Magic happens in Galveston! 10/11/15 Western Caribbbean on the Carnival Magic

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Well hello folks, it’s the one and only FlyingCruiserNJ and I am up to my traveling ways once again. As the title says, Magic happens when you cruise from Galveston and fun is had and new experiences happen and memories are made. I recently cruised on the October 11 sailing to the Western Caribbean on the Carnival Magic out of Galveston, Texas and I am very eager to share my adventures with you all. So, buckle your seatbelts and put your tray tables and seatbacks in the up and locked position, and get ready to join me as I re-live my latest cruise adventure.

As always, a little background about me and how I chose my cruise before we get going. I am FlyingCruiserNJ, am single and in my mid 30s and am from South Jersey, suburban Philadelphia. I have been on close to 15 Carnival cruises, am a platinum and began cruising more than 9 years ago, with my last cruise in May, to Alaska from Seattle on the Norwegian Jewel. My last Carnival cruise was back in January, out of Long Beach, on the Imagination. When I cruise, I choose Carnival the vast majority of the time. I also travel with my mother, who is also a Carnival platinum and we really enjoy the vacations we get to take together. We try to cruise together at least once a year if not more when possible. She accompanied me on this latest trip.

I have done a number of reviews of my cruises over the last few years and I would hope each subsequent one has been more entertaining, informative and fun to read than the last. I have read some great reviews here on cruise critic and I feel like I am paying it forward when I review a ship and an entire vacation experience. I have made cruise decisions and learned things about ports and cruising in general from reading other reviews on here and if people can learn something by reading one of mine, it is just that much better. I like doing these as it helps me re-live the experience and keeps the memories alive. I took about 200 pictures on this cruise and I do like to include pics to go along with my experiences, so look for that.

I don’t get that much free time to do these writeups, so it might take a while to get this whole thing done but I absolutely look forward to any and all comments and will try my best to answer questions about the ports or ship, embarkation/debarkation process, etc as we go along. Rather than do it half-hearted, I really get into it and will recap a day or two at a time as we go along, hopefully it won’t take forever to get it done. LOL. So, with that all out of the way, here we go with my vacation.

Now, you may wonder how I always go on cruises out of faraway ports, it is because I am able to travel rather freely and am quite flexible with my working schedule if I choose to be. My mom has plenty of free time so she can go whenever I can get time off and can get a deal on a cruise voyage somewhere. Having been out of eight different ports in total, I had never cruised from the western Gulf coast and had only been in Texas one time prior to this, a few years ago for work. We were debating whether to cruise out of NYC, possibly to Bermuda or possibly out of Miami for the millionth time but we found a really good deal out of Galveston, on the Magic. I had never cruised the Magic before. I was on its sister ship, the Breeze, last year and enjoyed it. So, we decided on the Magic. We had been to two of the three ports numerous times in the past but we agreed it would be a good cruise to just hang out and get away from everything for a while, we didn’t care so much about the ports visited.

We originally booked an inside cabin on Deck 2, going through our wonderful PVP at Carnival, who made sure we got all our discounts that we always get because we are special (lol) and prepared to sail. We booked a few excursions through Carnival because they got great reviews, we had already seen most of what there is to see in the ports and because buying the same excursions from the land based companies themselves actually would have cost us more than buying them through the ship. So with that and our gratuities and taxes all out of the way and prepaid, it was time to go. I talk about these adventures beginning with the day before the cruise, which is almost always a travel day for us, and cover everything all the way through to debarkation and post-cruise. So, without further ado, I will begin with Day One, which was our pre-cruise travel day. Have fun reading and happy cruising!

　

　

　

　

DAY 1: TRAVEL DAY

So, here we are. Everything is packed and we are ready to go on the cruise that we have planned for a while and are looking forward to. The cruise left on Sunday and since we live almost 2000 miles away from debarkation port, we elected to fly out on Saturday, the day before as we almost always do. Doing this drastically cuts your chances of missing the ship due to maintenance or weather or whatever as you build that extra wiggle room into your itinerary. I have needed that extra day a few times when cruising in the past, haha. With rare exceptions, unless you are within driving disance of the port, you really should go the day before. It is worth the night in the hotel to have that peace of mind.

