GAPearl's "MAGIC"al Birthday Cruise! Complete Magic picture review-6/14/15 sailing.

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

I love reading all of your reviews. They're so interesting and detailed! Your outfits are Beautiful! You're a fashionista! Thanks for all of the ideas on excursions!

I cruise with family members, friends, and sometimes by myself. I prefer cruising with family members and by myself. I have cruised with friends who think that we have to do everything together, and tell me, "You're cruising with me so you have to do what I want. I don't think so, you didn't pay for my cruise." Sometimes we agreed on excursions, and at other times we don't.

Family members understand, and we are together sometimes, and at others on our own.

I live 30 minutes away from the port of Miami. Most of the time, I book at the very last minute! I'm leaving on the Victory 4 day cruise to celebrate my mom's birthday in 2 weeks!

[chudster]

Question for GApearl (or others who've been on the Magic): do you bring your laptop or iPad?

Or do you use the workstations in the ship's internet cafe?

[lnew1gd1]

Great review! I have to thank my friend Jane for turning me on to your review.

[deetrayn]

I haven't been on here in a while, but I'm sure glad there is a review from you to awaken my excitement for a cruise!! BTW, I saw you were the first guest in the Red Frog pub. :D

 

Thanks for sharing another adventure with us on CC!!

 

Dee

[ch27088]

Don't count on getting in a strenuous workout up here. The equipment is not that great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The running track.

 

 

They were really serious about dodge ball weren't they? I'm a little curious why you didn't join in Kim. But with them being serious about the game, I'm sure the ball was flying back and forth pretty hard. I don't think I would have joined in either!

[ch27088]

The Serenity area was half empty and there were plenty of loungers around, but it was really windy up there. I thought the aft pool was an adult only pool, but it's not and it was crowded. I eventually made it out to the lido pool around 10 am. It was already packed but there were a few empty chairs scattered around. I didn't see them enforcing the 40 minute rule, but I wasn't paying attention to how long people were gone from their chairs either. I got a mocha chocolate getaway and chilled in my chair for a while. Everyone was like ohhhh, what's that? Carnival owes me a commission for selling that drink to a lot of people around me. :p

 

I ended up not using it much, but the locked box on my chair is called the Aqua Vault. You set a code of your choice and it locks over your beach chair. I saw this on Shark Tank and ordered one. This is great for cruises or the beach when you don't want to take your stuff to use the restroom and you don't want to leave it laying out in the open either.

 

 

Me with my favorite dessert drink. It's like a spiked chocolate milkshake.

 

 

The really crowded lido pool.

 

 

Selfie with some new pool friends.

 

 

They had the drink special of the day inside a pineapple. I didn't get one, but borrowed this one for the picture. A whole pineapple! LOL

 

 

I love that little safe called the "Aqua Vault", so glad someone came up with that idea. Since my hubby doesn't swim, he's the one that usually watches our stuff while I'm out in the water, but with this....

[tea4ular]

Loving all the ship pics and am patiently waiting for serenity deck pics! Unless I missed 'em.

[gapearl]

I'm so enjoying this review. My next CCL cruise is Jan 2017 on the Vista[emoji22]. I'm cruising vicariously these days....

 

I'll be headed on Vista in December, so you'll get a review before you go. :D You've gotta book something else before then. That's much too long of a wait! :eek:

 

Thanks for the info, I'll survive! And your review has been FANTASTIC!! Been on magic once several years ago! Can't wait to be back!

 

Thanks so much! Have fun on your cruise!

[gapearl]

I'm LOVIN these Reviews!! I am so excited!!! We will have the same Itinerary as you did! So looking forward to it. We are going to the steakhouse first night for anniversary and we want to do the BFT of the ship. My DH is an engineer so this will be so interesting to him.

 

ROPD184 When do you cruise in Aug?? We sail on the 9th!

 

Happy anniversary to you! I didn't talk to anyone that went to the steakhouse on this cruise. Good thinking going the first night for the free wine. :D I've only done the behind the fun tour once, some years ago and on a smaller ship. I should think about doing it again on another cruise. I'm glad you're enjoying the review!

 

Great review as usual Kim. I don't know how you find the time to accomplish all that you do on the ship. I'm not able to get even half the stuff in that you do and I don't roll in til about 2 or 3am either! :p

 

Thank you! Funny thing is that even doing all that I did, I still don't think I did that much and didn't get to do everything that I wanted to.

