We sailed Carnival Miracle on July 19 out of NYC to Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. This was our 10th cruise, all on Carnival, so I thought I'd highlight in this review our experience as Platinum cruisers. What I'll do is a day-by-day review followed by some general thoughts about the ship and the cruise - and what we liked about being Platinum.

About us: DH and I are in our late 40's and sailed with two of our three sons, ages 13 and 9. This was our first cruise without our oldest son, who already started his studies at the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island. He wants to be a ship's engineering officer. So while we were sailing the Atlantic and the Caribbean, he was learning to navigate the Long Island Sound and the East River. We sent him a postcard from the Bahamas. Hopefully he'll be able to join us for a cruise sometime again - after all, he would be Platinum as well!

Embarkation: We drive to NYC and park at the pier for sailings out of New York, since we live about 2 hours north of the city. This was a Sunday, and the GW Bridge and West Side Highway were not crowded (although we were very thankful not to be continuing on the Cross Bronx, which we've been doing to go to USMMA. I've decided that there is never a good time to drive the Cross Bronx.) A warning for those who like to drop off their luggage with the porters and then park: the parking entrance is at the beginning of the pier complex, so if you want to drop off your luggage you will pass the parking entrance, drop off luggage, then exit onto 12th Avenue and loop around to re-enter the pier complex and go to the parking entrance. That's what we ended up doing. It's a little more inconvenient, but the luggage is out of the way. Read more