mikechass

Just wanted to add.... We did the March 25th sailing. We also found it VERY rocky on the ship.

We have done 13+ cruises and I know I normally don't feel as much shifting and rolling as I did on that itinerary.

We did the Western the next week and it wasn't nearly as bad but still felt a lot of movement.

Also, have to agree about the smell although it didn't effect our room. Just the hallway and landings..

Lastly, Grand Turk was stunning! I totally feel the same way about that island but we just walked off the ship and sat on the beach. It took our breath away!! Loved it there.

I second the GoPortCanaveral. It was excellent.

Thanks for this, we were on this cruise, when the announcement came over the PA system we all stopped and said a little prayer.

I also wondered if anyone listened when they were asked to stay off the decks so the patient could get off the ship without any issues.

Seems like a lot of people watching all this go down.

Thankful they are doing well now. Scary stuff

Looks like they raised prices recently (was $15 last review I saw where it was mentioned). Two questions; First, once you paid were you limited to 90 minutes or is that just the amount of time your kids used it? Second, were you able to use your sign & sail card to pay or did you need cash?

 

Thanks for the review! We appreciate your help in clarifying the above!

We could have used it much longer, but we were later getting off the ship. It was a great set up.

As for paying, I used a credit card, I believe it was cash or credit. No S&S card.

The kids loved it and this was the cheapest option we saw for Zip Lining on both the cruises we ended up taking.

The first part took quite a while. I said 30 mins, my hubby seemed to think it was closer to 45.

Getting them all fit and ready with the equipment was the reason for the delay.

Once they were ready, it wasn't long between rides at all.

Also, they let the kids do it in their swimsuits and without shoes etc.

Normally, the zip line requires runners and something like shorts and a tshirt to ride. This wasn't the case here.

The price was $10 for my 12 year old and $20 for my 15 year old. So I guess it works out to $15 per kid!! haha

Thanks for reading!!

As an FYI in case you decide to sail Carnival again - on the newer ships (Dream class), the inside cabins are much smaller than the oceanview cabins. Insides are about 185 sq feet where the oceanview are 220 square feet. Oceanviews also include a couch. If you want the oceanview size but an interior price - go for a porthole cabin - on the Dream class, they are the same size as an oceanview.

 

Great review and glad you enjoyed your B2B cruises. And yes, the CDN $ does suck right now; it makes paying for cruises that little bit more painful, doesn't it?

This is GREAT to know!!! Thanks...

We got some wonderful prices for future cruises but the size of the room was frustrating.

The cost is hard to swallow when you are only getting 60 cents to their $1 but it is what it is.

Thanks very much!!!

I loved Dr E also, he is one of my favorites. My question is this is our first B2B and I was just wondering if you can tell me a few things about it. I am a gold member we will be on the same ship and the same cabin can you tell me what the routine for that would be and anything else you can tell me. I would greatly appreciate it thank you

So our B2B was very simple.

We woke up around 815, they do an announcement that runs into cabins so you can't sleep in later then that. haha.

Bring your sign and sail cards and your passports with you when you dress and leave the room

You will head down to the dining room (that's pretty standard on the 3 we have done)

We had to be there for 930

You will check in with a staff member, they had coffee/tea/juice/water and all sorts of pastries to snack on.

They will check you in, then give you your new sign and sail cards and take your new picture for the card.

At this point you have finished your first cruise and are kinda in limbo so to speak. The next cruise hasn't started but the last cruise is over. So you have no wifi or internet, you have no folio number and no drink package or account to charge things to. ( this lasted awhile, I'd say about 2 hours after we were allowed back on the ship to start the next leg of the trip. It was somewhat frustrating because we were thristy and hot and wanted to use our wifi to play on FB and what not but we had no access)

Once the ship is down to 25 passengers, they will have you go take a B2B photo with the director and the rest of the group. Then you will exit the ship, walk down to customs, walk past an agent who just glances at your passport and back you go to the ship. They will use your new card to "ding" you back on and you are left alone to play alllll by your self till they start general boarding around noon.

We went and reserved deck chairs on the 11th floor to watch the sail away party but also have seats in the shade to relax at. We also went and ate at the Italian restaurant instead of the buffet since we had already had that food for a week. It was quiet and relaxed and the food was excellent.

