Honolulu Blue

I was on the Magic two weeks ago. I liked it. The ship to be in good shape from what I could see. I was on the Horizon in early 2019, when it was nice and new. It's currently my favorite Carnival ship. I don't care for PC and I'm wary of the Mardi Gras' size (while acknowledging that it has more places to dine and things to do). I would pick one of the Miami pair, but I'll defer to others about what they think is best for your group. Whatever you decide, have a good cruise!

I'd like to make a few updates to this thread that may be of interest to some of you: Creed and Sixthman announced a second 90s music themed cruise with most of the same performers. It wasn't quite my thing, and it sold out almost as quickly as the first one. Entertainment Cruise Productions (ECP) earlier this month announced a 90s cruise of its own that will be sailing early in 2025. This lineup I liked better, and I decided to book it. I think it will be fun. There are a couple of groups that are hosting fan cruises for the hottest music performer on the planet, Taylor Swift. Both are very clear that Ms. Swift will NOT be on any of their cruises and they're NOT authorized by her, her posse... er, organization, or her official fan club. These are all partial charters; one of them mentioned they will have about 200 cabins on Allure OTS, which is less than 10% of the cabins onboard that ship. Ultimately it's not my thing (though I'm intrigued by the expected demographics... 😈), but it sounds like a really good time for those who are intrigued enough to go.

Thank you for stopping by to share this. I'm sorry about what happened to your father. I went through some of his posts. He was a good guy. ❤

I was on the Magic in mid November and I got TWO surveys - one regular one and one from the casino. I have always received a regular survey on my Carnival cruises (lucky me), but this was my first casino survey. I didn't have a lot to say, as I didn't spend much time there.

It was fun to see. I was on the Magic last week on deck 4 when I saw it.

Thank you for the story, the pictures, and the link. I continue to be speechless about this.

Not on Carnival, but I used three $500 gift cards on a Princess cruise that was canceled and the payments were refunded back to those cards. I only kept one of them; I had thrown the others out. I called the Princess gift card department and was able to get them replaced. Close call, lesson learned. 😿

I received a similar email and purchased a shuttle to the port (Galveston), which discounted the premium Internet I purchased along with it. Or it made the shuttle virtually free, whichever way you want to look at it. And I was able to use part of my hefty OBC for all of it. Win-win-win. Thanks Carnival. 👍

I was just on the Magic last week and I will be on the Dream in 7 weeks. After that, I don't have any Carnival cruises booked, and I am unlikely to book one any time soon. My booking preferences are similar to yours, and as good a cruise line as I think Carnival is, I can't justify the prices they're asking me to pay three days. I'm avoiding the XL class ships because I think they will be too big for me. I suspect eventually I'll get on one.

I'm bringing in the Chief on this, @chengkp75. I am shocked and appalled that ANY crew member on ANY cruise line would actually GIVE OUT a surge protector for use in a passenger cabin. Maybe I'm missing something and this is NOT a strip with a surge protector. But it sure looks like one to my untrained eyes.

I hope everyone here had a happy and filling Thanksgiving. I wanted to take a little time to muse on the fact that it's very likely in 2025 I will be on three different music charters featuring music from three different decades. I've told you about the UDC; disco ruled the mid to late 70s. I just booked my spot on The 90s Cruise last week. The one we don't know about yet is The 80s Cruise for 2025. I don't expect to hear much about it until February. At this point I would say there's about a 90% chance that I will book it. ECP could book a lineup that I actively hate. They could sail from a port that I refuse to go to. There could be a conflict between its sail dates and another cruise or something else in my life. None of them are very likely, but we'll have to see. Anyway, I heard some chatter on both my UDC/TEC doubles the past two hears that others have joined me. No confirmation, but I believe someone other than me pulled of that tricky double. This would be even trickier - three different cruises, three different cruise ships (probably), three different music styles, three different sets of themes. I'm looking forward to it. 👍

You've received some good advice here, but let me tie things together: * I don't know of any cruises with only single people, whether in solo cabins or bunking together * I know of at least one agency that bundles singles together on certain cruise ships. The groups on each ship number around 100 to 200. * Most of the mainstream cruise lines that I know of have solo cruiser meet and greets at various times on their cruises. They tend to be open ended, unhosted by crew, and poorly attended. But maybe the one you show up for will be the exception? * I haven't seen any cruise line do any serious romantic matchmaking among its singles

Thanks, everyone, for your kind words. Small note... I not only got my usual general cruise survey, I got a survey from the casino about items specifically related to gambling. I've never received a survey from them before and I'm surprised my tiny amount of play interested them enough to spit out a survey, but I was happy to fill it out.

