Magic Review 05/13/12 - 05/20/12

[NovCruisin]

Back home after a week on the Carnival Magic last week. Our ports were Key West and the Bahamas. This was our first cruise on Carnival so I couldn't help but to compare this line to Royal Caribbean, which is the only line we have sailed thusfar.

 

DH and I are in our mid-20's without kids. We love to drink, gamble and eat but we are not big "party" type people, we like hanging out just the two of us.

 

First, embarkation...Carnival sweeps this!! Both times we have sailed on RCCL it was a nightmare with at least a two-three hour wait. Carnival we passed right through in under 30 mins from start to finish. Also, we love that we can bring a bottle of wine per person.

 

Upon getting on we ate lunch ate the Italian place (can't remember how to spell it). The pasta was pretty good.

 

We ate in the Prime Steakhouse the first night and got a bottle of wine free. The appetizers were just okay to me, the steak was wonderful and DH loved the cheesecake, said it was the best he has ever eaten!

 

The ship was gorgeous!! The crew was super friendly and constantly cleaning.

 

The next morning, our first sea day, we were abruptly smacked in the face :eek: Breakfast and Lunch in the Lido was some of the worst cruise food I could imagine...it lacked variety and taste! We tried the main dining for breakfast and lunch a few times and the breakfast was okay, the breakfast wait staff seemed very rude and bothered by us ordering. I had one guy ask me literally three times if I was "sure" I wanted four over-medium eggs!! I said four...so, yeah, I want four!:mad:

 

Dinner in the main dining was average. Not great, but not bad by any means. I personally thought RCCL far exceeded Carnival on this. My favorite dessert was the Biter and Blanc :p

 

I noticed that my fellow passengers were rowdy, more than my preference. Also very dirty...people would like food and plates everywhere which was disappointing.

 

We did not notice too big of a problem we chair hogs but then again on days we were laying out we were out there by 8 am at the latest, we are early to bed, early to rise :D

 

Also, it was hard to find quiet spaces outside to read that were not pumping music, other than the serenity which did not have umbrellas.

 

KW and Bahamas were okay, it rained almost all the port days but we tried to make the best of it and went to Blue Heaven in KW (their key lime pie is ridiculously good!), lucaya in freeport (if you enter by the police station you can use the beach for free, if you enter by the hotels you have to pay), and the sheraton in nassau (it was okay, not the best and a little worn down but a beautiful beach)

 

Overall it was a nice vacation but I can say that I will probably not go on Carnival again; food is too important to DH and I, and this was Carnival's biggest downfall.

 

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please feel free to ask away!! :)

[NovCruisin]

Pics are attached :)

[musicgal]

That's pretty quick!

[vivavegas]

Thanks for the quick review! :)

[NovCruisin]

There are such limited reviews from the magic, i figured there would be more questions :confused:

 

Oh well :)

[tkportersat]

My parents (61,60) were on your cruise.....they both stated their biggest disappointment was the service on board. They have done many RC and Carnival cruises so they have plenty to compare it to. They said the crew has a lot of kinks to work out and for the first time encountered a few rude folks. And for those of you that are going to jump on me for saying anything bad about Carnival...my parents are very low maintnenance. The icing on the cake was they were charged for an excursion they didn't take (they didn't take any) and the time and rudeness they went through to get it removed from their bill. Took a nice chunk of their final day on board and several people to get through before they would remove it, with quite a few ugly comments from the crew during the process.

 

They also stated the food was ok but not great. They liked Key West/Nassau but thought Freeport was a dump. Said the ship was beautiful and it has some great spots on board.

 

My parents are actually supposed to go on the Magic again with us in October and at this point they aren't sure they will. If I know them they will if we still go as they want to spend the time with us. We shall see...they did say they hoped that in 5 months Carnival could fix some of the issues. My parents aren't really email people, so I doubt they will ever see a comment card.

 

Back home after a week on the Carnival Magic last week. Our ports were Key West and the Bahamas. This was our first cruise on Carnival so I couldn't help but to compare this line to Royal Caribbean, which is the only line we have sailed thusfar.

 

DH and I are in our mid-20's without kids. We love to drink, gamble and eat but we are not big "party" type people, we like hanging out just the two of us.

