Review: Carnival Cruise Lines - Miracle - [-- -- , 2005]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

1. Overall Opinion: Good.

Cruising, in my opinion is still the best vacation for the money. We
had a blast! While Carnival and this ship the Miracle were very
different than The Disney Magic by a LONG way, it was still a wonderful
way to spend a week. We chose this particular cruise because we wanted
to see what the least expensive seven-day cruise we could find had to
offer. The cost for this cruise was 30% less than Disney, with one more
port. Incidentally, four ports on a seven-day cruise are TOO much!
The food was very excellent, especially the deserts, the cabin were very
similar to Disney in size and comfort, room service was prompt, and the
ship was clean.

2. Embarking: Terrible

Embarking was absolutely horrible. Not Carnivals fault. There was a
tanker in port and they would not let the ship into port. Our funpass
was worthless. Everyone went through the 2-hour line, or longer, just
the same. Our legs and feet were tired long before we got to board the
ship. We got to the port early because of being unfamiliar with the
area, and the procedures. The line was not outside the terminal when we
got there, but two and a half hours later it was outside and around the
corner of the building. They bussed us across the channel to the boat,
where we boarded. After a quick snack on board, we rested our weary
feet. At 4:45pm they were still unloading buses, in fact they called for
the mandatory safety drill at 4:50pm. Believe it or not and we were
sailing at 5:00pm while the drill was still going on.

3. Ship: Clean, and BUTT UGLY!

Man, what were they thinking? At first glance, it didn’t look too bad,
a little over the top, but not terrible. The thing was that as the days
went on I kept feeling like I really needed a break from it all. The
ships is colorful, very colorful, in fact it’s colorful in every single
nook and cranny. Really folks this, “fun Ship” is way over-kill in the
décor department. In comparison to the Disney Magic this ship is very
tacky and amateurish in design and theme. The Magic has a classy, Art
Deco style, while the Miracle has an Art Trailer trash style.

Alternating, purple reflective, and wood tone panels, are in every
common area of the ship. All of the halls are decorated in over size
pictures of fictional or mythical characters. The concept was ok, but
the whole of this design seems disjointed and out of place. The Bacchus
dining room is amazing to behold. It’s not conducive to eating, but what
a sight. The purple lit so-called, “bunch of grapes” chandeliers are
really ugly. They are tapered cones of purple bathroom globes. They
painted dark colored grapes and grape vines on the ceiling interspersed
with out-of-focus oversized cherubs. I think they were going for a
Roman, Sistine chapel theme. They carried the purple bathroom lights
onto the ceiling here as well.

There are two places on ship that is a little rest from the gaudiness,
the cabin, and the launderette! They are beige and white!

The quality of the video equipment was very low in the theaters,
especially considering the fact that the ship is just about a year old.
They did play a couple of older movies, Jaws and Bridgette Jones’ Diary.
I have a better system in my house. I really like watching movies on a
big screen.

4. Crew/Staff: Very Good

The cruise director was a hoot. Mark Hawkins. He could have been a stand
up Comedian. If you were a party go-er on board, he kept you posted as
to what was going on, but if you like the more subdued activities, you
had to rely on your Capers. Very quick-witted guy though.

Our cabin steward was very nice, although not extremely efficient. He
kept leaving the bunk down during the day. I asked him to raise it and
he did, but only when I asked. I finally gave up. He did everything we
asked, but no more than that. He was practically invisible most of the
time, which I guess was the reason he didn’t do anything above his
required duties.

It seemed none of the stewards, nor any general staff were very happy.
They smiled if you smiled at them. They all had a job to do, and you
were part of that job. They did their jobs well, but not happily. I
missed the smiling faces and cheerful attitude of the people on Disney.

We did have a very pleasant waitress from the Philippines. Panadda was
her name. She was very thoughtful, and attentive. She kept us full of
bread and drinks. One thing that was odd to me was that when we asked
for coffee, they would only bring it after the main course. I would ask
for coffee and they would acknowledge, but not bring it out. When I
asked again, they looked surprised. I like coffee with my meal and had
to ask every day for them to bring it, now. They never did grasp this.

5. Ports:

Grand Cayman was the highlight of our cruise. I have never snorkeled
before and wanted to try the stingray tour. That was really a neat
experience. Seeing all the tropical fish in the wild, and then watching
the guide feed the sharks and moray eel, and then actually feeding the
stingrays was AWESOME! By itself this was worth the trip!