You're welcome! I should note that I didn't spend any time at the Alchemy Bar on my cruise.

Last week I cruised on a line that I hadn't used in close to 4 years.

Today, November 20, was the day StarVista Live promised they would make a decision the future of the UDC. They did, making an announcement on their site. The UDC is officially a go for 2025! Yay! They said that 55% of cabins have been sold so far, which seems a little light, but if TPTB are happy with it, then I'm happy. They also promised additions to the lineup. I'm looking forward to them.

Thank you for your kind words. I'll be boarding the Dream on the same day you'll be boarding the Magic. Enjoy!

Thanks for your perspective and thoughts. I had a porthole on the Magic. It was port side. I can't explain why it was so loud and shaky when I've had cabins on other ships in similarly forward positions but even lower and didn't hear or feel anything like what I had here. No real lessons, except if I go on the Magic again, I'll go closer to midship or switch to starboard. I'm sorry for your PA experiences on the Oasis OTS. I've been on Mariner and Navigator and the PA was fine, typical cruise experience I'd say - not very loud in the cabins when they're not broadcast directly there, but otherwise clear. I haven't ever done room service on Royal, but I have a few times on Celebrity. Both the food and the delivery times were all right. All times were before they added their delivery charge, which I would assume would make delivery times faster. Maybe not? The room service on Princess went straight down the toilet, IMHO, over the three cruises I've had on them and the 1 1/2 years between them. It went from 10 minutes for a delivery to 1 1/2 hours for a NON delivery. Of course, the capacity percentages went from 30% to 70% to 100%, and that I'm sure had a lot to do with it. Have fun on the Mardi Gras!

I assume they didn't make you fill out and submit Customs declaration forms. I remember those from the good old days, and I don't miss them a bit. "How much is that ship on a stick worth?" indeed. 😬

As a nobody that deals with billion dollar companies on occasion, I've actually have good results contacting the person at the tippy top of the company. I never get a reply directly from el jefe, but my letters/e-mails get to the right person, get read, and I usually get either a response or a resolution. The president serves as a public face of the company; I as a lowly consumer can't be expected to know the name(s) of the executive in charge of the person that did me wrong, and I expect a letter addressed directly to the scofflaw or his/her boss will end up going nowhere. We have a winner. I was impressed with the work they did in spinning their decisions on the buffet to us in the cheap seats earlier this year. And I've been impressed with several, more specific issues chronicled here that they actually resolved. This is LLP's team that I assume LHB has inherited.

I haven't read the other replies here, so I apologize for repeating any facts that others have mentioned. I'm recently off the Magic. I thought it was a good ship with good crew that took good care of me. It also had a lot of public places to sit and rest or whatever. For some reason, I liked the Magic better than her sister ship the Breeze. I haven't been on the Vista, but I have been on her sister the Horizon. That one is currently my favorite ship in the Carnival fleet. I don't like PC much and prefer to avoid it as much as possible. If it were my $$$ and my choice, I'd choose the Magic.

I was last on a Princess ship out of Galveston in April. Embarkation was S-L-O-W entirely because I had to pick up my medallion at the terminal and just about everyone did the same. Disembarkation was fast, despite it being the one scanner that didn't recognize my pretty face. 😃

All right, time for a TL,DR about this whole cruise. I enjoyed myself a lot. I liked the shows I saw. I liked the food quality. I generally liked the service I received from the crew onboard. I liked the places I went to and was pleased with the amount of surprised they held even though I didn't do much within them. I liked and respected most of the other passengers. After over 3 1/2 years away from Carnival, I have to say that overall I think they're pretty much the same as they've always been. This surely was NOT a Disney cruise, but I didn't want that anyway. Thank you for reading and looking at the pretty pictures.

