Miracle 9/24 Review (Long!)

[Buzya]

Carnival Miracle September 24-October 2

Background: My wife and I have cruised 4 times previously, 3 with Carnival. For the first time, our daughters, 5 and 3, joined us.

Embarkation: Left home in Brooklyn at 10:30, and arrived at the pier at about 11. We were hustled to the second batch of people waiting, the first getting the seats. By 1 we were on the Miracle, by 2 in the stateroom.

Stateroom: Back in May, I booked an OV guaranty, and was assigned an 8H balcony about six weeks ago. The stateroom was quite large compared to past balcony staterooms, fitting 4 snugly but not uncomfortably. We were initially concerned about one of our daughters sleeping on the bed that comes out of the ceiling, but the concerns were completely unfounded. I was quite reassured to find that there was no possible way for either daughter to get on the balcony by themselves. The door required considerable force to open, and had two locks, one that was over six feet up. Also of note is despite our stateroom being right under the lido, there was no noise in the stateroom, even when music could be plainly heard from the balcony.

Dining:

Horatio’s (Lido Buffett): The Miracle has some work that must be done with Horatio’s. Horatio’s is designed with six stations (deli, Asian, grill, salad, dessert, and cuisine of the day), plus a pizza, burger and coffee shop. The way traffic was engineered, the buffet is a complete madhouse. All week, each station was mobbed with diners continually running into each other. In addition the floor tile in Horatio’s is very susceptible to slips when wet. My wife and I each slipped, and I counted three other slips. This is compounded by the staff simply not being responsive to spills, either from dripping from pool passengers, or spilled drinks. The quality of the food was average for a buffet, with breakfast exactly as expected, and lunch below average. However, dessert gets high mark, far better than on previous Carnival cruises.

Bacchus (Main Dining Room): Due to the kids, my wife and I had our first early seating dinner time. Not surprisingly, the passengers were mostly young families and seniors. For the first few days of the cruise, our waiter and assistant waiter were not up to the standards we set for the wait staff. Our waiter did not make any effort to learn our names, or our preferences for dinner. Each night we had to request coloring books for the kids, water with lemon, and milk for the kids. The waiter routinely muffed orders, most notably where we requested changes to menu items like different sides. Only on the San Juan day, when most of the passengers were ashore, did we receive more personal service. The rest of the cruise, our waiter was considerably better. The food in Bacchus was a mixed bag. Appetizers were mostly disappointing, with the soups being either overwhelmed by broth or by spices. The first night I ordered the Caesar salad and was overwhelmed by the anchovies, and ordered other salads the rest of the cruise. Several of the entrees were quite good, such as pork chops and veal. Past experience has taught me to order beef rarer than I intend, as the kitchen always overcooks the meat. My wife ordered a sirloin rare and received it medium well, and the waiter was thunderstruck when she sent it back. Desserts were disappointing compared to Horatio’s. Many of the desserts were too heavy, with a puzzling reliance on chocolate ganache.

Nick and Nora’s (Supper Club): I can not recommend Nick and Nora’s more highly. We ate there the second sea day, and there were maybe ten other couples eating. The sun set right into the skylights, and was quite romantic. Our staff struck the perfect balance between attentiveness and hovering. One concern I had based on past feedback was that the sommelier would push certain more expensive wines, but our sommelier was quite happy with our selection of a $40 Shiraz. I ordered a porterhouse and it was prepared perfectly, with and excellent creamed spinach and wasabi mash. My wife ordered the surf and turf and was quite happy with the filet mignon, but not with the lobster tail, but she is an admitted lobster snob. For dessert, I ordered an apple tart that was quite good, but the chocolate sampler my wife ordered was simply too rich. The entire dinner lasted almost three hours, and we never felt rushed.

Camp Carnival:

Without fear of hyperbole, I can say Camp Carnival exceeded all expectations. Not unexpectedly due to the time of year, there were only 85 children under 14 on board, of that there were about 15 children in my daughter’s age group. Registration was the first night, and the girls previewed the camp and I received a cordless phone. The phone worked fine on board, but it was made clear that it would not work offshore. The girls loved going to camp, and hated leaving it each time. Their activities ranged from free play to face painting and building a volcano. The girls made many friends, and played with them out of camp at the pool. The counselors were very friendly, and all knew our girls by name. Originally we were not planning to leave the girls in camp while we went ashore, but after a few days, we were comfortable enough to leave them while we spend an afternoon in St. Thomas. Most nights, the girls ate with us in the dining room, as we simply did not want them eating hamburgers and chicken nuggets in the camp dinner. My only negative was the aggressive way the Carnival “build a bear” was pushed. The first night all the bears were laid our like catnip for the kids, and each day, while camp was closed for lunch, the counselors set up a build a bear station at the pool.

Ports:

San Juan: This was a tough port for the girls since the ship was in port from 3 to midnight, and none of the excursions were for children. We ended up walking around the old city for two hours.

