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Carnival Magic 2/28 Review

tvlworm

By tvlworm,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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Just returned from the 5 night Magic sailing that departed on 2/28. My traveling group included myself, my mom and two kids ages 11 and 9. This was the 2nd cruise for the kids, 1st for my mom and 4th for me. First time on Magic for all. Previous sailings were on Conquest (2002), Sensation (2012) and NCL Epic (2013).

 

Our journey started the day prior flying from MN to IAH. Due to our arrival time we opted to stay near the airport at the Holiday Inn. Figuring out how to get from IAH to Galveston proved to be the most challenging part of our trip planning. We ended up doing OW rentals with Avis to Texas City which worked out awesome and by far was our least expensive option even with the additional fee of $50 to drive us to the port.

 

Saturday morning aka departure day was full of excitement despite the fact that it was unseasonably cool with temps in the low 50s. We left the hotel around 9am for Texas City Avis location. There is a Walmart right by Avis so stopped to grab the pop and water to keep in the cabin. Within a few minutes of getting to Avis, they had us on our way to bring us to the port.

 

Traffic in Galveston was busy but our car driver zipped us around through the side streets and bypassed a lot of the traffic on thag main road to the port. Quick drop off of our luggage and we went to the check in area. This was by far the easiest embarkation process I've ever been through. Total time from dropping the luggage to walk on was maybe 20 minutes tops. Longest wait was to get the keys at maybe 10 minutes. Easy peasy and very impressive!

 

Since it was our first time on the Magic we all were excited to explore and check it out. She didn't disappoint, and is a beautiful ship! After our brief look around made our way to the lido for lunch. It was busy as expected but that was ok. Found a great table at the windows and watched all the action below. Walked around the ship some more after we finished eating and by then I was getting tired of shlepping around our bag of pop and water so we went and hung out on deck 5 until the room was ready which was shortly after 1p.

 

We had a cove balcony on deck 2, 2290. It was located midship under the dining room. The room itself was nice. Shockingly it seemed more spacious than what I anticipated. Comparing to the Epic, which we also had a balcony I liked this room better overall. In my opinion the finishes on the Epic room was nicer with the glass tiles and color scheme but the layout on the Magic worked much better. Plenty of storage space for everything. We did ask out room steward, Mart to remove the minibar items from the fridge which was not an issue. Mart was awesome and we had great service from him our entire trip.

 

After unpacking and checking out the funtimes, we made our way to deck 10 for the sailaway party. Lots of action going on with music but decided to go back to the room to enjoy sailing away from our balcony. Even though I had initially wanted to join the fun on deck I'm glad we went to the room as we saw several dolphins! By this time it started to drizzle so we went back in to continue checking out the ship.

 

More to come...

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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After quite a bit of walking around the ship, we decided to do a quick dinner at the lido and catch the welcome aboard show in the theater. The show was pretty good. Quite a few funny, laugh out loud moments during the audience participation moments. My initial impression of James the CD was favorable, seemed to have a good sense of humor and a let's have fun attitude. The only downside of the show was the singing. They had no harmony whatsoever and was a little hard on the ears. Still entertaining though. After the show grabbed a cone, caught a quick glimpse of the movie at sea and headed to the cabin. The kids were getting tired at this point from the long day and doing everything possible to drive each other crazy lol. Pretty sure they were out within 5m of their heads hitting the pillow. Even with the top bunk down room still didn't feel over crowded which was nice. Seas weren't too bad, gentle sway here and there and everyone slept great thag first night.

 

I'm kinda like a big kid on vacation, most if the time I'm the one the most excited. No matter how hard I try my internal alarm clock goes into overdrive and insists that I wake up at the crack of dawn. It's our first day at sea and the sun isn't even up but the sky is clear and now I'm really looking forward to the day. I waited around patiently for everyone else to wake up to go to breakfast and plan our day. Seemed like forever!

 

Breakfast was also at the lido for us and was not busy at all. Could be due to us being early risers but it wasn't bad at all. Lido breakfast in my opinion was the best, tons of variety and all was pretty good. French Toast s my favorite breakfast food, it wasn't as good as NCL but I'm not sure that exists. Love NCL french toast!

