Magic 7 Day Eastern Review

Dessert menu.

I ordered the grand marnier souffle and the key lime mousse.

The souffle was again out of this world good. The mousse was still good but not as good as I remembered it. I'd still order it again in a heartbeat though.

There was a birthday nearby us and they sang to them. My mom mentioned nobody sang to her for her birthday the night before. I bet you can guess what happened next.

The food and service were both great tonight.

After dinner I went to tonight's production show, Flick. I had seen it once before and while it is not my favorite show, I do enjoy it and wanted to see it again.

The casino got two quick visits from me just long enough to see if my name was called. They had the snowball raffle at 8:30 and fill my bag at 11. I was not called again.

After the final drawing, we were both a little hungry having eaten such an early dinner tonight. We made our way up to Lido as the fun times indicated there were "late night snacks" being served until 12:15am. There was nothing in the buffet area and on a previous night the late night snacks was set up outside where Tandor is so that was where I attempted to go.

The problem was the area was closed off. The doors were locked with paper covering the windows. I tried to get out by the bathrooms, and it was also closed off. I went by the Tandor exit and it said crew only and security was there. There was some kind of crew party going on out there and it must have been epic since we were not even allowed to see what was going on.

I was pretty ticked off for second thinking I could not even get to the pizza. Was I really going to be forced to pay for room service at 11:15 because they were having a crew party at the back of the ship? For once my mom had the cooler head and said to try the other side that comes out by the pizza place. Duh.

That side was open, but seriously what kind of party was this because it was still covered where we could not see anything.

I wonder if I could have seen in from a higher deck?

The pizza hit the spot and I didn't even wait in line. I walked right up and they had pizza ready which has happened absoloutly never.

After we ate our late night pizza we turned in for the night. Tomorrow would be our final port, Grand Turk.

Casino never called my name either!

I think you should've tried to crash that crew party :). Glad you got your pizza, and I do think that is a great area and place for a crew party. Glad Carnival did that for them. It's been a rough few weeks on the ship with them missing St. Thomas a few times and the propulsion issues, so I hope they'll get another party soon.

Very thorough review. It kind of makes me worry about our December cruise on this same ship. We have cruised many ships, but this will be only our second cruise with Carnival. Might very be our last...

Casino never called my name either!

 

I think you should've tried to crash that crew party :). Glad you got your pizza, and I do think that is a great area and place for a crew party. Glad Carnival did that for them. It's been a rough few weeks on the ship with them missing St. Thomas a few times and the propulsion issues, so I hope they'll get another party soon.

I've heard some stories over the years from crew, there is no way I could keep up at a crew party ;p;p it may have been tamer since it was not below deck but those makeshift curtains do make me wonder lol.

Very thorough review. It kind of makes me worry about our December cruise on this same ship. We have cruised many ships, but this will be only our second cruise with Carnival. Might very be our last...

I hope that I have not given you or anyone the impression that they should be worried about this cruise. This was a fantastic cruise with a few minor hiccups. The biggest issue was the crowding on Lido, but even that did not detract from the cruise for me in any way - it was just something I noticed. I see your other cruise was on the Breeze, your perception of how crowded this ship is will likely be the same as it was for you on Breeze because they are sister ships.

This was one of my favorite cruises to date. Go in with an open mind and have a good time, this is a great ship and Carnival has a wonderful product. And if you do read a review that is negative, take it with a grain of salt. Sunshine gets lots of bad reviews and it is another of my favorite ships.

 

Did the Magic have the new lamps with the cell phone charger built in to them?

I'm sorry I can't be more help on this one, I didn't notice one way or the other. I didn't notice anything different about the room except new bed sheets so I don't think there were new lamps, but it is possible I just didn't notice.

Did the Magic have the new lamps with the cell phone charger built in to them?

Patiently waiting for more of your review & pictures, lol.

