sfs2001

:)I had a facial on my last cruise and it was very nice. I also loved the Elemis products so purchased some when I got home (they run sales online and free shipping, so no need to buy onboard) She did a great job on my cruise and it was better than the ones I get at home. They do push products but I just told her I would think about it, remembered what she recommended, and then purchased what I wanted online. 6 months later using the products and my skin is looking so much healthier and not as dry....plus the breakouts I was getting (at age 30 plus) and now gone. I am glad I had it done, but since I use the products now I wouldn’t get another one on the ship. Hope you have a great time if you decide to get a facial.

I am sorry your cruise did not live up to your expectations. I have always found finding seats by the pool impossible. The buffet food is just that buffet food, seldom great. We have been on the Magic before as well as the Dream and did find the Dream class more crowded than then Conquest class, but only marginally so. I am pleased to hear how well embarkation and debarkation went. We sail on the Magic a week from today and while we don't expect everything to be perfect, we do expect to have a wonderful time. I do sincerely hope your next cruise is more to your liking.

We are also on this sailing! Super excited to be back on the Magic. 1 week can’t come fast enough for our children, who ask everyday to see the countdown cruise calendar. We had a great time on the Magic in Feb and I expect it will be the same for this one. We are go with the flow people and try not to let small things ruin our time. Nothing in life is perfect, you are right, and our motto is, at least we are on vacation! Have a great cruise!

Shuttles are accustomed to changes in itinerary. I have found them all to be very flexible. They know when the ships arrive so they are usually prepared.

Thanks. It’s a private suv that we arranged to pick us up from the pier and take us to our Disney hotel. I will still have to call and change the time because they do ask that we pick a definitive time for them to pick us up. We don’t need to be first off, but we are planning on hitting the Magic Kingdom as soon as we can once we get to Disney. We just want enough time to not feel rushed but also take advantage of the priority de-embarkation as part of our suite perk.

Thank you very much for all the helpful replies! I don’t know why I have been so stressed about leaving the ships and meeting our driver to go to Disney. I think we will try and see if they can get us at 9:30 and take the advice for having our luggage be raged zone 1 so that we can make it out and find it easier. The last time we cruised, it was so confusing getting off the ship....that I think we accidentally got off at the wrong time. We were like zone 5-6 and felt like we got off with the self assist...even thought people in our group area said they called our boarding zone...anyway, I don’t want a repeat of that. Looking forward to our combined cruise/land vacation in 2 weeks! Hope everyone enjoys their cruises! Thanks again. 😀

We are usually off the ship by 8:00 AM at the latest when sailing out of Canaveral when we leave our luggage out the night before.

So if I change the pickup time to 9:00, we should be fine then? I don’t want to feel rushed off the ship, but I also don’t want to waste time either. I really don’t want to do self assist, because it’s too much with our luggage and the kids. Do they assign you a number for exiting or do you pick it if you are priority? Does that mean you get off before self assist or after? Like a zone 1 or something?

Hi,

Just wanted to try and find out what time you can get off the ship if you have priority de-embarkation? We got an upsell to a suite and I see that one of the perks is priority de-embarkation. We will be leaving in about two weeks from Port Canaveral and afterwards going to Disney World for a few days. We arranged for a private company to pick us up at 10 (that was requested before the upsell) but now we were wondering about changing it to be picked up at 9...so we could get to our hotel in Disney a little earlier. Does anyone know what’s the earliest we could get off since we don’t have a flight that day? Do you pick anytime you like with priority? Do you have to do self assist (cause we can’t do that with 2 kids and luggage) thanks for your help! :)