 

After breakfast back to the room to get swimsuits, towels and head to the pools. I was very conscious of not being a deck hog and filing my first time cruiser mom in on the do and don't rules. Scored some loungers on mid deck 12. Was able to see the kids in the waterpark and also when they went to the beach pool. Weather was gorgeous! Sunny, warm and just enough breeze that you couldn't feel yourself burning LOL. Enough breeze though that the ropes course wasnt open. Waterpark water was warm, the pool which was salt water was freezing, not sure how they acclimated to that but they and several others did I couldn't hardly put my feet in without screaming.

 

Skipping ahead a few hours, had a great day out by the pool, people watching one of my favorites was great. Kids and mom decided to head to the room to get our of their suits for a bit and go have lunch, I went to the Red Frog to do our group meet and greet. Had a great turn out and was nice to put faces to the names. Meet quite a few other friendly people while at the pub. I have to say, this was my first time to Texas and with probably 90% or more of the people on the ship from TX, this was the friendliest cruise I've been on. Everyone was so nice and the manners and hospitality was great. I just loved it--need to figure out how to send my son to school in TX to learn all the southern charm, cute accent wouldn't hurt either :)

 

Was cruise formal night that night and after a super long day in the sun, no one was feeling like getting all dressed up. Plus my hair and humidity were not getting along so well. We instead hung out at Ocean Plaza on deck 5 and watched everyone get pictures. Was more fun than it sounds! Another dinner at lido, was a bit disappointed, did not seem to have many choices and overall was just ok. Dessert was the highlight. After we ate, we went to the family friendly comedy show. Do get there early as it does fill up. It was only 45m or so show if that but was very funny. We all enjoyed it. Went to check out what movie was playing, it was The Fault In Our Stars followed by Divergent. Kids weren't too excited to see either one. Grabbed another cone and walked about some more before heading to the room.

 

Trying to figure out how to post pics. Hopefully will have some up soon.

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Rosethorn40

Rosethorn40

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I have sailed out of Galveston twice; once on a 4-day with a high school friend of mine, the other on a 7-day on the Magic after a visit to my parents in Texas. I have to agree with you about Texans being easy to cruise with. I bet on the 4 day I was the only "foreigner" (East of the Mississippi River) on board, and on the other cruise I would hazard a guess the 90% were from Texas.

 

Can't wait to read more. I think the Magic was my favorite ship I've ever sailed on.

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asdjl

asdjl

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Thank you for this review! Going on the Magic in April, also with an 11 and 9 year old!

 

In the past, on NCL, my kids did not use the kids club, but may try it out on CCL. Did your kids go? And do you happen to have any schedules? No pressure! :)

 

Sounds like you were off to a good start, thanks again! Looking forward to the rest

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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Thank you for this review! Going on the Magic in April, also with an 11 and 9 year old!

 

In the past, on NCL, my kids did not use the kids club, but may try it out on CCL. Did your kids go? And do you happen to have any schedules? No pressure! :)

 

Sounds like you were off to a good start, thanks again! Looking forward to the rest

 

On NCL they went to the kids club the first sea day and hated it. Suggested that they check out the kids club on Magic but they were not interested at all. I did peak my head in, it looked like more fun in my opinion than NCL.

 

I do have all the fun times and can post those too once I get this photo sharing figured out.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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We were in 2276 in January. Our room steward was Marti. I'm wondering if it's the same as you had. Did he have dark rimmed glasses?

 

He did, we too called him Marty but his tag only said Mart. Very nice person!

 

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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Day 3 was our first port day in Cozumel. Again woke up at the crack of dawn which I was ok with as I love sitting out and watching as we arrive in. Looked like another beautiful day was in store.

 

I prefer to do my homework and do our own excursion versus book through the cruise. Usually can save quite a bit of money which is always a good thing. Since we were doing our own thing there was no big rush to get off the ship right away. Since we had a early night before though everyone woke up pretty early and we were on our way to breakfast. Seemed like everyone else woke up early to as it was busy. Returned back to the room and packed our back for the day and we were off. Being on deck 2 was great for getting on and off the ship.

