Our Carnival Magic Spring Break Review

[dani85bri06]

Loving your review!!  

[brookeq]

That is it for our first day.  I think I have the fun times.   I will try to post those.  I have them for most of the days.  I did lose sea days one somehow.  (probably the ones everyone wants to see-- sorry!).  

 

Up next -- Day at Sea

[tradewinds traveler]

Thank you for doing your reveiw. We sail the Magic late Oct. for Halloween.

 

[queenkathryn]

I love that you are adding pics as you go along.  Very nice.

[brookeq]

 

I woke up early…  I always do.  I forgot to mention that we just had a basic inside cabin.   We never spend any time in our room so we usually do inside cabins.  I did look into getting a bigger cabin but the cost jump was too high for us this cruise.  We already were spending almost double what we normally spend.   And we booked more expensive excursions this trip.  So inside room it was.  I didn’t really take any pictures of the room.  But its small.  We knew this.  I was up early.  The kids just kept crashing into the metal bars on the bunks and dropping the things they sleep with on me.   Once I am up, I don’t’ really go back to sleep so off I went. 

 

I snuck out of the room quietly and went for a run up on the top deck. Sadly this was the only time I exercised this trip.   Usually I am pretty good.  Oh well.  

 

I saw the sunrise.  We had such calm seas today.  It ended up being a beautiful day and reached 92 degrees.  

 

Since I was up early I got us some deck chairs on deck 12 above the pool and by the water slides.  So I could keep an eye on the kids and see all the action below.   I spent a lot of time in the seat reading my book.

 

 

At 7:30 there were still plenty of seats down by the pool.  The seats by us were gone quickly.   According to a guy on our roll call there was a fight over the chairs on deck 11 during the day.  I didn’t witness it.  I did not see anyone from carnival keeping track of the chairs on deck 12 above the pool.  I did hear they were doing  it by the pool. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

My kids don’t really sleep in much but today they did.  Eventually everyone got up and I wanted to go to brunch.    My husband wanted to play dodge ball.  So Amelia and I went to brunch.  My son sat in the seats and played on the tablet since he doesn’t eat breakfast.  His cousin joined him a bit.  We let our family know where our seats were and to use them if we weren’t there.   The cousins used them on and off when at the slides.   

 

 

I had the fun french toast with frosted flakes.  You get two huge pieces but one would have been plenty.  It was just as good as I remember it.  I also had a side of bacon.  

 

 

My daughter had the chocolate pancakes with a side of bacon.  She enjoyed them. 

 

 

I did the ropes course with the kids.   Once was enough for me.   I am glad we did it because it got a bit windy later and they closed it.  

 

 

My son got to play dodge ball after the adult game.   That made him happy.  

 

We watched the lip sync battle selection process and the mixology contest.  One of the older cousins wanted tried for the lip sync spot but didn’t make it. 

 

 

The kids spent most of the day on the water slides.  Amelia met a friend on the loungers next to us.  So they played in that area most of the day.  Hayden was back and forth all day from pool, slides, ropes course, golf etc.   It was a beautiful day. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

Later in the afternoon Hayden enjoyed a guys burger that I brought up for him.  He was running around all day and hadn't eaten.  i had to force him to.  

 

 

He also went to the arcade for half off game time.  

 

 

We also sampled some of the cakes on the lido again.  We still didn’t really care for them. 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[pooksma]

Great start! We are a long way out and I am enjoying reading Magic reviews. Thanks for sharing!

[rukkian]

8 minutes ago, pooksma said:

Great start! We are a long way out and I am enjoying reading Magic reviews. Thanks for sharing!

Same here.  You will be on her shortly after us.

[Kelcash]

Enjoying your review! We have about a month until our cruise on the Magic out of Fort Lauderdale.  When do they have the half price game time? 

[brookeq]

55 minutes ago, Kelcash said:

Enjoying your review! We have about a month until our cruise on the Magic out of Fort Lauderdale.  When do they have the half price game time? 

I think it was 11:00 on our sea days.  Which surprised me because I read here that it was usually port days.  Let me check my fun times when I get home. 

[JaniceB]

Great pictures of the early morning on the ship.  The thing I love about cruising is everyone can do what they want, family time, your husband had adult time, kids on slides and a place to sit and read, what more could you want on a vacation.

[brookeq]

29 minutes ago, JaniceB said:

Great pictures of the early morning on the ship.  The thing I love about cruising is everyone can do what they want, family time, your husband had adult time, kids on slides and a place to sit and read, what more could you want on a vacation.

