Pirate's "MAGIC"al Halloween Cruise Review

[pirate4me2]

Hey everybody!

 

We just got home today from a 7 night Halloween cruise on Carnival Magic. I have uploaded my pictures and am ready to get to crack-a-lackin on this review! Who's with me??!! I will admit ahead of time, I slacked off on taking as many ship photos this time as I usually do, but I do have lots of food porn! :D Please forgive me, I wasn't on top of my game this time around...you'll learn more in the review.

 

I booked this cruise originally back in late 2014, and we were actually going to sail on the Glory from Miami in one those kick butt Grand Scenic Oceanview rooms. However, for some crazy reason I have been wanting to sail Magic ever since we sailed on Breeze in 2013, and when she was moved from Galveston to Port Canaveral I jumped at the chance to switch our booking over. The itinerary was the same except for swapping from a stop in Half Moon Cay to Amber Cove, and instead of the awesome oeanview room we originally had on Glory I would have to make due with a spa interior. I figured I could deal with all that. :)

 

We started our drive to Port Canaveral at 9 a.m. the day before the cruise, from a chilly NC. I was looking forward to warm FL weather! I don't normally share pics of myself in my reviews, I don't know why, but here's my "I'm in the car headed to a cruise!" selfie.

 

 

We stopped briefly for some coffee, as without some kind of caffeine I am NOT human. In the spirit of Halloween, hubby and I both decided to try the Frappula....OMG it was delish.

 

 

After some crazy traffic and a few pit stops, we arrived at the Radisson Resort at the Port at 7:24 p.m. Whoo hoo, we made it! I darted out of the truck to go check us in, and the first snag of the vacation happened.

 

I. Messed. Up. :(

 

My OCD vacation planning self made a boo boo. When I booked our room, I used the CRUISE check in date (Oct 29) for the booking instead of the day before. :eek: Luckily, the guy checking us in, Josh, was super duper sweet and helpful. They didn't have a king room open for the night, so instead he gave us, at no extra charge even though I made the mistake, a queen SUITE. Thank you Josh!! I was so relieved that they had a room available that I wanted to cry.

 

After checking in Chris and I went to drop off our luggage in the room, and then find some yummy dinner. Our favorite spot to eat dinner pre-cruise in Port Canaveral is Fishlips, so we headed over there. I decided to be brave and order something other than the tempura shrimp that I normally enjoy, and I got the fish tacos with blackened grouper. OH MY GOSH Y'ALL, you need to try them if you ever eat at Fishlips....they were FANTASTIC. I could have sworn that I took a picture of them, but apparently I was too eager to try them and forgot to. Sorry. I did better with the rest of my meals this cruise, I promise!!

 

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some rest before the big day tomorrow. I went to take a shower, and this is where the second snag of the vacation happened.

 

Have I ever mentioned that I seem to be cursed? Like....every time I go to take a cruise, somehow I get hurt or have something major happen right before the cruise that puts a damper on the fun. On my first Sunshine cruise I injured my ankle pretty badly falling on ice a week or so before we cruised, then I was sick leading up to my Bermuda cruise, my horse was sick before my Pride Journeys cruise in March, and my mom had some pretty big health issues before my other 2 cruises this year. Well, I was convinced that I was home free on this cruise. NOT.

 

I stepped out of the shower and went to grab a towel off the rack, and BAM! I fell down on the slippery tile floor. As I fell, I reached for the handicap bar on the wall to try and stop myself, and my shoulder popped so loud I heard it and I yelped. It was some of the worst pain I have felt in a while, and I bawled. Chris came running, and he asked me if I needed to go to the hospital or urgent care. I got myself together and started seeing how bad it really was. I could rotate it, and nothing seemed to be out of place. I told him I wanted to wait and see how it felt in the morning after some ibuprofen and rest. I went to bed praying that it would feel OK.

 

Now, in hindsight, I realize that I probably should have told the front desk what happened. I felt like such a butt though....I had already messed up my reservation and they had gone out of their way to accommodate us, so I didn't say anything. I know now for the future to watch out for those tile floors though...they get slippery when they are wet! Everybody reading this, please, if you stay at Radisson pre-cruise, be careful of the floors! Other than that, our stay there was excellent.

