

The buffet food was ok. The buffet on the Miracle is great because it is rather large for the smaller number of people on board the Spirit Class ships and the several different food stations. I only ate breakfast and lunch in the buffet. I did go up one evening for dinner while we were in port, but the selection was terribly poor – to be fair, very few people were on board as we were in Puerto Vallarta overnight.

 

As far as lines, they were always present, but moved pretty quickly.

 

I did not try the steak house, although people raved about it.

 

Cabins: I was in Cabin 8120 on the port side just a few doors back from the bridge. Cabin was the same as every other balcony cabin on Carnival. Despite having a passenger deck above us, I think I only heard noise one time – and it wasn’t that loud – probably a kid stomping. Very easy access to the lido deck above. I honestly prefer the lower decks and easier access to the lower decks rather than lido and will stick with those in the future. It was a quiet hallway with not a lot of traffic.

 

Room steward was fine. He was friendly enough, but pretty quiet.

 

Gym: The gym was nice all new equipment during the dry dock. (disclaimer: I did not actually use any of the equipment)

 

Cruise Director/Entertainment: Butch Begovich. He was very friendly and seemed to be at a lot of the activities – if not running them he was present when his assistant did. I do not do a ton of the group activities. He did do every single deck party when I poked my head in.

 

This particular cruise we did not get the full entertainment experience. With the 2.0 upgrades Playlist productions is supposed to have 4 shows. They only had one on this sailing, which will be the case for the first 4 post-drydock cruises. The performers are learning and rolling out a new show each week. I forget the name of the show Piano Man or something. This show had sets and props and no LED screen. The performers were good. No show band anymore, which I missed – but to be fair the audio quality was just fine. There was no sign of Suess at Sea or Hasbro productions at all.

 

Instead of the production shows, there was a horrible comedy magician one night, a hypnotist another night, and a singer another night. I did not sit through more than the beginning of any of the shows.

 

Comedians – they were popular with lines to get in the venues. I do not watch them on the ships so I can’t judge.

 

Musicians – this is where I see Carnival’s cuts the most. Compared to any other cruise line – Carnival’s music selection is very slim pickings. There was a rock band that played in Red Frog. Other than that there was a couple that played latin music (nothing compared to Boleros on RCI) and a couple of singers that played guitar. No show band. No Reggae band. No other bands – just a shoestring budget of performers.

 

Casino: Once again I spent way too much time in the casino. I just did slots this time as I felt the table minimums were too high. The casino hosts were ok. I’ve definitely had friendlier and more professional.

 

Crew: The. Best. I. Have. Experienced. Ever. This crew was just amazing. I was worried that they would be tired or disorganized after a dry dock. Not at all. They were refreshed and simply the friendliest crew I’ve ever had on a cruise. There were some slight kinks after drydock and that seemed to be the catch phrase when they had to work around something. I don’t know that I will ever experience the level of friendliness that I did this time. It reminded me of the crew on my first cruise ever – back when they were better staffed and not spread so thin.

 

Also, the captain of the ship was VERY visible. I ended up chatting with him 3 different times throughout the cruise as he was hanging out in the evenings. Several officers hung out in the new venues, which was nice to see.

 

Ship: I just love the Spirit Class ships. They have the best passenger flow in the fleet and the ship never felt crowded once. If I was to complain about something it is that the main pool areas are too small. Never an issue finding deck chairs away from the main (loud) pool.

 

Serenity was nice at the aft of the ship. A little strange to have to enter from the buffet, but ok. I did eat lunch out at the tables there every day.

 

2.0 changes: The only 2.0 changes I saw were the addition of Red Frog, Alchemy, and Skydeck Sports Bar. All three are VERY attractive spaces. I was deeply disappointed they didn’t add Guy’s and didn’t think I would like the new bars. Wrong. I spent most of my bar time at Alchemy and Red Frog. Absolutely great concepts. I did not spend time in the sports bar, but it is definitely the best sports bar I have seen at sea (I have not been on another 2.0 ship). One thing is that the décor of these three venues does not fit in with the theme of the ship and they stand out as having a more sophisticated feel than the rest of the décor.

 

I really like the Miracle – it is my favorite ship now. There is really nothing to complain about at all. Carnival got it right with the Spirit Class. Add the fantastic crew and you’ve got a great cruise.

 

Now, for those that like photo reviews: stay tuned…

[cdamion]

For this cruise there were three of us: Myself and my two teen sons (15 and 16) sailing for their spring break. The last time we sailed together was 3 years ago on the Splendor on a similar itinerary.