[gapearl]

I love reading all of your reviews. They're so interesting and detailed! Your outfits are Beautiful! You're a fashionista! Thanks for all of the ideas on excursions!

I cruise with family members, friends, and sometimes by myself. I prefer cruising with family members and by myself. I have cruised with friends who think that we have to do everything together, and tell me, "You're cruising with me so you have to do what I want. I don't think so, you didn't pay for my cruise." Sometimes we agreed on excursions, and at other times we don't.

Family members understand, and we are together sometimes, and at others on our own.

I live 30 minutes away from the port of Miami. Most of the time, I book at the very last minute! I'm leaving on the Victory 4 day cruise to celebrate my mom's birthday in 2 weeks!

 

Hey there! The good thing about cruising with my family is that everyone realized we didn't have to be together all the time. My mom is a pretty inexperienced traveler and she lets me do all the planning. This is the first time I've cruised with more than 2 people. Going with a lot of people that want to do everything together all the time and having to deal with "what are we doing, where are we going, I don't want to do that" is exactly why I love traveling solo. I do what I want when I want. If I lived in Miami I'm sure I'd be booking a lot of last minute cruises also. Thanks for the nice words and have fun on Victory! :D

 

Question for GApearl (or others who've been on the Magic): do you bring your laptop or iPad?

Or do you use the workstations in the ship's internet cafe?

 

I bring both. I bring my laptop mostly for uploading pictures. My ipad is what I use for the internet as it's slightly faster than my computer. I have never used their computer stations, so I'm not sure how fast their computers are. If you buy an internet package, you can use the minutes on more than one device.

[gapearl]

Great review! I have to thank my friend Jane for turning me on to your review.

 

Jane told me she sent you here. Thanks for stopping by to read! :)

 

I haven't been on here in a while, but I'm sure glad there is a review from you to awaken my excitement for a cruise!! BTW, I saw you were the first guest in the Red Frog pub. :D

 

Thanks for sharing another adventure with us on CC!!

 

Dee

 

Hey Dee! Welcome back! That was so cool being first. :cool:

[gapearl]

They were really serious about dodge ball weren't they? I'm a little curious why you didn't join in Kim. But with them being serious about the game, I'm sure the ball was flying back and forth pretty hard. I don't think I would have joined in either!

 

I didn't know the game was even going on until I got up there. Even still, I wouldn't have joined in. I haven't played dodge ball since maybe the 3rd grade. I'm a gym rat and a runner, but I have no athletic ability when it comes to sports.

 

I love that little safe called the "Aqua Vault", so glad someone came up with that idea. Since my hubby doesn't swim, he's the one that usually watches our stuff while I'm out in the water, but with this....

 

It was a genius idea. It will be coming with me on all my trips from now on. I usually bring a little clutch to take out of my beach bag for my camera, phone, cash, etc when I have to go to the bathroom or want to get in the water. Now I don't have to bother doing that any more.

 

Loving all the ship pics and am patiently waiting for serenity deck pics! Unless I missed 'em.

 

Thank you! I did get some Serenity pictures but not until the last day so they'll be in a later post. Serenity on Magic is huge!

[gapearl]

Hey Mitsugirly! Are you reading? I had a dream this night on the cruise that I met you and Sakari on the ship with me. Sakari was wearing her bathing suit and we were coming down the stairs headed to the pool. I said to you people on CC are gonna have a long week reading both our reviews from this trip. lol :D

 

Today we were in port from 7 am-4 pm. CJ wasn't feeling well and decided to stay on the ship. I prebooked a tour with Captain Marvin's. We would first go see Hell and the turtle farm, and then we would go snorkeling and stop at Stingray City. These were two separate half day tours combined into one full day tour for $70 per person. I did this tour (through the ship not independently) on my first visit to Grand Cayman back in 2009. I had a lot of fun with it and knew it would be something my family would enjoy. At least that's what I thought. When I told my mom I'd be getting in the water with the stingrays, she was like isn't that what killed that man? Me- Yes. Her- Hmmph. *silence* Well it's ok, I have an insurance policy on you. Dang, really? lol

 

We came down to guest services for priority tendering at 8 am. We waited with another family for 10 minutes before someone came to get us. Turns out there was no need for this because there wasn't a line and not a lot of people on the tender when we got there.

 

The priority tendering waiting area is right next to the guest services desk.

 

 

 

Looking up from the atrium.

