A Review of Many Firsts: On the MAGIC 1/20-2/3/18

It took me 23 years to get my husband to take me on a cruise and since then we have been hooked! This is my first review on CC.

Tips on how we are frugal –

1. AARP cards to save 10%. Thanks to CC for sharing that tip with me! This was our 3 and 4 cruise and we were finally in the know and saved some bucks! I paid for the majority of our cruise w/ GC as well as the gratuities.

2. We booked the first part of our B2B 19 mths ahead and the 2nd part 13mths ahead. Since this I have learned that the earlier you book, the cheaper the price, more than likely. I currently have our 5 and 6 cruises booked a whole 18 mths ahead.

3. I research like crazy prior to our cruises, trying to learn all I can about the ports we will be visiting and then I look for FREE things to do or cheap things to do. We like to walk on foot and do our own exploring much of the time.

4. We don’t buy any specialty restaurants and we normally get the interior cabins.

5. We travel only with carry-ons. (two weeks was interesting but we did it!)

6. Had our son drop us off at airport and pick us up after vacation to save parking fees for 15 days at airport.

7. Price Match on Excursions

8. WashEZE sheets are great for washing a few items in the bathroom sink! It took about 24 hrs for my husband’s button up shirts to dry.

Many Firsts:

1. First time on Magic

2. First time out of Port Canaveral

3. First time using Cortrans and Cocoa Beach Shuttle

4. First time staying at La Quinta Cocoa Beach on A1

5. First time having a balcony and spa pass (spa balcony)

6. First time doing a B2B

7. First time sailing on our own (2nd leg)

8. First time w/o any airline delays! Woo hoo!

9. First time being GOLD.

10. First time to Belize, Mahogany Bay

11. First time missing 2 ports (Amber Cover and Costa Maya)

12. First time having to sit with strangers during MDR time each evening.

13. First time doing a price match on excursion.

14. First time bringing WashEZE sheets along to “do” laundry.

15. First time attending Tea Time

If any of the above things interest you, keep reading for more details!

Since our first cruise back in 2015, we’ve learned to fly in the day beforehand and we always book the earliest flight possible on the day we head to warmer climates so we were up at 3:30am and getting ready to head to the airport. The lyrics “Don’t you worry bout a thing Mama” were going through my head. This is from the “Sing” movie which is my 2 yr old granddaughter’s favorite movie right now! Our son, C, was up to take us to the airport and our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:35am…Yay!...it left on time! Interesting side note: my prepackaged trail mix and Lara bars along with my Wash EZE sheets got extra attention and had to be wiped down. Also I had decided to wear my arch support straps for my plantar fasciitis which set off an alarm through security and I had to step aside and get scanned again by a hand held device. All was well and I made it on to the next stop! No other surprises along the way. All our flights were on schedule and we made it to Orlando airport on time.

It took us about 15-20 min to figure out where we needed to go to meet our Cocoa Beach Shuttle. We stopped and asked at an information desk. As we were doing this, I thought I remembered seeing instructions on their website or maybe an email and just forgot to write it down. My bad! Once we made it to the pick up spot, we waited maybe 15 minutes for the driver to show up. I thought this was a reasonable amount of time. We loaded up, with our driver Scott, and were on our way. As we loaded up, Scott told us that we were the last stop on the route. When he dropped us off at La Quinta Cocoa Beach on AI, he stuck around and chatted with us for about 15 minutes sharing tips on the area and what we might want to sight see. The total trip took about an hour. At this point we were pleased with CBS. All the negative reviews I had read and worried about prior to the trip were not a concern….at this point.

La Quinta Inn Cocoa Beach was originally owned by the original astronauts. The theme is “astronaut” and you’ll see memorabilia throughout the hotel. This hotel is older although we found the rooms very roomy and clean and comfy. Employees were friendly. Free breakfast was typical but plentiful. They let us check in about an hour early. This hotel is in a great location! We were in walking distance to the beach which was straight ahead out the main hotel doors, crossing A1 highway. There is also a Denny’s, Mamba’s (seafood), a pizza place, steak place, Dunkin Donuts, BBQ place and a Dollar General that we either walked to or walked past. We ended up having supper on the beach at Mamba’s. I had a shrimp po’boy, my husband B shared a pound of peel n eat shrimp, E had a shrimp skewer meal and L had a fried cod meal. All were plentiful in size although just a forewarning, this place is a little pricey…if you are frugal like us! Lots of great photo opportunities in this area! We also got to see a rocket launch while walking back from the Dollar General, high above us!