 

First, embarkation...Carnival sweeps this!! Both times we have sailed on RCCL it was a nightmare with at least a two-three hour wait. Carnival we passed right through in under 30 mins from start to finish. Also, we love that we can bring a bottle of wine per person.

 

Upon getting on we ate lunch ate the Italian place (can't remember how to spell it). The pasta was pretty good.

 

We ate in the Prime Steakhouse the first night and got a bottle of wine free. The appetizers were just okay to me, the steak was wonderful and DH loved the cheesecake, said it was the best he has ever eaten!

 

The ship was gorgeous!! The crew was super friendly and constantly cleaning.

 

The next morning, our first sea day, we were abruptly smacked in the face :eek: Breakfast and Lunch in the Lido was some of the worst cruise food I could imagine...it lacked variety and taste! We tried the main dining for breakfast and lunch a few times and the breakfast was okay, the breakfast wait staff seemed very rude and bothered by us ordering. I had one guy ask me literally three times if I was "sure" I wanted four over-medium eggs!! I said four...so, yeah, I want four!:mad:

 

Dinner in the main dining was average. Not great, but not bad by any means. I personally thought RCCL far exceeded Carnival on this. My favorite dessert was the Biter and Blanc :p

 

I noticed that my fellow passengers were rowdy, more than my preference. Also very dirty...people would like food and plates everywhere which was disappointing.

 

We did not notice too big of a problem we chair hogs but then again on days we were laying out we were out there by 8 am at the latest, we are early to bed, early to rise :D

 

Also, it was hard to find quiet spaces outside to read that were not pumping music, other than the serenity which did not have umbrellas.

 

KW and Bahamas were okay, it rained almost all the port days but we tried to make the best of it and went to Blue Heaven in KW (their key lime pie is ridiculously good!), lucaya in freeport (if you enter by the police station you can use the beach for free, if you enter by the hotels you have to pay), and the sheraton in nassau (it was okay, not the best and a little worn down but a beautiful beach)

 

Overall it was a nice vacation but I can say that I will probably not go on Carnival again; food is too important to DH and I, and this was Carnival's biggest downfall.

 

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please feel free to ask away!! :)

[reerun25]

Thanks for the quick review!

[dnj1]

Did they have the comedy breakfast going in the MDR on sea days? I haven't heard much talk about how its going? I dont think I would like it. BUT....we'll see

[Texarribean Chick]

thinking of booking the Magic last minute for July...............couple of quick questions:

 

was there a cover band playing by the casino or general area? If so, who were they? Good ? Type of music?

 

Was the casino friendly? :D

 

Did you notice if the offered the Quest game?

Piano Bar? Rockin' or a dud?

[MichelleChell]

I think your review is a true statement on how everyone has a different opinion to a certain cruise. Which is great. Example my parents went on the same 11/11/12 cruise as you did on Mariner and couldn't wait to get home. Was rather bored and thought the food was terrible. I also went on Mariner in March and was bored out of my mind. The food was just ok and when we cruised Carnival Conquest it was fun and the food was pretty good. Not being negative its just to each there own I guess.

[NovCruisin]

My parents (61,60) were on your cruise.....they both stated their biggest disappointment was the service on board. They have done many RC and Carnival cruises so they have plenty to compare it to. They said the crew has a lot of kinks to work out and for the first time encountered a few rude folks. And for those of you that are going to jump on me for saying anything bad about Carnival...my parents are very low maintnenance. The icing on the cake was they were charged for an excursion they didn't take (they didn't take any) and the time and rudeness they went through to get it removed from their bill. Took a nice chunk of their final day on board and several people to get through before they would remove it, with quite a few ugly comments from the crew during the process.

 

They also stated the food was ok but not great. They liked Key West/Nassau but thought Freeport was a dump. Said the ship was beautiful and it has some great spots on board.

 

My parents are actually supposed to go on the Magic again with us in October and at this point they aren't sure they will. If I know them they will if we still go as they want to spend the time with us. We shall see...they did say they hoped that in 5 months Carnival could fix some of the issues. My parents aren't really email people, so I doubt they will ever see a comment card.

