Just Add Magic - Just Back from our May 28th Sailing

[tncruzer75]

Just back from our May 28th cruise on the Carnival Magic. Traveling with me was my wife, daughter and three of our grandsons, This was a high school graduation cruise for our oldest grandson.

 

To start, our travel did not get off to a magical start.

 

We were scheduled to fly out Friday night on Southwest from Nashville to Orlando. Our original departure time was at 8:55pm with a 11:30pm arrival in Orlando. However, we went through 3 delays due to bad weather in Texas (where our flight originated). Finally at 1:00am, Southwest cancelled our flight.

 

We immediately tried to re-book for Saturday, but there were no flights available on Southwest to Orlando. After several more phone calls, we were eventually placed on a 7:40am flight from Louisville to Baltimore to Orlando. So by 1:30am, we cancelled our Orlando Hyatt Place reservation, packed our vehicle and were on our 3 hour drive from Nashville to Louisville.

 

We made the drive and flights with no issues. We had previously booked our transfer from Orlando to Port Canaveral with Cortrans and they adjusted our pick up and transfer. Cortrans, by the way, was really good to work with. They were very accommodating with our schedule change, were very friendly over the phone and in person, were punctual and provided nice clean vans with working AC.

 

My wife and I have a saying, no matter how difficult the work week or difficult the travel to the ship, it’s all forgotten as soon as step foot on the Lido. So finally after 32 hours without sleep and 13 hours of traveling, I was about to put our theory to a real test………..

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Sorry for your travel trouble. Following your review!

[CARNIVALCRUISE3]

Looking forward to reading the rest of the review. I'm so sorry that your travel plans didn't have a magical and smooth start.

[mscreneet]

Definitely following!!

What a rocky start...lets just hope things turned around for the better.

 

Looking forward to your review and also looking forward to my first sail aboard the Magic later this year!!

[tncruzer75]

We arrived at Port around 2:30pm, and check in was a snap as the lines had long since emptied. This is our 22nd cruise with Carnival. It’s been several years since we last sailed with Carnival as we wanted to try out Royal(3 sailings)l and Princess(1). Our last Carnival Cruise was on the Breeze during it’s inaugural year.

 

We had purchased the Cheers Package prior to our cruise. We stopped for a Mojito at the Lobby Bar. The bartender swiped our Sign and Sail card and confirmed our Cheers purchase. She then placed the Cheers sticker on both of our cards and we were on our way.

 

We dropped our carry-ons at our room, We had a balcony cabin on the Verandah Deck. Other than a flat screen TV. I didn’t notice a lot of difference in the room. More on that later. We made our way to the Lido and got 2 burgers from Guys. We thought they were really good. The sail away party was in full gear with a Caribbean Band (real) and line dancing led by the the good Rev. Dr, E. He really had the crowd involved and before we new it, we were all dancing as well. So, the theory was proven as all the pain, stress and hassle of our travel was long forgotten. I think we finally made it to bed around midnight.

[Micahs Grandad]

Looking forward to your review. Doing our first cruise on the Magic later this year

[tncruzer75]

Thanks everyone!

 

We had late dinner(8:15pm) at the Southern Lights Restaurant. This was one of the first changes we noticed for dining There were 3 servers that waited on us for the week and instead of one main server per se, it was more of a team approach as they acted in different capacities as head server to assistant. We also noticed the service had really slowed. There were several nights that it took 10 to 15 minutes to be given a menu and then a longer wait to have our order taken. Dinner time ranged from 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. On a positive note, the food was good and served at the right temperature.

 

We were given 2 carafes of water and a basket of bread. This actually worked out well considering the time between courses. In fairness, our waiters would check on us and bring additional bread and would refill our water when they were at our table. It certainly was a being deal to us.

 

We had a good bar server that made sure we had a glass of wine we enjoyed at our table as soon as we arrived.

 

Our first sea day was Sunday. We slept in a bit due to our crazy travel. We had breakfast and were out on the deck by 9:00am only to find every chair occupied although most only with a towel. We were finally able to grab one about an hour later when a person got up and eventually another one came available a few hours later. We alternated our time between the chair, standing and the pool. I think the lack of chairs is more of a lido deck design issue as I remembered it was a bit of the issue on the Breeze as well. The usual deck games and dancing took place as well and it was really nice to have a caribbean band playing. Lunch was the Blue Iguana and a fresh salad from the buffet.