So, in that spirit, we had lousy weather in Philadelphia the very night before, and it delayed many flights out, creating misconnects and causing flights on Saturday to be oversold all day. Not good. We did manage to get a flight out of Philadelphia International Airport (KPHL) around midday, albeit barely, and had a short stopover in Chicago Midway (KMDW). Yeah, MDW is crazy if you have connections and it is always best to book nonstop flights from home to the port but that isn’t always an option and thus we had to deal with MDW. It actually wasn’t bad and we got a flight to Houston Hobby (KHOU) and we out of Chicago pretty quickly, all things considered. I did get a few awesome pictures of us flying over downtown Chicago on final approach to MDW, which is an adventure in itself, haha and will include them when I post all my pics from this day in a bit. I got a few neat pics of downtown Houston on the downwind leg to HOU but we weren’t nearly as close as we were in Chicago. It is just awesome how vast and differing the landscape in the USA is, really. Who needs inflight entertainment when you can just look out the window and see all kinds of neat things pass by at 500 knots?

Anyway, we got to HOU around 1700(I will be doing everything in 24-hour military time during this review) and got our bags shortly thereafter. I try not to check bags if the cruise is less than 5 days but this was a 7-day so we each had to suck it up and check bags this time. We called the hotel so they would send the shuttle and waited outside for the van to pick us up. While we were waiting for the shuttle, we scoped out where our shuttle to the port would get us the next morning. After about a half hour, the shuttle for the Doubletree pulled up and took us on a short 5-minute ride to the hotel we would be staying at that night. We got a really good deal on the hotel and it was a great value for us and what we needed. I am happy if I am in a clean, safe and decently located hotel and this met all those criteria. My only complaint is that while the hotel is located right across the street from the airport, it is near absolutely nothing and there is almost nothing within walking distance. They said the van would take you to the Walgreen’s a mile or so away but he was very busy all night and we didn’t ask him to do that. Because of this, we unfortunately were not able to get our pre-cruise bottles of wine to carry on the ship. However, we did stock up on snacks beforehand and took them with us from home so that was taken care of already. The only local place to eat that was open was a Jack in the Box, right across the street which was open late. There is a BBQ joint and an aviation-themed bar in the same parking lot but both were closed this night. Go figure.

We chose to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant, which was located on the other end of the complex, and I forget what it was called now but it was pretty good. It was a nice atmosphere and although it was not at all crowded, the service was good and the food was good and reasonably priced. I got really good gumbo and a French dip type sandwich with fries and a Coke and it only cost me about $20 with tip. I was expecting it to cost more honestly. Being an aviation geek, I was thrilled that the inside of the restaurant and for that matter, the entire hotel including the room, had all types of aviation nostalgia-themed pictures and memorabilia on the walls and everywhere else the eye could see. Cool. I think I saw some old Piedmont Airlines stuff in the hall and some really cool vintage Delta pictures, back from the “golden days” of flying. On the way back, I stopped and watched departures from HOU, located just across the street. Had a really good view of the Southwest hangar, which was busy this Saturday evening, and that kept me entertained for a while. You cannot see the terminal from the hotel but it is not far away at all. If there is something I like more than cruising it is planes and flying, haha. Hence my screen name.

Anyway, after dinner I stopped by the pool, which was located in a central courtyard area but I didn’t go in as it was pretty cold and late at night but it seemed to be a very nice area to hang out in during the day. I liked the state of Texas they have painted on the bottom of the pool, hehe. I think they had a few other conventions here this evening so the hotel was crowded and by about 2200, I went back to the room and watched some old reruns of NCIS on the hotel TV. We got everything ready to go so we could make a clean break the next morning, and I went to sleep before midnight. I didn’t necessarily want to do that as I wanted to catch up on a few episodes of Blue Bloods from a few weeks before that I had missed but fatigue won out and I would just have to wait until later to see those shows. I did have to be up early the next day to check out and get our van to the port and I am not a morning person but you will see this theme recurring throughout the cruise, believe me. So not a terrible thing that I actually got to bed early. I rarely do when I am at home.

