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We had one on the Jan. 18 cruise. I think it's only open on sea days.

We're booked B2B for next January. It's probably cheaper to book it B2B than to pay for flight home. Besides, who doesn't love a B2B?

On turn around day after the ship has zeroed out it's passenger , you'll be allowed on board. Basically you'll have the ship to yourself for a few hours.

This wasn't our experience on the Magic a couple of weeks ago. We got back on board, were served free drinks at the Atrium Bar, had our picture taken holding a banner, and then had about 20 minutes before the first wedding party boarded. I guess it depends on how long it takes for the passengers from the first cruise to disembark.

thank you for taking the time to review your B2B!! that is on my bucket list :). I'm glad you are feeling better.

 

Do you recall how much the 'behind the fun' tour was and how long it took? Are you allowed to take pictures at all? lastly...can you share the recipe :p

Behind the Fun was $95 each on the Magic. Some of the smaller ships are $55. You are not allowed to take any pictures. No cameras or cellphones are allowed on the tour. We were wanded by a security officer at the beginning. I had a drawstring backpack on and I had to open it to show I just had water and my antibiotic pills to take at 10:00. The tour took 31/2 hours. Here's the recipe.

Warm Chocolate Melting Cake

Yield: 4 servings

6 oz. dark chocolate

6 oz. butter

4 eggs

6 oz. sugar

2 oz. flour

Melt chocolate and butter. Mix the eggs andsugar and whisk for a few minutes, add the flour. Add the egg mix to the chocolate and mix. Pour into a greased mold. Bake directly in the oven at 390 degrees F for 14 minutes. Note: Make sure that the eggs are at room temperature and chocolate is warm enough while making the mixture. Serve with ice cream and fruit garnish.

Sunday, Galveston

We were up early due to the balcony door slamming of our neighbors, sure don't miss them. We had breakfast on Lido and went back to cabin to brush our teeth and pack up the rest of the bathroom stuff. We were to meet in the diningroom on deck 3 for VIP self assist. We met them in the lobby and joined the line for the last doink. Customs took a little longer than usual. In the past, it's been swipe and go. This time he looked up something on his computer.:confused: We got outside and to the red flag. DH called the hotel for pickup. We waited for 40 minutes and then called again. We were told he would be right there. He wasn't. The desk clerk asked if we had cleared customs when we called. I assured her we were under the red flag. He'll be there any moment. Yeah, right. He finally drove up and we loaded. Then we made a stop for RCL passengers. We had to stop and drop them off at another hotel. We wasted an hour and a half of driving time just getting to our van. We made a quick potty stop at the hotel and were on our way. I slept a lot on the way home, only drove about 4 hours. I wasn't on pain meds by now, just antibiotics. We made good time, and were attacked by our grandkids when we got home.

This was a great cruise in spite of the medical issues. I did a followup with my doc on Monday and she told me to finish up the antibiotics. She thinks I might have had a really bad UTI rather than a kidney stone. Whatever, I'm feeling better.

We came home to a broken dryer and have gotten it fixed so now I can get the laundry done.

If anyone has any questions, I might be able to answer them as long as they don't involve booze, nightllfe or casino which we don't do.

Saturday, Behind the Fun and the dreaded packing

We were up and dressed early and grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to the steakhouse to meet up for the tour. They had pastries and juice and coffee set up. We signed in, our shoes were checked (had to be close toed) and were given a lanyard with a pass on it. We got to keep the lanyard. We were led all over the ship, steakhouse chef first, then galley, store rooms, freezer, laundry, engine control room, backstage, crew lounge and diningroom, and bridge. We always used the stairs, going up as many as 5 flights at a time. It was very interesting, and we could ask questions. We ended up in a bar where there were mimosas waiting for us. We could have orange juice instead. We each got a drawstring backpack, a ballcap, a rubber bracelet, a paper with chocolate melting cake recipe, and a hand carved soap.

