Not a good start for Magic

[firefly333]

I only had one lunch in the MDR, the last seaday and they had two new choices. seafood neptune salad, with shrimps, scallops and two other things that looked good.

I had the trout almondine and it was excellent. .. really really good.

I was on Oasis last, so many its above other RCL ships, but I loved those new food choices too.

[iTouch]

[quote name='PAPERBKWRITER']OVERSOLD? Never heard of that before. I realize not everybody shows up for various reasons but a cruise is not an airplane. The next one won't be a couple hours away. So if this is true do they just keep the money from those who don't show? Maybe they have a back up. I'm sure they do running maintaince and probably have a few cabins that in an emergency could be made ready. I would go ballastic if I got there late, booked a guarantee, and told "Uh, we oversold. Come back next week."[/quote]

Actually Princess has been known to over sale on their ships. They contact passengers and will give them the option to re schedule in an upgraded suite.......We got the call when we were sailing on the Crown Princess........we declined.

[additivecruiser]

[quote name='firefly333']What bad pr?? I have not seen any bad pr, a few gripes about bad weather on the TA and now wheelchairs in the ports... but the ship itself is spectacular.

Arent you on the I hate Carnival page?? I think you are letting your emotions rule rather than the ship itself.

If there is some bad pr, could you provide a link, as I have been on Triumph and then the Magic preview and missed this bad stuff. Or do you mean missing a port is bad pr?? I really dont see this bad news you speak of so far though. .. and I saw the ship. Have you?[/QUOTE]

Damm!!!!! AGREED !!!

[firefly333]

[quote name='additivecruiser']Damm!!!!! AGREED !!![/quote]

Here is some more of that bad pr .. they took thought the ship was gorgeous.

[quote name='mustgo']We just returned from the Magic TA where we had a cove on starboard side about midship 2337. Our doors were never closed. Yes, we had a windy return with big rolling waves. Most of the time it was dry enough to sit out but did not do it as often as we planned. It was cool and windy. This was our 4th southern route TA and had much worse weather than normal. However, we really enjoyed the trip. [COLOR=Red]The Magic is a beautiful ship with great staff. Food was excellent. Lido food was a nice surprise, much better than usual buffet fare.[/COLOR] Your Breeze should be a great cruise. We loved the cove.[/quote]

[swimmom32]

Fire why bother? Im conviced H8 is a miserable person in life and Just hates Carnival...and its ok if he/she doesn't like them they can go somewhere else HOWEVER, they seem to Keep talking as if people care to read their comments....My parents best friends cruised the TA on the magic and had one of the BEST CRUISES ever...they are RCI people always have been and left carnival many years ago.....Needless to say they are booked on the Breeze as well as a few more of my parents friends...

[GlendaleCruiser]

[quote name='iTouch']Actually Princess has been known to over sale on their ships. They contact passengers and will give them the option to re schedule in an upgraded suite.......We got the call when we were sailing on the Crown Princess........we declined.[/quote]


That happened to friends of ours. They were offered a future cruise if they would give up their current Princess cruise.

Regarding Dream and Magic: I sailed on both of them in the Med and had great food, nice clean ship, no trays in the hallways and the carts only when they were making up the rooms in the morning. I can understand that everyone has a different experience and mobility plays into that. My friends on the TA said they had bad weather for a couple of days but not major. They brought back beautiful pictures. Too bad about Gran Turk.

Thrusters don't steer the ship.

[WendyJo]

We were on the last Med cruise and the TA and for the most part, I was impressed with the Magic. She's the largest ship I've ever sailed on and so there was much more walking involved.

I like the way it's decorated for the most part and there are many new features that are really helpful such as computers in many different areas, a nice Serenity area with some hammocks, The Red Frog Pub, less smoking areas, the Cuchina de Capitano (loved both the free pasta lunch and the $12 dinner), the ropes walk (scary but I did it!), andtwo huge water slides. Another thing I liked is that there were more activities that Carnival usually doesn't offer such as bridge lessons and more crafting activities. I think this was because the average age on board was much older and definitely there seemed to be less of a party atmosphere (i.e. intoxicated people).

There were many other enjoyable parts of the Magic but here are just a few things that didn't go so well.

Some of the beverage areas on Lido are serious bottlenecks. Either it was poor design or they were making use of corner spaces.

I'm not sure what the problem was but service in the MDR was consistently slow. I suspect some of it could have been problems in the gallley because the waitstaff were working hard as usual. Someone speculated that it could have been because of the turnover in crew coming back to the states and many were being trained or not up to speed. A two hour dinner in the MDR was not uncommon.