So, that wraps up Day 1 of the review. I will include a few pictures of this day’s highlights and hopefully I will get to Day 2, embarkation day, fairly soon. We got a brilliant surprise on embarkation day that we were not expecting, but gladly accepted and I will talk about that later on. Thoughts and prayers go out to the folks in the path of Hurricane Patricia, which is devastating Mexico now, I hope there is no loss of life and minimal loss of property and they can go on with their lives very quickly after this monster storm passes. Happy cruising folks, hope you are enjoying my review so far and there is so much more to come.

[Violets Mommy]

Can't wait to read more!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

 

Near Lake Michigan, enroute to MDW. Also, downtown Chicago, on the final approach to MDW. Awesome views.

 

 

Over the midwest somewhere, and on the downwind to HOU. America is a huge and diverse country geographically. Really boggles the mind how much is out there that you don't see every day.

 

Landing in HOU. Nice landing.

 

View from the hotel parking lot. Terminal to the right, just a five minute ride to HOU. This was of the Southwest maintenance hangar. Saturday nights are slow for air travel, so they were busy today. A pic that only an airplane geek would appreciate, lol.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Dinner. A nice sandwich and fries. Had some nice gumbo too. Very reasonable and good.

 

 

Inside of the restaurant. Nice atmosphere.

 

 

The pool area. Too cold to go in for a dip but nice to sit outside and hang out for a while before bed. Nice hotel for sure.

 

 

Nice room, nice hotel and good staff. Would recommend for a pre-cruise stay.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Can't wait to read more!

 

Glad you are looking forward to more. Gotta get to bed now but I will try to get embarkation day done tomorrow sometime. Thanks for reading!

[jimbo5544]

Great start to your review, can't wait for the the rest.

[Selva]

I was on the same cruise. Looking forward to reliving it with you!

[Tracytex]

Subscribed! Can't wait for your review! We sale on Magic 11/15!

[cruiser fanatic]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review. We love the Magic and are sailing on her on 11/8 for the 4th time.

[KPfromCT]

Great start to your review!!!

Can't wait for more.

We are on the Magic in July, from Port Canaveral.

Soooooooooo excited!!!!!:D:D

[Rudyard]

I'll be on Magic's last Galveston cruise in April. Looking forward to more of your review.

[saltybones]

Goodie, a Magic review!

[watermelonqueen99]

You were getting on the Magic just as we were getting off! Can't wait to read your review of my girl! :D

[Prystyn]

We are sailing on Nov 1st! Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Great start to your review, can't wait for the the rest.

 

Thanks for following along! Got part 2 coming right up.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I was on the same cruise. Looking forward to reliving it with you!

 

Awesome! I thought it was a pretty good time had, out of a new port, so a totally new experience. Other than the rain we had pretty much every day, it was not bad. Glad we aren't going from there this week for sure with the nasty weather. I am just about to get embarkation day posted, so stay tuned!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Subscribed! Can't wait for your review! We sale on Magic 11/15!

 

Glad you're looking forward to it. Magic is a nice ship with a good crew. You will like it. Hopefully I can have this entire review done before you set sail so you can see the whole idea of what to expect on your trip. Thanks for reading along.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks for taking the time to do a review. We love the Magic and are sailing on her on 11/8 for the 4th time.

 

It is my pleasure to write these reviews, thank you for reading along. It was my first time on the Magic but to me it seems to be fairly similar to the Breeze so it wasn't all that different to me. It is due for a dry dock soon, so when that happens I think they will be adding a Cantina and a Guy's burgers. But the ship is in really good condition and there is surely plenty to eat and to do onboard. Have fun on your upcoming cruise!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Great start to your review!!!

Can't wait for more.

We are on the Magic in July, from Port Canaveral.

Soooooooooo excited!!!!!:D:D

 

Thanks, glad you are enjoying. I have embarkation day all written up and ready to post. I know the Magic is moving soon and the Breeze is taking its place in Galveston, but I didn't know Port Canaveral is Magic's next home port. Which ships are there now, I wonder? I last cruised from Port Canaveral on the Sensation a few years ago, really nice new terminal there. Have fun, July will be here in no time.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I'll be on Magic's last Galveston cruise in April. Looking forward to more of your review.

 

Cool that you will get to sail Magic from Galveston beffore it moves. I think it is going in for dry dock after that before it goes to Port Canaveral? I have embarkation day coming right up, so hopefully you enjoy reading. Thanks for following along.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Goodie, a Magic review!

