Beautiful ship, great ports, but not enough daylight

Carnival Miracle Cruise Review to Hawaii

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 52

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Miracle

Sail date: October 17, 2015

Ship: Carnival Miracle

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 7208

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 9 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

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Nice cabin, but since it is the first one of a group the stick out further than the rest, it can be noisy if you are facing high headwinds. I'd suggest getting a white noise generator to help mask some of the squeaks and window noise (we always travel with an app on our cellphones).

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

3 out of 5

Kahului, Maui

5 out of 5

Honolulu, Oahu

3 out of 5

Nawiliwili, Kauai

5 out of 5

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii

3 out of 5

Hilo, Hawaii

5 out of 5

Ensenada, Mexico

3 out of 5
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3 Comments

cbpfromtn    8 years ago

Great review, thank you for the heads up on the embarkation/debarkation at ports. It is nice to have priority on both and I don't see how your mentioning that was inappropriate at all.  Interesting points about all facets of the cruise.  Thank you!

hockeyjim    9 years ago

playing the the Platinum card huh?

glomarrone    9 years ago

I enjoyed reading your very informative review.

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