Miracle review 8/20

[Fairyduster]

I've never written a review before, but since I got so much help from the people on Cruise Critic I figured I owed a review back. My friend and I went on the 8/20 sailing of the Miracle. We're both single and in our 20's.

 

Ship-I thought the ship was beautiful. I know that a lot of people who think it's a little much, but I didn't think so. The dining room wasn't a problem and maybe that's because the changed the lights a couple of weeks ago. Also, we had a booth right by the doors so we consumed by the decor. We stayed in cabin 4237 with a wraparound balcony on the aft. The balcony was definitely great, but we didn't spend a great deal of time on it. I loved the room. The fact it was broken off into 3 sections was great. LOVED the dressing area.

 

Food- The food on the ship was great. The buffet just tasted like a normal buffet nothing special. The food in the dining room was terrific. I especially loved the desserts. We sat at the same table with two sisters in their 20's and they were cool. We had a couple problems with service with the 2nd waiter and the drink water, but they were ironed out after a couple of days. We went to Nick and Nora's one night and I highly recommend it. The food was great, the service was great and they had perhaps the best chocolate dessert I've ever had. If you're going on Miracle it's definitely worth going there one night.

 

Spa- We went to the spa twice. We had manicures done by Fawn. Really sweet girl she told us to come by later in the week so she could retouch our nails. We took her up on that, but after one day back at work they're already destroyed! I wasn't so impressed by the facial I got. It was definitely relaxing, but my skin felt really greasy afterwards. My friends was much better and didn't have the same feeling that mine gave me.

 

Shows-Ticket to Ride and the Legends show were good. One of the people singing in the Legends show was actually an opera singer in NY. He put the Miracle singers to shame. We saw the hypnotist and the R rated comic. Both we decent. The last night the R rated show was some of the crew members doing a improv show. That wasn't so good. I thought it was filled with in jokes and was sort of like the popular kids getting together and deciding to put on a show.

 

Activities/Service-The service was pretty great for the most part. Our room steward was attentive, but I found him to be WAY too touchy felly. It was getting to the point where I was getting really annoyed by it. We would actually look out the peep hole and if he was there we'd wait until he went into a room and book down the other hallway. He was just way too much for me. This really doesn't fall under service, but the only complaint I would have with the activities on the ship was that most of the trivia games took place when we were in the ports. There wasn't anything going on at night. I love trivia so that sort of sucked. Also, what people say about Miracle being a "quiet" ship is definitely true. I don't have anything to compare it too, but that definitely seemed to be the case. We had trouble finding stuff to do late at night. If you need a drink and don't ever feel like waiting go to the sports bar. There was never anyone in there.

 

Ports:

 

Grand Cayman-We took Nativeways Reef, Rays and Rum Point tour. I had never snorkeled before and I don't plan on doing it again. I didn't like it at all. Not my thing. The stingrays were great. I'd highly recommend that. While it didn't out and out rain it was a bit of an overcast day. There is still damage from the hurricane and construction everywhere.

 

Counsel-Our dolphin swim was in the middle of the day so we spent the morning and Paradise Beach. A lovely beach. Nice service. I did parasailing. I'm glad I did it, but I'm not doing it again. Definitely not good for my fear of heights! The dolphin swim was great and after that we headed to Mr Anchors. I loved that beach too. It had more shops and I liked the decor of the bar area. I know it lost a lot of beach after the hurricane. We only got something to eat there and didn't sit out. I'd happily recommend either beach to anyone.

 

Belize-Out of all the ports we probably had the most fun here. We did the cavetubing and zip lining with Nacho. I'm glad we got to do both. The resort we were at was lovely and the cavetubing was amazing. I actually was pretty ambivalent about it going in too. In all fairness our friends who went through the ship enjoyed their cavetubing experience too. We both had the same complaint though. The cavetubing.com people were pretty loud and obnoxious. The people who used them enjoyed it. We heard them talking about it the next day. However, it's hard to enjoy the natural wonder of a cave when you have people behind you chanting every five minutes. Our friends on the ship tour also complained that while they were walking on the path the cavetubing.com were running by them and them heard people in that group complaining about being left behind. How many times are you going to be in a jungle? Why would you want to run through it as opposed to enjoying it? My guess is that wanted to get into the water to "beat" the larger groups. It was just me and my friend with one guide. Sometimes we were alone in the river and others we were surrounded by people. Neither took away from the experience. Now I know there are people here who rave about cavetubing.com, but from my POV the behavior was obnoxious. We tried to do a little shopping back at the port. The stuff wasn't that great and they were extremely aggressive. A little boy came up to me and asked for money. I gave it to him and seemed to open the floodgates. I was surrounded by kids. At that point we just went back to the ship.

 

Costa Maya-Definitely the prettiest port. We did the David and Ivan tour. It was good, but not exactly what everyone has been raving about it. I'd recommend them though. Afterwards we went to the Cat's Meow and got something to eat. The water there was perhaps the nicest water I've ever seen and so warm!

 

Wrap-up-Overall had a good time on the trip. The Miracle is definitely the type of ship you want if you are looking for a more low key time. The ports and the activities you could do at them were pretty great. I don't know if I'm going to become a cruise "addict", but I'm defiantly consider going on a cruise again. If just for the food! Thank you everyone for all you help in planning my trip!

[sarasotasteve]

How was the Cruise Director?

What was the Chocolate Dessert you liked so much? Was it available only at Nick & Noras ?

What were the other desserts you enjoyed? Thanks sb

[Fairyduster]

How was the Cruise Director?

