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We are kindred spirits, then! I look around my mountains and they are beautiful. I love them, too, but there’s something about that expanse of water! Thanks so much for reading along. There’s definitely some impressive water still to come!

Ok, super jealous! Lol. Thanks for reading along!

Magic – October 2022 Disclaimer: This is more of a “story” than a “review”. This isn’t a list of things I liked and things I didn’t. This is, instead, the story and photos of our cruise. I have shared our thoughts and opinions. Those thoughts and opinions might be different for someone else who was on the very same cruise. That’s OK! Everyone is different and everyone has a different way of telling their story. This is mine. If you prefer a more “technical”, shorter review then I’m not at all offended if you skip this post (or posts) altogether. If you prefer to start reading on the first cruise day, I hope to have that posted tomorrow. But if you, like me, love to read the start to finish adventure and look at the pictures then you are MY people and I’m honored to have you read along. There were big wins (really!) and small losses (boo!) but all of these work together to create our “story”. So….without further ado…….here is MY long Magic (to Bermuda) story! It was a dark and stormy night….and day….and night…and…you get the picture. It rained our entire cruise to Bermuda in 2015. It wasn’t just a little bit of rain. It was RAIN. Continuous and soaking RAIN. It was my one and only trip to Bermuda. Shore excursions were canceled. The ship rocked for days to the point that the drawer in the nightstand beside the bed opened and closed until we finally stuffed a towel in it to make it stop. Lots of other passengers were seasick. Although we did explore some on our own, we really didn’t feel like we “visited” Bermuda. Time to change that! If you haven’t read any of my other reviews, let me take a minute to introduce you to myself and my husband. We are Ron and Michelle, and we live in the beautiful mountain state of West Virginia, just a few miles from the southernmost West Virginia/Virginia border. I am a real estate appraiser and own my own business. Ron, who is also an appraiser, is the Appraisal Services Manager for a regional bank chain. It is sometimes difficult for me to find time to take a vacation during typical vacation months. Since I am self-employed, I tend to “make hay while the sun shines”……literally….while the sun shines, since spring and summer tend to be my busiest times. In light of that, we often take our vacations on the off seasons….January, February, October, November…whenever we can make time to get away. This would be our 11th cruise, ten of which were with Carnival. (The only trip I ever did on Royal Caribbean was that trip to Bermuda.) As I was saying, although I had a good time on our first Bermuda cruise, I would have loved to visit Bermuda when it wasn’t raining buckets. That opportunity presented itself this year. West Virginia isn’t exactly close to any ports unless we drive multiple hours. On every one of our other ten other cruises, with the exception of one, we flew to our embarkation city. This time, Carnival was offering a quick four-day trip to Bermuda out of Norfolk, VA. That’s only about six hours away from us. Better still, we could sail over the Columbus Day weekend, which meant that Ron would only have to use a couple of vacation days instead of a whole week. Sign me up! We had been in the Port of Norfolk once before when we toured the USS Wisconsin. We didn’t realize that the building we were in was next door to the cruise port for Norfolk. In the month we visited the Wisconsin, there were no commercial cruises scheduled. Interesting that we’d already been there once and didn’t even know it! We booked the cruise on the Magic, I joined the Facebook group and started reading on Cruise Critic. I quickly discovered that parking was apparently a very real problem in Norfolk for cruisers. (Turns out it wasn’t but I was going on the information I had at the time.) The parking lot for the cruise terminal is called Cedar Grove. It is about a mile and a half away from the Nauticus/Half Moone cruise terminal. That doesn’t sound so far but it’s a pretty good hike if you’re carrying luggage. According to the website, parking is $15 per day. Again, not terrible. The problem apparently rises with the difficulty in getting from the parking area to the cruise terminal. I had read several stories about people cruising from Norfolk who waiting on shuttles for an hour, huge lines for shuttles and general problems with transport from parking to the ship. Additionally, there were reports of vandalism to multiple cars that were left there during a few cruises. Given that information, we decided to search for a hotel that would allow us to leave our car on their parking lot for the duration of the cruise. I can see that one advantage to flying to the port is you don’t have to figure out what to do with a car. A bit of research revealed that the Holiday Inn Express would allow me to leave my car on their lot during the cruise. I called to confirm that fact. They were super nice. They readily agreed that they regularly had cruisers who left cars there with no problems BUT they did not have parking lot security and would not take responsibility for anything that might happen. Sounds like a plan! I booked directly through the hotel and the rate, with taxes, was $198.56. Not too bad considering that I wasn’t paying for parking at the port. Time ticked by. All of our “lasts” were finally here. Last day of work….last report that had to be delivered….last time to do laundry. Finally, it was time to pack and head out! Woo hoo! Bermuda is one of the few places that still requires testing. We were traveling the day before