Just off the Magic

[DebJ14]

Let me preface this by saying it was my 32nd Carnival cruise and 50th cruise on any line.

 

Embarkation: Swift and easy as usual thanks to Mickie and Troy in the Priority Lounge. We were on this ship in mere minutes. We arrived around 11am after parking at EZ Cruise. Our spa balcony cabin was ready.

 

Cabin: This was our 3rd trip on the Magic in a Spa Balcony. However, we hated being down on deck 11. Cabin was the same, but the location was not as good for spa and serenity access.

Cabin steward Benny was good. The balcony partition was already opened when we arrived as we had requested via John Heald. Unfortunately, we had horrible neighbors across the hall. The parents put their kids in one cabin and stayed next door. The kids were only about 4 and 7. The 4 year old would be out in the hall banging on his parents door and crying for his Mother, but she refused to answer the door. It went on and on and woke up our grandkids. We finally got housekeeping involved. They too were concerned that something was wrong with the mother. The door was double locked so they knew someone was in there. The father finally answered the door for Housekeeping and screamed at the 4 year old that he told him to stay in his cabin. He literally dragged the kid back in his cabin and screamed at him, which made him cry louder. DH told the father he would call security the next time the parents left the 4 year old wailing in the hall. We also had lots of problems late night with teenage girls sitting in front of our door talking and laughing very late at night and with kids running up and down the halls banging on the doors.

 

MDR: We had early dining in Southern Lights back by the aft windows. All 6 of us are Gluten free. The hostess assigned to us was not overly friendly or even pleasant. She also messed up every single dinner order. We never got what we actually ordered. There were always missing appetizers and wrong main courses.

Our waiter had way too many tables and was run ragged. His two assistants didn't help and we rarely got refills on our water and only were offered coffee 3 nights. It took anywhere from and hour and 15 minutes to an hour and 50 minutes until our entrees came. Everyone else in the area was on dessert before we got our main courses. The worst was the night when we got our main course at 10 minutes to 8 and had to gobble our food and get out before late seating started. It was hard on the 6 and 8 year old having to sit at the table for 2 hours for every dinner with an hour between the appetizer and the main course. We always arrived on time and our GF meals had been pre-ordered so they should have been ready.

 

They also failed to deliver the birthday cake I ordered for my DH on the day it was requested. Everybody blamed somebody else. Cherry on the Top said the order was placed with the kitchen. The chef said he made the cake and it was delivered to the MDR. They all seemed to blame the waiter. Guest Services arranged for the stale cake to be delivered another day and ended up removing the charge for it. When we went into Cherry on Top Cecelia, who placed the order, did apologize to my husband and wished him a Happy Birthday. She blamed the waiter. Ours was the only cake order on the entire ship for Thursday and they screwed that up.

 

The hostess did order GF pancakes for the kids every morning. They liked them. I always order Fresh eggs since I am GF, and a couple times the waiters tried to pass off the other eggs as fresh, but I sent them back.

 

 

Entertainment: We've seen the shows twice before and noticed they cut some songs from Groove Line. We only managed to get into an adult comedy show once. Every other time we spent a long time in line only to get to the door to be told the show was full. They need to just put them back in the main showroom.

 

Camp Carnival: The kids had a good time at Camp Carnival. They went to the morning session most days and then spent the afternoon out at the Waterworks. Our 8 year old grandson loved the ropes course. We used night Owls once and the kids had a blast.

 

Diamond Status : A total joke. I did not receive any of my Diamond benefits (didn't even get the Platinum benefits). I spent time every day at Guest Services trying to get it straightened out. The last day at 4pm the Guest Services Manager called to ask how my Diamond experience was. I told him in no uncertain terms that it was a total fail - no Diamond event invite, no past passenger party invite, no drink coupon, no hat NO NOTHING. He was not informed that either my DH or I had been there at least once a day trying to get it fixed. He asked what he could do to make it up to us. It was a bit late as the suitcases were packed. He called back 15 minutes later and said the Captain was willing to meet me for a drink. I declined. We were babysitting for the grandson who was napping. Guest Services did send a bottle of wine to dinner the last night via the hostess to apologize. They kept apologizing and promising to fix things all week, but they were mostly empty promises. Everybody at Guest Services kept blaming someone else and said the Cruise Coordinator would fix it. He or she never did. This is not the first time this has happened to us on the Magic. In Jan 2012 we did not get any of our Platinum benefits and got the runaround for the week. We've been Platinum since the inception of the Program.

