Carnival Magic 12/3 Western review

[ShannonSto]

Hi! We are a family consisting of me, my mother (henceforth referred to as "Grandma") and my twin daughters Anna and Erin, who turned 8 on the day we disembarked. Overall, we had a great time, with only a few minor hiccups.

 

I have the Fun Times, Camp Ocean schedules and most of the menus, but I'm having issues with my scanner, so I will get those posted as soon as I can.

 

We booked about a month ago under a casino offer and lucked out on a great deal on an ocean suite. I'm not a shopper, I don't do shows, and I don't much care who the cruise director is (for the record, it was Schwartz), so if you have questions about those sorts of things, I'm probably not the best person to ask. But if you have questions about the casino, the pools, or the kids' club, ask away!

 

We left our house about 8:45 and arrived at the terminal at 10:30. at which point we sat in long line of cars until 11:15. Definitely not the norm for Port Canaveral. We've had issues there before, but not that long. Anyway, they had just started boarding when we got in, and we were able to board right away.

 

Awesome to see the Christmas decorations as soon as we set foot into the atrium. We've never sailed at Christmastime before, and felt they did a great job throughout the ship.

 

The girls were thrilled to be the first ones in the lido pool ( the "dolphin" pool) and jumped right in while Grandma and I snagged a poolside table for lunch. We toured the ship after lunch and by the time we were done, the cabin was ready.

 

The muster drill was painless, as our muster station was in the showroom. Yay, we don't have to stand on deck four for twenty minutes like usual. Dinner was in the MDR, where the food was good as always.

 

Day 2

 

Sunday was a sea day, yay! If I could find one, I would choose a cruise that just floats in circles for seven days. Sea days are the best!

 

That's where are first hiccup comes in. My daughter Erin has high-functioning autism, and one of her quirks is that her brain simply cant process people being where they're not supposed to be. For example, if I have to go to the school for some reason, she will hide. Because I'm a person from home, not a person from school. Conversely, when we ran into her teacher at the movie theater, she freaked out and started screaming and crying, because the teacher, in her brain, is supposed to be at the school. Well, at breakfast the first morning, we encountered a girl from her class at the lido buffet. What are the odds?! So, miss Erin was off to the start of a very bad day for her.

 

We went to the aft pool after breakfast, then Waterworks. Then it was 11:00, time for the girls to check out Camp Ocean and me to go to the casino for a while.

 

The casino was nice, but had the same problem as all of the other Carnival ships we've sailed--several empty blackjack table and just one Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em ( or in this case "Heads Up Hold 'Em", essentially the same game) with a crowd around it waiting for seats. There are two 3 Card Poker tables, each a slightly different variation, and one Let It Ride table, as well as two roulette wheels and one dice table.

 

I went to get the girls for lunch and more swimming, at which time I discovered that Erin had spiked a fever. Crud! Took them back to the cabin, only to find out that despite dumping what I thought was the entire medicine cabinet into my luggage, I somehow forgot the childrens' Tylenol. Guess what? They have it in the gift shop--for $16.99. Erin is prone to random fevers that resolve after a day, so I was hopeful that that would be the end of it. But, alas, it was not to be.

[ShannonSto]

Day 3--Cozumel

 

We woke up Monday morning to find that Erin's fever had not resolved, and now she had a sore throat and diarrhea. Good times. I then made her day worse by telling her that we were going to have to bail on our shore excursion. We were planning to go to Passion Island via Catamaran and the girls had been looking forward to the water trampoline and other water toys. But, with her being sick, that was definitely out.

 

I decided to take her to the medical center, just in case she needed antibiotics. Note: its not wise to try to get to the medical center at the same time a thousand people are converging on deck 0 for disembarkation. But we made it through the crowd at last, and saw the nurse. He agreed that it likely was viral and that the diarrhea was probably from a respiratory infection, but anytime they have diarrhea reported, they have to report it to the CDC and treat it like it's Noro. And that's how she ended up quarantined in the cabin for 24 hours.