This is a pic of the path leading to Cocoa Beach not far from the hotel.

E and L were scheduled to ride the CBS from the hotel to port at 9:15am. B and I were scheduled for an 11:15a pick up. When we called to ask if we could switch, we were told they were booked and couldn’t make any changes. OK. At 10:40am, L and E still hadn’t been picked up. Two phone calls were made during this time and both times, we were told the driver was 15 minutes away. Coincidentally, at 10:40am an off-duty Uber driver came by and asked if we needed a ride. We hesitated but in the end, after seeing 3 different forms of ID (haha, I think I watch too many detective shows!) we relented and off we went with Uber Joe! He price matched for us and CBS refunded our money for that portion of the trip. I was disappointed in CBS for making us wait. In the big picture, we would be waiting somewhere…it just would have been nice if they would have said that they were running behind by X number of minutes/hours/etc so we could have relaxed a little and enjoyed more of the surroundings w/o worrying about if we were going to be picked up or not. SIDE NOTE: The price for CBS ended up being only $1 less per person than the service the hotel uses which was Road Runner. (The CBS website stated $5/pp but they charged us initially $6/pp) The hotel shuttle was on time. In the future, I would probably stick with the service used by this hotel if we were to stay here again and save myself some worry.

Nice start to your review.

I have yet to miss a port but have been delayed by 1 day twice. I think missing a port is better, at least you are on the ship!

We made it onboard without any complications in a very timely manner. This was much faster than Port of Miami but again, we haven’t been on many cruises yet and don’t have a lot to compare to.

Our first week was in an interior on floor 1. Our 2nd week was in a spa balcony on level 12. Talk about “moving up!” We received an upsell offer about 35 days out and since B had spoke about trying out a balcony at some point (but I didn’t really want to spend the money) and the idea of spa anything appealed to me, we decided to take the offer. I must tell our story on this: we got the call on a Monday. I asked if we could think about it. She stressed how it was time sensitive. We decided we’d do it and emailed her on Wed. Never heard back. Called her on Thur. Her voicemail said she was out of office til Monday. Ok. I didn’t know what my options were so we waited it out. At the time of the offer, 4 rooms were available. When I finally got a hold of her on Monday, 2 rooms were left and of course the one I wanted had already been snatched up! We settled for another choice. I was nervous since these rooms are on the front of the ship, and my husband never asked me if we actually got the room or not…I’m in charge of all our planning…so I decided to surprise him! I was hoping I made the right call and we both agreed that I did. We did have rough seas for a large portion of our time onboard. I didn’t think the front vs middle made a huge difference on this ship. My husband said he noticed the rocking more in the front but not enough to make him regret the room change. I spent a lot of time out on the balcony while my husband relaxed inside the room. This set up worked well for us because I like the sun and he doesn’t. We both won!...and could still be somewhat close to each other. If the price was right, we would definitely do a balcony again although the next cruise is scheduled with interiors and we will wait to see if we get another upsell offer.

Spa: I was worried that my husband who doesn’t like being “hot” would not enjoy the spa. He is one to sweat easily and doesn’t like to put himself in places to purposely sweat. We really liked the T-pool and the heated lounge chairs. I

enjoyed the other rooms available too although B did not – too hot. We went to the spa 2X a day on average. L and E got the spa passes and used the spa for the first leg of our trip. They also tried to go twice a day and really enjoyed it. It was nice being on the 12th floor and only having to walk up one flight of steps to access the spa area. L and E had to go up 11 flights (elevator) to get there. B and I got a $50 GC for the spa in honor of our anniversary. I used it to get a fire and ice manicure. I loved it! I highly recommend this if you enjoy a good arm/hand massage. My only complaint is that they didn’t have much of a selection in nail polish colors unless you wanted to pay $25 to upgrade to the gel polishes. I didn’t upgrade. The polish they used on me only lasted about 3 days before it started chipping. Also, we were given a free scrub kit….it wasn’t very big and we had just enough to do to B’s back and shoulders along with my legs and arms. I’ve never used it before so maybe I could have stretched it out a little more but live and learn! INTERESTING NOTE: The Spa employees are very much on the ball! I had them ask me multiple times if I had a wrist band. Instead of being annoyed, I was thankful they do check so that it keeps the attendance down of people trying to sneak in. We never had a time where we couldn’t find a spot to park for a bit.