Agree.  Cruises are our favorite family vacation.  I have had great vacation that aren't cruises.  I love hiking and exploring.  But the kids don't as much.  Cruises seem to be the one thing we can all enjoy.   

[brookeq]

I saw in the fun times that tea time was listed in the afternoon.  Amelia and I headed down to try it out.   My mother in law and her friend joined us.  We all enjoyed it.  The teas were under $2 (lipton was free).   My mother in law got a coconut one she enjoyed.  I had the mint.  The dessert cart was the best part.  The chocolate cake, apple crumble, and biscuit were very tasty.  My mother in laws friend loved the cucumber sandwiches (not my thing).   Overall it was a fun experience and my daughter says she would like to do it again. 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
add photo

[brookeq]

It was formal night.   I always try to get a family photo and it never really works out.  

 

This year was no different.  Son was not cooperative at all.  Sigh. I remind his its literally 5 minutes of his day that he can do for me, when i do tons of things for him.  Doesn't matter.  And as soon has the photographer suggests he even touch or get close to his sister it gets worse.  

 

 

This was the best one.  

 

 

I did get a good one of my daughter and I.  

 

 

I tried to bribe my son with a fun drink.  You can see that didn’t work.  Ha ha.

 

 

We still had to do family pictures too.  Ugh.  He was driving me nuts.  Of course he is front and center in the cousin pictures and the family pictures.  Luckily he tried to fake smile. 

 

 

We got thru the family photos and headed to dinner. 

 

 

Time for my favorite drink a kiss on the lips.  Its usually my pool side drink but I it was time for one now with an extra shot 🙂

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

Here the menus.  This is my least favorite menu of the week.  I don’t like lobster.

I had the meatball soup and the carbonara.  Soup was good.  Pasta was good.  I wasn't really in the mood for it but didn't like anything else on the menu.  

 

 

My husband had two lobsters.  

 

 

I had the cheese plate for dessert but didn’t get a picture.  I know someone got the crème brulee and they usually love it.  But they did not care for it.  My husband got the chocolate hazelnut cake.  I didn't like it but he said it was fine.   

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[JaniceB]

I think your family pictures look very nice.  Your son doesn't have a big smile but at least he isn't frowning.  My son doesn't smile much either and has always been like that except when he was a baby.  

[Athankfulheart]

I have been a part of many roll calls, but this is the first I have heard of a "mailbox drop". When you have a spare moment, would you explain how this worked ? Thanks !

[brookeq]

3 minutes ago, Athankfulheart said:

I have been a part of many roll calls, but this is the first I have heard of a "mailbox drop". When you have a spare moment, would you explain how this worked ? Thanks !

They are very popular on disney cruises.  On Disney they are called fish extenders because people hang something on the fish hook outside their room and then others fill it with gifts.  It can get very elaborate.   

 

Someone on our roll call suggested this for our cruise just a little more low key.   Carnival has mailboxes outside your room where they put your sign and sail cards, fun times etc.  The lady asked for anyone interested.  We had 12 families sign up.  You put your cabin number and how many people were in your cabin and specified how many children and if they were boy/girl and their age.  You make a gift bag for each cabin on the list.  You could put whatever you want in it.  There weren't really any rules.  Then you deliver them when you want on the cruise.   I think we did ours before Roatan.  

 

The kids got some small games, chapsticks, candy, glow stuff, etc.   We got some useful things like wipes, hand sanitizer and then things like cups, a sticker with our ship and sailing on it, and lots of other things.   It was fun.  

[brookeq]

My son, husband and some of the kids went to watch Bumblebee.   I took my daughter and her cousin swimming in the aft pool.  They sat in the hot tubs a bit but there were some rowdy kids that the life guard had to stop and talk to a few times.  The girls decided to just get out and swim and the life guard apologized to them and thanked them for being good.   I sat and read my book and just relaxed while they played. 

 

 

We didn’t stay out late.  We had an early day at Grand Cayman tomorrow.  7 am arrival time!    And there were a lot of ships scheduled to be there so we wanted to get off right away and avoid some of the crowds.

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

Up next -- our day at Grand Cayman.  

[brookeq]

Grand Cayman

 

According to our research Grand Cayman would have 4 or 5 ships.  We were arriving first.   We wanted to get ahead of the crowds and go to Eden rock and snorkel.  Then head to the beach.  