Another issue that seems to have caught Carnival by surprise is that there were so many older folks (like me) who had YTD and preferred to eat early. Every evening, there were huge lines to get into the Northern Lights dining room and many, many times we received beepers. I discussed the issue with one of the hostesses and she said that people were lining up by 5:00 pm every evening and far more wanted to eat early than later. Waiting in line 20-30 minutes every evening was common unless you went much later.

One issue that took place that wasn't Carnival's fault but was difficult to deal with is it was very, very difficult to find any place to eat on Lido during breakfast and lunch times. What was happening was that people were taking up tables playing cards and games and there was very little space for people who needed a place to sit down and eat. The CD did announce that people should not be playing cards at the tables on Lido during mealtime but people continued to do it and I don't believe any ever asked them to find somewhere else to play their games.
On the TA I had to spend a full two days (and part of another day) confined to my cabin because of the serious pitching of the ship and theh dizziness and motion sickness that resulted. Some felt that the captain was going too fast for the conditions but if that is true perhaps he was told to do so from above.


Of course everyone was so disappointed that we had to go to Freeport instead of the Grand Turks but we didn't have a choice in the matter. $25 didn't really seem like adequate compensation but they did provide free shuttle buses into Lucaya and provided an extra lobster dinner.

Minor observations: They eliminated the trays in Lido and substituted huge platter/plates. This worked better than I expected. James was a good cd I thought--he seemed to handle his new responsibilities very well. Calvyn was a hoot and they seem to be grooming him for greater responsibilities. He did tell me he will soon be joining john Heald again.

I was always observing crew cleaning and I was delighted to see that the Magic just received a score of 100% on the health front.

Overall, I think I would grade the Magic at 90%. There is room for improvement but I think some of the glitches will work out better as time goes on.

[Lovharvey]

[quote name='Cindy'][SIZE=3]Somebody on John's FB post explained it...they block off X number of cabins for entertainment staff, VIP's, etc., and then start selling the ship. It seems that what happened was they needed more staff/VIP cabins than originally thought. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=3]When I first read John's post I thought it meant they had oversold the ship to passengers, but the explanation made sense. I can see how that could happen compared to not having enough cabins for guests.[/SIZE][/quote]


[I][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=blue]That's exactly what I thought.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/I]

[kiraryker]

[quote name='Princesss'][FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=3][COLOR=purple]Oh my ! I already booked it for 1-13-13, I hope they have it fixed by then[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT] :eek:[/quote]

Hey we are right before you - 1-6-13 - I'll make sure we don't do too much damage to it HA HA:p

[kiraryker]

My father is in a WC and the Magic on 1/2013 will be his 3rd cruise - he hasn't had many issues with it except on the Dream there wasn't many spots for his WC in the theatre so he did miss some shows oh and of course you have the people that jump in front for the elevator but that issue is not the ships fault just rude people.

[H82seaUgo]

[quote name='PAPERBKWRITER']OVERSOLD? Never heard of that before. I realize not everybody shows up for various reasons but a cruise is not an airplane. The next one won't be a couple hours away. So if this is true do they just keep the money from those who don't show? Maybe they have a back up. I'm sure they do running maintaince and probably have a few cabins that in an emergency could be made ready. I would go ballastic if I got there late, booked a guarantee, and told "Uh, we oversold. Come back next week."[/quote]

i have.

there was a very famous post here a bunch of years ago where some lady was [B]escorted off the ship [/B]after checking in and finding someone in her room.

[H82seaUgo]

[quote name='firefly333']What bad pr?? I have not seen any bad pr, a few gripes about bad weather on the TA and now wheelchairs in the ports... but the ship itself is spectacular.

Arent you on the I hate Carnival page?? I think you are letting your emotions rule rather than the ship itself.

If there is some bad pr, could you provide a link, as I have been on Triumph and then the Magic preview and missed this bad stuff. Or do you mean missing a port is bad pr?? I really dont see this bad news you speak of so far though. .. and I saw the ship. Have you?[/quote]

um, scroll to the top of this page. :confused:

[firefly333]

[quote name='H82seaUgo']um, scroll to the top of this page. :confused:[/quote]

pr ... as in public relations.. something more than one person was complaing?

Nope, still dont know what you are talking about and seems you cant say what it is either? If I saw bad pr, then I wouldnt have asked?

[H82seaUgo]

[quote name='firefly333']pr ... as in public relations.. something more than one person was complaing?

Nope, still dont know what you are talking about and seems you cant say what it is either? If I saw bad pr, then I wouldnt have asked?[/quote]

public relations? :confused: yes, we are on different pages.

but just look at the first sticky right here on cruise critic. bad pr.