We went to lunch after this and then to our cabin to pack. It took me forever, because I had to rest often. I finally got everything into 3 suitcases, a duffle bag, and a backpack. We had t shirts from B.O.S.S, and the ship, the Jamaican shirt and coverup, and my ship on a stick to add to the stuff we brought on. We do self assist, so I didn't put it outside the door.

Dinner was in the MDR, we were able to time it so I missed the dreaded tear jerker song.

I had to stay up until 10 to take a pill, and then crashed.

Friday, Cozumel

At 1:00 a.m. I awoke with an earache. It could have been from the underwater scooter ride, the wind buffeting my ear on the Splash Wave, or who knows? I had drops with me for swimmer's ear and I put some in and I got some relief. I went back to sleep, but awoke at 3 with abdominal pain, and pain in my lower back. I went to the restroom, and there was blood in my urine.:eek: I never got back to sleep after this. I was going back and forth between the bathroom and bed all night. The pain was really bad. I curled up in a fetal position whimpering and crying. DH didn't say a thing. He thought it was sunburn.:confused: I have a high tolerance for pain, 5 kids delivered naturally with no drugs, I'm no crybaby, so I don't know why he didn't ask what was the matter. Finally, at 6 a.m., he turned on the light and checked the Fun Times to see when medical opened. It opened at 8. I suffered another 2 hours and got dressed to go down to Deck 0. Hubby went to breakfast and then went down. He's diabetic, so he needed to eat. The medical office was full of crew members trying to get out of work for the day. I waited at the window and was warned that I would have to pay. We had travel insurance, but she said I would have to pay up front and file it later. Okay, so help me already! I was given a clipboard with a form to fill out. I handed it in and waited. I kept drawing up my legs in pain. A man came in with a swollen foot and leg and shortness of breath. He grabbed the doctor as he was passing by and the doctor took him into the Intensive Care room. After 55 minutes, the nurse took me into a room and took my vitals. The blood pressure cuff kept pumping and pumping, I think it was a boa constrictor. It finally unvelcroed itself and flew off. The nurse looked surprised and put it back on. She took me to a restroom and gave me a cup to pee in. When I came out DH was there. We waited some more and finally the doctor called me in. He took my history and examined me. He left the room and DH mentioned that I had had a kidney stone about 12 years ago. I mentioned it to the doctor when he came back in, and he said that was what he was thinking. I mentioned the earache too, and he told me to keep up with the OTC drops. He said he was going to give me some meds IV and sent me to another room. The nurse came in, and gave me two shots. I guess that's what IV means in Croatia, where the doctor was from. lol I was told to come back the next day for my records to file an insurance claim. They put $205 on my S&S card. I told her that was less than we sometimes pay for pictures. After that, we went to breakfast. I was starving, and it was 10:00. I got breakfast on the Lido deck and DH had second breakfast. We sometimes eat like hobbits on a cruise. lol

When my eyes started to glaze over, DH hustled me back to our cabin and I crashed. He went to Cozumel to pick up some vanilla and a couple of souvenirs for gifts. I didn't know when he left or came back. The room steward knew I was sick. He had seen me go to sick bay and come back. We had a late lunch and did a whole lot of nothing all afternoon. I felt well enough to go to dinner and I went to bed early. We had the Behind the Fun tour first thing in the morning. I was determined to do it.

The two shots were both muscle relaxers. I also got two pill prescriptions. The doctor dispensed them in an envelope. One of them was a pain reliever.

Enjoying your review! Waiting to see the "medical" part - though your "leg" hint gave me a pretty good idea what may be coming! Quick question: do you mind me asking how much El Cid cost? Looking for something different to do.

Thanks for following along. My leg did fine. The medical is coming up.

We booked El Cid through shoreexcursioneer.com. It was about $50 each.

