Sailing on the Miracle

Hi folks. No pictures of VICTURA this week. We were off on a 7-day cruise in the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Miracle.

We left Tampa on July 2nd and had stops in Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize and Costa Maya, Mexico. We returned to Tampa on July 12th and to Toronto via Air Canada later the same day.

We had a great trip and recommend this to anyone considering a cruise. The following are just a small sample of our many pics. We swam with Stingrays in Grand Cayman, visited the Turtle Farm also in Grand Cayman, toured Mayan Ruins in both Belize and Mexico, and saw beautiful sunsets every evening.

The Miracle is one of Carnival newest ships launched in February 2004. It's what they call a "Spirit" class vessal weighing in at 88,500 tons, with a capacity of 2,100 passengers and 930 crew. It has 11 decks and cruises at 22 knots.

Our one adventure on the trip was in Costa Maya where winds built to gusts of 40 knots while we were docked. Despite deteriorating conditions and 40 knot winds blowing on the beam, the captain was able to easily power the ship off the dock and sail away. Quite impressive. The Miracle's engines are mounted in pods (Azipods) that can be fully turned in situations like this. I'm sure on an older boat, this would have ended up in a disaster.