Magical Mystery Cruise 09-03 thru 09-13

Good Morning! This is just a quick review of our extended cruise aboard the Magic.

original itinerary

Nassau, Grand Turk, Amber Cove

modified itinerary

Cozumel, Belize, Costa Maya

2nd modification

Cozumel, Belize

3rd modification

Cozumel, Belize, New Orleans

Embarkation was a breeze. Port Canaveral did not follow check in times. We traveled with a party of 10 in 3 cabins. We had FTTF but our other 2 rooms did not. Our other rooms had a check in time of 11-11:30am. They let us all into the port at 10:15am without even looking at our boarding passes for check in times. All cabins checked in and on the ship at Noon. (FTTF cabin on board at 11:40am)

They announced the 1st itinerary change right before muster. We knew before boarding that we were not going to our scheduled itinerary, but they waited until muster to tell us.

Staff on board was amazing! Happy Smiling full of fun. Dr. E is probably the best cruise director I have had yet.

We had a good time, but got continually stressed as Irma continued to move more to the west.

Internet was spotty at best. we attribute this to so many people trying to stay in contact with people back home due to the storm.

Cozumel was a beautiful day. We took a cab downtown and shopped. Then shopped at the port a little before getting back on board.

We stayed on board in Belize.

While everyone else was ashore in Belize, they announced that we were skipping Costa Maya and heading directly back to Port Canaveral due to Irma.

The new schedule was to dock in Port Canaveral on Friday, unload all passengers that wanted to get off and be back out to sea by the 3pm port closure.

We got just above cuba and almost to the florida keys when they announced that we would not make it to Port Canaveral in time to disembark before the port closure, so the were turning us around and going to New Orleans. This was very stressful for us as our homes were now in the direct path of the eye of Irma. We were hoping to get off and get home and help our family at home prep all of our homes before the storm hit. But there is was nothing we could do.

We did our best to give instructions to family back home via FB messanger.

Carnival opened up all the phone lines on the ship for people to call home or make travel arrangements from New Orleans if they wanted to get off, but you could not get a call out. The guest services line was insane. It wrapped all the way around the lobby with people waiting up to 3 hours to reach the desk.

In New Orleans 1800 people disembarked and headed home, while 2500 people stayed on board.

While in NOLA we made several phone calls and then tried to enjoy the city. Carnival gave us 2 free options. Free Hop on Hop off bus passes or a Free shuttle to and from the French Quarter.

We choose the hop on hop off bus. We enjoyed Cafe Du Monde and shopping. We ate lunch at a restaurant that I don't remember the name of, and finished the day with a tour on the bus of the city.

We had to be back on board by 2am. We were on far earlier than that, again making more phone calls while in port to family and friends. We pulled out of port at 4am on Sunday Sept. 10th

They made an announcement on Sunday that we would be arriving into Port Canaveral on Tuesday Sept. 12th. Then on Monday announced again that we would not be arriving until Wednesday Sept 13th.

All in all this was a very good cruise. I will list below the issues that we had. Again they are not big issues just things that irritated us because we were already stressed and a couple things that just made absolutely no sense!

Issues

1. Do not give information until you know it to be fact.

People booked flights on Tuesday because they told us we would be home on Tuesday, then they said no not until Wednesday. We drove so this didn't affect us personally but it changed the mood of a lot of people.

2. We per-purchased the Cheers and Bubbles programs. I will stress this point ..WE HAD NO ISSUES WITH PAYING DAY BY DAY FOR THE EXTENDED DAYS, but do not try to charge me the on board purchase price. We never got off the ship, we did not try to go home, we continued on board for the entire cruise. Charge me the per-purchased price. I contacted Carnivals FB page and got a rep on there to contact the ship and the price was adjusted for those passengers that per-purchased. Those that did not buy it prior to the cruise were charged the on board price.

3. Our Sign and Sail cards expired for access to our rooms on Saturday night at midnight. We were to still use our cards for charges but we could no longer access our cabins with them. We were issued another card for access to our cabins. The problem was that each room was only issued 2 new cards. even if you had 4 people in your cabin you were only issued 2 cards. Now our kids are 17. We do not attend all the same activities. Our 17 year olds do not attend the same activities as each other. hunting down one of the 2 people who had a cabin key was impossible. Again I contacted Carnivals FB page and Mary contacted the ship and issued all of our rooms with additional keys. It is impractical to think that cabins with more than 2 people will stay with each other 24 hours a day so that we can have access to our cabin.

4. THIS IS MY BIGGEST ISSUE.

The new cabin keys had your cabin number on the card. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. If you loose your card anyone who found it then knew exactly where your room was and could get in. My husband lost his (his fault completely) on Monday night while in the casino. No one turned it in. He spent all day on Tuesday in the cabin because guest services would not deactivate the cards and issue us new ones, and he was afraid someone would try to get into the room. Come on Carnival....really. it is not necessary to put the cabin number on the card!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will stress that the crew was amazing the entire time. We loved the casino bartenders Seti, Lordan, and Kanokwan! Our room steward I Made was also amazing.

I forgot to mention that on Sunday we received 2 bags for free laundry. SO AWESOME! Then on Monday we received 3 more bags for free laundry. We used the first 2 and that was enough to get us through the end of the cruise.