Thursday, Belize

This was the day DH was waiting for, swimming with sharks and rays. We booked this excursion through shoreexcursioneer.com. Belize is a tender port, a long tender. Our meeting time was 8:00, the same time we "docked". We were able to get on the first tender since we are platinum. By the time we reached the meetingplace, it was about 8:30. There was a table with a dining fly over it and no other people. The tour had left already. There was a lot of scurrying around, trying to find someone to take us. We had to run through the streets, following someone that was running ahead. I had the backpack, a huge snorkel one with all our gear. Between that and the new knee, it was hard to keep up. We made it while the last person was getting snorkel gear and boarding the boat. We paid for the tour and climbed aboard. Good thing we had our own equipment. The boat had bench seating along the sides with an aisle down the middle. There were 10 people on each side, feet to feet. There 5 guides, who perched in the back. This boat was very fast. The front was out of the water, spray coming back at us and very jarring. The sides were cushioned for our back, but not our bums. Our first stop was a cove in the mangroves where one of the guides through fish heads into the water to entice the tarpons. They were everywhere. There were pelicans too, looking for a handout. Next stop was the reef. It was hard to snorkel and keep up with the guide too. There were lots of fish, rays and even a turtle or two. One of the guides, Allison, took my camera down for some turtle photos. There were schools of fish right under us, lots of coral, and crystal clear water. I got separated from DH, he had headed back towards the boat. He said he saw a shark, not a nurse shark.:eek: The guide told me he had gone back, and it was time to go. It was a short trip to the next stop, where the sharks and rays were. The captain started tossing in fish heads, and there they were, all around us. A couple of guides went in, and I grabbed my snorkel and joined them. There were fish and nurse sharks everywhere. The rays hung out close to the bottom. DH grabbed a shark's dorsal fin and got a little ride. I "pet" a shark that a guide was holding. It felt like sandpaper. We weren't there long before we had to climb back aboard. We had a group from Princess that had to be back earlier than us. We went to Caye Caulker next. We stood in line for the restrooms, and were given an hour or so to get lunch or shop. We ate at a little open air cafe. Our bill came to $17, and DH gave them $20 USD. He got back $23 Belizean. lol We got back on the Splash Wave and speeded back to port. Some of the people up front were getting seasick. They let us off right at the tender dock. I was able to snag a Di charm, a mask and snorkel, how fitting.

We tendered back to the ship, room service sandwiches, showers and balcony. This was second elegant night. DH didn't want to wear his tux, so he wore a tropical print shirt and slacks. No problem, Mon!

Roatan continued

We found our group at the top of the hill and waited awhile for the last two to show up. Why don't they have some shade to wait in? Then we were led to the bus and rode to the boat. On the bus ride, the guide split us up into groups and gave us wristbands so the photographer knew who went with who once we were underwater. We boarded and took off. They had snorkel gear to use and explained the whole procedure of getting on the Bio Observer Submersible Scooter (B.O.S.S.) There were milk crates under our seats to stow our stuff. The bench we sat on did not protect our things. While you are off the boat, others may sit on your bench and drip on your things. Forget dry shoes and clothes. Our group snorkeled first. It was fun to watch the scooters under us.When it was our turn, we deflated our vests and everone got loaded and we stopped a couple of times going down to equalize the pressure in our ears. The button to make the scooter go forward hurts your thumb after awhile. I had trouble steering mine. I don't remember them being hard to steer in Cozumel. I spent most of my time trying to catch up to my DH. At one point, one of the divers took my camera and took pictures of us. When we got back on board, we were handed a paper cup of water. They had packages of cookies and juice boxes also. When we got back to the dock, they took us through their office where there were t shirts for sale. In front of the store were several children trying to sell trinkets. We boarded the bus and went back a different way so we could see more of the island. We did a little souvenir shopping and got back on board the Magic. We got sandwiches from room service, showered and rinsed off all our gear. Dinner in the MDR, and back to the cabin.

Enjoying your review, looking forward to more.

Thanks for reading.

