Miracle Review Ready 5/9/08-5/17/08

[mprucha]

Ok all, down below is my VERY LONG review of our latest Miracle trip! It’ll be in parts. We are currently updating our cruise website to include pictures, videos, this years capers, more tips. We adding a “questions and answers” section which will be in categories. This will be helpful for people looking for answers. Also, we’ve been asked to place a section for new cruisers so we’re working on that. As usual, our tips and packing lists will still be there and are being updated. We’re adding a whole section showing examples of various photo stations on the ship.

We’re hoping to have this all done in a few weeks and I’ll post when it’s done just like last year so for now,

ENJOY THE MIRACLE REVIEW!!

Anne

[mprucha]

Miracle Review 5/9/08-5/17/08

Ok all, as usual this will be a long review so I’m posting it in multiple parts. This review will be slightly different from others I’ve done since we opted for a more laid back, relaxing, less scheduled days on this cruise.

 

Embarkation

We flew to NY on a direct flight with no problems and had a car and driver waiting for us on the ground so we were able to go straight from the airport to the pier. We got there about 10:30, they were right there to take our luggage.

 

I heard some complaints about embarkation from people who hadn’t gone out of NY before BUT I’ll tell you it was a big improvement on last year. The VIP section is still up front and not really what people expect but the people running things had a better grasp of where they should send people and preventing people from jumping lines, etc. The ship was late getting those before us off the ship so people were straggling out for quite some time. It was as organized as any of these things tend to be. They had added more chairs, more employees from NY and more computers to get people checked in. They had also worked out their issue with having you fill out the same documents at the pier that you had already completed with your funpass so that sped things up considerably. We had 3 huge wedding parties plus a couple of large groups including a “touring” TA group that was only there to tour the ship before getting off so even if you were VIP you had to wait for them all to get on.

 

One improvement would be if they had big signs in appropriate places so people would know where to go at the beginning instead of having to ask, etc. Even with the last passengers debarking late, we were onboard and having lunch by 12:15. They had changed the time to get into rooms until 2pm so we had a nice relaxing lunch at Horatio’s, double checked our Nick and Nora’s reservations we had made online which were perfect and then headed to our room.

 

Cabin 8273, category 11, aft wraparound

There is nothing more that I can say about this cabin other than perfection! OMG! The view from this enormous balcony was amazing! I’ll be posting tons of pictures of it and even a narrated video of both the cabin and balcony as soon as I can get everything done I’m working on from this cruise for our cruise website so I’ll let you know. It’s divided into areas. It has a living room area, a separate bedroom, a vanity room area, walk in closet and bathroom. Our deck had 3 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a table on it already but you could easily put 5 or 6 lounge chairs out there with no problem. We were on the 8th deck so our deck only had total shade on the left wrap part. The larger section facing aft had a smaller overhang making it hard to be out there in the rain unless you’re sitting in chairs on the side that ‘s totally covered but great for laying out in the sun. Looking straight down from our deck, you have the slant of the ship but you can only see those on other decks beneath you IF they are leaning on their railing looking out. You can not see the balcony itself. The dividers are the frosted plexi-glass dividers and there’s large lights on these balconies for sitting out at night.

 

The bathroom has the double sinks, Jacuzzi tub with detachable shower head. There’s 4 shelves on either end of the sinks and to doors, one under each sink area with 2 shelves. There are hooks on the back of the door for bathrobes, etc. Yes, there’s shampoo and liquid body wash in dispensers in the tub area. They provide the little bowel with complimentary items in the bathroom but we don’t use them since I bring things. Items such as razors, tide pen, etc. On the wall is also a 2 way pull out make up mirror.

 

There are 2 tvs and 2 vcrs in this cabin, one in the bedroom and one in the living room area as well as 2 phones. The bedroom has the 2 twin beds which make into a queen with that great bedding, a chair and a dresser with 4 drawers. Over the dresser is the area with a door behind which is the safe. There is also a lamp on either side of the bed on a bedside table which also has 3 smaller drawers in them. The area under the bed will handle 4 large suitcases easily and even more if they fit inside each other. The extra chair is in the corner and the room has 3 large windows from the floor to the ceiling that look out on the deck and the ocean.

