peanutzmom

We’ve been to St. Thomas several times and have spent time at Magen’s Bay, Coki, and Sapphire beach. This time, we chose to take the ferry to Water Island and spend the day at Honeymoon Beach. We absolutely loved it and would definitely do it again!

I’m so sorry it took this long to get back to my review! No sooner than hubby got over COVID, then our pup had a serious medical condition that has meant a lot of waking up multiple times in the middle of the night to give him meds/take him out to potty/etc. But now I’m back! And writing about ports is one of my favorite things! Ports: This is one of our favorite itineraries, and we’ve been to all of them except Amber Cove multiple times. We didn’t book any excursions, but instead chose to do things on our own for this trip. St.Thomas- We have been to multiple beaches, snorkel trips, and guided tours on our many trips to St. Thomas. This time we decided to do something new and go to Water Island/Honeymoon Beach. We got off the ship ASAP and got a taxi to Crown Bay Marina. Once there, we were able to purchase a round-trip ferry ticket to Water Island. When we arrived, there was a free tram to Honeymoon Beach that worked for tips. We took the tram but realized it would actually have been an easy walk. Once we got to the beach, we went to the little restaurant/bar/beach shack to rent a couple of chairs and an umbrella. There were only a handful of people when we arrived, most from the same ferry that we came over on. It was a relaxing day - enough people not to feel isolated, but not enough people to feel crowded. The beers were cold, the rum & cokes were strong, and the food at the little restaurant was typical beach fare. All we wanted to do was put our feet in the sand, relax, and have some food and drinks. Honeymoon Beach punched that ticket, with amazing views as an added plus. It was easy to take the ferry back and pick up a taxi back to Havensight. It dropped us at the duty-free mall, where we got a couple of cheap souvenirs. Overall, it was a great day! St. Martin - I must admit, this is our favorite Caribbean island, and we have done land vacations several times. We knew right away that we wanted to spend the day at our favorite beach in the Caribbean - Orient Beach. We got a taxi over to Orient Village first thing, and grabbed a couple of coffees at one of the coffee shops. Then we hit the Casino (a convenience store) for some cold water and some chips. We strolled down Orient Beach during the quiet of the morning, which is one of my favorite times. We grabbed chairs and an umbrella at our favorite spot on the beach and spent a relaxing day soaking up the sun. We had a delicious lunch at Bai Wai. This is one of the reasons that St. Martin is one of my very most favorite places! You get to eat amazing French inspired dishes using local fresh seafood while sitting barefoot in a bathing suit and taking in an amazing view! After our lovely beach day, we headed back to the ship. San Juan - It was a bit drizzly in the morning, but that didn’t stop us from heading out. We walked the outside path up to El Morro, then wove our way through various streets in Old San Juan to check out different locations. One thing I can say is DON’T try to eat at Barranchina! There was already an hour wait when they opened for lunch, and the locals said the food was not that great. We walked to the end of Calle de La Fortaleza and found a group of restaurants. We ate at Puerto Criollo, which was still a little touristy, but served at least something like authentic Puerto Rican food. Amber Cove- We chose to stay at the pool area in this port. We paid the $22 for an umbrella, and it was well worth it because there isn’t much shade. The pool and lazy river were nice. We actually had a really reasonable and good meal at the Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand - two hot dogs and fries for $17, which was enough for both of us! After lounging at the pool, we wandered up to the bar at the top of the zip line area for a drink. The view was lovely! Then we headed back to the ship. Debarkation: We have always carried off our luggage in the past. So, I was used to waking up at the crack of dawn, feverishly finishing our packing, then humping it all off the ship at 7am. Since we were Platinum this time, I talked my husband out of it. Priority disembarkation was only an hour later than self- disembarkation, and I’m getting too old to drag out all of those bags! So, we decided to go with Priority Disembarkation and put our bags out the evening before. The next morning, we went up to the Lido deck and grabbed one more breakfast bowl at Blue Iguana. Not surprising, things were running slow with Customs, so we weren’t called to out debarkation station till after 8am. It was fine - we sat in the dining room till our number was called (Group 2). Once we started off the ship, it was so quick and easy to get off, get our luggage, and go through Customs. Here is something important to know if you drive yourself and sail on Magic out of Miami. They often leave out of Terminal F but arrive to Terminal D. There’s actually a pretty big haul between the two terminals. Since we left out of Terminal F, we parked in the Terminal F, G, and V parking garage. When we arrived at Terminal D, they offered a shuttle to the F/G/V parking garage, but the lines were crazy. So, we chose to walk it. At this point, we had all of our luggage. It was do-able for us - two active 50-something’s with not a lot of luggage. But it was still quite a haul. If we had small children, elderly people, or a lot of luggage, it wouldn’t have been walkable. Final Comments: We loved this cruise! It reminded us why we fell in love with cruising. Was everything always perfect? No. But it was overall a great 8-day experience.

