My wife and two children (ages 8 and 10) just returned from the 12/24/07 New Year's sailing and we had a wonderful cruise. We traveled with my wife's sisters family of four and with my in-laws. This was my 8th cruise; 3rd time with children (4 w/Carnival, 2 w/Princess, and 2 w/NCL). I'm also a Carnival "loyalist" because their product fits our budget and we believe they truly provide a very good vacation value. We had a fun and memorable cruise experience on the Miracle, even though our evening dining room experience should have been much better considering that this was a Christmas/New Year's cruise, which is significantly more expensive than other cruise sailings in the year.

We flew from New York to Miami, rented an SUV and drove to the Sheraton Yankee Trader Hotel in Ft. Lauderdale, where we stayed two nights (12/22 & 12/23). We were able to stay there free, as we were able to apply our American Express Starwood credit card points to obtain beautiful ocean view rooms. On the day of our cruise, we returned our Alamo rental car at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport at 10:30 a.m. and then we took the complimentary airport shuttle bus to Port Everglades. We arrived at the port at 11:00 a.m. and were physically on the ship by 11:30 a.m. We didn't have wait in line for anything! Well done Carnival!!

Many times during our 100% occupied cruise, I found myself saying, "where is everybody?." The ship was so big that there was plenty of room for all passengers to enjoy their vacation without seeing large groups of people, except in Horatios during peak breakfast and lunch periods. We found the staff and crew to be extremely friendly and all of them greeted you and smiled as you passed them in the corridors. Our room steward, Errol, was just fantastic and was very accommodating to our requests (i.e., remove the contents of the mini bar from the refrigerator, put up the upper bunk bed away during the day). He was very visible and always knew exactly when to tidy up our cabin, which he did several times a day. Everything was done to perfection, including creative towel animal creations with our personal items (sunglasses, swim goggles, hats, etc.). We booked a Category 8G (extended balcony) and thought the room and balcony were very spacious for a family of four and the bathroom/shower was equally sufficient as well. As for the rest of the ship, it was always glittering and sparkling clean. Read more