 

Up next....cruise day 1!

[pirate4me2]

I'll add more tomorrow everyone...I just realized how late it is and I have alot left to do!!

 

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[Jamman54]

YES!!!! We're with you!!! Been waiting for this one since we are booked on the Magic for the first time next October. :D:D:D

 

The Radisson is great, and kudos to them for accommodating you. Hope you didn't have any lingering effects from your fall. Got to be careful in those hotel showers. Patti had a similar nasty fall at the Holiday Inn in Miami before our Breeze cruise! :eek:

 

Not the best of starts to your trip, but I'm sure it gets much better from there. Looking forward to it! :)

Edited November 6, 2016 by Jamman54

[KPfromCT]

Great start to your review!!!:D:D

We are doing the 8 night Eastern in June, so I am really looking forward to this one!:D:D

 

Hope your fall didn't ruin the cruise.......

 

Patiently waiting for more....

[marshhawk]

I'm in, cruising next Halloween on the Magic!

 

I fell two years ago at work, tore my rotator cuff, lots of therapy, and they wanted to do surgery, but another disaster happened, so it didn't happen. I hope that is not what happened to you...waiting for next installment, and I hope you got the arm looked at.

[pirate4me2]

It's here, it's here, it's finally CRUISE DAY!!

 

I woke up early. Like, try 5 a.m. early. Why is it that on regular days at home I want to sleep in, but when I am on vacation and can sleep in I just can't?? Chris was still asleep, and I resisted the urge to poke him and wake him up. Wasn't that nice? :p Instead I played quietly on my phone until about 7, when he finally woke up. He made me rotate my shoulder in different directions and do different moves with it, and he seemed satisfied that nothing was broken. It still hurt, but I felt like it would be OK to continue on. We got dressed and headed to breakfast.

 

Radisson offers a free breakfast with their park and cruise package that we had booked, so we checked it out. The offerings were really good. You can order off their menu or do the buffet, and Chris and I both decided to just do the buffet. It was really yummy. I got scrambled eggs (way better than Carnival's scrambled eggs on their buffet!), sausage links, sliced cantaloupe, and home fries. The home fries were really good...they had seasoning like Arby's puts on their fries and they were crispy. Mmmmmmm! We ate our breakfasts, watched some college football, and then headed back to the room to gather everything up for the shuttle ride to the port.

 

We were on the 11:30 shuttle over to the ship, and once we parked the truck and checked in with the shuttle coordinator we had a short wait until the bus arrived. Our luggage was loaded on, and then the driver took us on our short 6 or 7 minute ride to the port. Once there our luggage was unloaded and off we went to check in.

 

I love Port Canaveral for embarkation. I think I have said that in my previous reviews, but let me say it again. This port is amazing. They have this thing down to a science. We walked in the terminal building at 11:45, and we were onboard by 12. Fifteen minutes and that was it. Yes, we did have FTTF, so that cut down on some time I am sure, but still....it was crazy how fast they got everything done!

 

Once we boarded, Chris and I headed to the cabin to drop off our carry on. This was our first time staying in a spa cabin, and I had chosen 11216 to be our home for the next week. It's a spa interior that is just a short walk away from the stairs and elevator that takes you to the spa. It is also super close to those doors that take you to one of the "secret decks" that we utilized quite a bit on this sailing since we didn't have a balcony. I loved it's location. Now, for some pictures!

 

King Bed setup

 

Desk area....yes it is cluttered, I had water bottles to give out as a gift exchange for our FB group.

 

TV/safe/mini fridge

 

Shelves in one of the closets

 

Hangers in another closet. There were 2 closets set up like this.

[pirate4me2]

Typical Carnival bathroom

 

 

After dropping off the carry on we went in search of some lunch. We decided to do Cucina as we knew a lot of people would not realize it was open for lunch, and we were right. The buffet area was nuts, but Cucina had maybe a handful of people up there. Score! It was SO GOOD. I got the farfalle pasta with Italian sausage, shrimp, eggplant, onion, peppers, and spinach in an alfredo sauce.

 

 

Chandelier in Cucina area. I'm obsessed with pretty light fixtures.

