Magic happens in Galveston! 10/11/15 Western Caribbbean on the Carnival Magic

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Towel animal and funtimes for the next day which would be at sea.

 

 

Early stages of the Mexican fiesta deck party, the music had just started on lido. Went to play golf upstairs then saw comedian in lounge, came back here later to get the good midnight Mexican buffet.

 

 

Line to get into the Punchliner. This was taken at 2300 for a 2330 show. We did get seats.

 

 

Angry Orchard for the show. It was good.

 

Midnight Mexican buffet and the last of my Angry Orchard. Good night, next stop is a sea day!

[tinkerbell_82]

I am SO loving your review! Thanks to you I'll be trying Cucina Del Capitan on my cruise in May. That steak looked amazing! :)

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

I am SO loving your review! Thanks to you I'll be trying Cucina Del Capitan on my cruise in May. That steak looked amazing! :)

 

Why thank you very much! :) I am very happy that you are enjoying it. The Cucina is awesome. I have been to the one on the Breeze and now this one on the Magic. Really nice atmosphere, service and food. And the price is unbeatable. You can also go for lunch and they don't have the same stuff that they have at dinner, but you can get many different kinds of pasta and bread at lunch for free. The steak was really good, cooked medium. That along with the spaghetti and the starter and dessert was more than enough food for me. Enjoy it when you go. In my opinion, it is far superior to the steakhouse and honestly, if you want to try the steakhouse food, you can get some of the stuff off their menu in the MDR for half of what it would cost to go to the steakhouse. Anyway, I am actually writing up the next part of the review, of our first of two sea days on the way back home, so be sure to check that out. Thanks for reading and I am glad you got some dining ideas for your upcoming trip from this.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

The last thing I covered in this review was our visit to Montego Bay, Jamaica, which was our last port of call. In other words, once we left there, we would not see land again until we were back in Galveston. You know the cruise is on the downside when you look at the itinerary and moving map and see that you are heading back north and have just sea days left before the cruise is over. But, that does not mean that there is nothing else to do and there was not still a good time to be had. So, we pick up with Day 7 of the adventure, which will feature what Carnival calls a Fun Day at Sea, the first of two in a row.

DAY 7: SEA DAY

Like I said last night, the seas were beginning to get a little rougher and this day was dreary and rainy. Liquid sunshine. Seeing there was no port to visit, I woke up after 1000 as usual and just hung out in the cabin for a while. Hanging out on the balcony wasn’t even much fun due to the rain. I skipped breakfast and planned to get a smorgasbord at the lunch buffet today instead. I finally headed out of the cabin and walked around the ship some, just to see what was up onboard today. The bbq opened at 1200, however due to the rain, was not held outside. I suppose they cooked everything back in the kitchen and brought it out to the promenade deck, near the casino to be served. Obviously this slowed down the process and the food was not as plentiful or as good, so while I got some stuff, it was nowhere near as good as it was on our first sea day. I also got a Dr. Pepper to go with my lunch and figured out what my next stop would be.

It was busy on promenade deck due to the rain and the fact that nobody could really do anything outside all day, so we headed up to the lido marketplace dining room to see what was going on up there. I went to the burrito bar that they have, and got myself a burrito with a wheat tortilla(you can get jalapeno tortillas also), cilantro lime rice, beef, beans, and chicken I think, made to order. The line can get a little long here as everything is made right there from scratch. I thought it was good but it was really a huge serving. I think it is pretty much comparable to the Blue Iguana Cantina that they have on the ships with 2.0, it seemed to be pretty much the same stuff. I love the Blue Iguana also, and I think this ship will be getting one along with a Guy’s Burger Joint during its upcoming dry dock. They also have a nice sweets bar across the way from the regular buffet line also, cookies, cake, etc. I am not big on their cakes and stuff, too sweet for me but if you are into that, there is plenty to choose from. I didn’t get anything from the main buffet line, except for some soup, which was good. I thought about getting some Mongolian wok but there was still one more sea day to go, so I would check it out later on as I was pretty full by now.

I went back downstairs for a while to check out a trivia they had going on and my mom went to check out the shops and look at our pictures. We did not buy any pictures from this cruise although a few were OK. Just didn’t want to spend the extra money seeing we got so many good candid pics on our own cameras. I hit the fun shops the next day as I usually do on cruises. By now it was like 1500 and I laid down to take a nap because there was nothing to do on lido due to the lousy weather and it was between lunch and dinner, aka the in between time. I got up a little after 1700 and hit the hot tub, which was not crowded tonight. It had also stopped raining by this time, finally although once again the sunset picture I tried to get did not turn out too well.

