Willdra’s Magnificent Carnival Magic July 9-16 Cruise

Hey Ya’ll! I have been a low key cruise info stalker for a long time, so I felt that it was time for me to give back or pay it forward, depending on how you want to look at it! My husband and I have been cruising since 2003, and this was our 24th cruise. We are the parents of 2 adults who are 26 and 20, so we can pretty much cruise anytime throughout the year. We mostly cruise at the end of May and the middle of Oct though. We live in GA, so it’s an easy drive to lots of ports. Especially since my husband does all of the driving!

Here's me taking selfies and NOT driving! :)

So let’s rip this band aid right off shall we???

This cruise was to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. Initially we had some reservations because well it’s JULY, which means that everybody and their grandmother would be traveling! So if we were going to do this, we would have to practice patience and get our “Zen” on months before the cruise. We also had to consider the fact that since it’s the dead heat of summer, this trip may be pricier as well. OK….. maybe we can do an inside cabin instead of the usual balcony to offset the cost. In the end we decided to Suck it up Buttercup and take one for the team!

Fast forward to Friday July 8 then just sit right back and you’ll hear a Tale, a Tale of a fateful trip (not that one, another one!)

Oh and going forward because this is my story and because it’s easier, I will refer to my husband as “W”, my brother is “T” and my sister in law is “K”. Or sometimes I will be Gladys Knight and they will be The Pips, depending on my mood!

Day 1- W and I arrived in Port Canaveral around 4:30. We were staying at Country Inn and Suites right by the Port which was extra convenient. We checked in and unloaded, then went to Walmart, because really what’s a trip WITHOUT going to Walmart??? Next we hit up Ron Jon, and finally we got our grub on at Grills. We shared the Voodoo Wings, and I must pause here because those wings were EVERYTHING! One bite and I wanted to jump up and high five 6 people!!! I had the Shrimp Cuban, and W had the Grilled Shrimp with Rice Pilaf and Vegetables. Everything was really good and the prices were reasonable as well. I also tried the Summer Breeze cocktail and it had a little kick to it. When we got there, the hostess said the Wait Time would be 30 minutes, but it was actually around 15 minutes for the inside. Parking is horrible so expect to circle around a few times during Peak Times.

The Voodoo Wings from Grills

The Shrimp Cuban

The Shrimp and Rice Pilaf

After dinner, we retired back to the hotel as we were full, fat, and happy! Once we got back I suddenly remembered being told at the front desk to look for coupons for Grills and Ron Jon in the kiosk in the lobby. Ummm why did I not remember this BEFORE we left the hotel?? So naturally, I HAVE to look now to see what I missed out on right??? We found the Grills Coupon but not Ron Jon in the little kiosk. Ok no biggie, maybe it wasn't even worth it to begin with. I look at W and say “I’m glad we didn't waste a bunch of valuable vacay time looking for a coupon to save a buck”! Then we walked around the hotel and checked out the huge pool area and workout facilities etc. As W was opening our hotel room door, he noticed that the Ron Jon coupon was actually printed on our room key! Cue forehead smack and humongous eye roll! Talk about hiding in plain sight! Who really looks at their hotel room key??? Not us apparently! So after laughing at our poor attention to detail, we just messed around the hotel, rearranged our luggage for cruise check in, and watched I don't know what on TV until bedtime.

great start:)

Full, fat and happy. I already love this review. :)

We haven't even started our first carnival cruise but I already know I want to go on Magic out of of PC for our next. Luckily we live just down the toll road from Canaveral.

Awaiting the rest!

:) lovin it already

Looking forward to more.

This one is extra long because a lot happened!!!! If you are just in it for the thrill of Cruise Ship Pictures, which I totally understand because I have been there myself, it won’t hurt my feelings if you scroll down and keep it moving. On second thought though, it will hurt my feelings a little so try to hang in here with me!

I woke up and went to gym around 8:30. I took the elevator back upstairs, and that's when I got my first glimpse of this:

When I got back to the room, W was up and ready to go. He even brought some breakfast for me upstairs because secretly he didn't want to have to wait for me to get ready and then go find food, and then take more time to eat it! Hey after 23 years of marriage, you learn a person’s patterns! This however led to me showering and eating standing up while watching the Women's Final of Wimbledon until it was passed time to go. You see, I told W to change the channel since we were recording it at home, but he didn't which forced me to watch Serena win her 22nd Grand Slam Title! It was ALL his fault that we were now running late! LOL I was so happy after that, and I was literally walking on sunshine! I imagined the song "Happy" was playing for us and birds were chirping and flowers bloomed everywhere that we stepped. This was starting to officially be The Best Day Ever!

