Relaxation At Sea
We decided to take our fall cruise on the Carnival Miracle down to the Mexican Riviera for 7 days. It was a new ship class for us and we have been on this itinerary before and enjoyed it in the past. It was just the 3 of us this time myself, husband Jamie and son Matthew. We went during the week of Matthew’s fall break from school. We just wanted to keep it simple and relax. We had already planned not to do any excursions this time and just get off the ship and go to the beach or just hang out since we had been to these ports a few times and have done different excursions in the past. This cruise was all about relaxing for us. So unfortunately, I won’t be talking about any exciting excursions we took this time. I will focus mostly on the ship and some of the differences from other ships. We had booked this cruise over a year ago and we were able to book a premium balcony (cabin 7301) which is hard since there are only 2 cabins like this on the ship. The cost was not much more than a regular balcony and well worth the money.
Besides having a suite, this has been our best cabin in all of our 18 cruises. It felt like more closet and storage space, and with 3 of us it worked out great and let’s not forget the awesome huge balcony. Well more on that later.
Since we live in Arizona, we usually have to fly to the ports but this time we were able to drive to the Port of Long Beach. It’s about a 6 hour drive. Since we were driving to the port, we decided to leave our house early the morning of the cruise, instead of getting a hotel in Long Beach the night before. We figured the savings on the hotel would cover our parking. We planned to leave no later than 3:00 am…and I have to say I was quite impressed when we got on the road by 3:30, although Jamie was happy to remind me every 5 minutes that we were running late and if we missed the ship, it would be my fault! (Haha) He was already in the truck, engine running and waiting impatiently as I threw my last bag into the backseat and jumped in. I knew he would calm down once we were on the road, and I was right. All that mattered now was that we were on our way and headed to board the Carnival Miracle!!!
We stopped once for gas and once again closer to the port to eat breakfast and change our clothes (we drove most of the way in our pajamas) and now we were ready to complete our drive to the port. Once we arrived, it all looked familiar from our past cruises from this port. We got to the port at about 9:30 am and we easily found a spot in the parking garage at the port. With all the research we usually do before a cruise, the one thing we forgot to research was the port parking prices…. Oh well it was too late now. I quickly googled it and it said $19 a day. Wow it had gone up since we cruised out of here 4 years ago. When we left the port at the end of the week, it ended up costing $133 for the whole time. We were ok with this since we were thinking it was going to be more….
We grabbed our luggage, dropped it off with a porter, and headed towards the platinum lounge to check in and wait. The Port of Long Beach is different than most. The waiting area is actually outside, in a covered area, instead of in a building. Also, at most ports you go through security first, then check in. Here in Long Beach you check in, then wait outside, then go into a big dome building to go through security and then board the ship from there. A little different but all ran smoothly.
They were also doing the staggered check in so that might have helped with things running smoother. In the past it was quite a mess on embarkation day at the Port of Long Beach. After checking in at the Platinum Lounge (the PL is actually a small little building off to the side of the waiting area), we walked over to the Priority boarding area with the hopes of being one of the first in line. Matthew (our son) likes to try and be the 1st on the ship and try for the “1st in the Red Frog Pub”. It’s kind of a game we play with him. Being 1st in the Red Frog Pub gets you a free drink and your picture on John Heald’s fb page. Matthew thinks this is great. But unless you are diamond or platinum your chances of being 1st are very small. Matthew had been planning his route on the ship map the day before, and when we hit the ship he took off running and we followed behind. Well, guess what??? We made it!!! We were 1st to the Red Frog Pub. When we walked in the funniest thing happened…. The regular guy that works in there had to leave for a few minutes to do something and asked another girl to cover for him until he got back. Well, she didn’t know anything about the whole being 1st in the Red Frog Pub and getting a free drink, etc… So when we ran in and shouted are we 1st??? She said “yes”, and looked at us like “What’s the big deal?” We told her how excited we were to be first and asked about the free drink and she looked at us like we were trying to pull one over on her and said “no we don’t give a free drink, can I see your sail & sign card”. We thought she was kidding but apparently she wasn’t. She made us feel like we were making this up to get a free drink. I felt like I was having a bad dream or something….so weird. Then the regular bar waiter came back and said “yes, you get a free drink, what would you like”??? He explained about her not usually working in there and she didn’t know. So we all laughed about it and continued to have our free drink, take our pic and continue on with our day….
