Carnival Magic review of June 16th sailing

[LuckyZ]

Just off the June 16th Magic sailing. I’m not one for long reviews and photos so I’ll hit some high (and low) points

 

Group - we are a large group of 31 family and friends cruising together.

 

Pre Cruise - used Cocoa Beach Shuttle and they were great. Stayed at the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach and they were good although we couldn’t get extended check out despite being told not to come to the pier until 3pm.

 

Embarkation - awful due to ship returning late (sat 3 hours in the terminal). But it was air conditioned and water/chips provided.

 

Luggage porters - is it just me or does it seem odd to tip these guys just to get your bags on the ship (I did tip $20 for 4 bags but seemed excessive)

 

Ports - of course you all know that the best port of the 4 got cancelled (St Thomas) due to propulsion issues with the ship. Fortunately some of the group did enjoy St Thomas on one of the days (when and how they got there I won’t discuss but it did take the sting out a bit). San Juan and Grand Turk are not good stops. Grand Turk is now charging for beachside and poolside seats ($25 and $35 pp respectively). Amber Cove was good as we took a cable car and beach tour with Isaira Tours (class A company and Jose / Cheo was a wonderful tour guide ).

 

OBC for cancelling St Thomas of $50 pp seemed low given we were also denied most of the 1st day with late embarkation and dining was first come/first serve and long lines. We picked this cruise specifically for St Thomas.

 

Ship - I liked the Magic but not as much as the Breeze as we felt more crowded on the Magic. But all in all, despite the propulsion issues, a very nice ship. I don’t like that the newer ships don’t have the outside quiet deck off of the lobby (pet peeve). Noise between rooms and floors was louder than usual.

 

Room - had 8th floor balcony room and it was nice. Storage seemed more than ample . A/C worked but could have been stronger. Many rooms on the ship with no A/C so can’t complain too much.

 

Room Steward (Pete) was fantastic and honored every request we had.

 

Platinum gift - was a nice tote bag that was of decent size and a false zippered bottom (very practical).

 

Pool - we don’t like all the craziness that happens on Lido main pool so we spent our time at the back pool and enjoyed it. Pool got very busy on sea days at around noon. Deck was very hot to walk on. But all in all it was a great place to hang out

 

Serenity - tried to go there the odd time but chair hogs were in full force so nothing was available at any point during the day.

 

Guest Services - we had adjoining rooms with family and tried 6 times to get keys made for each other’s room. It worked the 6th time but it shouldn’t have taken so long.

 

 

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[LuckyZ]

Day Food - Omelette bar, Mongolian Grille, outside 5th level BBQ, Pizza, Guys burgers were very good. Sandwich bar was mostly good but meatball sandwich on 1st day dinner was cold (ate here due to 1st night dining changes due to delays). Cucina Capitano for lunch has slow terrible service.

 

Dining - actually food was good almost every night (pleasantly surprised) but service on the 1st few nights was very slow (still eating when most of the dining room was leaving). After one of our group brought this up to guest services, it got a little better. Several tables around us didn’t return after the 1st few nights (no idea why). Also dining room seemed very loud. Maitre’D seemed full of himself (calls himself 007 and plays James Bond music in the dining room during dinner).

 

Chefs Table - one of the best experiences and we’ve don’t this 4 other times on other ships.

 

Cheers - I gave it a shot but would not so this again as I found myself forcing myself to get a drink to break even.

 

Bar service - most service on the deck was good. Back pool bar was very good. Pocholo (deck bartender) was great. Bar service at casino and Alchemy bars were very very slow.

 

Elevators - slow

 

Live Music - all were very good including the 3 violin guys that played over the lobby (just seemed a little loud but entertaining).

 

Shops - nothing special

 

Pixels - awful . We had many photos they took that we could not locate on their iPad system. Even using their facial recognition system. They’re staff seemed ill prepared to help me find them. Their loss. Also they required a deposit to schedule a group photo (used to be free) even though they had photographers standing around their stations for hours with no action .

 

Shows - The only show we saw was Flick. 1st 10 minutes are strange and hokey but if you can get past that, show was not so bad. Punchliner was always packed and didn’t bother. Piano bar we never did but heard the entertainer got drunk a lot

 

Debarkation - docked at 6am . We decided to carry off our own luggage as we had 11am flights that we made with no problem .

