Miracle review 2/17/09 with photos

[enjoyinglife]

I will do this in parts, becaue it is too long to do all at once.

We recently got off the Miracle, having sailed on her on the last sailing before going in for repair work (I believe being done in Freeport, Bahamas). A little history about us: this is my 9th cruise, the first one being on RCL, many years ago, and the remainder on Carnival. My husband and son accompanied me and it is their 8th, all on Carnival.

Before getting to the reviews of the ship, I want to say that we had a great roll call, with some of us “talking” for what seems like a year! They are a great group and I know that some of them I will continue to “talk” too just because they are great! Thanks to all who join in on the boards, and at either or both of our meet and greets. We agreed to wear Mardi Gras beads to the port so that we could identify ourselves. One person, Ed, even made us some name tags! Since we had talked for a long time previously, it was a lot of fun at the pier to try and figure out who was who, and I even guessed correctly and spoke to a few prior to the meet and greet. Thanks for the memories, guys and gals!

Me with my Mardi Gras Beads

[magic&buddy]

I will do this in parts, becaue it is too long to do all at once.

We recently got off the Miracle, having sailed on her on the last sailing before going in for repair work (I believe being done in Freeport, Bahamas). A little history about us: this is my 9th cruise, the first one being on RCL, many years ago, and the remainder on Carnival. My husband and son accompanied me and it is their 8th, all on Carnival.

Before getting to the reviews of the ship, I want to say that we had a great roll call, with some of us “talking” for what seems like a year! They are a great group and I know that some of them I will continue to “talk” too just because they are great! Thanks to all who join in on the boards, and at either or both of our meet and greets. We agreed to wear Mardi Gras beads to the port so that we could identify ourselves. One person, Ed, even made us some name tags! Since we had talked for a long time previously, it was a lot of fun at the pier to try and figure out who was who, and I even guessed correctly and spoke to a few prior to the meet and greet. Thanks for the memories, guys and gals!

Me with my Mardi Gras Beads

 

 

Really looking forward to your review.......we are on her again the end of April!

[kittycrusin08]

Looking forward to your review. We sailed on Miracle in January and will be anxiously waiting for your review and pictures. Thanks!;)

[sheri18]

thinking of the miracle for next feb...cant wait to read your review....

[LUPY48]

Can't wait to hear more as we sail her the first trip out of drydock, Mar. 13.

[gail811]

Can't wait for the rest of your review!!!!

We sail on her the 29th, our first time sailing out of Port Everglades. Did you happen to drive to port and park, and if so, any tips? I became concerned after reading the FL departure boards and asked there...they directed me back to the Carnival boards. Will appreciate ANY information....most concerned about parking at one place and coming back to port and docking at another area.

[enjoyinglife]

Can't wait for the rest of your review!!!!

We sail on her the 29th, our first time sailing out of Port Everglades. Did you happen to drive to port and park, and if so, any tips? I became concerned after reading the FL departure boards and asked there...they directed me back to the Carnival boards. Will appreciate ANY information....most concerned about parking at one place and coming back to port and docking at another area.

 

No, I wish I had answers toyour questiosn, but we flew in. Maybe someone soon will respond to your question. We did have one person that I know of that drove in, papanh. Maybe when he comes on here, he can answer it.

[Payd]

We loved our Miracle cruises so can't wait to read the rest of your review!

[enjoyinglife]

Now to the review:

Embarkation: It was great, and we still qualified for VIP boarding with Carnival Vacation Club. We left our hotel, the Ramada Inn Airport / Cruiseport via a taxi we rented because we didn’t want to wait for the free shuttle, knowing that it was at scheduled later than we wanted to leave, and that we would have to load all 20 or 30 + people, then ride and unload that many. The taxi cost us about 20.00 because I had him stop at a Walgreens to pick up a couple of things we forgot to bring. If you are like us and are eager to get to the port, I would recommend doing this rather than waiting for the shuttle.

Miracle: She is the most beautiful of all the ships I have been on, and not only that, but the service was consistantly the best (ok, well, the 24 hour pizza place was slower than normal. Not bad, just not as prompt as normal.) Since this was the first time on a Spirit class ship, it took a while to get used to decks 2 and 3. On my previous ships, there was only 1 what my family refers to as “main night time deck” but the Miracle has decks 2 and 3. Naturally, by the time I knew what was located on deck 2 and deck 3, it was time to get off.