Food:

Tandoor – was our favorite food onboard! We had this for lunch several times. The fish kabobs were really good!

Guy’s Burgers – were really good. We got the Pig Patty and shared on several occasions. My husband also got the fries a few times too just for a snack. The first time we went to order a burger, my husband told me to pick out whatever I wanted and we’d share. I told him the pig patty….he wasn’t thrilled because he thought it was actually a pork patty, not beef. When he found out it was a layer of bacon on top of beef, he was happy!

Blue Iguana – I got the tacos once. Fish, Chicken and Pork – one of each. They didn’t really excite me. I know this place is super popular because it was always packed but just other things I enjoyed more.

MDR – for breakfast: We enjoy the atmosphere here more so than the Lido Buffet. Part of it is we like sitting down and being waited on. We don’t go to many restaurants where we get waited on these days so this is a special treat for us. I tried the Broken Egg Sandwich a couple times and really enjoyed it. My husband got the Smoked Salmon bagel most mornings. We weren’t as excited about the waffles or pancakes this time around….but we are use to homemade pancakes and waffles so that’s probably why. I also tried the omelets, yogurt parfait and the homemade granola – all were good. For supper: We enjoyed most of the items we ordered. A wide assortment of for all taste buds. The only observation is that the steak is inconsistent as far as how it is cooked. My husband orders his medium rare or rare and it ranged from rare to medium well depending on the evening. I really enjoyed the new double roasted pineapple dessert as well as the chocolate tres leche dessert. INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: For the first week, we dressed up business casual for every meal. For the 2nd week, we really dressed down….more jeans or shorts and a top. This was partly because our new table mates for the 2nd leg asked us from the start how we were going to dress as they weren’t “dressy” people and frankly, we wanted to be comfortable more so than fashionable.

DELI – We only tried this a couple times. My husband said his reuben had too much meat on it…like WHAT?!....too MUCH MEAT?!!!! That just really surprised me that he would comment on that. He also said not enough 1000 Island Dressing….I got the tuna salad and thought it was good. Also got the egg salad…I think he gave me the potato salad instead…it was ok but I wasn’t really looking for potatoes at that moment….the salted double chocolate cookies are cakey so if you like cakey cookies, you will enjoy those.

MONGOLIAN GRILL – I know now why the lines are so long here! The food was good but with only 2 chefs, each doing 3 meals at a time, and cooking things fresh, right there on the spot, it takes awhile to get though the line. I got chicken with veggies and the Thai BBQ sauce. It was spicy!...but not too spicy for me….I can tolerate spicy to a certain degree as my tolerance has increased over the years but no where near what B enjoys!

LIDO – I loved, loved, loved the lemon tart they served. It had a sign in front of it that stated it was lower calorie….I’m not buying it!...It was just too good to be lower calorie! Also we really liked the Key Lime Cheesecake which we all decided really didn’t taste much like lime other than a slight hint, but it was super creamy and yummy!

TEA TIME – Our first time attending this event. E purchased one of the specialty teas. L and B drank Lipton tea and I had water. I think they served roughly 7-8 different snacks. I would say the cream puff thingys and the fresh strawberries were my favorite. My husband liked the salmon on bagette. The other items weren’t overly exciting to me but each to his/her own. We felt this was too much of a snack before our 6P dining time and only did it once. The music was relaxing and it was nice to experience.

Cooking Demo – This was our first time attending the cooking demo. Took place on a sea day in the Steak House. We found it interesting. My husband enjoyed the food. He ate most of mine. This took place around 11:30am and I recommend you getting there early as we went around 11:15am and the place was already packed. We were the last two people allowed to enter and it was just by the hair of our chinny chin chins! They had a mushroom theme this day. I do not know if it’s the same each time you go. They served a mushroom espresso which was actually a soup. Then they had a salad with mushrooms in it. Then a chicken dish with mushrooms in it along with a side of mac n cheese and a mushroom/potato hash. Dessert was a tiramisu (and no mushrooms!) We may do this again just to see if the menu differs. They did give us a little recipe book w/ all the recipes except the surprise sides in it.

