Our Carnival Magic Spring Break Review

[brookeq]

Here are some videos of the sting rays.  As I said, I don’t take too many videos and you can see I do terrible job.   My husband took the first one.  I did the second one   Watching the second one gives me a headache!

 

stingray 1

 

sting ray 2

[brookeq]

Unfortunately we had to head back.  I would love to spend more time here.   So we packed up and got back on board.

 

While we were swimming, Pedro made fresh ceviche with our fish.   He cuts up the fish and soaks it in lime juice.  The acid in the lime juice cooks it.   He just adds lime juice, cilantro, and onion.   It was delicious and I don’t really eat fish.  

 

 

The kids even ate it.  Amelia ate a lot of it.   Who’s kids are these?

 

 

Goodbye beautiful water 😞

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

The ride back the kids sat together in the front of the boat.  Hayden usually tries to avoid Amelia so it was really cute and sweet.  Of course my finger ruined the picture. 

 

 

Got another one to prove it happened.

 

We just relaxed on the boat ride back and talked to Pedro.  He is very friendly.   

 

 

Eventually we made it back to the marina.   We thanked Pedro and Sammy for a great day.   We paid the rest of what we owed and gave them a good tip.  I don’t know if you are supposed to tip on these kind of private tours.  But we certainly had a great time so we did. 

 

 

Edited April 26, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

They called us a cab but none came.  So Sammy drove us down the road to the pier in his truck.   What great service. 

 

He told us of a good store to stop at for souvenirs.   He said its one of the cheapest.  It was called La Best.   So we stopped there since we didn’t have a lot of time.  We got some vanilla.   The kids picked out some pens for their teachers.  Then each got one souvenir.  Amelia got a fan.  Hayden got bongos.  Ugh! I also got an ornament.

[brookeq]

Final thoughts on our day…

We had an awesome day.  We got to catch fish.  The kids want to go back and try to catch bigger fish next time.  El Cielo was an awesome spot.   I would love to go there again and spend more time.   We didn’t snorkel this time since the kids weren’t into it.  But Pedro usually takes you snorkeling.  Pedro and Sammy were awesome.  So friendly.  They work very hard to make sure you have a great experience.   I would definitely recommend it.  I like that we were on the boat with just our family.   I am liking to do more personal tours when possible.   Its more money but the experience is just better.  

 

We had paid a $100 deposit on paypal before we left.  Then we owed $275 when we were done.   So it was $375  for 1-6 people.  You can rent a bigger boat for $450. I think its $40 a person extra if over 6 people.  

So this wasn’t a cheap excursion but I thought it was a good value.  Like I said we were by ourselves so we got personalized attention.  And we were out all day.

 

My son declared it the best day of the trip.  And as I have said he is hard to please.   Amelia who didn’t want to go also loved it even though she didn’t fish.  

[brookeq]

57 minutes ago, SandiLynn said:

Thanks for the review. How much was the fishing excursion?

sorry i missed this.   I just posted the price later in the review.  its on page 8.  

[jimbo5544]

Love your review, the writing style and the pics. Looks like you had a blast, thanks for doing the review.

[jimbo5544]

...and great family...

[travelplus]

On 4/20/2019 at 4:29 PM, brookeq said:

While this was going on Amelia took her money from her Grandfather and went to get her hair braided. The lady was on top of us when we were getting our bracelets giving Amelia the book to look at.  I knew we wouldn’t get out of there without getting her hair done.  She was happy with how it turned out.  I don’t know if we overpaid or not.  I don’t stress about these things.  I hate haggling and figure the people need the money. 

 

 

 

At some point my son finally started eating.  Apparently there was food in the bag that he could eat.  😉  And then he was a little better  

 

My husband was ready to snorkel but we realized that we were pretty far away from the snorkel area.  The kids would never walk that far.  Brian would watch our stuff but I am not having him watch my kids.   And we really didn’t have a ton of time to waste walking that far.  There was a guy offering snorkeling tours that take you out to the reef by boat.  Today was turning out to be an expensive day! We quickly talked about it and just said lets do it.  We packed our snorkel stuff and got on the boat.   You can see the small boat behind us.  

