elisabethr_21

Any pictures of your 4J cabin? We have one in October...actually, I think it's the same one. Pics are hard to find.

 

Thanks,

Gina

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures at all, being that I couldn't find any at all before we left. There was too much fun, I guess :) The closest I saw was on cruiselinerooms dot com, and I looked at the Dream. As far as I remember the rooms were pretty much the same.

So I just got another discount code from EZ cruise parking, good til 7/31:

"Anysail" good for $10 off.

For those of you getting ready to go, I am so jealous! You will have a great time!

Loved the review! We are counting down to Sept. How was the noise level staying on 10 at night and your friends on 9th fl. We have been on the Magic twice and stayed midship on 7th. This time we are in 9456 in the rear of the ship with a balcony. We wanted our Son closer to camp carnival, but didn't consider trying to go to sleep at some point with the 10th fl bar/kids above us. Anyone advise please. Looking forward to it either way, love the Magic!

 

 

 

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Our noise level at the front was non-existent. There was none at all, which was awesome. I just loved the room (especially since it was a little larger and the bathroom was larger for sure), I planned on taking some pictures to post but got busy (i.e. too many drinks :p) and forgot. The "Secret" deck was a great thing to have if you don't want to pay for a balcony. Besides sail-away, we saw one person, yes ONE, the whole week out there, and we were out there quite a bit (even when we weren't supposed to be :eek:) And it was really nice having our friends right below us- we could just run right up/down the stairs to meet up (plus we could tell when they were coming when our curtains were open.)

As far as the noise on 9 aft, I bet you'll be fine. I think the kids club is on 11 or 12 so it's not right above you. The aft pool is back there but is usually not too crowded or noisy. I would book back there and not worry.

I know it's all in how you look at it, but even with a disappointing anniversary dinner in the Steakhouse, this trip may have been even better than our honeymoon. It was for sure the best vacation we've had in a long time!

Soooo looking forward to this review. We're on the Magic in October! May I ask where you got the coupon for E Z Cruise Parking? Thanks and looking forward to the rest of the review.

I think I signed up on their webpage- EZCruiseParking.com Its about $10 off. They emailed me a new code last week but it expires tomorrow. :( If I get another one, I'll post it on this thread. I hope you guys have as much fun as we did!!!

Debarkation

Sunday morning we got up to leave the boat :( We decided to carry our stuff off ourselves and were all packed to go by about 8 a.m. Getting off was fairly smooth (we were expecting the nightmare we had getting off the Conquest in 2011, when it took several hours) but we were at our car by 9:30. Going back to one of my earlier posts, I was glad I got all those extra forms for our extra "son" because the customs agent did ask for the minor permission to travel form. If you're taking a kid that's not yours, make sure you get one! I found the one I used by searching these forums.

I now greatly miss my room service grilled cheese at night, having someone make my bed and turndown service at night, having someone to cook for me (although now I'm back on a diet after gaining about a pound a day)... I miss is it all. This was, all in all, one of the best, most relaxing and enjoyable vacations we have taken.

Because I got full use of my Cheers card :) this review has probably been a little disjointed and fuzzy. Sorry about that. I will gladly answer any questions if you have any. Thanks for reading, and if you get the chance, try out the Magic! It was great!

Friday and Saturday- Sea Days!

I'm just putting these two days together because they pretty much just run together. We hung out, went down water slides, swam, got in hot tubs (if the ones on Lido are full, go to the sides of Deck 5, they're usually better), ate just about everything (chocolate buffet was BOMB!, salad bar and taste bar on deck 5 are great, deli is pretty good and pizza is decent, unless your almost at your Cheers limit- then it's Amazing!). My son and I had some mommy-and-me time, mostly b/c everybody wanted to stay in bed until noon or later. We laid out, swam, played Bingo (he won $75!) and went to Tea Time. Now this was something I had never heard of before but it's kind of fun and I better little girls would LOVE it. They let you pick your tea out and serve tea sandwiches, macaroons, espresso cake, strawberries and cream... it was pretty cool.

