A Wonderful 16 day Cruise to Hawaii

This cruise started off with five full days at sea, followed with visits to five ports (Kauai, Maui, Honolulu, Kona, and Hilo), and followed up with five full days at sea on the return. To be honest, I had my doubts that Carnival could come up with enough activities to keep everyone entertained for 16 days, especially with 10 of them being sea days...but I was wrong. This is my ninth cruise with Carnival and it was, by far, the best as far as on-board activities, musical entertainment, and comedy of any I have experienced.

The Cruise Director, Troy, and his assistant, Mel, along with the Punchliner Comedy Club director, Katie, all worked their butts off to keep the energy going for 16 wonderful days. The Carnival Miracle is one of the older ships (and is due to get the 2.0 upgrades early next year), but is well layed out and features 3 pools and several bars and lounges. It also is one of the few ships which still features full production Vegas style shows with a live orchestra/show band (JC and the Miracles).

The Punchliner Comedy Club brought on 3 comedians for the first 5 days, 2 more while in Hawaii, and 3 more for the last 5 days. John DiCrosta, Dale Evans, and Lenny Schmidt were the highlight of the cruise and were absolutely hilarious.

The on-board activities included something for everyone including casino tournaments, 3 or 4 trivia contests per day, dance lessons, deck parties and games, special functions, daily discussions/lectures by the on-board naturalist, and, of course, food, drink, more food, more drink, and...ice cream and pizza available 24/7. The staff and crew were, as always, very friendly and anxious to make you feel welcome. Most called me by name after about two days.

Now...about Hawaii...it was as beautiful and awe-inspiring as I remembered from 35 plus years ago. Kauai was our first island, and we chose to tour Waimea Canyon. It was magnificent and is billed, appropriately, as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". Maui, our second island, was our time to enjoy a beach day...which we did at Ka'anapali Beach. Of course, no trip to Hawaii is complete without a tour of Honolulu, our third island. We elected to forego visits to Pearl Harbor, since we had been there twice before, so we had time to follow tradition and take in a wonderful luau. Our fourth island, Kona, was the only port requiring tender service...but it went well and moved quickly. There we visited the Kona Chocolate factory, the Kona Soap factory, and the Kona Coffee factory...guess which we liked the best. Finally, we reached Hilo, our fifth island, and toured several active waterfalls and feasted on a nice barbequed lunch.

Carnival, on this cruise, surpassed my expectations and provided us a very memorable vacation.  I recommend it to all.