Carnival Magic 1/15 - 1/22 - with Turtle Farm

[TXGators]

This was our first Magic cruise – previous cruises had been on the Ecstasy (Galveston) and Fantasy (Mobile)

My thoughts:

Embarkation – long lines, as you would expect with 3,500 passengers, but the line moved quickly and smoothly. As soon as we got through check-in, we were immediately walked to the gangway and embarkation photos. In previous cruises we might have to sit a few minutes in a staging area after check-in, but this time appeared to move much quicker.

Cabin – We were on Deck 1, port side near the forward elevators. Deluxe Oceanview stateroom, with 1.5 bathrooms (toilet/sink/stand-up shower in one, sink/small tub/shower in the other). The small tub was a wonderful addition to previous cruises, as we brought our 4-year old with us. Plenty of room with a queen-sized bed and converted sofa that made the third sleeping berth. Room was cleaned and well-maintained by our steward – unfortunately I didn’t get her name. Seemed like the towel cart was permanently placed outside our room when the stewards were working, but that wasn’t really a big deal at all. Kiddo loved the towel animals each night.

Ocean – the first night at sea was a little rough, getting out of the more shallow coastal waters of the Gulf. Other than that, the gentle rocking of the boat didn’t cause problems for us. DW has had seasickness problems with past cruises, but no real issues this time. With our cabin near the front of the ship, we could occasionally feel the force of the bow cutting across a wave, but not enough to cause problems. Occasionally at night we’d hear the gentle clang of a lifeboat overhead hitting the hull as the ship rolled from left to right. Saw lots of people wearing patches or wristbands, but DW only needed them after dinner and a full belly J.

Cozumel – we docked at Puerta Maya, and our family prefers the shops and restaurants near Punta Lagosta, so we took a taxi ($7 US) to the Forum Shops and worked our way back to the South. At the Punta Lagosta shops, we had our photo taken with the same group of parrots we had held during a Cozumel visit in 2008 ($10 for 4 pictures with your camera). We ate lunch at Las Palmeras along the strip – DW had something Mexican, kid had chicken fingers, and I went with the club sandwich. Good food, cost us ~$40 US (no alcohol). More shopping along the strip, and $7 taxi ride back to Puerta Maya.

Grand Cayman – This was our first experience with tender boats, so we didn’t know what to expect. We had booked the “Turtles, Turtles & More Turtles” excursion through Carnival, in large part because it seemed the most kid- and wallet-friendly excursion available in any of the 3 ports. We received our excursion tickets the first night of the cruise (Magic has little mailboxes outside your door), and the tickets said to assemble at 9AM in the Showtime Theatre, with a 9:30 meet time on shore. We got there around 8:45, and were pretty quickly lined up to board tenders. However, the line was slow-moving, and we were either the second or third tender boat off the ship headed to shore. We arrived at the rendezvous point right at 9:30, but due to the delays in getting the whole group together, it was 11:00 before our group was completely assembled and ready to depart. Why they held us all I’m not certain, as it took 4-5 buses to get us to our destination (Botswain’s Beach Turtle Farm). The Turtle farm itself was pretty cool – we saw and swam with the turtles, and holding the baby turtles was one of the highlights of the cruise for our son. We ate lunch at the restaurant there – DW ate something, son had chicken fingers, and I had a Turtle Burger. Ground turtle was tasty, kind of tough though. Total bill was ~$45 (no alcohol). We arrived back at the port to tender back to the ship around 2:45-3:00, and the line was hundreds of people deep – it looked to be a 30-minute wait just to board a tender. Son had fallen asleep in my arms on the ride back from the Turtle Farm, so I was dreading the wait, when Carnival personnel walked down the line and pulled out families with small children to go to the front of the line. Pretty cool gesture on their part.

All in all, the tendering process was a bit of a mess – we heard from some who weren’t able to get off the ship before noon, only to feel like they had to get back in line pretty quickly to make the last tender back to the ship. But the island was beautiful, and we had a great time at the Turtle Farm.