We also got our last minute shopping it- if you like liquor, buy it here- I got a big bottle of Kahlua for like $20 and I would've got a crapton of Bailey's if had had more $. The hubby got a 3-liter bottle of Crown Royal (which he's keeping at my inlaw's :o) for $75, which is a steal for us. Cigarettes are also a steal- I think Marlboros are $125 for 5 cartons, which is stupid cheap. At some point you have to start paying custom taxes but we never get that much.

Thursday was an, well, interesting day. Super fun, but like I said, I'm kind of a mess.

I woke up early- about 6- to go run (ok, jog pretty slow) on the track on Deck 12. I think 7 times around is a mile, and it was pretty cool to watch the sun come up in the Bahamas while suffering through my Couch-2-5K program. Made it a little less miserable. After that I went down and got ready for the day, we went to a quick breakfast and got ready to go.

I had pre-ordered our Atlantis excursion through Carnival, and I thought that you could leave at any time and there were shuttles running back and forth all day (give me a break, we did go there on our honeymoon but it's been 5 years!) By the time we got outside it was probably 9:30. Someone had the bright idea to look at our tickets, which said to meet at 7:15 in the theater. Oops. We were directed back to the theater, where we were lucky to still get our wristbands (the huge groups was actually not that far in front of us) and got back outside. We were lucky enough to be able to catch a ride with another excursion group and we were on our way.

That sounded way less painful than it was. The whole thing sucked. If you buy an excursion, look at your tickets. Meet where you're supposed to when you're supposed to. Just do it. It's way easier, I promise.

So we got to Atlantis and had a ball! I chickened out on the "Leap of Faith" slide (if you don't know what it is, youtube it) on our honeymoon and I promised I would do it this time. I sat down, *almost* chickened out but didn't. It was the single most terrifying thing I have ever done. Ever. I screamed bloody murder the whole way down, got out and thought I was having a heart attack and couldn't stop my hands from shaking. It's possible I'm just a wuss though, because we saw some kids who I swear were only 3 and they were going down, no problem.

Anyway, the rest of Atlantis is awesome, the lazy river is awesome, the slides are awesome, the DIG is awesome... I could go on. The only thing not awesome is the prices, whether to get it or food or drinks, but it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing so we went for it.

After catching one of the last rides back to the ship, we had another great dinner, another great night. More drinks, more casino (more losing) and more fun!

NEXT UP- Day 6 & 7 - Sea Days!

Wednesday we arrived at Freeport. The port looks pretty dumpy- I think it's a shipping area or industrial port or something- but if you get away from that it can be pretty great. When we came here on our honeymoon we did the Catamaran Sail and Snorkel, and it was phenomenal! Since we still hadn't been to the money-suck that is Atlantis, we were still trying to be thrifty and planned our own day.

We got a cab after just getting off the boat, and even though the guy wanted to take us to Junkanoo Beach, we got him to take us and another group to Port Lucaya. After arriving there, we walked just up the street to the Grand Lucayan Resort, which I had heard was the best on the island. Let me tell you, it was AWESOME!!! The cab was $10 per person round trip and the day passes at GL were $15. Not too bad compared to some of the outrageous excursion prices.

There are several pools at the resort (but poolside bar service is a little slow :() and they directly overlook the beach and the beautiful ocean. We let the boys roam the beach area (it's not super huge so it was way easy to find them) and the grown-ups went to the pool. The water was a little cold but we got used to it and just relaxed... AHHHH... it was the best.

Even better was when we got out and went down to the ocean, and I swear I could see to the sand even with water up to my thighs. I bet with snorkel gear or even goggles you could see all kinds of cool stuff. The water was warm, waves weren't too awful big (just big enough to be fun) and the whole day was so relaxing. Just sitting on the beach, watching everybody play in the water and have a good time... Yes I am now daydreaming of going back!