Cabin: Our first 9A, 6279, and it provided lots of extra room than the standard cabin, plus the balcony was deeper than the normal standard balcony. It held 3 people quite comfortably. My son slept in a bed that dropped down from the ceiling, located right above our sofa. The balcony had a recliner lounge chair, 2 chairs, and a small table. We usually order room service most mornings, but Carnival took off a few things like the chocolate chip cookies and brownies, so we had it only one time, and the remainder of the times we eat in the dinning room which was a first for us eating there for breakfast. After the first time, we decided that was the way to go and did it the remainder of the cruise.

Our cabin and balcony:

 

 

 

 

[enjoyinglife]

Another one of the cabin:

 

 

The bed that my DS slept in was a drop down bed that came down from the ceiling and was located on top of the sofa.

[enjoyinglife]

Entertainment: I always feel like every cruise is unique and memorable for 1 or two special things; for ex., I refer to one cruise as the “karaoke” cruise, cause that is what some of the relatives we were with enjoyed and we tagged a long and liked it. Another past cruise was the “piano bar” cruise. Well, this one on the Miracle was the “competition” cruise because the three of us did quite a few trivia games, bean bag toss games, and even the battle of the sexes. That enabled us to bring home 3 gold plastic ships on sticks and 1 medal (bean bag toss earned us 2 ships and 1 medal, and trivia earned another ship).

I didn’t hang out for long times in the piano bar, but went in on several nights. It was a lady, forgot her name, but she was entertaining, sang well and had a good personality. She learned her regulars fast also. The karaoke bar was beautiful, but I only went in three times, but didn’t stay long. One time had no one singing, and the other 2 times had only the lady in charge of the operation singing. I guess it wasn’t a big deal on this ship, or maybe it was just the few times I went in. I wonder if the “remote” location of the Karaoke room had some effect on it’s popularity? We only attended two ventriloquist shows, one comedy show, and a juggling show and my son loved them all, I thought they were good, not necessarily great. He has gotten on youtube to learn how to juggle and he has been practicing and is getting pretty good it.

[enjoyinglife]

Ports of call: First, I’d like to say that we did have a change of itinerary, and I liked it better than the original.

Cozumel: This was like our 6th time to Coz, so we went to paradise beach so that my son could have one “fun beach”. There was no entrance or chair / umbrella charge, however, we did buy a few drinks and snacks. There are different things for kids to do there like there are two water trampolines attached together by a inflatable walk-way type thing, a very tall water slide, and the best climbing ice burg that we have ever seen! It cost 10 dollars for a pink bracelet to use these things and was well worth the price so that Myles could use them. My husband and I were in the water with him for a while, and a worker in a kayak thought I was swimming to the water slide so asked to see my bracelet. I told him I didn’t have one, but my son did and I was hanging out in the water watching him. He asked to see his bracelet and when he saw the bracelet, he went on to the next person. I thought it was a great day and we didn’t plan on staying but a few hours anyway. It was perfect for what we wanted. The taxi price was I believe 13 dollars, one way. We headed back to the ship to do some activities when there weren’t many people on the ship.

Paradise Beach fun toys –

[enjoyinglife]

Costa Maya: this was our favorite excursion – I booked with Island Marketing for their wave runner tour! It is hard to describe what we felt, but all three of us thought it was the best tour on our cruise and possibly ranks in the top three of all 8 cruises we went on together! There were 5 jet skis, the first one was our tour guide, the second one a couple riding double, then myself, my son, and finally, my husband. We went out in water that looked calm when on a cruise ship, but excitedly fun when on a wave runner! I can’t describe the feeling, so let’s just leave it as “awesome” and so much different from riding in a lake. (We used to have one several years ago). We were out for about 1.5 hours, and quietly frankly, my left shoulder was beginning to tell me it was time to stop fighting with the waves! The tour was 75.00 per person single rider, and 55.00 per person riding double. If anyone takes this tour, I would recommend wearing sunglasses, better yet good goggles to keep the salt-water spray out of your eyes. We had sunglasses, but my 16 year old didn’t and he wished he would have had them.

 

 

Anyway, the wave runner tour takes you to a beach / hotel called Pez Quardro (sp?) / 40 Cannones. The taxi ride is 3dollars per person one way, and 2 dollars per person back. There is a restaurant and hotel there, and it had a quite little area between the two buildings that I can’t describe, but will try to attach a picture here.