Jamaica – we were late getting off the ship, and took the Hop On/Hop Off shuttle ($15 per person, all day pass) to town. It makes 4 stops – the Shoppes at Rose Hall, Doctor’s Cove Beach, Margaritaville, and a craft market. We were struck by two things: 1) the sheer beauty of the island, and 2) the disparity between the plush resorts and the poverty of the locals. The water, the mountains, even much of the architecture, were breathtaking. But the poverty of the people, and the proximity to the resorts...just a few hundred feet from some of the nicest resorts, were little shanty-towns on the beachfront. Makes you grateful for what you have back home, and the luxury of being able to take a break from real life for a while. We had lunch at Margaritaville – DW had jerk chicken, I had a Cheeseburger in Paradise. We had a few of their specialty non-alcoholic drinks, and the tab came to ~$70 for the two of us. Son remained on the ship at Camp Carnival for our day in Jamaica.

Side note about Margaritavilles in the Caribbean: At the Mo’ Bay Margaritaville, we sat at lunch for nearly 2 hours and enjoyed the sunshine, the view of the bay, the scenery, etc – and heard ONE Jimmy Buffett song, and that one was played not long before we got our check. We had lunch at the Margaritaville in Cozumel in January of last year, and spent most of the time at lunch waiting for a JB song – DW finally had to get up at one point and ask the DJ to play some Buffett! Contrast this with the Margaritaville in Las Vegas, where each time I’ve eaten there they played plenty of Jimmy Buffett tunes. I’ve come to the conclusion that Margaritaville, at least in the Caribbean, is chasing after the Senor Frog’s/Carlos & Charlie’s crowd, not the Parrothead crowd. It was a little sad, but at least now I have my expectations in the right place.

Cruisin’ days – we spent a mix of time on the Serenity deck (if we could find a chair), swimming in the aft pool or at the Splash Pad with the kiddo, or napping – we didn’t do much with the poolside games (hairy chest competition, horse races, etc.) or the Cruise Director events (shop talks, game shows, etc.). We had been through the Art Auction our first cruise, and haven’t participated in one of those since. It’s funny – at one point we were talking to a passenger who said she could name about 3 or 4 CD’s that she loved cruising with – I can’t name a single CD on any of the cruises we’ve taken, and don’t see their value – maybe we’d just know if we got a bad one?

Evening entertainment – Marcus Monroe! If he does a show on your cruise, you absolutely have to see him! Very funny one-man show – he’s a juggler, but he keeps it entertaining. The show was (mostly) family-friendly – a few jokes that were adult humor sailed over our son’s head, but he’s telling all his friends about the juggler as another one of the best parts of his cruise. We also went to the “Magic” production show, and it was fairly entertaining – there were a few rough spots, but overall a pretty good show. We also took in a couple of comedians, but never made it to any of the R-rated shows – trying to get the kid to bed before 11PM means you don’t get to stay up for the late shows. We watched “Soul Surfer” one evening at the Seaside Theatre – felt like being back at the drive-in movies oh so many years ago!

Food – we ate in the MDR 5 of the 7 nights, and never ate a bad meal. Lots of steak, fish, etc. The dessert menu seemed a bit limited this time – they only offered cheesecake one night, and it was Diet (!), so I went with the tried-and-true Warm Chocolate Melting Cake just about every night. We also ate at the Italian restaurant ($12/adult, $5/child) – food was good, the price was about right for what it would have cost on land, but since I was skipping a “free” MDR meal it left a little something to be desired for me. We didn’t try the Steakhouse – figured we could get steak in the MDR for what we had already paid for the cruise. Breakfast Lunch on the Lido were pretty good – burgers at poolside, omelettes while you wait, continental breakfast were tasty. Didn’t try the Indian food, but the Mongolian was good, and the sandwich station was tasty as always. The Pizza Pirate was Carnival’s standard pizza bar, and it just doesn’t suit my tastes. There was a dockside grille on the Promenade Deck (Deck 5) – their burger sliders were good, but the chicken and beef tacos didn’t taste good at all. Dinner on the Lido one night, the buffet was a half-step above Golden Corral – not great, but serviceable. But the 24-hour ice cream? Yummy!

