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Our Carnival Magic Spring Break Review


brookeq
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3 hours ago, brookeq said:

Thanks!   Its nice to hear that I am not alone.  The bad times stink but I try to focus on the good times.  We had some really bad moments on this cruise but a ton of good moments.  So I look at it as a good family vacation.  But during those tough moments don't ask me.  Ha ha

 

no problem. as much as i vent to people, there really are more good times than bad. He's getting better as he gets older , like Grandmarnnurse mentioned. He's better these days at knowing his triggers, etc. We tell him he's like the Hulk, you have these powers to be awesome, but you have to know when you start feeling angry you need to step aside and simmer down, and he like us, doesn't enjoy these "events" either.

 

I don't mean to derail your thread, just after reading a few pages i was more and more like "yes, this sounds familiar"

 

so back to the cruising!!

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I am not sure how long we were out there.  I could always see the boat.  So at some point we swam back to the boat.  The kids were sitting there silently not talking.  Whoa!  The time to sit calmed Hayden down and he was fine when we got off the boat.  He wanted to swim and play with us.  It was like nothing ever happened.  He was a new kid.  So we enjoyed the little time that we had to swim. 

 

We caught a ball that we brought.  And Hayden put his goggles on and swam around and looked at the fish that were swimming all around us.  It was a great little beach.  

 

 

 

 

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Hayden also really wanted to go swim in the big pool.  I felt bad that we were running out of time and we couldn’t do more here.  He went to the pool while we packed everything up.  It takes awhile to pack up towels, toys, snacks and snorkel gear.  I don’t have a picture of the pool but here Is one from on line.  I would have liked to hang out here a bit. 

 

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It was time to go and thankfully Hayden was ready and he got out.  Brian had the car waiting for us and we headed back to the ship.   Brian was nice and let us hook up our phone so the kids could listen to some music they like.

 

He was able to drop us off where the carnival tours get dropped off so at least we didn’t have to walk u the steep hill.  We thanked Brian and tipped him good (at least I think we did I wasn’t really sure what to tip exactly).  Then we headed back to the ship.

 

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I would definitely recommend Rony’s tours.  They were very good at communicating with us.   The car they used was nice.  Brian was awesome.  Definitely ask for him.  You don’t’ have to do a private tour they offer lots of other group tours for less money.  But we felt our driver was worth the money.  We ended up spending more money this day than we had planned but it wasn’t the guides fault.  He did everything to ensure we had a great day.  And now that we are home and the stress of the situation is over, I can say that overall we had a good day. 

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This is an awesome review.  And your kids are adorable- they're both so expressive, and I love your son's "we could be doing allll this fun stuff but my mom's making me take another picture" face.  I think my mom probably has a ton of pictures with me making that same face...oops sorry mom. And happy birthday to your daughter, she looks so happy in one of the first pics you posted with her drink that she ordered herself.

 

The snorkeling pictures are awesome- makes me want to go jump in some warm tropical water right now. 

 

 

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We got back on the ship and showered and rested before dinner.  Amelia wore her favorite outfit and wants me to show it to everyone!  She is so girly (unlike me).  She loved her new outfit with her new hair. 

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I tried to take Amelia to get some fun photos before dinner since she loved her hair and outfit so much.  But the backdrops were Dr Seuss characters.  We took some anyways and got this cute one.   It was nice to have on board credit.  I probably wouldn’t have bought as many pictures without it. 

 

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Then we headed to dinner.  Here are the menus for tonight.  

 

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I had the peach soup

 

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and the broccoli cheese soup.  I didn't realize it was going to be soup from the description.  But it was yummy.  I enjoyed the peach soup too. 

 

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My husband got the chicken pastelitos and they were good too.  I wanted them!

 

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I got the fried chicken . It was ok.  But I liked the appetizers better.

 

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My husband got the fish from the port of call menu.  He liked it.  It wasn’t for me. 

 

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He also got the BBQ spare ribs.  I don’t eat BBQ so I can’t comment on those.

 

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I got the bitter and blanc for dessert.  It was good but the melting cake is better. 

 

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From my pictures I think my husband must have gotten the roasted pineapple.  I don’t remember this. 

 

 

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After dinner Hayden went up to the movie. 

 

Amelia went to the Hasbro show with her cousins

 

Mike played games with his family. 

 

And I went to the room and tried to rest and not itch.  The bites were getting really itchy again.

 

It was an early night for us.  We had another very early morning in Belize tomorrow…

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Fantastic review! I especially love how genuine and honest you are about traveling with family and kids!!  We are on the Magic in 2020 and this full of good info! The menus posted so far don’t look too spectacular. Were you pleased with the food in the MDR?