 

Dinnertime menu, if you can read it. Dinner is $15/pp and WELL WORTH IT. That will be in day 2 of the review.

[pirate4me2]

After lunch we decided to go walk off some of that pasta, and we ended up in the spa for a spa tour. I wasn't sure if we needed to do anything special to "sign in" since we were in a spa cabin, but the lady said no, the first time we came to use the facilities we would get our wristband and that was it. She showed us around the spa, and I didn't take any pics...sorry guys. I tried to a few times after today but there were always other people in there with me at that point.

 

We wandered around more of the ship, here are a few random pics from here and there.

 

Red Frog Pub sign that I like. I need this for my house.

 

Atrium

 

I liked the lights...I told you, I have an obsession with light fixtures on ships for some reason!

 

After wandering around we went back to the room about 2:00 and our luggage was there. Hooray!! We unpacked and settled in, and then it was time to head to the theater for muster drill. I was actually looking forward to this muster drill as I had heard so much about how Dr. E presents it, and he didn't disappoint! I would love to know how he can do so many different voices and accents.

 

Since we were right next to Guest Services I went ahead after muster and loaded 2 gift cards that I had to our onboard account. For some reason the Sail and Sign kiosk wouldn't take them, and the girl at Guest Services said that they now require a signature to load a gift card to your account. I'm not sure of this is truly the case, but anyway...we got ours loaded and headed up to our "secret deck" to watch sailaway. Then it was time to get ready for dinner. Chris and I had a reservation for the steakhouse at 6, and we were both looking forward to a yummylicious meal!

[pirate4me2]

Ok, I hope you all are ready for some food porn, because that is all that the pictures in this installment will be.

 

Chris and I love having dinner the first night in the steakhouse on the ships. There isn't really anything on the first day's menu that we both crave, and I like the "free" bottle of wine. Ever since we discovered the steakhouse on our Breeze cruise, we have made it a point to go eat dinner there the first night. It is kind of a celebration to start the cruise off.

 

Magic's steakhouse is on deck 5 aft, and we arrived right on time for our reservation. We were seated and our waitstaff introduced themselves (but I have forgotten their names, sorry!) and explained the menu as well as the wine promo. I went with the house red wine, as I am trying to switch from white wines to reds. This was the offering.

 

 

It was actually pretty good. Our waiter then took our orders, and after the compliments from the chef (Chris had a salmon tartar, I had a mini tomato soup) our dinners began to arrive.

 

I decided to be brave and try new items from the menu this time around, and my first choice was the Portobello mushroom. It was delicious!

 

 

Followed by my favorite salad, the spinach, mushroom, blue cheese and bacon salad. Mmmmmmmm!

 

My next new item to try was the filet mignon. I always get the lobster ravioli, but tonight I was craving steak. It was ok, but next time I am going back to my ravioli! Sorry I had taken a few bites before I remembered to take the picture...the wine was kicking in at this point haha.

 

To finish the night off, I got my favorite dessert, the chocolate sampler. It was great as always.

 

After all that food Chris and I went and walked around the ship some more. I wanted to go to the Welcome Aboard show at 10:15, but I was feeling really tired (food coma anyone? LOL) and I ended up crashing at 10. I know, I know, what an old lady I am!

[pirate4me2]

After calling it an early night last night, I was up at 8:30 and ready to go today! Chris and I enjoy the sea day brunch, so we decided to head there for breakfast. It was held in the Southern Lights dining room, which is all the way aft, so from our room all the way at the front of the ship we had a nice morning walk. As we went thru the atrium area I snapped another pic.

 

 

We were seated at a table with several other people, and service was good this morning. I ordered the fruit plate to start (forgot a pic, sorry) and it was good. For my main I ordered cheese grits, pork sausage, and the eggs benedict with no meat.

 

 

Ok...let me just say, this was my first time experiencing grits. I am a northern girl from NY who has been transplanted to the south. My family never fed me grits. But I was intrigued when I saw these on the menu, and everyone in the south talks about grits. So I tried them. All I can say is...they weren't bad, but they weren't good either. If I had to eat them to survive I could, but give me other food choices and I am going to go with the other option. Everything else on my plate was good, and I left full.