 

The walk in closet area has a 6-7 foot area for hanging clothes with plenty of hangers. On top of this area is a shelf the same length 18 inches high by approximately 2 feet high where the life belts are but if you push those to the back of that area you have a huge shelf area. Under this hanging area is more space for shoes, gear, whatever. Then, also in this closet is another area that has 4 large, deep shelves each about 2 feet tall by 2 deep by 2 wide when lots of clothes can be placed OR the shelves will fold up and then there’s a bar at the top for even more hanging clothes.

 

The living room has the sofa which had drawers under it (2), a side table with a lamp. This side table has 2 shelves inside a door and theres another on the other side of the sofa with the same. The bar area is on the wall with an area with bar glasses and space for your own cups, etc you may have. Behind it is a glass mirror. There’s also a desk area with your ice bucket, mini fridge, phone on it. There’s also a coffee table. This room has 2 large floor to ceiling windows with those beautiful views plus a small hallway connecting the living area to the bedroom where the door to the balcony is.

 

The vanity area has a large 3 way mirror and vanity desk area with 4 drawers. The mirror is lighted completed around. One of these drawers is where you find your hair dryer.

[mprucha]

Muster drill

Because it was raining all day on embarkation day, muster drill was held in the baccus dining room. It was the fastest, easiest muster drill in the history. They announced where each station would meet, you went to your area and we were out under 10 minutes.

Sailaway Day

Sailaway was rainy so the outside events couldn’t be done but people seemed to get plenty of pictures from the Horatios area and from balconies and from windows in other areas of the ship. As usual though, sailing away from NY is amazing. We relaxed in our room, our luggage was there by 4pm, we unpacked, watched sailaway and enjoyed the amazing view. The ocean on both days 1 and 2 was very rough for many people and not only many passengers but many staff were seasick. Luckily neither Mike or I get sick but I always bring things just in case. Angelito was our steward and he was fantastic. As usual, we tipped him on day one when he came in, introduced himself, explained his schedule, asked us any special needs we had or wanted and we signed saying he had taken the time to do this introduction. Throughout the week, I left him little notes and we never had to ask for anything. Everything was just the way we loved it. We got ready for our first dinner in the dining room, had a few pictures made and then at 8:15 (late seating) headed for table 206, a table for 4 although no one was assigned to be with us. 2 days later we had a wonderful couple we met at our meet and greet join us for dinner for the rest of the week which made dinner time really fun! THANK YOU ANN AND LEE!! Our waiter was Christopher and our assistant waiter was Dewi and they were both fantastic! De was sweet and beautiful and they worked very well as a team. Christopher had a funny, wild streak through him although extremely professional at his job. They both spent time talking to us and we enjoyed being at their table. The waiters sang and danced 3 different nights and while I know there are some people who don’t like it (and you can tell who they are by the looks on their faces in the dining room while it’s happening), we thought it was fun which is what vacation is about. It wasn’t intrusive to dinner. It was at the very end of dinner and dessert unless you came in late and it only lasted 5 minutes at the very longest. After dinner, we walked around enjoying getting reacquainted with the ship, listened to a little music and spent time out on our balcony listening to the water.

1st Sea Day

We love sea days so waking up with the sound of the water was beautiful. We ordered room service for breakfast and took it out on our balcony to eat it. I took pictures of the room service menus, bar prices, etc that everyone is interested on and it will be on our cruise website soon. We enjoyed our first morning on this beautiful ship. The water was still really rough so the decks were still less crowded with people trying to get their bearings about them. At 12:00 we went to our roll calls meet & greet and we had a fantastic turn out. Over the course of an hour and half we had about 30-35 people with us and everyone had a blast. We used mardi gras beads to recognize each other although many of us had already met earlier. We had a couple of drinks and a lot of great conversation and laughs. We then had lunch at Horatios and met Lee & Ann for tea time. We always love tea time and had our tea and pastries and we love classical music. We do always find it distractive to have tea time in Jeeves Lounge because there’s a public walkway in the middle of tea time. The grand piano and other musicians are on one side of the room and the chairs and tea time guests on the other with the walkway in the middle. So the whole time you’re enjoying tea and listening to these wonderful musicians you’re constantly having tons of other people walking in front of you on their way to whatever else. The mad hatter’s room would be a better choice or somewhere like it that was more isolated. After tea time, we invited Lee & Ann to spend some time on our balcony with us and have a drink so we spent about 2 hours laughing over many things before getting ready for the 1st formal night.