I had that pendant before, and it’s handy. Another good hack is to bring dental floss - that’s what I did on an international flight - the little cutter works great for yarn! Changing out your chiao good sounds like a good plan! My chiao goos are also my go-to needles at home, but I travel with Clover bamboo needles. I also crochet, and it’s kinda funny that I never worry about bringing my crochet hooks because somehow they seem less threatening than my knitting needles!

I am an avid knitter and bring two or three projects with me every cruise. I always pack a small pair of folding scissors with me, and they have never been a problem.

Food: One of the reasons that we keep coming back to Carnival is because of the quality and diversity of free dining options. This cruise didn’t disappoint. I’ll break this section down by general hits and misses, and then MDR hits and misses. Hits: Our favorite breakfast was Blue Iguana. We would get a bowl (rather than a burrito) with spicy eggs, cheese, pico de gallo, etc. almost every morning. It was fresh and tasty, and the line was shorter than for the omelet station and was much tastier. I also loved the arepas, and hubby would ask for some of the pork from the huevos rancheros to top off his eggs. For lunch, we really enjoyed Guy’s Pig & Anchor bbq on embarkation day! The potato salad was just meh, but the meats, cole slaw, and greens were all yummy! I don’t think many people realized it existed at that point, so there weren’t any lines. I don’t know if it got busier later in the cruise or not, since this was the only time we ate there. We also loved Guy’s Burgers and had it for lunch on two of our Sea Days. We would go into the buffet on the lido deck and get some salads and fruit, then go grab a burger at Guy’s. They were always fresh and hot, and the fries were addictive! Ice cream and pizza were both hits in the evening hours! Personally, I love the mushroom pizza, and it didn’t disappoint! Misses: The couple of times we went to the Deli were less than memorable - a slice or two of meat, a bit of cheese, light on the condiments. Definitely not worth it. Sea Day Brunch - I really wanted to love this, but I didn’t. Food was subpar, service was slow, and wait time was crazy long. I think we had full dinners, including dessert, in less time in the MDR at night. Hubby’s bagel and salmon was less impressive that what he made for himself on the lido deck, and my chicken and waffles were almost inedible. We had dinner in the MDR every night. We had Your Time Dining, and we usually checked in as close to 5:30 as possible. We had some great service, we had plenty of good service, and one night we had not so good service. But overall we enjoyed our dinners! Hits: Appetizers - Roasted Duck Rolls, Crawfish Strudel, BBQ beef rolls, escargot Entrees - braised short ribs, roast leg of lamb, eggplant parmigiana, veal schnitzel, beef Wellington, roast duck, hubby enjoyed the Indian dishes several times for dinner Desserts - banana cream pie, cappuccino pot de crème, tiramisu, bitter n blanc, crème brûlée, baked Alaska, pineapple sorbet Misses: Appetizers - linguini and clams (there were literally two tiny clams the size of my pinky nail, and the rest was just pasta), crab and shrimp cake (it just tasted off) Entrees - BBQ pork spareribs (very fatty and not otherwise flavorful), filet mignon (probably my fault - after 20 years of cruising, my meat was consistently overdone. So,,when I wanted medium rare, I would ask for rare. In this instance, I asked for rare. I received a filet that was seared on the outside and literally still cold and raw on the inside. I actually eat a lot of high quality beef rare or raw - I’m a big fan of beef carpaccio and beef tartare. But this filet was pretty much inedible) Desserts - Grand Mariner soufflé (this used to be one of my favorites, but it was eggy and lacked flavor), Dutch double chocolate pave (it was basically a dry chocolate cake)