 

To help work off all that food I decided to go deliver the gifts to our FB gift exchange peeps. We had 20 cabins participating, and it took me about an hour to go from deck 12 to deck 1...we were all spread all over the place! By the time I was done my shoulder was killing me from carrying the bags of water bottles, and I told Chris I was hitting the spa.

 

This was my very first spa experience, so I had no idea what to expect. I went in, got my wristband, and decided to check out the T-pool first. It was a bit splashy due to the rough seas we were in, but other than that, it was AWESOME!!!! I felt so relaxed and probably spent an hour in there. The warm water really helped soothe my shoulder too. When I finally decided to get out I went and laid on one of the heated loungers in the tepid air room, and that was fantastic. I could take a nap on those things! I give the spa an A+ grade, and on Dream class ships I can say that if I don't have a spa room, I will invest in a spa pass in the future. I loved it.

 

After relaxing I decided to go get my adrenaline pumping by trying the water slides...but they were closed. :( Look at them there, just taunting me.

 

 

Chris was hungry for lunch, so we decided to go try a burger from Guy's. I was going to order one of the new veggie burgers but the guy at the counter was just throwing plain burgers at people and it was pretty busy, so I just got a regular burger and called it good enough. I added my lettuce, tomato, onion, and chipotle mayo and sat down. I was pleasantly surprised, this burger was NOT greasy like the ones I have had in the past! Chris and I both agreed that it was one of the better Guy's burgers we have had. We both hovered them down before I got a pic. But...I did get a pic of another one of my Carnival favorites...

 

 

COOKIES!!!!! I love these stupid things, they are SO GOOD!!! These were warm, and slightly crispy but slightly soft, and AHHHHHHHHHHH! I wish I could find cookies this good here at home.

 

After lunch Chris went to do his thing, and I decided to spa it up some more. He joined me sometime in the afternoon, and we tried the oriental steam room and aroma steam room. I was seriously enjoying myself, I loved the relaxation!

 

When we were finally as relaxed as we could get we headed back to the cabin to clean up and get ready for elegant night. We had a 6:30 reservation at Cucina tonight!

 

[pirate4me2]

As we walked aft to Cucina from our cabin, I snapped a few pics.

 

 

 

 

We entered Cucina and the hostess took us to our table. We were one of maybe 5 groups in the restaurant, so it was a nice, quiet dinner. Our servers were great, and guess what? I got another "free" bottle of wine! Heck yeah! I still had half of last night's left! I got another bottle of red, and then they took our orders. For starters, Chris got the meatballs, and I got the caprese. We both enjoyed our choices very much.

 

 

[pirate4me2]

For the side dish, we both opted for the rosemary potatoes, which are EXCELLENT! Since we got the same side, it was brought on a bigger plate for us to share.

 

 

We both ordered chicken parm for our main. It was delicious.

 

For dessert, Chris opted for the cannoli, and I opted for the tiramisu. His cannoli was good, but I am glad I opted for my choice.

 

 

 

After enjoying our dinner we headed off to find some entertainment. We ended up at the comedy club and listened to two comedians. One I think was named John, and he was OK, and the second was Tim Young, who we had seen before and who is pretty funny. After their PG sets we headed to the Piano Bar to listen to the player there. Her name was Elizabeth Setzer, and she is AMAZING! Her voice is so pretty, and she can play the piano very, very well. She also knows how to work the crowd and get them going. I think she is probably one of the better piano bar entertainers we have seen.

 

Around 11 I decided to head back to the cabin and call it a day. Tomorrow was our first port, Amber Cove, and it was a fairly early morning for us. We had a big day ahead....

[pirate4me2]

Alright, that is it for now. I will post about Amber Cove when I get home tonight. I need to go grocery shopping since we have no food, and then I need to go check on my horses that I have neglected for the past week. :)

[JerseyGirlJen]

Great start so far! Subscribed! I'm going on the Magic in December 2017, it will be my first cruise in 5 years! Excited!!!!! :D

[Micahs Grandad]

Thanks for sharing we are on the Magic next week.

 

Elizabeth is awesome in the piano bar cant wait to sail with her again.

[BettyCruiser]

Great start, can't wait for more! I hope your shoulder is okay.