The straw market is just across the street from GL so after a while we went over there, looked around some and had lunch. My vacation theory is to try to eat like the native people (within reason) and had the fresh grouper and some little restaurant in the shops. It was soooo good. Wish I could find some around here like that, guess I better keep dreaming.

We caught our cab back to the boat and had another one of those nights- hung out, possibly played (and lost) in the casino and just relaxed. One of my favorite hang out places was the Red Frog Pub. There is a guy, Bradley, who plays guitar and sings in there and he is AWESOME! He can do most any request and keeps the atmosphere fun. They have different drinks in there too, plus food for a small cost (that I never tried). Just a vacation-kind-of-place.

Tuesday we woke up and we were at Key West! I was excited to go there but my husband, who grew up in Florida, said not to get my hopes up as it is not that awesome. We were both kinda right.

After another really yummy breakfast (get the eggs benedict!) we tried to get off the boat soon after we cleared customs. What a mistake! We stood in the hallway, inching down, with like a million other people for at least an hour. It was hot, stuffy and very crowded. I'm not sure what the deal was because we didn't go down until they announced that they were ready to let us off. We finally turned the corner to where they "ding" your card and all got off.

For Key West, we were trying to save money since we were planning on spending more in the Bahamas, so we decided just to sight see. Maybe that was a mistake, I don't know. Duvall Street is kind of like Bourbon Street, or Beall Street, or one of those "bar, bar, junk souvenir store, bar, bar..." streets. Fun to see once but now I'm good. We did stop at the Ernest Hemingway House, which I loved (being a writer and also loving cats) and the Southernmost Point, where there was another line to take a picture with that dang buoy. We were so not standing in another line. So we made our way back and ate lunch at an Irish Pub- O'Connells maybe?, which had the most amazing caesar salad. The dressing was made in-house and it was delicious. I tried the conch fritters since KW is known for them, and they were just okay. Kind of a one-and-done thing. It was a fun day and KW is beautiful, but if we ever do go back we'll probably swim with dolphins or rent a jet ski or something.

After getting back on the ship, we hung out til time to get ready for dinner.

So like I said, my days get mixed up and I want to go back to Monday dinner- formal night.

I love formal night because I love to dress up like a movie star and never get a chance to. There was just one small problem in my plan this time- I had rented some gorgeous top-name designer dresses (the cost to rent was comparable to what I would have paid to buy something not nearly as nice, and I never end up wearing it again anyway.) There was one small problem- after leaving home, nearly to OKC (about 2 hours drive), I realized I left my pretty dresses in their dress bag on the bed! Oh no! Luckily we just happened to be about 3 miles from the Outlet Shops at OKC (imagine that) and I got something new that I ended up liking better (besides the price tag). We all know first formal night is LOBSTER night, and that was true in this case. But we were all a little disappointed... the lobster was small and kind of shriveled. Still good, just not great.

Back to Tuesday... Another good dinner with fantastic waiters, another awesome towel animal from a great room steward with a name too long for me ever to say, let alone remember, and we ended the night looking at the stars off our "secret deck" Awww!!!!! I know, how romantic :p

Day 2- Fun day at Sea!

So due to the availability of the Cheers program on day 2 (Texas law prohibits it from being sold on embarkation day), the other sea days are a little fuzzy and kinda blur together. I will try to do my best, we'll see how this goes.

Monday morning my hubby was too "tired" to go to brunch, so the rest of us all went. Let me tell you, if you like breakfast food (or food in general) like I do, you have to go to seaday brunch at least once! I had filet and over-easy eggs and they were DELICIOUS! The rest of the group had things that ranged from cereal-crusted french toast (weird and they said the cereal seemed stale), bagels and scrambled eggs. Definitely try something new if you go to brunch, and definitely go to brunch! We got there around 12 but they serve til 1.