 

An awesome review thus far! I have an idea why not book a Birthday cruise for your son so that he can get the gifts your Daughter gets? Look at Royal Caribbean and surprise your son with a"Cruise Hayden" theme and invite the family

[TNcruising02]

I really like those videos.  It must have been amazing to swim so close to the stingrays. The water looks beautiful.  It looks like a very nice excursion and I am sure you were pleased that your son loved it.  Your excursion looks like it was worth every penny and what a perfect day with the weather.

[brookeq]

2 hours ago, travelplus said:

An awesome review thus far! I have an idea why not book a Birthday cruise for your son so that he can get the gifts your Daughter gets? Look at Royal Caribbean and surprise your son with a"Cruise Hayden" theme and invite the family

We are hopefully sending him to Utah to spend time with the family and going skiing for his birthday.  I am hoping they will pitch in for his ticket.    Got to keep things even.  Ha ha

[brookeq]

46 minutes ago, TNcruising02 said:

I really like those videos.  It must have been amazing to swim so close to the stingrays. The water looks beautiful.  It looks like a very nice excursion and I am sure you were pleased that your son loved it.  Your excursion looks like it was worth every penny and what a perfect day with the weather.

It was.  I never had any interest in Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman.   I would hate that.   This was perfect.  They were friendly and would swim up to you  But if you were noisy or panicky they swam away.  So you didn't have to be near them if you didn't want to be.   

[grandmarnnurse]

9 hours ago, brookeq said:

It was.  I never had any interest in Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman.   I would hate that.   This was perfect.  They were friendly and would swim up to you  But if you were noisy or panicky they swam away.  So you didn't have to be near them if you didn't want to be.   

I know this may sound silly, but since that fellow from Australia was killed by a sting ray barb many years ago, I’m afraid to go near them. What do they tell you concerning safety about being near them? 

[blarko]

39 minutes ago, grandmarnnurse said:

I know this may sound silly, but since that fellow from Australia was killed by a sting ray barb many years ago, I’m afraid to go near them. What do they tell you concerning safety about being near them? 

 

I feel the same way! I’d also like to know about safety around the rays.

[brookeq]

Their barbs don't really grow back (very slowly) so they don't use them.  They flee from situations they don't like.  

 

I figured so many people go every day in Grand Cayman.  It has to be a freak thing if it ever happens or we would hear about it and cruises would stop offering it as a tour.   

[bunnyette]

15 hours ago, brookeq said:

The ride back the kids sat together in the front of the boat.  Hayden usually tries to avoid Amelia so it was really cute and sweet.  Of course my finger ruined the picture. 

 

 

Got another one to prove it happened.

 

We just relaxed on the boat ride back and talked to Pedro.  He is very friendly.   

 

 

Eventually we made it back to the marina.   We thanked Pedro and Sammy for a great day.   We paid the rest of what we owed and gave them a good tip.  I don’t know if you are supposed to tip on these kind of private tours.  But we certainly had a great time so we did. 

 

 

If they made your family happy then they deserved a good tip.  Great review by the way.

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

I know this may sound silly, but since that fellow from Australia was killed by a sting ray barb many years ago, I’m afraid to go near them. What do they tell you concerning safety about being near them? 

 

I always tell my wife there is no way I am going near sting rays based on what happened to Steve Irwin (i.e. the Crocodile Hunter). 

Edited April 27, 2019 by PhillyFan33579

[grandmarnnurse]

58 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

 

I always tell my wife there is no way I am going near sting rays based on what happened to Steve Irwin (i.e. the Crocodile Hunter). 

I feel the same way. No way will I go near them. Even if it was a freak accident, it happened to a pretty experienced person. Nope. Not going near them.