[LUVMYGSDOG]

Always look forward to your reviews. Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise experience!

 

I love the spinach salad in the steakhouse!

 

Kim

 

 

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[Micahs Grandad]

They had me at cannoli

[13cheermom]

Glad to see your review, we are actually getting ready to board the Magic this Saturday, for a Southern caribbean itinerary. It's a small world, we are actually from NC and will be driving to PC the day before. Have to agree absolutely love PC to sail from as well as going to Fishlips the night before. Glad to know they were still able to operate after the hurricane damage. Also, thanks for the pics of the steakhouse since we too booked it for the first night, again at 6:00pm (beginning to see a pattern here) lol. Good to know the red wine was okay, as had read some negative comments on that. Hope to read more of your review before we leave Thursday night. :D

[pirate4me2]

YES!!!! We're with you!!! Been waiting for this one since we are booked on the Magic for the first time next October.

 

The Radisson is great, and kudos to them for accommodating you. Hope you didn't have any lingering effects from your fall. Got to be careful in those hotel showers. Patti had a similar nasty fall at the Holiday Inn in Miami before our Breeze cruise!

 

Not the best of starts to your trip, but I'm sure it gets much better from there. Looking forward to it! :)

 

Hey Jeff, thanks for coming along!!

Great start to your review!!!:D:D

We are doing the 8 night Eastern in June, so I am really looking forward to this one!:D:D

 

Hope your fall didn't ruin the cruise.......

 

Patiently waiting for more....

Thanks for reading!

I'm in, cruising next Halloween on the Magic!

 

I fell two years ago at work, tore my rotator cuff, lots of therapy, and they wanted to do surgery, but another disaster happened, so it didn't happen. I hope that is not what happened to you...waiting for next installment, and I hope you got the arm looked at.

You will have a BLAST on your Halloween cruise!

 

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[pirate4me2]

Great start so far! Subscribed! I'm going on the Magic in December 2017, it will be my first cruise in 5 years! Excited!!!!! :D

You will have a great time!!

Thanks for sharing we are on the Magic next week.

 

Elizabeth is awesome in the piano bar cant wait to sail with her again.

She was an incredible piano bar entertainer! I hope to sail with her again in the future.

Great start' date=' can't wait for more! I hope your shoulder is okay.[/quote']

Hey Beth! See you soon on Vista!!

Always look forward to your reviews. Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise experience!

 

I love the spinach salad in the steakhouse!

 

Kim

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thanks for reading my reviews! This one won't be as great as my others I'm afraid.

They had me at cannoli

Lol!!!

Glad to see your review' date=' we are actually getting ready to board the Magic this Saturday, for a Southern caribbean itinerary. It's a small world, we are actually from NC and will be driving to PC the day before. Have to agree absolutely love PC to sail from as well as going to Fishlips the night before. Glad to know they were still able to operate after the hurricane damage. Also, thanks for the pics of the steakhouse since we too booked it for the first night, again at 6:00pm (beginning to see a pattern here) lol. Good to know the red wine was okay, as had read some negative comments on that. Hope to read more of your review before we leave Thursday night. :D[/quote']

That's funny that we have similar habits!! I will try and post as much as possible by the time you cruise.

 

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[cjnix29]

Enjoying your review so far!! We sail on her for Christmas, and I can't wait! Your pictures at Cucina make me want to book it. We've had lunch there on the Breeze but never dinner. Can't wait to read more!

[retiring soon]

HI all!

 

pirate ~ wow, you sure didn't take long to get your review started!:D Great, loving it so far even though I have no plans at present to sail this ship.

Cucina was also my choice for the first lunch on the Vista TA. I tried to sample all the lunchtime offerings.;)

Hope all turned out okay with your shoulder & you had a great cruise.

 

~ Jo ~ :)

[pirate4me2]

Our 7:15 wakeup call came way too early for me today. I am NOT a morning person by any means, but the thought of our excursion today in Amber Cove helped drive me out of bed and to the Blue Iguana Cantina for a breakfast burrito. Those are my breakfast of choice on a port day, they fill you up and keep you full! However, in my drowsy state I forgot to take a picture...sorry.

