On board the Carnival Miracle

This is going to be LOADED with photos!

Every ship has a variety of rooms to choose from that range in size and price. For this cruise, we opted for category 4K rooms, also known as “French door” rooms. These rooms are interesting, they have French doors that open to the outside with little or no view due to life boats so they bill at the cheaper “inside cabin” rate. You can cruise of  a very limited budget with these and still have the sounds of the ocean rushing by, fresh sea air, cool natural breezes, and natural lighting. I am very happy with my 4K cabin. A balcony would be ideal, however we have 2 cabins so budget was a consideration.

I’m sharing some photos of our cabin to give you an idea of how much (or how little) space there actually is. While we are in a 4K, this is pretty much the same size as any standard ocean view cabin and most balcony cabins, and maybe a smidge bigger than most inside cabins.  I will tell you many cabins can accommodate four passengers, some even five- but that doesn’t mean they are any larger unless you book a suite. They have bunk bed style racks that drop from the ceiling and/or sofa beds that adapt. Can your family peacefully cohabit a space this size? Many do! Mine however can not, we need two bathrooms, we need a place to kick cranky kids, and we need a place to collapse at the end of the night after a few too many mojitos. We always opt to book 2 cabins, and I have found the price is not substantially higher to book 2 in 2, than 4 in 1.

Closet space is plentiful, and there is ample space under the bed/s to store suitcases. There are plenty of drawers for personal items, a room safe, and a stocked mini fridge (you pay per item so be careful!) Carnival has converted (finally) to flat screen tv’s and they have standard channels, special cruise channels, and in house movies. Carnival’s beds are typically VERY comfortable, with firm mattresses, high count cotton sheets, and very comfy duvets and hallelujah- good pillows!

I’m also going to share random photos from around the ship, to share some of what the Miracle has to offer. This is hardly inclusive, there are so many fun little clubs and lounges and sitting areas and game rooms, etc. but this should give you an idea of the ambience and experience aboard the Carnival Miracle and her sister ships.

Some inside shots (including a little food porn)

And finally some outside shots aboard the Carnival Miracle.

Embarkation!

Embarkation day can really go really well or really badly. I’ve certainly had my share of less pleasant experiences… long lines, cranky security people, a traveling companions lost passport, it can just all go downhill fast. Considering Seattle’s relatively short cruise season, I came mentally prepared for a less organized staff, less than orderly line in, and a possible long wait. Carnival said to arrive between 1-3 pm, so of course we arrived at 11 am. I knew the terminal was open at 11 and the previous cruise would have been totally disembarked by then. When we pulled up there was no car line, and just a few families milling about in front of the terminal. An employee quickly came to our car and whisked our bags away- he was friendly and efficient. It went too well- we couldn’t possibly continue that streak of luck! At the door, the initial screener checked our passports and boarding passes, smiled and ushered us in. I expected to see a security line, but instead I saw an empty escalator. We took it up and went right through the metal detectors. Onward we went, to the ticket counter and without a minute of wait went right up to one of the many smiling agents waiting to help people. A few minutes later we were issued our sail and save cards (these cards serve as your door key and your charge key for everything on board, you also use them in the casino to deposit winnings onto) and given boarding cards. We were called on board within 30 minutes of first pulling up to the facility. It was truly the most painless boarding I’ve ever experienced!

Once on board we headed to the buffet/lido deck and found a large table for all six of us, then set off to find lunch. On a cruise food in the main dining room and on the lido deck are always included in your price. We really enjoy the formal dining room for dinner, but lunches are almost always on the lido deck for us. I’m not someone who normally cares for buffets (I’m a bit of a germaphobe) but really on a cruise I lose those worries because the staff are SO vigilant about cleanliness. They man the spaces behind the buffet , constantly changing out serving utensils, and cleaning the area.  On this ship, like many of Carnival’s fleet, the buffet is broken up into stations. A deli area, a salad area, an Asian food area, and several areas that change daily. Todays theme was “Italian” in those areas.  The food was decent, I particularly enjoyed my Asian fare from “Chopsticks” and my new favorite dessert tidbit- a small strawberry cake pop!