Then we went to our cabin to check it out and drop off our carryon bags. We were excited to see the premium balcony we had booked. Wow!!! We were not disappointed. It was awesome. We checked it all out, took some pics and then went to explore around the ship and EAT!!!!
We had planned a meet & greet in the Red Frog Pub with our pre cruise roll call at 3 pm. We arrived and there were several people there already.
We all socialized for a while, had a few adult beverages and next thing we knew, the bartender was kicking us out…because it was time for the always dreaded muster drill! Ughhh… Usually the newer ships hold them inside which is nice because in the past the smaller ships would have them outside, and is usually hot, humid and feel like they take forever. This time it was outside but where we were, was open and had a great breeze flowing through so it wasn’t bad at all. It ran smoothly, and I was even able to get it on video.
Once the drill was over we headed back to our cabin to see if our luggage had arrived and “Yay…It was there”. So I quickly got us unpacked while the boys hung out on the balcony.
We enjoyed our beautiful big balcony for the sail away and afterwards, we headed to dinner. We chose “Your time dining” for this cruise. We had done it once in the past on a shorter cruise and it was ok, so we thought we would give it a shot again since we just wanted to relax this cruise and not have to be anywhere at any certain times. Well let’s just say we will probably go back to a regular dining time on future cruises. It just wasn’t the same experience as with a regular dining time. It lacked the interaction and personalization that you receive with the scheduled dining times. The wait staff did not seem to remember your names and we felt like the service staff was too busy and rushed although at the same time it would take forever to get our food.
We explored the ship some more and stopped by the arcade with Matthew after dinner. We needed to walk off a little of the huge meal we had just eaten. After this we ended up back in our cabin and turned in early for the night. We were exhausted from getting up at 2:00 am that morning and making the drive to the cruise terminal. We decided a good night’s sleep would be good and we would be ready for a full day at sea in the morning.
1st Sea Day….
We were awakened at 6:30 am with our usual knock on the door from room service. We usually get coffee and a few “nibbles” in the morning before heading to the lido deck. We had breakfast at the Horatio’s lido buffet and explored more of the ship while Matthew went to Camp Ocean for the morning.
We met back with him for lunch and then we headed back to our cabin to get ready for the Cabin Crawl we had planned for the afternoon. We got our treats/snacks ready and set them out.
Then headed down to meet everyone at the Red Frog Pub to get things started. We only had 5 cabin hosts but about 20 crawlers. We had snacks, drinks, and got to view all the hosts cabins. Turned out to be a fun crowd and we really enjoyed it. I made a video of the entire Cabin Crawl and will be posting it on my you tube channel for those interested in viewing a Cabin Crawl. (you tube channel- Sharon at Sea)
Keep an eye out for the part of the video where Jamie spills his entire drink while entering our cabin and we all got held up in the hallway while he tried to clean things up.
After the Cabin Crawl, we stopped by the Red Frog Pub and played a few games and watched a little football. It was Sunday, and Jamie kept going on about trying to watch his team, but unfortunately for him, his Chargers were the only game NOT on the TV’s in the Pub and Sports Bar.
By this time, it was time to go change and get ready for the 1st elegant night dinner. On our way to dinner we stopped for a couple photo ops and then headed to the dining room and enjoyed a lobster and prime rib dinner.
After dinner Matthew spent the evening in Camp Ocean and we headed to the casino to start our week of losing…. We later did our nightly ritual of pizza & ice cream with Matthew and turned in for the night. Looking forward to Cabo in the morning….
Hello Cabo!!!!
Cabo is a port where you have to take a tender boat in to the port from the ship. We ate a quick breakfast at Horatio’s lido buffet, before heading to get on the tender to take us into Cabo.
We have loved Cabo in the past and were really looking forward to spending the day there. The minute we got off the tender, we were bombarded with people promoting their excursions!!!! I remember Cabo having a lot of vendors but this was crazy. Boy has it changed over the years. In the past, people would just hold up signs and yell to you to check out their excursion, now they would literally walk next to you for 20 feet talking to you. It was borderline uncomfortable.
After walking around the marina for a bit, we took a water taxi over to the Medano beach area. We have been there before and in the past enjoyed it.