 

Our plan for the day was taking a cab to Chankanaab National Park. After walking through the port area we found the line for taxis. They have a rate board posted for the cost to get to various places on the island. Total to the park for the 4 of us was $12. The ride to the park took maybe 5-10m. Entry cost to the park $70 total for 2 adults, 2 kids with the $1 off coupon you can print off from their website. It seemed like we were one of the first people there! The park itself is gorgeous! Very pretty, super soft sand and overall very clean--even the locker rooms/bathrooms which always worries me on what those will be like.

 

As soon as we walked on to the beach area, we were greeted by Angel who would be our server for the day. He brought us to a large palapa directly in front of the snorkeling area which is where we were going to be spending the most of our time. We don't have our own gear so that was rented from the park, cost was $30 for 2 full sets of gear.

 

We changed into our swimsuits and headed for the water. The snorkeling/swimming area was huge. It's a rocky shoreline but they have several points of entry with wide stairs to get in. Water was cooler than I thought it would be but after a few minutes it was fine. By this time lots of the organized tour groups were coming in and I wasn't thinking the snorkeling would be all that good with so many people splashing around but was wrong. There were beautiful tropical fish everywhere! I was pleasantly surprised! The kids loved it especially since they had underwater statues to find they thought that was cool.

 

After we all swam and snorkeled a while took a break to order some drinks and snacks. Drinks were good, food not so much. Normal US restaurant prices $6 mixed fruity/tropical drinks, nachos I think were $8.

 

The first tour groups had now left the snorkeling area so the kids went back in again while mom and I hung back under the palapa enjoying the beautiful scenery and fruity drink. After we finished swimming we decided to walk around the rest of the park. In addition to the beach and snorkeling there is a pretty lagoon area, a crocodile reserve area and numerous botanical trails and trails with Mayan ruin replicas with details of the history behind some of the key ruins around Mexico. They also have many things we did not see like the sea lion show, a swimming pool, option to swim with either dolphins or manatees and zip lines. It started to cloud over and rain but didn't last long. By this time was mid afternoon and decided to catch a cab back to the port area for some shopping and lunch. There were a few other ships in port including the Sunshine and Glory which was docked right next to us so the port area was busy! A little too busy for me personally so after a bit of walking around headed back to the ship. Changed and went to deck 12 and found the ropes course had opened so had to give that a try along with a round of mini golf. The kids loved the ropes course and I thought mini golf was fun too.

 

By this time the dj had started up and was getting ready for the sailaway party. The mood was by far the most festive of the entire cruise. I'm not sure if 1/2 the ship went to Mr Sanchos or what but everyone was in a party mood. Was a ton of fun to watch especially this guy's vs girls group contest to form out different things like a dinosaur, statue of liberty etc. I was waiting for an injury to happen from that lol. The fun continued long after we pulled away from port until the sun left the pool area. We too then headed to the cabin and cleaned up to figure out dinner plans. Tried to get everyoneto go to the dining room but was out voted so another night at the lido.

 

Afterwards, made our way to deck 5, listened to some karaoke for a bit and then headed to the lobby. It was Dr Seuss birthday and they had a big party planned to celebrate it. There was a balloon drop, a big spread of Seuss themed desserts and an appearance from the cat in the hat. Was packed but fun.

 

From there headed to the theater for the illusion/magic show. The show was good I thought and lasted too about 45 minutes. In addition to the illusionist, featured the same two singers from the welcome aboard show who still had trouble harmonizing.

 

Walked back to the lido deck to see what was the movie playing and it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Watched it for a little but while enjoying a ice cream cone and made our way to the room. Next day was Progreso and we did have a big excursion planned.

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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What bands/duos were on the ship playing in Ocean Plaza or the Atrium? Would appreciate you checking your Fun Times!

 

Looks like for the atrium there was acoustic by JR, Wilson's duo and alterr. From the fun times it looks like those same 3 options rotated between the lobby and ocean plaza. Ocean Plaza always seemed to have something going on from music, trivia or karaoke. Spent a bit of time there trying to win a ship on a stick :)

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

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tvlworm

tvlworm

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Thanks! Those are new groups since the last time- except possibly JR.

 

And sending you son to school in Texas? Well, here's a MN girl who came to college in Texas and I'm still here 31 years later! [emoji4]

 

Ha well he's only 11 now so probably not anytime soon unless we all relocate. Which would make it a lot easier to be closer to a cruise port :)

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

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