 

Shore Excursions: We pre-booked the Beach and Lunch tour for Belize. When we got back to the cabin after dinner the night before Belize there was a note saying the excursion was cancelled. Unfortunately by the time we found out it was cancelled there were no excursions available for 6 people that a 6 year old could do. DS an DIL went snorkeling. DH and I stayed on the ship.

In Roatan we hired a private driver through Victor Bodden. We had a great day. Roland, our driver was very nice. We went to the Iguana Farm, Monkey Farm, had a seafood lunch at Gios and then ended up at Bananarama. It was the best day of the cruise and probably the best meal of the entire week.

In Cozumel we went to Mr. Sanchos as usual. We pre-booked the AI plan and also bought the kids entrance to the water toys. They spent the day either climbing the icebergs or digging in the sand. DS and DIL used the snorkel equipment that was included. Everyone had a great day at the beach. We were just sorry that the ship docked at Punta Langosta. It cost us an extra $30.00 to get to the beach and back since we were docked downtown. No explanation was given as to why we did not dock at Puerta Maya as originally scheduled.

 

Debarkation: We put our luggage out the night before and had #1 luggage tags. DS had FTTF. All Platinums, Diamonds and FTTF were told to wait in Northern Lights. We were told to be there by 8am. They took us off pretty quickly. So much for Plat/Diamonds going first - they embarked and disembarked at the same time as FTTF. The lines in Customs and Immigration were long and the officer we had moved at a snails pace. We were in line about 30 minutes before we were cleared. We had a porter and he took all our bags to EZ Cruise and they had a van right there ready to load. After the quick trip to the parking lot we were glad to be on our way home.

 

Our 6 year old Grandson summed up our cruise. "I'm done with this place." We were considering the 8 night to Aruba and Curacao on the Freedom, but have decided to end our cruising relationship with Carnival. Guess we'll learn to be Loyal to Royal (1 cruise from Diamond on RCI) or get back to taking land based vacations instead of cruising.

[cruizinisthebest]

Goodness this sounds like a mess!:confused:

 

Don't get why your VIFP benefits didn't kick in. You guys couldn't have been the only ones with that status on the ship. That's messed up.

 

We had a gluten free passenger at our table last week. The hostess was very attentive it seemed, but she complained about almost every course of every meal. Plus I noticed all of her food was served either before or after the rest of the table. That was probably annoying.

 

Sorry you didn't enjoy your cruise. Hopefully the next one, whichever line, will be much better!

[missypriss19]

I am so sorry your cruise was lets say less than desired. I have cruised the Magic once and loved. However I do have to say that the cutbacks on staff in the MDR is very noticeable. It should not take you 2+ hours to eat dinner. Takes forever to get your food, drinks, etc.

[Disconnections]

Thank you for your very fair, honest and balanced review. I hope you enjoy your cruising experience in the future, no matter which line you choose to sail with.

[cjknox]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy yourself. But i'm sure that in your many cruises this isn't the first experience that has been less than satisfactory. Enjoy any future cruises you decide to take.

[MrPete]

I had to keep going back to see if I didn't write this review.

 

Our last CCL MDR experience was exactly as you described. Our ordered meals were served correct only once our entire cruise, and although we were always one of the first ones in, we were always the last ones out, sometimes having to skip our order desserts and coffee.

 

We tried to complain to the MD, but he was always more concerned in trying to be a Ken Byrnes jr, self impressed with his less than steller singing. Worse, he looked like John Bannon from Hogans Heroes.

 

I hope you didn't reward these servers with tips. They deserve to find another profession more suited to them.

[okgirl]

What a horrible cruise experience. I'm looking forward to my first Diamond cruise on the Magic in a couple of months, but now I'm a bit concerned.

 

You had 31 cruises on Carnival ships that apparently were at least okay because you kept coming back......why let the one bad experience end your relationship with Carnival?

[Georgiagolfer]

Deb, totally understand your feelings of disappointment. If I had the same experience as this, I too would be saying, "No more Carnival." I'm just waiting for someone to come on the thread and say how wrong you are, that their CCL could not have possibly messed up that bad.

 

Good luck on choosing your next cruise line and ship.

[MrPete]

What a horrible cruise experience. I'm looking forward to my first Diamond cruise on the Magic in a couple of months, but now I'm a bit concerned.

 

You had 31 cruises on Carnival ships that apparently were at least okay because you kept coming back......why let the one bad experience end your relationship with Carnival?

 

It's like leaving your favorite supermarket, department store, or hotel chain.

 

All you need is one bad experience, or that "one reason" to go off and try something new/different. And it's during that trek you find the crossroads. You either come back, or find the new experience is better or even the same and stay.