I was impressed that so many of the people attending formal night dressed so nicely. I’ve never been one to judge what others wore and I’m not now but I saw so many people looking very nice and wanted to let them know so. We had pictures made at some of the stations one of which turned out so well that we had it made into a canvas which is something I didn’t think I’d ever do because I usually don’t like pictures of myself. This was the first night of singing waiters. When we went back to our cabin to change after dinner our capers were there and YES, our first towel animal of the week….a lobster! We spent the rest of the evening walking around the ship and then back on our deck for late night drinks.

2nd Sea Day (Mother’s Day)

Again, we had breakfast on deck while watching the water with coffee. We talked for awhile and of course called both moms plus my grown kids. The weather had turned beautiful, hot & sunny so we decided to lay out in the sun on our deck to get the start of our tan. We took drinks, mp3 players, suntan lotion and books and spent the next 2 hours having a blast! They did several mother’s day special events including having any mother that wanted to meet in the lobby atrium and take a large group photo which was then for sail. The picture turned out very nice and had a large number of people turn out. There were also carnations given out and ice sculptures.

This day we again had lunch at Horatios and decided to schedule a spa treatment apiece for later in the week. The spa staff was very helpful and had appts available for any day. After that we relaxed in the cabin and on our deck before dinner in the dining room. Tonight is the night that Lee & Ann switched to our table and began some great conversations over dinners. One of the new events this year was an 80’s party which was a blast and completely packed. It was held in Dr. Frankensteins Lab and was packed upstairs and down. There were contests like the girls with biggest hair and guys dancing like Michael Jackson and the dance floor was covered until about 1am when they changed to current music and lost about ¾ of their people to other places.

We decided we were ready for bed and went to the cabin to our next towel animal, a scorpion!

San Juan

Yes, once again we decided to have breakfast on our deck but this time went up to Horatio’s and brought it back. Since we don’t get in to San Juan til 3 we lay out on our deck for awhile again and then have lunch before we prepare for San Juan. The Liberty of the Sea from RC came in while we were there so we got some great pictures of her as well. We took pictures as we came into port and went into town. We had decided we wanted to do our own thing in San Juan so we did some shopping for people back home and took some beautiful pictures of the forts. Even though we only spent 4 ½ hours in town, we decided to have dinner onboard so we headed back to the ship and had dinner in the dining room. Luckily our friends did the same thing. Then of course tonight is the Lido deck party so after dinner we got ready and headed to the Lido deck for music, dancing and games and to watch sail away from San Juan. Josh was the assistant cruise director on the Miracle now and he’s really funny and full of energy. He handled the Lido deck party and he cracked us up. Went to bed around 2am since we had early plans for St. Thomas!

[mprucha]

St. Thomas

So even though we had a late night, we were up at 5:45am because I love to photograph different areas from different points so I wanted to get St. Thomas pictures from our balcony. We ordered room service and again ate on the deck. We were planning on doing the Captain Nautica snorkeling tour and had to meet them at 8am on the pier so I spent time getting ready and got as many pictures as we could. This snorkeling tour took you to 2 different snorkeling spots. You got to spend almost an hour and a half at the first spot and another hour at the second so you had lots of time in the water. We took 3 water cameras that each took 27 pictures. They had all sorts of beverages onboard and served fruit after the first stop and several shrimp cocktail on the way back to the ship. It was a fast ride out but great. We saw sea turtles and one of them came up so close to my face and we got the best picture of it.

We got back to the ship around 12:30 so we changed and grabbed lunch. Michael had an appointment for the “ultimate shave experience” at the spa at 1:30 and I went out on our deck with a book and some music. He truly felt it was relaxing and the staff did a great job. It lasted 55 minutes. It was his first spa experience and he says he would do it again. I had my spa treatment at 5pm and I had chosen the hot stone massage which was 75 minutes. It was amazing! They took a good history of where I felt I needed the most stress relief during my massage. Then with dim lights, nice music, the hot stones and a continuous head to toe massage for 65 of those minutes with concentration on my back and neck it was like heaven! There was no heavy sales pitch. In fact the only sound during my massage was the music and her occasional questions to make sure the heat or pressure wasn’t too much.

One neat thing in St. Thomas was that there were 3 ships, all carnval in port at the same time. The Miracle, the Glory and the Triumph. It was really cool to see all 3 of these huge ships lined up one after the other.

