nybumpkin

Greg, I've really enjoyed following your adventures in NYC and on Magic - thank you so much. I'm looking forward to your future adventures!

There are two possibilities: Magic is currently sailing from Bermuda to New York (docking Monday morning) and Legend is sailing from Baltimore to Boston (Canada itinerary). They'd both be north of Chesapeake at this point.

27 cruises for me and yes, we saw it - but not in the last 16 years or so. So much with Carnival has changed in that time. Back when we started, they had a topless deck near the funnel. That's been gone a long time. They've really tried to rebrand themselves as a family-oriented line while still attracting adults without kids.

Upstate has a love/hate relationship with NYC. Most upstaters I know like the culture the city has to offer. They like the tourism dollars they bring when they visit. What they don't like is having city people regard upstaters as rubes and hicks and try to tell them how to live. It's not too different from how people in Illinois regard Chicago. "Upstate NY" is an interesting description. Some people use it to refer to everything north of White Plains. Yet I have friends from northern NY who think Albany is "downstate." And don't even ask about Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo.

I didn't see a single Ship on a Stick last month on Magic - everything was "Bling on a String."😃 I think there was 6 trivias each day on Magic, at least on the sea days.

I don't think they pay any attention to what you choose. We didn't check the "shared" box either and that's where they put us. Fortunately it turned to be a good fit for us.

Just my thoughts on self-disembark in NYC. We went for it, but had to lug our bags down from deck 7 to deck 3 - and when we got down to deck 4 there were people sitting on the steps. That's when DH lost it and said rather loudly, "there are people with bags coming down the steps. Get out of the way!" It might not have been as polite. 😉 The theater was pretty much everyone for themselves. However, we were off the ship by 7:15 and through Customs and in our car by 7:30.

At least they were honest.😉

I haven't seen it in years, but early in our cruise career (18 years ago) these photo ops were pretty common when leaving the MDR. I will say I never saw "slobbering men," though. If you see the photo ops today (like the towel animal) going around the ship, you will see that they are accompanied by both a photographer and an escort. It's just in case someone tries to get out of hand.

Certainly much better than I did!

New York is fine for us (but hey, look where we're coming from), but we like sailing from Baltimore as well. Last time we left Baltimore around 7:45 and were home a little after lunchtime. Norfolk? No way. Oldest son lives in Virginia Beach and works in Norfolk, and it's a horrid drive for us. Actually, it's a horrid drive for him as well.😮

That drove us crazy. We found the door in the casino worked, but it's really heavy. If you're trying to manage with a drink in one hand, it's not easy.

It's fun. The holes are mini versions of courses in Scotland, Bermuda, and the US. I'm not a golfer at all (I don't know any type of club other than a putter), but this was different than your typical "putt putt" courses. Plus they have a pretty good bar - or at least they did when we went in 2017.

Agreed. That's probably the most challenging mini golf I've ever played.

If you don't mind walking aft, we always found seating on Lido by the pizza and aft bar. There's an awesome bar server named Ian back there - he knew I liked gin and tonics and DH liked Blood Marys (interspersed with diet Pepsi) and we did not lack.

Thanks for the review! I was wondering what happened to San Juan when I saw on Marine Traffic that Magic wasn't there. We also liked the husband/wife duo in Ocean Plaza when we were on the 8/3 cruise - it became our place to go after dinner. While 5 lobster tails isn't something I could do, I have to say that one plate itself was pretty skimpy. Our servers brought extra plates without our asking.

Did you see Timmy Trumpet live bringing in Diaz?

In all the sailings we've done from NYC I think only one has been on time. We lucked out at the beginning of the month - sailed at 4:45. Still gave us just enough time to sail under the bridge before dinner. But you have a gorgeous day for sailaway! Enjoy!

We did several of these ports on Legend's Baltic cruise in 2013. Tallinn - It turned out to be our second favorite port (St. Petersburg was first, but - no). Walking tours are easy. For lunch, there are many outdoor cafes to enjoy. DH and I split a Baltic herring platter and sons had pizza. The place we visited prided itself on its pizza and sons liked it a lot. Helsinki - We took a Carnival excursion to the town of Porvoo with lunch followed by time in Helsinki. We went to the Rock Church, which is very pretty and has a fantastic organ. Warnemunde - we did an independent tour of Warnemunde and Rostock. Our ship docked in Rostock in an industrial port, so we couldn't just walk off the ship. If you dock in Warnemunde, it's easy to do a walking tour. Copenhagen - I think your tours may depend on where the ship docks. We were fortunate to dock near The Little Mermaid, so we just did a walking tour. My full review with pics is at https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/1814587-carnival-legend-july-3-15-2013-the-baltic-blowout/.

You go to theaters like the Majestic or the Shubert and it's what you expect - but then you go to others and are surprised at the size. Some are much smaller than my high school auditorium. And when you go off-Broadway - that's a whole other story. Greg, I echo other in saying that you're doing more on this trip than I've done in 50+ years of visiting NYC. You've even managed to hit three of the five boroughs - that's impressive!

They know not only that you're a tourist (and in most places that's obvious), but that you're a tourist with limited time in port.

Guy's Burgers and a Funship Special. (Even if Guy's doesn't have mushrooms and bacon at the toppings bar anymore.😃)

Ron Darling used to swear at the planes when we saw him pitch at Shea.

Different location. The store from Big was on Fifth Avenue and closed some time ago.

Lot 666. I sneaked this photo in before the show started.