Just remember that the two cruises are in fact separate. So pay up the bills, make sure you've tipped everyone and are all ready to enjoy the last night of the first cruise and the turn around day which are when you will really really really love a B2B

** we were approached by the staff in the dining room on the second last day of the first week to see where we wanted to be seated and what time we wanted to eat for the second week, this has never happened before but Carnival really was wonderful with our B2B. I found them to be the most attentive to the fact that we had decided to stay on and keep traveling with them. ***

Hope that helps to answer any questions you have... please let me know if I can help with anything else.

You mentioned a beach at Amber Cove. I was under the impression that it was only a pool. Is a beach actually within walking distance? And I agree....Grand Turk is wonderful..one of my favorite stops!

Sorry, you are correct, it was a pool but it is lovely. They have a zip line, unlimited for $10 for kids and $20 for anyone over 12. It was excellent. It took about 30 mins for them to get set up but once they had done that the kids were able to go up and down about 15 times in a 90 min setting.

There were lots of chairs available and lots of places to shop/find drinks and snacks and washrooms around.

They also had a "caribbean Elvis" who did a bunch of fun activities and dancing that were totally find for kids to be a part of and watch. Sometimes at those places, it is more of an adult show but this was fun!

Do you know if you buy a bottle of wine at a port on one of the first days, do they hold it until the end of your 2nd cruise or do you get it after the first cruise.

So when we got off and then immediately back on ( the ship needed to reach zero count before the next cruise could start) we were asked about wine... if we had bought and wanted to use that towards our second half of the trip we were allowed. They said it would be delivered to the room by dinner that evening if we wanted it. We hadn't purchased anything but that was what we were told by our babysitter while we waited for our time to zip through customs and allowed to reenter the ship. Hope that helps. Maybe double check with guest services before you leave for your first port just to be sure..

Home and Happy!

We had a wonderful trip. There were some ups and downs but all in all it was a great trip and we will book again.

We have done many cruises, and several b2b's.

I won't post to much of a review but will give you a bit of how we saw things on this trip for anyone interested.

I am also happy to answer any questions if you have any about Magic should you have any.

For reference, we are a family of 4 from Canada, so our dollar sucks but our manners are top notch.

Me (40) DH (42) DS(15) and DD (12)

We do a "family" two week trip every two years with the kids but have done several cruises alone or as hosts with 35 other people over the last 10 years.

We've sailed Celebrity, Azamara, RCCL, Princess, NCL, and Carnival

We don't drink, and our kids always want to stay with us so we didn't buy any booze or use the kids clubs at all.

There were a crap load of kids seeing as it was Spring Break. The ship was packed and I was told by Dr E that we had 1800 kids on the first cruise alone... the second week was quieter. It was still full but more adults.

We flew to Orlando from Winnipeg.

Used Goportcanaval.com and loved it. Great service.

Stayed at a cheaper hotel and MAN ALIVE that wasn't a good plan.

Econo Lodge by Florida Mall is exactly what you pay for.

The front desk girl was lovely, but EVERYONE else on the staff couldn't care less about being there... it wasn't a good hotel. Phones in rooms didn't work, we had 4 of us and they only ever gave us 2 towels... I had to "borrow" some from a cart that was in the hall.

The grounds are nice enough.

Ice had a terrible taste and the water never got cold enough for a drink.

We loved the location though and found lots to walk to for our 2 days before and 1 after the two week cruise so for that reason it was tolerable.

The mall is 15 mins away, lots of shopping to be had. Great place. We used Uber to get to The Cheesecake Factory and then walked to Miller's Ale House as well. Great food, lots of fun to be.

PORTS

As for the cruise, we had wonderful itineraries, Eastern then Western Caribbean.

Grand Turk was far and away our favorite port.

We hadn't been there before (also hadn't been to Roatan, Costa Maya, Amber Cove, Belize )

Grand Turk will be on my list of best places we have been without question.

They have it set up amazing... lots of space, we got off around noon, and found chairs right away. We were by far some of the later people off the ship, we aren't rushers when on vacation. We get up and enjoy the mornings, eat and hang out catching up with FB and people back home. Then we leave and see what there is to see.