Wednesday, Roatan

One morning at breakfast, well just about every morning, DH got to talking with someone at the next table. They were discussing what excursions they had planned. We had been to all these ports before and had our plans made before we left home. Roatan was planned to be a lazy beach day. That's why I packed the Papa Bear big suitcase with the two floats. I had pictured laying out in the water on my float, roling over now and then so that I would burn evenly. We would walk over to the free beach and it would be a free day. Well, this guy DH talked to was doing the underwater scooters in Roatan. We have done them in Cozumel before. They were fun and we had booked them another time, but the water was too rough and we did dolphins instead. Well DH kept looking at the shore excursion channel all week and he finally decided to do the scooters again. Now I had wanted to go to Little French Key in Roatan, but he had shot that down because of the cost and we knew we wanted to do the BTF tour. So now we are doing the scooters again which cost way more.:confused:

Okay, 48 hours just came on, and it's about a cruise ship. I'm stopping for now. I'm sure you understand.

Monday and Tuesday, sea days

We didn't do anything new this week on sea days except I went down the slide, the blue and yellow one. I could not imagine getting up gracefully after knee surgery without help. :rolleyes:

I can talk about pizza today. I liked the old pizza, before Pizza Pirate. I had it a couple of times and it just wasn't good. The crust makes big bubbles that burn, I talking black, on the bottom, and make sauce-less areas on the top. Not that the sauce is that good, because it isn't. One day we snagged a table in the shade behind the towel hut on Lido. The deck was wet and I was wearing flip flops. I went to get us pizza while DH held the table. I almost fell on the way over there. I got two plates, two pieces on each plate. I went very slowly on the way back, avoiding the wet places. Oops, almost fell again and lost a piece of pizza. I couldn't find any busboys to clean it up (of course it landed upside down) and I couldn't pick it up because my hands were full. I ended up letting DH have two pieces and I just had one. It wasn't worth going back for another piece.

Another thing I can talk about here is laundry. Being Platinum, we get 3 bags each on a 7 day cruise. I don't think we used all of them. I always ask for bags the first day because we usually have laundry to do when we board because we drive to the port. Some days I send two bags. After doing the BTF tour, I learned it's better to sort the laundry rather than put all different colors in one bag. I was under the impression that your clothes were put into mesh bags and washed with everyone else's laundry. I asked on the tour and was told they use smaller machines for guest laundry and that only laundry from your cabin goes in a load. So if I was doing a dark load, I would only send 1 bag of dark items, if I was doing light colors, which we had more of, I would send 2 bags of light colors. I had no problems with colors running. Marti would always have my things back the same day and I would tip him every time.

Monday and Tuesday, sea days

We didn't do anything new this week on sea days except I went down the slide, the blue and yellow one. I could not imagine getting up gracefully after knee surgery without help. :rolleyes:

I can talk about pizza today. I liked the old pizza, before Pizza Pirate. I had it a couple of times and it just wasn't good. The crust makes big bubbles that burn, I talking black, on the bottom, and make sauce-less areas on the top. Not that the sauce is that good, because it isn't. One day we snagged a table in the shade behind the towel hut on Lido. The deck was wet and I was wearing flip flops. I went to get us pizza while DH held the table. I almost fell on the way over there. I got two plates, two pieces on each plate. I went very slowly on the way back, avoiding the wet places. Oops, almost fell again and lost a piece of pizza. I couldn't find any busboys to clean it up (of course it landed upside down) and I couldn't pick it up because my hands were full. I ended up letting DH have two pieces and I just had one. It wasn't worth going back for another piece.

Another thing I can talk about here is laundry. Being Platinum, we get 3 bags each on a 7 day cruise. I don't think we used all of them. I always ask for bags the first day because we usually have laundry to do when we board because we drive to the port. Some days I send two bags. After doing the BTF tour, I learned it's better to sort the laundry rather than put all different colors in one bag. I was under the impression that your clothes were put into mesh bags and washed with everyone else's laundry. I asked on the tour and was told they use smaller machines for guest laundry and that only laundry from your cabin goes in a load. So if I was doing a dark load, I would only send 1 bag of dark items, if I was doing light colors, which we had more of, I would send 2 bags of light colors. I had no problems with colors running. Marti would always have my things back the same day and I would tip him every time.