 

It's business 101. Fought on the front lines. Been there, done that.

[Georgiagolfer]

It's like leaving your favorite supermarket, department store, or hotel chain.

 

All you need is one bad experience, or that "one reason" to go off and try something new/different. And it's during that trek you find the crossroads. You either come back, or find the new experience is better or even the same and stay.

 

It's business 101. Fought on the front lines. Been there, done that.

 

Now this I agree with.

[MrPete]

Now this I agree with.

 

It's like quitting smoking. All you need is to find that one reason to quit. Imagine someone saying, "Why quit now?"

 

And again, been there, done that. 23 years ago.

[Topo Gigio]

deb, totally understand your feelings of disappointment. If i had the same experience as this, i too would be saying, "no more carnival." i'm just waiting for someone to come on the thread and say how wrong you are, that their ccl could not have possibly messed up that bad.

 

Good luck on choosing your next cruise line and ship.

 

Looks like SS is still sleeping..

[okgirl]

It's like leaving your favorite supermarket, department store, or hotel chain.

 

All you need is one bad experience, or that "one reason" to go off and try something new/different. And it's during that trek you find the crossroads. You either come back, or find the new experience is better or even the same and stay.

 

It's business 101. Fought on the front lines. Been there, done that.

 

I guess my brain just doesn't work that way. This same bad experience could happen on any cruise line. The OP has sailed on other lines 18 times and apparently had satisfactory experiences on those occasions as well as their 31 satisfactory Carnival cruises.

 

My 25th milestone cruise wasn't very good, it took most of the week to even get my milestone card and the OBC was never applied. But I still came back. I like the familiarity of Carnival and haven't found any reason to sail with anyone else. I guess if I started having problems on almost every cruise I would venture over to another line, but I don't really see that happening.

 

I spend a bit of time every month reading member reviews but only the 1 and 2 star reviews. Every cruise line has it's problems.

[Topo Gigio]

I guess my brain just doesn't work that way. This same bad experience could happen on any cruise line. The OP has sailed on other lines 18 times and apparently had satisfactory experiences on those occasions as well as their 31 satisfactory Carnival cruises.

 

My 25th milestone cruise wasn't very good, it took most of the week to even get my milestone card and the OBC was never applied. But I still came back. I like the familiarity of Carnival and haven't found any reason to sail with anyone else. I guess if I started having problems on almost every cruise I would venture over to another line, but I don't really see that happening.

 

I spend a bit of time every month reading member reviews but only the 1 and 2 star reviews. Every cruise line has it's problems.

 

But OP went almost every day to get the problem(s) corrected and still it wasn't taken care of!

[MrPete]

I guess my brain just doesn't work that way. This same bad experience could happen on any cruise line. The OP has sailed on other lines 18 times and apparently had satisfactory experiences on those occasions as well as their 31 satisfactory Carnival cruises.

 

My 25th milestone cruise wasn't very good, it took most of the week to even get my milestone card and the OBC was never applied. But I still came back. I like the familiarity of Carnival and haven't found any reason to sail with anyone else. I guess if I started having problems on almost every cruise I would venture over to another line, but I don't really see that happening.

 

I spend a bit of time every month reading member reviews but only the 1 and 2 star reviews. Every cruise line has it's problems.

 

I'm not going to try to convince you what studies have overwhelmingly shown. Some stay regardless if fish is thrown at them.

 

But the true test is how any business deals with presented problems. This is one area CCL falls short.

 

Did I just read you haven't even sailed another line?

[aggieastrosfan]

Just off the Magic as well. Fourth time on this ship. Twice I have had assigned dinner times, and service was very similar to what you described. Twice I have done YTD, and we lucked out both times finding a great staff to fine with for the week. We did YTD this week and hda a great experience overall. We're sticking to YTD on the Magic from now on.

 

Sorry you had such a bad experience, we pay too much for these vacations to have all of that happen! While this trip was good overall for us (though we did have a few issues that I will be addressing, most were resolved on the ship however), the Magic has been consistently inconsistent (May was pretty bad). I hope your next cruise is more of what you deserve!