Amber Cove was nice enough. There was a beach right off the ship. It was pretty much like most Caribbean stops.

Roatan was also okay. I didn't like that beach set up much at all. There wasn't even a third of the seating they needed for two Carnival ship that were in port that day.

Belize we did a ship excursion (only one on the whole 14 day trip) Dr E suggested we do one since there isn't much at the pier in that stop. It was good, we did the Bacab Family Eco Park. It was pretty and there was a lunch (unlimited juice and food while at the park). There was an hour long bus ride to get there. the tour guide was funny and told us all about her island. It was enjoyable, and comfy with AC and a big comfy bus.

Costa Maya was shopping shopping shopping. We did find a pool and a couple chairs so we had a break from the heat and could cool off but it wasn't much more then a shopping hub.

Our other stops were St Thomas, San Juan, Cozumel all of which we had been to before and enjoyed.

THE SHIP.

We had an inside room, the kids like that best. We enjoy sleeping in a bit and the size of the rooms don't change that much.

This is where we noticed that Carnival is different then other ships we've been on.

These rooms are TINY. No chair, no couch, just a smallish counter and the TV.

There is one plug area with two spots to plug in (for the whole room, which is brutal) . I did however have a power bar and several extension cords that never caused any issues bringing aboard. I was glad I packed those or we would have been fighting for charging stations.

The storage for 4 people is very tight. We had to keep lots in our suitcases under the beds.

My kids are adult size so the uppers they slept in weren't very comfy but they managed for the 14 days.

We had a VERY rough 36 hours after leaving Orlando that first week. Someone else likely mentioned it but both my son and I weren't feeling well AT ALL until the Monday stop in Amber Cove.

We also felt a TON of shaking and what I can only describe as almost feeling like someone is kicking the bed whenever we sailed for a long period of time so sea days and every single night. It was horrible for sleeping several night in a row. I did mention it on my survey but didn't bother with the front desk people. Nothing they could do about it anyways.

I honestly thought my husband was kicking me while we slept because it was so so so aggressive.

We had a wonderful Steward.... he did clean our room twice a day, provided robes for all of us, and did towel animals every night which we loved. He also brought ice twice a day.

We didn't give him anything extra until after our two weeks so nothing was "bribed" so to speak.

Also we loved the HUB app. It was so helpful with the "whats happening" feature. We didn't pay for the chat feature because we all did the social package for internet. iMessage, snap chat, Instagram, FB and Twitter all worked so we just texted with each other the whole time. Didn't need to pay the extra $5 per person per week expense to talk on that app.

FOOD

We loved the food on the ship.

We had 6 pm dining both weeks, same table and same set of waiters.

I wish they let the staff do their jobs rather then sing and dance and have "showtime" every second night.

People are soooooo needy at dinner.

We had a table near us that had 12 people at it.

5 gluten free

3 vegans and

2 with allergies to onions and garlic.... AT ONE TABLE!!!

The staff don't have time to sing and dance and perform etc. I personally find it degrading to these hard working people. They don't enjoy it, it takes up a lot of their precious time, and just really puts a kink in their routines.

Dr E was/is/will always be the best director we have ever had.

He is awesome. He made the muster drill beyond fun, he was everywhere, always "on" and very very good.

Carnival has a winner with that guy for sure.

We enjoyed the shows on the ship. Flick was great, 88 keys was good, the rock show was always good. We also went to most of the pg comedy shows and found them to be good. We loved Lenny Scmidt he was the best one on while we were aboard.

Movies under the stars was wonderful. We saw Moana, and Sing both of which were great. My 15 year old didn't watch those but the 3 of us enjoyed them.

SHOPPING

on board was alright. Once you've shopped a couple times on ships you know what they have.

They did have a great sale for the gold by the inch booth on the last sea day, my son bought a chain that would have been $10 an inch for $3 an inch and it came with a free bracelet that he got for his sister.

All in all we liked Carnival.

They went above and beyond for us as b2b'ers.

Fruit basket, bottle of wine, free pictures and all sorts of thank yous from so many important people on the ship.

There were 18 of us out of 4500 that first week.

They were excellent that way.

Also we didn't have FTTF and had only done one cruise before with Carnival but boarding was quick and easy and we were onboard in 20 mins.

