DanvilleCruiser

I have only sailed in inside rooms.  I enjoy the darkness which allows me to sleep better.  Generally, I am not in the room enough during waking hours to spend extra money for a balcony.

I have really enjoyed reading your posts. Enjoy the sweet sadness of the last day!

I bought cruise cash for my mom and me on our July cruise and used it to pay for gratuities. As noted above, you can use cruise cash for anything they charge for on the ship (water, drinks, souvenirs, excursions, gratuities, etc.) The only caveat with cruise cash is that they don't refund if there is any balance left over so be sure to buy only what you think you will spend.

Many years ago, the first cruise I took was on Norwegian, and I booked the airline ticket and transfer through Norwegian. I was told at that time that the cruise line would be responsible for getting me to the first port if I missed the ship. Long story short, I had airplane issues and landed at the airport at 3:30 pm. However, we ended up leaving 5 hours late due to a massive ice storm on the East Coast because hundreds of passengers were late arriving so I did make it onboard in Florida.

Following. Looking forward to your adventures.

We needed sweaters in the showrooms and especially in the Punchliner.

We loved Cookie on our July trip on the Magic. My sister and I both thought he was kind of annoying the first day, but that may have been because we had a nightmare plane trip getting to the port and hadn’t slept in over 24 hours. We both loved him and thought he was one of the best by the end of the cruise.

The behind the ear patch always works for me and luckily I’ve had no side effects other than dry mouth.

The Ocean Suite on deck 7 on the Magic was really really nice.

We had 18 people, and they split us up at one round top table and one rectangular table near it. On the first family reunion cruise we went on, we would take turns at each table so we could visit equally. Because we had fewer family members from greater distances on this cruise, we stayed at our own tables on this cruise for the most part. We had the same waitstaff for both tables.

My mom is 87 years old, and we had a borrowed wheelchair for her mainly for long distances and port days when we were on the Magic in July. The Carnival staff was really good about helping us get her back up the ramp on the ship on port days as it is a little tricky for an inexperienced pusher (as I was). We went ahead and pushed her on for embarkation, but they helped us for debarkation (took us to the elevator and then got us to a porter). Best of luck to you with your surgery and your cruise.

Thanks MJSailors for the helpful thoughts. My sister provided our air tickets as a Christmas present. She flys Allegiant regularly and has never had this sort of thing happen. And admittedly, the choice of shuttle company was bad. We had considered renting a van for the one day but since we were getting into town late in the day thought it potentially stressful for very little return. I should have rescheduled with a different company after reading the bad reviews for just the problems we had with our shuttle. But as you pointed out, everything worked out in the long run, and, we had zero problems when we flew Allegiant back home. Mom still says she enjoyed the trip and would actually consider flying again! She is indeed a trooper!

We love interior rooms. We sleep great at night due to the darkness but normally I still wake up at the same time each morning, whether I set an alarm or not. I second the recommendation that you take a battery operated alarm clock so you can see what time it is.

So I will know what to pack, do you remember if they had a White Hot Party on the Magic? TIA

I do not know for sure. I don’t remember seeing anything in Fun Times about it.

Theoretically that is true. Several members of our family got the $5.00 chat feature on the Hub and it didn’t work very well for many, and didn’t work at all on mine. We were on the Magic in July, and there were about 20 of us.

The room service coffee was extra strong, but okay if diluted with cream. Normally drink coffee black.

It took us about 2 weeks to get our renewals back last summer.

On the Magic last month, my sister got the beach bag as her platinum gift.

Our family tried to use it on the Magic, and unfortunately, we couldn't get the messages to go through. It's part of a free app called the Hub.

The only time I really noticed the crowds was the comedy shows. You really had to get there 30-45 minutes early to find a seat.

if you are platinum, you can take your friends with you to your cabin if they board the same time as you. They can hang out with you there and enter their cabins when they are ready after 1:30, or drop their stuff and go have lunch/explore until their cabins are ready.

Several of us in our group on the Magic on the July 14, 2018 sailing tried to use the Hub app and none were able to get messages to go through consistently. Total waste of $5.00.