Sorry I haven't read past page 1 yet but will defo finish reading later. We were on the Magic 2 months ago and I totally agree on a couple of things so far, the lido buffet cakes (seriously yummy!) and that Cookie could be annoying, and with each day we tried more and more to just tune him out. But more about food, we actually enjoyed eating dinner in the buffet most nights a little more than the MDR, and what we usually did was have early dinner in thr MDR and then went to the lido buffet at least to get dessert. Great pics that I have seen so far, nice reminders of how much we enjoyed Magic. Also thank you for elaborating on NCL...DH always thinks about trying Epic or Getaway but we keep making other decisions...usually Carnival.

Patiently waiting for more of your review & pictures, lol.

Thanks for the enthusiasm :D I've had some technical difficulties slowing me down. I'm gonna continue now.

Sorry I haven't read past page 1 yet but will defo finish reading later. We were on the Magic 2 months ago and I totally agree on a couple of things so far, the lido buffet cakes (seriously yummy!) and that Cookie could be annoying, and with each day we tried more and more to just tune him out. But more about food, we actually enjoyed eating dinner in the buffet most nights a little more than the MDR, and what we usually did was have early dinner in thr MDR and then went to the lido buffet at least to get dessert. Great pics that I have seen so far, nice reminders of how much we enjoyed Magic. Also thank you for elaborating on NCL...DH always thinks about trying Epic or Getaway but we keep making other decisions...usually Carnival.

Those cakes.. OMG! I finally stopped craving them and John Heald has been posting videos of them this week and I am craving them all over again.

Variety is great so I would never say don't do NCL but if you do, I will say avoid the Epic. It is a very quirky ship and not a good choice for your first NCL ship. I'm on the Getaway next week and hope to be able to report more favorable of that ship.

Day 6: Grand Turk

Today we were in Grand Turk. This was my fifth time in Grand Turk. Pretty much any trip Carnival makes to the Eastern or Southern Caribbean includes a stop at Grand Turk so even though my mom has only been on three Carnival cruises, this was her third time here. Despite me and my mom's opinion, this is a favorite port of many. They were no doubt disappointed at the poor time in port today: 12-6. What an oddly short time to be in port.

I slept in a little today so the dining room was done serving breakfast. I went for a breakfast burrito instead. The towel animals took over lido this morning, most had been taken down by the time I was awake.

The view I had at breakfast this morning.

If I zoom in, you can see something exciting off in the HORIZON.

We've all seen the shows at dinner but I've never seen one at breakfast before.

That guy carried his radio around Lido and along with the people with him sang a medley of lively songs to us while we were eating this morning. That was very fun and it really needed a video to demonstrate the fun we were having. I didn't really capture that on camera.

So as I hinted at earlier, we would be in port today with the Horizon. We were the first Carnival ship to be docked alongside the Horizon as this was her first Caribbean port of call. The crew was very excited by that, and I'll admit I got swept up in the excitement. What follows is a very long stream of pictures of Grand Turk and more importantly the Carnival Horizon as we sailed into GT taken by someone who is a bit of a geek for these kinds of things.

My first thought was how ugly her profile was. She is very busy on top (the skyride) and that along with her shrunken in middle decks with the promenade jutting out, well it just wasn't the most flattering looking designed ship...from a distance.

Horizon Cont.

Zooming in on the lucky people on board.

Horizon Cont.

Welcome to Grand Turk.

After sailing the Vista, I have to say I really didn't care about sailing the Horizon. Not to say I would avoid it, but I didn't feel the need to pay a premium to sail the newest ship. Seeing it up close, I admit I am getting swept into the hype like I did for the Vista. These pictures fail to capture how absolutely gorgeous this ship is. I have never seen a ship look so pristine before, and likely never will. The ocean does a number to the outside of these ships and she has not had a chance to ravage the Horizon yet. I was unprepared for how beautiful the ship would be while it was still so new. I bet the inside is just as nice!

Back in the room we had my favorite towel animal just hanging out.

Also got a gift from the casino - a logo beach bag.

Lunch today was a bad choice. But it is a bad choice I allow myself to make once per cruise.

Somewhere under that mess of toppings is a Guy's burger. I guess I should consider myself lucky that I can't eat these things everyday like so many claim to do. These don't usually agree with me and today was no exception. I felt like I had swallowed a vat of grease (because I probably did) and that I would have a heart attack any minute (because if I ate these every day, I probably would). I wish I enjoyed these the way I used to, but the fact that I don't is no doubt for the best.