 

As mentioned before, this was the first cruise after Miracle’s dry dock, which did have me a bit worried. The biggest impact was we did not get the full slate of entertainment with Playlist Productions. Nor was Suess at Sea or Hasbro available yet. Other than that, the public spaces for the most part were ready to go.

 

Sorry for the disjointed pics. I don’t have time to organize them by venue, so you are getting them chronologically.

 

DAY 0

 

We arrived in Long Beach at lunch time the day before the cruise and stayed over at Hotel Maya which is a nice property. One word of advice – get lunch elsewhere – the lunch there was very overpriced and not very good selection or quality. Other than that the property was nice with friendly staff.

 

At the end of the day we headed over near the port to watch the Inspiration take off. I always try to get to port early to watch the ships sail away.

 

 

 

 

 

After the Inspiration left we did some last minute shopping, returned the car at LAX, and took Uber back to the hotel.

 

For anybody looking for an easy way to get from near LAX to Long Beach without paying an arm and a leg, try Lyft or Uber. It was about $26 for the three of us which is way less than a cab and way quicker than a shared van.

 

Second note – call your bank before you leave – the hotel put a fairly large hold on my credit card and fraud protection blocked the card. I could not resolve it until they opened in the morning. Luckily I had a second card on me to use.

 

Finally we got back to the hotel and called it a night.

[cdamion]

DAY ONE - EMBARKATION

 

After what had seemed like forever it was finally time to head to the port to board.

 

I have said it before and will say it again, Carnival’s port at Long Beach is the worst embarkation experience of any other port Carnival uses. I don’t know why they can’t seem to get their act together. They have 3 cruises a week leave from here – it should not be this much of a pain.

 

We took the hotel’s free shuttle over to the port from the Hotel Maya , checked our bags rather quickly, checked in for the cruise instantly and got our sign and sail cards. We did have Faster to the Fun, so things went quick there. We had time before they started boarding so we headed over to the Starbucks on Queen Mary and relaxed for a little while.

 

We got back over to the ship to board and were towards the very front of the line to go through security, which again went pretty quick. Once inside the dome they jammed us in like sardines because they wanted as many people in as possible. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. We stood inside the dome packed in there for over 50 minutes before they started letting us board. Nobody said anything as to an ETA or why there was a delay, they just had us stand there. There were no debarking passengers because this was the first cruise after the dry dock. My complaints are that they shouldn’t have brought us in if the ship wasn’t ready and also they should not have told us to pack in tighter and tighter if they were just going to have us stand for an hour.

 

Finally they let us on board and we headed straight to our cabin to drop our bags. One note, it was slightly anticlimactic to board Miracle as we boarded into an elevator bank rather than the atrium like most other cruises, so no wow factor on walking in.

 

We headed directly to the cabin to drop our stuff off. It was a typical looking balcony cabin. It did not seem to be updated – nor did it need it at all.

 

 

 

[cdamion]

More pics:

 

 

 

[cdamion]

After dropping our stuff we headed straight to the buffet, which semi filled up while we were in the cabin. The layout of the buffet is good on the Miracle with several stations to spread people out. Also there was always plenty of seating. I was too hungry to take pics so we just ate – sorry no food porn pics in this review at all.

 

After lunch I headed back to Serenity to check it out only to find it was closed – the work in dry dock was not yet completed.

 

 

They were resurfacing the teak flooring:

 

 

I was getting worried that this would be one of those post dry dock cruises with construction workers running around and unopened venues (it wasn’t).

 

We wandered around the ship to check it out and took some pics along the way.

 

 

Nick and Nora’s is a really attractive space:

 

[cdamion]

Kiddie pool:

 

 

Never did try the water slide:

 

 

[cdamion]

While I like the Spirit class ships the best, the pool areas just feel small compared to the other ships. This being said, with the smaller passenger count they were never ridiculously crowded. Just crowded (not right at this moment).

 

 

 

 

[cdamion]

 

 

This picture does not do it justice, but due to the dock workers’ strike that was going on a few weeks ago in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, there was an incredible backlog of cargo ships to be unloaded. I believe the strike ended 3 weeks or more ago, but there are still many ships anchored offshore.

 

 

[cdamion]

After wandering outside we headed in to take a look at the inside. First stop was the brand new Alchemy bar on Deck 2 (more on this later).

 

 

Next we headed back to the main atrium which I was curious to see on Miracle:

 

 

Then the camera battery died.

[cdamion]

After charging the batteries I headed back out to wander around and snap pics.