After eating stuff got serious. Brian and I headed down to the main atrium (which was freakishly and awesomely empty!) to purchase the Cheers! Program. In a

Nutshell, you get this program by paying $49.00 a day plus prepaid tip, which brings the total to $400 for 7 days, per person. You get a special sticker for your sail and save card and your account is flagged as a cheers account, and you can have up to 15 alcoholic beverages a day and unlimited soda and nonalcoholic frozen fruit drinks. This may sound excessive, but when you consider the price of drinks on a cruise- the #1 expense felt by most by the way, it can be a deal. I am posting copies of the drink prices here so you can do the math. I’m a Mojito girl, and at  $8.75 each they can add up fast. Add a bloody mary in the morning, a few beers by the pool deck, some wine with dinner, and a raucous  good time in the casino in the evening followed by the midnight comedy show and well- that can be a LOT of drinks. For us, Cheers is a  good deal! Here is a little trick too that may make it even better for my fellow Carnival cruisers- if you opt for the “class cocktails” (listed below) you can turn the receipt in at the casino for a $5 match and play card. That means at any gaming table you can throw down a $5 chip and the $5 match and play card, for a total of $10 bet. Boy, drink 6 “classic cocktails”  and you make the Cheers program worth it AND score $30 in match and play dough!

I immediately went to work in earning match and play cards… by enjoying a few mojitos. Soon the whole family was seated on comfy chair and couches listening to a wonderful lobby singer play and sing the standards in the background as we caught up on what life’s been like lately. I could feel myself slipping right back into the Cruise Groove I love so much. We’d been on board for all of two hours by then and the ship had not yet left the dock.

My next entry is going to basically be a photo log of what you can find on the Carnival Miracle but that has to wait until later. I am pretty sure I am due to go earn another $5 match and play card! ;-)

North to Alaska, but not quite yet Part 2

With 620,778 residents, and thousands of visitors at any given time, Seattle is a large, vibrant city with something for everyone.  Our time in town was relatively short, and the focus was on visiting with old friends and preparing to get underway. Still, no trip to this city is complete without a stop at Pike Place market. Here the famous fish mongers toss the freshest catch imaginable over customers heads, stalls of fresh flowers spill perfume into the air, antique shops, ethnic food stores, artisan craft stands, tacky Seattle souvenir shops and funky tobacco stores share wall space with bakeries, meat markets, candle shops, and jelly stands. There are always street performers playing and singing for change, which just adds to the eclectic fun atmosphere.  Every repeat visitor has his or her favorites- mine are the jelly stand, the hot fresh donut stand, and the fragrant incense store. We spent a few hours browsing and eating our way through the market- pretty typical for our visits here.

After leaving the market we walked down the many sets of stairs and hills to the waterfront area. One thing I always get a kick out of here, is the main road you have to cross to get to the piers themselves is “Alaskan Way”. It’s a great reminder of this city’s ties economically and historically to the great state far north of it. On this visit, we had the chance to take our first ever ride on the great wheel on the pier. At $13 for adults, $11 for seniors, and $8 for children it’s a little steep priced but trust me when I say the ride is also really steep and it’s worth every penny. The views were amazing! Clear views  over to the space needle on one side- across the sweeping city, the the majestic Mt Rainer on the horizon. I am not one who loves heights, so I was a little nervous. Okay, a LOT nervous! But really, the cars are enclosed and I was able to convince myself I wasn’t going to go pummeling down to my death and I sat back and enjoyed the views. The cars do sway a little but it’s very mild and wasn’t enough to make me feel concerned. You get one trip around as they load the entire wheel, and then 3 additional rotations. This doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really was enough!

As far as food goes, Seattle is a mecca of good eats. You can find dishes of every ethnicity imaginable. So what does a girl from PA do when faced with all those wonderful choices? She goes for familiar comfort foods of course. Sort of. We stumbled upon the Icon Grill on 5^th street, near our hotel (the Warwick Hotel) and out of sheer hanger desperation and the fact there was a wine bottle visible through the window. The restaurant is decorated with dark woods, blown glass, and fun kitchy décor. The staff was extremely friendly and whisked us off to a table, where our server cheerfully explained this restaurant liked to call its food “upscale comfort food”, and better yet- he actually volunteered his favorites which helped us narrow down dishes.  I have not had red eat in quite some time, so it was a bit of a surprise but I was immediately hooked by his description of the meat loaf- a dish made famous on the Food Network. The meat was wrapped in bacon, and cooked in a black molasses sauce and served with cilantro-corn mashed potatoes. Sold! My husband and children had various versions of macaroni and cheese. I managed to make my great meal even better, with a wine flight of some great reds. All in all, we would eat at Icon again- in fact, we did! Breakfast the next day. Food was not quite as good as dinner but the $5 Bloody Marys and Mimosas were fabulous.

Our other notable eats were at the Crab Pot, which is pretty much always good, plentiful and messy and a late night snack and drink stop at Fado Irish Pub where I enjoyed a really unique drink, the Jameson and Ginger drink, which was a tall glass filled with a mix of Jamesons and an alcoholic ginger beer, It had bite and a bit of a punch and I liked it!