We got to the pier at 12:20 pm. By the time we got through the line and the intake process we were on the ship by 1245. The rooms were ready at 130 we found a spot on the Lido buffet right away.

Ice cream machines were working the full two weeks.

There was always something around to nibble on.

Desserts were good, meals were great in the dining room. We enjoyed the American Table menu. Try the Fried Chicken, honestly, I got it as a joke and it was beyond delish. It was moist, flavourful, hot, and crunchy. We also always enjoyed the soups, and the "always wanted to try" feature was fun for my guys. My kids and hubby tried every single thing on there. Including the Ox Tongue and Frog Legs. I however stuck to soup and something normal... haha

Somethings I prefer to Royal and Celebrity, (rooms, service, overall ship layout) but will we sail Carnival again??? Without hesitation we will!!

Any questions, please let me know. I'm happy to try and help. Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

Safe Travels.

Chass

Dr. E! Best CD we have ever had!

YEAH!!!

This was a total selling feature for us and I am beyond excited...

We are on for a b2b and I know the kids always get a kick out of the CD especially when they are great.

Looking forward to it.

Thanks!!

Chass

We board on the 25th... can't wait.

We are doing a b2b, so I am not to nervous about missing things since we get a second opportunity the second week.

Thanks for this thread, I am excited to see what others ask.

Who was the cruise director??

Chassity

Thanks everyone for the insight.

We have done several beaches in St. Thomas,

Sapphire and Secret Harbour both were lovely. Maegan's Bay was far to crowded for my liking but it was somewhere I wanted to try at least once.

Just trying to see since were sailing Carnival Magic if one would be better then the other.

Also, haven't been to Secret Harbor in about 8 years.

Sapphire was about 6 years ago I believe.

Are there chairs and shade at Secret Harbour? I think when we went we just brought towels and hung out for a couple hours because our original beach ( Malibu I believe it was called) was no longer available...

So from where we dock, I believe I have now confirmed

Sapphire Beach is about $50 US for my family of 4 to get to and then another $50 to get back. We can rent chairs for $12 and we don't need umbrella's for shade. Also does anyone know if there is wifi (15/12 year old want to post beach pictures to their friends on SnapChat and Instagram)

Secret Harbour if I remember right was pretty secluded, lovely and had lots of iguana's and pelicans.

I don't remember any chairs but again, we may just have thrown towels on the beach and lazed around...

I believe $10 a person for cab fare but its closer to the pier then Sapphire?

Does it sound like I know what I'm saying?? haha

Thanks so much for taking time out of what must be a VERY VERY busy sked to do this review.

We leave on the 25th (fly to Orlando on the 23rd) and CAN NOT WAIT to board.

So so very excited.

I have two kids (DS15 and DD 12) they have never been fans of the kids clubs on the ship, they usually stay with us for the most part.

I can very much relate to you being the planner, and the rest of the family just going with the flow.

This is my first time planning/prepping for a trip while working so I am struggling with the list of stuff I have to do and the number of days I still have to do it.

Looking forward to the rest of the review. I will be scanning for it while I make my packing lists and "things I need to buy/do/clean" before we leave list!!!

Thanks again.

Chassity

Thanks so much for those pictures and all the responses....

I just didn't know if the $80 US a person ($70 for one of our four) is worth it to spend 2 hours at the monkey sanctuary...

Especially after you factor in the 3 hours travel time.

Maybe just lazing by the pool with those comfy chairs would be fun??

Thanks again

Safe Travels.

Chass

WONDERFUL!! Thanks very much . Do you happen to know how much the $16 a day plan is discounted if its bought for the whole cruise? We are on a B2B so we have to figure something out for the 14 days we are traveling. My hubby is a sports reporter, he will lose his mind not to know the NHL and MLB scores for 2 weeks. I'm good with FB and Instagram.. ha

Thanks again

I don't know if gmail will work on the $5/day plan but I can confirm it works on the $16/day plan and that plan is discounted if you buy it for the entire cruise. From Carnival:

 

Carnival's Wi-Fi Service and HUB App

 

To keep you connected while at sea, every one of our ships provides satellite Internet access facilitated through the HUB Internet Café and through the bow-to-stern ship-wide Wi-Fi network.