Once back in my cabin, I caught up with Michael and we got ready for dinner, went down, had an early dinner drink in the atrium, caught up with a few people and had a few more pictures made. Tonight was dancing waiters and after dinner we had every intention on going to Frankie and Johnnys for music. However, the day had so worn us out that we had laid down on the bed fully dressed for just a second around 10 and woke up fully dressed about 3am….lol. Needless to say we were tired.

Tortola

Again, we had plans here and were headed to the Baths so we were up at 6am having an early breakfast on our deck and getting those early photos. One of the interesting things today was the fact that they backed the ship into the pier before docking. Last year they pulled straight in the same way they do most places. It was interesting to watch this giant ship make this 180 degree turn and then back it’s way in.

We had to meet to go to the Baths at 8:15 on the pier and were down by 8. We highly recommend doing this. I can’t wait to get the photos posted that I took of the rock formations, the caves and Devil’s bay. We took a guided tour through the caves and our one forewarning is to wear water shoes. We did and it made climbing the rocks and steps and the water and sand much easier to handle. We ended up at Devil’s bay at the beach where we spent about an hour and a half and the water felt so great. Some people snorkeled, some swam, some just relaxed. We headed back to the ferry around 11:30. We will definitely go here again. We did go through the ship for this because the ferries that you have to take to get there can be unpredictable if you go independently. In fact, several people have had them break down. This way we are guaranteed getting back to the ship on time since we leave early from Tortola (2pm). We had lunch at Horatio’s which was extremely busy since everyone was coming back onboard early. We decided to get all our food and drinks and eat lunch on our deck since finding seats was almost impossible. One area of frustration we saw with some people was when 1 person would hold a table that could seat 6 saying they were saving it for their family and then you’d see them at this same table for 6 eating with their spouse and young child but not allowing anyone else to share the table. We saw one or 2 heated exchanges. We took pictures as we left port and then relaxed a little after a busy morning.

Tonight was the past guest party so we had to be ready and in the Phantom lounge at 5pm. They didn’t give out past guest presents this time although I still use the beautiful bag I got last year. They only gave out the Carnival Miracle past guest label pins with your invitations. So we swung in for a free drink but didn’t eat much since tonight is our Nick & Nora’s reservations at 7pm.

We got to Nick and Nora’s and had our table for 2 upstairs looking down on the dance floor. It was wonderful as usual. We had the shrimp cocktail, porterhouse steak, baked potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, bread and these great fruit cups with sorbet. We also ordered a bottle of wine, white to have with our dinner. We also took some time to have about 5 dances while we were there. Quite a few of our roll call had all made reservations on the same night for Nick & Nora’s and everyone looked very nice and seemed to enjoy the experience. After dinner, we met up with Lee & Ann to have a more formal picture taken at one of the photography areas. After this we changed and went to Frankie and Johnnys for about an hour.

3rd Sea Day

Today was the Walk for the Cure day which is $10 a person and you sign up at the Formalities shop on board. You get a t-shirt and the money goes to breast cancer research. We slept in today since we didn’t have to be up at 6am and had breakfast in our cabin. Then we took more pictures and decided to check out some shops on the ship. They had some decent sales so we picked up a few things as presents and then had lunch of those great burgers from the grill. We spent the afternoon enjoying our balcony. It had started to get a little cooler as we headed back up the east coast and the water was slightly choppy which was affecting some people again. Tonight was the second formal night so we made sure we were in our long gowns and ready for some formal pictures before dinner.

Since we had decided to make this trip like a second honeymoon, my husband surprised me with a beautiful bracelet and then a dozen chocolate covered strawberries he had delivered to our stateroom while we were having dinner to be there waiting when I walked back in. Then we had room service bring us some frozen drinks.

4th Sea Day

We always love enjoying our last day at sea so we were totally packed first thing in the morning and didn’t have to worry about it after that. We had breakfast on the Lido deck today and then wandered around the ship enjoying the sites. We love to play cards so we went down to the card room and spent about 2 ½ hours playing canasta and having coffee and strawberries in these great chocolate cups. It was the first time that I saw the card room was packed with people playing all sorts of card games. We met a girl who had bought one of the horses early in the week for the horse races and had been carrying it around all week so we stopped to talk to her and her father about their horse and although I don’t usually do the horse racing we did stop by for the final day of the horse racing and helped cheer on her horse. For those of your unfamiliar with the horse races, they have this horse race auction early in the cruise and the winning bidders get the horses. They then carry the horses around all week, some literally everywhere they go. They decorate them and give them names and they try to get other people to buy tickets for their horse to win. Tickets are $2 apiece and depending on how many people bet on the horse depends on how much you could win if the horse you bet on wins. The owners of the horses win $ amounts if their horses win especially in the last final race. The horses are placed on stage by staff and there are lines on the floor. The staff rolls dice and if the dice lands on your horses number the horse moves up a line and this continues til one horse wins. You don’t lose much money, a lot less than bingo actually if you play. It’s fun to watch people cheer the horses on.