Sunday, Transition Day

We slept in as long as we could. There was a lot of balcony door slamming that woke us up. This happened all week long. There was also a smoker a couple of cabins forward of us that made me go inside a few times. We put on our Stay Calm and Cruise On t shirts today. People comment on them a few times and we could share with them the giddy truth that we were cruising on (and they weren't) ;);) We ate a leisurely breakfast and made our way to the lobby at 10:30. There were about 20 or so of us. A Carnival rep collected our S&S cards and doinked them all for the last time. She gave them back to those of us who wanted them. ( I have a couple of photo albums that I put a picture of the ship, our boarding photo and our S&S cards in.) Then she passed out our new cards and led us off the ship, through the empty baggage area, and up to customs. We handed him our passport and customs form and turned around and went back the way we came. When we were back onboard and had doinked our new cards we were offered a free drink at the lobby bar while we took turns getting our picture taken holding a banner that said Cruise. Enjoy. Repeat. (This would be my boarding photo for my album) Then we were free to enjoy the ship for a few minutes. I camped out near the shore excursion desk which opened at 11:30. It was only about 20 minutes until the first guests started boarding. When the desk opened, I was the first one to sign up for the Behind the Fun Tour. I had wanted to do it the first week, but we had more OBC the second week. We ended up getting a check in the mail for $5.24 from our first leg. That won't be the case for the second leg. (notice last word in title)

We had lunch at Cucina del Capitano again. We were the first ones there. We had to wait for them to seat us. We called kids again while we waited. We're such creatures of habit. Then we had ice cream again. DGD12 called us 3 times before sailaway. We watched sailaway from our balcony to the banging of new door slammers. No nap today. They slammed closet doors too. We had dinner in the MDR, and didn't go to the show this week.

Great review so far. We are cruising the Magic in June so looking forward to reading the rest of it.

You'll love it. Thanks for reading.

Saturday, sea day

This was a happy day, I didn't have to pack and I didn't want to cry when the waiters sang "Leaving on a Fun Ship".:D Since I had nothing to do, I played a little trick on our cabin steward. Our steward was Marti. He was hard for me to understand because he smiled and nervously laughed while he talked. I wear hearing aids (which I forgot to take out and wore in the pool at El Cid :eek:) so I rely on lip reading and I couldn't read him. Anyway I took my pajama pants and put rolled towels from towel animals in the legs. I bent one to look more natural. I used the robe and pillows for the body, and a silver fringed evening wrap made great hair. I left it lying on the bed and the lights out when we went to dinner. When we came back, Marti was doing his nervous laugh thing. He had seen us leave, so when he opened the door and turned on the light it surprised him to see someone on the bed. He had a good laugh over it. I made another one the next week. It was sitting on the toilet and was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. The assistant got surprised with that one.

I can't think of a thing we did today that was worth telling. We just enjoyed the fact that we didn't have to pack. Well, I did anyway. DH wouldn't have any idea how to pack.

We did get our B2B info tonight. We got In Transit cards to use if we wanted to get off and wander around Galveston. They would get us back on the ship. There was a letter telling us to meet at 10:30 in the lobby the next morning.

Friday, Cozumel

Today we went to El Cid. We had booked it through shoreexcursions.com. It's a hotel right next to the International Pier. You can see it from the ship, very easy walk. We would've gone to Nachi Cocum, but DH didnt' want to pay for taxi, tip etc. B2B remember? We took our snorkel gear and our pool floats. These are the kind that you open up and they spring into shape. You just have to inflate around the outside. We ended up not using them because the water was pretty choppy, but we put one between our chairs and used it for a table. There were a lot of crewmembers here, using the free wifi. I had brought my tablet ashore and posted a picture of us on FB. Then my daughter saw it and we chatted a little. We snorkeled a little, looking for the plane that is supposed to be there, but didn't find it. We didn't stay in long because it was so choppy.We had free drinks all day and there was a lunch buffet included. It was easy and cheap, and we enjoyed ourselves. I would try to get there earlier next time to get a palapa. It was getting late when we went back. We showered, dressed and hurried to the past guest party. I like to cheer for all the ships we've been on while a sip my kiddy punch. DH goes to make me happy. Then we went to dinner and bed, you know the routine.

