Magic 7 Day Eastern Review

[jam19872016]

For my main I ordred the salmon which is my fallback when nothing else interests me.

 

 

This is sometimes too dry, but it was perfect tonight!

 

Dessert menu.

 

 

I ordered the tres leche cake and the WCMC with two ice creams (but came with just the one)

 

 

 

The food was good although this is the menu I struggle with the most in Carnival's rotation. I have tried the veal a couple times and don't like it. The mushroom dish is excellent but I waste most of it since I don't eat the squash it comes with. Thankfully the salmon was great! Service was great except for the forgotten extra ice cream.

 

The casino had the hot seat promotion going on tonight. You have to be actively playing to win this one and since I was on a casino embargo I did not participate. Instead I went to the comedy club and saw Killer Beaz.

 

He was pretty funny but not the best I've seen on Carnival before. I think he was oversold on our roll call which put him on a pedestal in my mind. He was pretty funny though.

 

I also tried the punchliner drink. I didn't care for it. It was very strong though and I'm glad I finally tried it because I always say I am going to and then don't.

 

After the show I turned in for the evening. Tomorrow we will be in St.Thomas.

[teknoge3k]

The casino had the hot seat promotion going on tonight. You have to be actively playing to win this one and since I was on a casino embargo I did not participate. Instead I went to the comedy club and saw Killer Beaz.

 

He was pretty funny but not the best I've seen on Carnival before. I think he was oversold on our roll call which put him on a pedestal in my mind. He was pretty funny though.

 

Killer Beaz was on our sailing as well. We chatted for a long time after the show because he was on the TV show "Moonshiners". That's a show that was filmed near me. Tickle & Tim Smith live near me (from the show) so that gave us plenty to talk about. He was a pretty cool guy from talking to him.

 

There's that...

[jam19872016]

Killer Beaz was on our sailing as well. We chatted for a long time after the show because he was on the TV show "Moonshiners". That's a show that was filmed near me. Tickle & Tim Smith live near me (from the show) so that gave us plenty to talk about. He was a pretty cool guy from talking to him.

 

There's that...

 

Lol he was pretty funny and I am glad I went to see him. I always say I am going to go to the shows and I never do. This was still the only show I saw this week, I went one other time and it was standing room only so I turned around. I don't complain cause I prefer it in the more intimate setting. Timing on the audience participation was a little off, timing is critical and I bet it would have been even funnier if the timing was better.

 

There's that...

[proudpatriot07]

:)

 

I ordered the mac and cheese with bacon.

 

 

This was just not as good as I remember. The bacon was too soggy, although that is probably a personal preference, and the noodles were just blah.

 

For dessert I had the double chocolate brownie.

 

 

The food this trip was off to a rough start at least in the dining room.

 

I loved that mac and cheese- I ordered without bacon though (I don't eat pork). I actually thought the sea day brunch mac and cheese was better than that in the steakhouse.

 

I did not care for that brownie so much... just didn't like the granola on the bottom. The little chocolate muffins at the sea day brunch were amazing, though.

[proudpatriot07]

Today was a sea day and the casino had lots of activities going on to keep their premier guests occupied this afternoon.

 

10:30AM: Snowball Drawing

12-3: Fireball Raffle (open to everyone with at least 100 points)

4: Matilda the Cash Cow

 

 

I spent most of my afternoon here hoping to have my name called. I didn't :(.

 

I wanted to play Matilda too! I love the little song they play when they bring her out. I don't gamble, but my inlaws do and they took us on the cruise. Our names were never called either :(.

[jam19872016]

I loved that mac and cheese- I ordered without bacon though (I don't eat pork). I actually thought the sea day brunch mac and cheese was better than that in the steakhouse.

 

I did not care for that brownie so much... just didn't like the granola on the bottom. The little chocolate muffins at the sea day brunch were amazing, though.