What was the Chocolate Dessert you liked so much? Was it available only at Nick & Noras ?

What were the other desserts you enjoyed? Thanks sb

 

I am completely blacking on the CD's name right now. I have nothing to compare him to, but he seemed pretty good.

I have a major sweet tooth and will eat anything with chocolate in it. (Unless it includes coffee) I don't really remember the name of the dessert at the supper club. It's the only chocolate one on the menu. It's one of those fancy desserts where they actually bring you 3 mini desserts. One of them was tiramisu. I actually don't like that but the other two completely made up for it. The best dessert I had in the dining room was a chocolate/vanilla pudding in a souffle. The only thing I say stay away from was a caramelized banana dessert. The girl at the table with me hated it. I took a bite and agreed.

[Caliber1]

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. We had that same cabin back in May and loved it. We did spend quite a bit of time on the balcony. Was the para-sailing at Paradise beach? It was raining the day we were in Coz so we never left the port area. Thanks for the review.

 

Jess

[kelleyk]

the CD is Chris Roberts. I was on the same cruise.

Our third cruise, our first with our 2 year old. She had an awesome time also. GREAT CRUISE!

 

kk

[cruisinsly]

Great review. I cant wait to go in November.

[christ89]

This really doesn't fall under service, but the only complaint I would have with the activities on the ship was that most of the trivia games took place when we were in the ports. There wasn't anything going on at night. I love trivia so that sort of sucked. Also, what people say about Miracle being a "quiet" ship is definitely true. I don't have anything to compare it too, but that definitely seemed to be the case. We had trouble finding stuff to do late at night. If you need a drink and don't ever feel like waiting go to the sports bar. There was never anyone in there.

 

I don't know if I'm going to become a cruise "addict", but I'm defiantly consider going on a cruise again. If just for the food! Thank you everyone for all you help in planning my trip!

 

I was going to write a review from my 8/9 Miracle cruise but I didn't want to be negative and couldn't quite put my finger on the overall feeling of my cruise. This sums it up very well. The ship was REAL quite, I saw NO ONE in the sports bar in the 7 days we were on the ship. No outside party atmosphere at night, and very little in the activity department. One day I was bored enough to watch casablanca with about 25 other people. It just seemed strange not to have anything to do on vacation. If I go again it will be for a 3 or 4 day cruise only.

[Changes_In_Lattitudes]

Nice review - a lot of similarities with what I experienced. I was one of the ones from cavetubing.com, from the Miracle, same cruise, and I had that thought in the back of my head as well. We were flying up the trails and some were lagging. I didn't mind personally as it was the only exercise I had received, but I felt bad for others. We also had similar thoughts about the cruises "mood" - very laid back and when we tried to "get involved in the nightlife", all but 1 night brought us back to our room by 11:30 at the latest. Overall though, we enjoyed it as well.

[marvleaves]

i have to disagree that there was nothing to do at night.. some nights were more low key than others, but everynight there always people out and about.. i definitly wish i got more sleep than i did

[Fairyduster]

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. We had that same cabin back in May and loved it. We did spend quite a bit of time on the balcony. Was the para-sailing at Paradise beach? It was raining the day we were in Coz so we never left the port area. Thanks for the review.

 

Jess

 

The parasailing was at Paradise Beach, but Mr Sanchos offered it too. It seemed to me most of the beaches had it.

[kaperino]

We sailed in July with two 17 year olds and all of us had a great time. One boy was on his tenth cruise and felt this trip was the best! We did not party with a lot of cruisers but enjoyed ourselves a lot! Not that we are not social. We are very social people. Everyone on the ship, crew and cruisers were the best. It was just not a nightclub atmosphere at night. Maybe beacause you take in four ports? We went tubing with Carnival lines as we were unsure of a guarentee to arrive at the ship by sail time! So we paid more, but we had a great tube experience. Maybe a thirty minute walk thru the rainforest. It is a journey for some. We enjoyed the exercise. Bring bug spray! We did not, so a few of us were bitten and they leave ugly marks! The caves were awesome! Our guide was fun, but the food at the end is not what we thought. We had an open air meal of chicken and rice that was buffet and higly suspect! HA! The boys enjoyed it. The Dolphin encounter at Costa Maya is the bomb! We went to the new beach there and enjoyed drinks on the beach, Ate a simple concession type lunch there. COzumel we had lunch at La Mission after snrorkl trip. That was a scruptious Mexican lunch. Just a great time in total.

[mnsawyer]

Why does the Miracle consistently have reviewes that the ship is "quiet." Is it because it sails out of Tampa? We sailed the Glory a year ago April and loved it. It was busy at night but we are not night owls anymore. The itinerary sounds wonderful and are thinking about it for next March. Is age group of the cruisers an issue? We never saw so many middle age (yes, we are getting there) and older cruisers on the Glory but it still was a very fun and lively atmosphere. Lots of cheering, etc., at dinner as well as the shows at night.

[pacerzfan]

Thanks everyone for all the info on the Miracle.

[CruiserErin]

Great review! I also agree with you about the cavetubing.com people! We were trying to enjoy the caves, and they were screaming. CAVETUBING.COM. It got really annoying. I guess each to their own.

[Fairyduster]

http://community.webshots.com/user/JustJessi1

 

I've started to put up my pictures from the trip. I had 3 waterproof cameras that I was waiting on from Walgreens. I go to pick them up today and they've lost one! The cavetubing pictures are gone. I have no idea how this happened considering they were done instore. The guy said he would check tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath.