A medium-sized Magic reveiw/Modified Eastern 11/4-11/11

Hey all! We are just off the Magic 11/4-11/11 sailing and the post cruise depression has set in, so I figured I'd write up a quick-ish (in my head it's quick. In reality, I tend to ramble so grab a snack or your favorite beverage) review here. I know Magic reviews seem to be abundant lately but hey, what's one more! ;) I personally like reading reviews and they helped me a lot, so maybe this will help someone! If nothing else, it will give me something to do over my lunch breaks at work and help ease those ever so painful post cruise blues :loudcry:

A few things I'm going to mention before this review kicks off:

1. This cruise was me and my husband (hereafter referred to as "D"...I will be known as "me". I know, creative). We do not have kids so if you're looking for reviews of kid centric stuff, this is probably not the review for you!

2. Our itinerary for this cruise was originally St. Thomas, San Juan, Amber Cove, and Grand Turk. Due to names I don't think I need to mention, our itinerary was switched to Amber Cove, Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau. As we did not know our itinerary until about 3 weeks out, I backed off booking many excursions and we just kind of winged (wung??) it. So if you're looking for action packed excursion reviews....also probably not the review for you.

3. I am generally terrible at taking pictures. I will insert a few photos (if I can figure it out, I'm a newb at this!) but I have zero ship pics. Jamman54 has an excellent and comprehensive Magic review (of a Western itinerary) going on right now and he and his wife take better pics than I could ever dream of, so I'd strongly encourage you to check out that review if you are looking for ship photos!

4. I am far too lazy and unorganized to recall or write down what we did every day, so this review will be more "topic/category based" than chronological.

Now that I've excluded basically anyone from ever wanting to read this review.....let's get this (potentially very lame) party started!

You're off to a good start.

Looking forward to the review,

Keith

Ok wow, I've already started things off by spelling review wrong in my title so clearly we are off to an EXCELLENT start here. :rolleyes: I'm new at this be nice! Or don't, it will help get me used to being back at work. Oy. Told you I ramble.

ANYWHO.

I'll start off by offering a brief background on us and breezing through our pre-cruise info.

ABOUT US

As I mentioned, it was my husband D and I on this cruise. We are in our mid-30's and from the upper Midwest. We are the extremely elite red status on Carnival and are clearly cruise experts as we have been on a whopping one cruise prior to this one, which was 5 years ago also on Carnival (Victory on a Southern Route, which sounds like a country song, innit?)

I like to think we're laid back people. In reality, D is laid back people and I am a borderline neurotic control freak. However, I try to take myself down a couple notches on vacation. Basically what I'm saying is I don't tend to let what I consider small stuff (people with tattoos, shorts in the MDR, slower diner service) bother me. Everyone else is on vacation too and unless you're being blatantly obnoxious and rude, it is what it is! As long as I come off the cruise happy and alive, I'll call it a win.

That said, I'm also not blindly loyal to Carnival. We're already looking at our next cruise and pondering either one of the mother ships on RCCL or seeing what Norwegian is all about (D's trying to convince me Alaska would be fun...I am skeptical. We'll prob go NCL if we do Alaska). So, if something is lame or sucks, I will not hesitate to comment on it. Very passive aggressively on an unrelated and semi anonymous internet message board not on the boat, obviously. I told you I'm from the upper Midwest we don't like confrontation in these parts.

God I make us sound fun. Moving on....

PRE-CRUISE:

We flew into MCO on Thursday 11/2. Flight was uneventful.

Rented a car from Enterprise at MCO. We went back and forth on this but after determining I get an EXTREMELY steep discount on rentals through my work, we decided to rent a car. Self service kiosks at Enterprise were not working but the seemingly long line moved quickly. Took us about 15 minutes from the time we got in line to the time we were heading out to the garage. Renting a car at MCO is weird....you go to a desk inside. Then they give you nothing and you walk outside and talk to another guy who puts you in a line (a short one), then you go to another person who takes you to the actual car. I kept freaking out about how I kept talking to people but still had no keys and no car, but like I said, I tried to keep my psychotic ways to a minimum and it all worked out.

Jumping ahead but it fits here: Zero issues with renting from the airport and returning to Port Canaveral. 10/10 would recommend if you want to rent a car down there.

Stayed 2 nights pre-cruise at the Radisson resort at the port. I won't spend too much time here as reviews of this hotel are abundant but in short:

1. It's very pink and very pineapple-y in the rooms. I felt very Blanche from Golden Girls.

2. It is big and we were extremely confused at first as our building didn't have an elevator and the room number is weird. I am a simpleton used to "my room starts with 3, that means 3rd floor". No, apparently here that means you're in a building without an elevator and you have to go to 4 and then walk over and...I don't even know. It was confusing at first.

3. Pool is nice, smaller than the website makes it look but overall very nice.

4. GOOD LUCK parking after about 8pm. Yes it's also $6/night. We had to park like 19 miles away from our room (ok it was like maybe the equivalent of a block but I'm on vacation, I am not here for exercise)

5. The lighting in the rooms is tragic, looked like I had a case of jaundice the entire time and basically gave up on make up about an hour in.

Dinner at Fish Lips one night, it was good. DO NOT get a glass of water, it tastes like they hooked up a hose out back. Not sure if that's all FL water or just there but YISH.

Visited a Florida WalMart for some last minute stuff which was quite the experience and one I would recommend if you want some good people watching (no shade, I was there too in my zero makeup and flip flops).

Cocoa Beach Pier is a nice beach for wading, it was pretty wavy for swimming. You have to pay $2 to get out to the end where people fish and the tiki bar is, but if you pay for parking ($10 for the day, no inny outtie privileges) they give you a pass to go down there. It's gift shops and bars. View is nice though.

That's about it! Obviously ask any questions and I'll try my best to answer!

Working on getting some pictures, I am like 100 years old when it comes to technology, bear with me!

Pics??? maybe???

Edit: AWWWW JEAH look at me go! Can people see this?

Observation Tower at Port Canaveral. It's very pretty and changes colors. I thought it was condos and wanted to buy one then I realized it is not and was sad.

Cocoa Beach Pier. Windy that day and surfers were out, fun to watch!

Pool at the Radisson, pretty quiet but it was also a Thursday in November and "cold" at about 77 degrees....LOL cold.

And some clouds from the plane!

Gotta grab lunch, I'll be back to continue!

Like your style so far!

We arrive in the US in April to do your original itinerary.

Been on the Dream and Breeze ...so Magic for the full set!

Looking forward to the rest of your review and thank you in advance

Great review so far! Can't wait to hear the rest. Thank you

I can never get enough Magic reviews! Bring it on! Also, the Florida water -- so gross. I learned that in Disney World last year.

EMBARKATION

As you probably know, Canaveral has the staggered check in process. We had an arrival time of 11:30-12:30 and did not have FTTF.

We were running a little later than I wanted to be as we had to stop and get me coffee (I am a straight up GREMLIN without caffeine in the morning) and a quick stop at CVS as I realized I bought wine (WalMart liquor store the night before....have never seen a WalMart liquor store either!) and did not have a wine corker screw driver thing (technical name).

Arrived at the rental return about 11:35. Extremely easy process. Had to wait about 10 minutes for a shuttle over to the port. They have a waiting room with AC that plays movies (it was Up when we were there so I assume it's kid movies but I love me some Up) so it's a non terrible wait.

Took the shuttle on over, traffic was a little bad getting into the port. Magic, some Disney ship (told you I don't have kids!) and some Aida boat (also I am not nearly classy enough to know what Aida ship it was) were all in port so we sat in traffic for a while and finally made it to the actual port about 12:30. Gave our luggage to the porters and tipped him his money and off we go after a quick nicotine fix (yeah, I'm a smoker I know it's a terrible habit but I try to be polite about it and hate rude smokers, more on that later)

Checkin was A BREEZE. As previously mentioned, I have little to compare it to but I thought it was ridiculously easy. Dude looked at our pass to make sure we were in our allotted time and let us in the building, up to security within 5 minutes. Two bottles of wine in our carry ons, didn't take them out, was not asked to, not even glanced at.

Waited under 5 minutes in line to get to the uhhhh check in guy? Like where they check your boarding passes and stuff. We got our sign and sail cards there vs the mailbox thing. We put down cash for our on board account and the dude checking us in offered to take it there. Absolutely do this if you can and save yourself a trip to guest services. No issues and he gave us a signed receipt in the event of any problems.

Truly from the time I entered the building until the time I had my sign and sail in hand was under 15 minutes. It was great! We were assigned boarding group 25, they were on 17 at the time we left our friend at the desk who took our cash money.

There's water in there if you get thirsty and also a vending machine. Sat down for again under 5 minutes (just long enough to text my mom to make sure my precious baby aka the cat was still fine) and they were already calling our group!

On board we go. Walk up the thing. Deftly avoid embarkation photo due to my aforementioned makeup avoidance and my yet to be corrected winter pallor. Check us in with ipads (no ding). Small issue: when we checked in the guy said he already had our photos so we didn't need to take them. Idk if they pulled them from our passports or our prior cruise or what but when we went to the actual checky-in people, they said they didn't have one. No worries, they snapped a quick picture of us via the ipad and on we went!

Total time: under 45 minutes. Again, I have no frame of reference on if this is great or horrible but based on stories I've read....Canaveral has this down to a science, at least that day!

Gotta work for a bit (le sigh) but I'll be back!

Like your style so far!

We arrive in the US in April to do your original itinerary.

Been on the Dream and Breeze ...so Magic for the full set!

Looking forward to the rest of your review and thank you in advance

Yay! You will have a great time! We do want to try the Breeze as well!

Great review so far! Can't wait to hear the rest. Thank you

Yay thanks for reading!

You're off to a good start.

 

Looking forward to the review,

 

Keith

Yay my first reader! I award you a virtual ship on a stick haha

I can never get enough Magic reviews! Bring it on! Also, the Florida water -- so gross. I learned that in Disney World last year.

haha, at least I know it was ALL of Florida and not just the fish lips! Taste like warm swamp water left in someone's shorts for a week :o

K I worked for an hour, that's acceptable, right? :halo:

CABIN

We had cabin 7463 on this trip, which is an aft view extended balcony on the starboard side of the ship. Thoughts:

1. A LOT of movement back here. I'm not sure if this was the result of a very windy cruise all around, or being on the back of the boat but yikes. First night out and last night in was AWFUL, and it was not relaxing motion, only way I can describe it (shield your eyes, kids) was it felt like I was getting pounded repeatedly into a headboard without any of the fun stuff that normally goes with it. Ginger and Bonine helped with the "Did I drink 10 drinks and somehow just forget????" feeling but it did not help with the fact that it would wake us up every 10 minutes. Very tired the first and last day of the cruise.

2. Room size was good, lots of storage (we had 3 closets)

3. Our deck chairs were very, very dirty with what look like soot and white paint (??? I thought it was bird booboo but upon closer inspection it was not and it seriously looked like paint, no idea where it came from). You had to put a towel down or your shorts would look like you had a most unfortunate mishap after you sat in the chair (ask D about that). They cleaned our balcony on day 3 and the 2 sit up chairs were cleaned but the lounger remained dirty the entire time. Didn't use it anyways so didn't say anything. IMO, that balcony is too small for 3 chairs.

4. AC was FREEZING. D likes the room temp at appx "arctic" and the controller definitely went there.

5. Leave your fridge cabinet door open

6. Can confirm sign is "snoozing" only

7. Had the keypad safe, worked great.

8. No robes, we didn't ask.

9. There was a cigarette butt on our balcony upon checkin, so clearly there are rude rule breaking smokers who smoke on the balcony. I am not one of them.

10. Room was quiet. 7 is sandwiched in between stateroom only decks and we had zero noise complaints from neighbors or otherwise.

STEWARD

Our room steward was Rayden (Raydan? Raydon? something like that) and was perfectly adequate. Met us the first day, we requested night only service and he was usually there sometime between 6:30-8. Greeted us by name every time we saw him. Zero idea who his assistant was. Made us towel animals. Destroyed them the next night which like I am an adult I should be ok with that but :( I LIKE THE ZOO OK? He seemed busy. Can also confirm they know who pre-pays tips (we did, and gave him extra at the end because D is a messy person who leaves socks everywhere). Generally no complaints here and I don't mind once a day service. Of note, he did ask us "morning, evening, both?" so ask for what you want.

