Our Carnival Magic Spring Break Review

[brookeq]

20 minutes ago, pyropoodle said:

I LOVE your 80's costumes.  I just now read through your review because I'm having an unusually slow day at work, but boy am I glad I did! it was great. we are taking this exact cruise in like, 658 or so days..no idea (New year's 2020 into 2021, so it's pretty far out there, but it's never too early to take notes)

 

Can I ask, what are your kid's age differences?  I have an almost 5 year old boy and an almost 2 year old girl and she has recently learned how to have amazing tantrums because my son is so good at them. 😛

 

I'm taking her on her first cruise the day she turns 2 so I can offload them into the kid's clubs and have a break.  we haven't had any kind of vacation since I found out I was pregnant with her, so momma needs a cruise!

 

Did your kids go to the kids clubs at all?  

 

again, thank you for sharing your experiences and for being so real with your review of your family as well as the cruise.  You are doing a great job momma-ing and one day, your son will look back and remember all these things and love you all the more.

My kids are two years apart.  10 and 8.  We went on one when they were around your kids age.  The review would be in my signature.  The carnival dream link.   Not sure if the pictures will still work though.  On that cruise the kids loved the kids club.  a few years ago on the breeze they did the kids club.  My son now thinks he is a teenager.   And wanted to do what his teenager cousins did.   So he didn't go.  Amelia would have gone but she had a cousin her age to play with who wouldn't go in the club.   

 

We like to travel.  We do some trips with kids and some without.  When we have the kids a cruise seems to be the one that everyone enjoys the most.   It may not be an individuals favorite trip but everyone is happy for the most part. 

[brookeq]

Here is the last sea day fun times.   The fun times I posted above are for the last sea day.    I need to find my port day ones.  I set them aside somewhere...

[brookeq]

Here are the fun times from our day at grand cayman 

[brookeq]

Roatan and Belize fun times 

[brookeq]

Cozumel fun times 

[brookeq]

That should be all of the fun times.  I have the kids club schedules if anyone wants to see them. 

[pyropoodle]

2 minutes ago, brookeq said:

That should be all of the fun times.  I have the kids club schedules if anyone wants to see them. 

ohhh, me please

[brookeq]

Kids club ages 2-5

[brookeq]

Ages 6-8

[brookeq]

Ages 9-11

[ski_mom]

Thanks for the great review!  We just booked the Magic leaving from Fort Lauderdale on June 22nd.  We have a different itinerary, but love reading about the boats we will be on.

 

This is our 12th cruise, but I always learn new things and had a couple of questions from your review. 

 

I see you mentioned sometimes eating breakfast at the Blue Iguana - is it open every day for breakfast?  We always just eat in the MDR, but this sounds like it might be a quicker option (my family doesn't really like eating at the buffets).

 

When you said you packed snacks and waters for your beach days, do you bring packaged food from home, or are you taking things from the ship?  We usually pack waters that we have delivered to our room before the cruise, but have never really taken any food with us.  I love that idea - for cost savings and ease as well.

 

Finally, you mentioned that your SIL was flying home from Orlando.  I assume they just rented a car and drove from Ft Lauderdale to Orlando?  The flights for our dates are so high, so I'm still looking into alternatives.  We have flights booked with Southwest, but would love to find something cheaper.  It seems like it would be a fairly long day to do that, but might look into it if it saves enough.

 

Thanks again for the great review!

 

 

[Poorplaya]

Such an awesome review, so much detail and great pictures, thank you for taking all that time to share your trip with us!!

[cruisequeen4ever]

I really enjoyed your review, and your depiction of reality enhanced it! Family dynamics can be tough. Why not vent to strangers on Cruise Critic?! 😆 We have had to pull the “this is the cruise we are doing, and you’re welcome to join us” card several times with relatives because it’s just too difficult to plan around everyone’s criteria. Plus, they usually cancel, which would ultimately screw us over, so we just plan our cruises, and if they go, great. If they don’t, their loss, and we have a relaxing vacation! Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us! Happy future cruises to you!

[grandmarnnurse]

3 hours ago, cruisequeen4ever said:

I really enjoyed your review, and your depiction of reality enhanced it! Family dynamics can be tough. Why not vent to strangers on Cruise Critic?! 😆 We have had to pull the “this is the cruise we are doing, and you’re welcome to join us” card several times with relatives because it’s just too difficult to plan around everyone’s criteria. Plus, they usually cancel, which would ultimately screw us over, so we just plan our cruises, and if they go, great. If they don’t, their loss, and we have a relaxing vacation! Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us! Happy future cruises to you!

This is absolutely true. We planned a cruise two years ago with family, and after months of giving me grief about dates, flights, plans, one by one canceled, except for one daughter’s family. Needless to say, the hubby and I were frustrated and upset right up to cruise date. Then we started planning our 50th Anniversary cruise for March 2020. (We were married in March) Right from the get-go, everyone started telling me when to book it and when not to. I bent to their demands that it needed to be moved to April so we cruised Easter week, when kids were off school. I booked it, not happy, knowing it will be crazy busy Easter week, but I wanted our 5 adult children and 14 grandchildren. Fast forward to now. Only one son booked, and that’s still up in the air as to whether they will come, or cancel, as they are having issues with one of their adult children and grandchild. The one daughter that insisted we book that week, is not coming, as she will have just given birth to her 5th child (our 15th grandchild), and then there are three other children. Two are still “thinking about it”. My hubby says to just drop it. If they want to book, they will. One daughter we knew couldn’t come, as they are a military family. But because her hubby has leave in early February, we booked another cruise with them out of NOLA on the Glory. So, this will be the last time I plan a family vacation. Way too stressful. The hubby told me we needed to concentrate on making this Anniversary special for us, and not worry about the others. So we added a week to it (April 5) to make it a B2B, and we are leaving home in Buffalo, NY on March 30, and taking our time driving down to Ft Lauderdale to board the Magic. 

[blarko]

⬆️⬆️ Great attitude!!! Enjoy your cruises and Happy Anniversary!

[brookeq]

That stinks.   I hope you have a great anniversary cruise.  Next year is our 20 year anniversary.   I told husband.  We are definitely planning a trip that we want.