 

Usually the mac and cheese at brunch is THE BOMB but this was not the way it is usually served to me. This was watery and not good. The brownie was just okay also and I think it is the granola also that takes away from it. They should use the granola they have in their parfait on the new breakfast menu, that stuff was so good. I used to really look forward to brunch, now....meh. I'll give it another try cause it can be really good.

 

I wanted to play Matilda too! I love the little song they play when they bring her out. I don't gamble, but my inlaws do and they took us on the cruise. Our names were never called either :(.

 

I love games involving dice, Matilda would be my favorite just so I could roll the dice. I have no doubt I will get called for cash pong instead and get to embarrass myself by not getting a single ball in the cup lol. At least I will still be guaranteed $50 if that does happen though.

[paleskin]

Did you see any good rock bands? We love the Bands Bloodpower, Last Call, and Music Asia. The music makes the nightlife for us so I'm hoping for a decent classic rock band Going Jan 2019.:D

[max a million]

Following. Great review!

[mi3stooges]

Hello everybody. I've just gotten back from a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival Magic sailing 5/26-6/3. I love reading other people's cruise reviews while waiting for my next cruise to begin and I hope that by sharing my trip with others, I can help someone else pass the time as well.

 

A couple disclaimers, I LOVE cruising and always have a good time. But I like to be honest in my review. Everything is not perfect on a cruise and I do intend to include the bad with the good. Just because I complain, does not mean I did not have a great time.

 

Also, I may not hit on everything that interests you as a cruiser. I would say from reading many reviews that my cruise style is different from the norm, and that is okay. Please feel free to ask questions about something I do not cover and I will do my best to answer anything that you would like to know about.

 

About Me:

I am 30 years old and am lucky enough to live in Florida so taking cruises is more affordable and easier to do than for many people. This was my 17th cruise, 14th on Carnival and my first time on the Magic.

 

Cruising with me this time was my mom. She celebrates a birthday on this cruise and she also retired the day before the cruise began.

 

Prior to this cruise we sailed together on the Norwegian Epic which you can read about here. If you just want a quick summary - it was quite a let down.

 

I thought I knew what to expect and was fully aware of the Epic's shortcomings. The bathroom is in the stateroom with you. The ship has no view of the ocean. There were many things I was not prepared for. There was nothing really wrong with the product, but I don't think it is for me.

 

Carnival really brings the fun while NCL gives you a bunch of bells and whistles and leaves it up to you to make your own fun. I also did not like having to make reservations to see a show and by not doing so missed out on many things I wanted to do. I realize this is a large ship problem and expect Carnival to have the same shortcomings when they start building ships that large.

 

I found the food to be terrible and sorta alienated most of my reading audience when I described my meal at the up charge Italian place "the worst meal I've ever eaten on a cruise". A pretty bold statement and I used some pretty colorful negative descriptions, but I meant every word of it. It was absolutely horrid. The meal was free because I had a dining plan, but a la cart for two would have been $64.

 

 

Before that I cruised the Vista - review can be found here. I was also less than impressed with that cruise. Carnival did a lot of things wrong with that ship that I hope they can correct with future builds. The things that stuck out the most was how absolutely miserable all the crew seemed to be. With the exception of the entertainment team, and one lady working at guest services, I did not encounter a single happy face all week. In fact most seemed genuinely bothered that I was there. It was like the entire crew had burnout and was not what I was used to from Carnival.

 

But the lackluster cruise on Vista was not why I ventured out to NCL. No, that was thanks to the Carnival Player's Club - the corporate face of the on board casino. I have been spoiled with really great casino offers for free or very heavily reduced cruises early on. Since late 2016 though, the offers have gotten harder and harder to come by. They are cutting back on offers to everyone, not just me. They have made the business decision to stop providing the level of comps they used to and do not care if they lose our business as a result. Their bookings are strong and there are new gamblers to replace us everyday.

