We just returned from a 7-night Western Caribbean cruise out of Tampa on the Carnival Miracle (February 18 - 25, 2007. Our ports were the Grand Cayman Islands,Cozumel,Belize and Costa Maya. All in all, the trip was excellent - several steps above our last experience on Carnival.

We flew over Presidents week, with snow out of New York, so the plane ride from JFK to Tampa on Delta was chaotic, but once we got to Tampa things went well. Since it was Presidents week, the ship was full (over 2,500 passengers) and there were many children, but they were well behaved and there were plenty of activities for them.

Embarkation was well organized and went quickly. Our cabin on deck 8 was aft and had a beautiful balcony that we took full advantage of. Room was standard balcony quite well furbished. Food was excellent, a definite improvement over our previous Carnival experiences. 24-hour pizza, ice cream etc. They finally learned how to make decent coffee on a cruise ship!!! The Miracle was a bit garish for our taste, but beautiful. We had late seating in the main dining room and food and service was excellent. Read more