If you have never done this, work it into your cruise plans. I highly
recommend Capt. Marvin’s tour group. They are very helpful, congenial
and most of them are pretty funny people. We bought the videodisc and
will put up some pictures when we can.

Belize; if you go here book and excursion. Otherwise stay on board. If
you get off, make sure you have a Belikin beer. It’s from Belize and
very good. Similar to Amstel in flavor.

We wanted to visit the Belize zoo. The taxis wanted $30.00 a person to
take us to the zoo and back. That’s 90 bucks for a sixty-mile trip. No
thanks! Overall, a disappointing stop.

Costa Maya was a relaxing day for us. We didn’t want to go to any of the
ruins or pyramids, so we shopped a little and went back to the ship.
This is a neat place to shop if you like to haggle. Incidentally, don’t
buy liquor at any of the ports; it was cheaper at the ships shops. Hmm,
that sounds funny when you’ve been drinking.

Cozumel is much more of a touristy, resort place than the other ports.
Very pretty and reasonably clean. I found that even though you could
haggle in Costa Maya, the overall prices were cheaper here. I enjoyed
just walking around here, while my wife shopped, shopped, shopped……….

6. Food and dining: Very good to excellent

I was expecting to be disappointed. I was not. The food I chose on most
nights was fantastic. A couple nights it was not as good, not awful,
just average. They had beef tenderloin in burgundy sauce that was the
best I’ve ever had.

ALL of the deserts were very good. There was one desert that really
sounded awful, so I had to try it; caramelized lemon custard, with
juniper berry juice, BASIL ice cream, and gin. Now most of these
ingredients were NOT very tasty, but in combination, amazingly enough
they were really, really, good. I got two! Did I mention basil ice cream
is really bad? J

7. Disembarking: Also not so good.

Disembarking was not fun but tolerable. We were told Disembarking would
be between 7:00am and 9:30, and we could get off as soon as general
release was called. They said we must be out of our cabin by 9:30. At
9:40, when they called for general release of the passengers, we waited
in a 45-minute line to get off. We grabbed a cab, got in our car and
were headed north by 11:00am. Did I mention we drove 12 hours to Tampa?
Since I don’t fly leisure anymore, I don’t think I’ll be leaving from
that port again anytime soon.

8· Comparisons to Disney:

This boat, and maybe Carnival as a whole, has a kind of cheap glitzy
feel to it. Like they are trying to make you feel like you’re on a very
glamorous vacation, while not wanting to make the “trailer trash” feel
out of place. I’m not saying anyone was trailer trash, just that most
of the new cruisers were enthralled by the “beauty of the ship”,
however, I was not. The Disney concept of décor was to mimic the old
ocean liners, and have that upper class and elegant feel. I think they
did a good job. Carnival on the other hand went with the Dazzle them
with ** route. I think they did a good job too.

The biggest difference between the Magic, and the Miracle was the way
the staff interacted with the passengers. On Disney there were smiles
and nods everywhere, friendly faces and helping hands when needed. Also,
when you walked down the hallways or through the restaurants, the crew
made a point to move out of your way. It seemed on Carnival the staff,
especially in the eating areas had work to do and actually took the
right of way. I think Disney spends a lot of time finding the right
personalities for their ships.

There were more activities on available on Disney. I know this sounds
odd, but if you’re not a party animal, Disney has more to do, and has
the parties too. No Casino though. I have never gambled before. I had an
extra quarter and put it in a slot machine and won $2.50. I cashed out.
J I went back one evening and put five dollars in the nickel slots and
won $59.00. I probably won’t do it again as I am ahead!

I waited all week to go to Maguire’s sports bar to watch the NASCAR
race. I got there an hour before it started, and then waited for all the
ball games to end and most everyone left. It was an hour into the race
when the crowd started to come back in. They asked the bar tender to
change the race to another game. She told them I was watching the race,
and one of them went to the pursers desk, got a staff/crew member in a
white uniform to come back and he told me I was outnumbered, and they
were going to change the channel! I was really pissed. I don’t believe
that would have happened on Disney.

Summary, finally:

Did I enjoy myself? Absolutely. Was it worth the money? Absolutely.
Would I do it again? Absolutely, but not until I’ve tried some other
lines and ships.

Really, getting on and off the ship was the worst part of the whole
trip! Which of course meant 6 days and 18 hours of enjoyment!!