Just got back from our 8-day Western Caribbean cruise onboard the Carnival Miracle. I am a 21-Year-Old college student, and my girlfriend just turned 21 as well. This trip was actually a surprise I gave her for her birthday on March 5th. It was my second cruise (I went on Imagination last year,) and her third (She was on the Imagination with me, and she also went on a Royal Caribbean 2 years ago.) We had cabin# 7170, an extended balcony on the Verandah deck. Despite an illness ruining a couple days, we had a wonderful time and are already planning another trip onboard the Miracle. There are so many things that we missed out on that we want to make sure and do (Nick and Nora's, actually eating in the dining room, etc.)

Since we live in Orlando, Florida, we woke up at around 7am on Thursday morning. We drove to Ft. Lauderdale and arrived at around 10:00am. After stopping at Burger King for breakfast, we could not stand the wait so we headed to the port. Still being sort of new to cruising, we had imagined that we could not board until 2pm like we read online. After a short wait in line they walked around and handed out flyers saying that we could board the ship early (It was only 11am at this time!) We simply could not go to our rooms until 2pm, but the public areas would be open. Embarkation was extremely quick and easy and it's nice how everybody makes note of past guests with comments like "Welcome Back Shane." Those simple things made us really excited and as you can tell, Kaleigh almost ran onto the boat.

Once we got on the ship we proceeded to just visit all of the public areas while they weren't packed. We walked around and took pictures of everything. Our first impression of the ship was that everything looked amazing. We went on Imagination (before the renovations) and felt that everything seemed very retro. For example, the gold elevators and staircases on that boat made everything seem 1970ish. The Miracle gave a completely different impression. Everything seemed new and being how Kaleigh is an artist, she appreciated all of the details in everything. The floor tiles, the ceilings, the lighting, everything had really artistic details that made all of the rooms unique. Things like the enormous wall painting in the atrium, and even the designs inside the elevator doors, made things seem more ornamental. We both do a fair share of gambling in Tampa (We go almost every week,) so we were pleasantly surprised once we saw the size of the casino. It was literally 3 times the size of the casino onboard the Imagination. She made sure that her favorite slot machine was there (Jackpot Party,) and I checked out the tables. It is sort of disappointing that all of the boats do the PokerPro electronic dealers now, but I was still excited that they had Hold'em tournaments. We sneaked a peek at the Phantom Lounge (beautiful as well,) and walked through the other bars and areas. I thoroughly enjoyed matching the public room with what icon it was based on. When the "Maitre'd Mr. V!" was available, we went up to talk to him about our seating. He gladly switched us to a two-top on the main level and I absolutely loved the dining room. Purple is actually both of ours' favorite color, so it did not overwhelm me at all. I thought it looked very elegant and I anticipated dining in there the entire week. Read more