Debarkation was fast and they never even looked at our paperwork, just waived us right through customs.

This was cruise #8 for us.

I will definitely cruise with Carnival again!

A good cruise with a few issues that just added on to the stress of our worry about home.

Our town did end up taking the eye of Irma directly. We had no major damage. We were Blessed!!!!

Sorry if this was a little scattered.

Thanks for the report! Sorry about the room keys. I love New Orleans so I would have been very happy to go there. I also would have been very happy to take home clean clothes!

First I am so glad your home was undamaged.

You brought up some very interesting issues. Who knew S&S cards expire?

It's wonderful you were still able to enjoy your cruise under these circumstances. Thanks for the report.

Sounds like you made the most of a very unorthodox cruise. Good for you. We board the Magic this Sunday. :)

Sounds like you made the most of a very unorthodox cruise. Good for you. We board the Magic this Sunday. :)

You will have a blast! Hopefully Maria will not effect your sailing.

We did try to make the best of it even with the worry hanging on our shoulders.

The shows were good, the comedians funny, and the games both in the lobby and on the sports deck fun!

I was on this cruise as well, but felt alot more stressed. We had heard we were being dropped off in Port Canaveral a day earlier than expected with no way to get home (due to evacuation, there were no flights or rental cars or even gas for that matter). We had flown into Orlando originally. So we spent one morning in line for the computers or watching the internet on the computers spin only to get to purchase a flight it was sold out. Then the next day we are told we are going to New Orleans, so we spent that morning in line for computers again trying to find a way home from there.

My husband and I were travelling without our kids to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was not the relaxing trip we had hoped for, but I'll agree with OP that the staff on board was top notch. Service and attitudes were excellent. We did feel grateful that our home was not in the path of the storm, but not being able to get a call out to our families who were worried about us was stressful. Even with purchasing a day of the internet package, it was worthless with all of the people on it.

I know it's cheaper, but we will never sail during hurricane season again.

I'm so glad that you made lemonade out of lemons! I love the positive attitude!

Thatks for the report. Odd that they would print the full stateroom number on the keycard.

Thatks for the report. Odd that they would print the full stateroom number on the keycard.

Evidently it is common practice on cards issued on extended cruises. Just wrong!!!!!

Thank you for the review! I will be boarding in a little over two weeks to who knows where! We were supposed to go E. Caribbean but that wont happen. I dont care where we go just as long as its a full 7 day cruise. I was wishing I was on your cruise once i heard it was extended. Sadly, we miss Dr E by one week :(

Thank you for putting this together.

Keith

Thank you for the review! I will be boarding in a little over two weeks to who knows where! We were supposed to go E. Caribbean but that wont happen. I dont care where we go just as long as its a full 7 day cruise. I was wishing I was on your cruise once i heard it was extended. Sadly, we miss Dr E by one week :(

Dr E really was great. Funny and very upbeat!

We always joked about being "stuck" (i use that term jokingly) out at sea and getting an extended cruise, but it is entirely different when your home is in the direct path of what is keeping you out there.

thank goodness we had very little damage but it was stressful and put a damper on our fun.

I should add that coming out of NOLA the seas were extremely rocky. A lot of people never even came out of their rooms. seas didnt calm down until we were almost to cuba.

Interesting that you're selling signed cards expired. We were extended by 2 days (originally Monday, Docked Wednesday) and our sail & Sign cards aboard the Sensation did not expire. Maybe its a over 48 hour thing?

Sent from my VS995 using Forums mobile app

Interesting that you're selling signed cards expired. We were extended by 2 days (originally Monday, Docked Wednesday) and our sail & Sign cards aboard the Sensation did not expire. Maybe its a over 48 hour thing?

 

Sent from my VS995 using Forums mobile app

I'm not sure. We were originally supposed to port on Saturday September 9th and our Cards expired for access to our rooms Saturday at midnight.

I'm not sure. We were originally supposed to port on Saturday September 9th and our Cards expired for access to our rooms Saturday at midnight.

Maybe someone forgot to take care of it onboard.... Things happen.

Sent from my VS995 using Forums mobile app

 

We always joked about being "stuck" (i use that term jokingly) out at sea and getting an extended cruise, but it is entirely different when your home is in the direct path of what is keeping you out there. .

Understood totally :) Im in North Ga and got really lucky. I never lost power because there are no trees around and all our electricity is underground but it was a mess around here and power is just now getting restored to everyone. We were never in danger of the direct hit but the winds even up here were really bad. 1.5 million in Ga lost power and thousands of homes were destroyed by trees. So glad to hear you didnt have much damage. Thanks for your review. Im excited about going on Magic again in a couple weeks to where ever we go. Gonna miss Dr E though.

First I am so glad your home was undamaged.

Thank You. We were all extremely lucky!

You made the best of a very stressful situation. So glad your home had a little damage. My yearly family & friends cruise was scheduled to be on the Magic 9/9. We had to cancel because of the evacuation of the hotels & shuttle. My group is praying for all the people involved in the hurricanes🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾.

You made the best of a very stressful situation. So glad your home had a little damage. My yearly family & friends cruise was scheduled to be on the Magic 9/9. We had to cancel because of the evacuation of the hotels & shuttle. My group is praying for all the people involved in the hurricanes🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾.

Thank You! So sorry about you having to cancel your cruise!