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Hawaii Cruise–Out to Sea

Our ship was the Carnival Miracle. It is bigger than my last ship and more the size of our first ship, the Triumph, which made me happy. It has lots of out of the way places to just sit and relax for a chat or a good read. It has 3 pools and hot tubs. There are pubs, a sports bar loaded with TVs, a piano bar, and the usual sports activities onboard. The miniature golf course is well maintained with easy access to the clubs and balls to play anytime. The adult Serenity area is wonderful! It has hammocks and big covered pods to relax in. The hot tub there is kid free so we spent some blissful time in it. It is all the way aft for a great view over the stern. I also spent some time in the gym on the treadmill and walking around the jogging track. The art déco décor in the dining room I didn’t care for but the staff are great! The food in all the venues was delicious! I loved the banana bread every morning for breakfast and the omelets in the main dining room are the best! The Chinese restaurant was very good while it lasted. They changed it to something else while we were onboard. The ice cream machines as usual got our attention at least once a day. They served regular burgers which I liked better than Guy’s greasy burgers and late at night they opened one buffet line up that served burgers and hot dogs. The internet was not too bad though pricey. I was able to do most of what I needed to do though it did block one of my personal websites so I couldn’t update it.

Carnival Miracle waterslideCarnival Miracle poolCarnival Miracle miniature golf

Carnival Miracle relaxation podsBernie enjoying the Serenity hot tubCarnival Miracle Serenity

We tried a new room type again. Bernie wasn’t that crazy about the plain windowless inside room we had on the Alaska cruise so I found a room for only a few dollars more with large French doors on the outside wall. The view was obstructed by a lifeboat but we could see the ocean a bit and it gave us plenty of light in the room. The room was also bigger with a couch and table that we really like to have. There was plenty of closet shelf space too. The only bad thing was it had only one single outlet for charging devices or running my laptop.

Carnival Miracle French door room

We left Long beach 4-5 hours late. Bernie and I watched them loading all the luggage and groceries and boy was there a lot to load! Wow! 15 day cruises require much more on board than our usual 5-7. When they finally finished, we all cheered on deck as we pulled away from the dock and waved to the dock workers below who were happy to wave us goodbye (or was that good riddance?). We enjoyed the sail away party and music for the evening.

So what does one do stuck on a ship out at sea for 4 days? Lots of folks got sea sick and stayed in their cabins for the first couple of days. For the rest of us there were lots of trivia games, shows, reading time, live music all over, lots of food to be eaten, swimming, the gym, the spa, basketball, mini golf, educational lectures, plenty of group walking, TV in our rooms, movies being shown, and Facebook group get-togethers. I met a group of people I have only chatted with on Facebook and we exchanged gifts from our locales. Even now that the cruise is over, we still chat online.

For some extra fun, we played a prank on our nice room steward. The stewards are always surprising us with towel animals on our beds so I thought we should surprise them back. One day he came to clean our room after we left for breakfast and when he opened the bathroom door he found this:

hawaii2_059

Tee hee! Below was his response we found when we got back:

hawaii2_061

We kept moving the towel guy around and reposing him for a few more days then I left a thank you note and $20 bill in his sleeve on the last day. LOL

During the cruise I checked up on my businesses and got a little work done. I was able to read my business messages, upload or edit shirt designs, change prices, etc. I actually sold quite a bit while I was on vacation doing as little as possible with them. Woohoo! Love these businesses!

For this trip I decided to get more involved in the games. We pretty much suck at trivia games but this time we actually did pretty good. I volunteered twice to be on stage for other games and won a ship medal and a 24 kt gold plated plastic ship on a stick. Finally! I lost badly at another game but they gave us losers the same Hasbro card game that the winners got so I didn’t mind. To get on stage for that one I did a hula to get the emcee’s attention and answered a trivia question correctly. On the way back from Hawaii, Bernie won a ship on a stick for what she had in her purse. Totally awesome! My favorite thing was her picture of a dog which was on her phone in her purse and was a picture of George. Heh heh. I know I could have won another game if I hadn’t gotten sick on the way back. They had a Golden Girls trivia game. Damn! I could have aced that!

24 kt gold plated plastic ship on a stick and medal

So there you have it. Sea days are not boring at all. We found plenty to do. More posts to come with our first port next. For more pics click here.

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