Magic New Years Cruise Comments

[braveslake]

We have cruised on the Magic 5 times and it is one of our favorite ships in the fleet. We totally enjoyed this New Years cruise and just about every minute we were onboard. It's up to each person to find their own niche to relax or party it up. Find your own fun. I list the "bad" below only to be informative. Those things didn't diminish our cruise at all. It was a blast!

 

The Good

Stayed precruise at Radisson at the Port. Room was clean and shuttle service to and from the ship was very efficient. 

Dining Room food...no complaints about anything we ate. Waiters handled relative with allergies with ease. Food was hot and although service was a bit slow there was always an explanation why. Waiter even brought us cheese plates while we waited for a our meals several nights. We ate in the dining room 6 nights, Lido one (more on that later), and Cucina Del Capitano Italian Restaurant one night. 

Cucina Del Capitano Italian Restaurant was outstanding! I had Gamberetti Alla Pizzaiola-shrimp on bed of tomato/pepper ragu on a portabello mushroom with roasted fingerling potatoes and roasted broccoli/cauliflower. Hubby had Chicken Parm with spaghetti. The appetizers of Minestrone soup, meatballs and salad were also perfect. Dessert was chardonnay stewed apples in a pie shell with caramel ice cream...delicious!

Brunch on Sea Days was better than previous cruise. Steak in the steak/eggs was tasty and tender this time. Enjoyed the Eggs Benedict and juices also. 

Deal or No Deal game in showroom was a lot of fun. They played it on two different days. Maybe it helps my opinion that I won both days...Bingo packages and Casino cash!  

We had a Spa stateroom on Deck 11. Thoroughly enjoyed the thalassotherapy pool, and relaxing in the steam rooms and heated rooms. The cabin also came with two free Yoga classes, a scrub kit and pads and consultations if wanted. 

Service by room stewards and dining staff was excellent, efficient and friendly. 

The New Years Eve Celebration on the Lido deck was so much fun especially the countdown to midnight!  There were New Years hats in our stateroom on embarkation and lighted wands and champagne handed out on deck. If you ever thought about cruising on New Years...Do it!  You won't regret it. 

 

The Bad ( or more like disappointing)

No longer any individual containers of yogurt. Yogurt was served in small bowls and had a film over the top. Not appetizing. 

No longer any taco shells for taco salad at Blue Iguana.  Sure, it tasted the same in a bowl but takes the whole idea of a taco salad down a notch. 

No bread bowls at Seafood shack for the Clam Chowder. Same comment as above. Not the same. 

Internet...very poor and spotty service. Even their own chat in the HUB didn't work 95% of the time. Very hard to get in touch with family members which is why we bought it in the first place. 

Trivia Hosts...Trivia is a big favorite of mine.  However, we could not understand two of the three hosts. Also one sports trivia was repeated exact same questions three times. I know that they have more questions that they could rotate. 

Lido buffet food was awful. If/when we eat on Lido its either the Deli, Guys Burgers, Blue Iguana, Seafood Shack, Pizza or Mongolian Grill.  All of those were great. The buffet line food had no taste, was cold and unappetizing. 

Casinos were very crowded but we are casino people and managed to find slot machines with a little patience. We only played in the non smoking casino on deck 4  and had no problems getting servers for drinks. Others, said it was a problem in the smoking casino on deck 5. 

 

[Sassafrass'sMom]

Thank you for your thoughts.  We are sailing on the Magic on 2/5.  This will be our second time on the Magic.

 

[BlueHonu]

We were on the week b4 you. We had about the same feelings. The hub app didn't work very well. We are in the casino a lot too. We had pretty good luck on deck 4, but drink service on deck 5 was hit and miss. Although as the week went on, we had better service since we always tip and chat with the servers. 

[pirate4me2]

Ah man, I looooooved the taco salads at BI. I didn't usually eat the bowl too much, just a few chunks here and there to give it a "crunch" like a crouton and to scoop up sour cream/salsa. Guess I may have to pack a bag or tortilla chips in my carry on now. 😂

[finoky]

We cruised on the Magic back in October and would echo all of your comments.

[Jeafl]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  We are going on the Magic next November for the first time.  From a quick glance at the ship's layout it looks a lot like the Panorama which we've been on a few times and enjoyed.  Do you remember if there was a Java Blue on board?

[braveslake]

There is a Coffee Shop on Deck 5 near the Ocean Plaza which was very busy. Not sure if it had the Java Blue name though!

 

[Jeafl]

21 hours ago, braveslake said:

There is a Coffee Shop on Deck 5 near the Ocean Plaza which was very busy. Not sure if it had the Java Blue name though!

 

Thanks!  As long as the coffee is good, the name doesn't matter!

[kruisecat]

We were on with you and the only thing I would disagree with is the food at the Lido buffet.  Not everything was good but not everything was bad either.  We had some really tasty items on some of the days.  It was hit or miss but I never went away hungry 😉  I did do a made to order omelet every day because the scrambled eggs were .. yuck!  But I enjoyed all of the different potato and sausage varieties.  Food is very subjective so I totally get our difference of opinions LOL

 

I would like to also add that despite being a full ship it really never felt it.  We were almost always able to get chairs near a pool and if not we could find one on a different deck.

 

We loved the itinerary so much that I booked the same one (swapping Grand Turk for AC) 12/28/24.  Loved the 4 sea days and only 3 ports!!