Couple more pics loosely related to what's coming up/what has passed:

First beer on the Lido Deck immediately when we got on

Disney doing their muster drill....outside...haha suckers!

Aida boat in port with us

Proof I'm not making this all up!

Love that whale tail

I am enjoying your review!! Your doing a great job !We are sailing the Magic for a New Years cruise !

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Ok we're still going, probably my last one for the day so I'll wrap up day 1 with a couple random thoughts/things:

MUSTER

We had muster station E3 which was....one of the dining rooms, I have no idea which one, I didn't know which was which all week. Went pretty quickly, I feel like it was about 30 minutes but I did not time it and to be 100% honest did not pay 100% attention, which I guarantee I was not the only one but I couldn't see anything anyways and I am legally deaf in one ear (I can still hear stuff just not the best all the time). I figured if the boat was going down D could figure it out and just yell at me what to do. ;p Overall it was painless and I enjoyed being inside even though it was not hot out.

SAILAWAY

We took in sail away from Deck 11 aft, starting on the Starboard side but then moving to Port because it was less hot. Quieter up there than Lido but still enough people where you feel festive. The "drive" (??) out of Canaveral is very pretty. I think the other side actually had better views but oh well. Mouse boat followed us out. I don't know what happened to the Aida fancies, I assume they made it out after Disney.

BARS

We did not get cheers for this cruise. Went back and forth on this quite a bit. I am a drinker. D is not, so we decided we'd skip it. HOWEVER, we discovered this time that apparently sea/island air gives him an alcohol tolerance that doesn't exist on land, and he ended up drinking more than I thought he would. Knowing this, we'd get Cheers next time. Worth it just to not have me worry constantly about how much we're spending on drinking. We are not the sit at the bar type but a few random thoughts on a few bars we visited:

1. Casino bar tended to be the most generous with pours from what I saw. We do consistently tip on drinks above the auto tip so I don't know if that had any bearing but quite a few of those drinks were strong. However, it is extremely smoky at that bar, you can smoke at half of it. And being 2 stools away from an actively glowing cigarette ain't gonna make it seem like "non-smoking".

2. Alchemy. ALWAYS crowded and accordingly only went here once. Also, that ish is expensive. Can confirm, is delicious and drinks/bartenders are fantastic. I want Cheers just so I can go here without it being $25/pop for the 2 of us. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THE MENU LIGHTS UP!? I was fascinated by this. I am 5 years old apparently. I do wish it was open in the afternoons, usually didn't open til about 4-5. I think one day it was 2.

3. Atrium bar: weakest drinks IMO. Bartenders friendly

4. Aft pool bar. Consistently pretty quiet from what I saw. Easy to get a drink at any given time.

5. We did get the soda package. Hit or miss on if we got the glass or if they gave us the can. Casino we usually got the can. Again, this could be due to our frequent visits to the casino and their bar (more on this later) and tipping but who knows. Yes you can use the soda package in the MDR as well.

HUB APP

Extremely handy and we used this a ton. I like being able to see exactly what's open, where I can eat, what's going on etc. You can mark things you want to do and it will send you a reminder 15 minutes before it starts.

A word of caution: I also used this regularly to keep an eye on our onboard account. Interestingly, D's app would ONLY show him his charges, not mine. Accordingly, his app showed we had about $300 more than we actually did. Mine was accurate and would let me view us separately, or our total room charges as a whole. I am team iPhone, he is team Android (I know, and I willingly married him. JOKES). Not sure if it's an issue with the Droid app or it was just his phone, but make sure you're looking at the ENTIRE account summary for your cabin, not just your own charges or that could be a terrible surprise.

INTERNET/WIFI

We only purchased the social media plan to keep in touch via FB Messenger to make sure the cat was ok and in case there was a super emergency. It worked fine. You do need to buy it per person/device, not per cabin so only D had it, $35 for the entire cruise. Worth the peace of mind IMO to know family could reach us if needed as we did not turn our cell data on international this trip.

