Carnival Cruise Lines has most definitely outdone themselves with their newest Spirit class ship, the Miracle. It is absolutely unbelievable!

Having sailed with Carnival several other times, I thought I knew what to expect, but the Miracle has raised the bar for all other ships. This is 88,500 tons of absolute beauty!

Our embarkation was from JAXPORT, in Jacksonville, Florida. Even though earlier reviews mentioned unorganized procedures, we had no problems what so ever. Guests were even allowed to board the ship before the posted time of 1:30 PM. Carnival asked that we refrain from going to our cabins until 1:30, as the cabins were still being cleaned, but all of the public areas were available and the food was waiting when we boarded at 11:15 AM. How nice!

The food selections were incredible for the whole 5 days, many, many choices, and varied themes.

The activities were limitless, and the only problem, and it's a good problem to have, was that you couldn't do everything you wanted to do.

The cruise director, Todd, was fantastic... high energy, and very visible! The crew staff was extremely friendly and willing to do whatever was needed to accommodate your needs.

We were suppose to visit the Florida Keys on Wednesday, April 14, but high winds, in excess of 35 knots, would not allow the ship to safely dock.

The cruise director advised use that we would proceed to Nassau, arriving a few hours early. Later that day, we were also advised that instead of having a full day at sea on Friday, we would make a stop at Freeport (Grand Bahama Island) because of our missed port of Key West.

While on our way to Nassau, there was a need for a medical evacuation from our ship. Although there were all kinds of rumors, I'm not exactly sure what happened to the guest, but the evacuation was precarious due to the extremely high winds at sea. Fortunately, the evacuation was successful, and I hope the guest is doing much better!

We arrived in Nassau at 7:15AM on Thursday and left for Freeport at 2:30 am on Friday. We arrived in Freeport around 7:30 AM on Friday and left for our journey back to JAXPORT around 4:00 PM.

Debarkation was a smooth process, with Carnival now offering a new process called self-assist luggage. This is for guest who can carry all of their luggage from the ship, which means you don't have to sit your bags outside the door before midnight to be picked up. The self-assist guests are called first for debarkation. We were in the car and head home by 9:30 AM, already making plans for our next cruise!