Interior shots: From the main casino on 5 From the library. They also had some games and a couple of computer kiosks. The space was a little snug, but tough to photograph cleanly due to its odds shape. The main theater during the Fun Aboard, Fun Ashore presentation Play It Again Sam piano bar, one of my favorite hangouts during the day when everyone else was everywhere else Not strictly inside, but another place I liked to hang out was outside on Promenade deck (5). This part is near the piano bar: From the nonsmoking casino on deck 4: Spotlight lounge, used for comedy, the Platinum party, and other things. A look at Northern Lights, one of the main dining rooms, but here used as the staging area for Diamonds and Platinums who chose to self-disembark.

I finally got the time to come back to this. 18. On most ships I've been on with Carnival and beyond, I've struggled with hearing announcements in the cabin that weren't broadcast directly there. But not on this one. I could hear Mike and Captain Bruno quite well when they made their announcements. However, there was a price to this - those announcements were PRETTY LOUD when I was out in public areas. 19. We didn't have any announcements about (presumably) missing passengers until we got to Cozumel. Then we got one from an increasingly stressed crewmember in Cozumel - the last of which was even broadcast to the cabins. A few minutes after that, the engines started and we were off. I wonder if they found them. 20. Speaking of things that were LOUD, I had an exceptional amount of noise and shaking in the room from what I assume were the bow thrusters that were used to get us in and out of ports. I was on deck 2 on this cruise and at times it felt like I was right on top of the thruster or engine. I've had rooms on deck 1 before on most of my Carnival cruises and I never felt or heard anything like it. 21. We had 90s trivia in the main theater one day just before a bingo session. This was hosted by one of the Fun Squad staff that wasn't Mike. He liked to move and get into the songs he played samples of. He also encouraged people to sing along to longer versions of the songs that were revealed as answers. Some of them had real talent. One of them did a version of Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" that wasn't too far off the real thing. I'll respect the privacy of my fellow cruisers and not post the photos of them here. I got a decent score (for me) of 21 out of 30, but with over100 guests in the main theater, that score had no chance of being good. And it wasn't; the lucky winner got 27 out of 30. 22. Speaking of 90s, I got a Run-Around worthy of a Blues Traveler song when we were in Mahogany Bay. Mike helpfully announced that there was a HOHO bus on offer as a last minute excursion option. I didn't have any excursions booked because in part the weather forecast seemed rainy. But by the time we got there, it seemed the weather would be clear for a few hours, so I was interested. I was on deck 5 when the announcement was made and Mike said there would be a desk on deck 10 to sell tickets. I went there, and several potential customers were there... but no employee. We waited for a few minutes and eventually an employee (not from guest services or the excursion desk) suggested that we go to deck 3 and the main excursions desk. We got to the desk and some of us said we were interested in this HOHO. The poor guy didn't know what was going on and got on the phone and went into his little office for a little clarity. This took a few more minutes, then we got the verdict - he COULD NOT book that tour at that desk, and if we wanted to purchase it we had two options - go back to deck 10 and buy it from the employee there (if there was an employee there) or get off the ship and buy it on or near the dock area. Neither of those seemed like appealing options to me, so I said thank you and left excursion-less. 24. Speaking of Blues Traveler, they're scheduled to be on a 90s music themed cruise that I heard about and eventually booked while I was onboard. It's not on a Carnival ship, so I won't say too much more about it. It should be a good time. 25. I didn't have any excursions in any of these ports, preferring to just walk around, take in the sights, and shop. Here are a couple of pictures from Mahogany Bay, Roatan... A couple from Belize (we tendered in, as always)... And a couple from Cozumel... We had good weather for all our stops while we were in port, despite some of the pre-cruise weather forecasts. There were some spotty showers at times in some locations on Roatan and in Belize. We also had some rain at times in the evenings while we were traveling. We didn't have any rain in Cozumel. 26. My next Carnival cruise will be on the Dream in January, so it was nice to see her up close. She seemed to be in good shape from what I could see. I'll be back shortly with some interior shots that @tradewinds traveler requested, then I'll do a summary of how I felt about this cruise overall.