Next Michael had been really liking one of the art pictures by Thomaz Rut and had been looking at it on Thomaz Rut’s website for a year. It was on the ship and in the art auction and since we didn’t want to stay for the whole auction we talked to one of Parkwest’s staff who was handling the auction who agreed to meet with us earlier to answer our questions about the piece and see the appraisal, etc. He agreed to place it early in the auction so we could decide if we seriously wanted to bid so we showed up just as the auction started and he did have it early so we got that and left to go enjoy the rest of our day.

We spent our last afternoon on our deck then put our bags out and went to our last dinner. Sad sad sad!

By now I had also given the thank you cards to our steward, waiters, etc with our extra tips added in them.

[mprucha]

Debarkation

We got up the last morning and met our friends for breakfast in the dining room then spent an hour or so taking pictures as we headed back into NY. The ship was running late getting into port due to the swells so they didn’t begin getting passengers off for quite awhile. One neat thing was that the Norweigan spirit was directly behind us heading into NY and for several hours she was either really close behind us or directly beside us and she actually docked first. They let off those that did the self assist first and then started with other passengers. We got off the ship at 11:30 and we were one of the first that didn’t self assist, had a driver and car waiting for us and we were in LaGuardia at 1pm. Now that so many people are doing the self assist, it really ties things up. We waited in our cabin for quite awhile after they announced the self assists and we headed down when we thought they would be close to calling the first of the other groups which would be ours. People get off on deck 2 in the atrium lobby and the line for self assists was still all the way to the Phantom lounge. Instead of speeding it up by having what they thought would be a few or some passengers debark with self assist now they have so many doing it that they are having to let them out in groups so that NY’s customs people can handle the number and it ties things up for hours. Our driver was great and managed to avoid a lot of traffic delays that caught many of the other cruisers.

Overall Impression

Fantastic ship as usual……fantastic cabin……fantastic cruise!!! Brent is still cruise director but the rest of the staff is new from last year on this ship and I feel much better than last year. The shows were the same shows as last year so we didn’t do the shows however we noticed that they had added many more activities that were new to the capers. We’ll be posting the newer capers on our website soon, promise. The chocolate melting cake was as good as I remembered. They also moved some of the deck activities indoors when the weather was rough which was new as they didn’t do that last year either. They did have to cancel the Ticket to ride show for the safety of the dancers because of the water but I didn’t hear too much griping about it. Music Unlimited is the group playing in Frankie and Johnnys now mainly and we thought they were excellent! They played at the Lido deck party as well. We noticed that the senior staff were more noticeable than before.

The photography actually had some very good people this year and offered anywhere from 3 to 9 stations you could stop in nightly to have photos made. There were also the normal photos you could have taken as you got onboard and when you left in ports. They weren’t pushy though. We did buy more pictures this year than ever before with any pictures we’ve had made because we had so many turn out well. We also had them develop our underwater cameras and it was $15 for the 3 underwater cameras, 81 pictures in the 4x6 size.

One weird part we noticed was that so so so many of the pictures that use to be part of the ship had been removed and replaced with more types that were “less controversial” I suppose. It took away some of the overall décor feel of the ship and we hated to see it. We also hated that it’s apparent they had received so many people complaints who felt the art pictures were inappropriate.

Best thing about the trip

We’ve decided that the aft wrap around balcony cabins are so worth the extra price because of the view and we spent so much more time in our cabin and on that deck than ever. Can’t wait for you to see the pictures and video.

My biggest gripe

Other passengers who insist on griping about absolutely everything from their flights to every aspect of their trip. Example: when anyone gets so mad because they spend so much at the bar, don’t check their tv folio to watch how much they’ve spent then get mad and scream at the pursers desk because no one had “told them” their total was getting that high…..and yes, this was an adult!

Improvements: Good

The new activities they’ve added to the capers

The better NY embarkation from last year……smoother even with the time delays

Chair hogs weren’t nearly as bad..lol (I even have a picture to prove this!)