Are you bored yet? We were sure lazy this cruise.

Thursday, Grand Cayman

Today we are going to do something! Shocker! We booked the Turtle Farm excursion through Carnival. We had OBC because we booked Early Saver and there had been several price drops. We don't drink, so we had to spend it on something. We've done Stingray City twice, once with Captain Marvin, and once on jetskis. Our 7 years aren't up, so we don't need to kiss them again yet. We had done the Turtle Farm before the hurricane destroyed to farm, so we decided to see what changes there had been. We boarded an air conditioned bus and rode out to see the turtles. We have our own snorkel gear, so we had it with us. It can be a pain to haul around, but we have gotten snorkel tubes that had one bite grip bitten off, flippers that were torn and didn't stay on, and who wants blow up the vest or put the snorkel tube in their mouth after who knows what has touched them? Our snorkels are dry snorkels and much better for choppy seas. Anyway we saw the granddaddy turtles, the teenaged turtles, and caught some baby turtles for pictures. We had done all that before. Then we went exploring and found the shark tank and sat on a bench in the shade watching them in the underwater viewing area and ate our peanut butter and crackers that we had brought along. We wandered some more and saw an iguana eating lunch. Then we got to the snorkel area and grabbed a couple of chairs on the beach. We got our gear and waded into the water. Near the beach you could stand up and there were some smaller fish. The farther away from the beach that you got, the deeper the water until it just dropped off into pretty deep water. The fish here were bigger and that's where the turtles were. We snorkeled for quite awhile until it was time to dry off and get ready to board the bus. They had an outdoor shower for rinsing off and a restroom with more showers and changing rooms. There was even a handicapped shower. We looked around in the gift shop and then went out the front door where the buses were. There was a little hat shop there with caps and visors for $5. DH got a Cayman Islands cap and I got a matching visor.:D You got a free necklace when you bought a hat.

When we got to the port, we went to two Diamonds International stores to get bracelets for the girls' swag bags, then boarded a tender for the ship.

When we got to our cabin we ordered room service BLT and roast beef sandwiches which we ate on the balcony and then took showers and probably naps:rolleyes: This was second elegant night, dinner, maybe magic show? and bed.

Wednesday, Jamaica

Okay, remember this is a B2B and don't judge us for saving a little money here. We didn't do an excursion in Jamaica. We've been there many times and we've climbed the falls, tubed the river and been to Sunset Beach. We waited until the rush died down and just shopped at the port. DH's shirt that goes with my Jamaica print dress was, um, getting a little small. So we got him another one. I got a tie dye sundress to use as a swim coverup. I got a free necklace at the door, so we bought another one just like it, not for us, we don't wear matching jewelry, lol. Remember the DGD12 that cried when we left without her? She's been on two cruises with us. She lived with us until she was 7, and I homeschooled her, so she could go without missing school. Now she and her BFF want to go on a cruise with us. They are saving up for it and so we started collecting stuff for them to give them as encouragement along the way. That's who the necklaces were for. We ended up with 4 Platinum gifts, and two of them will go to them also. They are hanging toiletry bags, pretty nice ones. When we were done shopping, we went back to the ship, had lunch, and had Serenity all to ourselves. We rocked in a hammock for awhile until we both fell asleep. When people started coming back onboard we went down to dress for dinner. We did a little shopping onboard after dinner. I think that was the night I got more charms for my bracelet. That about sums it up for today.

Happy Birthday Late! And I am loving your review! Don't worry my hubby and dress alike sometimes also much to the dismay of our kids! LOL LOL...