 

What plans are offered?

New Upgraded Plans

We have upgraded our communications technology to the latest, state of the art systems and guests now have access to much faster speeds at an affordable price! Want to share that awesome photo? Need to Skype home? Our ships now feature our awesome new internet plans. No other cruise line offers these speeds at these great prices!

 

We offer three different types of plans that can be purchased for either a 24 hour period or for the entire length of the cruise at a discount - price for voyage plans vary by length of cruise:

 

• Social ($5 USD per day) – Access the most popular websites and applications. Includes: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Does not include access to other websites or apps.
  
• Value ($16 USD per day) – Surf all your favorite sites, including e-mail, news, sports, weather, banking and finance. Note: Does not support Skype calling or music streaming (such as Spotify).
  
• Premium ($25 USD per day) – From e-mail to Skype, our Premium plan promises the fastest possible connection, at speeds up to 3 times faster than our Value Plan. Supports Skype video calling, where coverage allows.
  

Users may easily upgrade from one plan to another. Users may use one device at a time on each plan, including either their personal devices or one of our on-board computers. All plans exclude video streaming (such as Netflix or Hulu) and Snapchat. Cellular-network-dependent WiFi Calling and Facetime services are also not supported at this time. Printing is offered at no charge.

 

 

To access Wi-Fi, simply turn on your device's Wi-Fi feature and you will receive the information needed. You can do this anywhere onboard the ship.

Hi everyone.

I looked under the excursions section of our upcoming Magic Cruise. There is a great little monkey one that peaked my interest but there are a few people saying the 3 hours to get there and back was a bit much.

I know my kids would love the monkey part so I'm leaning towards booking it for our family of 4 but I thought I'd check here and see if anyone is really all that experienced with this port or this actual excursion.

Any advice/help would be appreciated. Thanks so much

Also, I did search for Amber Cove as a port in the forum but I didn't find it anywhere really so I figured I'd just ask.

Chass.

Thanks everyone. I came on here for the same reason. Being on a back to back cruise next month on our Magic cruise, keeping my 15 year old son's streaks going is very important and while they aren't to ME... to him they are..... so I had hoped to get some answers. So maybe he could have the more expensive package on Sea Days and the other ones maybe he can just get the wifi from ports to keep the streaks alive..

Just to clarify, Google email only works on the $16 a day package ? I am good with FB, Instagram and messaging etc... for $5 a day, but I will have to log into my email a few times a week just to check in.

Thanks for the posts everyone.

Really happy there is a "potential plan" for my boy. He will be thrilled.

Just wanted to say that while I booked two weeks ago with this site, I had requested a roll away for the room. The lady from GPC said she would make note of it on the reservation.

She called me back yesterday and told me they can't make that request, but wanted me to know so I could make the request directly with the hotel itself. I can't believe they would even take the time to do this. I was super impressed...

Hoping it continues. They were excellent to deal with so far!

Thanks SO SO much for the review... I have read it and shared it with some FB friends who keep asking me WHY we cruise! They always say they would be "bored" on a ship so I thought I'd show them how bored you guys were.. ha.

Have a wonderful time away on your next adventure.

We leave in a couple months!

CAN NOT WAIT!!!! :)

We are leaving at the end of March on Magic.

Glad to read about the Hub app.

Excited to read about the rest of the cruise.

Thanks again for the time and effort required for a review.

Chass

Hi everyone.

We are a family of four.

Traveling on Spring Break.

I have found a deal staying at the Holiday Inn Express which is newly renovated and provides a free breakfast too

We need two nights pre cruise. One post cruise.

We fly out at 7 am from MCO so we need to be there at 5 ish (international flights back to Canada)

We land at 9 pm on the Thursday before we sail (cruise leaves Saturday) and doing a b2b. We are then staying another night in April after disembarking the cruise.

We aren't in a rush at any point to get anywhere.

We are Canadian so our dollar sucks right now.

They have quoted me $660 US for everything. Shuttles to and from airports, three nights stay at the Holiday Inn, shuttles to and from the pier and taxes.