My mom braved the line at Mongolian Wok for lunch. I got my burger, ate my burger, and went back for dessert which I finished all of before she sat down. I was still secretly wishing I had eaten that instead.

Once we gave the crowds a chance to rush off, we made our way down to deck 0 to explore Grand Turk - again.

Horizon and Magic.

We wandered around the shops in port for a bit. Not long after we got off the ship, Horizon pulled off.

She is just a little dot in this photo.

Zoomed in for a better look at her.

Once she was done looking around we made our way back to the ship.

The Magic alone in port now.

I don't remember now why I took this photo on the way to dinner but since I took it I will share it.

Tonight's dinner menu.

For my starter I had the escargot and the chicken patties.

Both were very very good. My mom did not care for the escargot but I loved them and get them every time I cruise. Yummy.

For my main I ordered the lasagna and the penne mariscos.

The penne was good. I did not care for the lasagna. I have ordered it a couple times now and have not liked it each time. I will stick to the vegetarian lasagna and the one they serve at Cucina, I'm not a fan of this one.

Dessert menu.

I ordered a banana split off the kids menu and the cheesecake.

Both were very good.

The food and the service were both very good tonight. In and out in about 1.15.

Tonight's events in the casino were the Snowball Raffle at 8 and then a Hot Seat Promotion from 10-midnight which I sat out since I still wasn't playing. Except I did...

I still had my free play that I needed to use. Carnival used to give cash, now most ships including the Magic give free play instead. On my last cruise I opted for my $200 in chips which I then took to the roulette wheel where I placed $100 on red and $100 on black. You run about a 6% chance of losing all your money doing this but pretty good odds of getting it turned into cold hard cash.

This time I wasn't worried about going through all that. This time the plan was take the free slot play, make some wild wagers that I would not normally make. And cash out whatever was left. About my second spin in - betting $20 a hand - I hit a 4 of a kind for $500.

When I was done, I turned my $200 free play into $600 cash. That was quite a nice return and very unlikely to happen again.

Now let's talk about what Carnival did to themselves here. If they had given me the $200 I would have spent it. Not only would I have spent it, if I had hit nice like I did (which there is no way to say that the cards would have fallen the same) I would have spent all that too. And if I had been able to hit and play and have fun early on, I would have kept going and probably lost several hundred $$ at least. But since I was losing my money too fast - I stopped. Too bad Carnival got cheap, but I guess I should thank them for saving me the money. Thank you Carnival.

I did end up leaving up for the week thanks to this nice hit, only my third cruise I have left with Carnival's money but to be fair I did not play very much at all so it was much easier to do so.

Once I was done, I took my money and ran and locked it in the safe in my room. I watched a little TV and then turned in for the evening. Tomorrow would be our final day on the Carnival Magic :(

Thanks for giving us more reading material/pictures tonight! The box fan in your cabin did you carry that onboard? We've taken a smaller fan we can pack but I always want a nice big box fan, lol.

This was an great review of the Magic..... Awesome pics!!!

Thanks for giving us more reading material/pictures tonight! The box fan in your cabin did you carry that onboard? We've taken a smaller fan we can pack but I always want a nice big box fan, lol.

Yes I carried it on. This was the very first cruise ever that I was not given a hard time about it at security. They like to say it is too large to be allowed on but Carnival's own website specifically says fans are allowed so long as they are in working order it makes no mention of the size. As long as it will fit through the scanner it is fine. Be prepared to have to argue (politely) your case because most do not know it is allowed but all have taken my word for it when I insist it is in fact allowed.

PS, the Magic was one of the few times I would have been miserable without it. It was very warm and this was a complaint I heard from many passengers not just in one area. I think that was due to the engine trouble she was having and hopefully that was fixed when they had the altered itinerary.

This was an great review of the Magic..... Awesome pics!!!

Thank you!

Enjoyed your review and pictures. The menu pictures, I did not see any COLD SOUP listing, do you recall Carnival still has them such Strawberry Cream/Roasted Peach Soup in MDR evening meal on the Magic or their ships?.

thanks