 

 

Meredith

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[halos]

. Unfortunately, we had horrible neighbors across the hall. The parents put their kids in one cabin and stayed next door. The kids were only about 4 and 7. The 4 year old would be out in the hall banging on his parents door and crying for his Mother, but she refused to answer the door. It went on and on and woke up our grandkids. We finally got housekeeping involved. They too were concerned that something was wrong with the mother. The door was double locked so they knew someone was in there. The father finally answered the door for Housekeeping and screamed at the 4 year old that he told him to stay in his cabin. He literally dragged the kid back in his cabin and screamed at him, which made him cry louder. DH told the father he would call security the next time the parents left the 4 year old wailing in the hall.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our 6 year old Grandson summed up our cruise. "I'm done with this place." We were considering the 8 night to Aruba and Curacao on the Freedom, but have decided to end our cruising relationship with Carnival. Guess we'll learn to be Loyal to Royal (1 cruise from Diamond on RCI) or get back to taking land based vacations instead of cruising.

 

Wow...I am sorry that your cruise was bad enough that your 6 year old grandson even noticed. :(

The one thing that really struck me has nothing to do with CCL....WHO gives a 4 and 7 year old their own cabin, alone and then lets that baby cry for his Mom in the hallway??? *smh.....smh*.

 

 

But OP went almost every day to get the problem(s) corrected and still it wasn't taken care of!

 

THAT is the problem. It's not having the problem, but how it's handled/taken care of.

 

 

(I still can't get the vision of a crying 4 year old, banging on the door crying for his mom out of my mind.)

 

 

 

 

 

I guess my brain just doesn't work that way.

 

 

 

I imagine that the previous CCL cruises, although good, or even great, were not enough to take away the bad taste this one left. People have only so much $$$ to use for vacation. This person had more than one issue...not one of them a small item either. Why take a chance? CCL is not the only other cruise line out there.

[douglinc@msn.com]

We were on the Magic for the 1st. sailing out of Galveston & the service in the MDR was terrible (food wasn't much better) I laid it off to it being a new ship with a lot of new crew and kinks to be worked out. From what I have read, they still have not done a very good job with the dining. We are going on the Magic again 10-6, we'll see how it works out.

 

Doug

[okgirl]

But OP went almost every day to get the problem(s) corrected and still it wasn't taken care of!

 

I agree that is extreme and it took me 5 days to get my milestone status corrected, but other than the color of my card it wasn't that big of a deal. I took the 25% OBC on my next cruise.

 

I would have probably insisted on speaking to the manager of Guest Services about the missing benefits and I would have definitely spoken to the Maitre'D regarding the issues in the dining room.

 

I'm not going to try to convince you what studies have overwhelmingly shown. Some stay regardless if fish is thrown at them.

 

But the true test is how any business deals with presented problems. This is one area CCL falls short.

 

Did I just read you haven't even sailed another line?

 

Correct, only Carnival. My first 2 cruises were in the early 80's, then I didn't cruise again until 2001 and since I had only cruised on Carnival I went back to what I thought would be familiar.

 

Since 2001 I have stayed with Carnival because I've been more than pleased with almost all of my cruises. There has never been anything I wanted to do or anywhere I wanted to go that Carnival didn't offer.

 

I cruise more for the ship than the itinerary, and I really like feeling at home when I'm on a cruise. I'm not saying that I'll never cruise on another line, but I don't have any real plans to do so either.

[awhcruiser]

This is a big reason to avoid cruising during the summer and/or spring break.

Unfortunately, we had horrible neighbors across the hall. The parents put their kids in one cabin and stayed next door. The kids were only about 4 and 7. The 4 year old would be out in the hall banging on his parents door and crying for his Mother, but she refused to answer the door. It went on and on and woke up our grandkids. We finally got housekeeping involved. They too were concerned that something was wrong with the mother. The door was double locked so they knew someone was in there. The father finally answered the door for Housekeeping and screamed at the 4 year old that he told him to stay in his cabin. He literally dragged the kid back in his cabin and screamed at him, which made him cry louder. DH told the father he would call security the next time the parents left the 4 year old wailing in the hall. We also had lots of problems late night with teenage girls sitting in front of our door talking and laughing very late at night and with kids running up and down the halls banging on the doors.

 

[LaShea]

We were on the Magic for the 1st. sailing out of Galveston & the service in the MDR was terrible (food wasn't much better) I laid it off to it being a new ship with a lot of new crew and kinks to be worked out. From what I have read, they still have not done a very good job with the dining. We are going on the Magic again 10-6, we'll see how it works out.

