I sailed on this same ship, the Miracle, just 11 months ago when we took a 15 day cruise to Hawaii. I was very happy with that cruise; this one, which when to Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta, not so much. First of all, I swear I will NEVER sail out of Long Beach again! The staff is very friendly, but the whole port process is unorganized poorly. We waited THREE HOURS to board the ship, standing the whole time, unless you were one of the fortunate few who could find space on the concrete planter walls to sit. There is no seating area. None. And all the waiting is outside. Fortunately, it was sunny; I can't imagine how miserable it would be if it had been raining. Long Beach: never again!!

Now the good points about the cruise: Carnival's service is still impeccable. Our cabin was balcony cabin 4217 and our room steward, Nengah, was wonderful. I have a bad back, which I told Carnival about beforehand. By the time we got on board, the cabin was already prepared and he had placed a special mattress topper on the bed. It made all the difference in the world and that bed was the most comfortable ever! Another positive to the cruise was the addition of some craft classes. I'm not big on the shows (never can seem to stay up that late!) but I love the other activities during the day. I'm a trivia buff and they had lots of those. They added a craft class, which was appreciated. However, the staff member just dropped the materials off and then disappeared. He did not provide any instruction whatsoever and it was up to us to figure out how to do the craft and explain it to each other. Kind of like the blind leading the blind! I did enjoy this, however, and would like to see Carnival implement an expanded crafts program. I'd go every time! Here's another small complaint: I typically do the trivia contests solo. This puts me at a disadvantage because most of other people are in teams. Some ships do have solo trivia and team trivia. I know this point is "trivial", but it would be nice to have it divided up this way so that those of us playing by ourselves have a fighting chance.

Because of the heightened State Department warnings about Mexico, and Puerto Vallarta specifically, I did not get off the ship at either port. The Fun Times mentioned this in teeny tiny print. This, however, is not Carnival's fault and, to my knowledge, no one who did disembark had any problems, except for one guy who said he was approached by someone wanting to sell him drugs. Read more