Our night culminated in a celebrity sighting back at the Warwick. One last nightcap in the hotel lounge led to a chance encounter with Elizabeth Pena (of Batteries Not included, La Bamba, and The Incredibles among other features) I should probably go revise my post about The Warwick as any time one has a celerity run in it immediately raises a hotel’s legitimacy right?

And at last, we are done in Seattle. So done we’re currently on the ship at the dock and are awaiting sail away. Bon Voyage!

North to Alaska! But not quite yet... Part One

One personal rule I have about cruise travel is never fly in the day of a cruise, or even the day before. Caveat here, we have spent the past three years in Hawaii and the three prior in Alaska, so travel is an all day affair and one missed connection can be a nightmare. At any rate, we arrived in Seattle last night, with plenty of time to spare before Tuesdays sail away. We are lodging at the Warwick Seattle hotel, chosen for it's proximity to everything fun downtown, decent looking rooms (online), and price. I was able to snag an extremely good deal via one of my agency suppliers and booked rooms for ourselves and our traveling companions (my husband Brian's parents.)

I was going to run around and take a bunch of photos of the Warwick, but really why reinvent the wheel. They obviously paid someone a lot of money to take nice quality pictures, so go check theirs out at their website. Now, on first glance as we approached the Warwick I was a little skeeved out by the worn exterior. When you walk around downtown Seattle though you find buildings have one of two exteriors- sleek, modern, mirrored glass or old worn down brick. This was the second kind of building. The lobby is very small, there is a nice looking restaurant I have not tried yet attached to the lobby that my in-laws enjoyed last night. The room itself is roomy, modern, and very clean. I do have two complaints that you'll see below- one really can not be helped, but the other is pretty strange.

Okay this just is what it is, we're downtown in a big city full of big buildings and everyone won't have a view. Some of us will have a view alright... of a brick wall. My suggestion to anyone selecting a room at the Warwick, request a room that is NOT an even numbered room on floors 1-4 to avoid this view!

That was really no big deal, we spend little time in the room after all. The next bit is a little odder. As I climbed into bed last night, my feet felt something warm and furry. Not a rat thank god.... a blanket type cover of some kind for the mattress. We pulled up the blankets and sheets from the bottom and saw this. The top of the bed also had a gap- that's when we realized the maid had put the bottom (unfitted) sheet on sideways! This could probably be shrugged off as a one time freak anomaly.... except we checked the second bed in the room and hey- it was also made with the sheet sideways. So there we were at 11 pm after traveling all day, changing our own hotel sheets so our feet were not rubbing bare mattress.

Would this put me off of staying at the Warwick again? Probably not on it's own but there is one other problem that is probably a deal breaker for me. This hotel has cotton balls in pillowcase syndrome. As I revealed in my review of The Outrigger, pillows are a big deal for me. They pretty much make or break my sleep. I could probably sleep on a bare floor, if I had a decent pillow. this room offers six pillows, all of the same poor cotton bally quality and it was a difficult night's sleep. If you driving and can toss a pillow into the back of your car, and are offered a great rate- the Warwick is a good choice. It's safe, it's clean, its very conveniently located. Bring a pillow though, and check the sheet tuck!

I'll check in with Part 2 later, and share a little slice of Seattle. Some great eats and special treats in this beautiful Northwestern city.

T minus 1 day and counting, Travelers Rev Your Suitcases

I'm really excited to share our upcoming Alaskan cruise with you all. I think in recent years, not without some legitimate reason, cruising has earned a bit of a bad name. Cruising Carnival in particular is in some circles considered as brave and dangerous a choice to make as say- taking up sky scraper repelling. This will be my 6th Carnival cruise (I have also cruised NCL and Royal Caribbean, both were enjoyable experiences.) so I have an idea of the ups and downs ahead of us. My hope is to present a really BIG picture of the family cruise, for those who have not previously cruised or perhaps have been shy to try the Carnival brand.

Is a cruise really an "affordable" family vacation? What exactly does your basic fare cover? What out of pocket expenses can you expect? Are there hidden fees?  How big are those cabins really- square footage only gives part of the picture after all! Can you squeeze 4 people in 1 cabin? Will my kids be bored? Will there be a lot of annoying drunk people around? What kind of food can I expect? What can I do on board other than eat and drink? How enjoyable can a port call really be if it's only for 7 hours? What's the REAL "tacky factor" on a budget cruise line?

I'm going to explore all of that and more; I will be inundating you daily with blog posts describing everything from the mundane to the insane-  cruise style. There will also be pictures, lots and lots of pictures! This will be a good time to subscribe to this blog or add it to your blog roller, so you don't miss any of it.