Miracle 9/17 Review - very long

[kwb715]

This is kind of a long review. I tried to be thorough. If you have any questions about things I didn't cover, let me know. I posted this review in the "member reviews" area of the Miracle page as well. Overall, we had a great time. My husband and I are in our late 20s and went as a second honeymoon. I will try to hit on the high points and what we did each day. We were in an 8H cabin (8238), and we had the second seating in the dining room. Our room steward was John. We saw him several times a day, and he was very efficient in straightening our cabin, providing clean towels / beach towels, etc. Our servers were Alistair from South Africa and Jun from China. They were the most pleasant people! They were always helpful and smiling.

Sunday: Embarkation: We stayed at the Doubletree Westshore Saturday night because of their “park and cruise” package allowing us to leave our car and take a shuttle over to the port. While it was nice to not have to pay for parking like at the port, we didn’t think that security around their parking garage was what it should be. I guess you get what you pay for… We didn’t have any problems, though. We had no trouble getting a shuttle to the port, and after tipping a porter to take our bags, we were heading inside to get in line. Security moved quickly, and our line to the desk in the terminal was fairly short. We arrived at the port around 11:30, and we waited in line maybe 15 minutes. Once we had our sail and sign cards, we were given a group number so we sat to wait for our group to be called. When they called our group (20 minutes later), we were on the ship heading for the Lido deck in 5 minutes. It was a very organized and efficient process.

Sunday on the ship: We first hit the grill by the main pool for burgers and fries for lunch. We went back for these several times as we thought they were very good. Then, we took ourselves on a tour of the ship. After 1:30, we went to our cabin to unpack. There was PLENTY of storage room for the two of us (and, trust me, we took a lot of clothes). There was a closet for each of us to hang things, several drawers, and another closet with shelves for our folding clothes. I was so glad I took an over the door shoe hanger to hang on the bathroom door. There are shelves in the bathroom for all of your toiletries, but the hanger is perfect for all those little things that clutter your room up, like sunscreen, sunglasses, medicines, hairbrushes, etc. Anyway, after unpacking, we went to the deck for a “Funship special” drink and to get ready for sail-away. Since we had late dinner, we just enjoyed the view for a while and made sure to watch as went under the bridge leaving Tampa –VERY cool, by the way. Dinner was nice every night, and we were seating with three other couples our age (24 – 30). The “Welcome Aboard” show was pretty good. The singers and dancers were pretty high energy, and the first comedian, Thomas Brown was pretty darn funny.

Monday: Fun day at Sea #1 - We spent the morning by the pool. We went to the gym (pretty new equipment), ate breakfast, and made it out to the pool by 9:30. There were only 5 or 6 chairs taken when we got there, so we were able to park right by the pool. After lunch, we made sure to rest a little and went to the Newlywed and Not so Newlywed game in the afternoon. It was cute. We had to get ready early for dinner as it was formal night, and we had the captain’s cocktail party first. The line for the cocktail party was outrageously long, but it moved very quickly. The big draw, I guess, is the free drinks they serve. I found them to be very strong and not very tasty. Everyone I saw in the dining room was dressed appropriately, which kind of surprised me. The show was “Generations”, and while the singers were okay, the dancers were very good. We really wanted to go to the adult comedy show with the comedian we had seen the day before, but we were just too tired. Our tablemates at dinner went and thought he was very funny.

Tuesday: Grand Cayman – We didn’t book an excursion here. We got off the ship, hit two shops to buy t-shirts for our son, and caught a taxi to Sea Grape beach. It was a really beautiful beach, but they really had the chairs crammed right on top of each other. We met others who stopped here and just walked down the beach a little ways where it was less crowded. Sea Grape did have lockers, chairs, a bar, and some various water toys you can rent. We went to the newly opened Margaritaville for lunch. The burgers were GREAT, and the atmosphere was really fun. I would really recommend it. We had no trouble catching tenders to and from the ship. It was very easy. After dinner in the dining room, we went to the show for the evening. It was the Blues Brothers and comedian Michael Macy. The Blues Brothers weren’t one of my favorite acts, and the comedian was okay during this family show. We did stay up to see his adult show at midnight, and he was MUCH funnier then. We laughed so hard.

Wednesday: Cozumel – In Cozumel, we booked the Sail, Snorkel, and Beach Party excursion through Carnival. It was a blast! The snorkeling was okay, but we kept running into people. Once we got back onto our catamaran, they offered free margaritas and beer. We sailed for a while, went to a private beach with volleyball, floats, kayaks, and another bar, then sailed a while back to the dock. It was a beautiful beach, and we really had a lot of fun. I would do this excursion again. Afterwards, we shopped a little and ate lunch at a restaurant at the end of the shops. I can’t remember the name, but it was VERY good. The show on Wednesday was a variety show with a juggler and comedian Jeff Laub – SKIP IT!! The juggler kept dropping things, and we actually got up and walked out of this comedy show because it was so bad.

Thursday: Belize -- We didn’t book any shore excursions here, and we’d heard that if you don’t have a planned excursion - just stay on the ship. So, we did. It was really nice to have the ship almost to ourselves. We enjoyed time around the pool, found the arcade where we played air hockey, and went to the gym. One set of our tablemates went cave-tubing with Yhony. They said it was fun but not as great as they’d expected. Another set went on the canopy tour. They said most of it was waiting. There was a long bus ride and waiting to have your turn each time. In the end, we were glad we spent our time enjoying the ship here. We went to Nick and Nora’s for dinner this evening. It was INCREDIBLE. My husband had the porterhouse and said it was the best steak he’d ever eaten. I ordered the filet, and even though it was cooked a little more than I’d requested, it was still very good. The best part, though, was the chocolate trio dessert. If you go, save room for a large dessert. I didn’t, and I regretted it! This dessert was my favorite dish the whole trip. I would definitely say the experience was worth the extra charge. Thursday’s show was the hypnotist. It was funny, but we couldn’t decide if the people were actually hypnotized or not. I think some must have been and others definitely were not. Afterwards was the “Bathrobes and Beer” deck party. There were a lot of people out there and it was a little hot for bathrobes, but they seemed to be having fun.