Guy’s Pig and Anchor – We waited in line one Sea Day for 40 minutes to try out this place. We got to the line about 15 min before they started serving food. The food was good but we decided it wasn’t 40 minutes in line good.

Sea Dogs – My husband tried out the hotdogs one day. The only toppings available are chili or sauerkraut. Nothing overly exciting. He had to hunt around on the Lido Buffet for various other toppings to try to doctor it up a tad. I think he said he went to 3 different locations!

Ropes Course – We all did it once. We had rough seas and wind so once was all we got the chance to do. That was ok with Honey and if I’m honest, me too. After I had completed the first two segments, I was wishing I wouldn’t have done it. Just a little scary for me and I must admit, my neck ached afterward from pulling and holding on too tight to the ropes. There is an easy path with ropes to hang onto the whole time or a more challenging path, without the extra ropes for balancing. I think another pass through would have gone better since I knew then what to expect but we never got the chance. There really isn’t any way to fall and get hurt…just the ego!

ROOMS – We stayed in room #1282 the first week on floor 1. This is near the front part of the mid area of the ship. I really don’t know what is underneath that room but noises woke me up several nights although B slept though it as did E and L who were in the room right next to us. Sounded like dishes clanking and also heard waves hitting the ship here and there. 2nd leg we stayed in room 12023 which is on front of ship. I could hear waves hitting the ship some nights more so than others. As stated before, nothing about this room would cause me NOT to stay here again! The good far outweighed the not so good!

PORTS –

Cozumel: Erica and I got fish pedis right at the port area. If you walk to the left near the sandy beachy area w/ the blue lounge chairs, you will come to the fish pedi area. They cost $20 each or 2 people for $30. I think you get about 20 minutes and they do set a timer but we actually got a little longer than that. It felt like tiny vibrations on our feet where the fish were nibbling….seems like they should pay us to feed their fish, not the other way around! Ha! E and L went on a ruins tour and I can’t tell you which one because I never wrote it down but they enjoyed it while B and I walked around the port.

BELIZE: B and I did cave tubing for the first time. I had been eyeballing this excursion for months. We originally booked through a private company but B’s anxiety kicked in and we switched to Carnival. I had read on CC somewhere that people were getting price matches so I applied for one and it was granted! The excursion description through Carnival vs the private vendor were NOT the same but I pointed out a few things such as time difference, carrying tubes vs not….all things that were in favor of the private vendor and that seems to work. For the price, it was definitely worth it. We had a really relaxing day. I would advise as others have, that you have good thicker soled water shoes for this as the path you hike on to get to the cave is rocky, like small rocks. I purposely bought B his first pair of Keens for this event. He said after the fact that the smaller flimsier water shoes wouldn’t have been enough to keep his feet comfy. INTERESTING NOTE: We were not allowed to keep our stuff on the bus. They said in case of emergency, that bus might have to leave to help another and our stuff would be leaving with it so we had to rent lockers. They have different sizes ranging from $6-$8. As others have stated, if you don’t buy the lunch through Carnival, you still have the options of buying the same lunch for the same price or other snacks once you finish your cave tour. I think my husband said the soda pop was $3. We opted to hang in there and wait to get back to the ship.

Mahogany Bay: Beautiful beach. Nice and sandy. No rough rocks as you enter. When you leave the ship, you head to the right and follow around until you get to the path that takes you to the beach if you do not choose to ride the lift. The walk really isn’t that far for most people. I think this is where we saw large sting rays outside the roped off area of beach. Lots of shops to check out. B bought some coffee beans to take home and we got a magnet.

Old San Juan: We absolutely LOVE OSJ. We walk around the city on our own. We ventured to the far fort darting in and out of side streets, checking out stores, walked along a nature trail for a bit, explored the fort and then backtracked back to the pier.

Just a few pics from OSJ above.

