Embarkation<br /><br />We got to Ft. Lauderdale on 1-09-08 and stayed at the Comfort Inn near the airport. Very nice hotel and walking distance to the mall and restaurants.<br />We took the hotel shuttle to the port the next morning and it was uneventful. When we got to the port there was a very long line which surprised us as we had never encountered that before. It moved rather quickly and we were on board by noon having lunch.<br /><br />Cabin<br /><br />Our stateroom was 4241 which was an aft balacony cabin. As usual we were pleased with the cabin and our stewards Carlos and Richard were very pleasant and accomadating.<br /><br />The Ship<br /><br />The Miracle is a beautiful ship and spotless. It seemed someone was always cleaning something. The grapes in the dining room are a little overwhelming at first but you get used to them. We had a booth for two at the late seating which was great as that is what we wanted this time.<br /> Our dining staff was a hoot. We had Antonia as our head server and she was a sweetheart. She is getting married in June to a colleague. Her assistants name was Zoltan and he was a riot. Every night when the entertainment started after dinner he would grab me and dance with me. We enjoyed our dining experience and as usual the food was great. Ken had his usual Quail, Duck, Lamb and Veal so he was a happy camper. We got picked for the Newlywed/not so newlywed game and that was a lot of fun.<br />We had one problem. We had the aft balcony on the main deck and someone above us was smoking a cigar(youcould smell it) and kept flicking the ashes over railing and landing on our balcony. We would find matches and ashes out there every morning. One afternoon Ken and I were out there playing cards and down come the ashes. Well Ken had had it and yelled up to please use an ashtray. There are signs posted right there on the balcony about just that.<br /><br />Debarkation<br /><br />Carnival has the new number coding instead of color. I was wondering how they were going to do that being we printed ours off the internet and the luggage tags are now all blue. They leave tags with a number on it the night before the end of the cruise and tell you to put them on your luggage. Our number was 21 so you just wait in the morning till they call your number and that is when you disembark. When you get into the terminal you look for your number on the wall and that is where your luggage should be. Ours was in the proper place. We were off the ship by ten and at hailed a cab to the airport and were there by 10:30.<br /><br />We had a great cruise and the Miracle is awesome<br />