Not so much this time. I had forgotten how choppy the water was on this side of Mexico. The waves were pretty strong and it was hard to just walk out into the water a few feet. Our last several cruises have been in the Caribbean and the waters are much calmer there. Well we were able to get some lounge chairs, and order some food and drinks.
It was extremely hot so we fought the waves and cooled off in the water for a while. We spent about 2 hours on the beach and we had a nice time, but again, the vendors were overbearing. We probably said “no thank you” over a hundred times as there were so many people selling everything you could think of… from jewelry to parachute men, from cowboy hats to hand rolled cigars… they had it all. We were afraid that if we bought something, that would open the flood gates for every other vendor to rush over, so even if there was something we liked, we said no and looked for it back at the stores by the ship.
We caught a water taxi back, did a little shopping at the port, Jamie grabbed a few cheap beers while I shopped and then we tendered back to the ship. We were going to be in Cabo again the next day and had already decided to stay on the ship. Nice day, but not my 1st choice of ports to return to in the near future.
After returning to the ship we ate lunch and hung out in the pool on the ship and cooled off, which is something we don’t normally do (go in the ship pools), but it was more relaxing than the beach even with the kids playing Marco Polo….
We were able to fit a much needed nap in before dinner and we were ready for the night. After dinner Matthew was off to Camp Ocean and we went to check out a comedy show and spend some time in the casino trying to win back some money we lost, but once again no luck for us.
Then off for our nightly ritual of Pizza & ice cream with Matthew and to bed.
2nd Cabo Day……
Since we had decided to stay on the ship today, there was no need for any alarms or wake-up calls. Jamie woke up early, as usual, and he made a lido deck run, and brought back coffee, milk, and a yummy array of muffins and pastries. Matthew and I slept in until about 9:00 am, (I know!! How lazy can we be!) Once we got up and around we headed out to the upper decks.
We checked out the ships mini golf and basketball area, then Matthew went and spent the rest of the day at Camp Ocean… This will be Matthew’s last cruise where he can go to Camp Ocean or Camp Carnival because he is 11 and will be 12 on our next cruise so he will move up to Circle C with the 12-14 year olds…. A little scary for mom here. So far he has had great ship manners so we hope it continues. He has been going to Camp on the ships since he was 2 and has always enjoyed it. I know he will miss it. While he was at Camp, we explored more areas around the ship.
We were very excited because we had reservations for the steak house tonight!!! We have made reservations in the past but for one reason or another, have had to cancel them so we were ready to finally have the “Steakhouse experience” that everyone always talks about.
On the Miracle, Nick & Nora’s Steakhouse is unique because the ceiling is an extension of the whale tail. The décor on the ceiling is really cool and I think it’s one of the nicest looking dining areas we have seen. There is a steep, curved staircase that leads up to the steakhouse from the Lido deck. I had a little difficulty making it up in my high heels, then I made the mistake of looking straight down… OMG, the stairs were made of glass and I was looking straight down to deck 2!! I was genuinely frightened! As Jamie laughed, I gained my composure and made it the rest of the way up to Nick and Nora’s. (We later noticed a back staircase that would have been easier to climb up, but less exciting). We had a 7:30 pm reservation and they took us to a table for 2 on the upper level. It was nice being able to look down and see the whole steakhouse. The service and food were amazing. After dinner the chef even came out to our table to ask how we enjoyed our meal which was a nice touch to the evening… The whole experience was well worth the $35pp and would definitely do it again. The only slightly negative thing I could say, and it’s not related to the service or food quality, has to do with the location of the steakhouse itself. Although being in the whale tail is really cool and beautiful décor, the location had a constant shake & rumble throughout the whole dinner. The table had a slight vibration to it throughout our meal and something in the ceiling was making a noise, all due to the movement of the ship. We just ignored it and enjoyed the whole experience, but I could see how it might really take away from someone’s dining experience if they were sensitive to the ship motion. By the time we were done with the meal, which took over 2 hours, we practically needed to be carried out of there!! After attempting to “walk it off” for a bit we stopped to check out our photos at the photo gallery, I bought a couple picture frames and we stopped by the casino once again with no luck. Here’s a few pics of our delicious dinner.
