nybumpkin

We sailed two cruises this summer, two different lines (one Carnival), both with info uploaded to Verifly. No one asked to see either our cards or the app with our data.

I hope you enjoy Phantom! We've seen it twice, once on Broadway and once a tour production. It's not my favorite musical story-wise but the special effects are really good and the first notes of the organ music in the overture get the adrenaline going.

We trust you. It's a lot of the other tourists that create problems. In fairness, though, NYers turn into tourists when they go on vacation. My complaint about folks stopping in the middle of the sidewalk to take a picture? There were a fair number of NYers on Magic two weeks ago doing the same thing on the pier. 🙄 Some years ago I was at the Penn Station stop on the Seventh Avenue subway when I saw an older couple off to the side, looking confusedly at a map. I went up to them and asked, "Where do you want to go?" They were trying to get to the ferry for the Statue of Liberty. I figured the easiest route for them was the 1 train downtown to the end - not the fastest, but the easiest. If you want the fastest, you'd take the 2 or 3 train to Chambers Street, then cross the platform to the 1 train - but I figured I'd just add to their confusion by making that suggestion.

And don't stop in the middle of the sidewalk to take a picture!🙄

I really enjoyed your review. We're sailing Pride to Norway next year. Sailing without kids in tow is different, but enjoyable in a new way. Like you, though, I'm hoping for one more "luggage-palooza."😃

We just did this excursion two weeks ago. We had a great time. Photos and discussion are in my review: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2875107-carnival-magic-nyc-august-3-11-2022-the-last-of-joe-farcus’-designs/.

Just to clarify: The National 9/11 Museum and Memorial is open; it's the 9/11 Tribute Museum that has closed.

Just for the record, I went to Guy's not once, but twice on this cruise. A lack of bacon and mushrooms wasn't going to stop me.😃

Onions were there, and so were potato sticks. While I was disappointed with what was available, it didn't stop me from going to Guy's twice on this cruise.🙂

Just had Cheers. While we'd never manage 15 alcoholic drinks in a day, including coffee and soda made it worthwhile.

Just underwear, shorts, and tops. Nothing dressy.

Teatime was 3:00-4:00. We arrived at 3 and found the service to be good.

It worked for us last week. Best Platinum perk available.

We had a P/D party on our Magic sailing out of NYC on August 3. We had servers walking around with drinks, and they were plentiful.

We used On Point for our August 3 cruise and used the "free" tests. No problem. We're Eastern time and scheduled the test for 9:30 am; the proctor was in California. We thanked her for the early time.😉

Hope you and Patti enjoy your trip on Legend, Jeff! Bermuda and Canada, correct?

We don't spend time in the casino, but I did get some drinks at the bar. I think it was mostly soccer. I do have a funny story about sports in Red Frog - they were showing Cornhole. Doug Flutie (hi, Buffalo!) was on one team, paired with someone who plays regularly; not sure who was on the other team. Flutie's team won.😃

They charged us for it. Wasn't worth it.

Looking forward to this, Greg! Just a word about taking the 7 train to Citi Field - it's an interesting cultural experience. You will hear many languages spoken. Queens County is said to be the most culturally diverse county in the US. We took our two younger sons from Grand Central to Citi Field several years ago and they were amazed.

So What’s Next? We’re still working through everything from 2020 and 2021 that had to be rescheduled. As I mentioned at the outset, this cruise replaced a 2020 Carnival Radiance cruise. Next up is a 2023 Norway cruise on Carnival Pride that replaces a 2021 British Isles cruise. And after the cruise on Pride ends, we’ll be spending a few days in England before going to Southampton for a TA on QM2, that replaces a TA we had scheduled with the 2021 Pride cruise. Although our kids are grown and not vacationing with us, we’re not done with Carnival – although I expect that we will start looking at more off-season cruises that are a bit quieter. And I’m not about to say “never,” but other than dining venues I don’t see us using the bells and whistles of the newer, larger ships. We’ll keep an eye on the new(er) Costa ship that is supposed to be sailing out of NYC. Or we might look at sailing out of California – haven’t done that yet. We’re also branching out. Before the pandemic, we spent three weeks on the QM2, which had always been a bucket list trip for me. (If you’re interested in my take on QM2 as a dyed-in-the-wool Carnivore, my post is here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2684218-a-platinum-carnivore-sails-on-cunard/#comment-58023215). In 2021, with no mainstream cruises available, we took an American Cruise Lines voyage out of Seattle, around the Puget Sound. It’s an older crowd and you really just use the ship as your hotel from one port to another. We enjoyed it enough to book another for 2023 – a Grand New England cruise out of Boston. And another postponed trip we took this year was a Viking River cruise on the Danube. (Timed that one right, as we went before the water levels dropped.) We’ll probably look at another in the future – DH would like to visit the Iberian Peninsula. Bottom line is, Carnival will probably remain our “go to” mainstream line, but there are lots of other places we want to visit. Thanks for reading, if you’ve made it to the end. Happy to answer any questions!