Just wondering from those of you who have used this service does it sound like a decent deal? The amount of work involved to individually book all this, including renting a car and dealing with shuttles to and from the agencies which we have done, not knowing where we are going, and trying to get a place to stay for under $150 a night seem like it is somewhat impossible.

Part of me would rather just book and be thankful its all taken care of.

I just want to make sure its a decent company with a good reputation.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

I see this thread is somewhat older so I thought I would ask again to see if anyone more recently could give their opinions.

Thanks again.

Chass

Hi Mikechass

 

So if I get you right, you are getting 3 nights hotel accommodations and transfers to and from the ship.

 

So what you want to do is compare this to booking yourself. 2 nights pre-cruise with a one way car rental from the airport to the port, then after cruise one way car rental to get you from Port Canaveral to the airport with a one night stay after the cruise.

 

Should be easy to check the total price using online booking sites. The car rental locations at the port will bring you to the ship on your departure and to the rental agency on your return.

 

My thought would be to question your reason for staying at the Orlando airport for the 2 days before cruise. If you do rent the car, staying in the Cape Canaveral area will get you much closer to the port with the option of doing things in that area (since you have a car). One thing that comes to mind is visiting the Kennedy Space Center, which would be a great way to spend a day (even if you have been before). On your return, again you would have a car so you could find something to occupy your day before checking in to the airport hotel you have chosen. It would be up to you if you want to return the car that day and take the hotel shuttle on your departure, or return the car just before your flight.

 

I would also suggest visiting the East coast departure ports threads on this site to get opinions about things you can do in the area and preferred hotels.

 

hope this helps

have a great cruise

Thanks so much for this. Really appreciate the time you took to answer. You make some excellent points. I didn't really think about "exploring" on our extra day here's why.

We won't get into the city till 9 pm after a long 11 hour day of airports and flights. Our plan had been to grab some late dinner and hit the hay Thursday night, maybe sleep in on Friday, go swim, wander around and see some stuff. Shop for some essentials (shampoo, sunscreen, heavy things that are limited for our luggage with the flights) get some lunch and dinner and then get ready for the next days cruise. When we get off the ship we fly out at 7 am on the Sunday, since its international flights, we would have to be at the airport around 5 so I thought staying close to the airport would be easier.

Any suggestions on where we could stay that would be closer to some restaurants/shops/sight seeing type activities??

$660 sounds outrageous, we paid less than $45 for a rental. You can easily get rooms around $100. It would be very hard to get to $600

So a room at any Cocoa Beach hotel right now even on the discount sites that I can see are in the $250 range...

Hampton Inn, Quality Inn, Double Tree, are all above $250. There is a Holiday Inn Express but it is also $203 a night when we are going to be there. So just paying the price of the hotels, then rental of a car, figuring out where to go and how to return the vehicle etc I just thought it made sense. Do you have a way to get me some info on where I can find hotel for $100 a night * there are four of us and I won't stay somewhere without AC, wifi, a pool and I would love a breakfast included. Also where could I find a car rental for that cheap? Thanks for your help. I just can't seem to locate these kind of prices but sure would love to.

I have been researching hotels/shuttle packages from Orlando for our upcoming March cruise.

I have found a site that has a deal for the four of us in the family (at least I feel its decent) that has a shuttle from the airport taking us to the Holiday Inn Express (Orlando Airport), staying two nights, then transferring us to the pier, picking us up from the pier two weeks later (we are on a b2b), and adding another night at the same hotel after we disembark the ship, then finally driving us to the airport the next morning to make our flights home.

The total is $660 with taxes and everything else.

Just wondered if anyone knew/thought it would be more affordable to try and do it all at on our own??

Its a LOT more when I look at the hotel sites online, even the cheaper places work out to a lot more. I have also looked at Expedia and Hotels.com etc... those aren't even available as it stands right now since it spring break.

We are Canadian so our dollar isn't great as it is. I almost feel like just arranging it all from one place and staying at the same hotel etc would just be better.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone has used the site (goportcanaveral) and had anything they could offer me... be it good or bad..

Any hints are appreciated

Thanks everyone.

Chass

We are heading out in March and loved this thread.

Looking forward to our b2b.

Thanks for taking the time to write stuff and to whoever bumped this thread up to a more recent thread.

Happy New Year everyone.

Chassity