GRAND TURK

I procrastinated and never did book an excursion for this port, and I really wish that I had. I am not much for shopping, and really that is the only thing to do in Grand Turk other than hang out at the ginormous pools at Margaritaville. We docked at noon. After a leisurely lunch, my Mom, sister, brother in law and I all got off the Magic. We made it as far as Margaritaville before my sister and brother in law decided to enjoy a nice beverage at the bar, while I went wandering around the stores and took a walk on the beach. I did enjoy the display regarding the splashdown of one of the NASA space capsules. We made it back to the ship way before our expected departure time. I wandered around the ship and then just spent some relaxing time with a book on the Serenity deck. We departed Grand Turk around 6 pm.

LAST SEA DAY

The last sea day is always bittersweet. We enjoyed ourselves on the cruise, but we know that our time on the ship is drawing to an end. I got the Fun Times and marked a few things that I wanted to attend, including a few more trivia events to prove exactly how much I don't know (!) as well as the disembarkation talk. We enjoyed one last Seaday Brunch in the Southern Lights Dining Room, but this time, a larger group of us had breakfast together. I enjoyed the varied choices on the Seaday Brunch menu, and had the french toast with carmelized bananas. I ordered chocolate milk (as I normally do each morning) but this morning, I had a tough time making them understand I wanted cold chocolate milk. After four attempts at getting chocolate milk, I finally acquiesced and drank hot chocolate instead, and picked up a carton of cold chocolate milk at the buffet on the way back to my room. It was a quirky way to end our last served breakfast together on the cruise.

After a fun day of games, fun and frolic, it was time to go to the room and began the process of packing before dinner. I hate this part of cruising, but it is a necessary evil. After one last formal dinner together with the family, I returned to my room and finished packing and set my suitcase in the hall. I went to my mom's room and helped her pack her large suitcase, and made sure that we had each set out an outfit to wear off the ship the next day. We would be picking up a rental van at Hertz and heading to Jacksonville to visit with my sister's oldest son and his family before heading back to Kentucky. Before I could finish with Mom's suitcase, my suitcase had already been picked up by the crew. Not sure that I would see Philip in the chaos the next morning, I tracked him down to convey my thanks for his stellar work during the cruise for myself and my Mom. He really made our cruise the very best experience that it could have been, which was very welcome considering the way our trip had begun in Lexington.

DISEMBARKATION DAY

I am one of those people who checks, double-checks and then checks again to make sure we have not left anything behind. So, after a quick breakfast at the buffet, we made sure we had everything ready to go. As my sister is Platinum, we had Zone 1 tags for our luggage. I had to try to remember all the lessons I had learned about pushing Mom in the wheelchair for our trip off the ship, but we made our way to the Lounge and one of the Carnival employees took over pushing Mom in the disembarkation process. Although we had dutifully filled out our Customs forms, when we exited the ship, they didn't even ask for the forms. We found a porter fairly quickly, and he helped us through the lines to exit the terminal. When we exited the terminal, the porter told us he could only take us to a certain point, but he pointed to a spot where the Hertz shuttle picks up and it was only a few feet further on. We thanked him for his assistance, and made our way to the shuttle. We shared a shuttle with a couple and their young son who had been on a Disney cruise to the Hertz building and made it there just in time for them to open and rent us a van. We were on the road by 9 am.

A FEW PARTING THOUGHTS

After a rough start to our trip, we had a fantastic time on the cruise ship. I can't say enough about the Carnival personnel who all made our trip so fun and relaxing. In talking to the other members of our family, they each had a great time on the Magic, and in fact, my oldest nephew and his family have already booked another couple of cruises. The food was good and plentiful, and the entertainment was well done. My only real complaint was not being able to see many of the comedy shows, but this is a common complaint due to the size of the showrooms.

If anyone has any questions I will be happy to try to answer them. I did not keep my Fun Times, although I wish I had, nor did I keep a copy of the menus.

Silly CCL newbie question... I read that cards are in the mailbox outside your room...but how is this "secure"? Of course, anyone on the ship has been cleared and has their own cards to retrieve...but...still wondering...

The cards are in a sealed envelope, and you are instructed to go to Guest Services immediately if the seal is broken or if the card is missing from the envelope. As far as “charging” items, your picture comes up whenever the card is inserted in any of the terminals and when you go on and off the ship.

We used Cocoa Beach Shuttles to get to the Port, and will never use them again. The driver was an hour late and crammed unsafe numbers of us into the van from the Sanford airport. They might be better coming out of the Port back to the Airport.