We got an upsell email a few months ago for our Sept 2018 cruise. We were in a balcony cabin on deck 10 and the email was for an ocean suite on deck 7 for 430 dollars. There are 4 people in our cabin, myself, my husband and our 2 children (ages 5 and 8) We decided to take it for more room. We had debated getting the OS in the first place but the difference was 1100....so for the price asked for the upgrade it felt like a deal to us. We figured 100 dollars extra per person for 4 people was reasonable and we will enjoy the extra room. The kids are excited to be in a “suite” because to them it sounds fancy (our daughter is obsessed with fancy Nancy so she thinks everything with big words sounds fancy lol) Hope everyone has a great cruise! 💜

When we went with our kids, they were 5 and 8 and used the kids club often. When they were there we held on to their ship card...the only time we gave it to them on a lanyard was when we were exiting and entering the ship. Other than that, we held onto the cards so they wouldn’t lose them. We did not have charging privledges for them...if they wanted something, they asked and we decided if they got it or not. They don’t drink pop, we’re fine with the water and lemonade, And the only thing they really wanted to buy was candy...If they weren’t at the kids club, they were with us...so it made it pretty simple. Hope you have a fun time on your cruise!

You will get an email either approving or denying your request. If they approve it, they will tell you the amount that will appear as OBC once you get onboard.

Thank you very much!

I was reading the best price guarantee and it says you have to submit it all within 2 days of booking your cruise. I was going to do it until I read all the fine print.

Thanks. I was looking at the shore excursion best price guarantee. I booked the excursion and then a few minutes later completed the form online for the price match. After I submitted it, it just said your document went through....but didn’t say how or if I would be notified that it was approved or denied.

hello, I posted a question before about kids and excursions (specifically about leaving them onboard and carnival vs other private vendors) and after talking it over with the hubby we decided to do the Carnival shore excursion in Belize. Anyway, I submitted the request for price match and was wondering when we find out if it was approved or not? Do we get an email to tell us the status of our request? I have never done this before and 50 dollars would be a nice OBC, along with the peace of mind....so just wondering how this all works. If it does get denied will they tell you? Thanks very much!! Very excited our cruise is in 2 months! 😀

We decided to do it! We thought why not? I clicked the link and it worked and went straight through to payment. Got an email confirmation and checked on my cruise manager and it shows the new room. With 4 people the extra space in the bathroom was worth the cost. We will be on the September 1 sailing so it might be a little busy for the holiday weekend. Thanks everyone!

Speaking of the suite though, since we never had one...what are the perks? It said something about VIP boarding? Does that mean that we can get on earlier than our 11:30 check in time? Is our room ready when we check in? What about the tender port of Belize? Anything else of importance with the new catagory of room?

I just received an email with an upgrade offer...to go from deck 10 balcony room to an Ocean Suite on deck 7 for 470 dollars total. We will have 4 people total in the room, 2 Adults and 2 Children ages 5 and 8. What should we do? Take the upgrade? Or not? The new room is 7242....if that helps. If we do decide to do it, is the link for the website safe? We have never gotten an upgrade offer and don’t know what to do. Thanks so much! :) Also, does anyone know how long we have to decide?

They are 5 and 8 (who will be 9 a few days after our cruise)

I think we will probably go with the carnival tour for peace of mind....even though it is 50 dollars more.

I was reading about price match on here for excursion...where is that form located? The tours are identical as far as where you go and what not and it would be nice if we could have that.

We felt really comfortable when we went shopping in San Juan and the camp counselors knew that we were on our own for a little bit and had no problems with it. We got them right after we went and then took them to the beach.

Thanks for all the helpful replies so far...I got a little nervous posting my question because I know people can freak out when it comes to leaving kids in camp. 😬😀🙂

Does anyone know the hours that the kids club opens while in port? We are going on the Magic in September and one of the stops is Belize. We tried snorkeling with the kids the last cruise and they weren’t having it. This time we would like to snorkel with the sharks and rays but know our children wouldn’t like it.

We are still debating between a carnival excursion or going with coral breeze for their semi private excursion. Any insight into which we should do if we are leaving the kids on the ship? We are mostly concerned about leaving them and having the remote possibility of our excursion run late. We did leave them on board when we were in San Juan for about an hour while we went shopping to the butterfly people shop. However, there was no tendering and it wasn’t for very long.