 

Other cruise lines are not following Carnival's lead, almost every major cruise line is expanding their casino comp programs. The problem is why pay full price on another cruise line when even the crappy premier offers are worth something. That was why finding urcomped.com was a godsend. I signed up, took a screen shot of my Carnival offers as well as a picture of my Sail&Sign card and the offers started rolling in. I took them up on an offer for a comped NCL cruise. There is a $20 daily "admin" fee that NCL charges which is a little annoying, but still a much much better deal than anything I have gotten from Carnival lately.

 

But, as I found out the grass is not always greener on the other side. NCL expects a $2500 loss to comp another cruise. I can say with certainty that I have never lost anywhere near that amount on a single Carnival cruise. I am also embarrassed to report that NCL has comped me another cruise.

 

As for Urcomped, well I reached out to them to see what else they could offer me as my offers were not updating. I did not get a response. I emailed them again and still no response. Since then I have gotten new offers for discounted sailings on Royal. At this point I am content enough with Carnival to not accept anything but free to sail on another line. I am not saying that won't change at some point though. The thing that really humbled me was that with losses that doubled what I reported my average bankroll to be (which was already a bit of a stretch of the truth) Urcomped would not respond to me with even a courtesy "at this time all you qualify for blah blah blah" form letter.

 

Higher rollers than me are having much better luck with both offers from NCL and Urcomped, but for me I have tested the waters and realize Carnival is what I prefer.

 

So with the two previous cruises being less than perfect, I had a lot of hopes for this trip on the Magic. I am happy to report that despite a bit of a rough start, this ended up being a fantastic cruise for me. My mom not so much. She is unfortunately one of those people who are perpetually unhappy and simply zero in on any negative or perceived negative and allow it to define their trip. It's a shame because I would like her to enjoy her retirement, whether it be cruising or whatever she chooses to do. There will be some negatives, most minor, that I will highlight along the way but all in all this was one of my best trips to date!

 

 

Loving your review thus far!! I will be on this itinerary in September and it's my FIRST time on Carnival! Most of my 17 cruises were on NCL and although I did not read your review of the EPIC in its entirety...I have to probably agree with you...especially the part on the views...the design of that ship.... which is why they don't have sister ships, but, they have the Breakaway Class which I think is amazing! If you were to ever give them another chance try the Breakaway or Breakaway plus class!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!! :D

[Dremac373]

Great review thus far, thank you for sharing and the pix are awesome, August cant get here fast enough lol

[chrelaine]

I am enjoying your review because I felt the same way about many things while onboard the Magic at the end of April. We enjoyed our cruise, of course...but not everything is perfect. I found Deck 5 underutilized as well...and no one is directing folks that way at embarkation. Every guest is on Lido trying to find a seat. We were frustrated and just wandered away from the crowds and happened to find that the BBQ was open, with NO line. We liked Cookie but could definitely see the constant announcements being irritating. Red Frog Pub is a great spot but only 2 bartenders for a pub that large is just not enough. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review, both the good and the bad!

[jam19872016]

Did you see any good rock bands? We love the Bands Bloodpower, Last Call, and Music Asia. The music makes the nightlife for us so I'm hoping for a decent classic rock band Going Jan 2019.:D

 

I'm not sure. They had a great cover band playing at Ocean Plaza and sometimes in the Atrium and they played a variety of classic songs. I'm not sure if my idea of good music would match yours...I've not heard of any of those bands you listed :eek:. Either way, by January there will likely be a different band there. Have a great cruise.

 

Following. Great review!

 

Thank you!

[jam19872016]

Loving your review thus far!! I will be on this itinerary in September and it's my FIRST time on Carnival! Most of my 17 cruises were on NCL and although I did not read your review of the EPIC in its entirety...I have to probably agree with you...especially the part on the views...the design of that ship.... which is why they don't have sister ships, but, they have the Breakaway Class which I think is amazing! If you were to ever give them another chance try the Breakaway or Breakaway plus class!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!! :D

 

I lost quite a bit of money on that trip. I like to think of it as prepaying for my next cruise in the casino. So good or bad I am going to give them another chance since the trip is comped. I am going in with an open mind and in case that does not work, I will also be going in with the ultimate beverage package ;pMy next trip will be on the Getaway. The things I didn't like about the Epic I think would have mattered less if I had enjoyed the overall product more. I may just not be a fan of the mega ships. I may not be a fan of NCL. I may have the time of my life traveling with my friend instead of my mom. I will find out.