[brookeq]

I just wanted to stop and share  picture with you.   The kids had me walking back and forth from the front of the boat to the back.  (everyone wants to be with mom!).  It would get rocky.  The side of the boat was narrow and I was always scared I was going to fall off. So I walked sideways facing the inside fo the boat.  Well with the rocking I kept hitting my thigh off this knob/bolt.  I ended up with a huge bruise. Ha ha.  Between the bruise and the bites my skin was a hot mess!

 

 

When we got home  I went to the gym.   A guy stopped me and asked if I got the bruise playing soccer.  I laughed.  I told him I actually do play soccer ( I also coach) but I didn’t have a cool story for the bruise.  I just got in on boat being a chicken on a boat.  

 

Ok back to the review.

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by brookeq

[brookeq]

We headed back to the ship. 

 

Amelia loves when they have mermaids out.   She got her picture taken.

 

 

She also loves the Day of the Dead movies, Coco, Nightmare before Christmas.  All of that stuff.  So she got a picture with them too.  

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[tinkr2]

On 4/19/2019 at 6:04 PM, brookeq said:

No.   I saw a bunch of ants near our stuff at Grand Cayman when we were leaving.  But I am the only person out of 18+ people to get any type of bites.  

 

You're pretty fair. That looks like a sun heat rash.

On 4/20/2019 at 12:26 PM, brookeq said:

Our next thing we wanted to do was head to West Bay beach.  We really wanted to snorkel here since we didn’t get to last time.  The kids were a bit tired so I knew it would be a bit of fight but this was something my husband I both wanted to do and who knows if we will be back (esp since most itineraries with roatan as a stop are the same cruise we are doing/already done:  Belize, Roatan, Cozumel and then Costa Maya or Grand Cayman). 

 

So we did the approximately ½ hour drive to the West Bay Beach area.  The plan was to go to Bananarama for $10 a person and head to the snorkel area on our own.  We got there and they were full.  We tried the two places next to Bananarama and they were also full.  Brian was awesome and made some calls and tried a few more places .  He eventually found some openings at a place called Henry Morgan.  It was I think $20 or $25 a person so we had to make sure we had enough money and quickly decide if we wanted to pay that much since we didn’t have a ton of time.  We decided just to go for it. 

 

Thanks for the heads up about rebooking Banana Rama . I was thinking of a driver and doing most of the same activities as you... bc kids.

[brookeq]

Back on board I remembered that I packed some things to make ice cream sundaes.  So we all met at  the ice cream machine and enjoyed a fun snack.  I found small plastic squeeze of fudge and caramel at the store and also had sprinkles and mini oreos.   It didn’t really take up any room and it got us all together.   I would do it again.   I didn’t take any pictures though.  Ooops

 

 

One of the cousins found a duck.  We took a picture and she re hid it.  It was the only one we saw the entire trip.  No one has posted any pictures of ours since we have been home.

 

 

We hung out at the bar before dinner.  I tried a mango margarita.  It was ok. 

Amelia and I matched so we took a picture.

 

 

 

Hayden didn’t come to dinner.  He had a burger when we boarded and wasn’t hungry.   I didn’t force him to come. 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement

[brookeq]

Here are the menus for tonight

[brookeq]

I don't each much bread at home but loving having it on the cruise.  This was one of my favorites.  My other favorite had cranberries in it.   

 

For appetizers:

I had the meatball  

And the tortilla soup.  I didn’t like this one.

Mike had the pumpkin and lentil soup and liked it.

He also had the spring rolls

And the flat bread!

[brookeq]

I had the veal.  It was decent.  I wasn’t too hungry.

 

Mike had the lamb and steak tacos. 

 

 

I  tried the steak tacos they were just ok.

 

I had the chocolate melting cake. 

 

 

Mike had the apple pie. 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2019 by brookeq
photo placement