Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Miracle Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Monique Williams
Age: 36
Occupation: 401k Benefits Specialist
Number of Cruises: 3
Sailing Date: April 30th, 2006

My husband and I took this cruise to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. We chose the cruise line and the ship because the price was reasonable and we both liked the itinerary plus the cruise port was within a reasonable driving distance. This was my 3rd cruise and my husbands 4th. All of our previous cruises have been with Royal Caribbean so from the beginning we were in a comparison mode. Both of us had heard positive things about Carnival so we went into the experience with very open minds.

My first impression of the ship was not that enthusiastic. I wasn’t very impressed with the main lobby or the decorations but it was clean and the crew was friendly. We were able to get on the ship in little of no time and by the time we got on our room was ready for us. Carnival definitely has the upper hand here. The cabin was huge in comparison to the cabins on Royal Caribbean. Everything was neat and clean and we were happy to see the free shampoo and razors!! Lol. Plus we had been bumped up to a cabin with a balcony from the belly of the ship. I highly recommend that you book early through Carnival and leave your room choice open; they will probably bump you up too.

The food was ok but nothing really special overall it wasn’t the best. I was disappointed and the entrees were just average. I was pregnant so I couldn’t enjoy as much of the Lobster and Shrimp as I would have liked but my husband said everything was just ok. In comparison to Royal Caribbean we would rate it about 6 out of 10. We loved our waiter and his assistance they were the best, but I’m sure that most people thought that because the crew was top notch on this ship. From our room attendant to the guy making the hamburgers at lunch everyone was great. I know a lot of people have commented about the décor of this ship and I have to agree. The dinning room was very ugly but it didn’t really bother me or take away from my dinning experience. Overall the ship was very uniquely decorated and I’ll leave it at that.

The cruise ports were all very nice with the exception of Costa Maya. There just wasn’t much of anything to do there. I would recommend you wait for this day to go snorkeling or to the beach. That is the only port that we would never want to visit again. One thing we did learn was to make friends on the ship and stick together. We were able to do excursions with our new friends and save money. We didn’t book anything through the cruise ship and I recommend that you don’t either. We found every excursion that we wanted once we were off the ship and the price was usually less than half of what the charges were on the ship. We made the mistake on our previous cruises of booking through the ship….never again! Save some money and book your excursions through the locals. They are all very professional and they know the ships schedule so they will have you back to the ship on time.

I was also disappointed with the number of activities planned. I thought this was supposed to be the fun ship. We spent our days as sea trying to find something to do. We didn’t want to lay by the pool all day but there was nothing else to do. The other cruises we’ve been on there was just too much stuff going on to do it all. Plus on some days it seemed that they only had 1 show and if you had the late seating you were just out of luck.

The only other negative thing I have to say about this cruise are the charges that you get when you get money from the casino on your sail and sign card. We were used to Royal Caribbean and they don’t charge you for getting money from the casino. The charge for withdrawing money from the casino is 3% of the withdrawal! I think that is pretty high after all we are going to use that money in the casino most likely. The next time we take a Carnival cruise we are going to take cash we need with us so that we can avoid all of the fees. We ended up paying about $15 in withdrawal fees. There’s a safe in the room so you can keep your money there.

We will sail Carnival again if the price is right and the itinerary good. Otherwise our first choice for now is Royal Caribbean. By the way….leaving the ship was the easiest thing ever! If Royal Caribbean doesn’t catch on to this method soon they will lose points. We were off the ship at 9:30 AM and we expected to be there until noon based on our previous experiences.

Give this cruise a try I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful time and make many wonderful memories.

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