After brunch my vampire husband emerged from his lair, I mean our room, and we went to the Lido deck to sign up for Cheers. So here's the deal from what we experienced, since I could never get a clear answer before we left:

• It was almost $700 total for the two of us, for 6 days (they don't charge for day 1 out of Galveston)
  
• They do not go back and adjust for what you spent on day one like I had read, so be prepared to outright pay for what you drink before you buy it (even if it is like $150- ouch!!!)
  
• You cannot buy buckets of beer, even if you want to pay for it. You have to buy one by one.
  
• Souvenir cups are not included, but you can buy them. I wanted a "fish" cup and a coconut monkey head (and several others but the money ends at some point) and the bartender made me buy the whole shebang- drink and all, which was $12 for the fish and $18 for the coconut. Devan also got a coconut monkey but said his bartender charged the drink to cheers and only charged him for the cup. I guess it depends on who you go to.
  
• THEY DO CUT YOU OFF AT 15. But it's pretty hard to get there. I never got there and Jeremy, who is a drinker (mostly beer), only got cut off once, and that was at like 2 a.m. and he needed to be cut off (can we say passed out on the Serenity deck after getting lost coming to the room? :eek: Thankfully I can laugh at that) So don't plan on buying more after you hit 15 because you probably need to stop anyway, but if not they won't sell it even if you ask.
  

So the rest of the day we hung out, swam more, did more exploring, and the little boys (if you call 12 and 13 little) discovered the arcade. I know, they should be outside, and they were some, but here's my advice- set a limit on $ spent, either total or in the arcade. I am so glad we did and they kept to it pretty well, but it could have gotten WAY out of hand if not.

I haven't mentioned dinner yet and our waiters. Sorry to wait so long b/c they were the best! I Ketat was our main guy and the other two (I didn't get names :() were awesome and funny. The shows they put on were always entertaining and funny, our drinks were always full and the food was good. Maybe not super memorable, but good. Except the sushi starter on day 2; if you like sushi, order it! It was delicious. As well as the chocolate melting cake and bitter and blanc- those were great as always too.

Sunday morning we drove down to Galveston, maybe an hour south of Houston. We had pre-paid for parking at EZ Cruise Parking because I got a coupon code so it was less than $50 for the week. Also, the lot is fenced in and monitored which gave us a sense of security. We drug our 15 or so bags (nah, there's no such thing as overpacking) over to the van, where the guys loaded it all up and we drove to the ship!

At the port, things were much easier than they could have been. To start with, my bestie is 19 and pregnant (but married :)), so she had to bring her marriage certificate (the age cut-off is 21 or 25, I'm not sure) and a letter from her doctor stating she is under 24 weeks pregnant. During checkin they did ask for the doctor's letter and kept it, so you may want to keep a copy just in case if you're in this situation.

Trace's situation was a little more difficult. He has no passport so we were using his birth certificate, and we also were advised to get a travel letter of consent that had been signed by both parents and notorized. Well, his dad has full custody and his mother is out of the picture for the most part, so we also needed a copy of the custody agreement showing primary custody. Ah, I know! So much to remember! Thankfully I can be semi organized and only misplaced that travel letter once the day before we left, but I found it! Yep, I'm a mess.

Anyway, while checking in we gave our passports and Trace's BC, and the lady never asked for any of the other (but you will later see that we are still glad we got it all). Pretty painless. We walked over the gangway (is that what it's called?) and got onboard, working our way to our rooms!

We made our way to our rooms. So since I was the one scrimping and saving for this trip and I make chump change compared to my husband's oilfield wages, I had to be semi-frugal. We have done low, midship interiors with 4 people before and WILL NEVER AGAIN! Yes you're still on the ship but it is very uncomfortable.

