To celebrate my mom's 70th birthday, she and my dad took me, my wife and our five kids on the Carnival Miracle. We arrived in South Florida two days early and spent the time with my inlaws. My parents stayed at the Days Inn Thunderbird in Sunny Isles Beach. The beach there is disgusting and dirty - it was a little better at the beach in front of the Turnberry Ocean Club, but we should have gone up to Hollywood Beach, which is much much nicer. Next time.

My inlaws live 20 minutes south of the port, so getting there was a snap. While my dad and father-in-law were returning the rental van at FLL, we started the check-in process. It was the smoothest embarkation ever, even if it still took 45 minutes because of our numbers. We were on the boat by 2 pm. We were able to get into our 4 adjacent balcony rooms on Deck 7 quickly and soon met our fantastic steward Sue from Thailand. A big shout out to you Sue, because you were amazing!

Sue was able to get us two cribs for our rooms and tell us how to open the partition between our rooms. She was everything you want in a steward. Always cheerful and she cleaned up everything (including lots of smushed cheerios and some throw up when my daughter got sick one night). Read more