I’m back! Next time, I’ll be posting about the food and the ports - two things that I know are very important! In the meantime, here’s a quick review on Bar Service. Bar Service: This is probably a place where people will disagree with me, but this was my experience. Let me start by saying that we don’t do the drink package. It just doesn’t make sense for us. My husband is on medication that doesn’t interact well with alcohol and he doesn’t really drink when we’re at home. So when he’s on a cruise, he limits his drinking to 3ish drinks a day - a beer hanging out on the deck, a glass of wine at dinner, and maybe a scotch while we’re at a show or in the casino at night. I’m a 125-lb lightweight, so there’s no way I could be able to drink enough to cover the cost for both of us. So, our experience is from the non-drink-package point of view. Hits- The first big hit for me was that in the MDR, you can now order a glass of wine from your waiter when you order your meal. In the past, I would have to wait for “bar service” to come around, and they were very hit-and-miss, and trying to get a second glass of wine during dinner was even worse. But cutting out the “middle man” led to a much more streamline process. Red Frog Pub on Deck 5 and the Red Frog Bar on the Lido deck became our go-to’s when we wanted a drink. The staff was awesome, the drinks were tasty, and they poured well. Misses - Pretty much every other bar experience. The drinks were all very sweet and had very little alcohol in them, even when I ordered a straight drink like rum and (blech)Pepsi. We don’t order very many drinks, so when we do, we want a full shot of alcohol in them. I ordered martinis that were more juice than they were vodka. Even the Alchemy bar served very sweet, watered down drinks. That’s probably fine for cruisers on the drink package, since they can get 15 drinks a day, but not a great deal for those of us who actually purchase our drinks one at a time. I learned very quickly just to stick to wine, which made me sad. I can crack a bottle of wine at home. When I go on a cruise, I want to have all sorts of fun drinks that I don’t make at home. But when I spend $16 after the gratuity for a drink with practically no alcohol and is so sweet I feel like it’s giving me cavities, that makes me sad.

Ports, food, and debarkation are coming! Unfortunately my husband brought home a not-so-fun souvenir in the form of COVID, so I’ve been trying to catch up on work, laundry, etc. while also playing nurse! We didn’t do any spa treatments, but we walked through it every day on the way to the Serenity Deck, and it looked and smelled amazing!

At least three. There were two Carnival ships when we left Havensight, and one RCI when we arrived at Crown Bay marina to pick up the water taxi.

We were always able to find chairs of some sort on Serenity. There are several types of seating - clamshells, daybeds, wooden “loungers,” regular loungers, and cushioned chairs. We would go up there first thing in the morning (before 9am) and were always able to score a clamshell. We’d stay there till lunchtime, then go get some lunch and usually take a quick nap. We’d go back up around 2:30 or 3:00, and usually the clamshells and daybeds were taken by then, but there were always regular loungers and/or cushioned chairs available.

We didn’t use either pool - we stuck with the hot tubs on Serenity - but I’m 99% sure we saw kids in all of the pools and hot tubs that weren’t on the Serenity deck at one time or another.

We were there last week and had a great time! We grabbed the first water taxi right after we got off our ship, and we had our choice of where to set up chairs and umbrellas. There were just enough people to not feel isolated, but not enough to feel overcrowded. A couple of snorkel boats came in later (around noonish), but even when they arrived, it never felt too crowded.

We were there last week, and Barrachina had an hour long wait as soon as it opened. It seems inundated with tourists. A couple of local shopkeepers nearby said the food wasn’t all that great and definitely not worth the wait. We wandered around and found Puerto Criollo. I think it’s probably a little more touristy than local, but the food was delicious and the service was great!