So this time around, my friends and I both booked 4J rooms- interior with picture window. Ours was 10203, on Lido deck at the very end of the hallway forward, and theirs was 9201, on Deck 9. We soon found out that 10203 is an accessible room, and while I would not intentionally take a handicap room from someone who needs it, for us IT WAS AWESOME! The shower was twice the size of my friends' (about the size if there was a bathtub) and the room just had a little more space to get around. Plus the window overlooking the "secret deck", and just that extra outside access without the cost of a balcony was great. We will definitely book 4Js again.

After sneaking into our rooms (no they were not ready and it was about 12:30, so we snuck in by way of the secret deck. I know, shame on us ;)). We dropped some stuff in the closet, lost the two boys somewhere along the way- yes we had meet up time before muster- and went to lunch at Cucina Del Capitano. It was good, as we are not buffet fans, and free at lunch which is a plus. But we never got back that way for dinner.

For the rest of the day, we explored the ship, suffered through muster, swam and just hung out. Braedon and I temporarily lost our husbands before dinner due to "I'm on vacation and don't know how to control my drinking" syndrome (them, not us) but everything was all good. After all, we are on vacation!

This is my first review and it's been almost a week since we got back so I'll try to do my best. First of all, let me say that the Magic has an awesome crew and we have never felt more welcome! The whole trip was really great and we hated getting off. This trip we were celebrating our 5yr anniversary! I know, I know, why did we bring the kids? Sometimes that's just the way life goes, but it was still amazing and they had a great time.

So my crew is: Me (Elisabeth), my wonderful hubby Jeremy, our 12yr Jackson and his best friend Trace. Also, my best friend Braedon and her new hubby Devan came along as a late honeymoon (but had their own room, obviously :p)

We all live in NW Oklahoma, where my husband hauls crude oil and I am the editor of a small-town weekly newspaper. We all carpooled and drove down to Houston on Saturday. Traffic was not too awful and we made pretty good time, checking into the Embassy Suites Energy Corridor, which I was able to reserve for FREE through credit card points. We checked in and went to dinner at Landry's Seafood, about 10 minutes up the road. The food there was amazing but pricey- I think for the 6 of us, with 3 of us having a couple drinks, the bill was around $300. I know it's seafood, but Holy Cow! But, we were on vacation and that's why I saved over a year(!) for this trip.

We went back to the hotel, and I cannot say enough good things about that place! Obviously Embassy Suites are really nice, and after dinner my husband and I visited the bar in the lobby (my friends would but she is about 3 mo. preggo). Maria (but call her Elizabeth!) was awesome and treated us like we had known each other forever! She was really great and we would choose to stay there if we go back to Houston just b/c of her. The breakfast the next morning was great, as always, and we checked out with no issues around 10:30 Sunday morning.

Thank you for letting me know how it worked for your husband. I really dont think my wife and I will try to reach our limit each day but having 3 sea days we may come clase a couple times. I have done the math and we realized even if we didnt have a few drinks on the ship each day that we would still save money by paying for the Cheers program instead of buying individually throughout the week!

Cheers was well worth it for us, even if just for the peace of mind that we won't have a massive bar bill to look forward to at the end of the trip. For my hubby it was great and for me, I really enjoyed being able to try all the "girly" drinks without worrying about not liking them. I may have got to 10, maybe, on some of our sea days (I really like a chocolate martini :) ) but even on port days I bet we still saved a few bucks. If you like to have more than a couple of drinks a day, it's your best bet. :p

We just got back sunday from a week on the magic and I thought the 15-drink limit was going to be a real problem for my husband. I mean, the man can drink! But he only hit his limit once and was at a point that he definitely didn't need anymore. If he had no problem with the cut-off, I don't think anyone should. You will be fine.

I am curious as to why this is posted in the First Time Cruisers forum. This is not the OP's first cruise, and first-timers would not have great advice on the subject. . .?

I meant to post in another forum, then couldn't figure out how to delete this one...

But am still getting some great ideas on what to do/not do on our next trip!