We finished getting our gear together to check out and catch the shuttle. I went to front desk while W went to check us into the shuttle queue. Divide and conquer and all of that! I stepped up to the desk and gave my room number. After a lot of keyboard tapping, knitted eye brow confusion, and a few sighs, I was told that my reservation was canceled. Huh?????? Wait. What? We stayed in the room, the key cards worked all night and this morning, and we had zero issues plus I never received any email that stated my reservation was canceled or anything. So I was asked for my credit card to swipe again. Alright no big deal, maybe. I immediately start some deep breathing exercises. I remembered the happy song and the birds chirping, flowers blooming, I'll be on a cruise in a few minutes euphoria and handed her my card. She swiped the card again. Then the whole procedure of confusion occurred again. The Rep told me that there was no way to retrieve the reservation after it was canceled and that I would receive an email stating that the room was free. We would pay zero for the room. Now I am skeptical at this point because that made absolutely no sense but whatever as long as I was not charged twice I am ok. By this time W came back and said the shuttle was waiting for me.

We boarded the shuttle around 11. It's about an 8 minute ride to the terminal. Our shuttle pulls up to the unloading section, and our driver opened the door to a Sheriff's Deputy telling us “Nope you can't unload there's a suspicious piece of luggage in the terminal! We are evacuating the area and the terminal, and we are waiting for the Bomb Squad to come. You can park over on the side by the Disney Fantasy”. Hmmmmmm Well we want to be safe and be in one piece for the cruise right? So he goes over to the side where we can wait and see. I notice that K and T are in their car right in front of where we were so I sent them a quick text telling them we were behind them and what was going on because they didn't know. A few minutes rolled by then K and T called and said it was going to be an hour. Apparently they were speaking with an officer who was posted up right where they were parked so they got the inside scoop! An hour rolled by, Then K and T called and said they were told that it would be 2 more hours because the Bomb Unit has to initialize and come thru. Our shuttle driver said "I'm not about this life" (not really though because he was like 100 years old) and leaves the port to take us back to the hotel. I really think that he had to go to the bathroom because he was a "mature adult" and his bladder probably had a serious time limit. We get back to the hotel but he tells everyone who was getting off the bus to come right back because when we got the all clear we were heading back.

Here we are making the best of our new Shuttle home!

Meanwhile K and T were still there sending us pictures of the various activities underway at the port. They needed a potty break as too (remember T just turned 50), so they went in search of some decent facilities. Around 2 we head back to port and when I tell y'all it's a zoo, that's an understatement! We waited in the shuttle again just trying to fight back through the traffic for maybe 20 minutes then the shuttle parked and we all cheered before we got out! Every little step closer to boarding at this point was cause for celebration! I must also mention that my uber super excellent good mood was officially over and against my own free will, I was hurled, propelled, no catapulted into full fledge B-Mode (this B is not for Beast either)!!! Don’t get me wrong, I am not mad at Carnival or anyone doing their job that day. I really appreciate all of the efforts that went into keeping us safe. I am just frustrated, hot, and hangry!

The porters were waiting for us and they checked in bags right from the shuttle. I got our docs out and ready because surely we would be going through the normal boarding process from this point on right? Wrong! We were herded to a parking deck to wait because they wanted us out of the sun. What the mess???? Cue wall slide, another huge eye roll, and throw in a corner cry!!! Then I suddenly remembered that we may have a way out... You see this is our 20th Carnival Cruise which means that the word "PRIORITY" in bright red letters shows up automatically on our boarding passes and luggage tags!! Yesssssssss!!!! I could feel the Happy coming back from earlier as I walked over and asked about priority boarding. The Happy abruptly exited stage left as I was told nope go over there and wait with everyone else. Ok.......... So we waited about 30 more minutes. Now right here is where I started feeling like we were starring in our own version of "A series of unfortunate events"! Would our whole cruise be spent in this parking garage line!?!?! Is this what I had my eyebrows waxed and my toes pedicured for??? No bueño! I know one thing, I'm sending my bill to the suspicious bag carrier if so!!

The Parking Deck Line

Tantrum over for now. Moving on....

We were given water and told that it wouldn't be much longer. Now let me pause here to say that we were communicating and posting with our group on Social Media also during this whole ordeal. It was awesome that we were sharing information because some of the members didn't have a clue what was going on since they were driving in and they were just sitting in traffic. We had other members already on the ship and even members who were in the terminal getting processed when the "suspicious bag" was spotted.