After the hot tub, I stopped by the lido buffet to see what kind of stuff they had up there and I again remembered why I don’t go to the lido buffet for dinner. I can’t remember what they had but I know it did not measure up to what they were offering in the MDR, not even close. I don’t get why so many people prefer that to the MDR. But they are missing out on good food and service in the dining room, not me. Looking at the map, we were passing by the western tip of Cuba today and on a clear day, you can see the Cuban shore as you sail something like 15 miles out. Not today though unfortunately. I am guessing they will be announcing Cuba as a Carnival port of call soon if they have not already. We did get a midday weather and position update and forecast from the captain on the PA system, which was nice. I wish Carnival would put a bridge viewing room in on its ships, like what NCL has. They are really cool to see. If you are interested in what one looks like, check out my NCL Jewel Alaska review from this past May. I have some pics of it in there.

We began to pack our stuff tonight, so we did not have to do it all at the end, on the last sea day. That is an advantage of having sea days at the end, more time to get everything together for the end of the cruise I guess. Around 1900 we went to the family friendly show of Cowboy Bill Martin, because for whatever reason, tonight did not feature a late night comedy show like they usually have. The rest of the shows would either happen during our dinner or shortly afterwards, and would probably be full before we could get to them. So, this was it. It actually was not as bad or corny as I thought it would be. Not as funny or vulgar as the late night ones but decent. I guess a lot of other people had the same idea as we did as that 1900 show was standing room only and we almost didn’t even get into that one either. Martin is cool, he told us about his cowboy hats for children fighting cancer program which is a good thing he is doing.

We went to dinner at 2015, only two other tablemates here tonight. Oh well. Dinner was OK. I got good pasta fazul soup and a good crab cake for starter. I got a striped bass and beef short ribs for entrees as well as wcmc and fruit plate for dessert. The short ribs were very good and tender and the fish was good as well but I like strong tasting fish. If you are not a fish person you might not like the bass they have on the menu. I thought about getting a glass of wine but decided against it. I don’t mind getting a bottle early in the cruise and drinking a little each night at dinner but we did not do that on this cruise. Soda doesn’t go well with wine anyway, lol. The waiters always kept my soda glass full at the table. The waiters danced some and some diners jumped in with them, and we were actually out of the dining room pretty early tonight. Before 2200.

Since we got done dinner so early, we had time to hang out on lido and listen to some live music from Rhythmnation and were actually able to make the 2215 show of Mark Simmons. He was not particularly funny but I have seen some shows on Carnival over the years that were way worse. He was not anywhere near terrible. After the show, I went to the casino to play on the slots some because the only thing left to do late at night was the quest game and from what I have heard, it is surely not my type of thing. I did make $20 last a good hour and a half, and was up quite a bit but was having too much fun so I played until I was totally out sometime after midnight. Like I said before, if you are looking to make money, you won’t on Carnival most times, but if you play it smart and just go in looking to have some fun, you can play for a little while with not a lot of money. So, after that I wandered around on lido for a while but it was extremely windy on deck tonight so there was no going outside at all. The quest show let out at 0030, right when I was trying to get some late night pizza and the line was kind of long but I didn’t mind and got some pizza and a soda before bed.

I got back to the cabin around 0100 and we did receive our invitations to the Platinum and Diamond party that was scheduled for the next afternoon, which was cool. We did not know if they had it already and we did not receive our invites as they often have the parties early in the cruise or on port days. However with the new restrictions on who can go, we did not know how it would go. It was actually a good time but I will talk about that during the recap of the next day. The ship was rocking pretty good now, although the rain was pretty much over, and I got ready for bed. You know it is rough when you have a hard time standing up in the shower, lol. Anyway, I got to bed at 0130 as it was too windy to sit out on the balcony for long and rested up for our final day at sea. Pics from this day to follow, enjoy and thanks for reading along with me as I continue to re-live my vacation experiences with you.

Edited November 17, 2015 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Lousy rainy, cloudy, dreary day. Taken from my balcony in the morning, the weather would curtail a lot of activities onboard today.

 

The big bottles of water that they have for sale in each cabin. We also did get our free 1 liter bottles that they give each Platinum passenger. Neat new Carnival branding. They also have a program that you can buy like 12 smaller bottles of water for like $3 from Bon Voyage but we did not this time. They also had a stocked mini bar in the cabin but we did not use it and it never even got unlocked.