 

 

 

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[LuckyZ]

Additional items

 

Platinum / Diamond party - as we had Cheers it just didn’t make sense to go given it’s such a terrible event to start with. And they held it on the last day at 5pm (we preferred to enjoy our last day on the ship instead)

 

 

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[ParrotRob]

Guest Services - we had adjoining rooms with family and tried 6 times to get keys made for each other’s room. It worked the 6th time but it shouldn’t have taken so long.

 

Just curious, but if you had adjoining rooms why did you need extra keys? You could enter the other room directly from yours, couldn't you?

[LuckyZ]

Just curious, but if you had adjoining rooms why did you need extra keys? You could enter the other room directly from yours, couldn't you?

 

Let’s just say it was a Cheers program workaround

[LuckyZ]

All in all a good cruise despite the negative things that happened . There are always many good things that outweigh the bad.

I realize Carnival is most reasonable cost but it’s still a lot of money for us and of course everyone wants things to go perfectly. Hopefully this helps future Magic cruisers

 

 

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[LuckyZ]

Any other thoughts on the Magic ?

 

 

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[LuckyZ]

Thanks

 

 

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[jamie717]

We have been on Magic twice and Breeze once. Our last time on Magic (Sept. 2016) and on Breeze (Oct. 2017) we were fortunate enough to have Pocholo as our waiter (Magic) and Bartender (Breeze). Absolutely wonderful individual!! Always smiling, always laughing, and always memorable!!

[LuckyZ]

We have been on Magic twice and Breeze once. Our last time on Magic (Sept. 2016) and on Breeze (Oct. 2017) we were fortunate enough to have Pocholo as our waiter (Magic) and Bartender (Breeze). Absolutely wonderful individual!! Always smiling, always laughing, and always memorable!!

 

 

 

Agreed. He was wonderful with his service and humor

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.

[Organized Chaos]

We did those four ports a couple weeks ago aboard the Glory. We enjoy Grand Turk to snorkel. We just go on our own away from the crowd (the stretch of beach from the pier to the southern point). Enjoyed the two forts in San Juan, but after we went to the first one, then walked around the second one for a little while, we were hot & tired, so we left. Took a taxi to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas to go snorkeling. It had its up & down moments. I can understand why people would be upset if a port got cancelled. Yeah, Carnival has the right to make changes, but people have the right to be bummed out if their expected vacation isn't what it was supposed to be. We absolutely loved the cable car experience in Puerto Plata. We didn't do a tour of the city, just took a taxi to the cable car. But we had a tour guide up the mountain and all around the trails up there. We weren't expecting a guide, but glad we had him because we didn't know about the other stuff up there.

 

We're thinking about a Dream class next time. We found an itinerary aboard the Magic that we think we'd like, but I hear so many good things about the Breeze, we might try that.

[LuckyZ]

The Breeze is one of my favorite ships. Decor is nice and I didn’t feel as crowded.

Thanks for the reply

 

 

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[evandbob]

from the OP: "I liked the Magic but not as much as the Breeze as we felt more crowded on the Magic. But all in all, despite the propulsion issues, a very nice ship. I don’t like that the newer ships don’t have the outside quiet deck off of the lobby (pet peeve). Noise between rooms and floors was louder than usual."

I think feeling more crowded on similar ships of the same class has more to do with a different set of cruisers than the ship itself. An older aged, newbie or even disgruntled cruisers group of cruisers can cause more congestion than any minor deck design differences.

As far as the walkaround on the older class ships, isn't that found on deck 5 of the the Dream and Vista class?

Anyway, thanks to the Op for your comments!

[LuckyZ]

evandbob

As far as the walkaround on the older class ships, isn't that found on deck 5 of the the Dream and Vista class?

 

 

On older ships, there was an outdoor deck that didn’t go around the ship but had a nice view of the water and was covered . It was nice to sit on a lounger in the shade, watch the water, read, sleep, whatever.

 

On newer ships, deck 5 goes around the ship but is not covered, no loungers and has tables and the bbq place. Also they seem to have an open deck on level 4 but only accessible by the crew.

 

 

 

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[Treyatl2006]

Great review... It probably felt more crowded becuase the ship was sold out... The breeze may not have been sold out when because the layout is almost the same.

[LuckyZ]

You might be right. Maybe just my perception.

 

 

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