Security did remove kids from the aft pool area routinely but nicely

Better updates on the sea conditions from the bridge which helped those who were feeling sick know when it could be getting better

More fliers and inserts with your capers such as when luggage is lost, they actually had a flier stating what it looked like so others could be on the lookout.

The updated TV menu for interactive info from your cabin…very nice

Improvements that could be better:

Signs to direct people at the NY piers inside telling people what to do

Half hour updates on overhead when debarking gets delayed or lines start to get really long so you sort of know how long to go before you may get out

Alternative activities in case of major shows being canceled

Changing the location of tea time

On debarking, they should make sure that announcements are being aired in the rooms as well as on the system in public areas and hallways

[shonuf]

Can't wait for the rest. We leave Sunday on the Miracle, you're helping to build the anticipation.

[chitown cruisers]

Outstanding job so far....as we all knew it would be.

 

My wife really LOVES NY and I LOVE the Miracle.........I really want to book a third Miracle.

[MonaCK]

Thank you so mcuh for this great review! You have completely wet my appetite for Sunday :)

[b&bw2]

Excellent review , we are leaving on the 4th of July and can't wait to board the ship.;)

[ccamp]

really great review! We are booked on the Miracle June 9th this year. We have been on the fantasy class numerous times, the Destiny and the Glory but never the spirit class and never out of New York. I am getting nervous about all the rough waves talk out of New York. I get seasick and take bonine daily.

 

Is it rougher leaving out of NY and will it be like that in June also?

Thanks

Carroll

[truecruiser]

... Example: when anyone gets so mad because they spend so much at the bar, don’t check their tv folio to watch how much they’ve spent then get mad and scream at the pursers desk because no one had “told them” their total was getting that high…..and yes, this was an adult!...

 

thanks for the review.

 

(i am trying to not even think about what my S&S bill will be with 4 sea days:eek:)

[mprucha]

There's really no way of knowing how the seas will really be like for your trip so just be prepared. Take your bonine with you and back ups like ginger capsules, dramamine, sour or mint candy, fresh air works, sour things like pickles sometimes also work.

 

Going out of NY is great and most people really like it if they like the sea days since this cruise has 4 of them. We love the sea days so it works well for us and we don't get sea sick so I take things with us as precaution!

 

You'll love your trip!

[mprucha]

thanks for the review.

 

(i am trying to not even think about what my S&S bill will be with 4 sea days:eek:)

 

 

Yes, I know the feeling. We usually try and come up with what we think it will be and then we double that in our head to be safe! We also check our tv daily to make sure the charges are correct.

[djwood24]

Thanks for the great and detailed review!!

 

FYI I have used your website for the lists and they are extrememly helpful trying to pack as little as possible without forgetting the necessary items

 

I would say everyone should visit your site for all the helpful info without reading countless threads

 

Leave in less than a week and seems like forever

[Guest Mary49]

Hi mprucha, I can't wait to read your website on your current cruise.

 

What did you think of "Music Unlimited"? Are they as good as "Music Boardwalk"? I know that I'll probably miss them. I booked again for September 30th on the Miracle. Can't wait. Thanks Mary49

[dolfinmusic]

Great stuff! Thank you and I can't wait for the pictures!! Really helps getting through Monday at work!! :D

[AJI2596]

We came in on the Miracle the day you left:D We had awesome weather up until the night we were on our way home. It wasn't choppy just a little rainy and foggy.

 

I love reading your review. We had such an awesome time.

[steveu44]

Miracle Review 5/9/08-5/17/08

Ok all, as usual this will be a long review so I’m posting it in multiple parts. This review will be slightly different from others I’ve done since we opted for a more laid back, relaxing, less scheduled days on this cruise.

 

Embarkation

We flew to NY on a direct flight with no problems and had a car and driver waiting for us on the ground so we were able to go straight from the airport to the pier. We got there about 10:30, they were right there to take our luggage.

 

I heard some complaints about embarkation from people who hadn’t gone out of NY before BUT I’ll tell you it was a big improvement on last year. The VIP section is still up front and not really what people expect but the people running things had a better grasp of where they should send people and preventing people from jumping lines, etc. The ship was late getting those before us off the ship so people were straggling out for quite some time. It was as organized as any of these things tend to be. They had added more chairs, more employees from NY and more computers to get people checked in. They had also worked out their issue with having you fill out the same documents at the pier that you had already completed with your funpass so that sped things up considerably. We had 3 huge wedding parties plus a couple of large groups including a “touring” TA group that was only there to tour the ship before getting off so even if you were VIP you had to wait for them all to get on.