 

 

 

Our cabin. Nice Cloud 9 Spa Balcony. Spacious, nice balcony with curtains that completely opened or closed. Wish they would go the NCL route and get sliding glass doors but they won't do that because people leaving their doors open all the time would increase air conditioning costs in the cabins, haha. The cabin was way bigger than a comparable balcony cabin on NCL or Royal Caribbean though.

 

A rainy lanai deck. You can see why they moved the barbecue food inside today. Not a lot of outdoor activities going on today.

 

 

Nice bowl of soup and a made to order burrito for lunch.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

My best attempt at a sunset picture. Well, technically it is of the sunset but it is obscured by the clouds. It is there, you just can't see it. Lol.

 

The FunHub internet cafe. They have these all over the ship. I will talk more about them when I write about the last sea day. The internet plans that Carnival has now are pretty decent and the internet is decently fast.

 

 

The taste bar. Only open a few hours each sailing, usually they have little samples of specialty restaurant fare or new culinary products served elsewhere.

 

 

Rythymnation. Good live band, played most nights on Promenade, midship.

 

 

Setup for the second "cruise elegant" night. No prime rib or lobstah tonight though.

 

Beef short ribs and mashed potatoes. Pretty tasty. Did not get pic of pasta fazul soup or dessert, fruit plate and WCMC.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Striped bass I think. Not bad. I like their salmon more though.

 

 

Singing and dancing waiters and diners. Lot of celebrating going on here, with many birthdays and honeymoons going on.

 

 

 

 

Upscale jewelry and liquor shop on Promenade, near the atrium. Closed by this time, got a nice pic of the outside of the place though. Also a shot of the glass elevators that are in the atrium. Cool look both inside and out. Also, a look at the Cherry on Top, right next to the gift shop. You can get candy, cakes, flowers, etc here.

[Athankfulheart]

Thanks for the fun review. We are sailing on Magic in December :)

When you are upgraded for FREE to the spa level cabins I am told that you do not get the access to the amenities like you do when you pay for the upgrade or the daily/weekly pass :( We have done both ( booked spa cabin, booked aft cabin but bought a weekly spa pass) on the Dream. Its one of our favorite things on the ship !

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks for the fun review. We are sailing on Magic in December :)

When you are upgraded for FREE to the spa level cabins I am told that you do not get the access to the amenities like you do when you pay for the upgrade or the daily/weekly pass :( We have done both ( booked spa cabin, booked aft cabin but bought a weekly spa pass) on the Dream. Its one of our favorite things on the ship !

 

Glad you like it. It is taking me seemingly forever to get it finished but I am getting there. Almost done, the last sea day recap is coming shortly. I left the ship in good shape when I left it, lol. Enjoy your cruise, December is rapidly approaching. It is also my understanding that free upgrades do not get free spa access. We asked about that and we also got a letter in the room displaying the discounts we would get on services there but nothing was free except for the Elemis samples they had in our bathroom. Not that it bothered me much but yeah, if you get a free upgrade to Spa balcony, don't expect a free spa pass to go with it and that makes sense really. For me the hot tubs they have on the various decks throughout the ship are more than enough for relaxation and soothing sore muscles and they are free to use.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Good evening everyone, I am back with my recap of our second consecutive sea day and the final full day of the cruise. We were well on our way back to the home port of Galveston and that is always a bit of a sad feeling. However, as they say, sea days are fun at Carnival so plenty of stuff to do on this day. So, here we go with the festivities, we are slowly but surely making our way towards the end of the review, only 5 weeks after getting back home LOL.

DAY 8: ANOTHER SEA DAY

Yes, it was yet another fun day at sea. The weather was finally nice today as well. We finally passed through that frontal system and away from the tropical rains and got to enjoy a pretty nice weather day. I got up at my normal 1000 and we planned out what we were going to do for the day. I chilled out on the balcony for a little while and we headed up to deck to get brunch and to check out the ship’s internet.

