Carnival Miracle Review
Carnival Miracle 11.3 Mexican Riviera: Includes Aft Extended Balcony
Rating by category
Additional details
We had a relaxing cruise aboard the Miracle in an aft extended view balcony and wanted to share the good, the great, and the minor bummers. I am 40, my husband 50 and our son is 4. This was a 40th birthday cruise for me. Probably our 14th cruise or so, but who is counting?! We’d repeat this trip because it was an overall excellent value and great experience.
Faster to the Fun:
I’ll start with major props on the Faster to the Fun concept. For $50 we are so glad we made the investment. We were some of the first on the ship (by 12:30pm due to a slower than usual disembarkation process from the prior Hawaii cruise) and praise the staff for always recognizing us as FTTF and whisking us to priority tenders, priority self assist debarkation, etc. We will always cruise this way as long as Carnival makes this option available at such a good price. And YES, FTTF is listed on the priority check in sign, right next to Platinum, etc. This was really nice for us traveling with a 4 year old and arriving to the port at 10:30am. A front desk agent surveyed us on our FTTF experience mid way through the cruise by phoning our cabin. The only less than perfect feedback I had for her (when asked) was that our luggage wasn’t in our room when we arrived on embarkation day, but we didn’t care one bit about that since it arrived shortly thereafter.
Cabin Review
Our cabin:Here is our video tour of aft extended balcony cabin #7351. http://youtu.be/2pHH-PCarA0We loved this cabin. It was quiet (staterooms above and below), clean, and located quite conveniently to the Horatio’s restaurant (LOVE that I only had to take two quick flights of stairs for our morning coffee run!). The bed was among the top three most comfortable on any ship we’ve ever experienced. We pack our own pillows, but still, the mattress was just soft enough, the sheets were soft and we slept like babies. My 4 year old son slept on the couch converted to a bed, and he loved the gentle rumble of the engines lulling him to sleep each night. There was less engine vibration and noise on the aft of the Miracle than we’ve experienced on other ships. Just enough to be soothing and rock you to sleep. The balcony was showing a bit of wear and wasn’t super clean, and I didn’t care for the food smell that wafts toward the aft when you are on the back of the ship, but the lack of wind makes that part bearable. There was never a time when we couldn’t be out on the balcony. Even late at night on the coolest of evenings it was calm and lovely to watch the wake. Storage was ample, closet space rocked, and the shower seemed bigger to me than most. We’d choose this cabin again and again.