Carnival Magic Magic is the last of Carnival’s Joe-Farcus-designed ships. Having sailed on many of the older ships, I thought Magic was pretty tame, design-wise. Lots of aqua. I found lots of nice places to hang out, primarily around Ocean Plaza (our hangout for cards) and the aft Lido deck. The Lanai is very nice, a great area for walking or sitting outside to enjoy a drink. (The Lanai isn’t quite as great if you have a deck 6 or 7 balcony – you will have company on your balcony. Overall I thought the ship was well cared-for. Food Food is very subjective, and we didn’t sample everything. Here is what we did try. Main Dining Room: We had early seating in the aft dining room. Our preference is set dining, and early works well for us. We were usually done in about an hour. For the most part I thought the food was good. While I have never felt the need to order multiple appetizers or entrees, other at our table did. I will note that the lobster on the first elegant night was disappointing – I had a small tail, a small helping of the mushroom risotto, and one – count it, one – broccoli floret. The waitstaff brought a second plate without our asking for it. My other observation was that many of the beef cuts were tough. The seafood was good, though. We had breakfast/brunch in the MDR twice; the food is much better than the breakfast at the buffet, but it does take longer. And if you really need your bacon fix every day, this is your place. Lido: I thought the buffet lines were “meh,” although I certainly never lacked for anything. For breakfast I usually went with grapefruit, a croissant, and bacon if it was a bacon day. DH pronounced the scrambled eggs in the line to be inedible, but he had the cook do scrambled eggs for him at the omelet station (once the lines for omelets settled down) and they were good. We used the specialty lines for most lunches. Had Guy’s twice – while the burger was good, I was disappointed that they cut back the available toppings. My “go to” burger use to be a Plain Jane with cheese, topped with bacon and mushrooms and one of Guy’s sauces. The sauces are there, but the bacon and mushrooms were no more. Also did Guy’s Barbeque once – it was okay. Had the Seafood Shack once, and the fried clams and fries were very good. Both they and DH’s fish and chips were $7 extra. We went to Mongolian Barbeque once; most days the line was way too long. When we went the line wasn’t terribly long – but a number of people in front of us were placing orders for multiple people, which slowed everything down. It was a very good lunch, though. Beware of the Szechuan sauce – it’s hot. On the last sea day we tried he deli, since the line didn’t look long. Unfortunately, looks were deceiving; again, many people were ordering for multiple people. I was disappointed in my sandwich; I ordered the turkey and avocado sandwich from the menu and the cook didn’t tell me until after he prepared the sandwich that there was no avocado. If he had told me when I ordered, I would have ordered something different. Steakhouse: As has always been our experience, it did not disappoint. Tea time: There was tea time on all four of our sea days, although we only went to the last two. They had two sandwiches – cucumber and smoked salmon – and a variety of sweet offerings, including scones with cream – my favorite. I don’t care for the “Art of Tea” selections they offer for a charge – I thought they were too weak. Next time I’ll bring my own Twinings. Beverages Coffee Bar: The only place we’d have coffee. Since we bought the Cheers package coffee (as well as soda) was included. Most mornings DH would get mochaccinos and I would get lattes, then find a table at Ocean Plaza to play cards and drink coffee. The line can get long, especially when you have people who – you guessed it – are ordering for multiple people. Regular Bars: Very good to excellent service at all venues we visited. The Red Frog on Deck 5 was never crowded and we enjoyed talking with the crew there. We also loved the outside seating area. I’m very partial to the Chipotle Martinis from Alchemy, and I enjoyed three on this cruise. Then there was the bar service on the aft Lido – loved them. We had a server who knew that DH liked Bloody Marys and Diet Pepsis and that I liked gin and tonics and made sure we were not without until we said “enough.” As for the value of Cheers – Neither of us would ever have 15 alcoholic drinks in a day, but when you combined what we did drink with coffee and soda it did pay for itself. Entertainment We started out the cruise with Ryan Rose as CD. He handled embarkation and the muster drill, and did the welcome aboard show. The next morning he did the morning show and said “hi” to us as we played cards in Ocean Plaza. Then he disappeared, and entertainment staff member Cheeky Charlie took over for the rest of the cruise. I figured he had become ill. Cheeky Charlie isn’t quite at a CD level yet, but she was nice enough. We didn’t go to the production shows or comedy shows. We already saw two of the production shows and DH just isn’t into the comedy. Most of our entertainment was music, and we enjoyed it. During the day, we went to some of the trivia games, which were enjoyable as long as you’re there just to challenge yourself and have fun – not to win. There were cheaters in the mix, as I noted on HMC day. We didn’t spend much time on the Lido deck other than to play a game of miniature golf and do some people-watching. They had Dive-in Movies going, which were way too loud and didn’t interest us. Cabin 7365 The OBC we had from the canceled cruises allowed us to upgrade from a regular balcony to an Ocean Suite. The extra room and the tub in the bathroom are very nice to have, and this cabin had more than enough storage space. I Made, our steward, took great care of the cabin. No, they don’t offer you twice a day service (we opted for morning), but I Made would always ask us in the evening if there was anything we needed. We sent laundry out once (greatest Platinum perk there is), and I Made made sure to ask that everything was returned okay. The one drawback of this cabin is that it’s directly above one of the Lanai whirlpools. Twice we had groups take it over for long, loud parties, which cut into our enjoyment of the balcony. The Hub App I’m a Luddite. As DH says, technology flinches in terror when I approach. I was perfectly happy with the paper Fun Times and menus. I don’t like QR codes and I don’t like walking around with my phone. Having said that, I developed a love/hate relationship with the Hub App. On the plus side, you had everything in one place – menus, activity schedules, etc. You can order things like room service and Seafood Shack with it. You can request a table for breakfast or brunch with it. Even I found it relatively easy to use. On the minus side, I found myself looking at it in the cabin and deciding what I wanted to do and eat before putting my phone in the safe so I didn’t have to carry it around. And in writing reviews like this, it would have been nice to refer back to a printed Fun Times to give the names of the bands we saw. However, if you’re a diehard paper fan there are printed daily schedules available at the coffee bar and they will give you menus in the dining room. We did not get an internet package. Since we made the move to a triple-authentication login process, I can’t log into my work e-mail when out of the country. (I’m sure there’s a way to do it – but I’m retiring at the end of the year, so it’s moot at this point.) It was nice to just detach for a week. When we were in the Dominican Republic DH used our AT&T international plan to call our son and make sure all was well.