OK, I’m back! Thanks for everyone who has been following along! Tonight I’ll discuss entertainment, the decks, and the crew & other passengers. Entertainment: We don’t really partake in daytime entertainment, like deck contests, or trivia, or Bingo, but there was plenty of that on Sea Days for those who enjoy it. We spend our Sea Days hanging out on the deck and our Port Days in the ports. So, I’ll highlight the Hits and Misses of evening entertainment. Hits - Lady & the Vamps, the band in the Ocean Lounge Deck 5!! They were hands-down our favorite entertainment on the ship, and we spent a couple of hours listening to them every evening that they performed. The Casino, where we turned $75 cash plus hubby’s $25 platinum free casino tokens into over $200 on the roulette table. I know that’s small potatoes to real gamblers, but to more than double our money and enjoy a couple of hours in the casino made us happy! Flick in the main theater was our favorite of the main theater performances. It was engaging and held our interest throughout. Misses - Pretty much all of the other shows in the main theater. They weren’t bad, they just weren’t as good as previous shows. Most of them focused on a couple of people singing, and there were six or fewer people on stage at any one time - singers and dancers combined. We remember the larger Vegas-style shows with 10-12 dancers, plus a couple of singers, with multiple set and costume changes. These shows seemed more watered down. The Piano Bar with Kenny G. - he was a nice guy with a decent voice, but 90% of what he played was Elton John or Billy Joel. We would walk by and joke, “Wait, did he just play Benny & the Jets? We haven’t heard that yet!” as we heard it for the tenth time. And it wasn’t’ because that’s all people requested - he’d pull a handful of requests out of his jar, read through all of them, pull out the one or two songs he was comfortable with, and throw the rest away. He would also kind of deflect when people called out other songs by doing a quick “Baby Shark” or “Chicken Dance” to divert everyone’s attention. Decks: We spent a lot of time on the decks on Sea Days. Our favorite thing to do is to find a lounger, read a book, nap, and generally chill out. Hits - The Serenity Deck was great! It was never over crowded - we could always find someplace to sit up there. Our routine was to head up right after breakfast (around 8am) and get a clamshell by one of the hot tubs. We’d bounce between the clamshell and hot tub till it was time to get cleaned up for lunch. After lunch (and usually a post-lunch nap), we’d head back up around 2:30 or 3:00 and sit in regular loungers in the sun to get a bit of a tan. We never had an issue finding someplace to sit. We also liked the variety of types of seating, both on Serenity and the other decks. There were loungers, couches, tables & chairs, whatever you might want. Even the non-Serenity deck areas seemed to have enough seating for whoever wanted it. Misses - None, really. We found the layout of Magic to be good as far as deck space goes, even with our fully booked cruise. Crew: This was all HITS! The crew was polite and pleasant, very attentive, and always working. Common areas were constantly being cleaned, food areas were constantly being refreshed, and cabin staff was always working hard on the cabins. We visited Guest Services a couple of times, and they were quick to aid us. Passengers: Again, mostly HITS! For a full cruise, there wasn’t any drama that we saw. Passengers were generally polite to each other and courteous. Kids were kept under control and mostly well behaved. We’ve been on many cruises with much worse passenger interaction!

We were on Allure right after cruise ships started sailing again post-COVID. I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. It wasn’t horrible (MSC definitely was horrible), but we paid quite a bit more than we usually pay for Carnival cruises and everything was just average. Also, the staff wasn’t very pleasant and acted like they were doing us a huge favor every time we interacted with them. The best part was the shows - they were amazing!

I realized I should have started with the most important information! This was a Carnival Magic cruise out of Miami, 8-Day Eastern Caribbean. The ports were St. Thomas, St. Martin, San Juan, and Amber Cove.