 

Great review thus far, thank you for sharing and the pix are awesome, August cant get here fast enough lol

 

Thank you! It's almost here now!

[jam19872016]

I am enjoying your review because I felt the same way about many things while onboard the Magic at the end of April. We enjoyed our cruise, of course...but not everything is perfect. I found Deck 5 underutilized as well...and no one is directing folks that way at embarkation. Every guest is on Lido trying to find a seat. We were frustrated and just wandered away from the crowds and happened to find that the BBQ was open, with NO line. We liked Cookie but could definitely see the constant announcements being irritating. Red Frog Pub is a great spot but only 2 bartenders for a pub that large is just not enough. I'm looking forward to the rest of your review, both the good and the bad!

 

Glad you're enjoying. Yes Carnival could do better at spreading the crowds out. They even had "express" elevators that would take you right to Lido with the masses. It never really got better, it was pretty crowded on Lido all week. That was one place NCL did excel compared to Carnival, much better at crowd control.

[jam19872016]

Day 4: St.Thomas

 

I am very fortunate to be able to cruise as often as I do. Having cruised the Caribbean often, I have been to all the more popular islands that cruise lines frequently travel to. The one exception is St.Thomas. I was scheduled to go there on my last cruise, but NCL has changed all eastern cruises to western due to storm damage, even though literally every other cruise line has been back for months. So today would be my first time visiting St.Thomas. Today is also my mom's birthday.

 

View outside this morning.

 

 

No land in sight yet, we do not dock until noon. I had planned on going to breakfast in the MDR again because I imagined it would be a madhouse on Lido. Upon arriving at the dining room, the line was all the way out the hall and starting to go up the stairs. Perhaps the line moved quickly, but I did not wait around to find out. Instead I grabbed a burrito from Blue Iguana which is my normal go to for breakfast.

 

Today's towel animal.

 

[jam19872016]

It was still pretty busy at lunch time so I went to the one place I knew would be deserted - Tandoor. Sure enough, I had the line to myself :) I grabbed that and some cake for dessert and then we made our way off the ship to explore St.Thomas.

 

 

 

I only took a couple pictures because my battery was running low. It seems to go from low to dead pretty quick so didn't push my luck. We walked around the shops and I purchased my mom a shirt that said "Don't ask me to do anything, I'm retired". Very fitting I thought. She also bought some moderately priced jewelry and some more t-shirts. A very good day in port for my mom the shopaholic.

[jam19872016]

After my battery was charged, I got a few more pictures from the ship.

 

Behind us was the Caribbean Princess.

 

 

 

Off in the distance, Harmony of the Seas.

 

 

St.Thomas.

 

 

[jam19872016]

Damage from the hurricanes.

 

 

I really don't know what I'm doing with this camera. I just push the button. Lighting is not my friend and I can't really figure out how to work the flash or make pictures come out decent in poor lighting. I don't know what I did, but I love the way these two photos came out.

 

 

[jam19872016]

For dinner tonight I took my mom to the steakhouse. Originally I was going to take her to Cucina Del Capitano but after the poor experience on NCL at their Italian place I wanted to give her the option. She chose the steakhouse.

 

Lets talk for a minute about the reservation process. I missed out on the steakhouse several times because I did not book ahead and there were not always any reservations still available. I now always book ahead online so that I know I will get in. My experience with this has been quite a headache. Let me explain.