We headed back to the cabin to wait for Matthew and we went with him for pizza & ice cream. We watched him eat, as we were still stuffed from the steakhouse. We decided to turn in for the night. We were excited for our day in Puerto Vallarta tomorrow and wanted to be well rested.
Day in Puerto Vallarta
We were up by 7:30 am to watch the ship pull into the port at Puerto Vallarta at 9:30 am.
We ate breakfast at the buffet again and headed off the ship. We had plans to go to a resort for the day that we had been to a few years ago. We got off the ship and started walking in that direction. It was about a 15 min. walk down the main strip to the Krystal Vallarta Resort. Last time we went, we entered from the beach, and it was free. We did some research and we didn’t see anything online where they offered a day pass so we weren’t sure what our day would bring. We arrived and they asked at the entrance if we were there for a day pass. We said “yes” and continued to the front desk. When we asked how much, the lady at the front desk said “100 pesos”. We looked at each other, quickly trying to calculate thinking it sounded expensive. Then Jamie decided to ask “how much in US dollars?” She said $5pp. We were like “Oh, OK” … We laughed, paid the lady, she gave us wrist bands to wear and we headed back towards the pool area. They had remodeled it since we were last there. There are two large pools now instead of one. The 1st pool we came to was crowded so we walked to the next one and it was virtually empty. I don’t know if people just didn’t realize there was another pool on the other side or they just enjoy crowds, but we had done our research and knew about the 2nd pool. We had the whole pool with just 3 other families for most of the day. Elroy was our waiter for the day poolside and we relaxed, drank, and ate all day. Elroy took good care of us.
We were never with an empty glass. When we got the bill once again we were amazed. The peso/dollar conversion rate is great right now. We had 5 beers, 4 margaritas, 1 coke, chicken tacos platter, and chips & salsa all for only $26. I wish we had 2 days here instead of Cabo…. Great day at the Krystal Resort. Beautiful place if you just wanted to go for a land vacation as well. We might have to go back soon.
After a long day there we headed back to the ship, managed to sneak in a quick nap to rejuvenate and get to dinner. After dinner Matthew went to Camp Ocean and we checked out a little of the activities going on around the ship. There was not much going on because we were in port until 9 pm. Everything is closed on the ship when in port. We decided to go back to our cabin and order a movie on the TV and just be lazy. We had gotten pretty sunburnt today and we were feeling it. Looking forward to 2 full sea days ahead….
Sea Day…
We decided to go to the sea day brunch this morning. I love the cereal crusted French toast they have and Jamie enjoys the Juevos Rancheros.
Matthew ordered his usual waffles. We get the free drink coupons as one of our platinum perks to use at the brunch which is nice so I had a Mimosa, Jamie a Bloody Mary, and Matthew a coke. Breakfast was great, only thing different I noticed was the pastry basket they usually put on the table never arrived. There was a server walking around from table to table passing some pastries out, but he never made it our way. Not that we needed the extra calories, but we always enjoy it. We did notice without the pastries to nibble on we once again had quite a wait just sitting doing nothing until our order was taken and arrived. No biggie though…We managed to go on and enjoy our day…. haha
Matthew went to Camp while we did a few activities around the ship.
We were still too sunburnt to enjoy the sun today, so kept to indoor activities. Matthew later joined us for some 80’s trivia in the Atrium. Ever since he won a ship on the stick at trivia, he loves to participate in it. Well even with dad’s help Matthew was not a winner at 80’s music trivia, but we had a lot of fun.
By this time, it was time to head back to the cabin and get ready for dinner. It was the 2nd elegant night and Jamie & Matthew put up a bit of a fight not to go since the Thursday night football game was on in the Sports bar. But I won the fight and we all went to dinner.
After dinner Matthew headed off to camp as usual and Jamie and I went to the Sky Box sports bar to watch the rest of the game. We got lucky and a couple people were leaving as we got there and we scored a nice table. Jamie enjoyed a few too many drinks with the excitement of the Chargers beating the Broncos. It was quite an experience being on a cruise ship and watching a big football game. (Well, big to Jamie at least. Haha)
After the game we went with Matthew to the arcade to finish off the evening. Matthew had $30 in arcade cards to use. Another nice perk for being platinum. Each platinum person receives $10 arcade card to use. So the 3 of us all got them and we give them all to Matthew to use. It saves on the arcade spending. Matthew knows the $30 is his limit each cruise.