our cruise, as normal. We left home on Wednesday, Oct 5th. The testing requirement for Bermuda was a little more lenient than the past Carnival requirements and allowed up to 4 days before. We opted to take the tests right before we left. October 5th – Travel Day Wednesday morning we were up bright and early. I always have trouble sleeping the night before we leave on a cruise. It’s kind of like the first day of school. I’m too excited to sleep well! As before, we used the eMed tests. We basically got up, got ready, took tests and walked out the door. Easy peasy! We were on the road by 8:30. First stop was Tudor’s Biscuit World. Tudor’s is a very small chain with most restaurants in West Virginia. Their biscuits are HUGE and delicious. I am one of those people who constantly has to fight with a weight problem so I seldom let go and eat things like a Tudor’s biscuit with bacon and cheese. When I’m on vacation, I give myself permission to NOT care about my weight. Instead, I’m going to eat everything in sight and all the things I’ve wanted to eat for a while. Time to let off steam! I’m on vacation! My vacation starts the minute I walk out the door, so a biscuit was definitely in order. We ate breakfast while we drove. We were just enjoying some time together to talk about nothing and everything. It’s hard to find that time for conversation. Driving is the perfect time to catch up. With a drive time of about six hours, stops for gas and restroom, then lunch, we finally arrived at Virginia Beach about 3:30. The temperature was in the low 60’s. Beautiful day for a drive on I-77 Going into the Hampton Roads Tunnel Up out of the tunnel and you can see military ships in the distance I love the ocean. I love the beach. I love the surf. If I’m at the beach, I’m going to walk in the surf even if it’s cold. I’m like a 6-year-old in that respect. (It would be a shame if I was required to lie down on the sidewalk and throw a tantrum but fortunately, Ron is an agreeable human and didn’t argue! He’s smart like that! As long as HE didn’t have to go into the surf, he was fine.) We drove into the town of Virginia Beach and found public parking. We then walked out to the boardwalk. Ahhh….there it was! It even smelled “right”. It’s hard to explain and I’m sure many of you have lived near the ocean but for me, the first sight, smell and touch of sand is one of those “perfect” moments. Maybe different people see different things, but I see the hand of God and a perfect creation. I see that here in the mountains, too. I suppose all of us are awed by the things we don’t see every day. At any rate, I love it. We made it to the boardwalk! Looking out toward the Atlantic. You can't quite see Bermuda from here.... A ship in the distance You could tell that the water had been up over the boardwalk because of the extra sand. Hurricane Ian had blown up the coast the week before after decimating poor Florida and I suspect the high water and sand were from that storm. We walked for a while just enjoying the beach. We stopped at the pier for a minute but didn’t pay to walk out on it because we weren’t going to be there very long. We just talked with each other…sharing our memories of being there over Thanksgiving in 2020 and just enjoying the rare opportunity to be together without the demands of work. In addition to being my husband, Ron is my very best friend. There’s no one else on earth I’d rather spend my time with. I took off my shoes and socks, rolled up my pants and off I went. The sidewalk was cold. The sand was wet and cold (Imagine that!) It was definitely cold! I didn’t want to stay long but the important thing is that I DID go into the surf. It was a moral imperative! Ron wisely busied himself taking pictures so he would not be caught in the fray or the spray. Heading into the surf...wearing a long sleeved shirt, sweater AND jacket! It may not be the best idea I've ever had, but I'm doing it anyway! This is cold! One last picture for posterity and I'm finished After just a few minutes I couldn’t stay in the water any longer. I walked up to a bench, pulled some Kleenex out of my backpack that I’d brought for just this occasion, cleaned up and put my shoes back on. Mission accomplished. Let’s go find dinner! Swimming always makes me hungry! We knew there was a Cheesecake Factory just a few miles down the road, so we headed that way. I really like Cheesecake Factory! The closest one to us is probably Charlotte, NC, which is 3-4 hours away. If we have an opportunity to go, we usually take it! I’m partial to their pasta so we each ordered a different pasta dish and tried both dinners. I ordered chicken Romano and Ron ordered chicken alfredo. Both were really good, but we were only able to finish about half. I had asked Ron if he wanted to just get one dinner and halve it but we wanted different things. It was too bad we couldn’t take it home but….no way to do that. We took a piece of cheesecake to go. He opted for a mango, and I got a peanut butter cup. So many options! So many calories! Fortunately, it’s vacation and calories don’t count right now. We drove about 20 minutes to our hotel; Holiday Inn Express. As I had said earlier, I had called ahead, and they had agreed to allow us to leave our car there for the duration of our cruise. We checked in an went to our room. We got a king suite. It was very nice. There was a living room, bathroom (of course) and separate bedroom. There were television sets in both the living room and bedroom. It also had the typical refrigerator, microwave and coffee maker. I had nothing that I wanted or needed to microwave and neither of us drink coffee so we put our cheesecake in the refrigerator and settled in for the next 15 hours. We watched a little television, ironed clothes and ate part of our cheesecake. We lead exciting lives. LOL More to come..........