Smoking – on previous cruises on Ecstasy and Fantasy, smoking was allowed in the casino, on a portion of the lido deck, and in a cigar bar near the aft lounge. On Magic, same conditions, but there is no cigar bar. Cigar smoking is only allowed on the Promenade (Deck 5) outdoors on the Lanai, port side. I usually enjoy a cigar or two on a cruise, but didn’t get a chance to this cruise, not sure how the conditions were out there. There were some wind-breaks set up to keep the wind from blowing straight down the side of the deck, but it still seemed a bit sad that we couldn’t enjoy a cigar at the bar any longer, at least on this ship.

Spa Carnival – DW had a hot stone massage the first Sea Day, and loved it. She enjoyed her experience, but I heard that others received the “hard-sell” on spa products that they felt they could purchase cheaper back home.

Camp Carnival – our 4-year old had a ball! Ana, BeBe, John and others contributed to his overall fun on the Fun Ship – While he never spent all day there, we would usually drop him off for an hour or two in the morning, and evenings from dinner until 10PM, and they kept him going – he came home with several crafts, and the times we popped in to check on him he was often playing with other “friends” or one of the staffers were reading a book to the group. Occasionally they would get to watch a video, but the shows/movies seemed to be more age-appropriate than our last cruise on the Ecstasy (Sponge Bob for 3-year olds? Really?) There was one question about a song that he brought home from Camp, but we asked the staff about it and chalk it up to cultural differences. He had a wonderful time, and we wouldn’t hesitate to let him do Camp Carnival again in the future.

Photos – this was the first time we had seen the kiosks where you could insert your S&S card to view photos – that was pretty cool, not sure if that’s fleetwide or just in this class of ship. Not sure if they use facial recognition software, because it seemed there were some pictures that came up to view, where we hadn’t had our S&S card scanned prior to photograph. Gangway photos felt a little more contrived than usual, and on the “Welcome to xxxxx” photos you could often see too much going on in the background (another photographer, the costumed Indian/pirate/whatever).

Debarkation – we ran into fog on our way back, starting around 10PM Saturday night, and Galveston was closed Sunday morning. Where we should have been off the ship by 9AM, we didn’t pull into port until around 1PM. But the staff was great – kept us informed every 45 minutes or so, Camp Carnival was open for us to play, the Lido buffets were open for breakfast and lunch, and Carnival seemed to make the most of the inconvenience. We felt bad for the staff who would have a much faster turnaround than normal, and for the oncoming cruisers whose itinerary may have been impacted due to the weather conditions.

One comment about S&S – keep an eye on your account and make sure Carnival gets it right. We pre-paid DW’s spa treatment, but when she went to add a gratuity after the treatment, we got a bill for the full amount on our S&S card – took 3 days to have it removed. Also, we had pre-paid the gratuities prior to sailing, and I saw a gratuities charge on our son’s account that I had to visit Guest Services to get corrected. Not sure if it’s an accounting error or “revenue enhancement,” but we would have been burned twice had we not kept a close eye on our account. But, in the Magic’s defense, they did a good job of righting the wrong after we pointed it out.

We heard a few complaints from fellow cruisers, mostly related to slow service in the MDR or the tender process in the Caymans, but our overall experience was very positive. We would definitely consider cruising again on the Magic.

[gelo7]

Excellent review.

[douglinc@msn.com]

Thanks for the review. We were on the Magic 11-14 and other than pretty slow service it was great. I think they may be a little understaffed in the dining rooms. Also seemed pretty slow in the bar areas on the Lido deck. I'm sure they will iron out some of the kinks as time goes by. Beautiful ship.

 

Doug

[1artsymomof3]

Just curious.....why did you stop in Cozumel 1st and did it change port times at all?

 

All the westerns I've looked at lists Mo Bay(9-6), GC(7-4), then Cozumel(10-6). Just curious.

 

Great review! Can't wait to go...only 78 more days!

[Soonerbaby]

Fantastic review! We will be on her soon....not soon enough though. I was glad to read about the turtle farm because that is a stop on our excursion. :)