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14 minutes ago, jandlcruise said:

Fantastic review! I especially love how genuine and honest you are about traveling with family and kids!!  We are on the Magic in 2020 and this full of good info! The menus posted so far don’t look too spectacular. Were you pleased with the food in the MDR?

The menus didn't excite me but I thought the food was good.  Everything was cooked the way we asked and hot.  Most of us liked our meals.  I didn't find the desserts to be great.   But there was always something that was decent.   

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12 hours ago, brookeq said:

The menus didn't excite me but I thought the food was good.  Everything was cooked the way we asked and hot.  Most of us liked our meals.  I didn't find the desserts to be great.   But there was always something that was decent.   

 

Glad to know the food was good-that is one of my favorite parts of the cruise. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

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Great pictures of the reef.  Your daughters hair turned out very nice and her outfit was very cute.  

Did you see any jelly fish?  Sorry to hear about your itchy bites.  I always bring some benedryl and benedryl spray gel in case I get a rash or bites because it is expensive to buy stuff on the ship and sometimes they don't have anything for an itchy rash.  I tend to get them in the sun and sand.

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20 minutes ago, JaniceB said:

Great pictures of the reef.  Your daughters hair turned out very nice and her outfit was very cute.  

Did you see any jelly fish?  Sorry to hear about your itchy bites.  I always bring some benedryl and benedryl spray gel in case I get a rash or bites because it is expensive to buy stuff on the ship and sometimes they don't have anything for an itchy rash.  I tend to get them in the sun and sand.

We did not see any jelly fish this day.   Our family members who snorkeled from the beach I think may have seen a few.

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I forgot to add what our family members did.  I don't have any pictures but can give you some feedback on what they said/did. 

 

My mother in law did the the carnival ATV excursion.  She didn't seem to really like it.  They live in Utah.  Last summer we rented 4 seat razors and drove up the mountain, off roading, and then down the mountain thru huge mud puddles.  A family friend took us so it wasn't an organized tour.   It was awesome.  I tried to tell her that per the description this wouldn't be anything like that experience.  She also didn't like the beach they went to.   Esp after Grand Cayman.

 

Both of my sister in a laws family did the Tabyana beach excursion thru Carnival.  One sister in law chose this because they wanted to use their on board credit to help with some of the costs.  The other booked it because she just follows.   We tried to get people to book with us but they didn't want to.   Well the day of, the youngest cousin was begging to come with us to hold the sloths.   I felt bad but I wasn't just going to bring her since I didn't know if there would be room for her.  Turns out we had a small car that just fit our family.  So I am glad I didn't get talked into bringing her.  I do wish others would have booked with us.  it would have been fun.  Anyways, they enjoyed their day at Tabyana.   They snorkeled and the girls got their hair braided.  They did hate their transportation.  They said it was hot on the buses.  

 

Ok NOW onto Belize...

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We had to get up really early for our day in Belize.  We booked a tour to the Xunantunich Mayan ruins.   Before I write about our day I am going to give a little information about choosing the tour and how we got some money back. 

 

We had been to Belize on a previous cruise when Amelia was 3 years old.   We couldn’t do a ruins tour because she was not old enough.  We ended up going to Goff’s Caye with Island Marketing and had a great day.  You can read about it my signature under the Carnival Dream link.  We liked our day there but I didn’t want to do  it again.  Our family decided that they wanted to do that, so they would be there.

 

We have been to Tulum and Chichen Itza before we had children and enjoyed the tours.  I like to have one non beach day if possible on a 4 stop cruise.  I usually don’t book tours thru the cruise company.  I like smaller tours or even private ones if possible like we did in Roatan.   And I like to find a good deal!   But the ruins are two hours away so I won’t risk it.  So we booked with the cruise line. 

 

The reason we chose Xunantunich:

 

1.        I wanted to see some big structures.  There were some ruins a bit closer but they didn’t look as impressive.  And they still weren’t that close.  Might as well go all out!

 

2.       The Lamanai ruins looked nice.  They were just as far but involved a bus and boat.  The kids have been on plenty of boats where they would not find that very exciting.  I thought the bus would be a good chance to unwind and just rest.  We would bring the tablets and they could watch a movie and unwind.  

I saw on the port of call board on here that people were getting the price guarantee for the Lamanai Ruins tour.  Not one person mentioned the Xunantunich tour.  But I figured it can’t hurt to try.  I found a tour online that was as close to the carnival description.  The amount of time wasn’t the same but I tried anyways.   I am happy to say that they sent me a confirmation email very quickly and were given on board credit for the difference.  $28 each for 2 adult tickets and $11 each for 2 kids tickets. 

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