St. Thomas: On recommendations, we bypassed the ship’s excursions and took a taxi to Sapphire beach. The fare was $10/pp each way. Sapphire is a lovely beach with stunning views, and when we arrived at 10am, it was nearly empty. The shady part of the beach had very rocky surf, so we needed to go to the sunny part to go into the water. There were plenty of facilities, and we arranged for our cab driver to pick us up at noon. Compare this to the ship’s Meagan’s Bay beach excursion, which was $35/pp and other passengers noted the beach was packed. After lunch, with the girls happily in camp, my wife and I went to Paradise Point for the stunning views. Afterward it was time for a liquor run, we spent $85 for liquor that would have cost over $150 in Brooklyn.

Tortola: We were strongly advised not to take the Bath’s excursion due to our 3 year-old, and instead took a Cane Bay/Sightseeing excursion. The views in Tortola were stunning, and Cane Bay was a surprise. Despite being more crowded, the beach was nearly as nice as Trunk Bay on St. John. The sand was very soft and the surf is framed by the landscape. The beach did not have any facilities, however. We were 20 minutes late leaving due to a pair of passengers not telling the tour that they were heading back on their own. There is nothing else to do in Tortola (there is a strip of local merchants lining the route out of the pier), and we headed back to the boat.

Activities:

Pool: I was very happy with the pools on the Miracle. The kid’s pool is a joke, it’s nothing more than an inflatable wading pool, but the two “family” pools were about 20x8 and 54 inches deep. The pools are bordered by a sizable splashing area with fountains. The girls were happy swimming here, and there was never any crowding with other passengers.

Water slide: A very nice water slide, but was closed a couple of days due to high winds. The slide never had a long line.

Mini golf: I was surprised with the quality of the 8-hole course; it’s on par with most tourist mini golf. However, it got quite tough with the high winds and the ship’s rocking.

Gym: Not a lot of cardio equipment here, about a dozen treadmills and a couple of elipitcals and stair climbers.

Casino: Blackjack dealers were very friendly, and took the time to explain the game to newbies (I’ve been playing blackjack for 15 years). There were non-smoking tables. A version of “Fun” blackjack was offered with player 21’s and blackjacks automatically paid out, and I cleaned up on that.

Sports bar: My biggest gripe was that it was impossible to get ESPN anywhere on the boat, except on Saturday. The rest of the cruise, a hockey special was shown on continual loop in bar. The manager explained that he could not change the channel, as there was a sizeable French Canadian group, and this was done for them-Idiotic. My suspicion is that this is Carnival’s way to force you to use the internet café.

Organized activities: My wife has no idea where to put them, but I won three ships on sticks for trivia contests. I was quite happy to see the return of the “Jeopardy” podiums in addition to pen-and-paper contests. In addition there were interactive contests that used video.

Shows: We attended a couple of shows, including an amusingly lame hypnotist, and a couple of well-executed production shows. The Beatles tribute was very well done. However the best show was the Village Idiots juggling show, which had the whole audience in stitches.

Social Hosts: Overall a mixed bag, since I grade my CD and hosts on the John Heald curve. The CD Lenny was nothing special, though I liked his assistant much more than my wife. One of the hosts, “Beef” was quite bad, while “Fuzzy” was ok, but “Pee-Wee” has the cruise rolling the whole week.

Other passengers: Nothing too horrible, not many kids and almost no college aged kids. As stated earlier, lots of French Canadians, so much that the hosts were giving bingo instructions in French as well as English. A few issues with people cutting in lines, but no problems in the pool or deck chairs. Smokers were not an issue; I never really smelled smoke unless I was on the port (smoking) side or in the casino.

Weather: A little rain the second sea day and a little in St. Thomas, but that was it. The big weather issue was a cold front the last sea day that caused 10-20 foot waves as well as 50 mph winds. This kept the ship bouncing around like a cork for a full day. As a result, the ship had to slow down, and even then all outside areas were closed off, and the inside was lined with barf bags. Thankfully, this did not bother anyone in my family, but I saw one man with six motion sickness patches. Due to the weather, we arrived several hours late into New York (I’m actually typing this waiting for debarkation at 11:30.)

Overall, this was an enjoyable cruise, especially for our kids. Until Horatio’s is fixed, we will probably sail on other Carnival cruises though.

[Bob and Linda]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review. We'll be sailing on the Miracle in January.

[Sandi149]

Thanks for your review....very detailed and balanced. We sailed on the Miracle this past June and had a great time. I have to agree with your wife about the lobster in the supper club. I loved everything I had there except that. Mine was way too salty and I am also a lobster snob. I'm used to having Maine lobsters. :p

[Anonymous Number]

Very good read. Thank you.

[TYSMOM]

Very good review- I was just off the Miracle week prior to your cruise- I wasnt extremely please with my cruise!!!! Glad you enjoyed your cruise!

[2206]

When you bought liquor in St. Thomas, did they allow you to take it right back on the ship?

[Buzya]

We carried the liquor to the ship, and it was taken on the gangway. We got it back the last night.

 

When you bought liquor in St. Thomas, did they allow you to take it right back on the ship?

[rebeljohn]

Nice review.................Thanks for posting it..............