 

Oh yeah! I noticed there aren't a ton of Magic reviews on here, but it is a nice ship on a nice itinerary. Glad you like the review and hopefully you continue to enjoy reading along as I share my cruise experience.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

You were getting on the Magic just as we were getting off! Can't wait to read your review of my girl! :D

 

That's funny. The only bad part about the cruise is that they make you get off the ship after it is over, lol. How was your cruise? We had what I guess might have been the early stages of Hurricane Patricia before it drifted into the Pacific and a stalled frontal boundary across the entire Caribbean sea that kept it raining most of the week off and on but the seas were pretty calm most of the time and the cruise itself was great. Thanks for following along and I am just about ready to post my embarkation day summary and pics.

Edited October 25, 2015 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

We are sailing on Nov 1st! Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise!

 

Nice, that's just right around the corner. Have fun on your cruise and thanks for following along with my adventures. I have embarkation day all ready to go, so stay tuned for that!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks for reading along and for your comments so far, and I am indeed back with my embarkation day experience. This was a very busy day as you can expect, so here we go.

DAY 2: EMBARKATION DAY

Yes, it is finally the day we get to board the ship! With the time zone change to Central time, I gained an extra hour of sleep essentially and was actually able to get myself up around 0800. As I said, I am not a morning person so this was difficult but it is EMBARKATION DAY and of course that makes it easier to wake up. I got a quick shower and dressed and we made sure we had all our documents, bag tags, passports, boarding passes, etc and our phones and other devices were fully charged and we headed downstairs to breakfast around 0830.

Note that we received vouchers for a free continental breakfast, due to the class of booking that I made but that the breakfast is generally not free if you don’t get a voucher. The dining room was located near the conference center and near the place we went to dinner the night before. Being hungry and knowing we would not get fed again until early afternoon, we just elected to get the full hot breakfast option. Note again that this was an additional cost but for what we got, think all the regular breakfast stuff and good and friendly service from the staff, it was well worth the $6 per person that we were charged extra. Couldn’t get that good food at Jack in the Box for that price and surely that breakfast was superior to anything that Carnival has on lido in the mornings.

Now, we get to the really cool part. Yeah, we left our phones on to charge - both of us - in the room while we got breakfast. My mom got back upstairs to gather our stuff before I did, and saw my phone was ringing. Not knowing how to work my phone (LOL) she couldn’t pick it up. Luckily, her phone rang next….so the story goes. As I arrived back in the room, she was having a serious conversation on the phone and I was like…uh oh, what is it? I sort of put two and two together and figured it out and when she ended the call, she happily told me that we had been upgraded at no additional cost to a Spa balcony room on Deck 11! WHOA! The upgrade fairy has struck for just the second time ever and what an awesome upgrade this was! The only other upgrade I got was interior to ocean view on the Sensation from Port Canaveral a few years ago which was welcome but not this cool. So, lesson is that you never know when you might luck into an upgrade and if the phone rings morning of cruise, answer it as it might be good news.

So, now we are both really stoked to go and we headed downstairs to check out of the hotel. I forgot to mention last night in my first post that we also received hot chocolate chip cookies at check-in and that was a nice and welcome touch. Staff couldn’t be friendlier. Another cool function they have in the lobby there is a real-time flight status board for everything coming into and out of HOU. I don’t know where they get the info from, doubt it is the FIDS feed from the airport but maybe it is. It didn’t look like anything like flight aware but it was accurate and very helpful I am sure for anyone who is heading out to the airport to get a flight.

So, we had a 1000 pickup at the airport to get a ride to the port which meant getting the shuttle from the hotel no later than 0930 because I think they said it only runs every half hour or so. We got to the airport baggage claim/hotel shuttle dropoff area and waited for our ride. Although it was scheduled for 1000, it didn’t arrive until about 1030, but that wasn’t bad. You can still get the free airport wifi signal at the waiting area and it wasn’t too hot outside so we just waited along with a few other people who were cruising out this day as well. The pickup area for shuttle vans is section 12B I believe, which is all the way down at the end, across both service roads but not too much of a walk from baggage claim. We elected to go with Galveston Express, due to recommendations from the web and cruise critic members, and it costs something like $20 or so each way, less if you book a round trip online or/and you are a senior citizen. Compared to costs of most companies, including Super Shuttle, that was a bargain. We only booked the trip one way, and I will explain later why we did that.