Finally, anyone know if we dock at 8 and coral breeze says the tour starts at 8 Belize time, what time would that be ship time? We will be coming from Port Canaveral so I am assuming ship time is 1-2 hours before Belize time. Is that correct?

I am not worried about them being safe onboard while we are out....just want to make sure we have enough time to meet whichever tour operator we do go with. Thanks a ton! :)

After Amber Cove we headed back to the ship. Everyone took a shower and got changed for dinner. Tonight was the steak house and my husband and I were excited to celebrate our 10th year anniversary this past June. Our reservation was at 6 and since we had to drop the kids off to eat with the camp at 6 we had to split up. My husband got lost trying to figure out where to meet the kids club at the Lido buffet...and I was running late trying to figure out where the steak house was. Thankfully I found it, but not before getting completely lost and deciding to take off my heels (seriously walking all over trying to find a restraunt in heels was just a no-go for me) I was so glad to be wearing tights, and even though one guy made fun of me, I didn’t care because it was a lot more comfortable...lol!

The hubby joined me at the steak house (of course he had no problem finding that) and they asked if we were celebrating anything. We said yes our anniversary and they brought over some champagne. We ordered a glass of red wine and looked over the menu.

I had the lobster bisque soup and he had the French onion...both were really good and then we both had the surf and turf. The steaks were cooked perfectly and the lobster was much tastier than the one in the dining room. Afterwards we had the art at the table. It was really nice, the chef does an art project with different deserts right at the table. It was a neat experience and we left totally full. The kids stayed for a little bit at the club and we went to the spa after dinner. We picked them up and went to bed.

We really liked the steak house....and felt it was worth the 35 pp up charge. We would do it again in the future. Dinner did take longer than the main dining room so we were glad that the kids weren’t with us. Not that they don’t enjoy going out to eat with us, but it was nice to relax and enjoy each other for a little bit and have adult conversation without worrying whose getting bored.

That’s it for this day. Next up St Thomas....how did it look after the hurricanes? Plus our night on the ship.

Awesome..... wife & I are going March 2019 and have a spa cabin. Just trying to get all 411 I can. If you have anything more to add I Thank You now....

We really loved the spa cabin. The location was awesome and our room Stewart was the best. My treatments were really nice, but they do really pressure you into buying products....even with the message (which surprised me) Just say you are not interested or you will think it over if you want to be nice but not buy anything. If you do like the products from Elemis then just remember what they are because you can buy them via the internet. The only other thing I reccomend is if it is really windy outside don’t go to the thalleusus pool. When we went the one night the boat was really rocking and it was super windy outside and the water from the pool was going everywhere. It was not relaxing and sort of dangerous because we were thrown all around the pool unless we were holding on. One person came in and started to get into the pool, the waves came and she pretty much fell on. My husband made sure she was ok and she was just embarrassed but decided to get out....we did too. It was crazy...so just be careful of the weather. That was the only time it was like that....but we did have a lot of rough windy weather this cruise

I can't wait to read more. I can just imagine the Italian restaurant experience. Our kids were 4, 7, and 10 the first time we took them on a cruise. The older two LOVED the kids clubs. That never changed. The last time we cruised with them, the oldest had aged out of the clubs and I don't think he had nearly as much fun.

 

I'm just sorry to know that you had a frustrating experience with the spa. Not surprised. Speaking of spa experiences on a ship, the first time I took my teenage daughter to the spa with me, I instructed her to check no for everything and say she had no health or beauty concerns. It was really hard for her to lie and say she was perfectly happy with her skin, weight, stress level, and health. But it works.