Thanks. Isn't it fun to embarrass your kids? We cruised with one of our daughters and she hated it. Then we went to dinner on elegant night and she matched us.lol

Tuesday was another sea day. We slept in and then went to Lido for breakfast. After breakfast we played some mini golf. I like the Magic's mini golf because it's not up high where it gets so windy. When we got done, I decided to do the rope course. I had done it last time we sailed the Magic, but DH wasn't too keen on me doing it with a fake knee. A year ago when we went to Disney World and then a cruise with DD and GKs I could barely walk, but that didn't stop me from doing all the roller coasters. I'm that kind of old lady. So I got harnessed up and did it. There was a boy, about 13, doing it with me and his Dad was encouraging him. I think I kind of shamed him into continuing. His Dad started cheering for me too. DH took some pictures. That harness doesn't do anything for your figure. It kind of outlines your belly. Those pictures aren't gonna be posted on FB. I will print one for my surgeon though. He's not gonna believe what I've put this knee through.

I don't remember what we had for lunch. I liked the turkey on a country roll and DH liked the turkey wrap at the deli. I didn't have any cheeseburgers at all. They're like hockey pucks. Can't wait to try Guy's next year. Oh! I know what we had! Sea day BBQ! We had it Monday and Tuesday. Try to get a table in the shade, you'll BBQ yourself in the sun out there.

We spent some time on the aft deck with our Kindles after lunch. Probably took a nap before dinner in the MDR. We bought some pictures one of these sea days too.

Monday was a sea day. We had breakfast on Lido and watched the Morning Show on the big screen. James said Happy Birthday to me and several others We had a Cruise Critic meet and greet this morning at the Red Frog Pub. We went to that and met a few people that we waved to when we saw them later on in the cruise. We ate lunch after that and then went to Serenity deck and found a couple of lounge chairs. We read and relaxed for awhile and got a little sunburn. I don't know what else we did, but eventually we went to dress for dinner. We dress up, DH in a tux and I wear a gown. DH always gets lots of compliments, mostly from women whose husbands won't dress up. We had anytime dining and this was the first cruise we have had to wait most nights. We got our pager and sat in the lobby watching people get their picture taken. The wait was especially long tonight. We both had Prime Rib and it was very good. The people at the table next to us thanked us for dressing up and we chatted with them all through dinner. We've lived in Alaska and DH was a Seabee in Vietnam, so he always has something to talk about. After dinner we changed into something comfortable and sat out on our balcony awhile before turning in.

We loved the Magic! Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

Thanks Jenny, we love her too.

We had booked a cove balcony that we had stayed in before. We like this cabin because there is a break in the lifeboats above the balcony. We put our cash in the safe and headed to Cucina de Capitano for lunch. We took a couple of Cokes with us and grabbed cups of ice on the way through Lido Marketplace. While we were waiting for our food, we called our kids and let them know we were onboard. After our delicious lunch, we had to get ice cream cones and send pictures to our DGD12 who cried because she couldn't go with us this time. She loved that she could get ice cream whenever she wanted.

When we got back to the room our luggage was there, so I unpacked while DH watched dolphins from the balcony. By the time I was done, it was time for muster. After muster we took a nap before dinner. I took a lot of naps this cruise. I'm still recovering from my knee surgery. We ate in the MDR most nights. This night we were near the galley doors. There was an Asian family at the next table, an older couple and a younger couple. The waiter asked the older woman for her order, and she got very upset and spoke in a very agitated way in Chinese, gesturing to the older gentleman. He ordered for the whole table. I guess women are not supposed to order their own food. I felt sorry for the waiter as they treated him like he had made a faux pas. After we had received our desserts, they brought out a piece of cake with a candle and sang "hobby birdday" to me.

After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show. We haven't been to one in several cruises. We were happy to see the dancers were dressed.Not a fan of the outfits they wore the last show we saw. James Dunn was the CD. He asked who was celebrating something this cruise. He told us to fill out a form at guest services after the show and he would announce it on the Morning Show. After that we went back to the cabin.