 

Over the course of the day, she continued to get worse. I ordered room service for lunch, but her throat was so sore she couldn't swallow, and she was febrile in spite of Tylenol every 4 hours. At 3pm, the doctor was present in the medical center, so we went back. The doctor was clearly not comfortable with small children. "Why is she crying?" he asked. Um, because she's 7 years old, autistic and feeling lousy?? I just answered that she was feeling crummy. Anyway, he diagnosed her with tonsillitis and gave us an antibiotic and ibuprofen to alternate with the Tylenol. As an RN, I actually found the medical center pretty interesting. I've always been curious what it would be like to be a cruise ship nurse. The fee was only $125, which I thought was pretty reasonable. I was expecting it to be a lot more.

 

God bless antibiotics. She was noticeably better by bedtime.

 

So Cozumel was a bust. But at least we had hope for Belize.

 

Grandma and I took turns staying with Erin that evening while Anna wanted to go see her new friends at Camp Ocean. The casino was packed, but we both earned our Drinks on Us cards that night.

 

 

Day 4--Belize

 

Yay! We woke up with no fever, no diarrhea and a strong appetite! There was hope after all for our scheduled excursion to the Belize Zoo. We were scheduled to be rechecked in the medical center at 9:00, at which time they were would release the quarantine if no further diarrhea. And our excursion was for 9:30. I packed our bag and we headed down to medical. They were in the midst of an emergency (I hope it turned out all right), so they said they would just clear us since there was no diarrhea.

 

Grandma stayed aboard with the intention of winning a ship on a stick in the trivia contest.

 

The zoo was small, but very nice. I liked the fact that the animals were all native to Belize, and the habitats were very natural. One caveat, though: The animals can and do come right up the fence and young kids can reach in and touch them, which is fine for super friendly critters like the hand-raised tapir (the national animal of Belize. Who knew?), but no so much with the less friendly ones.

 

We had a good day in port. The tender ride is long (15-20 minutes), but ok.

 

After dinner in the MDR, the girls went to Camp Ocean for a couple of hours while Grandma and I went to the casino. A good time was had by all.

[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[ShannonSto]

Day 5--Roatan

 

We'd been to Roatan once before and done the Pirates, Birds and Monkeys of the Caribbean excursion. It was easily one of the best excursions I've ever experienced. This time, however, we were planning to stay aboard the ship in Roatan. That changed when we had to skip our beach day in Cozumel and we needed to make up for it with a beach day in Roatan. We chose the Maya Key Private Island. I'm so glad we did!

 

Again, Grandma stayed on the ship. Undaunted from the previous day's loss, she set out to win trivia. She loves the trivia games and was determined to get a ship on a stick.

 

Roatan has at least two ports. Carnival docks at Mahogany Bay, which is absolutely beautiful! On the ferry ride to Maya Key, we saw the Norwegian Dawn docked at what I assume was Coxen Hole, and the SilverSeas Silver Wind, for reasons unknown to me, was anchored and tendering. Not quite sure what that's about...

 

May Key was delightful. In addition to tons of uncrowded beach and a nice pool, they have several animal exhibits, including sea lions, parrots, jaguar and ocelot. Now, I forgot to mention in my last post that Anna's favorite animal in the whole world is the ocelot. Seriously. And that was our main purpose in going to the Belize Zoo--to see the ocelot. What do you suppose was the one animal that was hiding so well in its habitat that we couldn't see it? You guessed it--the ocelot! Anna was disappointed. But Maya Key saved the day! The ocelot was right at the fence, just inches from her. She was soooo happy.

 

Roatan has cemented its place as one of my three favorite ports ( the other two being Aruba and Grand Cayman.)

 

We retuned to the ship exhausted but happy. And whaaaattt is this?? Grandma got a ship on a stick! Woo hoo! Trivia, you ask? Nope--ring toss. LOL.

