Our family of 5 sailed on the Carnival Miracle from NYC on June 12, 2007. We are mom, dad, and three sons, 17, 14, and 10. This was a second cruise for mom and dad and a first for the kids. We chose this ship mainly because of the itinerary and NYC embarkation. We drove to NYC from Maryland the day before and stayed in nearby Secaucus, NJ. The morning of June 12th arrived and we made the 8-mile journey from Secaucus in nearly an hour's time. I guess that's typical in NYC!
We arrived at the pier and had no trouble parking and finding our way to the terminal waiting area. This process seemed a bit disorganized. We were told to sit in a roped-off area for early check-in. We were in the 6th row. Early check-in apparently stops at some point which in our case was at the 5th row! There was extra confusion at embarkation probably because there was a wedding and a private luncheon being held on the Miracle and those attendees were admitted before guests were allowed to board. The wait wasn't horrible and at least we were sitting. We were checked in and onboard by 12:30pm and the kids immediately found the burgers and fries on Lido deck.
We were allowed to go to our cabins after 1:30pm. We stayed in balcony cabin 8250 and the boys were across the hall in 8252 (inside triple). We were very pleased with the cabins and space for all of our belongings. For the five of us, we had 5 suitcases and 3 carryons and everything fit nicely under the beds. Our luggage arrived before the muster drill at approximately 4pm. I was able to hang up the suits and formal dresses before we reported for muster. Somehow, our beautifully sunny day had disappeared and was replaced with downpours. The muster drill was quickly moved indoors and was pretty chaotic but it did the trick anyway. Either because of the rain or because of getting the extra guests off, we were very late leaving port. We were disappointed that we were still in port at 5:30 and had to get ready to go to dinner. We arrived at the dining room by 6pm and then watched sailaway from the table. Dad went outside to take a few pictures of Lady Liberty as we passed by.