I will get into some detail about the internet because I have seen a lot of questions from people on these boards about it. The old system was pre-pay minute by minute or buy blocks of minutes, which generally meant either pay as you go which quickly got expensive or pay for minutes you might not need to use and will ultimately lose. The new program is a tiered one, three different access plans at either daily or full cruise rates. You can get a package that just includes social media access, for I think like $5 a day (25 for the full week), a full internet package for $16 a day (60 for the week) or a plan that allows you to use streaming content which was like $25 a day and I forget how much for the week. We needed the internet to get in contact with some folks back home via social media and email and to check on travel plans for our trip home the next day, so we chose to just buy the $16 a day plan for the last day. You sign up for it using your folio number and it charges your sail and sign account, and you can access it on any computer onboard or on your own device. If you buy it for a day, it is good for a full 24 hours after you buy it. The only restriction is that you cannot be logged into it on more than one device at a time. But it is unlimited usage and it is decently fast. I was impressed with the speed of the service and there were no websites that I was not able to access using the medium priced plan. I mostly used my phone to surf the web, and the instructions are very easy to follow to get on. Just make sure wifi is enabled and data is off with airplane mode engaged at all times so you don’t pay any extra for roaming or anything.

After playing around on the web for a while checking on flights for the next day and communicating with back home, we went upstairs for lunch. My mom wanted to do seaday brunch again, which only serves until 1300 but we did not make it in time and I was fine with that although she was disappointed. After all, we never did receive our free seaday brunch drink coupons that we are supposed to be entitled to. They handled the cabin change pretty well in other areas so I cannot complain that much that we did not get the free drinks. After all, the Platinum party would be later that afternoon and plenty of free drinks there. We just went up to the lido deck to check out the buffet there instead. I wish I would have been able to make it to the Groove for St. Jude that they have on every cruise but I cannot dance and I cannot get up early enough to take part. Donations are always welcome though and it goes to a really great cause. I have donated but not participated in the party on past cruises. I must say that except for Caribbean and to a lesser extent, American themed buffet days, the lido buffet is really lousy. This is one area Carnival needs to improve on to match lines like NCL. However, with places like Mongolian Wok, the burrito bar, Tandoor, the deli, etc, they more than make up for that.

So, we got seats upstairs and honestly, it was not crowded in the lido dining area today. I guess it had something to do with the nice weather and the fact that people could actually hang out on open decks for a change. The line was not too long at the Mongolian wok today and I gave it another shot after the subpar experience from there a couple days prior. It was much better today, got my noodles, peas, corn and salmon as my meat with Szechuan sauce today, no messing around with different combos. Really good today, what I expect to get from there most of the time. Of course I got a few sodas with lunch and I got my mom a few Arnold Palmers (lemonade with iced tea) to make up for causing us to miss brunch with my web surfing (lol) and we hung out near the window in the dining room, just looking out at the nice day. My mom headed back to the room to pack more around 1500, I stayed back and got some cake at the chocolate buffet and web surfed some more on my phone. The chocolate buffet it overrated on Carnival. Some of it looks good but is tasteless and a lot of stuff that just no-one would really want. That is my opinion though, I am not a huge chocolate eater so maybe if you are a chocolate fan you might have more fun there.

I went around the ship after that and just took some pics of interesting stuff on the ship, and headed down to the fun shops to get a Magic shot glass. It was not crowded here at all. I always get a mug or a shot glass or a magnet or something from each ship I go on (even though there really isn’t any difference except for the specific ship name and maybe ship stats/specs on the items). Didn’t get anything else as there wasn’t anything that I saw that I wanted in the shop. They have everything from Carnival-branded everything, to clothing, to snacks, to cigarettes and alcohol, to magnets and key chains from each port that the ship visited during the cruise in case you forgot to buy one while in port. I have seen these shops crazy crowded on the last sea day in the past but it was not bad today.

So, I went back upstairs and of course the pool deck was crowded with people getting their last sun soaking sessions in and saw some neat stuff, such as the deep sea oil rigs that were off to our right about 10 miles as we sailed back north. Had never seen one of them but they must be huge up close as they looked big from miles away. Looked at the waterworks, which I was too chicken to use all cruise long (those slides are high, they are enclosed and you go really fast down them) and walked around on the jogging track one last time as well. Anyway, the Platinum party was to take place at 1700 in the Punchliner lounge, so we got together and headed up there to get our free drinks and meet the ship officers.

I like how the party is now, as it is a more intimate affair than it was recently. They actually restrict it to people who have invitations, you get to personally interact with the cruise director and all the ship officers, and you do not feel crowded in with a thousand other people. I would say maybe a hundred people max were here. Upon entering, Eversen (Dr. E) collected our invitations and we shook hands with all the ship officers who were lined up at the entrance as we made our way to our seats. They had any beer you wanted at a bar cart and bar waiters came around with glasses of wine, funship specials, finger food, and would take orders for anything you wanted from the bar. I got a couple Angry Orchards, a couple glasses of red and white wine, and my mom got a pina colada I think. Really nice atmosphere. Each officer was introduced and gave a short speech, then the video with past, present and future Carnival ships was shown and a family with 300 days at sea was introduced up on stage. The officers came around and mingled with the pax as we drank and ate and enjoyed the setting and by 1800, it was all over. I sure did get my drink on during that time and I had to fight myself to stay awake afterwards before dinner as the urge to nap was strong. Haha.

I haven’t talked about Eversen enough. I did not have a problem with his style as it was unique and he was able to get everyone’s attention when he talked but my mom got annoyed a few times when he gave his signature sign-off after each announcement. I will say that it did get annoying to hear the same thing a dozen times a day for a whole week but as I said, it is unique and different from any Carnival CD I have ever had. He does a pretty good job managing everything onboard and being able to smoothly and enthusiastically manage everything that goes on during a cruise is the mark of a good CD. It is a job that I know I could never do. Very few people can be good at that.

I went to the hot tub one last time around 1830 but was sure to get a good sunset picture before doing so from the balcony as this was the last and really only good chance to get a great one on this sailing. I got out at 1930, headed back to the cabin to finish packing and got ready for dinner, which would be our last one for this cruise. Always sad. We put our bags outside the door before going to dinner as we were going to be out of the cabin most of the evening anyway, and did not want to deal with having to carry them around everywhere on debark day, the next morning. We filled out our US Customs and Border Protection forms also, which we had to get from guest services because the original ones they put in our room were printed in all Spanish. Yeah, whatever. Kinda funny. We saw that our deck would not be able to debark until after 0900 the next morning, whether we were doing self assist or standard checked bag debarkation, so that also played a role in our checking the bags the night before. We usually do self assist debark so we can get off the ship earlier and get to the airport to get as early a flight back home as possible.

So, we saw our steward and thanked him for his service with a tip and were on our way. Dinner tonight featured frog legs as an appetizer, which is a holdover from the old Carnival menus and are usually good. Yeah, yeah, they do really taste just like chicken. Out of the didja menu offerings, the frog legs are consistently the best. For entrée, I got a prime rib which just was not that great (I just do not like the way they cook prime rib on Carnival but figured I would give it one more shot) and a very good grilled salmon dish. Got a baked apple along with a fruit plate tonight as dessert as it seems the apple has replaced the Williams pear (a pear cooked in red wine) and it wasn’t bad. Of course they sang leaving on a funship which is always the reminder that the cruise is over and we said our goodbyes to our tablemates who we unfortunately just never clicked with too much all cruise long. We thanked Amand and his crew for their top-notch service and gave them nice tips and said our goodbyes as we headed out a little after 2200.

We went to see the Cowboy Bill Martin show after dinner, went back up to lido to get a drink and came back downstairs to see the final 2330 show of Mark Simmons as nobody was ready to call it quits yet. Both shows were decently attended, considering it was the last night and all and everyone had to be up early the next morning as it was time to head back to reality, and it was all over around midnight. We went back up to lido to get one last pizza and have one more late night lido pizzeria chat about the cruise in general and by this time, activity had slowed down all throughout the ship as everyone was pretty much done with their cruise and seemed to be ready for it to be over.

Got back to the cabin at 0100, and tried to get to sleep as we were less than 50 miles from Galveston and morning would be coming quickly. I could see the oil rigs and tankers lined up off in the distance from the balcony, so I knew it wouldn’t be long until we were back at home port. Scheduled arrival time of 0800 would be here before I knew it. I always have a hard time sleeping on the last night of the cruise, with the end of the cruise and the upcoming trip home on my mind, but I managed to get some rest and that is just about it.

I hope you have all enjoyed up to this point, as much as I have enjoyed writing this up for you to see. I still have the entire debark day experience to come, and it was a hectic one and after that will be a good, thorough and in-depth rating of the ship, ports, crew, etc and my final thoughts about the entire experience. I have some pics from this last sea day to post as well, I will get to that in a bit. Happy cruising!

　

　

　

　

Edited November 20, 2015 by FlyingCruiserNJ

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Finally a nice day, this was taken from my balcony in the morning.

 

 

The casino bar, it got very busy when games were on. Only place to watch sports on the ship other than at the lido deck bars. It was a Saturday, so lots of college football games going on all day long.

 

The casino. Big place. All kinds of table games, video table games, slots, cash crane games, etc. You can smoke here as well.

 

 

RedFrog Pub. Talked about this earlier in the cruise. May be good drinks and atmosphere but skip the food.

 

 

Chocolate buffet menu. They only have this for an hour on lido, on the last day of the cruise.

 

 

Offshore oil rigs, starboard side, taken on our way back to Galveston, somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Crowded lido deck, finally a nice day for everyone to enjoy.

 

Mongolian Wok lunch, sitting in lido dining area, nice view of the Gulf. Deep at thought. They say that sitting around and looking out at the sea can be very relaxing. I agree.

 

 

The outside of the Vibe nightclub, located on Promenade deck 5. Nobody in there now, but it was never really crowded, even at night most nights.

 

 

Drink station. They have these all throughout the lido deck buffet area. Lemonade, water, ice, iced tea, coffee, hot chocolate. I actually did not drink that much hot chocolate on this cruise although I really do like their recipe.

 

 

Finger foods and drinks at the Platinum party, held at 5PM in the Punchliner lounge. Ship officers and cruise director present. Fun time, lots of free alcohol.

 

 

The Platinum party, nice time. If you are invited, it is surely something to not miss.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

The ship officers and cruise director, on stage and giving little speeches.

 

Sunset! Finally a nice evening and a great sunset to end the cruise. Weather was too lousy pretty much every other night to get pics like this one.

 

 

Random elevator pic. This is what it looks like inside the regular elevators. I got a pic of the atrium glass elevators also.

 

 

 

The final dinner. Frog legs, prime rib, salmon, fruit plate and baked apple. Always a somber experience the last evening.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Me outside the Northern Lights Restaurant, our MDR. Nice times and food had in here.

Well, that is it, I will get to the debarkation day experience next, stay tuned and I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading this review as much as I have enjoyed putting it all together.

[nybumpkin]

Did Everson do his Tina Turner routine at the past guest party? He was our CD on Breeze in July and his routine was a riot. I really liked him as a CD - he really interacted with passengers much more than many CDs I've seen.

[Uncwrn93]

Thank you so much for your review. We are on the Magic with different ports in January. They makes me more excited.

[LaCal]

Thx for your review and photos. 🍹🍹👍

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Did Everson do his Tina Turner routine at the past guest party? He was our CD on Breeze in July and his routine was a riot. I really liked him as a CD - he really interacted with passengers much more than many CDs I've seen.

 

I honestly cannot remember as it was a while ago and I was probably busy drinking if he did that. Haha. It was the first time I had him as CD on a cruise and you are right that he was very hands-on and interacted quite a bit with the passengers whenever he got the opportunity. The entire entertainment staff was good though and like I said, it is probably because they are just following their boss's lead and sort of buying into the positive culture. He wasn't my favorite but he was a good CD.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thank you so much for your review. We are on the Magic with different ports in January. They makes me more excited.

 

Glad you enjoyed it. I am finally going to wrap the whole thing up tonight, a month and a half after getting home (lol) and I thank you for reading along the whole way. Have fun when you cruise the Magic in January and you will love the experience.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thx for your review and photos.

 

You are quite welcome, I am glad that you liked them. I had a blast writing this review and it helped me to re-live it a little bit at a time for weeks after it was over. Thanks to everyone who read along and hopefully it gave you an idea of what cruising on this ship, on this itinerary, from Galveston, was like beginning to end.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Good evening folks, I am finally back after a long time away to finish up this Carnival Magic review. I have been very busy this last few weeks with work and the holidays, but I figured it would be a good idea to get this wrapped up finally before taking my next cruise, LOL. So, here we go. The fun is over and we are now back in Galveston, time to go home. Boooooo. I will talk about the debarkation and travel home in this post, will put a few more pics up and will then do a separate post with some final thoughts and critiques on the ship, ports, etc.

DAY 9: DEBARKATION AND TRAVEL HOME

Yeah, I always wake up a bunch of times on the last night before we get back to home port. Part of it is me not wanting to oversleep for debarkation, part is just sadness that the cruise is over I guess. Anyway, as usual they put a paper charge report under the door in the middle of the night as they always do and we reviewed it in the morning. Thankfully it was right because I surely didn’t want to go stand in that line at guest services on the last morning to get anything on our sign and sail account fixed before getting off the ship.

I finally woke up sometime around 0730, and we had already been back in Galveston for at least an hour. No fog today, good thing because I have heard that fog in the fall can be a real problem there and can delay ships from returning. No problems today. I checked out the weather at home, and sadly, it was chilly. Expecting a low of 30 degrees when we would arrive home later in the evening. For October, that was very chilly indeed. Not the 80s and 90s we had been living in for the entire week at sea.

I got a shower, checked the microwave (it is a joke on a cruise years ago, we overheard some pax who got confused that they thought their room safe was a microwave instead) for any things we might have left in there, finished packing my backpack with any items I missed before, and we made our way out of the cabin before 0830. They want you out before that but that is about the latest they want you out. They have to turn that cabin around in just a couple hours so the next group of passengers can enjoy them as early as possible after all. Obviously I didn’t check as well as I should have because I realized I left my charger in the cabin once we were already back at the airport. Luckily we had an extra one and I had another extra one at home. I also left the expired restaurant gift card in the light slot I think, which was no biggie but it is very easy to forget to take your card out after having it sit in there for the whole cruise.

So, we headed up to lido to get some breakfast before they stopped serving at 0900 I think, and waited for them to call our zone number for debarkation. I also spent this time checking on flight options to get home, and ended up more frustrated than anything by the futile exercise. The entire rest of the day pretty much turned out to be an aggravating one but I will get into that in a second. We finally were called to get off sometime around 1000, and made our way down through the atrium and off the ship. The debark process is better on Carnival now than it used to be, it is organized now and it often times was not in the past. So, our cards were dinged one last time to signal the cruise was officially over and we made our way down to baggage claim and customs. We got our bags and then proceeded to wait in a good half hour line to get through US Customs. If you have a flight booked before 1200 at either HOU or IAH, you are going to be really hard pressed to make it based on the circus we saw in the terminal.

We got through customs a little before 1100, and made our way out to the curb to figure out what our transportation back to the airport would be. By now hundreds of pax trying to board the next sailing were intermingling with us, and it was really just a crazy scene. We asked a Carnival rep outside why it took so long to get the ship cleared and unloaded and she said it is like that sometimes if certain ports were visited, but we did not go to any of them this time so nobody really knew. We just ended up buying transfer tickets on the Carnival shuttle back to HOU, which cost $35 a person. It is payable by cash or credit card, and just see the Carnival rep outside to sign up. It cost more than Galveston Express, but they were sold out for the return to HOU when we booked our shuttle to the port for embarkation day. Oh well. We just had to wait a while to go as they won’t leave until the bus is full, then they will stop first at HOU, then IAH to drop pax off for their flights home. We left right before 1200, and it was a peaceful 45-minute ride back to Hobby and we got back there 1245. We got to see a neat air show at a nearby field to the right of I-45 north on our way back, which was interesting to watch from a distance.

Well, we got back to the airport, checked in for our flight, checked our bags, were through security fairly quickly (TSA Pre is cool and saves time and aggravation if you qualify for it) and hung out at our gate, until our flight to Chicago got there. We got on, got to Chicago, then the fun began. If you have ever gone through MDW on a Sunday, you know it can get absolutely crazy. If it is not weather, it is something else, but it is always something. Basically, all our flight options home were oversold all night long, and we spent a long, frustrating night getting bumped off of flight after flight as we worked with the staff there to find a flight home for us. We finally had to settle on a flight to Pittsburgh (KPIT), which is 300 miles from Philadelphia, and a good 7 hour drive. But that was pretty much the quickest way we would get home, so we did that. BTW, PIT is a nice although underused airport, and we spent all night driving back home on the PA Turnpike and got home mid-morning on Monday.

And, with that, the cruise and vacation was over. It was a fun one. I do hope you enjoyed reading this review and it gave you a good idea of what the Magic, Galveston as a departure and arrival port, and the ports of call visited are like and what you can expect if you sail this ship or itinerary. I sure had a good time writing it. As usual, it took me way too long to get it completed but I finally did get it done. My next cruise is on the NCL Sky, out of Miami this coming weekend, which will be my second NCL cruise overall. A few friends of mine and I decided that this would be a good time to get away for a few days, so we put this together and are looking forward to it. Of course I will have a review of that as well, look for that on the Norwegian board in the future. I am planning another weeklong cruise for sometime in mid-January, not sure where yet or what ship or line but I will surely have fun with whatever I choose. Preferably on a ship I have never sailed before, to some ports I have never visited. Anyway, happy holiday season to everyone, and happy cruising!