CRUISE DIRECTOR

Ok I don't really understand the whole cruise director thing, I couldn't tell you the name or a single thing about our last one (although I am pushing 35 so the ol' memory could be going...) but I was initially kinda bummed as I consistently hear about how awesome Dr. E is, and it turned out he took his vacation the same time as we did and wouldn't be on our cruise. His fill in was Mat Seguin and he was fun! Not annoying with the announcements, got people engaged, seems like a nice guy from my one 30 second interaction with him at the HMC bar. Still want to experience Dr. E (I feel like he's a mythical legend at this point lol), but zero complaints on Mat.

Ok I think I'm calling it a day here, I'll be back hopefully tomorrow with food, casino musings (yeah I'm a gambler too, I'm here for a good time, not a long time, people) and ports! :beer-toast:

I am enjoying your review!! Your doing a great job !We are sailing the Magic for a New Years cruise !

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for reading! We were talking on this trip about how much fun a NYE cruise would be. Someday!!!!

Fun review so far! Keep it up.

Loving your review and your writing style!

FYI on future cruises on Carnival Dream class ships, try a cove balcony we love them, Deck 2 close to the water, no glass, nice breezes and much calmer down there.

Anxiously awaiting more of your review, we sail Magic Eastern end of January, we sailed her last January.

Susan

Thanks for the review.

Enjoying your review! The Magic is our favorite ship. Dr. E is the BEST CD ever, so I definitely recommend sailing with him!

Enjoying your review- love your writing style (and humor, lol)!!

Looking forward to your review--you're doing a great job!! Thanks!

I was on the same boat at the same time. I was there with my wife - no children.

MUSTER

We had muster station A3 which was the ground floor of the show theater. The muster was cool. One of the performers was our Muster person. She noted that she was from the great country of CALIFORNIA (with her exotic accent) and that she was one of the 2% of Americans on the boat. She told a great knock knock joke that I heard five years ago on the Carnival Paradise (KNOCK KNOCK......Who's there......DISHES......DISHES WHO? "DISH ES your Captain Speaking from the Navigation Center...) ROTFLMAO with the Italian male accent! Went pretty quickly - It took awhile to seat everyone on the first floor then the balcony. I agree that overall it was painless and I enjoyed being inside even though it was not hot out.

SAILAWAY

We took in sail away from Deck 12 Forward at the front of the boat. I did not see the Disney Boat sailing behind us. Quiet but breezy. We left this area once we got out to sea and the color of the water changed.

BARS

No bars - I drink socially, my wife drinks never. We both knew that those drinks were going to be too much. We had a bottle of non-alcoholic Muscadine Wine from Duplin Winery in Rose Hill, NC.

HUB APP

I must agree, I thought the HUB APP was great! I am Team iphone / wife swears by her Trac Phone Android. My iphone app worked as advertised. Her Trac Phone Android never worked, so mine was the one passed between both of us for show times and menus. I liked the fact that we could look at port information, fun things to do and the menus of the restaurants and MDR. We also wanted to use the HUB APP for communicating with each other, but it would not work on Team Trac Phone. We ended up having to use our walkie talkies or just hanging with each other.

INTERNET/WIFI

We also purchased the $35 social app and it worked very well on my iphone. Team Trac Phone Android - not so much.

CRUISE DIRECTOR

I read here (cruisecritic.com) how Dr E was a legend and would be the best of our experience with Cruise Directors. Now, our last Carnival Cruise Director was on the Carnival Paradise out of Tampa, and that guy could play "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" on his fiddle like a champ! I loved that guy and wondered how good this legendary Dr. E was going to be, but we learned before sailing that he would return on the next voyage, and we had Matt. I was impressed with Matt ("Party on") and I got a chance to chat with him during the Veteran's Appreciation Event. I liked his style. So, I can say that I was impressed as Matt replaced this legend. I also loved Matt during the '80's and '90's shows on Deck 3.

I am glad to read the notes of a fellow cruiser. I had a great time on this ship and hope to sail her again next year.

