Picture Review: Magic 5-19-13 Jamaica, Cayman, Cozumel

I know this is WAY late, but I never did it after we got back and actually never thought to do it. But I figure I would give y'all some insight from a young 20's cruiser perspective. AND after seeing everybody else's picture reviews, it got me in the mood, haha!

We sailed out of Galveston, and this was the first cruise for all of us (myself, brother, and 2 friends - all in our low 20's). We're from the Beaumont area, so the drive to Galveston is only about an hour and a half (including the ferry ride from Crystal Beach) so not a bad drive at all. Would love to hear all of your comments and or questions! Here we goooooooooo...

Walking up to the ship!

The main pool area

My S&S card

Before our top beds were turned down

Our group before we sailed off (I'm far right)

My brother and I the first night at dinner at MDR

First day at Sea

Back of the ship

Our room with the top beds turned down

Water slides

It's hard to comprehend just how big the Gulf is until you're out there in the middle of nowhere!

Lobster! I had 6 plates :D

After formal night at the comedy show! (Which was very funny, but incredibly vulgar... Didn't bother us though!)

Aft pool... Only pool/hot tubs we used. It wasn't too terribly crowded most of the time and plenty hot enough!

I took this picture to show what the wake looked like when we changed directions... Thought this was pretty cool!

It rained for like 10 minutes, and afterwards this rainbow came out... Pretty cool!

Woke up to our arrival in Montego Bay, Jamaica! I don't care what anybody says about it, I thoroughly enjoyed myself here. We did get offered weed quite a few times, but that was to be expected.

From the back of the ship

Out towards the Caribbean

Really looking forward to your review I'm 21 and there really are not many reviews with people our age! Plus me and my buddy are going on the splendor on Monday!

Towards the front of the ship

Directly in front of the ship

My brother got was the last person on the bus, so he got to ride directly next to the bus driver!

These guys walking on stilts in the sand were crazy! We went to Doctor's Cave Beach. The snorkeling was excellent, the food was pretty good, and the water was beautiful!

Really looking forward to your review I'm 21 and there really are not many reviews with people our age! Plus me and my buddy are going on the splendor on Monday!

Us young guys gotta stick together! If you have any questions or anything just let me know

Jerk Chicken, Steak, and Shrimp! This was was pretty expensive so my brother and I split it. Food was very good though!

There was an airport close to the beach so planes kept flying over. It was pretty neat!

A rainstorm coming in from over the mountains, and our ship in the distance...

Doctor's Cave Beach from one of the piers.

This was a different resort/beach club but it looked pretty neat.

Look at how clear and amazing the water was! I was definitely surprised.

Some fish right off of the pier

I guess these were apartments? Whatever they were, they looked pretty cool.

Rain coming in

So this is really funny I was on the liberty and I think we were in grand cayman the same day! Small world

This was one of my favorite features of the ship... The channel on the TV that showed exactly where we were.

This is how far we had traveled so far

On the ship after the rain was over... Jamaica (from the ship atleast) was beautiful!

My brother and I are both soccer players (he has played collegiate, and I play for a professional indoor team in Beaumont) so this was the best picture I could get of a field while we were sailing away

Sailing away from Montego Bay

Love, love, LOVE photo reviews. Thanks for sharing. :)

Especially like the photo of the inside cabin with 4 adults. A lot of people come here asking about space, so it's good to see the reality of that.

The airstrip I was talking about earlier

A plane flying over our ship while we were sailing away

Of the entire trip, this is my favorite picture I took! Just unbelievable.

Grand Cayman!

An old wooden ship that I believe you could take rides on

The souvenir shop where we met up to take our Sting Ray City Excursion! I didn't get any pictures while we were there because I didn't have a waterproof camera, but I will say that it was an experience of a lifetime. You don't know how big those things can get until they swim past you, or until your tour guide hands you one and walks away (hahaha!) Our tour guide preached and preached that the only way we would get attacked is if we got scared and tried to run away and stepped on one. The rays were so tranquil and peaceful I loved every minute of it! He at one point took the barb, and cleaned his teeth with it! We booked ours through a smaller company, so our group had only like 10 people (which was great for when we got to the sting ray bar). I recommend this excursion 100%!

Our ship

Golf course we passed to get to our excursion site. It had iguanas everywhere

After our Sting Ray excursion, we took a cab to Royal Palms at 7 Mile Beach. They had free wifi near the restaurant, so we were able to get on facebook and instagram and twitter!

Our ship and another Carnival shipped near by

My brother and I

Next day: Cozumel! Our only goal on this Island was to drink, and drink, and drink some more hahaha. Needless to say we accomplished our goal. We hailed a cab to town and walked around. Here are a few pictures from off the ship. The BLUE-EST water I have ever seen!

The picture doesn't do it any justice :eek:

Thought this was pretty funny while walking through the souvenir part of Puerta Maya (where we were docked). Restrooms and then a dentist?

In the middle of I guess you would call downtown Cozumel?

This is the restaurant we ate lunch at. Best quesadillas I've ever had!

2 drinks for $5! It doesn't get any better than that. And our waiter/bartender made those margaritas STRONG. He asked us what all we had planned for the day, to which we told him "to get absolutely hammered" and he said he would hook us up!

Our food!

I took this picture so we could find this place the next time we were there

The best part about Cozumel was definitely that Dos XX and Coronas were only $1 at certain stores (our cab driver told us about this, so he got an extra tip! $$$). This is my friend Daniel "double-fisting"

"Ill just sit right here and have another beer in Mexico..." And yes this picture was taken just so I could quote that song haha

And the drinking continued at Senor Frogs

I may or may not have danced on one of the tables...

Or the bar with a lot of pretty ladies :D

The Magic and I think the Liberty? Side by side

The other ship sailing away

Daniel had a little too much

So we let him be

I believe the land to the left was the main land of Mexico

They cleared the deck off for the "beach party"

Everybody enjoying the party!

All of us with our awesome waiters from the MDR, Nop and Dorde! The first night we ate there, Nop discovered that we loved bread and kept it coming every single night. In order to remember our names (we sat next to different people each night) he gave me (Austin Powers) and my friend Dean (James Dean) nicknames. We definitely enjoyed our servers!

And my final picture... Our ship while we were on the ferry ride back home :(

All in all, for it being our first ever cruise, I was THOROUGHLY pleased with the Carnival Magic. Embarking and Debarking we had people helping us and smiling the entire time which made things so much easier (this is what we were mainly worried about). The food was excellent (especially the 24 hour pizza place!). I don't think I had a single complaint from the entire trip. We are already planning our next cruise for this coming May, except this time are going to try the Navigator of the Seas from RCCL. I highly recommend the Magic to anybody! Any questions or comments, be sure and let me know!

Love, love, LOVE photo reviews. Thanks for sharing. :)

 

Especially like the photo of the inside cabin with 4 adults. A lot of people come here asking about space, so it's good to see the reality of that.

It was definitely small, but the only time were in there was to change clothes, shower or sleep. The beds were comfortable and there wasn't any noise from the ship or from other people. We were on the lido deck, so access to things were excellent.

Thank you for sharing, your pictures are wonderful!

I highly recommend not going on Navigator if you wanna have fun like you did on the Magic. We did the same thing. Went on an awesome Carnival cruise then the next yr tried Royal. Which we had cruised on before. We were so bored compared to Carnival. Plus it felt like we were cruising with a retirement village. Later we found out 1 was on and a square dance club!

We do like Royal don't get me wrong but we found ourselves looking for fun every night. The next yr we went on Magic and already have it booked again.

Try the. Roatan route you will love it!