 

Now, pictures for today's excursion are very, very limited due to the fact that I didn't want to take my phone or camera with us and risk loosing it. We were headed to Ocean World for a dolphin swim, and I knew we would have to leave our bag unattended and I didn't want to loose something valuable. We packed light, just our towels, sunscreen and a bottle of water each, and headed to the dining room where our excursion was to leave from. We were the fourth or fifth group called, and we were led off the ship and out into the port area to meet our guide...I think his name was Jonathan. He took us to our bus, and after a 10 minute ride we arrived at the park.

 

Once we were off the bus we were broken into smaller groups based on when we would be swimming with the dolphins. Chris and I ended up in the group that was to swim first, and we were led away to the area where they give you instructions. We were shown where we could pet the dolphins, and given instructions on how to interact with them. Then we were all suited up with a life jacket, and off we went for our swim!

 

I will admit, I was excited to swim with the dolphins, but when the time came to actually get in the water with them I started to freak out. I love dolphins, but I am TERRIFIED of touching fish. It's weird, I know, and when the guide told us to jump in the water, I couldn't until he told me, "If you don't jump, I will push you." He wasn't kidding either, I think he really would have shoved me into the water. I jumped in and then about lost it when the dolphins went swimming by.

 

However, after a few minutes I started to calm down, although I jumped away when the guide had us line up and hold out our hands so we could touch the dolphins as they swam past. When the time came for the one-on-one interactions with the dolphins, I was relieved when I was not chosen first. Another girl who admitted she was scared got to go first, and when I watched her hug, kiss and foot push I started to calm down some...until the guide called me and Chris to do it.

 

The dolphins names were Simb and Skipper, and I believe that the one who kissed me and hugged me was Simb. I jumped away at the kiss, but when the time came to hug the dolphins and I got to touch Simb it was....well, magical. Dolphins are SO SOFT! It wasn't scary at all, and I began to relax and have fun.

 

Chris went and had his foot push first, and then it was my turn. The guides have you lay in the water on your stomach with your feet out behind you, knees locked, and the dolphins come and push you on the feet with their noses. They are so fast, and you stand up in the air! It was insane, but so exhilarating!

 

When the push was over we waited for the others to do it, and then we had round two of interacting with Simb and Skipper. Everyone got to feed them a fish, "dance" with them, and then have the dorsal fin pull. Feeding the fish to the dolphin was gross, but the dance was a blast.

 

 

 

The dorsal fin pull was fun as well, and after everyone had their turn we all reluctantly got out of the water. I would say that all in all we were in the water for an hour, and probably had about 20 minutes of one-on-one time with the dolphins. It was by far one of the best excursions that Chris and I have ever done.

 

Once we had rinsed off and returned the life jackets, we were free to explore Ocean World. They had a shark feeding show that was OK, a dolphin shows that was awesome, and a sea lion show that was funny. We never made it to the bird show, we ended up looking at our pictures and then going to the gift shop to get a Christmas tree ornament.

 

At 1:55 we were all back on our bus and headed back to the ship. Once onboard, Chris and I went to get some lunch. I made a mad dash to Blue Iguana as I wanted something semi-healthy, and I knew that they closed at 2:30. Once they closed my options would be Guy's, room service, or pizza. None of those sounded appealing. I managed to get in line just before 2:30, and then one of the workers came and stood behind me with a "Gone Loco" sign. Score! I got my taco salad and then headed over to the Guy's toppings bar to add their onions and shredded lettuce. Call me weird, but I wanted raw onions instead of the cooked ones at the cantina, and I also like the shredded lettuce better then the lettuce they had.

 

Before I mixed it all up

 

Yummy!!

 

After we ate, Chris and I decided to hit the water slides since we were in our swimsuits from the excursion earlier. I went down Twister, and he went down Drainpipe. HOLY MOLY, Twister was FAST! I hit the bottom and thought I was going to hit my feet on the end of the runway thing. He said Drainpipe was pretty good too, but I never tried it. I went and stood under the Power Drencher while he went down Twister, and then I decided to go clean up and walk around to see the Halloween decorations.

[pirate4me2]

I loved this decoration over the doors at the casino.

 

 

Outside the Red Frog Pub

 

In the atrium

 

It's behind me, isn't it??