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

[Uncwrn93]

Loved the review. We're only 31 days away from our Magic cruise and can't wait

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

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

 

Thanks, happy to hear you liked it. I usually travel without confirmed reservations and just kind of wing it as I am usually flexible with my travel options. It usually works well for me and saves a ton of money but once in a while it means I don't get where I want to when I want to get there. I can count on one hand how many times I have gotten stuck using this method of travel over the years tbough out of all the times I have traveled this way so it's not a huge deal. I was just a couple hundred dollars poorer from having to rent a car and very tired when I got home the next day but I still got home.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Loved the review. We're only 31 days away from our Magic cruise and can't wait

 

I'm glad you liked it. That 31 days will go by in a flash, and you will love the ship and the cruise. Plenty to do and I assume Eversen will still be the CD then. Have fun!

[bigcraig]

Looks like you had a great time, we cruise her Jan 10 2016.

 

Thanks from your friendly A&P:cool:

[gapearl]

Another great review Steve! Ok I'm curious. Did you get a lot of wow you came a long way from the Texans onboard? When I was on the Magic, I heard that like once an hour lol. I was like it's an hour and a half flight, same time it takes to get to Florida. Did a lot of people say that to you too?

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Looks like you had a great time, we cruise her Jan 10 2016.

 

Thanks from your friendly A&P:cool:

 

I did have a good time. Even though the weather was lousy most of the time, we made the best we could of it and found plenty to do both on and off the ship. The Magic will still be in Galveston in January, right? Have fun sailing and enjoy your vacation! Thanks for reading along and glad you enjoyed my review. And I guess you are a airplane mx tech, by the A&P comment, lol. Thanks for all you guys do, even though you might not get as much recognition as you should on a daily basis.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Another great review Steve! Ok I'm curious. Did you get a lot of wow you came a long way from the Texans onboard? When I was on the Magic, I heard that like once an hour lol. I was like it's an hour and a half flight, same time it takes to get to Florida. Did a lot of people say that to you too?

 

Thanks Kim! I just saw this, I had quite an interesting travel day home yesterday from quite an interesting NCL Sky cruise this past weekend and I am still trying to get somewhat recovered from it. We kind of explained to the people we sat at dinner with our situation and they kind of got it once we told them how we were able to travel so far for a cruise. My mom did tea time on a few occasions during the week and she said that though it was mainly Texans and people from close-by states, that she actually did talk to a few people from as far away as Canada when she was there. There were people there from OK, AR, LA, but that was the majority of the out of staters. Most of them said they simply drove to the port rather than flew as well. If it wasn't our accents that gave away that we weren't from Texas, it became obvious when we talked about our favorite sports teams, :) But flying to a port is nothing for people like us so we are kind of lucky in that regard. But it would take me longer to drive to go on a cruise out of Baltimore or NYC than it even took me to fly to FLL to get on the Sky this past weekend. And cheaper too, factoring in tolls and gas. :cool:

 

I surely have to check out your Asia trip review. I saw it recently but I haven't gotten all the way through it yet. I will surely check the rest of that out when I get the chance. Sounds like you had tons of fun and saw lots of stuff that most people will never even dream of seeing and experiencing.

[crewsweeper]

FCNJ,

 

Poster post for coming in the day before!

 

Sorry you had to stay the night around Hobby. There wasn't anything nearby 15 years ago either. That BBQ place has really good lunches, but it's a mom n pop place and not open at night, because...wait for it...nothing is around there! Best to eat inside, I think there's a couple of Pappas Bros. owned places in the terminals.

 

Nevertheless, sounds like your cruise was good despite the wet weather. Thanks for posting and sharing the pictures. BTW, in Coz RCCL ships dock at the TMM International pier which is about a 1/4-1/3 mile from PM. The downtown Punta Langosta pier, is a bit too far away to see from PM especially with ships and hotels around. And there's a similar reef situation like GC in Belize which is why there's such a long tender ride.

Edited December 8, 2015 by crewsweeper

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

FCNJ,

 

Poster post for coming in the day before!