 

Doug

 

We were on the Magic last year and it is our favorite cruise to date. We absolutley loved it. We had YTD and it was very good. I think only one night did it take longer than it probably should have. We didn't have our kids on that cruise and we were on vacation so...no biggie. You have gone on enough cruises to know that everyone has such vastly different opinions about the exact same cruise. This was just their experience and most of it was due to the screaming 4yr old...which was not Carnivals fault and then of course not getting their privileges...which would upset me too. Others have gone on this exact cruise and have come back and said it was an enjoyable cruise. I am sure yours will be as well.:D

[cruizinisthebest]

Wow...I am sorry that your cruise was bad enough that your 6 year old grandson even noticed. :(

The one thing that really struck me has nothing to do with CCL....WHO gives a 4 and 7 year old their own cabin, alone and then lets that baby cry for his Mom in the hallway??? *smh.....smh*.

 

 

 

 

THAT is the problem. It's not having the problem, but how it's handled/taken care of.

 

 

(I still can't get the vision of a crying 4 year old, banging on the door crying for his mom out of my mind.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I imagine that the previous CCL cruises, although good, or even great, were not enough to take away the bad taste this one left. People have only so much $$$ to use for vacation. This person had more than one issue...not one of them a small item either. Why take a chance? CCL is not the only other cruise line out there.

 

 

I don't know what was up with the crying baby in the hallway. My children had their own cabin on our sailing last week, but we had connecting cabins. That's the only way I would do it at their age. And they didn't go from one room to the next using the exterior doors. It's hard to say. I know the connecting room door locks automatically. We put tape over the lock hole while we were cruising to make sure the kids could go from room to room. Unless one parent was out and the other in the shower and hard of hearing, I can't see any reason why they wouldn't hear the child crying and knocking. The shower is so close to the front door, even with the water running you should be able to hear. Especially your own child's voice. Why the 4-year old was even out of the cabin to begin with is puzzling. Who knows. They could have woke up from a nap and been confused or whatever. So many reasons. But that would have bothered me and ticked me off at the same time.

 

As for the teens in the hallway, that can happen on any cruise or in any hotel. We had no issue with kids last week, but on the first night there was an adult woman acting stupid knocking on people's doors around 2am. And she was most definitely grown! And likely drunk.

[tkportersat]

Sorry you had a less than stellar cruise; I hope you have better luck with your next vacation.

 

Honestly, some of this stuff isn't overall Carnival but can depend on the ship you are on. My least favorite cruises were the two on the Conquest....both times wasn't overly crazy about the service/food/experience, etc. Personally we loved the Magic and didn't have any of the problems you mentioned. Maybe service in the MDR was a little slow at times, or maybe our 2 year old getting restless made it seem longer. Not sure.

 

Either way, you have been on many cruises so I don't doubt your review. Sometimes it is nice to change things up, whether it is another line or another type of vacation. After I get my platinum status on our cruise in October I will be doing something different.

[The Mister]

Shore Excursions:

We pre-booked the Beach and Lunch tour for Belize. When we got back to the cabin after dinner the night before Belize there was a note saying the excursion was cancelled. Unfortunately by the time we found out it was cancelled there were no excursions available for 6 people that a 6 year old could do. DS an DIL went snorkeling. DH and I stayed on the ship.

 

In Roatan we hired a private driver through Victor Bodden. We had a great day. Roland, our driver was very nice. We went to the Iguana Farm, Monkey Farm, had a seafood lunch at Gios and then ended up at Bananarama. It was the best day of the cruise and probably the best meal of the entire week.

 

In Cozumel we went to Mr. Sanchos as usual. We pre-booked the AI plan and also bought the kids entrance to the water toys. They spent the day either climbing the icebergs or digging in the sand. DS and DIL used the snorkel equipment that was included. Everyone had a great day at the beach. We were just sorry that the ship docked at Punta Langosta. It cost us an extra $30.00 to get to the beach and back since we were docked downtown. No explanation was given as to why we did not dock at Puerta Maya as originally scheduled.

Woo hoo! Independent excursions for the win!!! :)

[douglinc@msn.com]

We were on the Magic last year and it is our favorite cruise to date. We absolutley loved it. We had YTD and it was very good. I think only one night did it take longer than it probably should have. We didn't have our kids on that cruise and we were on vacation so...no biggie. You have gone on enough cruises to know that everyone has such vastly different opinions about the exact same cruise. This was just their experience and most of it was due to the screaming 4yr old...which was not Carnivals fault and then of course not getting their privileges...which would upset me too. Others have gone on this exact cruise and have come back and said it was an enjoyable cruise. I am sure yours will be as well.:D

 

My compaint had nothing to do with screaming kids, just VERY slow service in the dining room and the food was just so-so, not up to the Carnival standards we have had in the past. I also said I thought it was due to having so many new crew members and hoped the would get the kinks worked out. It' great if they do, but if they don't someone isn't doing their job properly. Hopefully our cruise in Oct. will be much better.

 

Doug