Review: 1st Cruise in 5 Years, Carnival Magic, March 9-17

[mz-s]

Staying on deck 1 fwd or aft is a built-in alarm clock on port days! 

[dallasdan]

@heath7767 thank you for the review.  I am on this same cruise in August.  Hopefully, Amber Cove doesn't get cancelled.

[tradewinds traveler]

Thank you for taking the time for your cruise review. Sounds like everyone enjoyed it.

[Anyislandwilldo]

Was on the Magic last Dec.  Great ship.

 

[Sabalon]

Thanks for writing this.  We'll be on her the first week in April.   Good to know that the BBQ place is semi-unknown...I'll keep them busy!   Sounds like a very streamlined arrival for you.  Glad it didn't feel too crowded.   I was amazed the first time we were on a larger ship (than Fantasy class) and how it didn't feel full.  I know they have more space to handle more people, but still.
Though breakfast is always a pain....I want my custom omelet, but so do 2700 other people!  The secret is to get up early....but I don't do that well!!!!

 

Bummer about the Amber Cover switch.   We didn't leave the port area when we were there - that is when they had a few tourists die of odd reasons so we cancelled our excursion and just stayed in the big pool.  Coolest part about it was pulling in - it looked like Isla Sorna from Jurassic Park!
I've been to Nassau enough, but I suppose I could find something new to do - the distillery is neat...very good Pina Coladas as others said.

Glad you and the family had a great time.  I think next time we go with our girls (22 and 25) we will get them their own room.   Have done enough of the packing them in...can't imagine 5 in one room

[luvcruzing]

Do you remember what terminal the Magic was docked in Miami? Thanks. 

[heath7767]

19 minutes ago, luvcruzing said:

Do you remember what terminal the Magic was docked in Miami? Thanks. 

@luvcruzing It was Terminal F when we departed. I didn't notice what terminal we arrived back to.

[heath7767]

@Sabalon I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no more custom omelets on any of the Carnival ships. 😞 They'll still make eggs to order, but the only omelet options are veggie, cheese, or ham and cheese both at the Lido buffet and in the MDR.

 

The Guys' BBQ was really good! It is only open for lunch on departure day and on sea days though, so it's easy to miss if you don't get it early in the week. 

[UGACamper]

6 minutes ago, heath7767 said:

@Sabalon I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no more custom omelets on any of the Carnival ships. 😞 They'll still make eggs to order, but the only omelet options are veggie, cheese, or ham and cheese both at the Lido buffet and in the MDR.

On the Spirit earlier this month, I was able to order a custom omelet - ham and veggie no tomato. 

[heath7767]

Just now, UGACamper said:

On the Spirit earlier this month, I was able to order a custom omelet - ham and veggie no tomato. 

Hmmm….I guess I should have specified that they might be willing to customize from the now-limited options.

 

I’m just missing the truly build your own omelets where I could enjoy one with bacon, mushrooms, cheese and spinach. 

[heath7767]

Activities

 

As far as activities go, we're a mixed family. I'd be happy to relax and take in the views and read a book for most of the days every day. My boys all want as many sports activities as possible, and they enjoy games and competitions. My husband is similar to them. 

 

For my kids, they spend the most time by far on the Sports Deck. We all had fun on the ropes course, and they spent hours at the waterpark with friends on sea days. They also liked the giant chess (it's kinda hidden and up by the ropes course entrance) and the mini golf. For my 13 and 15 year olds, their most time by far was spent on the basketball court. It's nice that this ship has a full-size court, because that allowed often one side to be used by more experienced players and one side by younger kids.

 

I know it probably seems silly to spend so much of a cruise playing basketball if you're not a sports person, but it truly was a highlight of the cruise for them. That's also where they met their friends that they hung out with for the rest of the week. Big props to pretty much everyone we met playing basketball. On the older side, there was everyone there from parents to older middle schoolers and high schoolers, including some really talented players, but everyone we met was so nice. They played some heated competition, sure--but my boys were encouraged quite a bit by the adults playing with them. That's not always the case in pick-up ball, so we really appreciated it. 

 

For my 13 year old, the highlight of his entire cruise was winning the knockout competition hosted by the Fun Squad 2 times in a row one day. This was a huge comp with probably 60 people of all ages, and he was so proud! I was proud of him for offering his trophy after he won the second time to a younger competitor.

 

Our biggest disappointment with the basketball court was that it closed every day at 5:30! This made no sense to us since it was always packed with people having fun, and it also had full lights. We just didn't understand, especially because it wasn't monitored, so it wasn't like it took an employee to run it. After a couple of days of frustration, my husband politely asked a Fun Squad member about it, and we got an answer. Turns out they built the basketball court directly over the paid Italian restaurant. Diners complained about the noise, so they started closing the court at 5:30 when dinner service starts. The employee explained that this design flaw was noticed and has been fixed in newer ships so it's not over a restaurant. The employee also thanked my husband for asking him nicely about it instead of screaming at him about it. Again, it's sad to me that this isn't the norm for everyone---just be nice, people! 

