Carnival Miracle Review
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After reading about the ship for months on CC, the Miracle lived up to its expectations and more. This was my 9th cruise but first with Carnival having cruised with NCL on the Southward (I'm dating myself), the Norway and the Dream (or nightmare!) and on RCL's Grandeur. Carnival made this an excellent trip for myself, my wife, my two daughters who are graduating from college and high school, my son in law and my parents. This was the DD's graduation gift for all their hard work and ours!
It is well documented about the decor on the miracle, and it is a bit eye opening. However, it does grow on you with the exception of the dinning room which I believe is over the top in gaudy. They did tone down the so called grapes from pink to mauve, but just the overall decor was a tad much and should be rethought. The ship is very well laid out with most of the activities being restricted to three decks. The Lido deck on level 9 has all the pool activities along with Horatios. Horatios was nicely set up, but I do recommend that you check out all of the stations prior to ordering so you don't miss out on anything. The other two decks located on level 2 and 3 included all of your bars, shopping and the casino. It was easy to get from one end of the ship to the other without having to go from one level to the other. Being Thanksgiving week, there were a ton of kids on the ship, however with all the different bars/rooms there were enough activities to keep them occupied and we did not see them that often. Also, with over 2000 people on board, everything was well spread out to where you were not overwhelmed by large crowds with the exception of waiting to get into the dinning room. Lastly, the ship was extremely clean and well kept even though you rarely saw anyone cleaning up.
Our cabin was on level 8, port side forward with an extended balcony. This was our first time with a balcony and will never go back. It was nice leaving the door open using a bungee cord and have the fresh air in while relaxing. There was plenty of room and was not noisy at all. The only noise we heard were the chairs from the lido deck above being dragged around while we were out on the balcony. Our cabin steward was very nice and did a great job cleaning up our mess.