St Thomas: We chose to walk around here also. Two years ago we had walked around the port area and this time, some of the stores we had visited then were no longer in business due to the hurricanes. It was obvious here and there that things weren’t quite back to normal but they are getting there!

Grand Turk: This is my favorite port. I absolutely love the beach! This time we ventured to the right of the pier and walked down to the conch graveyard area. I took lots of pictures. We also saw the John Glenn space capsule which we had missed last time. Then we back tracked and went the other direction down to Jack’s Shack to meet Topher. The sand in this area leading into the water/swim area is so nice and no rocks! The water was the perfect temperature! Bit by bit we meandered back towards the pier and B finally got in the water with me for a bit…of course, closer to the pier the water is filled with rocks and we were thankful we had our Keens on us again! Our friends, C and A took an island tour and really enjoyed it. L and E took the island tour two years ago and also enjoyed it. Some of the water excursions got cancelled today due to rough seas.

Costa Maya and Amber Cove turned into sea days as the waters were just too rough.

TABLE MATES: True Story – After L and E got off the ship, B and I decided we didn’t want to risk sitting with strangers on the 2nd part of trip so we asked if we could be switched to a table for 2. We got a “I’ll speak to the Matre’D and see. We never head back and when we got our new S&S cards, we just assumed the table number was where we needed to go. During the first evening, when we got to the table and met our new friends, we hit it off. Also found out that they had tried to switch to a table for 2 also and weren’t able to! Assumed that was that. The 2nd night we were seated and waiting to eat when the hostess approached us and asked if we were all in the right spots because another couple claimed someone was in their spot. They also had the same table # on their cards. Somewhere along the line, something was messed up. At this point, A, C, B and I all wanted to sit together so we did and the other couple got a table for 2. We were so thankful to meet this new couple from Virginia. We had a lot in common and hope to stay in touch!

ENTERTAINMENT: We really felt the shows we saw 2 years ago were better. This could be partly because we just didn’t get some of the shows….”Flick” seemed weird to us….it took E telling me afterwards who the main guy was suppose to be to have that light bulb go off and I finally “got it”. “Country Roads” had music that we weren’t familiar with. I only recognized a couple songs. I grew up on old country but don’t listen to the newer stuff as much now. I liked how the songs told the story. “88 Keys” was disappointing only because we expected actual piano playing throughout, but I did like the songs. “America Rocks” was great but that’s my era. WE really enjoyed the “Just June” and “Nery Saenz” comedians. They weren’t vulgar. They did swear but it wasn’t every other word is the “F” bomb. We did see one other guy “Tim”….I can’t remember his last name off hand…his material was really dated and we didn’t feel the desire to go see him more than just the one time. Part of this is that we are not night owls by any means and the fact that we saw the other two comedians earlier in our cruise was really a fluke!

B2B PERKS: We got a free bottle of wine and a fruit basket and a group picture of all the B2B’ers. We were told to wait in the MDR until it was time to leave the ship as a group, go through the customs area and back onto the ship. They had coffee, juice and muffins for us in the MDR. When we got back on the ship, our new room wasn’t ready for us so we had to wait until about 12:30 and then we just snuck in undetected. It helped that our room was right at the “T” in the hall way so we didn’t have far to go! INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: Someone on CC had suggested that we go to customer service at the beginning of first part of B2B to make sure they had us down as doing a B2B. I tried to do that. The customer service rep didn’t look anything up on our acct and just reassured me we would get a letter. Near the end of the first cruise, I mentioned to our room attendant that we were doing a B2B. She said we were not on her list of B2B’ers. We tried to go back to customer service a 2nd time but the line was way to long at this point. Our room attendant had her supervisor check and we did finally receive our notice of where to go and what to do during that interim period. All worked out!

JOHN HEALD – He showed up mid-way through out 2nd cruise. This was exciting for us as we follow his FB page. We went to his Q and A session and it was nice to see that he is such a nice person…you can just tell by the way he interacts with the audience.