 

This was the one night that we skipped the MDR for dinner. Nothing on the menu looked good to us, so we hit the lido buffet.

 

We tried to get to bed a little earlier than usual since we had a 7:30 am shore excursion in Costa Maya.

 

Day 6--Costa Maya. Or not.

 

My alarm went off at 6:30 so I would be awake when room service arrived with breakfast. Breakfast came, and I woke the young 'uns and got them moving. Out on the balcony, I could see the shoreline and what looked to be a nice morning. But before long, the captain came over the intercom and announced that high winds were making it unsafe to dock in Costa Maya so we were having an extra sea day instead. Oh well, doesn't bother me. Like I said, I wouldn't mind seven sea days.

 

The kids and I went swimming, then went to check out trivia in the Ocean Plaza. I arrived too late to play in the Big Bang Theory game, which was a bummer because I knew the answers to all of the questions that I heard. We also watched the Trivial Pursuit game. It looked like a lot of fun but the questions were a lot harder lol. All in all, a nice relaxing day. My favorite kind.

 

It was elegant night in the MDR. Curious, because when I'd looked at previous Fun Times before our cruise, the 2nd elegant night was Wednesday (Roatan), but this cruise it was Thursday.

 

PS: I forgot to mention was one the most fun things on this cruise--the Christmas tree lighting! It was at 7:30pm on the embarkation day. They gave out Santa hats and bells to the children and danced with the kids to Christmas songs as the tree lights flashed with the music. It was a blast!

[Clarea]

Enjoying the review, thanks.

[smarks]

Thanks for taking the time to post. Love hearing about the Magic. Sailing her on Christmas Eve. Glad you had a nice cruise.

[ShannonSto]

Day 7--Sea

 

Day Seven, bummer. Can't the captain just turn the ship around? Maybe get lost? I don't want to go home yet! I was briefly given hope when we turned on Erin's favorite channel, the Map channel, as we were getting ready for breakfast. The image on the screen clearly showed us just off the coast of Cameroon! Um, I think we might have taken a wrong turn during the night LOL. Erin, her brain forever literal, opined, "I think that's a mess-up, Mommy. That's not where we are. I think that's a mess-up." After a few minutes, the screen went white.

 

The weather turned ugly that day, becoming cooler, windy and rainy. Clearly, the pools were out. We did the Sea Day Brunch. The food was good, but the place was packed and service was very slow. Took forever to even get a cup of coffee. Speaking of coffee, the java historically on our Carnival cruises has been nearly undrinkable. Lido, dining room, room service, just universally really bad coffee. This cruise, however, the coffee was much, much better across the board. I don't know if there's been a fleetwide change, or just this ship, or pure luck this time, but the coffee was good.

 

The girls decided they wanted to go to Camp Ocean after brunch, so I settled into a seat at the Heads Up Hold 'Em table and was having a great time when Camp Ocean called to me to tell me that Erin was acting squirrely and wanted to leave.

 

Turns out that her classmate, who we hadn't seen for a few days, came to camp, too, so Erin was freaking out. I took the girls to the cabin to relax for a bit, then we went to the lido deck for ice cream. They went happily back to camp and all was well.

 

We went to the arcade before dinner to cash out our tickets then to the MDR, where the crowd was singing Christmas carols while waiting for the doors to open. How cool is that? People can trash Carnival all they want, but I love the Fun Ships :-)

 

And now its time for one of my only complaints: why did they only have kids movies at the Seaside Theater one night? On prior cruises, we've gone to the movie two or three nights, but this time there were only two kids films, and they were both on the same night. The girls chose to skip Finding Dory and go to Camp Ocean to make T-shirts. I picked them up at 9:15 so we could do the balloon drop in the atrium and then go see The Secret Life of Pets.

