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Carnival Miracle Cruise Review to Mexico

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 71

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Carnival Miracle

Sail date: May 28, 2016

Ship: Carnival Miracle

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 7153

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Our latest cruise was disappointing and I'm not sure what's going on with Carnival.  There were guests in the dining room in t-shirts, jean shorts, and flip flops.  The servers for our first 3 dinners were overworked or overwhelmed or distant at best (thankfully we found two female staff (Ellen and Eileen (?)) for the next 4 dinners that were great!) and we were left thinking what's going on Carnival.  One of our servers for breakfast was downright rude.  Our room steward was nowhere to be found for the first 2 days on-board.  In the past our room stewards have been fantastic and always worked hard to introduce themselves to us immediately.  I had ordered water for day one delivery and didn't see it until day 3.  Thankfully once our room steward did find us he was great at keeping our room fresh and clean daily (we finally found our groove I think).  Last but not least, I think the Cruise Director (Saffie) and her staff have gotten lazy.  They were far too lax and ready to be pals with guests in ways that were inappropriate at times.  I understand their job is to get everyone to have fun and to encourage participation but the attitude was one of "you should be grateful we're here."  There was no feeling of customer service or business friendliness.  One example would be when one of the staff members was calling out Bingo numbers he burped into the microphone.  I understand that sometimes our bodies allow things to slip and we're immediately embarrassed and apologize--that's where the inappropriateness shows, he made no attempt to apologize and it was apparent that he in fact was perfectly fine with burping and complaining about the spicy dinner the poor staff had to eat that was rotten compared to what the guests got to eat.  He went on to share that there were 3 levels of bingo cards available and if you bought the lowest level you were just stupid (of course that was the level I bought--it was my first experience of playing Bingo on-board).  I couldn't wait to get out of there.  We met one of the entertainment staff that was worth his weight in gold--Leon.  He made our cruise!  Thank you for being appropriate and fun Leon!  We'll try Carnival again of course but maybe we're just done with Mexico for awhile as it tends to be the party crowds and the leftover staff.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Ellen and Eileen (?) were great, other staff we had at dinners, breakfast, and even at tea were downright rude and we felt we were putting them out for being there.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5
The shows were cute, but I heard several guests state it seemed the dancers/singers were tired. We only had one day with a movie. The comedians were placed in The Mad Hatters room and it was packed out every time, with standing room only--meanwhile the larger room upstairs (The Phantom) was booked with smaller events with very little participation. The comedians were pretty good and there was a great variety. The trivia events were set up in a sitting area rather than in a real space but they were fun. I asked if they ever considered Bunco - a Bunco tournament could be tons of fun and I'm sure there would be a big turn-out.

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
Leon from the entertainment staff and Ellen in the dining room (and her whole staff) were great, our room steward Antonio did figure our pattern by day 3 and did a great job. The ladies in the Spa were all very good also. Most of the entertainment staff was horrid and very inappropriate.

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Our cabin was nice and roomy, clean and comfortable. We never had robes but I never asked for one either. The balcony is small and inset but I loved every moment of using it. It felt very private.

Ship tip

Miracle is a beautiful ship with super cute common areas. I was disappointed in the buffet. The salad bar and fruit was amazing. The sandwich area is very good but Chopsticks was not very tasty and got boring fast. I didn't have any pizza--no slices available only whole pizzas.

Ports of call

Long Beach (Los Angeles), California

5 out of 5

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

1 out of 5
Puerto Vallarta was dirty and nasty and very disappointing!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

5 out of 5
Cabo was clean and beautiful and a great port! We had been there in 2007 and they've got a great job in cleaning it up and really making it a nice area to enjoy.
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