 

One improvement would be if they had big signs in appropriate places so people would know where to go at the beginning instead of having to ask, etc. Even with the last passengers debarking late, we were onboard and having lunch by 12:15. They had changed the time to get into rooms until 2pm so we had a nice relaxing lunch at Horatio’s, double checked our Nick and Nora’s reservations we had made online which were perfect and then headed to our room.

 

Cabin 8273, category 11, aft wraparound

There is nothing more that I can say about this cabin other than perfection! OMG! The view from this enormous balcony was amazing! I’ll be posting tons of pictures of it and even a narrated video of both the cabin and balcony as soon as I can get everything done I’m working on from this cruise for our cruise website so I’ll let you know. It’s divided into areas. It has a living room area, a separate bedroom, a vanity room area, walk in closet and bathroom. Our deck had 3 lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a table on it already but you could easily put 5 or 6 lounge chairs out there with no problem. We were on the 8th deck so our deck only had total shade on the left wrap part. The larger section facing aft had a smaller overhang making it hard to be out there in the rain unless you’re sitting in chairs on the side that ‘s totally covered but great for laying out in the sun. Looking straight down from our deck, you have the slant of the ship but you can only see those on other decks beneath you IF they are leaning on their railing looking out. You can not see the balcony itself. The dividers are the frosted plexi-glass dividers and there’s large lights on these balconies for sitting out at night.

 

The bathroom has the double sinks, Jacuzzi tub with detachable shower head. There’s 4 shelves on either end of the sinks and to doors, one under each sink area with 2 shelves. There are hooks on the back of the door for bathrobes, etc. Yes, there’s shampoo and liquid body wash in dispensers in the tub area. They provide the little bowel with complimentary items in the bathroom but we don’t use them since I bring things. Items such as razors, tide pen, etc. On the wall is also a 2 way pull out make up mirror.

 

There are 2 tvs and 2 vcrs in this cabin, one in the bedroom and one in the living room area as well as 2 phones. The bedroom has the 2 twin beds which make into a queen with that great bedding, a chair and a dresser with 4 drawers. Over the dresser is the area with a door behind which is the safe. There is also a lamp on either side of the bed on a bedside table which also has 3 smaller drawers in them. The area under the bed will handle 4 large suitcases easily and even more if they fit inside each other. The extra chair is in the corner and the room has 3 large windows from the floor to the ceiling that look out on the deck and the ocean.

 

The walk in closet area has a 6-7 foot area for hanging clothes with plenty of hangers. On top of this area is a shelf the same length 18 inches high by approximately 2 feet high where the life belts are but if you push those to the back of that area you have a huge shelf area. Under this hanging area is more space for shoes, gear, whatever. Then, also in this closet is another area that has 4 large, deep shelves each about 2 feet tall by 2 deep by 2 wide when lots of clothes can be placed OR the shelves will fold up and then there’s a bar at the top for even more hanging clothes.

 

The living room has the sofa which had drawers under it (2), a side table with a lamp. This side table has 2 shelves inside a door and theres another on the other side of the sofa with the same. The bar area is on the wall with an area with bar glasses and space for your own cups, etc you may have. Behind it is a glass mirror. There’s also a desk area with your ice bucket, mini fridge, phone on it. There’s also a coffee table. This room has 2 large floor to ceiling windows with those beautiful views plus a small hallway connecting the living area to the bedroom where the door to the balcony is.

 

The vanity area has a large 3 way mirror and vanity desk area with 4 drawers. The mirror is lighted completed around. One of these drawers is where you find your hair dryer.

What a superb review !!! Thank you. I'm especially impressed because I'll be in the other aft wrap balcony on that floor (8268) on 6/18. I can't wait to get there and experience that room. Can't wait to see the pictures and video on your site!!!

 

Steve

[MaryZ]

glad to hear you enjoyed your cruise. More happy to hear they changed the staff and things are better. That was our one disappointment to our cruise on the miracle last may.

We had a wrap on empress and I would never sail on a spirit class ship without one. That is the best feature of that class of ships.