[alpogi8]

following your review.. we will board her June 18th.. can you post the funtimes? thanks

[tncruzer75]

Sorry, we did not bring any home

[tncruzer75]

The next 4 days were port intensive so here’s what we did:

 

Costa Maya - we arrived at noon and took a cab into Mahahual to the Tropicante. We had e-mailed Steve the owner prior to our cruise and he reserved 6 chairs for us. We relaxed had beverages and lunch and had a great day there. The food and drinks are very good and the service is excellent. This is becoming on of our favorite stops - just make sure you get away from the Port area.

 

Roatan Island - We spent the day at Mahogany Bay. In prior trips, we’ve visited the West End and wanted to see what it was like at Mahogany. There were plenty of chairs, food and activity. It was the prettiest beach we’e been to, but fit our wants for the day. I’m not sure that I would recommend it for a first time visitor, but it’s not really travel intensive either.

 

Belize - We've previously toured Altun Ha and the River Wallace and swam Shark Ray Alley so we were looking for something different. We decided on Goff Caye Island as we were concerned with Zika. It turned out to be a really fun day. We took a tender into the Port where we were greeted by our tour guide. We paid the remainder of our excursion cost and took a 30 minute book ride to a 2 acre island in the ocean. On the island, was one shack that served lunch and one bathroom. After getting settled in, we got back on our boat and went over the reef where we were led on a snorkeling tour. It was fantastic! Our teenagers really loved it. I loved the fact they were up before noon - even though we had to wake them, but even more so happy to see them enjoying something that was not electronic!

 

Cozumel - our last stop. This was a bit disappointing as the stop is from 7:00am to 3:00pm. This is one of our favorite stops in the Caribbean and we usually spend the day at a beach club and then shopping. There’s just not a lot of time to do either. We took the family into town and walked around for a while then back to the port.

 

Last Sea Day - I’m happy to report there were lots of chairs available even until 10:00 - 11:00am. I suspect that much of the week of sun, fun and Cheers had caught up with most of the people. We had a great day on Lido with the band and DJ and that one last Guy’s burger. One of our Grandsons made to Guy’s bar-be-que and thought it was very good. He said he was in line for 30 minutes or so. This is only available on sea days.

[tncruzer75]

I’ve always wanted to give an exact day by day account of one of my cruises, but I’m just not that disciplined to do so - I’m on vacation!!! But, i really respect the people who do so as it really has helped me out over the years.

 

So, here’s some of my overall observations:

 

Our room - again we had a balcony. It was really tough keeping in cool. We brought a fan to help and it did so. We noticed our room would finally get cool around 2:00am. We noticed the the bed covers are in need of replacement and one of our robes had seen it’s better days. The rooms are still bigger than the other cruise lines we’ve been on. We had good cabin service from our attendant and our room was serviced in the morning and evening.

 

If you like to have a really good drink in an open atmosphere, the Alchemy Bar is for you. We really enjoyed the higher end drinks and the bartender, Bojana , was excellent. The drinks and and service at the Tequila Bar and the Rum Bar on Lido were excellent - especially the mojitos.

 

So you might can tell we had the Cheers package…….we thought it was a good purchase for us. We enjoy a few drinks during the day, a couple of glasses of wine at dinner and then a nightcap or two. (We’re on Vacation!!!). Even so, we think the real value of this comes from the ability to get specialty coffee, soft drinks, bottled water, bottled tea, Vitamin Water, Powerade and other drinks.

 

We only made one of the Production show and it was ok. We enjoyed the bands in the Ocean Plaza at night. On our cruise, Alterr and 50 Shades of Groove played. It was a nice mix of music from all genres. We also made one of the comedy shows. if you do plan on attending, make sure you get there 30 minutes prior to the show as it fills up very quickly.

 

I’ve already talked about the man dining room. I’ll end it with it although the menus have been scaled back, we were always able to find something we liked. We did not eat extensively on Lido other than breakfast. The lines could be long, but also can be avoided. I would recommend going to the omelet station for cooked to order omelets and eggs. It moved very quickly. The continental sections also moved fairly quickly and the Blue Iguana was also open with breakfast burritos.