CELEBRATIONS – Since I had listed that we were celebrating my husband’s birthday and our anniversary on our reservations, we received a few extras. During one of the dining nights, we got a chocolate heart shaped “truffle like” cake. This was delicious and we shared it with L and E. Ben also received a vanilla with white whipped frosting cake for his birthday. This was OK only because that type of frosting isn’t our favorite but we shared it with L and E and of course still ate it! B received a $200 art credit towards purchasing artwork but we didn’t use it. Our room attendant also wrote “Happy Birthday” on the mirror in our room for him. We received the $50 GC for the spa times two – one on each cruise. Use the first one for my manicure. Didn’t use the 2nd one. Couldn’t find any product that could be taken on the plane in our carry on and B didn’t want a shave and beard trim which was the only thing on the list that the GC would cover without paying extra other than a manicure which I didn’t want since I had just had one.

GOLD: B and I turned Gold reaching day 25 on the very last day of the 2nd leg of the cruise, yet at the beginning of the first week, Carnival gave us Gold cards! We were super surprised and enjoyed our free beverage coupons twice!...one for each cruise! Yay! I tried the Mango Magic from the Red Frog Pub and it was delish! B got the Pina Colada which is his old stand by which he also enjoyed.

CC Food Combo Ideas – Make on your own:

1. We tried the PB mixed into Chocolate Melting Cake – consensus was that it was good but the cake is so rich on it’s own, PB wasn’t a necessity. Depends on your sweet tooth!

2. Lemonade mixed with vanilla ice cream – This was the highlight of treats for my husband! He shared the idea with several people. INTERESTING NOTE: I was at the Ice Cream area waiting to get my fill and a couple of ladies standing by told me about the Lemonade/Vanilla IC concoction…word travels fast!

3. Chocolate Ice Cream in Hot Chocolate – Yes! This made the hot chocolate so much better!

4. Fresh Fruit dipped in Warm Chocolate Melting Cake – this was good although the night I tried it, the fruit was pretty hard…not ripe yet!

5. Room Service Chocolate Cake – Yes! Deep, dark, rich chocolate cake! I would recommend vanilla ice cream on the side next time! I ordered 2 per my husband’s request with the suggestion that I would save one for later in the event he did not like it….I never saw the 2nd piece! INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: I gained 7 lbs because of all these yummy treats!...or...lack of willpower coupled with all the yummy treats!

When it was time to debark, we were not sure how long it would take. Our scheduled shuttle wasn’t to pick us up until 9:30am. We left the ship around 7:45 and it took approximately 45 min for us to get though all the lines and out to the front of the port area where all the shuttles were waiting. Like I said, we were early but right away so a representative from Cortrans and asked her if we might get an earlier shuttle. She said she’d let us know. We waited around for maybe 20 minutes and then she flagged us over to hop on the bus that was leaving for the airport. I will say that CBS was already there at the port to do pick ups when we first entered the pick up area. Make of that what you will. We were very happy with our service from Cortrans. The driver was friendly and careful with our stuff. He drove in a safe manner and got us where we needed to be in a timely fashion.

Our returning flights were both on time! Like, I really wanted an opportunity to give up my seat for a future airline ticket credit! Maybe next time! That’s it for my review. Over all we enjoyed our time on the Magic and are much looking forward to our next adventure which will be in January of 2019!

Great review! Thanks

Thanks for the review.

Thanks for the feedback.

Enjoying your review of our favorite ship! I can't see any of your pics, though. :loudcry:

Thank you for your extensive report.

Keith

Good review but I too cannot see your photos.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. We love B2Bs.

We can't see any pictures either. :(

Great review, as we are planning on doing it the end of March, only a different itinerary. I had taken my sons/wives and friend the direction you went, last year. It looked like you either had, or had planned to have pictures between your review, but I never seen anything.

Great review!

Great review! Thanks for all the information.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. They showed up in my preview prior to posting.....I'm not sure why they aren't there now?....

What is B2B??!!?!

What is B2B??!!?!

Back to back cruises.

How did you go about getting a discount with your AARP card? My mom is an AARP member and we'd love to save 10%.

Enjoyed your review, very well written!

How did you go about getting a discount with your AARP card? My mom is an AARP member and we'd love to save 10%.

If you look for the "rewards for good" on the aarp site, you can sign up for emails that will include codes for points or you can take quizzes to earn points. Once you acquire points, you can use them to get 10% off the gc. The quizzes are pretty simple and quick to do here and there. You don't have to have an aarp membership in order to have the rewards for good acct but if you do have a membership, you get double points per quiz.