Well after a few intense games of air hockey it was time to head back for late night pizza and ice cream and turn in for the night. We have an 8:00 am date with Dr. Seuss in the morning. Look what we received tonight… The croc visors…..Lucky us!!!
Last Sea Day…
We had 8:00 am reservations at the Dr. Seuss breakfast. We always enjoy going. Although Matthew has outgrown getting his picture with the characters, he stills wants to go. It was very organized. Things ran smoothly. The timing of characters coming out didn’t interfere with our food getting cold. We have been to 5 different ones on 5 different ships. 1st 3 were not very organized and food was cold, but we just chalked it up to it’s all about the experience. Last June on the Magic was the best one we had been to until now. Although I will say the Magic had better entertainment, the service and food quality was the best on the Miracle. The entertainment on the Miracle was lacking though. Since the ceilings were so low in the dining room on the Miracle, the characters couldn’t dance around so just the staff did a quick dance. So I will say for organization, food quality, & service the Miracle gets my #1 vote and for entertainment the Magic gets my #1 vote. When we asked Matthew how breakfast was he said “amazing, just amazing”.
After breakfast Matthew headed off to camp for all the final day parties/activities. We hung out, bought a few last minute things on the ship, and checked out a few more areas to make sure we didn’t miss anything on the ship. The last Sea Day coming back from the Mexican Riviera is traditionally windy and cold, with rougher waters, and this day didn’t disappoint. We tried to go outside on the upper decks, and we got blown all over the place, a few areas were even blocked off due to high winds.
We decided we weren’t missing anything exciting on the Lido Deck, so we headed back to the cabin and started packing early so we could enjoy our last night.
Our past guest diamond/platinum party was scheduled for 5:00 pm right before dinner time, so we got ready for dinner and went to the Mad Hatter’s Ball where it was being held. They passed out a few appetizers and drinks. They had a few trivia games to play. Matthew loves playing them, so he and I both played. Unfortunately, we were not the lucky winners.
After the party we went to our final dinner on the ship. Like I said, we had the “Your Time Dining” and although we like the convenience of eating whenever we wanted, we missed the more personalized experience of the regular seating. During the week, we sat in 3 different areas with 3 different Wait Staff teams, luckily, on the last night we once again got German’ and his team, the best of the bunch. We enjoyed our final meal, shed a tear to the always sad “Leaving on a Fun Ship” song and left the Main Dining Room knowing that we would have to make the next night’s dinner ourselves.
After dinner Matthew went to the Camp Ocean farewell party and we checked out part of a show and tested the casino one last time for redemption….NO LUCK. This was just not our cruise for gambling. We can usually do ok, or at least break even, but this cruise we had no Mojo. Every time we walked by the roulette table one on our favorite numbers had just come up. We would get excited and say “This table is about to get hot!” Then when we started to play, the table froze up and we only lost. It happened every time we walked by. The luck was not with us this time.
We made one final trip to the arcade with Matthew and then went for, you guessed it, our last piece of pizza and ice cream. Then off to bed we went. We had a long drive home tomorrow after getting off the ship. Last night is always a sad one….
Debarkation Day
We have been doing the self-assist debarkation ever since they started it. We just like to get off the ship when we want to and not worry about finding our luggage in the mess. Since we wanted to get on the road early, we had planned on getting off as soon as we could. We actually woke up about 5:00 am and noticed we were almost at the port so we stayed awake and watched the ship pull in. We had ordered room service for breakfast so we could eat quick before getting off the ship. Jamie ended up going down to the buffet and grabbing a few more things to eat and we were all packed up and ready to go. The hardest part was trying to wake up Matthew. I think he was hoping if he didn’t wake up he could stay on the ship and continue on the next cruise which was scheduled for a 15 day to Hawaii. Well before we knew it we were rolling down our luggage and we were off the ship and through customs in no time. We found our truck, loaded up and we were on the road back to Arizona and it was only 9:15 am. We only made one stop on the way home, and we were excited to get home to our dog Lucy, and boy was she excited to see us as well.
Now the planning and research begins for our next cruise which will be on the new Carnival Vista next March. We have some exciting excursions and things planned for this one. We will be counting down the days to cruise on the Vista and visit a couple of old, and a couple of new, ports.
