There were 16 of us who traveled on the Carnival Miracle sailing Feb. 27-March 6 to the Southern Caribbean. Our ports of call were Saint Maarten, Saint Lucia, and Saint Kitts. Most of the people in our group flew to Fort Lauderdale the day before the cruise (most of us live in the midwest) in case of bad weather and flight delays. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Airport/Cruiseport South. The hotel was very nice, although it was going through some renovations at the time. It has a beautiful pool area, poolside grill and bar, and breakfast bar in the morning. We chose this hotel because of the free shuttle to the port. We checked into the hotel at about 1pm and requested the 10:45 shuttle to the port for the next day. They took us to the port in a charter bus, which was full. We arrived at the port at 11:15 and was on the ship by 12:15.

Embarkation: For the most part, embarkation went very smoothly. It took exactly one hour from the time we arrived in line till the time we stepped foot on the ship. It could have been faster since there was not that many people in line, but the embarkation staff was rather unorganized and we encountered several workers who were acting as though it was their first day on the job and they had never done it before! They would tell us to go to one line, and then another person would tell us we were in the wrong place and we had to go back to where we came from! It could have been worse though. When we got on the ship, our rooms were not ready, so we went up to Horatio's on the Lido deck where we had lunch. The place was packed and it was hard to find a place to sit, especially with all of the passengers still hauling around their luggage

Ports of Call: Saint Maarten- This island is absolutely beautiful! We all had been to this island before on our last Carnival cruise and it was the main reason for choosing the Southern Caribbean itinerary again. The water is so blue and beautiful. We did some shopping on Front Street (lots of shopping on this island...if you can't find what you are looking for on this island, you won't find it on the others either). In the afternoon, some members of our group took a taxi to Maho Beach, we bargained for $8 a person round trip for 10 of us. Maho Beach is a very small beach that is a 20 minute drive from the port that sits at edge of the runway of the Princess Juliana airport in Saint Maarten. You have got to go to this beach and see the planes land just feet above your head! We went to this beach last time, and it was just as much fun the second time around! On the way back to the port, I rode with some of our other group members on 4 wheelers they rented at the port for $85 a rental. For this price, they had the 4 wheelers the whole day as compared to 3 hours for the 4 wheeler shore excursion through the cruise line for the same price. We went on some off roads into the hills and saw some breathtaking views of the island and ship. This was by far the highlight and most exciting part of the trip, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Riding the 4 wheelers on the island was perfectly safe as they are street legal, and the locals give way to you. Saint Lucia- We were really looking forward to this island, as we were told by our Carnival Vacation Planner that this was a new port for Carnival that everyone was wanting to come to. We arrived in port on a Sunday and walked into town hoping to find a beach and some shopping. All we found was a bunch of bums haggling us for a taxi, and even one man who wanted to sell us Cuban cigars and drugs on the street! I have been on 6 cruises, and have never been to an island where I have been haggled so much in my life. We were starting to get so frustrated by the locals that we started to walk back to the ship for the day. The walk into town was about 10 minutes. All we found was a very small open market with junk. There was a few shops right at the port where we docked that were very nice, but that is all the shopping we found. We ended up picking up a taxi at the port for a 1.5 hour island tour for $10 a person round trip, which we bargained for (if you are going to take a taxi on this island, get one at the port, not in town, the ones in the port are much cleaner and more trustworthy!). The tour was just ok. We saw some pretty cool sights from up in the hills and learned a lot about the island, but I still was not impressed. At the end of the tour, he took us to a beach for a brief stop. The beach was near a resort, but it was still one of the crappiest resort beaches I had ever seen. I am not sure that I would ever come back to this island, or maybe we just did not see the great parts that everyone talks about. Also, I think maybe things might have been a little bit different had we not been in port on a Sunday. Saint Kitts- We did not know much about this island when we arrived here, so we were not expecting much. We were very pleasantly surprised. There is quite a bit of nice shopping right at the port, and that is mainly where we stayed. We walked through the shopping center to the main street of town, but it did not seem very touristy. We thought about taking a taxi island tour, but opted not to after the disappointment in Saint Lucia. I would consider going back some day to explore the island more. It looked like they were in the process of doing some developing at the port, so expect even more in the future. After the shopping, some of us headed back to the ship early for some fun in the sun, while others continued shopping, and some went on a snorkeling shore excursion. I was told the snorkeling was good, and they saw quite a bit of fish, and even an octopus, but there was not much coral like they had seen in other islands. Read more