Feb. 11th 2007 Departure.
This was my first Cruise experience, and I can say I was pleased beyond expectation. I was cruising with a group of 40+ people who were around the 30-40 year old range looking for "mid-life" week of partying, and just letting off steam. Carnival is sold as the "Fun Ships" and the Miracle did not disappoint, and the open bar card option for groups was perfect. There was a mix up concerning these cards that ended up being a communication problem from the Carnival rep that sat in on our group meeting and sign-up and the ship personnel. They had this handled by the second day, and the separate cards were issued to our group and the charges from the Sign and sail cards were credited.
Embarkation from Tampa. This was the one area that I felt needed some work. I had filled out my fun pass on line to expedite my arrival on the ship, but they just put everybody through the same way and it really took a lot of time to get through the lines two hours plus. Once on the ship it was great, and we enjoyed a great lunch at Horatio's. We had dinner at the dining room the first night because there was no dress code and our luggage had not arrived to the room yet. The food was good, and as said before the decor was a little over the top. Once we discovered the food at Horatio's was just as good or better we decided to eat there the rest of the cruise. This was not due to the dining room being sub standard, a lot of people in our group went every night and just raved about it. My Girlfriend and I decided that we are on vacation, and there will be no schedules (except excursions), or dress code for us!