I really enjoyed your review :)

[DottieMay]

Thanks for the review, Anne! It was really nice meeting you and Michael. I saw a bunch of your pics up and they turned out beautifully.

 

We had a great time - it's interesting, though, I will say that you had a WAY different embarkation and debarkation experience then we did. It took us over 2.5 hours to get onboard (we arrived just before noon and it was almost 3:00 when we got onboard). We heard that the computers went down at some point and that delayed everything.

 

For us, leaving was pretty bad - it was 1:45 before we were even off the ship - we ZIPPED through customs, though - after having to leave our cabin at about 10:15. We were debarkation #21 - there were 26, so I know there were still people behind us. We heard that people were starting to snitch food up in Horatio's - no real idea what the hold up was. It was just a bummer - we were sitting on the floor in the hallway outside Jeeves for hours.

 

(please note: the above is not meant as a complaint - just an observation! It did not ruin our cruise, just an exhausting way to end it)

[kenteecruisin]

Thanx for taking the time to write such a detailed review. Can't wait to see the pictures!

[jerseycruzer]

Great Review ! We were on the Miracle 4/23 and reading your review bought back nice & happy memories. I could clearly "see" (in my mind ofcourse) all those areas that you were describing. Thanks for bringing back fond memories of our cruise through your review !

 

Also, many many thanks to you and Michael for such a superb website. We used your lists and your tips a lot while on our cruise. Infact, we had everything printed and would review daily. The last day at sea, actually I went back through your lists just to make sure that we did not miss out on anything...thanks again !

 

Looking forward to the updates on your website and of course the pics again !

[MonaCK]

For us, leaving was pretty bad - it was 1:45 before we were even off the ship - we ZIPPED through customs, though - after having to leave our cabin at about 10:15. We were debarkation #21 - there were 26, so I know there were still people behind us. We heard that people were starting to snitch food up in Horatio's - no real idea what the hold up was. It was just a bummer - we were sitting on the floor in the hallway outside Jeeves for hours.

 

(please note: the above is not meant as a complaint - just an observation! It did not ruin our cruise, just an exhausting way to end it)

 

Oh. My. Goodness!

That does sound like a nightmare.

I can't imagine what the holdup was...

[mprucha]

Djwood24, hope you have a great trip as I'm sure you will!! I'm glad everyone is enjoying the review! If you are leaving in less than a couple of weeks and need info or certain pictures before we can update our website let me know and I'll try and send them by email!

 

Mary49, you know I feel like Music Unlimited was just as good if not better than Music Boardwalk. When I first went to hear them I was slightly worried because we loved Music boardwalk so much but we were thrilled with them! Their vocals and transitions between songs is actually maybe even better than music boardwalk although I think music boardwalk MAY have a bigger set width as far as playing things from the 50's through 90's.

 

Dottie, I hate to hear that your embarking/debarking was rougher. I did hear that the computers had issues during embarking but that was after us and yes, I knew that there were 26 numbers of debarking so considering we got off at 11:30 and we were one of the first that weren't self assisting, I knew that others would be much later. Glad you had a great trip though! And we really enjoyed meeting everyone at the meet and greet!

 

MaryZ, I know how you feel about having the aft wrap cabins! The first thing we did when we got home was to see if any of them were available for Alaska next May but right now there aren't. I'll keep an eye out just in case that changes of course.

[doorman176]

Hi, I was on this cruise also and enjoyed your review. But there is 1 problem I had with it. While this was my 9th CC I am not yet a V.I.P and people should know that unless you are a V.I.P your embarking will be a different story. Us regular guest can expect a different experience. My wife and I arrived at the pier at 12:15 pm. We were told to stand on the left side of the room along with other guests. We stood there till 2 pm. Not one word from the people working for CC on why the long wait. A little info would have went a long way, if only one carival employee had been nice enough to explain to us that the ship got in late and they were having computer problems it would have went a long way. It not like they dont know why there is a hold up. So folks if you are NOT V.I.P DO NOT EXPECT TO GET ON LIKE THIS. I found out from a crew member this ship is often late getting into ny. And this starts a domino efect. When we finally got off the boat I felt sorry for the hundreds of people waiting to get on. I went up to a couple and asked them if they were told they would be getting on late and they said the could not get a straight answer for any CC workers. I also must say that the whole building where you meet the boat is a joke. It is a ugly colorless,cold looking waiting area.I am surprised CC does not make whoever runs that place clean it up an give it a coat of paint.