 

I love that you can walk all the way around the outside of Miracle (inside in the front). Much nicer than the other ships that just have the deck to nowhere.

 

 

 

I always try to catch every sunset on my cruises and this one was no different. That is the Ruby Princess along side of us:

 

 

[cdamion]

After sunset I wandered inside to check out the new venues. First up was the Red Frog pub. I did not think I would like it at all, but the opposite is true – it is a fantastic concept. They really did a good job with the venue.

 

 

 

…and then the batteries died. Turns out the batteries I bought for the batteries are defective. Luckily I had a backup set, but they were not charged – so no more pics on day 1.

 

The rest of the evening was spent at dinner, then Alchemy, Red Frog, and Casino as the kids hung out in O2.

 

Stay tuned for Day 2...

[cdamion]

DAY TWO – SEA DAY

 

Woke up at the crack of 10am to see Ruby Princess along side still.

 

 

I love being able to head up above the bridge wings. We were on Deck 8 right behind the bridge, so it was an easy hop to get up there.

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2015 by cdamion

[cdamion]

We spent the day lounging around and hanging out. Serenity was open, but only one half of it, so it was pretty crowded. I didn’t bring the camera out until sunset, so no daytime pics.

 

 

 

The boys were excited to get dressed up for formal night:

 

 

Edited March 30, 2015 by cdamion

[cdamion]

Styling it up in the Red Frog Pub pre-dinner:

 

 

[cdamion]

After dinner I headed to Alchemy, another venue I was not excited about when I found out it was being added. Boy was I wrong. I LOVED Alchemy. My non-kid time was spent between Alchemy and Red Frog the entire cruise.

 

Two great bartenders… oops – mixologists… work there, Johana and Filip. They did a great job. This venue was very well done as well. Another winning concept!

 

 

 

 

[ParrotheadKev]

I was hoping that someone would post. We on on the Miracle in Oct 10. I am waiting the rest of your review. Once again Thank You

[cdamion]

Next I headed up to the piano bar, which has traditionally been one of the most popular venues on the ship. Not this time. It never filled up. Maybe because of Red Frog, or maybe because it is a little hidden on the Spirit class ships. I don’t know. It was a nice venue with a friendly piano player.

 

 

With no crowd, I decided to head back down to Red Frog.

 

 

 

[cdamion]

The bartenders take pictures of the patrons and they become part of a slideshow shown on the tvs in the bar.

 

 

They even snapped a shot of me:

 

 

After getting fame on the tv’s of the Red Frog, I headed next door to check out the sports bar – I didn’t spend any time here, but it is another very attractive venue. It is probably the best sports bar I have seen on any cruise line:

 

 

[cdamion]

Finally, I landed in the night club, which is pretty nice. It covers two decks with plenty of seating on the lower level where the dance floor is.

 

 

 

I did not mention, I did buy the cheers program, and came out ahead with it. Probably won’t ever purchase it again as it is tough to break even. I came out ahead today for sure.

 

After the night club I headed back to the cabin and had my nightly routine of getting a sandwich from room service. This ship had the fastest room service of any ship I've been on. I never waited more than 10 minutes for food.

 

Stay tuned for Day 3...

[TamaLee]

Finally a review. So very excited. Thank you for sharing!

[cdamion]

DAY THREE – SEA DAY 2

 

Woke up to hear the rooster crow at 10:30am and walked around the ship for a while before grabbing lunch up on Lido. I do like the décor of the buffet area.

 

 

 

 

[cdamion]

I decided the weather was too nice to eat indoors so I headed out to Serenity to eat at the outdoor tables.

 

Serenity was coming along. About 75% open today. Despite ¼ of it being closed off, there were still loungers available. Forget about the hammocks – chair hogs had those reserved all day long every day.

 

 

 

Right above serenity is the water slide, but I never heard any noise coming from it.

 

[cdamion]

After lunch I wandered the ship and took pics.

 

 

 

 

[cdamion]

 

 

On the way to Puerto Vallarta we passed about 4 miles offshore from Cabo:

 

 

I have to say I have never seen as much sea life as I did from this ship. There were tons of dolphins and whales visible frequently. I heard from others that they say stingrays and turtles as well. I tried to catch some of it, but I either didn't have the camera, or they were too quick. I do have a couple amazing whale pics later in the review.

[cdamion]

One venue that never really won me over is the dining room. I just could not enjoy the purple grapes and silver. It just didn’t do anything for me.

 

 

 

Directly forward of the Deck 2 entrance of the dining room is where Alchemy is. I just love the décor of this space.