 

 

I had to snap a picture of all of our different colored sail and sign cards. Started from the bottom now I'm here! :cool: LOL

 

Edited July 1, 2015 by gapearl

[gapearl]

I snapped a few pictures of the drink menu while we waited.

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

We waited maybe 10 minutes for the tender to fill up. The ride to shore was very quick, less than 5 minutes.

 

 

We were in port with Royal Caribbean's Something of the Seas today, I think the Independence???

 

 

 

Lots and lots of people everywhere.

 

 

 

They have a lot of tour operators there as you get off the ship, ready to take your money. No need to worry if you arrive with nothing planned yet.

 

[gapearl]

The Tortuga store is very important....

 

 

 

We walked across the street to Captain Marvin's office to pay and get checked in. We had around 20 minutes before our driver would be there, so we went in the gift shop next door to buy a few souvenirs.

 

 

I couldn't resist a rum cake for breakfast.

 

 

There were 9 of us in our van and our driver's name was Brad. He's an expat from Canada and said it takes 8 years to get permanent residency coming from another country. He said there are 500 banks in Grand Cayman, and 200 of them are just in Georgetown. There's no tax here at all, which is why so many people want to put there money in Cayman banks. Grand Cayman makes money on import duties, which generates much more money than taxing the island's 53,000 residents ever would. 7 Mile Beach is actually 7 miles of coastline, but only 5 1/2 miles of beach. The island is very flat with the highest point being only 63 feet. We also learned of the Cayman Trench which goes down 22,000 feet. It's the fourth deepest in the world.

 

This is a new huge, luxury resort the wealthiest man on the island is building. If I remember correctly, he's the son of the guy that invented styrofoam.

 

 

Brad explained to us how houses on opposite sides of the street can have a huge difference in price. The ones on the right that are either on the water or with an ocean view can cost $600-800k. The homes on the left, literally just a minute walk away, don't have the ocean view and cost closer to $150-200k.

 

[gapearl]

Our first stop was Hell. No, not Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday afternoon or Walmart on Black Friday. This Hell.

 

 

 

These are black limestone formations that were once under water and have the appearance of what hell might actually look like. The name of the town is literally Hell. This name was given back in the 50's, way before the tourists and cruise ships started arriving. There's a gift shop where you can buy souvenirs from Hell or send a postcard postmarked from Hell. I sent myself one to Georgia and it still hasn't arrived yet.

 

 

 

This is the only Hell I plan on visiting. lol

 

[gapearl]

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Random chickens are just roaming around.

 

 

Naughty?

 

 

Or nice? :)

 

 

The next time someone tells you to go to Hell, just book another cruise and come here. haha

 

 

The devil and his family operating the gift store will wish you a Hell of a day as you leave.

 

 

Thankfully we got here early enough that were the first van. As we were leaving, three other buses were pulling up in the parking lot. We stayed around 30 minutes.

[gapearl]

Our next stop was the Cayman Turtle Farm. We just toured the facilities, but they have a small lagoon where you can swim with them. Also for you foodies, there is a restaurant serving turtle soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Each sea turtle will lay an average of 60 eggs. You don't know if the turtle is a male or female for 2 years. You can buy a bag of food for $5 and feed the turtles over the safety railings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

This is where the females come to lay their eggs.

 

 

 

 

Smiley the crocodile has quite a story. She was the first croc found on the island in decades and is a mixed breed. She couldn't be released into the wild for fear of her mating and reproducing a new species of crocodiles, so now she's a part of the Turtle Farm family.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Now I'm ready to go play with some baby turtles!

 

 

Make sure you wash your hands before and after.

 

 

 

 

They only keep 5-6 babies in each tank. That way if one gets sick, they can easily figure out which turtle it is and prevent the illness from spreading too badly.

 

 

Brad shows us how to hold them. Always keep them over the water. If you accidentally drop one over the water, they won't get hurt as they would if you dropped one on the ground.

 

[gapearl]

There are a couple of small wading pools where you can get in the water with them two at at time for a picture.

 

 

So cute! I want one. :o

 

 

[gapearl]

On the way out, we stopped in here to see where the turtle eggs are hatched.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great hour spent here. I was shocked my mom wanted to hold a turtle. I really wish she wasn't so opposed to me posting her picture because it was so cute to see her stepping out of her comfort zone and doing something I never thought she'd do. The Cayman Turtle Farm is a must see at least once!