Background: We’re a couple in our early 50’s who have cruised over a dozen times in the past 30 years, mostly on Carnival. We had three less-than-stellar cruises in a row (Carnival in 2019, Royal Caribbean in 2021, and MSC in 2022). We thought maybe we had just “outgrown” cruising and should do more land vacations instead. But when we started planning a vacation for this summer, airline prices were so crazy! Since we live in Florida, we don’t have to fly to take a cruise, so we decided to give a Carnival cruise one more try. And we’re glad we did! The cruise wasn’t perfect (what ever is?), but it was much better than the previous three cruise (for the most part), and overall we really enjoyed ourselves. I’ll try to boil it down to our “Hits” and “Misses,” but if you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask. Now that we’re back to Real Life, it might take a few days to get all of this review written, but I’ll start today with Embarkation and First Impressions. Embarkation: Miss- the Port of Miami is just a hot mess! Traffic is bad, signage is bad, trying to get to the terminal to drop off luggage, then to the parking garage, then back to the terminal to check in is frustrating and time consuming. That’s not Carnival’s fault, but it’s still the truth. We’ve sailed out of Miami for the majority of our cruises, and it just gets worse and worse. Hit- Carnival Check-In was quick and easy! We are Platinum and grabbed the earliest check-in time, which was 10:30. The priority lounge was not very crowded and was a pleasant place to wait, and I think the entire process from when we arrived to when we actually set foot on the ship was less than a half hour. First Impressions: Hit - The ship was nicely decorated and laid out in a way that never seemed to feel crowded. I had heard that it was looking run-down, but we found the interior of the ship to be clean and in good repair. Other than a lot of rust on the exterior, the deck areas also looked good. Our cabin was in a really great location - a balcony at the very forward of Deck 8, right against the bridge. It was perfect for us - as the very last cabin in the hall, we never heard people walking back & forth or talking in the halls. We only had neighbors on one side of us, and we rarely heard them. When we stopped to drop off our bags, we met our Cabin Steward, Martin. I asked if we could get an ice bucket, and he made sure I had fresh ice every day. He was, IMO, the perfect level of steward interaction - he greeted us every day when he saw us in the hall, he was quick to help the couple of times we needed something, and he otherwise left us alone. Our cabin was cleaned once daily around mid-morning, after we headed out to the deck on sea days or after we left the ship on shore days. That worked perfectly for us. Miss - Our balcony was a little worn looking and rusty. But that didn’t keep us from enjoying it every day!

We also just got off on Sunday. Overall, we had a great time with very few complaints! It was an improvement from our last three cruises - Carnival Liberty 3/19, RCCL Allure of the Seas 3/22, and MSC Divina 1/23. We found it to be clean and in decent condition for things like carpet, cabin, common areas, etc., though there is definitely rust that needs addressed in the outdoor areas (including our balcony). Food was good to great (except for a couple of misses), staff was pleasant and attentive, other passengers were mostly polite and kids were mostly under control. We didn’t purchase the ship’s internet plan, and we found the free wi-if to work sufficiently to use the app and to communicate with each other through the Chat feature on the app. I’m putting together a more detailed review and will hopefully post it in the next day or two. The biggest downside was that my husband started feeling under the weather the day we disembarked and tested positive for COVID the next day. According to our sailing’s Facebook page, lots and lots of passengers have tested positive in the last couple of days.

We’re getting ready to board in a couple of hours. I’m glad to hear that the Magic didn’t disappoint!

Orient Beach isn’t that long - you can easily walk down till you find an area that appeals to you, then purchase chairs and umbrella in that spot. There is no expectation that you’ll also purchase food and beverages from that particular bar/restaurant. We often get chairs in our favorite location, then wander up an get lunch at whatever restaurant strikes our fancy on that particular day.

This describes us as well. We are Platinum, but we don’t return to Carnival for the free perks from the loyalty program. We have cruised on other lines (most recently RCI and MSC), and we have found that Carnival best fits our needs as far as itineraries and prices go. The food, service, cabins, and entertainment are at least comparable and sometimes better than other lines charging higher prices, so we are happy to continue doing most of our cruising with Carnival, regardless of the perks (or lack thereof).

I’m sorry you have bad memories of your first visit. St. Martin is our favorite Caribbean island! We’ve done several land vacations there and always look for cruise itineraries that include it. We personally prefer the French Side and take a taxi to Orient Beach any time we cruise into this port.

Looks like Port Canaveral.

Thanks for your response! We’ll be docked at Havensight. It looks like the taxi to Crown Bay is about 15 minutes according to Google - is that accurate?

We have cruised to St. Thomas several times and have done the usual land excursions (with either Sonny Liston or Godfrey), beach days at Magen’s Bay or Sapphire Beach, or DIY days hitting the sky ride then walking around Charlotte Amalie. We want to do something different this time, but don’t feel the ship will be in port long enough to do St. John on our own, and the St. John ship excursions are very high priced for very little time on the island. So, we’re looking at doing Water Island and Honeymoon Beach. Any recommendations about what to do, etc.?

Paper copies of Fun Times (which are pretty much extinct) used to be called Carnival Capers. When I clicked on this thread, that’s actually what I thought the OP was talking about, too, because I’ve never heard of the Clue game being called that! 🤣 So, this response was from someone who also thought the OP was talking about the paper versions of Fun Times/Carnival Capers.