The beach was great and also is the same place where Island Marketing takes the people booked on the “Beach Break” tour, costing about 40 dollars per person with drinks included. I didn’t book the beach break, only the wave runner, but we still got the chairs / palapa there. After the wave runner tour, the three of us each got a 30 minute massage, 10 dollars per person right on the beach.

 

[enjoyinglife]

Belize: We booked privately with Yhony for the cave tubing and 4 wheeler excursion, 75.00 per person since we were doing both things. They were fun, professional, and safety conscientious. They entertained us on the drive – providing us with jokes, history, and my husband even inquired about housing prices with them just in case he wants to move there! I had read on CC about a cave tubing death a few months ago, and was concerned about whether or not I wanted to take my family there just because you never know, but I am glad I did. The river was not rough at all (to the point that my son says it was a little boring), but Harry and I found it to be relaxing. I knew when we were at the point of the previous accident because prior to this, we went down in two separate single rows of tubes. We all had to be attached front to back – what we did was my feet held on to the tube in front of me and the person behind me, my husband had his feet holding my tube. Yhony put Harry the last passenger in our chain because of his size. We had a guide in front and a guide in back making sure we went in the right area. Before we got to the point of the accident, Yhony made the two “single rows’ of tubes connect side by side in addition to front / back. There was one or two small children on the tour, and put them in the middle, so that we were connected in the front of the chain by twos, and then the middle on the chain had the small kids in the center so that they were three people side by side connected, and the end of the chain was connected by twos again. We had our guides in front and our guides in back of us, directing us away from the area of concern. The caves were historically interesting, and my husband I discussed how we could imagine the first people who discovered it many years ago and how it would be to have played there way back when. We looked at the different formations of the caves, the shiny parts (minerals?), saw bats, and had a relaxing time.

For those “relaxing” reasons why we enjoyed it, my son preferred the 4-wheelers. I would have enjoyed it more if we didn’t keep having to stop for someone who was getting stuck. Getting stuck, however, was not bad, but was pretty exciting, but, it would have been better if I was the only one having that kind of excitement (ok…I am a little selfish here!!!!!). Actually, I love riding 4-wheelers but never get the chance to do it! This was another great day on the cruise, and I am glad we did it and that I chose to go with Yhony and the “butts up” crew!

4-wheelers (we didn’t bring the camera tubing)

[enjoyinglife]

Another 4-wheeling one:

 

[enjoyinglife]

Roatan: In Roatan, we booked privately with Victor Bodden and 4 other people from our ship that we meet on CC; the three of us, plus Loretta (retta) and her husband, Brion, and Jen and her husband, Rory. We did an island tour (25.00 per person) and then zip lining and finally, we went to Bananarama Beach. The zip line we chose, out of the four that Roatan has, was a safe, brand new one (started operating in September) at Victor Bodden’s private place. I believe it was called the Mayan Jungle Canopy. It cost 45.00 per person, which included seeing and even playing with some of his monkeys. The zip lining part was great! I would try another one that would be more extreme if it had the same safety precautions; a double cable, double pulley system. We did 12 zips, 13 platforms, 2 swinging bridges, and a very high climb to the first zip, which made me realize that all the stair climbing I do at the gym does not compare to the real stuff out there! LOL!

I forgot to mention that when the guide unclips you from the line, he clips you to a cable on the tree so that you cant really fall you because you are clipped to a safety cable.

It really was a lot of fun and the guys wanted to go again, but if we did, I am sure we would have been charged again. This took about 1 hour for the seven of us to complete. We had one guide who went first and would become our “brake” and stop us when we got close to the end of the cable.

I had to take the pic's out and I will try to add them later.

[enjoyinglife]

Roatan, part 2

The second guide at the end telling us when it was safe to go. They truly enjoyed their job, and Myles, my son, wants to go work with them this summer, thinking they have a really cool job. After the zip lining, we saw different animals there; monkeys, an ant eater, island rat, toucan, parrots, and deer. The monkeys were a lot more fun than I thought they would be! We went in the cage and they would climb on you, play with your hair, and they wanted to drink my water from my water bottle. In fact, I never drink out of it again because they were trying to drink from it!