Ok we're back! I am far too lazy to quote you all but seriously, thank you all so much for the encouragement and for taking time out of your day for reading!

Optimus, please continue to chime in, I too love reading thoughts of fellow cruisers on the same trip, I find it so interesting how people's experiences can be the same or different, and I also bless you for solidifying my life choice that team iPhone is the way to go.

Food is going to take a bit (we like it and eat a lot) and I have a busier day at work today so we'll do some random ship observations and onboard activities this morning to at least keep this moving along!

ONBOARD ACTIVITIES

1. We went to Trivia twice. One day for about 3-4 games, one day we just did one. Hosted by Annette of the Fun Squad. She was indeed fun. Tip: she will try and make you sing for the song trivia. Tell her you don't know the words vs just flat out declining. If you decline she'll try and egg you on to do it. You don't know the words? NEXT, no time for you! A good tip for those that are shy or have the voice of a dying mongoose such as myself. Alas, I did not win trivia as there was a dude who claimed a perfect score twice, both on Rock trivia and #1 Hits Trivia. Thank you for killing my trivia winning dreams, sir. Someday. :loudcry: We won't discuss our scores on the sports trivia and some weird history trivia we played either. I can't think that much on vacation and gave up about half way through with ridiculous answers (you mean Jean Luc Picard wasn't the president of France in 1854????)

2. There was a life sized "Sorry" game going on that we watched and looked super fun but I did not understand. You also get a free bandana for participating.

3. Went briefly to the 80's party hosted by Mat. It was a lot of fun!!! Good music and lots of people dancing and singing. We skipped the 90's one although looking back I'm not sure why as I would have dominated. There's also a "rock and glow" party out on the Lido deck where the pass out glowsticks. I skipped this but watched part of it on the Lido cam from my room. Looked like a lot of kids clamoring for glow sticks but maybe it was more adult later. I don't know, I'm elderly I go to bed early.

4. We watched a magic show in the Showtime Lounge one morning. I can not recall the magicians name. It was a lot more mind reading type stuff than actual like, tricks, if that makes sense. D liked it, I found it to be a snooze. Personally I think he just liked it because the magician complimented his watch before it started. He's vain like that.

5. We did not take in any comedy shows. Tried to go one night to the 10pm show, got there at about 9:35 and it was PACKED so we nope'd right out of there. So my tip would be to go early if you want to go to one.

6. Went to the dive-in movies 2 nights. Watched Hidden Figures, Spider Man, and half of Wonder Woman (left after the wind dried my contacts out so bad I couldn't see and D had to lead me around the boat like one of the three blind mice til I got inside to rip them violently out of my eyes but then I couldn't see the movie anymore). Tons of seats open both on 10 and 11. Blankets are soft and comfy (you check them out at the towel hut). Popcorn is available at the Red Frog Bar for free. Popcorn is ehhhhhhhhhh. There's zero butter on it. I found it ok-ish, D found it inedible. Can we get some jolly time up in here? Overall it was fun though if you're movie fans!

Overall thoughts: I never felt bored on board (I see what I did there). There was always SOMETHING to do. Yeah some of it's cheesy and corny but that's what a cruise is and if you embrace it you'll have a good time! Branch out and try something new! Except the weird spa seminars those seemed kinda scary and really, who's on a cruise to get a flatter tummy? I think that ship has sailed by the time you get onboard (again with the puns, I'm here all week folks).

I thinnkkkkk that's it. We went to 2 production shows but I'll discuss that later along with music as I have a lot of thoughts on these matters. Gotta work for a bit but I'll be back! :D

This shall be my heathen post of all things terrible and vice-y. Clutch your pearls or skip over as needed :)

CASINO

Probably spent the most time here of our trip. We are casino fans. I will also say we are frequent, but not high volume gamblers. My goal with gambling is to kill some time and have fun, not win. Winning is just a bonus but I never go in expecting it. Some thoughts on the casino:

1. I come from the land of only reservation gambling. Specifically, one of the largest and most profitable (I believe it might be THE most profitable) reservation casinos in the country (shout out to Mys-Take Lake!). I found the slots to be much kinder on the boat than at my local casino. I'll keep it real here as I feel like nobody ever says how much they gamble lol. We typically bankroll about $40 or so a night, each. We'll then play til it's gone or we get bored, whichever comes first. I ran on $20 for 3 days on the boat. Did I just get lucky? Is my local casino just REALLY tight (yes, yes it is). I do not know, but overall I was not upset at the volume of winnings on this boat. Didn't win BIG, but won steady enough to keep me going, which is good enough for me!

