Carnival Miracle Cruise Review

We are in our early 50's and this is our 6th cruise, our 4th with Carnival, and our 2nd in a Spirit class ship. We choose Carnival because of the night life.

First, for those who travel by car, stay at the Chase suites on the Causeway in Tampa. It cost $155 with tax, and includes a small suite, a good breakfast, and you leave your car there, they take you to/from the port. Though they did could not pick us up at the port they fully paid for the taxi.

We arrived at the port at 10:30, fully checked in by 10:45 and having lunch by 11:45. Leaving the ship was amazing they do not go by colors they announce that you can disembark now and you leave at your convenience. We took our time, found our luggage quite easily and was by our car before 10 A.M. For those who are in a rush and are willing to carry their own luggage, you can be off the ship by 8 A.M. All in all no muss, no fuss, no stress.

To keep this review short and sweet. We enjoyed the Pride and figured this is the newest of the Spirit class ships and would also be enjoyable, We were right. This was a fun cruise, The staff was excellent, the ship was kept very clean, the food was good, Pizza was ok, unfortunately the afternoon sundae bar at the aft pool was quite good. We ate in Bacchus only for Dinner and our team was fun, anticipated all our needs, the Maitre d was funny and informative. The Horatio's Buffet was good and the midnight buffet was fine though we generally kept to fruit and coffee, notice I said generally.

We had a balcony cabin on the Veranada Deck, the usual Carnival room, relatively roomy, comfortable, the bed was extremly comfortable. Our steward was was there when we needed him.

The ports were the usual, except for Belize we walked around and enjoyed ourselves. In Costa Maya we enjoyed the pool and the drinks in the pool. In Belize stay with the tours inside the port compound. We took a tour with Chris as our driver and guide with one other guide. She took us all around including to her house and dogs. Cost was $20P.P. It was great. We recommend getting your tours at the various ports, just as good as the ship and much cheaper.

The decor of the ship was nice BUT the decor at The Bacchus Dining room with their idea of grapes on a vine was YIKES the attack of the POD people.

Lenny Holliday was our Cruise Director and he and his staff were funny, friendly and good. I was disappointed that when he did his TVC/Movie trivia I became ill and had to go back to our cabin, but my wife found it on the TV and we participated that way. we won some prizes. If you know who Elmo Lincoln was, then we both need to get a life.

The shows were very good especially the Beatles show. All the clubs were great.

We recommend having coffee and juice on the balcony before breakfast, if you have a balcony, nice and romantic. The Room Service though limited was good and the service was fast.

If you like Carnival, or not this was a good ship, a fun cruise.