Overall, I will tell you that we had a great time. We met some wonderful people. The ship was beautiful inside and we really enjoyed the décor. (Even though many seem to complain about it…especially all the grapes in the Main Dining Room). There were a few things that disappointed us… The outer decks were showing their age, which was a bit odd considering that the ship was just in dry dock not too long ago and we missed the Dive in Movie screen, Guys Burgers and the Blue Iguana Burrito Bar. (Not sure why those weren’t added in during the dry dock as well). The water slide was on an upper level, in the back of the ship, barely being used and very out of place. The Serenity deck was in the aft on the Lido deck. It always seemed very over- crowded. It was used more as an adult party area and hangout instead of a nice peaceful place to relax. Also, the way it was set up, there is no breeze at all so it was always very hot and humid. Last thing is that there was a very large stage in the Main Lido Pool area, but it was rarely used, even though it would have been a perfect place for some sort of live music. None of these things had a negative impact on our cruise, they were just things that thought could be improved. We found the Staff to be very friendly and the service for the most part was great. We enjoyed what little entertainment we saw, and loved the 80’s music trivia with Adam, the Cruise Director!!! Maybe this wasn’t our best cruise, but if you ask me if I would cruise The Miracle again my answer would be “HECK YEA”!!!
You can also subscribe and follow my channel on You tube/Sharon at Sea to view my video review and other videos around the ship from this cruise!!!
Here is the list of shows in the theater each night…
Saturday- Welcome aboard show, Sunday- 88 Keys, Monday- No show (Star Wars Movie shown), Tuesday- Getaway Island, Wednesday- Love and Marriage show, Thursday- Heart and Soul, and Friday- 80’s Pop to the Max.
Here are a few fun facts & info we noticed on the Carnival Miracle….
- Our cabin steward Roderick gave us a business card with his contact info in case we needed to get a hold of him during the week. We have never had this happen before. Don’t know if it’s a new thing fleet wide or just on the Miracle. He was great and our room was always serviced.
- No outdoor movie screen, so no dive in movies, although they did have a couple movie nights in theater and Mad Hatter’s Ball.
- Lots of closet space and storage with draws in our premium balcony 7301. We had a huge balcony. Had granite countertops in room and bathroom like in the suites. Lots of lighting, flat screen TV as well as access to multiple video, usb, and hdmi inputs.… Awesome room!!!
- Only had one robe in the closet. We probably could have asked for another, but didn’t need it. Not sure if this is new. In the past we have always had 2.
- Bad wifi on the ship, especially in our room and on lower decks. In our room we had to stand by the door to the hallway to get it to stay connected.
- Ship very rocky 1st day and last couple days. Rocked a lot side to side. Not sure if it was partly due to the class of ships or just rough seas. The seas did feel a little rough the last day.
- All photo stations were on deck 2. Not as many as most ships. They never felt crowded though. We never had to wait to get our picture taken.
- 24 hour pizza station was turned into omelet station in the morning for a few hours.
- Horatio’s lido buffet restaurant was set up in different stations for the foods. For example, separate salad station, the Carvery (which was the main courses, bread, side dishes), dessert station, etc.. They also had a deli, chopsticks, and a burger place which was outdoors (not Guys).
- Camp Ocean was divided by age groups…. Penguins ages 2-5, Stingrays ages 6-8, and Sharks ages 9-11. Stingrays & Sharks shared a room in Camp Ocean on the ship. Circle C for ages 12-14, and Club O2 for ages 15-17.
- Only 2 ice cream machines on the ship. Both located outside on the lido deck. Would have been nice to have one inside as well.
- Miracle has 2 separate pool areas on the Lido Deck, the forward area, starboard side still allows smoking. I get that smokers need their spaces, but was surprised by such a public area still allowing it.
- Although the ship was one of the smaller class ships, it never felt crowded inside. There were many areas where there weren’t even any people.
- Has a beautiful long walkway at the front of the ship with little tables & chairs with windows called Gatsby’s Gardens. It was a really cool looking area.
- Ship inside décor was very unique and beautiful, but the wall décor does have a lot of naked artwork… haha. So may not be the 1st choice of ships for small children. Although our son is 11 years and never mentioned it.