Yes it was frustrating with the spa double charging. Especially because we didn’t know it would happen. It just discouraged people from pre-paying for a spa treatment when they don’t know if they will get refunded or not. There was a ton of confusion by guest services and the spa services on when and if the charges would be dropped. Plus who wants to pay twice for a service they only had once? In any case it was finally resolved but not without a lot of leg work on my part....and who honestly wants to stand at GS on the last sea day with 100 other people? Not us 😬

No need to apologize for being a Mother/home maker. It is one of the most demanding jobs a person could ever do and the most important job (JM.02 Cents) Being a mother is work. No quotes required. Looking fwd to the rest of your review.

Thanks. I wasn’t trying to put myself down or apologize for staying home. I just put work in quoatations because techinically I don’t have a job per say but without me staying home things wouldn’t get done. Plus I sell my children’s old clothing on Ebay when our daughter is in preschool....so that’s work. Anyway, thanks for supporting stay at home moms. I know my husband appreciates all that I do and I feel good being able to to stay home when the kids are younger because not everyone can afford to do that. This was the first year our daughter went to preschool-because we felt, just like when our son was her age, that a year of preschool would help them settle into regular school. 😉

Questions about the spa....

1) Was your S&S card your key to enter the spa area?

2) Did you get 20% or 40% off on treatments in the spa?

Yes our sign and sail cards were our key to enter the thallasues pool area. You can bypass the front desk by taking the back elevator all the way up from the very front of the ship to deck 14. From there you just turn right and it’s literally a few feet away. If you are going to for a spa treatment you need to check in on deck 12...they keep your sign and sail card until you are done and then you get it back when you check out.

My husband booked the spa treatments during the Valentine’s Day 20% sale. There was a promo code he had to enter online during checkout. If you book 3 services (only specific ones) you get 10% off the first, 20% off the second and 30% off the third I believe. Although I will mention in my review later the fiasco of pre-booking and paying for the spa ahead of time. What a nightmare. This was the only hesitation that I have about booking a spa appointment ahead of time and pre-paying. What a nightmare when they chrarge you for the treatment again and what a hassle to get them to refund your money. I will talk about all that later.

following along, Great review so far, we are thinking of taking a cruise on Magic (first time Carnival) next year with 12 and 14 year olds. Did you see many this age on the cruise?

Yes there were kids thst age on the cruise. However I think due to the time of year there weren’t as many kids as there normally is. In fact the whole ship didn’t feel super crowded and many people around commented that this wasn’t as full as it normally is. We chose to take our kids out of school so they may had something to do with the lower number of families and children onboard. I know that spring break was coming up in a few weeks for many so maybe people didn’t want to pull their kids out of class right before for a Feb cruise.

Sorry about the delay in my review! Our entire household caught a flu bug and we have been down for the count! Thankfully everyone is on the mend so I will continue on with my Magic review!

Monday-Amber Cove port of call

Today was our first port of call-Amber Cove. We had gone back and forth on whether or not to do an excursion with the kiddos. We were thinking about the dolphin one or a beach day-but the beach reviews were not that great and our daughter wasn’t old enough for the dolphin swim....so we decided to just check out the free pool area and hang around the port.

We got up early and ate a quick breakfast before heading out of the ship to the port. There were signs about spraying yourself with bug spray before exiting the ship and there was a station there with the bug spray so we decided to do it. Not sure what the concern was and after that port we didn’t see the bug spray stations but we figured better safe than sorry.

We got outside the ship and took a semi long walk around the dock instead of paying someone for the bike transportation. It wasn’t too bad of a walk, but if you are not able to walk there were a ton of people with bikes to help get you to the other end of the dock. We got some really cool pictures of the ship from the outside and our son took some neat photos too.

You have to pass through the duty free shop to get to the pool so we checked it out for a bit. My husband was looking for a new watch and found one he liked. He decided to think about it and we went to go explore. We saw the small waterfall and the replica amber statue and took some cute pictures. Afterwards we made our way to the pool.