2. You can charge slot money to your room. I would be careful with this, it's super easy especially after a few drinks.

3. Yep, it's smoky. REALLY smoky. Smoke does waft out of the casino and into the ocean plaza too. There is a small "non-smoking" area near the cage that has a bank of slot machines, some of those quarter push machines (side note: ADDICTED to these. Anyone remember that episode of Roseanne where they go to Vegas and she blows a ton of money on one like "ITS GOING TO FALL SOON I KNOW IT!" That's me. I am Roseanne Barr.) and maybe a blackjack table. It makes zero difference. you can smoke a foot away so the only real benefit is someone won't be smoking right next to you but yeah....it's smoky.

4. Speaking of smoky, they really, really, REALLY need to increase the volume of ashtrays in this casino. I say this as a smoker and as a general human. For the smoker me, It was difficult to find one to smoke with when it was busy in the casino (which was frequently).

For the human me, this would then lead to people putting their cigarettes in any empty glass that was sitting next to the slot machines. You seen a melted Miami Vice with 7 cigarette butts in it? It is DISGUSTING. I felt like there was nobody really cleaning the casino and one the last night in particular when it was really busy there was glasses, glasses full of cigarettes, and napkins everywhere....It was fine when it was slower but when it was busy, this needs some serious improvement in my opinion.

SMOKING

Ok as I mentioned I am a smoker, but I like to fancy myself a polite one. I don't break the rules, I realize it's a truly disgusting habit, and I don't like to impose my life choice onto others (you want to not smoke? cool. I do? Also cool but that shouldn't mean you have to smell it and I do what I want). There's 3 main areas you can smoke on the ship

1. Casino. See above

2. Outside the night club on Deck 5, port side kinda towards the middle/aft area. This is probably your best smoking area bet. It's quieter, it's not windy. Side note: if you have a balcony above this area, specifically on 6 and probably 7, you're gonna get smoke wafting into your balcony area. I thought this was interesting to note.

3. Deck 11, basically the entire starboard side from the middle to back. Middle is ok but I personally don't like it as there's a lot of kid traffic there and I personally (again, you make your decisions I'll make mine) hate smoking around kids. 11 aft was virtually kid free but MY GOD is it windy out there. Thank god I accidently smuggled errrrrrrr "forgot" my torch lighter in my purse and made it through TSA because I think I normal lighter would have been difficult out there. It's windy and there's also a GIANT A/C vent making it even windier. Plus side: you can stand out there and pretend you are Michael Jackson in his 90's music videos. This seemed to be a popular area to smoke and they were good about cleaning ashtrays here in my experience.

4. Apparently you can smoke in the nightclub too but we did not visit it. You can not find me in the club, sorrry Fiddy Cent.

- Overall I felt MOST people followed the rules regarding smoking. I mentioned previously balcony smoking and the cigarette on our balcony when we checked in. I smelled it once. One time there was a guy on 12 smoking right above the proper area on 11 and I saw a worker holler at him and make him come downstairs. One movie night there was also a guy smoking a cigar on the wrong side of 11 while sitting in a chair watching the movie and nobody said a word sooooo enforcement seems hit or miss. That said, those were the only 2 rule breakers I saw all week from the smokers group.

Ok work for a bit, might be all for the day, let's see how much we can get done at work! :D

A few ship pics I found, and by found I mean stole from D.

Towel animals/people all over the Lido deck on day 5 of our cruise.

Looking up in the atrium

Dive in movies set up, this was the end of LaLa land, no copyright infringement intended, don't sue me I need my cruise money

When you all the way forward and have to walk allllll the way to your room allllll the way aft after a few burgers and drinks. Issa tragedy, let me tell you. :eek: