Our Magic Cruise Review - 9-23 - 9-30-12

[2Okies]

I always enjoyed reading all the reviews of the cruises, excursions, food, shopping, etc on CC when I was planning my cruise - especially the ones with pictures, and thought I would do the same when we got home from our cruise. This review might take me a while, but I'm going to try and let you know what a great time we had on the Magic!

 

First, a little background about us. My are in our early 50's, and this was my 3rd cruise, and his 2nd. I have previously cruised with our teenage daughter on the Ecstacy and the Conquest. This year, my husband & I celebrated our 35th Wedding anniversary, and I talked him into a cruise for the first time!

 

Even though I had cruised before, Cruise Critic and all the folks on here were very helpful in helping me to remember what to pack, how to organize and plan our excursions. This site is a valuable tool to any cruiser!

 

First, we drove down from Oklahoma to Galveston. I had reserved a non-refundable room at Inn at Waterpark with a great price over the Internet for Saturday night. However, we left a day earlier, and were going to need a room for Friday too. I called them on the way down, and asked if they could get us in. They gave us Friday's room at the same great rate - so Kudos to them! I've stayed at this hotel before with my daughter. It's clean, the beds are comfy, the rooms are roomy, and its in a pretty good location. The breakfasts in the lobby every morning have the make-your-own-waffle station, pastries, bagels, fruit, milk, juice, cereal and yogurt. Plenty for our tastes. We would probably rate this a 3 star hotel. It's nothing real fancy, but it was all we wanted prior to our cruise. We didn't want to spend ALL our money in Galveston!

To be continued......

[2Okies]

The first day, we walked the boardwalk, visited some of the seaside shops, and enjoyed the food. We really liked "The Spot" as a place to eat. We called it the Tiki-hut place. You can't miss it on Seawall Blvd. It has a big thatch roof.

I took pictures of our food - but found out later that I had a memory card that was too big for my camera, and they didn't take! (So glad I found that out BEFORE we cruised so I could go get a smaller card at Walmart!)

But, we ate at this place twice, because it was so good. The first day we had the fish, shrimp & chips. Very tasty! We also enjoyed their desserts! Wow! They are awesome. My husband had the huge serving of bread pudding, and I tried the key-lime pie. Both were delicious. The next time we both had burgers and fries. They give you your burger, and they have a condiment bar where you can dress it like you want it.

This place has indoor & outdoor seating, and its right on the seawall, so there are beautiful views. We highly recommend!

[2Okies]

Galveston was hosting their annual Shrimp Festival downtown while we were there. There were 100's of booths and you could taste-test the gumbo if you wanted. We visited a lot of the shops on the Strand (something we had never done before, although we had been to Galveston before!)

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We also saw the new Navy ship, USS Ft Worth, that was commissioned in Galveston on Saturday. She was a beautiful ship. There was also a sub-finder in the parking lot you could look at. The ship was sitting right beside the Harbour House hotel. Those folks would have had a great view of the ceremony!

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After walking around at the festival, we made our way to Pelican Island - across the bay (north) from Galveston. It's connected by a bridge on the West end of Galveston. There is a battleship & sub out there that we toured. It made for an interesting afternoon.

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Friday night, we ate supper on the seawall at Salsas - a Mexican food place. It was pretty good. We get great Mexican food at home, so this wasn't bad. The place is large, and pretty noisy inside too.

 

 

NOTE: Well - it looks like CC is having trouble adding my pictures. I may stop my review until this is fixed! Sorry. Will get back to this ASAP!

[4hunters]

Thanks! Looking forward to it. :)

[2Okies]

Trying the pictures again.

 

OK - Appears to have worked this time!

The first one is of the shrimp festival

The second is of the USS Ft. Worth

The next one is the park on Pelican Island where we toured the battleship & sub

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hmmm - still not able to make the pictures very big! Anyone have a suggestion before I continue w/the rest of my review?

[Spring1onu]

Great start to your review! Looking forward to reading more. We sail in December and are from OK too! :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[2Okies]

Saturday afternoon, we drove around downtown Galveston looking at some of the old houses. We happened upon this beautiful place! It looks like something from Harry Potter! It's called the Bishop's Palace. Isn't it gorgeous?

 

[Tree Hugger]

Did you tour the interior of the Bishop's Palace? It's amazing.