Carnival Magic Review

[carribbound]

I have cruised with Carnival many many times (enough to be at Platinum status for a while now). First time on Carnival Magic. 

Embarkation: This was a piece of cake.

Cabin: Adequate. We had a cove balcony which we always book. The mattress was awful though. Awful. Balcony was rusty and dirty most of the week. We expect it to be salty as it is close to the water, but this was dirty and gross.

Staffing: Definitely seemed short staffed. Dirty dishes left on tables much longer than normal. Hard to get bar service. Cabin attendant was amazing! Met our needs and more. The cruise director was less than average. 

Entertainment: Lacking! It appears there have been cutbacks. It used to be I would have to decide between 2 or things to do if they were at a certain time and this time found myself to be bored. I had a discussion with the cruise director. I asked if there were cuts to comedy and he assured me there were not and it's the same as always. No, not the same. Used to be more shows. He repeatedly disagreed with me. Comedy shows should be in the large theatre as the current venue is always packed. Usually standing room only. There were some movies shown, which we like to do usually, but many times spinning ice cream cones, the movie showing schedule and a wiener dog falling asleep in the sun was on the screen most of the day. Music midday was played at the Lido pool for a few hours. They did some contests midday like usual utilizing guests at the Lido pool as well. Tons of Trivia. Multiple times a day. But that only takes one staff member so I am thinking if they are short staffed, that's an easy way to provide "entertainment". We watched one show and peaked in on another in the theatre. The one we went to was 5 singers sitting on stools singing for 30 minutes. Literally, sitting on stools with the one singer occasionally getting to sing. Poor presentation but the singing was ok. I looked in on another show later in the week, same thing, singers sitting on stools singing. 

Food: The food was par for Carnival. I feel like the steakhouse was better on other Carnival ships I have sailed on. We never were hungry and there were plenty of options. We usually drink the ship water but it tasted awful this time. We ended up buying bottled water all week. Pizza, Mongolian Wok, BBQ, burgers, and tacos were all great. Buffet was par. I did notice one day after the sea side BBQ, the buffet had pulled pork and Mac n cheese with burnt ends mixed in. So maybe feeding leftovers ??

General condition of the ship: Not good. Needs many repairs. Carnival Magic is an older ship, but is certainly showing its age. I believe a dry dock is scheduled for Jan 2025. It needs it. It was much more dirty than I have experienced on other ships. Grates near the pool were bent up with signs over them. The laundry room had only 2/4 dryers that were working and one of the 3 washers leaked all over one day. The door on our cabin would need a gently hit with the hip to get it open as it stuck hard. The casino really needs a better ventilation system. Very smoky anywhere near the casino. We opted to walk the deck below to get from forward to aft vs walking through it. This also made shopping non existent in the shops as it was such a strong smell of smoke.

Other: No enforcement of any of their policies. Chair saving was ridiculous. Many times saw chairs with towels on them for 4 or more hours and nothing was done about it. People also smoking anywhere they wanted to on open decks and nothing was said to them. There was tons of security on this ship. More than I have ever seen on a Carnival ship. 

Debarkation: getting off the ship was acceptable, luggage reclamation was a nightmare. Going through customs was a breeze. 

Overall, I would not sail this ship again. I have to admit though, I do favor the newer Carnival ships now and maybe that makes me biased.

[mz-s]

Your review mirrors most of my experience when I sailed Magic over Labor Day 2023. The only difference is the food on my cruise was horrible. It was essentially hospital food. So it's good they've improved the food since.

 

But yes the ship was dirty, stained carpet and upholstery everywhere, smelled like smoke, people smoking whatever they wanted wherever they wanted, etc.

[pe4all]

We just got off the ship Sunday 2/4.  Probably same sailing as you.  I have to agree with all you have mentioned.  Embarkation was easy.  The shows were modified because there was an accident the cruise before with 2 of the performers falling through the stage floor - videos are on TikTok.  So yes, they had the other performers sitting in chairs singing for at least 2 of the shows. (we walked out- boring)  Buffet was poorly run at dinner - only one side of stations was opened instead of the 4 they could have had.  Our steward introduced himself the first day, then we never saw him again.  At the introduction I mentioned a drawer was sitting 3 inches open and we kept hitting it as we walked by, and it couldn't be closed, and the bathroom light was not working.  By the 2nd day I ended up calling Guest Services to report it as it had not been fixed, and within 10 minutes an engineer came by and fixed everything.  Our cabin was cleaned well each morning, though, so no complaints there.  

Chair hogs were out in force.  I was at the aft pool by 7 a.m. each morning to sit and read, and 3/4 of the chairs had towels on them, with no bodies.  And the bodies would not show up until  9-10 am, if then.  The ship was definitely showing wear and tear, and definitely seemed short-staffed.  At the buffet some of the serving staff was coughing while serving the food - ew. Walking through deck 5 was like walking through a smoke-stack.  We also had some "odors" on deck 8 where our cabin was, filtering up to the aft pool at times.  Had 2 good dinners at the Steakhouse, one meh at Italian, though the lunch pasta was very good at Cucina.  Had great weather on this cruise, even with a short period of rain in St. Thomas. (it seems to rain every time we are there - lol.).   Never got to the bbq or Mongolian wok - lines were crazy long.  Debarkation was easy, but finding our luggage in zone 1 was not.

This was our 3rd time on Magic in 3 years, and we definitely have seen some slippage - but not enough to not sail on her again.  BTW - I tried searching to see when she is due for dry dock, but could not find any date.  Did you see that somewhere?  May want to book again for Jan. 2025, but not if she is going into drydock right after.

Edited February 7 by pe4all

[mohawk1129]

The Jan 21 sailing was much the same 

long wait times for your time dining (90 -100 minutes checking in at 5:30 p) Dining room half empty

Wait staff told us a team of 3 now responsible for 2 stations at a time 

Definitely short staffed 

difficult to get dining room bar service  ( they no longer have a staff member designed for this)

carnival needs to step it up!

 

[mz-s]

11 minutes ago, pe4all said:

\BTW - I tried searching to see when she is due for dry dock, but could not find any date.  Did you see that somewhere?  May want to book again for Jan. 2025, but not if she is going into drydock right after.

 

https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1495/~/carnival-magic-(mc)-fact-sheet

 

[carribbound]

25 minutes ago, pe4all said:

  BTW - I tried searching to see when she is due for dry dock, but could not find any date.  Did you see that somewhere?  May want to book again for Jan. 2025, but not if she is going into drydock right after.

Ohhh, when I looked back I guess I was looking at an “unofficial” dry dock schedule. It sure is in need of it. 

[straitlover1965]

On 2/7/2024 at 8:54 AM, mz-s said:

 

https://help.goccl.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1495/~/carnival-magic-(mc)-fact-sheet

 

Oh no! I am booked for April 2025, wash hoping for the January dry dock.

[mz-s]

40 minutes ago, straitlover1965 said:

Oh no! I am booked for April 2025, wash hoping for the January dry dock.

 

The fact is pretty much all of my complaints with Magic could be taken care of by Carnival with regular maintenance. It doesn't take a drydock to replace the upholstery in the MDR. They can do that in phases on turnaround/port days. They can add extra scrubbers in the casino to clear smoke any time. They can enforce their smoking rules and kick people off who break them anytime.

 

The fact is, Carnival doesn't care that their ships look nasty. If they cared, they'd fix the problem. Actions (or rather, lack of action) speaks louder than words.