Maybe just relax more is the best idea. I just don't want to miss anything! :)

Some of the things I plan to do on our upcoming cruise:

• I definitely plan to go to one of the afternoon teas this time around...especially since we'll be at sea for 2 days;
  
• I spent a lot of time in Waterworks with our son but the only different thing I'm planning to do this time is spend even MORE time...
  
• Get up early enough to catch a sunrise...not from our balcony but from the Lido deck...
  

Here's a few more...

-Don't wear a short dress while on deck if ship is moving, unless I have a free hand to hold it down THE WHOLE TIME :eek:

-Go down the slides- how have I not done that!

-Go to the tea- didn't even know about it until I saw it on a thread on here...

My husband and I are getting ready for our 3rd cruise in May, the first being our honeymoon and second with our son and DH's sister a few years ago. While we are gearing up for our upcoming trip, I keep thinking about things I will do differently this go around. What will YOU do different on your next trip?

Here's a start to my list:

1) Go to the muster drill. Somehow we skipped out on it both trips before and managed to not get kicked off of the boat. Not risking it again.

2) Tip room service. I knew about the included gratuities but (not having been on CC) didn't realize you were supposed to tip room service. Now I feel like a cheap tourist and hope they never spit in my food ;)

3) Visit the straw market in Nassau. Our first cruise stopped in Nassau, but we were so consumed with planning our wedding that I never researched things to see and totally missed this.

4) See a show onboard. We skipped all the shows so we could party a little more both previous trips. Guess it's time to see what all the fuss is about :o

My husband and I are getting ready for our 3rd cruise in May, the first being our honeymoon and second with our son and DH's sister a few years ago. While we are gearing up for our upcoming trip, I keep thinking about things I will do differently this go around. What will YOU do different on your next trip?

Here's a start to my list:

1) Go to the muster drill. Somehow we skipped out on it both trips before and managed to not get kicked off of the boat. Not risking it again.

2) Tip room service. I knew about the included gratuities but (not having been on CC) didn't realize you were supposed to tip room service. Now I feel like a cheap tourist and hope they never spit in my food ;)

3) Visit the straw market in Nassau. Our first cruise stopped in Nassau, but we were so consumed with planning our wedding that I never researched things to see and totally missed this.

4) See a show onboard. We skipped all the shows so we could party a little more both previous trips. Guess it's time to see what all the fuss is about :o

On our Feb 2014 Fantasy cruise we attended the open house the day of sail away. We took them up on an offer they called "the managers special". For $129 each, we received a full body massage, foot and ankle massage, scalp massage and a facial. It was 75 minutes and they booked my wife and me in the couples massage room. We were told the bookings were limited at that price, and would not be offered again. We were one of the last ones to book that offer, and the only appointments left were for the evening of the first day (embarkment). But we were fine with that. It was a great way to start the cruise.

 

 

 

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That sounds do-able... I think I want to buy one for me and my friend to do together, she just found out she's pregnant so feels like she is going to miss out on alot of the fun and I think this will make it some better. Yay! Ready to sail!

We plan on being pretty busy on port days and thought that was when they usually ran specials. :mad: But I plan on going to the spa tour, which I never have done before, and entering to win in their raffle *fingers crossed* It just seems like their regular prices posted on the excursions page are outrageous.

We're heading out on the Magic on May 18th, mine and my husband's third cruise, my son's second and his best friend's first. My best friend and her husband are also going, this will be their honeymoon. I have never done the spa (unless you count a bad eyebrow job on the Conquest in '11) but have heard they run specials during the week. I would really like to try it this time around so my question is, What kind of specials have you got?

I don't wear a lanyard because I think they look dorky. But I also don't carry a wallet cuz that's annoying too. I just let my hubby carry my card... in his lanyard. :)

Seriously, I probably will get a cutesy lanyard for this coming trip so I don't have to keep him by my side every minute and if I carry my card in my hand/pocket, I'll inevitably lose my card. To each his own.