Christmas 06 on the Magica review

[Taf]

It`s taken me a while, but here is my review of the Magica 06 cruise.

 

We boarded after about 1hr in line at the cruise terminal Fort Lauderdale. It was the busiest day EVER for the port, and we had an hours taxi ride from the Airport to the port ( 7 minutes going back!!!) We had wet clothes due to the rain pouring down on the luggage in the luggage bins - but all in all it was OK, other people had a lot more waiting times/problems with flight delays etc.

 

Our Cabin was nice, very clean, spacious and a nice balcony. We had a 3 berth cabin with a double bed (with matress topper) and a single bed for our son.

 

Food was fantastic in the dining room. Every night was delicious and our waiter went out of his way to get stuff that our kids asked for that wasn`t always on the menu (Melon & Palma ham, Mozarella & tomato etc) my only grizzle was the dining time - early seating was at 5.30 which we found very early, especially after a day in port. Sometimes the service was slow, and dinner took a while. Food quality was much better than I have had on Carnival, RC, NCL - in my opinion. We only used the buffet a couple of times, lunch on embarkation day was very good, and otherwise there was always a selection available. If it was busy, we used the upstairs part of the buffet dining room, there is nearly always tables free there.

 

Plenty of deck chairs, especially away from the pool areas. The main pool was very busy and quite loud. It is much quieter at the other pool area.

 

We really enjoyed the shows, and the Toga night was a real blast! Only about 1/2 of the people participated, which was a shame, but it was still good fun. Live music was always playing in the bars during the evenings, but apart from the show there wasn`t much else to do - apart from "Supppper Biiiingo (My kids are still saying "B for Barbie" in an annoying accent !!!) What I liked this time, was that the main language was English and then sometimes Italian - there was no waiting through announcements in 5 languages as on the Atlantica last year. The cruise director was very good and entertaining.

 

Costa made a lot of effort with Christmas celebrations. There was a beautiful tree in the Atrium, and on Christmas day they had a carols and a visit from Santa with gifts (chocolates) for all of the kids. This was a nice touch.

 

Ports:

San Juan - we docked right in the town centre and it was an easy walk through to the old town. We enjoyed just wandering around, doing a little shopping and taking photos of the quaint buildings and old cobbled streets. Most of the shops were closed at it was Christmas day, and we docked at 4pm - I would liked to have had more time. Because we had the kids with us, we didn`t sample the San Juan night life, and returned to the ship for a buffet dinner.

 

St Thomas: We went by taxi (10 dollars per person) to Coki beach and the Coral world. Coral world was well worth the visit - you buy a day ticket and can go in and out of the park all day. We enjoyed the underwater viewing area there. Then we rented chairs on the beach and heading into the sea for some excellent snorkelling. Because of Coral World, there is fantastic snorkelling right next door on the beach - fish were everywhere, clearly visable from the shore, so you don`t even have to get wet!!

On the way back, our taxi driver took us via Magens Bay for some photos from above. It is one of the worlds best beaches apparently.

 

Catalina: A day on the beach, Costa did a BBQ and bar service was available on the beach. Deck chairs & Parasols are free. We were scheduled for La Romana but tendered off Catalina instead - which suited us fine.

 

Grand Turk: My favaourite port. Again, a Taxi to "downtown" beach to snorkel. Unfortunately, the water was really rough, and visibility was bad so we didn`t see much. But the beach was beautiful, only a few people there and white sand, chrystal clear water etc.... lovely. We ate at a local bar on the beach for lunch and then returned to the cruise port area to swim in the pool. The pool was really nice, very big and plenty of sunbeds for everyone. The beach was not as nice as downtown, but still a very nice beach area too.

 

The days at sea were relaxing, we won a few prizes in the quizes, and lay around on deck after stuffing ourselves in the dining room for lunch!

 

We had arranged a cruise critic meet up on deck 10 by the pool for after the lifeboat drill. Unfortunately, I only met up with Jones & PT cruisers - Hi Tracey & Cynthia!!- there were other people sitting around, but we weren`t sure if they were cc`s or not, and nobody looked like they were looking out for others, so unfortunately we didn`t all meet up. If any other meet-ups are planned for the future, I suggest somekind of identification code, maybe a copy of the Today on the table or something! Sorry if I missed anyone, I was too shy to approach all the tables!

 

One of the things that is alway asked about is smoking. We didnt notice it at all, apart from in the Casino.

 

Kids Club, we didn`t use it at all. My kids made some friends around the ship and spent time with them.

 

As you can gather, we really enjoyed this cruise, and would recommend Costa Magica. Any specific questions, I`d be happy to answer.

 

............Hope you`re still awake!!!;)

[shawnonrev]

Thank you for the positive review. We are going in April different ports. I am so glad you said the food was good and clean. You said one of the pools was full and another not so full where they both for kids to go in? We have 2 kids ages 5 and7. THANK YOU FOR WRITING ABOUT THE SMOKE. You are a blessing to my worries. With my sons breathing. I do not know how old your kids are but did they go down the slide. If so was it fun and open for the kids. They can not wait to go down the slide.

How much time did it take to eat dinner. I hear it is an hour and a half. Just wondering with kids. We have the early seating but that is probley perfect for us we eat early and will be starting when we get on ship:D

 

Ginny

[Taf]

Hi Ginny

The slide was open at certain times during the day, both kids and adults were using it and it was fun. It depends on weather conditions, wind etc.

Dinner took about 1 1/2 hrs, it was sometimes slow between courses - bt there was often a little "entertainment" going on in the form of waiters dancing etc. My mom started a Conga line through the dining room once!!!! Dinner was always finished off with coffee for those who wanted it, and iced tea & water was always available.

I`m not sure if the quiet pool is supposed to be aduls only - there were certainly a few kids in there, but they were not roudy. At night they made this into an indoor solarium by closing the glass roof, so a couple of evenings we grabbed a coffee from the buffet and sat supervising the kids while they had an evening swim.

As for smoke and the Casino, if I were you, I would study Magicas deck plans before you go. Sometimes we had to walk through the Casino to get to other lounges on the ship, but if you check out the layouts in advance you would save yourself a lot of hassle. We played the "how do we get there from here" walkaround game a few times:) . This was the only place we noticed any smoke, definately not in the dining room or theatre and we didn`t have an smokey smells in the cabin either.

 

Hope this helps, have a great cruise

 

Taf

[nova624]

Taf,

Thanks for the great review. Were the tours to the mainland still offered? We have a tour scheduled with Costa to Santo Domingo and was curious.

 

Rosalynn

[Taf]

Hi Rosalyn

I´m still not sure why we tendered off Catalina - the schedule said La Romana. Maybe it was just a one off thing. Anyway, people on the tours were ferried over to the mainland for their trips, so I´m sure if it they tender in Catalina again, thats`s what they`ll do.