 

The first time I used it was last year on the Glory. Out of context this sounds petty (and maybe it is even in context) but throughout this cruise, there was an issue every day that caused me to be woken up and on this particular day, it was the Steakhouse calling me to confirm my reservation that evening. Why couldn't they just send a letter to the room asking me to call and confirm? I had no idea confirming was something required of me, and frankly they were very under booked when I did show up so unless they are near capacity and want to make sure they can't book any more people, why is the formality of confirming even a thing?

 

Moving on.

 

Next trip was on the Vista. I made reservations for the third day at 8. They responded they did not have any openings at 8 but could seat me at 6 or at 9. I chose 9. This time I knew to call and confirm and its sort of a good thing I did. They had no record of my reservation at that time. When they looked further, they saw I had a reservation at 9 on the fourth day. I just picked a day at random so no big deal that they put me down for a different day than I asked for, but I'm 0-2 now at a flawless reservation process.

 

Third times the charm?

 

I still had reservations for both Cucina and the Steakhouse. Interestingly, Cucina did send a formal request to confirm my reservation. That reminded me I needed to call and cancel which I did. It also reminded me to confirm with the steakhouse so that I would not get any surprise calls while I'm trying to sleep. I called and confirmed and got that taken care of. Still got a phone call the next morning.

 

Seriously? I realize most people are not asleep at 10:30 (and I wasn't either this time but I was trying to catch a little nap while waiting to reach St.Thomas) but I'm so done with their policy of calling into the room when I am trying to sleep. If this was not for my mom's birthday, I would have cancelled my reservation at this point. So beyond rude and they really need to work on getting the kinks worked out of their reservation system.

 

I'm making a big deal out of this but I am the kind of person who can get worked up about something and it doesn't impact their overall enjoyment of their cruise. I was still having a good time, but this game of phone tag is getting old.

 

Anyway, done venting lets get to the food pictures :D

[jam19872016]

I had a wonderful view tonight of St.Thomas at sunset. I didn't take that into consideration I picked tonight because of my mom's birthday, but it made for a wonderful view with dinner although slightly obstructed by the deck railing.

 

 

Compliments of the chef, I believe it was called parmesean crisp. I've had it before and it is delicious.

 

 

My mom's lobster bisque.

 

 

I tried some and agree with her that it was very very good.

 

For my starter I had the stuffed mushrooms and the pork belly.

 

 

 

I enjoyed the mushrooms very very much. But, they were so much better on the Vista. My mom ordered them as well and said they were nothing special.

 

The pork belly. What's with that carrot thing? The description on the menu says "carrot paper". It sounds awful and it is awful. Maybe I am an idiot and you are not supposed to eat it which given how bad it tasted, it makes sense that it was simply a garnish.

 

But then comes the next issue, if you pick out the carrot paper, whatever those grey things are, and the various green things you are left with two balls. Take a look at that picture again. That large ball on top is an onion. That tiny ball on the bottom is the pork belly. That is an awful lot of wasted food for the one bite of meat.

 

At this point this needs to be the best piece of meat I've ever had to even come close to saving this train wreck. Not only was it not anywhere near the same league as the giant pork belly at Ji Ji's, this was just simply not very good quality. I was very disappointed with my choice to order this.

[jam19872016]

The sun is starting to set.

 

 

For my main I ordered the cowboy steak.

 

 

This is what I usually order and it was still very good. I also got a side of fries and mac n cheese. I usually order the wasabi mashed potatoes which I love but wanted to venture out. Perhaps fries and mac n cheese were the wrong options though because they were both bland. My mom's mushroom medley looked pretty good though.

 

Dessert is a lost cause. I've had the art at your table and it was not good. My mom ordered the chocolate sphere and while I didn't try any, it is really nothing more than chocolate soup. I ordered the apple crisp.

 

 

This was awful. I ate the ice cream and most of the apples but the crust was inedible. I wonder again if the crust was simply a garnish, because I don't mean inedible like it was gross, I mean inedible as in it was a lump of unchewable dough. Yuck. You're not eating it either without a knife.

 

That leaves your choices for dessert fruit, cheese, sherbet and ice cream.