Oh yay! Another Willdra review! I'm a little late to the party but so excited to settle in and enjoy the ride! We're on Sunshine in February so I plan to tuck away some information for future use...as well as be entertained (as you do so well)!

So enjoying your review! Thanks for taking the time to write it. We’re headed to Bermuda on Magic on 10/06. Can’t wait!

Yay, another Jamman review! We’re off to Bermuda in 3 weeks and i’m glad to read both your and Greg’s reviews before I go. It’s been quite a few years since I was there. Looking forward to your review!

I’ve been waiting and wondering about this! Lol

Ugh, that would be the worst! Keep us posted! Looking forward to your review as well. I’ll live vicariously through you and Greg until my turn in Oct.

Pictures and review are fantastic! I didn’t know that I really needed to visit and sail from NY until now. Lol

Do they use eMuster on Magic?

Carnival Magic i visited the battleship there several years ago. I’m anxious to go again! It’s a nice area...at least, as I remember it.

We’re sailing out of Norfolk for the first time in Oct. it’s actually closest to us. Hoping for a good experience!

Can anyone recommend a glass bottom boat tour in Bimini?

I feel your pain. I recently decided I didn’t need the PVP as I did better on my own.

I’ll be watching for it!

I’m really, really REALLY late to the game this time but it’s always a good time for a Jamman review! Thanks for doing this and looking forward to the next one!

Thanks everyone. That was kind of the direction I was thinking but wanted to be sure I wasn’t blowing it out of proportion. i never used a PVP at all and was totally fine with it until COVID and it basically took an hour or two on the phone every time there was price drop. Has that changed? Are the wait times better now?

For the first time, we used a PVP to book our next two cruises. Since one of our cruises is a group cruise, a couple of other couples also used her. At first, she was very attentive and answered emails with a day. As time has gone on, she has been slower and slower, sometimes not answering at all unless i’ve emailed a couple of times. Last week while trying to snag a price drop, she accidentally canceled my booking and didn’t tell me. I found out the next morning when I got an email from Carnival. I called and emailed multiple times and she finally got it rebooked. In doing so, I lost my stockholder on board credit and have had to reapply. My question is this... am I being too critical? I’ve probably only contacted her 3 or 4 times regarding the two cruises, should I request a new PVP? .

We did the pasta class on Mardi Gras. There are pics and description in my Mardi Gras review from Jan. It was so much fun! I can’t wait to do another one!

Were you allowed off the ship to wander freely? How long did it take to get your Bermuda travel authorization? Were attractions, restaurants, stores, etc open? What was their mask policy? Thanks so much! I haven’t been to Bermuda in years. We are supposed to go in Oct but i’m always on pins and needles that they’ll change our itinerary to Nassau again!

I’m anxious to hear about recent experiences in Bermuda!

We did it last October. Loved it! Blue Lagoon isn’t much good for swimming but if you like sea creatures, it’s fantastic!