Finally, we went to the beach, to a place called Bananarama. I loved this beach and there is great snorkeling very close to the shore. I didn’t get to do as much snorkeling as I would have liked for different reasons, but, next cruise that takes me there, I know what to expect now and will definitely plan for it! We ate lunch there, and while we were in the water, our guide watched our possessions. There was no entrance charge at Bananrama either. They do rent snorkel and diving equipment, chairs, and umbrellas. There are different configurations of cabins / rooms to rent there and a restaurant and I believe that if I were going to stay in Roatan, I may want to stay there.

 

 

[enjoyinglife]

Miscellaneous:

Dinning: This is the first time out of 8 cruises that we were assigned to a table by ourselves. I think both Harry and I were skeptical about this, but Myles was happy. We usually allow him to skip one night in the dinning room, but this time, he wanted to join us every night, even choosing to wear his suit twice! The food was very good. I think that gave us an unhurried time to get to know one another much better.

PS. Before I forget this, I just want to pass on to the warm chocolate melting cake lovers that I ordered one to go to my cabin with me and I had them on my balcony and it was no problem. Also, they were available on the buffet on the lido deck after 6:00pm and I also used that avenue on two occasions to enjoy one on my balcony.

The dinning staff we had, Manuel and Ilijah, even our bar tender, were AWESOME! When Myles, my 16 year old would come to the table, his Mr. Pibb was just one or two steps behind him, one time even before he made it there! Before he could finish drinking it, he had another one on the table. They were great and were compensated extra for it!

One really nice addition to the hamburger grill was the chicken tenders they had. They were awesome and I would make a salad and cut up some tenders and put them on top. My son who usually has pizza 24/7 on a cruise, switched to the chicken tenders because he truly enjoyed it.

Gym / spa: I did exercise the first few days and the Miracle has the best at-sea gym I have used. I used the steam room, the sauna, and the showers. The showers were interesting in that they had 5 shower heads, unlike the showers I had previously used while sailing. The Miracle’s shower had 1 shower head on top that could be turned on or off, and 4 on the sides (2 on each side) that could be used alone or with the top one. I really enjoyed it and used the steam room at least 5 days on this cruise, and the shower room on 3 occasions.

For chocolate lovers, there is a chocolate buffet that is great, but I wish they had strawberries to dip in the chocolate (I guess because they sell them on the ship, they don’t offer them). There were grapes, pineapple, apples, rum balls, cheese cake bites, donuts, and prunes to choose from. I wish that I would have just asked for him to pour some chocolate in a small bowl for me and next to the area of the chocolate fountain, there was a place that had almonds and extra small things (some granola looking stuff) that couldn’t be dipped. I could have made a chocolate soup with that stuff! I know next time to check things out because then I would have made my own mixture of chocolate.

Well, this has taken forever even with a nice, long outline I made while at the airport. About the airport, we didn’t realize it, but our return flight had us going from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta first class! What a great surprise to ending a fantastic vacation! But, we had to wait for 8 hours in Atlanta for our connecting flight back home. Eight hours is too long without anything to do; I had already finished my book, we had no internet, I wrote an outline for this review, read the newspaper, and skimmed a magazine. We walked, shopped, eat, “rested,” read, and still had time to kill! The extra time would have been fun if it was in a first class seat the whole time!

To anyone going on the Miracle, my advice is to go, and enjoy yourself. She is a beautiful ship, we had a fantastic room, and a gorgeous balcony! It has truly allowed me to be “Enjoying life"

PS. I originally had more pic's to add, but couldnt work out some of the problems, so I will add some later!

[ColoRockiesFan]

Great review Gwyn!

 

Thanks!

[papanh]

Great job Gwyn you hit it on the head ( they had hamburgers on the ship?):p

Papanh

[sports-mom]

Great review :)

[sandij]

thanks for the great review, we're on her in 28 days and I am looking forward to that balcony. and that chocolate!

[cgn74]

Thanks for the great review! I'll be on the Miracle on the 21st and can't wait!

[enjoyinglife]

OK I have maybe 5 mintues, lets see if I can add more pic's

 

Roatan sign at Bananarama and pic's

 

 

 

[enjoyinglife]

Great job Gwyn you hit it on the head ( they had hamburgers on the ship?):p

Papanh

 

 

Thank you! Well, do you have your next cruise planned yet?