Traffic can get very bad on turnaround day in Galveston and due to the fact that these shuttles have to stop in Galveston and at both HOU and IAH to pick up and drop off, schedules can get altered and delays can happen. I wasn’t mad though. We got a ride in a brand new van that hadn’t even gotten the company livery yet, very comfortable although we did pack like 12 or so people and it was very tight quarters. Driver was very nice also. We stopped at a few local hotels to pick a few last people up for the ride and we were on our way. Interstate 45 is a direct route to Galveston, and traffic was not bad today. The weather was also good. It probably took us 40 minutes to get to the city of Galveston then another 45 to travel the last mile through town to get to the ship. And he said that was the back way, which is actually less crowded than the main way. Lot of history in that town and we got a little guided tour along the way from the driver. I will get into the madness that is the Galveston terminal in a bit.

So, we arrived at the terminal about 1145 and were able to get off first because although there were two ships in port today, the first one in line is the Magic, with the other one being a Royal Caribbean ship (can’t remember which one). So, we got off and dropped our bags off with the porter. We explained that we had a last-minute cabin change and that our original bag tags were no good anymore. He hand-wrote new ones but of course that means there is no PRIORITY printed on these and he didn’t put a VIFP/FTTF/PRIORITY sticker on the handles of the suitcases either. Which of course meant it took until that evening to actually get our bags but that was fine with us. After giving him a decent tip, we were on our way to check-in.

My first clue that this place was crazy was that as we arrived, we could still see people who had just gotten off the ship walking away from customs and arrivals. Kinda late for that to still be going on, eh? More later on that again, lol. They do their best to keep arriving and departing lines separate but when they all meet in the same area, that can really get confusing. I see that in just the last week they are changing the boarding system for Galveston and I can now see why. Time will tell whether or not it will help things or not. Anyway, we showed our PRIORITY boarding passes to the gentleman at the door and were able to head right up to the front of the line for security screening and the Captain’s Lounge. Our wait was much shorter than the main check in and security line. Those lines had to stretch for a good hour or more. It sure is nice to be a Platinum, isn’t it? I guess that alone could be reason for people to get FTTF (faster to the fun) if they were thinking about it.

We filled out our health questionnaires and got checked in quickly by the gentleman in the Captain’s Lounge. Now, since it was such a last-second change that we got to our assignment, we weren’t even listed for the cabin we ended up in so the guy had to go get our sign and sail cards re-printed and bring them back upstairs for us. LOL. It was worth the wait though. It helps if you take care of your onboard account details before sailing as you just breeze right through and get your security picture taken, and then are on your way. The line to get to the ship was not long but there is a pretty steep climb through the bridge they have to get you from the terminal to the ship and if you are elderly or not able to walk long distances, just ask for a staff member to help as you will need it.

Now, this being close to New Orleans, the Saints game was on and they were playing my most hated team, the Eagles. It started out well for the Saints but they just aren’t that good this year and therefore the Eagles took care of them in the second half. One thing I noticed that although we were in Houston Texans territory, very few Texans fans on this ship. Mostly Saints and of course, Cowboys. And due to the fact that the Rangers and Astros were in the MLB playoffs, almost no Astros gear and only some Rangers apparel. Not as much as I was expecting though honestly. Wonder why that is? But not to get sidetracked, we stopped for our embarkation picture (which we did not purchase) and headed to the ship. DING! The machine registers that you have boarded and the cruise has officially started as we entered the atrium around 1230.

We headed right up to the cabin as we only had a backpack and a large purse for my mom as carryons and just checked it out. Generally cabins are not ready until around 1330 but Platinums can enter when they first board. The staff member in the elevator lobby made sure to emphasize that point which is another perk. We dropped our stuff off, met our steward assistant who was still in the process of making the room up and dropped our stuff off. We made sure he separated the beds as he said the people who were originally booked in this room had requested they be together and he did not even know that there had been a change in cabin assignments. Not a problem, we also told him we would like ice each night in the bucket and both requests were taken care of when we arrived back in the cabin later.