 

Sorry you had to stay the night around Hobby. There wasn't anything nearby 15 years ago either. That BBQ place has really good lunches, but it's a mom n pop place and not open at night, because...wait for it...nothing is around there! Best to eat inside, I think there's a couple of Pappas Bros. owned places in the terminals.

 

Nevertheless, sounds like your cruise was good. Looking forward to reading the rest and seeing all the pictures.

 

Yep, it is ingrained into me from when I first began cruising that it is almost always prudent to go to the port the day before. Just think of it as an extra vacation day. Although I flew in day-of to Florida for my Norwegian cruise from this past weekend, lol. Sometimes it can be done, depending on many circumstances. But on a long cruise, I never cut it that close.

 

Anyway, the area around Hobby seemed nice enough, just nothing to do around there. The aviator bar was closed, and it appeared that the bbq was only open during the week, for a few hours each day. Bummer. But the on-site restaurant at the hotel was OK and affordable anyway. I saw the Pappas places when we were leaving the airport but we didn't stop at any of them because it was still pretty early and we figured there would be more to choose from near the hotel. The hotel was fine though, just not centrally located. We thought about riding the shuttle back to the airport to to to the Pappadeaux before the TSA checkpoint but we didn't know how late it would be open on a Saturday. I did go to a few Pappas places when I was in Dallas a few years ago and I do know they are pretty good.

 

Anyway, thanks for checking out the review. It is lengthy and detailed and does have a ton of pictures. Heck, it took me a month and a half to finish it after I got back from the cruise, lol. But it was worth it, I had fun writing it and I am glad people are enjoying reading it. It was a pretty good cruise overall.

[crusinpsychRN]

Thanks for all your work on this review!

 

I realize it was rainy but can you tell me--were you in a port or starboard cabin and how was the sun (if there had been some) on the balcony on sea days?

[Palmetto Pilot]

Awesome review. Thank you for taking the time to put it together. We typically travel on RCCL when we cruise, except the Fantasy since it was a quick get away out of Charleston. We're thinking of taking the 8 night Carnival Breeze trip from Miami and since the Breeze and Magic are sister ships I think it will be a good fit for us.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Thanks for all your work on this review!

 

I realize it was rainy but can you tell me--were you in a port or starboard cabin and how was the sun (if there had been some) on the balcony on sea days?

 

It was my pleasure to put it all together, glad to see you enjoyed it.

 

I was on port (left) side, midship and depending on what direction we were sailing that day, we did get sun on the balcony during the day at least. When we were sailing southeast, toward the islands, sunset was on the other side of the ship, but we would have probably gotten good late afternoon sun on the way back to Galveston the entire time since we were facing westward. I didn't spend a ton of time on the balcony, except for mornings and pre-dinner or sailaway from ports and late nights to just unwind before bed, however. Of course the best place to get sun is still lido deck or the decks above it/serenity as they face the sun pretty much all day long.

[FlyingCruiserNJ]

Awesome review. Thank you for taking the time to put it together. We typically travel on RCCL when we cruise, except the Fantasy since it was a quick get away out of Charleston. We're thinking of taking the 8 night Carnival Breeze trip from Miami and since the Breeze and Magic are sister ships I think it will be a good fit for us.

 

Thanks for reading along and I really had a good time writing it all up. I have only been on RCCL one time, many years ago (Monarch from Canaveral) but may be planning a Royal trip in the near future, not sure yet. I have never been on the Fantasy, but have been on most of its sister ships and they are very vintage, but comfortable ships without much in the way of the newest bells and whistles. How did you like it? I did the Breeze 8-day in Fall 2014 and it was a good time. Nice ship, very modern and good ports and crew. The Magic is the same basic layout but it doesn't have all the stuff that the Breeze has and I still like the Breeze a little more as of now. However the ships should be more similar after the Magic goes on for dry dock in a few months and we will be able to better compare them then I think. If the itinerary and price works, I would surely say go for it with the Breeze. If you can, get a cove balcony. They are close to the water but they are very private and larger than a standard balcony, and I loved the one I was in on the Breeze. Avoid the balcony cabins that are right above lanai deck, midship as they overlook an entire public deck and have no privacy at all. Whatever you choose, enjoy and happy cruising!