It wasn’t too crowded when we got there, although all the front chairs by the pool were taken, we were able to find a spot on the outer side. You could tell it must get pretty busy there because there were tons of chairs....like an endless amount in seemed. We decided not to pay for an umbrella because we found a spot under a tree that had a little bit of shade.

The kids had fun in the pool. We brought their own life jackets from home (which were a pain to put in the luggage and took up a ton of room) but were glad that they felt comfortable in their own jackets to swim a lot. The pool area was nice, but normally we are not big pool people on cruises. Before kids we would have liked to explore the island and spend time at the beach-but they were totally good with just swimming in the pool.

We ate lunch while near the pool. There were tons of servers and our food came quickly. We thought it was pretty expensive but the thought of going back to the ship to eat just felt pointless. We had some fajitas, French fries and Dominican crab for lunch and everyone was full afterwards. The food was pretty good-minus the fries-but the kids love French fries and it is vacation after all.

The kids checked out the splash area and saw some friends from the ship. They had a great time in that area and between the pool and the splash area they had plenty to do.

We saw the zip lining from overhead but didn’t check it out as the kids weren’t old enough to do it. There is also games, like basketball to play....so there’s plenty to do for children.

After that we went and explored the shops. It was pretty basic and not a lot to see, but I did find a store with some neat souvenirs so we bought a couple things. We also found a pharmacy, which was really helpful since our daughters ear hurt from getting water in it. Pretty reasonable cost-like 3 dollars so if you need something from the pharmacy you might want to check it out.

When we left my husband ended up buying the Nautica watch-he was happy, although we found out later on board that it needed a new battery....which was really upsetting since he couldn’t use it while on vacation. It was a good price, no tax but we really thought it should have come with a working battery. Next time we would make sure the battery works before buying and if not make them change it there or not buy it.

As a side note everyone needs to show their sign and sail cards when coming back from the duty free store. They don’t allow you to exit the store without showing your card. We saw one guy get detained and he tried to explain that someone else in his party had his card and they were up ahead. They told him he needed it to get through and when he asked to go get them himself they refused. I am not sure what ended up happening but he seemed pretty upset by it.

Anyway that’s all for now. I will continue later about the rest of the evening and dinner at the steak house.

In closing I don’t know if I would go back to Amber Cove. Sure the kids were happy swimming in the pool-but for us that’s not the reason we go on cruises. We love to explore the island and it felt like the only way to leave the port area was to pay for an excursion. We are not ones to pay for a ships excursion.....we would rather arrange our own. After all the ships excursions are generally more expensive and more crowded. Maybe had we have taken an excursion we would have felt differently about Amber Cove. Don’t get me wrong, the pool area is nice but it felt manufactured. Not the genuine Caribbean experience we usually look for. For us this port felt like a one and done type of deal. In any case it was a nice day and we were glad the kids were happy!

I'm really enjoying your review! My two boys are the same age as your kiddos, and my older son has an anxiety disorder as well. I'm really happy to hear how much your son enjoyed the cruise, I've had some worries about how my boy would do, but it sounds like the kids club is really engaging. We did a Disney cruise with our kids last summer and my older son did great, I had my fingers crossed that it would go well on Carnival and you are putting my mind at ease!

Yes the kids club was awesome. There weren’t too many kids this sailing, which was a good thing as the staff knew their names and seemed to interact with them pretty well. Our son loves the free time when he got to play video games because we don’t have that at home. (He has a Nintendo 3ds but no big video gaming system)

Our daughter loved the arts and crafts and the group activities. At first our son was hesitant to go in, but after the first time he went, literally was asking all the time to meet up with his friends. He saw them around the ship too and got to play basketball and other games with them on the sports deck. It was nice that they both got to do things that they enjoyed!

Day 2-Sea Day!