 

The balloon drop was terrific. The girls loved making the balloons that afternoon and watching them drop that evening. This was a new thing for us, and its definitely a great addition.

 

The movie, though, was a bust. It was raining, and very windy. Carnival doesn't control the weather, but it would be better if they had kids movies more than once a cruise. Maybe show a G or PG at 7:30 then a grown up movie at the 9:30?

 

Once the kids were in the cabin and Grandma was done in the casino, I decided to go down and play one last time. I decided to give the PokerPro table a try and bought into a 1-2 NL game. I walked away a winner, having doubled up.

 

I waited around for the midnight free cruise drawing. Nuts, not me. Oh well, bedtime. Until next time, Magic. Thanks for a wonderful time.

[easyboy]

Thanks for your review.

[KPfromCT]

Thanks for the review! We are on the Magic in June. Cannot wait!!!:D:D

Glad your daughter was feeling better after the antibiotics.:)

[The4Cruisers]

Nice review! Glad your daughter recovered from her illness and you were all able to enjoy the cruise.

[blessedwith12]

Thanks for the review! I am going on the Magic next December. Your review answered a couple of my questions. Yes, the ship was decorated for Christmas. And yes, it was warm enough to go swimming on embarkation. (I was wondering what the weather would be like at Port Canaveral in December.) Glad you had a good time in spite of the setbacks with your daughter. Merry Christmas!!

[cruise pup]

Day 5--Roatan

 

We'd been to Roatan once before and done the Pirates, Birds and Monkeys of the Caribbean excursion. It was easily one of the best excursions I've ever experienced. This time, however, we were planning to stay aboard the ship in Roatan. That changed when we had to skip our beach day in Cozumel and we needed to make up for it with a beach day in Roatan. We chose the Maya Key Private Island. I'm so glad we did!

 

Again, Grandma stayed on the ship. Undaunted from the previous day's loss, she set out to win trivia. She loves the trivia games and was determined to get a ship on a stick.

 

Roatan has at least two ports. Carnival docks at Mahogany Bay, which is absolutely beautiful! On the ferry ride to Maya Key, we saw the Norwegian Dawn docked at what I assume was Coxen Hole, and the SilverSeas Silver Wind, for reasons unknown to me, was anchored and tendering. Not quite sure what that's about...

 

May Key was delightful. In addition to tons of uncrowded beach and a nice pool, they have several animal exhibits, including sea lions, parrots, jaguar and ocelot. Now, I forgot to mention in my last post that Anna's favorite animal in the whole world is the ocelot. Seriously. And that was our main purpose in going to the Belize Zoo--to see the ocelot. What do you suppose was the one animal that was hiding so well in its habitat that we couldn't see it? You guessed it--the ocelot! Anna was disappointed. But Maya Key saved the day! The ocelot was right at the fence, just inches from her. She was soooo happy.

 

Roatan has cemented its place as one of my three favorite ports ( the other two being Aruba and Grand Cayman.)

 

We retuned to the ship exhausted but happy. And whaaaattt is this?? Grandma got a ship on a stick! Woo hoo! Trivia, you ask? Nope--ring toss. LOL.

 

This was the one night that we skipped the MDR for dinner. Nothing on the menu looked good to us, so we hit the lido buffet.

 

We tried to get to bed a little earlier than usual since we had a 7:30 am shore excursion in Costa Maya.

 

Day 6--Costa Maya. Or not.

 

My alarm went off at 6:30 so I would be awake when room service arrived with breakfast. Breakfast came, and I woke the young 'uns and got them moving. Out on the balcony, I could see the shoreline and what looked to be a nice morning. But before long, the captain came over the intercom and announced that high winds were making it unsafe to dock in Costa Maya so we were having an extra sea day instead. Oh well, doesn't bother me. Like I said, I wouldn't mind seven sea days.