We got lunch on lido deck and I signed up for my Bottomless Bubbles unlimited soda card and we just hung out for the afternoon. I got hot dogs and burgers from the grill and my mom got a salad and some meat from the carving station. The lines were not especially long at this point and there was no problem getting a table so it was good. She also likes iced tea and lemonade mixed together (Arnold Palmer) so I got her a few of them and got myself a few lemonades. Didn’t get soda because while they do not charge you tax on the entire purchase (only 15 percent gratuity) they do charge you something like 18 cents on each one bought while in US waters. So I waited to after sail away to get started on my soda drinking. For those wondering, the soda card is something like $48 total for the week including gratuity. Not terribly bad but I remember when I first started cruising, it was like $5 a day. Sigh, inflation.

Anyway, we headed back to the cabin at 1500, unpacked what we had and set up in the cabin. Nice balcony cabin, port side, Deck 11 slightly forward, right near the elevators. Good location. The Magic has the new interactive televisions in the cabins that allow you to see your entire spending account activity and you can also view available excursions and dining menus for all the onboard restaurants. The new ships all seem to have this. We had a credit of like $45 each, who knows why but that is good, and that pretty much paid for my soda card. Can’t beat that. Anyway, just as we sat down to relax, cruise director Eversen Bevelle came on the PA system and announced that it was time for the muster. I had heard about Eversen and he surely has a different style of cruise directing. Will get into that more later. We headed down to the main theater to go to our muster station, so we could beat the crowds and get a seat without being too cramped. We waited and eventually, at about 1530, Eversen and the captain, Antonio Marchetti began the drill. They did the standard required announcements and Eversen kept people listening and interested by doing the safety announcements in about a dozen different accents. He mentioned afterward that it keeps people from tuning out and it really does make a difference compared to the standard monotone announcements that we are so used to.

So, when it was over at 1600, everybody orderly made their way out and up to lido deck or wherever for sail away. We got a table under the awning on lido and listened to the usual Carnival sail away party music and watched the party get going. Wobble, cupid shuffle, the usual. I got myself a funship special and my mom had a Bloody Mary. How did the Bloody Mary cost less than the Funship? LOL. Anyway, I had always wanted to get a funship special for sail away and so I finally did it on this cruise. It was good. And strong. I heard people commenting later in the evening on how strong those innocent-enough looking things actually were. After hanging out for a while and waiting until we got out of cell phone range, I put my phone in cruise ship mode (airplane mode) for the duration of the cruise and went back to the cabin to see if our bags had arrived yet. They had, around 1800 or so. Not a terribly long time to wait. We watched the RCCL ship leave right behind us out the channel, and made our way into the Gulf of Mexico.

I had to notice that I saw literally 20 oil tankers just on our side of the ship out in the distance, all headed to or from Galveston/Texas City. I am no stranger to refineries as we have tons in NJ (so the joke goes) and Philly but it was still cool to see. That is a huge contributor to their economy there. The funship special finally kicked in and although I was going to make my first trip of the cruise to the hot tub before dinner, well, I took a nap instead and didn’t wake up until it was time to go to dinner at about 2000. We always elect to do the late dining on cruises and since it is the first night and there is a relaxed dress code, I didn’t have to get changed and we just went right to the MDR.

We had been assigned the Northern Lights dining room, which is on Promenade deck 5, midship, all the way in the back corner. I didn’t mind it. We always ask to be seated with other people as that makes dining more fun but although we were not by ourselves, we were seated at four two-top tables put together which made things kind of awkward space-wise and didn’t make it easy to talk with our fellow diners. We introduced ourselves to one another and everybody at our “mega table” showed up this evening. Two newlywed couples from Missouri I think and another couple from Louisiana. That probably didn’t help with the chemistry at the table either, as sitting at tables with larger families or solos is usually more fun. It wasn’t horrible and the others were fine to sit with, it just wasn’t the best experience in the MDR ever. Our waiter was Armand and he and his staff were great. The kind of service that you expect from Carnival. I ordered a soda and after that didn’t have to again, they just kept them coming each and every night at the table.