 

We found most of the crew very friendly. It amazing how you can brighten their day with a smile and greeting.

 

Finally, teenagers. I’m convinced they are vampires or at least ours are. They rarely made an appearance before 1:00pm and then wanted to stay out most of the night. They enjoyed the following:

Water Park - although in very brief visits

24 hour ice cream

24 hour pizza

Room service

Lido Deck Movies

Teen Club activities

 

They also let us know it was one of their best vacations ever.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions.

[Carcarmat]

What nights was formal nights?

[thall17]

We sail in August and some of the long line reports are worrisome...

 

Overall, did the ship feel crowded? Seems finding a chair by the pool is difficult?

 

Thanks for the review!

[tncruzer75]

Formal nights were Sunday and Thursday nights.

[tncruzer75]

Overall, the ship really didn't feel crowded. We learned over the years to avoid prime time eating on Lido.

 

I think the lack of chair availability was more of a design issue. Typically, Lido around the pool area is more difficult to find chairs; however, on this cruise the chairs on Deck 12 were the first to go. It's a limited space and closer to the water works area. It seemed like more families were setting up for the day there. Deck 11 is mainly a shaded area that also went quickly. The rear of the ship also didn't have a lot of seating. Space was taken by the pool, a bar, the pizza restaurant and tandoori restaurant.

 

I do think the pools were too small for a ship this size.

[Erwende]

Trivia?

[tncruzer75]

Lots of trivia - it took place in the Ocean Plaza.

Edited June 5, 2016 by tncruzer75
spelling

[riclop]

Just back from our May 28th cruise on the Carnival Magic. Traveling with me was my wife, daughter and three of our grandsons, This was a high school graduation cruise for our oldest grandson.

 

To start, our travel did not get off to a magical start.

 

We were scheduled to fly out Friday night on Southwest from Nashville to Orlando. Our original departure time was at 8:55pm with a 11:30pm arrival in Orlando. However, we went through 3 delays due to bad weather in Texas (where our flight originated). Finally at 1:00am, Southwest cancelled our flight.

 

We immediately tried to re-book for Saturday, but there were no flights available on Southwest to Orlando. After several more phone calls, we were eventually placed on a 7:40am flight from Louisville to Baltimore to Orlando. So by 1:30am, we cancelled our Orlando Hyatt Place reservation, packed our vehicle and were on our 3 hour drive from Nashville to Louisville.

 

We made the drive and flights with no issues. We had previously booked our transfer from Orlando to Port Canaveral with Cortrans and they adjusted our pick up and transfer. Cortrans, by the way, was really good to work with. They were very accommodating with our schedule change, were very friendly over the phone and in person, were punctual and provided nice clean vans with working AC.

 

My wife and I have a saying, no matter how difficult the work week or difficult the travel to the ship, it’s all forgotten as soon as step foot on the Lido. So finally after 32 hours without sleep and 13 hours of traveling, I was about to put our theory to a real test………..

 

Great attitude, enjoy.

[NoJolt4U]

Your review and comments are so refreshing. Not full of complaints and criticism. As a soon-to-be first time cruiser later this year, I cannot wait to go!! May I ask ages and gender of your teens? We have one of each ages 15 and 13, trying to get an idea of activities since they cannot do the same clubs based on the age differences. Anything you can recommend would be great! Thank you in advance.

[tncruzer75]

Thanks - I honestly think you have to work at having a bad time on a cruise. There may be a bad moment here and there, but generally they come and go quickly.

 

You'll have a great time! Our teens were 13, 15 and 18 so they were all in separate age groups, but they all enjoyed the different clubs. Even so, they made lots of friends together away from the clubs. Lots of teens were at the Lido Deck movies and were able to have fun at the different deck parties. Also, they had fun with the water park area, the sports court and mini golf.

[JimAOk1945]

I enjoyed reading your review. Thanks for taking the time to post your comments. Happy cruising in the future wherever you go!

[tncruzer75]

Thanks so much!

[mondsd]

Thanks for the review. Cant wait to get onboard in 1 month!!!!

[tncruzer75]

Thanks - hope you have a great cruise!

[Florings]

Thank you for your comments and review. Sounds like you had a great time, after the initial travel problems!

 

Looking forward to our cruise later in the year.