Day 8 – Debarkation It was pouring rain when we reached NYC around 6 a.m. Debarkation began around 7:00 for people with early flights, and we debarked shortly after at 7:15. We were through Customs, in our car and driving up the West Side Highway by 7:30 – and home by 9:45. This ends my “What we did” section of the review. Next up” What I thought.”

Day 7 – Last Day at Sea I felt movement during the night as we sailed off North Carolina, and the morning was overcast with storms in the distance. Not a surprise, as we’ve often had heavier seas off Cape Hatteras – and our oldest son, who lives in Virginia Beach, later told us that the weather had been lousy for a week. For us, it cleared up fairly early. We didn’t have to do much to disembark, since we decided to do self-assist. Having a suite gave us priority. More time playing cards, lunch on Lido, and afternoon tea again. A last dinner in the dining room, complete with “Leaving on a Fun Ship.”

Day 6 – Day at Sea On the way back to NYC, another lazy sea day. I wanted to try the Seafood Shack for lunch, and you can order using the Hub App. The app will let you know when lunch is ready. I had the clams and DH had fish and chips – both very good. At 3:00 there was tea time in the aft dining room. (Apparently it was also scheduled the first two sea days and I missed it. It was listed on the App under food, not “Things to do.”) As always, a nice experience – although I’m not fond of the Art of Tea selection they offered. I found them too weak. This was the second elegant night, Again, I thought most people dressed well, and the dinner selections were fine.

Some photos from our made-up sea day. I did find the ship's coin. If you've found it on other Fincantieri-built ships, it won't be hard to find.