Continuing onto the next day. I was lucky enough to have an amazing husband who got me a facial and a hot stone massage booked for the morning. He originally scheduled me a sea weed wrap and massage therapy appointment but I had to cancel that due to my surgery a few weeks before. Anyway, I regularly get massages at home for my lower back and it was nice to compare the two treatments. I have only ever gotten a facial once at home as a Christmas present from my parents. The facial was really nice and I did buy one product from them, which I can buy online when I run out. I am already seeing improvements to my skin and even though it was pricey I am glad I bought it. (I love taking care of my face so I do go to Sephora and buy pretty good facial products anyway). Thr husband and kids slept but were awoken by a phone call asking where I was for my massage and the hubby freaked for a moment thinking I was missing, but really they got the time wrong. Due to the error I only got a 60 minute massage instead of 75 minutes and try had me schedule another 30 minutes for free later on in the week. All in all the massage was good but next time I would try the poultice one instead. Again she hit the products hard but I said no thank you and she told me to think it over. After that I went back to the room to see if the family was there.

Everyone had eaten breakfast and were getting ready to go to the pool. I decided to wait and just eat lunch in a little bit and hang out with them at the pool. We had a good time, but again the water was too cold and we watched as the kids had a good time. Some little kid pooped or something in the pool because it was brown and they had everyone get out. We decided to eat at the lido buffet and then drop the kids off at the kids area to play.

The hubby and I went to the spa area and went into the thelassas pool for a bit and relaxed on the heated tile loungers. It was nice to just have some time together before we went back to get the kids.

The kids had a great time at camp and couldn’t wait to go back. They were in two different age groups...our daughter was in the younger one and our son was in the middle group. I believe tonight was the night of the glow party....but honestly can’t remember.so I will talk about it, but it might have been the next night.

We got ready for dinner. The first formal dinner of the cruise and we were totally lost on how to get to the dining room. We ended up waiting in line for the Southern Lights dining room but were directed to go to the Northern Lights. No biggie. As we made our way down there we stopped and got some

Formal pictures and ended up buying a few digital copies later on in the cruise.

We had the early dining time at 6:15. We met our server and he was really nice, but you could tell they had a lot to do....he seemed rushed and busy, but still our food came out pretty quickly. Dinner was really good, although not the best lobster I have ever had...but pretty good considering they have to cook for so many people at one time. The greatest part of the dinner was when they stopped to sing and dance. Our children love the movie Trolls and the song was Can’t stop the Feeling. They were excited, singing and dancing and jumping up and down. Our server got our children and a few others in the area up and had them dancing and singing in the middle of the room with him. We thought it was sweet and they were having a good time...although I could see how some might not care for that part of the dinner. After that our server went right back to the serving our desert and then it was time to leave.

I believe this was the night of the glow party but I am not certain...it might have been the next night. Also I can’t remember if tonight was the love and marriage show. In any case I believe it was so we dropped the kids off at camp after changing and went to the show. It was funny but the newlywed couple was obviously very drunk (the guy) and were just crazy. I don’t want to offend, but telling everyone you just had sex in the therapy room of the sp that day was def too much information. Other than that the show was good and we laughed with Dr E as he did the show.

We picked the kids up from camp and they had a great time. The glow party was a ton of fun and they got lots of goodies to take home. They each made friends and couldn’t wait to go back. I guess it was going to be harder to get them to do things with us as the week progressed because they always seemed to want to check out the kids club each day and were disappointed if we picked them up too early.

Our sea day was relaxing and fun. We are not big drinkers and don’t like to stay up too late so we never went to any clubs or the bars at night. That’s it for day 2 of the cruise. Tomorrow we move on to our first port of call Amber Cove! Thanks 💜❤️💙

Too funny, not only were we on the same cruise but right next door to you in cabin 11246.

That is too funny! Hope our kids didn’t bother you that week. We constantly had the talk with them to keep their voices down and not talk so loudly (especially our son if he gets into freak out mode...he worries a lot about time and if we are running late he really freaks out) So again, very sorry if the kiddos ever bothered you 😬