 

I've been to the steakhouse now four times with the old menu and two times with the new menu. I reserved judgement based off my experience on the Vista, because honestly there were a lot of things on that ship that did not meet previous standards. But I will go ahead and say it now.

 

Carnival took a really great concept and completely ruined it. I would rather have seen a modest increase in price and keep the same quality instead of locking the price in, and compromising the high quality the steakhouse was once known for. The new menu puts a very high emphasis on presentation. A dessert drawn before your eyes, oysters that appear out of a dome of smoke. But the food is noticeably lacking in quality and other than the steak, lacking in quantity.

 

For the extra charge associated with this venue, I would be hesitant to come back again if they have this new menu. Conversely, if I was on a ship with the old menu I would likely book a couple times to enjoy what a great meal this used to be.

[jam19872016]

The drawings tonight were snowball raffle at 8 and fill my bag at 11. I stopped by the casino long enough to not hear my name drawn and then ran away before I was tempted to donate some money.

 

There were no production shows but tonight was the love and marriage show. As I mentioned, I found Cookie to border on annoying, but at shows he was hilarious. This was hands down the best love and marriage show I've been to, although I don't go every cruise. If you find yourself not into Cookie, make sure you still go to this show because he is hilarious.

 

It did get a little raunchy (more than usual) but there are lots of disclaimers beforehand that this was an R rated show. I would say usually it is more like PG-13 with a lot of innuendo, but his show definetly warranted an R rating. I also made a stop in at the tail end of Quest which is also a definite R rating but funny to watch.

 

After Quest I turned in for the night. Tomorrow was San Juan but we were using it as a bonus day at sea.

[jam19872016]

Day 5: San Juan

 

Today we were in San Juan but we would be treating today like a bonus day at sea. This was my third time in San Juan and my mom's second. She enjoys shopping if you couldn't tell and she likes ports with the fake shopping complex right as you get off the ship. San Juan doesn't have that and instead you must walk around downtown. She has some mobility challenges and it was too much walking last time and I needed a day to take my pictures around the ship, so we picked today to be a stay on the ship day.

 

I started my day with a return visit to the MDR for their yummy new breakfast options. I ended up repeating my order from last time. Broken egg sandwich with a side of chicken sausage, turkey bacon, and a yogurt parfait (not pictured).

 

 

This was again very good. I do wish I had tried something else though because this whole menu looks fantastic. Next time!

 

Some pictures of San Juan from the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm not sure what ship this is, it is not on the port schedule and zooming in does not work because its of the back of the ship. Head on or along side I can read the name on the ship, but no such luck from this angle..

 

[jam19872016]

MSC Seaside parked next door.

 

 

Today would have been a great day for a trivia marathon but they did not start until 1. Keep that in mind if you do stay on board - there are no activities of any kind planned. The pools and slides will be all yours but that didn't help us any because we are not pool people. We sorta regretted our choice to stay on because with no decent TV either, it was a bit boring. I think in the future, I will pay the $5 for a movie each day because I really do enjoy just relaxing in the room with some TV.

 

Today's towel animal.

 

 

The casino sent some chocolates today.

 

[jam19872016]

Tonight was the second elegant night of the cruise. It used to be that the elegant nights on a 7 day cruise were always on day 2 and day 6. I have noticed on all my recent cruises that is no longer the case. It has always been day 2 and then day 5 which also happens to be an early all aboard port. It makes sense, it gives people more time to get ready but just a heads up because I still see on roll calls where everyone assumes the second elegant night will be on day 6. Take a look at your itinerary, do you have an early port day on day 5 (day 4 on 6 day cruises)? If so, odds are that will be your second elegant night.

 

Tonight's menu.

 

 

 

I started with the stuffed mushrooms.

 

 

These were very good.

 

For my main I ordered the jumbo shrimp and the fusilli, mushroom cream.

 

 

 

The shrimp was good. The mushroom cream was excellent. My mom also ordered that and agreed it was perfect!