When they returned from their potty run, K and T were sent to Terminal 5 to wait but they were told they couldn't use their phones so they were just sitting there thinking they would go at any minute. We heard an announcement that Terminal 6 was reopened and that boarding would proceed as usual and that they will start with Diamond/Platinum etc..... We saw shuttles and buses that had just pulled up let out directly into the Terminal. Ummmm ok then, maybe they didn't get the memo to go to the back of the line, which was clearly not their fault. There were buses, cars, taxis, and shuttles everywhere so it was mass confusion. Our line started moving but then we realize that we just replaced another long line into the Terminal and that we were going to be there waiting in another line about a mile long. So impatience got the best of W (which remarkably took awhile), and he asked about Priority Boarding again. The agent agreed to show us to the Platinum line and we were walked to it. When we got there other people saw us and they started getting out of their line and jumping over to Priority. W told a lady that this line was for Platinum/Diamond/Faster to the Fun, but I reminded him that this was also the "Mind your own business tour" and he sighed and turned around. So we checked in and were onboard about 15 minutes later. The Terminal was more chaotic than any terminal I've ever seen. Ever. Once we fought our way through, we went to our cabin.

We dropped off carry ones then went to Guy's and there were no lines anywhere for any food because there were thousands of people outside waiting to get on.

Yesssssssssss!!!!

The almost empty Lido

Meanwhile K and T, who are also Platinum, were still fighting their way from Terminal 5. By the time we finished eating they were boarding. Of course we then had a late muster drill and late sail away which was around 6. After the terrible awful, the rest of the day was relatively quiet. Thank goodness because my eyes were tired and they needed a break from rolling them all day!!

These are our "We are on a cruise" smiles!

Funny! Love it already.

Awesome !

Looking forward to seeing more.

Awesome report can't wait for the rest.

We all had reservations for dinner at Cucina at 7:30 because of the free carafe of wine on the first night. Do we even need another reason??

We had arancini, calamari, and eggplant parmigiana for appetizers. For our main course I had spaghetti carbonara, W had sirloin with potatoes, K had Shrimp with side of spaghetti, and T had Chicken Parmesan.

Our waiter, Ferenc also brought more appetizers and another carafe of wine while we were waiting for our entrées. This of course earned him major cool points, a nice tip, and an honorable mention on the survey! Carnival please promote this man!!

Here's some of the food. I didn't get it all because I was dining with a bunch of savages who attacked the food as soon as it was put down, as if they had not eaten in months! Real talk though, somebody needs to check to make sure Ferenc still has all of his fingers! :eek:

Calamari

Arancini

Spaghetti Carbonara

We went to martini tasting at Alchemy which is always delicious! Ioachim is an excellent Alchemist!

The Alchemy Bar is located on Deck 5 in Ocean Plaza:

Here are the choices for the Martini Tasting:

It was soon time to go to the welcome aboard show. Rev. Dr. E puts on a good show! He works well off of the audience!

Next, we left and went to the comedy show. After the day that we had, laughter was mandatory to cancel out the bad juju and obvious voodoo curse on our heads that day! The comedian was good, not great and he was more for the mature crowd. His name is Mike Speenberg.

Then it was back to the cabin and bed.

I thanked God for allowing us to take another cruise and for getting us through all of this day with a happy healthy marriage still, AND there was no trauma to our face or lips!!! Success!!!

Thank you so much!!!!!! That really means a lot!!!

great start:)

Thank you!!! :D

Full, fat and happy. I already love this review. :)

 

We haven't even started our first carnival cruise but I already know I want to go on Magic out of of PC for our next. Luckily we live just down the toll road from Canaveral.

 

Awaiting the rest!

Thank you a ton and you will LOVE The Magic. We are on her again in October and I am really looking forward to it! Oh and I am super jealous that you live that close!! ;)

:) lovin it already

Thank you so much!

Funny! Love it already.

I appreciate that! Hopefully it will get better as it goes along. I am a work in progress!! ;)

Awesome report can't wait for the rest.

Thank you! I am so excited that I finally pulled the trigger, I will have to force myself not to stay up all night editing my next post!:)

Thank you, Great start can't wait to read more. We will be on the Magic September 10th. Gary:o

Thank you, Great start can't wait to read more. We will be on the Magic September 10th. Gary:o

You are going to have a blast! The Magic is now on my list of favorite ships!

:D

I'm absolutely loving your review. Can't wait for more. We will be sailing in the Magic for Thanksgiving.

Great review! Looking forward to the rest.

Awesome subscribing:)

[emoji3]

Enjoying, looking forward to more.:)

Loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to share. My husband and I will be sailing on the Magic in August. :)

Subscribing! we had to change out of a B2B next year on a fantasy ship, and we chose the Magic for Halloween 2017, so I want to know all! Thanks.