Friday: Costa Maya – We scheduled the Uvero Boat Blast and Beach Trip. We had to ride a bus over to where the Uvero Beach Resort is located (the Jungle Beach Break is here also). It was about a 30 minute trip on a charter bus. The problem was that the road was only marginally wider than the bus. It got very exciting every time we passed another vehicle! We made it safely, though. The two-person speedboats we were given to drive were junk! Ours had a cracked hull and felt like it would fall apart every time we hit a wave. Since the water was very rough, that made for a bit of a scary ride. The gas tank was not attached to anything in the boat to hold it in place, so my husband had to drive the boat while trying to hold the gas tank in place in the nose of the boat with his foot. We drove out to a platform near the coral formations where we went on a snorkeling tour. The coral was pretty, but there were few fish out there and the water was very choppy. Then, we got back in our little boat to head back to the dock. If they were to get newer boats, this could be a really fun excursion. As it was, we felt like we got ripped off. The nice part of the excursion was that we got the amenities of the Jungle Beach Break afterwards. The beach was BEAUTIFUL! It really was a tropical paradise, and it had an open bar. We stayed for a couple of hours then returned to the dock area to shop a little. It was really nice to be able to walk right back on the ship instead of having to tender again. After dinner (the second, less-dressy, formal night), they had a Mardi gras parade, but we missed it because we were shopping in the gift shop. The main show was “Ticket to Ride” which was, I guess, a tribute to the Beatles. It was SO good! We’re not really big Beatles fans, but we had a great time at this show. Don’t miss it! The late night show was the adult hypnotism show. I have to say, I hope those people were hypnotized because there’s no way I could ever have done or said the things they did with a straight face (or in front of people)! It was kind of raunchy, but incredibly hilarious. There was a midnight Grand Gala Buffet this night. All of the food was set up very nicely, but we weren’t even hungry yet. Also, the food options were all very strange things. We did get a couple of desserts, though, since they looked so good. They offered plate covers so you could take your plate back to your cabin if you wanted.

Saturday: Fun day at Sea #2 - We were so exhausted from our vacation so far that we did very little this day. We slept in, went to the debarkation talk and hit the gym. The debarkation talk was informative and only lasted about 30 minutes. If you don’t go, you can watch it on the TV in your cabin anytime during the day, but make sure you see it. There was a chocolate buffet at lunch, but there really wasn’t much to it. The rum balls dipped under the chocolate fountain were to die for, though. We spent most of the afternoon packing (to get our bags outside of our door in time) and watching our team play football on TV. That evening after dinner was the Carnival Legends show featuring the people who’d won when auditioning at karaoke through the week. Most of them were just okay, but some were really good, and a couple were really awful. We went to bed right after this show as we had to get up early the next day.

Sunday: Debarkation - We got up early and got ready for the day. We went to Horatio’s for breakfast, and this was the only time during the week that the place was so packed it was hard to find a table. Afterward, we waited in our cabin until we had to be out at 9, and we moved to the fountainhead area to wait. They called for open debarkation around 9:15, so we went off the ship, found our luggage easily, and got a cab back to our car. I called the Doubletree for a shuttle to pick us up, but they said it would be 25 minutes before it arrived, and we were ready to hit the road.

Food: The food was really good. We ate in the dining room every night except the one we went to Nick and Nora’s. Our favorite food in the dining room was definitely the tiramisu. It was so much better than any I’ve ever had. We ate breakfast each day in Horatio’s. The omelets were our choice most days, and the hash browns were great, too. No complaints about the food at all.

Ship: The ship was so nice and clean. I thought it seemed a little smaller than I expected, but it was really eye-catching. I had read how gaudy the dining room lights were, but we really didn’t notice them after the first night. Now that they’re purple, you can tell they’re supposed to represent grapes. The Phantom lounge was the room I thought was tacky. There were WAY too many themes going on in there, but that was really irrelevant since most of the time it’s dark during the shows! Our cabin was spacious, and our balcony was so peaceful. The only problem we had was that the ship seemed to roll side to side terribly. We didn’t remember our first cruise being like that, but I heard others say this one wasn’t too bad. We did have to take sea-sickness meds several times because of all the motion, but it wasn’t enough to dampen our good time. I did hear a lot of jokes being made about how many pina coladas the driver had consumed!

Summary: We thought this was a great cruise. The ship is nice, the crew is so friendly, and the food was good. The ports were, for the most part, fun ones to visit. I would recommend it to anyone!

[pacerzfan]

Thanks for all the info kwb!

[lhall85917]

Thanks for your review! We are especially interested in information about the ship itself and its nice to hear that enjoyed it! :D

[Tater1800]

Nice review! We had a great time as well. I have to disagree with you concerning the juggler, however. Juggling is all timing and precision positioning. The rocking ship made his task very difficult. As to the hypnotist, we are in perfect agreement. Ebony and Todd, bless their hearts, will never be the same.

[cathyoo]

Great review, thanks for taking the time to share.

[cruisinsly]

Thanks for a great review.