 

The kids and I went swimming, then went to check out trivia in the Ocean Plaza. I arrived too late to play in the Big Bang Theory game, which was a bummer because I knew the answers to all of the questions that I heard. We also watched the Trivial Pursuit game. It looked like a lot of fun but the questions were a lot harder lol. All in all, a nice relaxing day. My favorite kind.

 

It was elegant night in the MDR. Curious, because when I'd looked at previous Fun Times before our cruise, the 2nd elegant night was Wednesday (Roatan), but this cruise it was Thursday.

 

PS: I forgot to mention was one the most fun things on this cruise--the Christmas tree lighting! It was at 7:30pm on the embarkation day. They gave out Santa hats and bells to the children and danced with the kids to Christmas songs as the tree lights flashed with the music. It was a blast!

 

There is only space for one ship at the Coxen Hole dock which is why the other one was anchored.

Edited December 14, 2016 by cruise pup

[JaniceB]

Thanks for the review! Sorry your daughter was ill but at least it was only for a short time. Sounds like a you had a great time.

[Tarajere1]

Hello

Anyway you can send me some information on the kids camp.

We are cruising carnival magic week of dec 24th and have a 6 year old son

Thank you

[harry0]

Shannonsto

did you get the ship-wide wake up call at 3:30 AM ON THURSDAY(I THINK)

They were looking for a passenger-who turns up sleeping in another cabin-there was actually 3 in cabin announcements between 3:30 and 4:30.

There was a lot of cranky passengers and crew!

[southerncoupondiva1980]

Awesome review. Thank you! We're booked to go to Maya Key, and have heard mixed reviews, so I'm glad to see you had a good time there. Would you mind posting the copies of the Fun Times? I'd love to see them if you still have them. Thank you! :)

[FloridaMommyof3]

Great review! I'm also a mom of 2 on the spectrum (autism and aspergers) so I totally get the issues with your daughter.

 

I'll be on Magic in June and I have Autism On The Seas giving us a few things to make things easier - they aren't going on this cruise but they do offer an inexpensive package that can help out. This will be our first time trying this out, so I'm excited about it.

[mechomper]

I would really like to take a look at the dinner menus. If I give you my personal email, can you scan them to me? Thanks

[hschlink]

I would LOVE the camp ocean fun times (specifically for 11yr olds). Thank you!!!

[originalgeek]

Awesome review. Thank you! We're booked to go to Maya Key, and have heard mixed reviews, so I'm glad to see you had a good time there. Would you mind posting the copies of the Fun Times? I'd love to see them if you still have them. Thank you! :)

 

I'm not OP but I'll add a hearty vote in favor of Maya Key. We actually won an excursion there in July that included lunch and snorkeling and all the critter watching we cared to do. I liked the food but then, I'm not especially picky. Wife thought it was OK but she is pickier than me with stuff not coming out of demonstrably sealed and sanitary conditions - lol - it was a little too "out in the open" for her. She's leery of BBQ even when I do it on our back porch. It was typical Caribbean stuff, rice and beans and chicken and fried fish and some other things. I thought the fish was great and I don't even eat much fish. The beer was not included but the local Salva Vida hit the spot and was very reasonable.

 

The monkeys were adorable and the beach was beautiful. Here's proof:

 

They do the snorkeling off the end of that pier there.

 

OP thanks for the review! Glad your daughter got to feeling better!

[Florings]

Nice review, thanks for sharing!

[ommax2]

Thanks for the review! I am going on the Magic next December. Your review answered a couple of my questions. Yes, the ship was decorated for Christmas. And yes, it was warm enough to go swimming on embarkation. (I was wondering what the weather would be like at Port Canaveral in December.) Glad you had a good time in spite of the setbacks with your daughter. Merry Christmas!!

 

Just a word about Christmas cruising...our embarkation day(from Port Canaveral) 12/18/15....was 55 degrees and no one could swim without freezing. :) We didn't swim until the next day....in the middle of the Caribbean sea.

 

Mary Anne