Beautiful ship, great ports, but not enough daylight
Carnival Miracle Cruise Review to Hawaii
Sail date: October 17, 2015
Ship: Carnival Miracle
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 7208
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 8 years ago
Review summary
The Carnival Miracle is a very nice ship, and it was remarkable how it never seemed crowded. Access to anything we wanted to do was easy with little waiting. We were treated very well by the staff. Overall an enjoyable and memorable cruise.
Embarkation was a bit troublesome. They had one meeting area for Priority, but it was pretty crowded. They said Platinum, Diamond, and Faster to the Fun would enter at different times, but when they started boarding, everyone tried to be first in line. Would have been better if they had 3 separate roped off areas to enforce the order.
Carnival food and entertainment doesn't seem as good as it used to be. This was our 15th Carnival cruise, and we have noticed a steady decline over the years. Thankfully this ship now has the Red Frog Pub, so we spent a lot of time there meeting new friends.
The cruise and ports were fine (didn't have any rain in any of the ports, lucky us), but the one thing we didn't consider was it gets dark by 6:00PM in mid-October. So even though we were in port from 10am to 11pm, you couldn't see any of the natural beauty after 6pm, which is why you go on a Hawaii cruise.
The tendering in Kona is not very good. Carnival was using lifeboats, and it took hours to tender folks off the ship, as well as hours tendering them back on (we were supposed to leave by 6pm, but didn't leave until after 7pm). Being Platinum, we were spared much of the pain, but others were not so lucky.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Deck 3 has a nice, relatively protected walking loop, but you need to cut through inside at the front of the ship. Also, check out Gatsby's Garden which is a semi-secret stroll on Deck 3 around the Phantom Lounge. Sit several rows behind the audio board in the lounge; great view and not too loud.
Ports of call
Long Beach (Los Angeles), California