　

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Back in Galveston, nice morning. Bye Magic, until we meet again someday.

 

 

Our bags. We had two more smaller rollerbags and backpacks. I used most of the stuff I brought along on this trip, but I didn't overpack.

 

 

Neat little airshow going on east of 45 on the way back to Houston. Looked like some vintage WWII warplanes doing simulated combat.

 

 

 

 

Flying back through the Midwest. Lots of open farmland, and a wind farm in Illinois somewhere. Also a long distance pic of Chicago as we approached from the south.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

 

Our travels back home by road, after going 3/4 of the way by air. The PA Turnpike between PIT and home on a cold October night. Not the best way to end the vacation but whatever, at least we got home.

 

Almost home, lol. We got home after passing through rush hour traffic in Philly and the vacation was over. But it is never long until I have another cruise trip planned.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

And here is the final part of the review. The comments and observations and reviews of everything ship and port related that I can think of. Hopefully I won't forget anything.

FINAL COMMENTS/OBSERVATIONS

The port in Galveston is OK, except for the fact the outside arrivals area is just not large enough to deal with these huge ships that they have nowadays. Once inside the terminal, there is plenty of room to move around and it is a nice terminal. Check-in was good, friendly, everything was fine here. I would rate the port area B as they do try the best they can with what they have to work with. Wonder if the staggered embarkation times are working to help with congestion some.

The ship is nice, although a little dated but that will be getting fixed when it gets updated in its upcoming dry dock.

The cabins were nice, the balcony clean and private although you could hear the neighbors all day and night. The fact that the safe didn't work for half the cruise was a downer but nothing too significant in the grand scheme of things. They did give us pretty much everything we were entitled to as Platinum members, and considering we had a last minute cabin change, they did do a pretty good job taking care of us. B+

The food, as usual, was OK on lido, pretty good in the MDR. The service at our table was better than it has been recently though. You can tell who has been with the company for a while by the way they do things, our crew was pretty senior I think. Bar service was good as well, quick and accurate. I liked the American Table although I liked some of the stuff on the menu for the cruise out of Long Beach last January a little more. But that is just personal taste, nothing was too bad on here but I did miss a few Carnival classics that they no longer serve in the MDR. The Cucina del Capitano was excellent, and for the most part, the specialty dining venues on lido were good as well. The Red Frog Pub wasn't all that however. A-

 

The entertainment was pretty good, as was the cruise director and his staff. Good, fun attitude and interacted well with passengers. Good variety of productions and music onboard as well. The dive in movies were lousy though. But plenty of parties to go to and comedy acts to see. B+

 

 

Overall ship amenities were decent, almost always something to do. Variety of shops onboard also if that is your thing. Plenty of hot tubs all throughout the ship as well, but they could use a pool up on Serenity deck as it gets too hot up there in the afternoon to sit in the hot tub for very long. Like the interactive televisions in the rooms now, it helps with managing your onboard funds, seeing menus and excursions, etc. The new internet plans are very good as well. A-

The ports were average as well, some of our tours were just unfortunately hampered by the lousy weather. MBJ was good, at least what we saw of it, Grand Cayman was Grand Cayman but we did get to see a part of it that we never saw before. I have been to Cozumel so many times it is hard to see something new there but our tequila tour was fun and we learned some new things while there. B+ I guess but they could offer some more affordable excursions through the ship in a place like Montego Bay, where you dock far away from the city itself.

So, I would rate this cruise an overall B+ but it was surely a good time and I did enjoy myself as I do on pretty much every cruise. I would recommend this ship to anyone who asks, although I kind of like the Breeze a little more but after the dry dock the two should be very similar in appearance and amenities. Galveston was an interesting change of pace and I did not have a problem with it but I do not think it is a great port to cruise from if you are not local as the major Houston airports are just not that close to where the ship is. Most of the pax on here were from Texas or neighboring states but like I said, Galveston was not the worst port I have sailed from.

So, that's all folks. I do truly hope you enjoyed reading about my adventures as much as I have enjoyed writing about them. Any questions about the ship, ports, food, etc, I would be happy to answer. Good night and Season's Greetings!

[E&B]

Loved your review. Wondering if I missed something though. Didn't you have a reserved flight home? Was something cancelled?