 

The activity schedule was a mixed bag for us. We really enjoyed the outdoor movies, but the scheduling of them didn't make a lot of sense. For instance, a couple of nights, there was no movie at all or not any shown later in the day. This seems like such an easy fix to have movies playing, especially when there's no deck party that night. My kids definitely would've enjoyed more movies. I also think it could be helpful in the afternoons to have a movie playing by the pool instead of the same 10 Carnival promo slides over....and over....and over.

 

Some of the activities we enjoyed were a few trivia games, the pool games on the Lido, basketball and volleyball competitions, and pickleball. My son and I had fun at the towel folding class, although it was absolutely packed because of the rescheduled sea day. 

 

Another highlight was mobile trivia, although we only did that once for a 5 minute preview after it was added to the activity schedule. This is trivia that you play along with on your phone while the questions are given on the big screen. Ours took place in the main theater. It was so much fun, and the cruise director said it's a new program that they are rolling out to all of the ships. We would've happily played that every day if it was available. 

 

The comedy schedule also got messed up since they weren't able to pick up the new comedian at Amber Cove, so we only got to see 2 comedians who offered family shows instead of 3. Other nights there wasn't really much to do as far as activities or movies go. The shows we saw were OK--nothing fabulous but something to do. My kids LOVED the comedy and wished the PG shows were offered more often. I would've appreciated more variety in entertainment, such as a magic show or novelty performers or something like that. The only shows were singing and dancing, and that's not a great fit for everyone--certainly not for my house full of boys lol. 

 

Since all 3 of my kids would've been in different kids or teen clubs, we didn't really utilize those. My oldest did end up going to some Club O2 activities with friends he met though--they headed to the deck party together one night and hung out in the club some. His favorite was the night they went to the sports court at 10:30 with the club for basketball and dodgeball.

 

My 10 year old went to a magic show in his club on the first sea day since we had met the magician the night before in the dining room and loved him, but that was it for him. For that, they combined all of the 5-11 year olds, so he didn't really want to go back any after that since it was with a lot of little kids.

 

We had so much fun on the cruise, but I do think that the Magic could use some better scheduling of activities for those who want something other than trivia or watching singing and dancing shows. For instance, group games were only offered by the pool 2 days during our 8 day trip, and that seems like something that could easily be added and enjoyed at some point every day.

 

However, I think cruising itself is wonderful and you have a great time both with the people you are with and meeting new people. We really did have an amazing time together, but this was the first cruise that I remember looking at the schedule and thinking that there were big chunks of time several days that there was no activity that appealed to anyone in our family. So we made our own fun during those times and continued to eat too much. 🙂

 

Edited March 23 by heath7767

[Sabalon]

On 3/22/2024 at 5:13 PM, heath7767 said:

@Sabalon I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there's no more custom omelets on any of the Carnival ships. 😞 They'll still make eggs to order, but the only omelet options are veggie, cheese, or ham and cheese both at the Lido buffet and in the MDR.

 

The Guys' BBQ was really good! It is only open for lunch on departure day and on sea days though, so it's easy to miss if you don't get it early in the week. 

 

WOW!  Guess that reduces lines...hmm...how to break this to my wife.  Oh well, Blue Iguana just as good!   Good to know about the BBQ as well.  Means I have three chances!  🙂

[Sabalon]

17 hours ago, heath7767 said:

For my 13 year old, the highlight of his entire cruise was winning the knockout competition hosted by the Fun Squad 2 times in a row one day. This was a huge comp with probably 60 people of all ages, and he was so proud! I was proud of him for offering his trophy after he won the second time to a younger competitor.

 

Our first cruise, my youngest was 13 (at the start, 14 at the end).  She did some stacking competition that the Circle C(?) club had.   We went to get her for dinner and she was determined she had to win the competition first.     She made three or four friends from there that she wanted to spend the whole time with, and even kept up with some after the cruise.    One guy actually lives like 10 miles away...once her Scout troop found out about that, there was no mercy.

It's neat to see how fast they take to these activities and groups.

[kelsea82301]

Thanks for this great review! We go on the Magic the first week in June! We will be traveling with my daughter’s family. She has a 14-year-old boy, six-year-old boy, and four-year-old girl. We are looking forward to aWe will be traveling with my daughters family. She has a 14 and 6 year-old boy, and 4 year-old girl. We are looking forward to a great time! 

[becker80]

We were on the Magic last week and they did custom omelets. They had ham, onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes? and two kinds of cheese. You could request whatever you wanted. 

[heath7767]

27 minutes ago, becker80 said:

We were on the Magic last week and they did custom omelets. They had ham, onions, peppers, spinach, tomatoes? and two kinds of cheese. You could request whatever you wanted. 

Yes I should’ve been more specific. Before this change, they were truly custom with bacon, mushroom, arugula, spinach, other cheeses, etc. There were a lot more ingredient options.

Now it’s just the cheese, ham, or the veggie with peppers, onions, and tomatoes.