Since I paid close attention to these boards and others, I eagerly anticipated our time on the Miracle. I booked the cruise way back in June of last year, so I had six months to look forward to. For all of you who are doing the same, I hope this review helps out some. Let me know if you have any questions, and I will do my best to answer them. I also know that fellow cruiser Beans (Kevin) is writing a professional review which I am sure will be a blockbuster, but I wanted to give my impressions too.

We arrived at the port of Tampa on Sunday morning, around 11 a.m., and there were not many people there yet. We walked right up to the customs window (I had already completed my FunPass on line) and it took all of 30 seconds to drop off the luggage and be on our way to the waiting area. I believe it was around 12:30 or so when they began boarding. It was fast and easy, and my wife and I walked around the ship first before heading for Horatio's for lunch. My first impression was that it was extremely clean, and very classy. It was not overly large in the atrium as some other ships, but the artwork and the glass elevators made for a nice show. There was a representative from Nick and Nora's right as you came into the atrium, so I signed up immediately for Tuesday night. Tampa was very chilly and windy that day, so we all wore our sweatshirts on board. I believe that the heat was on, because the smell reminded me of the first time you turn your furnace on in the winter.

At 1:30, we went down to our cabin, and were pleasantly surprised at the room. The bathroom in an 8C was plenty big enough to get around, and they had lots of shelves to put stuff. The shower was semi-circle, the water pressure was excellent and the device to control the temperature was pretty neat. There was also lots of closet space -- three closets with two for hanging stuff and one with shelves. There was also a large mirror on the desk and a little stool under it so that the ladies could primp there if they wanted to. Above that to the right was the TV and on the TV was a GPS of our ship at all times which was pretty cool, a forward camera and an aft camera. There were some New York stations on also, but we didn't watch too much TV on this trip. The balcony was large and had two plastic chairs and a plastic table. One of the chairs folded back some so you could lounge in the sun. Since the balcony doors were not sliding, and with the wind sometimes in excess of 30 mph especially at sea, an annoying thing was having neighbors doors slamming at all hours (even 1 or 2 a.m.) and it would wake me up. Also, a few times the window washer up above would come on and spray water all over the balcony without warning ... need to look out for that. Having said all that, I think the balcony was my favorite place ... great memories of sunrises and sunsets and coming into ports and seeing last minute cruisers running frantically to the ship as fellow passengers cheer them on. I could write a book about how this was one of the best vacations I have ever had, how that the Miracle was an awesome ship etc., so I will try to keep this as brief as I can. Read more