According to the papers we got in our cabin you had to go to the coffee shop to get your tender ticket.  And it said everyone in your party had to be there.  It also said you could get it at 6:45.  (I think that was the time).  Anyways we got up and were heading out the door about 10 minutes before they started passing the tickets out.  But my mother in law texted us and said she already got all 18 of tickets for the first tender.  So they started passing them out early AND your entire party didn’t have to be there.  No big deal for me but my SIL was annoyed since she woke up all her moody teenagers.

 

So we headed  to the breakfast buffet.  I usually skip the buffet and head to blue iguana but it wasn’t open yet.  So buffet it was.   I think I just got some eggs and bacon and few other things.  It was all ok.  

 

Apparently my kids got an ice cream cone with breakfast.  I was just happy that they were up early with no problems. 

 

 

[brookeq]

When they called tender boarding we headed down to the deck.  We had a spot that we were going to meet.   Travelling with big groups can be fun, but it can also be annoying. 

 

I am going to stop for a minute and give a little side information that will be relevant in a few minutes.  

 

**************I mentioned before that we didn’t pick this cruise.  Over a year ago my SIL mentioned she wanted to maybe do a family cruise again.  (We did the breeze a few years ago).   She picked the week that her family could go.  We listed all of the cruises that week and started discussing them.  At some point everyone listed their top 3.  Mine chocies were not on anyone else list.  And other SIL wanted a shorter one.  It seemed we couldn’t really agree .  We discussed other vacation options and then just ended up saying no to a family trip this time.  SIL really wanted to a cruise with her family so she picked the magic and booked it.  My other SIL  changed her mind and booked.  My MIL who didn’t ever want to do the cruise also booked.  So my husband felt left out.  Its hard for him living away from his family.   I wasn’t 100% sold on this cruise because we already did the exact itinerary with our kids already and this cruise was more than we usually spend for a cruise.   Airfare was high too.   I love doing new things so I was kind of bummed to be doing the same exact cruise.   Plus we had already been to Cozumel like 5x and Grand Cayman 3x.   But I agreed for my husband.   Besides a cruise is better than going to work any day.

I really researched the islands and tried to find new things for our family to do.   I found some really good things on each island and was excited.  Turns out no one in my husbands family wanted to do any of things we picked out --except for Grand Cayman.  I was a little bummed but, I don’t expect everyone to do what we want.   So we all planned our own things on each island, but planned to spend the day together in Grand Cayman.   *****************

 

Ok back to the review.  We all met downstairs except one SIL and her kids were not done eating yet.  They didn’t really know where we were going so I wanted to wait for them.  This was the only day my kids would be with their cousins on the islands.   If we got separated I know that this SIL would not try to meet up with us.  She would just do her own thing.   Well my MIL is not patient at all and just left with some of the cousins and headed to the tender.   Not sure why she was in a hurry since she wouldn’t even be snorkeling and doesn’t care for the beach.   She gets very impatient and can’t wait one minute for people.  (Once She left me to get on a tram at a national park when I was in the bathroom.  She said I was taking too long.  I didn’t take long, I let all of the little kids in our group go first and I was last).   It can be very annoying.  Yes its annoying SIL wasn’t down there yet, but she wasn’t going to be very long.  Ugh.  So now we are all getting separated and I don’t know if I should wait or get on the tender with them (which they also didn’t really know where they were going.  They were relying on me).   My husband never stands up and says anything and if I do they get mad.  So we told my BIL to please try to meet us at Eden Rock.   And we headed to the tender.  Ugh.

 

We ended up on the same tender as everyone.   It took a long time to load it up.   My son was a little tired.

 

Since we were just sitting there so long luckily the rest of the family was able to get on the other tender that was loading up.   Since we were right next to the ship our app still worked so we were able to communicate.  So thankfully they would be joining us.  Yay!

 

The ride was short.   And we all ended up arriving within minutes of each other. My MIL still didn’t want to wait for them.  Sigh. I insisted this time.  It was literally like 3 minutes.  

 

Finally we were all together and off we went.  

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[fsa1155]

I bet all those cousins sure had a great time.    Thanks again for posting the menus.   The Salmon from the grill menu was always my "Go-To" meal if I didn't like the main menu.  We are booked on Carnival Magic in May.  We have a group of 8.  Can't wait.  

[KimPossible1]

I'm enjoying your review, thank you for taking the time to write it.