 

There were a few rude waiters, I noticed this mostly in the breakfast MDR but not too bad. We too were mistakenly charged, although not for a excursion but our very first day the Red Frog Pub charged us for something we did not buy. It was only $13...but...that could buy actual beer :D The guest services were nice and corrected it

 

Did they have the comedy breakfast going in the MDR on sea days? I haven't heard much talk about how its going? I dont think I would like it. BUT....we'll see

 

Not that we saw

 

thinking of booking the Magic last minute for July...............couple of quick questions:

 

was there a cover band playing by the casino or general area? If so, who were they? Good ? Type of music?

 

Was the casino friendly? :D

 

Did you notice if the offered the Quest game?

Piano Bar? Rockin' or a dud?

 

There was not a cover band in the casino. The radio played pretty decent music, mostly upbeat current pop music (i.e. Beyonce, Britney, etc.) definitely not my first choice but not bad at all. We spent most of our time at the slots, so we did not have much interaction but the wait staff was nice and asked often if you wanted another drink, which was good! I did not see a Quest game, I looked because I love that on RCCL...maybe it was named differently. Never visited the Piano Bar.

[NovCruisin]

I think your review is a true statement on how everyone has a different opinion to a certain cruise. Which is great. Example my parents went on the same 11/11/12 cruise as you did on Mariner and couldn't wait to get home. Was rather bored and thought the food was terrible. I also went on Mariner in March and was bored out of my mind. The food was just ok and when we cruised Carnival Conquest it was fun and the food was pretty good. Not being negative its just to each there own I guess.

 

The 11/11/11 sailing on RCCL was "off" it felt like. The food, to us, was still fantastic but the service was weird, they all seemed new and confused (it was the first sailing out of Galveston) also the mixed drinks were disgusting almost everywhere except the casino bar...one day we went to three different bars each of which were missing a certain item to make a mojito (mint leaves, etc) I was BEYOND annoying

 

But even with that being said, we still prefer RCCL :p

[NovCruisin]

Sorry a few things I forgot to mention:

 

1) We had a cove balcony, 2288, and we both felt like the use of space and storage was great. It seems like there is more space and storage on Carnival vs. RCCL. We liked that!

 

2) The insulation is HORRIBLE in the entire ship. The Italian place was under the basketball court and it would thud every time the ball dribbled. We were woken up numerous times by loud people in the hallways. We could literally hear the neighbors conversations!

 

3) I mentioned earlier that the guest seemed dirty...but nothing was worse than when I went to get ready the first formal night, after stepping out of the shower I thought I would slip into one of the robes...WRONG!! There was a huge skid mark right were the butt area was...it was sooo gross! Also, the next day the towel the steward brought us was dirty. It looked again like poop to me but maybe it was chocolate ice cream or something. I also noticed on a few occasions that I would get a glass with a coffee ring still in the mug or lipstick on the edge.

 

Nobody is perfect, I'm sure all lines have there pro's and con's...just our opinions :)

[tkportersat]

My folks said their waiters were great; they did state the first night service at MDR was excellent, second night took over two hours but the rest of the week awesome. (They only eat in the MDR for dinner). They thought some of the food was just plain weird. I felt this way on our last Conquest cruise too, like they are trying to make the food too extravagant and I am of the thinking sometimes simple is best. It was really the first time I didn't eat some of my meals and went and grabbed pizza later :o

 

They said they weren't thrilled with their steward; asked him to do something nicely three times and after that my dad had lost his patience and the steward gave him attitude. They aren't the type that will escalate though usually, so they didn't go above his head. Just dealt with it.

 

Guest services is who they had the hardest time with. I think they made them feel as if they were lying about the excursion (which I am sure some folks do) but it was not the best way to end their trip when they wanted to spend the last day relaxing.

 

 

 

There were a few rude waiters, I noticed this mostly in the breakfast MDR but not too bad. We too were mistakenly charged, although not for a excursion but our very first day the Red Frog Pub charged us for something we did not buy. It was only $13...but...that could buy actual beer :D The guest services were nice and corrected it

[TreeLuvr87]

Glad you enjoyed yourself other than the lame parts. We were in port with you in Nassau on the Glory! What a cruddy, rainy day! We just walked around and shopped and stuck our toes in the water. But enjoyed every second since we weren't at work!