My wife, teenage son and I sailed on the March 21 Carnival Miracle. It was the first cruise for the Miracle after a two-week refurbishment. Other than a few minor annoyances, we had a great time, as usual. Our 20 year old daughter stayed home because her university classes were still in session.

This trip differed from our usual cruise vacations in that it was intended as a very low-planning, low-stress trip. Usually, we do a lot more research on the ports, their countries, the local historical and cultural sites and plan our port days accordingly. Between us, two of the three of us had been to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas before, and we had all been to different parts of Mexico a number of times, so we weren’t in search of too much cultural enlightenment this time around.

We arrived in LA two days before the Saturday sailing. We spent Friday at Disney during the day, then at the Avs-Ducks game at Honda Center Friday night. We had all been to Disney (although not the California Adventure park) and a Ducks home game before, so it wasn’t much new, but was very enjoyable. Read more