This ship recently got the makeover to the American Table dining program and based on my experiences on the Imagination back in January, I looked forward to it. My mom had not yet experienced it so I had to explain some of the differences to her. Yeah, there is a stupid bottle of red wine blocking the middle of the table taking up room and nobody really buys it but whatever. Lots of other decorations on the table as well. Plenty of ice water for everyone in a carafe and the menus look slightly different. But I like the idea that based on where you are sailing from and to, the menu is different ship to ship and cruise to cruise. I think they call it the port of call menu. Anyway, they had some really good beef brisket on this evening and I think I also got some type of chicken. Got shrimp cocktail for appetizer also and that is always good. I got warm chocolate melting cake (which is now called Carnival Chocolate Melting Cake) as I usually do. Sorry no pics of my dinner tonight, I usually get photos of my food to help people get an idea of what the entrees look like on the dish. Anyway, we headed out of the mdr around 2200 and I did get my hot tub trip in for the evening after all. I hung out in there for a little while and went back to the cabin to get changed again for the comedy show at 2330.

I did notice that there was some serious confusion with the cabin switch that took place that morning as the tv in the room still had the other pax in the cabin listed as occupants but they obviously weren’t there but at least they got our folios correct. We also didn’t get a towel animal on this evening or the coupon that we usually get for the free drink for platinums on the last seaday. We did not receive our complimentary liter bottles of water either which we did have to ask for and did get. The cabin safe also did not work and that is just bad luck since that is the second time that has happened to me on Carnival in the last year. But we just took our valuables and stashed them away in other areas of the cabin until we could get to our steward the next day and advise him of the issue so it could get fixed. That actually because an adventure as well...more later. But, other than that, we were getting settled into our spa balcony cabin quite well.

We went to the 2330 comedy show of Russ Nagel, which was the only comedy show on this evening. It was in the Punchliner lounge at the back of the ship on Promenade and you have to get there early as seating is pretty limited and if they go over capacity, they will not let you in. He was pretty funny at this adults-only show. The comedy club manager was Mark Miller and he was actually pretty funny himself as he had some good one-liners during the pre-show content disclaimers and comedian intros. I got the club’s signature drink, the Punchliner as I always do and it was good. It is a mix of four or so different liquors and is the blue drink you see on every other table in the comedy club it seems. They are pretty good. The show lasted a half hour and was over by midnight at which point we made our traditional trek up to lido deck to get some late night pizza. The late night snacks (burgers, dogs, fries, cookies) were open every night until 0100 which was cool as was the pizza, which is open all the time. However, demand spikes at the pizzeria right after shows let out and there is often a line even though the folks working there try their best to keep up. I finished my Punchliner and got some pepperoni pizza and a few chocolate chip cookies and fries for my mom and after people watching and sitting out on lido for a while, headed back to the cabin to call it a night around 0100.

The next day would be a seaday as we made our way towards Cozumel, then Grand Cayman, then Montego Bay, Jamaica. That pretty much wraps up my experiences on this busy embarkation day, I have a bunch of pictures to follow. Hopefully you are enjoying this review, and I look forward to getting onto the next day’s activities when I get the chance, hopefully soon. Happy cruising!

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Some random pic while we were waiting for the Galveston Express shuttle. I like to see how the paintschemes vary for different police cars around the country, weird I know. I guess it's just one of those odd things that interests me. Also Super Shuttle. That is where Galveston Express picks up too. Super Shuttle had like 5 vans just waiting to fill up there, I guess you could get a ride on one for more money if you were in a pinch and needed to get to the port quickly.

 

Riding over the I45 bridge into Galveston. Got a lot of causeways like this up north and in Florida, neat ride. Just under an hour to go before we got onto the ship.

 

The ship, the ship! Our first close-up look at the Magic. Taken from the street corner right across the way. Traffic was really gridlocked in this area. It takes a good amount of time to make your way through town to get to the ship.

 

 

Once onboard, taken from our balcony. Deck 11 spa balcony, port side. Upgrade from interior, Deck 2. Luck of the draw. Nice view. I guess LNG/crude oil unloading terminals here, to be piped to the refineries in Texas city?

 

Downtown Galveston, taken from Lido deck. Nice little town. I have heard the news about the flooding this week due to the remnants of Patricia and hopefully everyone down there is doing OK and those cruising are not having their trips affected too much by the storm.