Review - Magic Aug 31 - Sept 8 2019

[DozerRay]

This was our 5 cruse, 4th on Carnival, 1st on Magic and our favorite cruise so far.  Loved the itinerary and met so many great people on board.

It was also our first time in an aft balcony.  More on that later :)  Also, this is my first review so hopefully it flows.

 

I will say that we are really laid back and pretty easy to please people.  We don't ask a lot and can make a good time out of almost any situation.

 

We like to take our time and drive from NC to Florida for our cruises.  

 

Wednesday 8/28 - Charleston, SC

We stayed at the Mills House Wyndham for one night.  It was a pleasant enough stay: clean room, neat view of Meeting St, friendly staff.  We parked in the city parking garage a couple of blocks over so we could charge our car overnight.  I believe it was $20 for the night.  Great location within walking distance to pretty much anything near the battery.  We arrived pretty late so we just walked a few blocks to a little bar called The Griffon (there are signed dollar bills covering the walls - it was kinda neat).  The food was great, wait staff was fun.

 

Thursday 8/29 - Daytona Beach  - Ft. Lauderdale

It just so happened that my FIL and his girlfriend were staying in Daytona Beach for the week so we stopped by their time share and spent a few hours with them.  They stayed at the Wyndham Ocean Walk Resort.  Looked like a really neat place to stay.  Tons to do for families and lots of restaurants!

 

Continuing on to Ft. Lauderdale... We stopped a couple times to charge the car and do a little shopping.  We like to charge before our scheduled stops and this time we are glad we did.  Somewhere on the Florida Turnpike there was (what we assume to be) a fatal accident.  Traffic was stopped for well over an hour and thankfully we had plenty of charge.  We weren't too far from the site and could see a large truck had overturned and caught fire.  The cab was crushed.  I truly hope it turned out better than it looked.  As an aside, I ended up texting with the front desk clerk of the hotel where we were staying to let them know we would be arriving late, and he was so helpful and understanding!

 

Thursday 8/29, Friday 8/30 - Ft. Lauderdal

We stayed at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina for 2 nights.  We had a room on the 14th floor with a view of the port and it. was. amazing!!  I got up early on the 31st to watch Magic and Celebrity Equinox pull in to port.  We had a king room with a balcony.  Room was clean though did show signs of wear and tear.  It could definitely use some TLC.  However, we wouldn't hesitate to stay again.  

We stopped by Walmart to grab some snacks...or so we thought!!!  At this time, Dorian was still headed for Florida and the shelves were EMPTY!!  We meant to stop further north on the way down but totally forgot.  Oops.  We were able to get a couple of things, then stopped by the gas station for additional provisions :D.  That was quite a show too... the lines for gas were sooo long.  Thank goodness for electric vehicles!

Once at the hotel, we checked in and then did self parking.  Parking was $30/night for self parking and I believe it was $35/night for valet. We actually ended up parking in the valet lot as they had an EV charger there.  It was in use the first night but we were able to use it the second night.

Since we arried so late, the food options were limited so we ended up ordering a pizza from a local place (can't recall the name).  It was decent enough to satisfy 2 weary and hungry travelers!

Day 2 we slept in (glorious!!) then drove to Plantation Mall to charge the car and grab some food.  We stopped at a little pizza place to grab a drink and it was over $3.00 for a 20oz bottle of root beer!!!!  Won't do that again, but we did savor every drop ha!  I got a burger from 5 Guys and it was delicious.  After charging we drove to the port to find the parking deck. We had no trouble finding it, but there was a looong line of cars waiting to get in to park.  They were all brand new cars that appeared to be just off of a carrier.  I'm sure they were probably moving them to protect them from Dorian.  This made me panic a little as I was afraid all the spots would be taken. (They weren't).  Then we went back to the hotel to relax for a while and went for a quick dinner.  DH had Chinese from some local hole in the wall place that he said was very, very good.  I had PDQ.  We had some spotty rain throughout the evening.  That reminds me - the balcony is VERY slippery when it's wet!!

 

Also of note, I was watching NOAA to monitor the storm track, as well as the Port Everglades site and the Carnival site.  We also were signed up for texts from Carnival.  I felt like the communication from Carnival was adequate to keep us informed of what was going on.

 

Saturday 8/31 - Embarkation day!!!

As stated earlier, I had set my alarm to get up at 3:30 to be ready to watch Magic pull in to port.  She was slated to arrive at 4am.  I got up every few minutes to watch for her and finally, I believe, between 4 and 4:30 I saw her coming in.  It was really a beautiful sight!  I took pics and DH took a video.  He left his phone propped up on a table on the balcony while we went for breakfast to capture the full arrival and the sunrise.  Equinox came in right behind Magic so he captured that as well!

Breakfast was at Lester's Diner.  It was very good, but be aware that the portions are HUGE!!  After breakfast, we went back and finished packing up and headed to the port.  We had FTTF so I wanted to get there early to make sure we had a good parking spot.  Since Dorian was still sort of aiming for Florida, we wanted to park on a middle level just in case of flooding.  I think we got there around 9:30 or 10 and had no problem finding a spot.

I believe we headed in around 10 or 10:30.  We handed off 2 sea bags to the porters, tipped them, then headed in.  For carry ons, we each had a military-style back pack, a shoulder bag, and each of us had a 12 pack of soda and I had a small backpack/purse with our documents/passports.  Entry was quick and easy though we were sent to the wrong waiting area.  They sent us upstairs to the priority area first, then we were sent back down and finally arrived at the FTTF area.  At that time there were plenty of seats.

After 11:30 passed and no one had moved, I figured something was wrong. (We found out later from a crew member that a 45 year old man punched an 80 year old man in the face during the disembarkation process.  Authorities and paramedics were called and the 45 year old was arrested.  Horrible!!  Please be patient... everyone will get off the boat!!)

 

Sometime while we were sitting there we realized that we left our lanyards in the car so DH went to grab them and to have a smoke.  To be clear, he DID clear this with security BEFORE he left the building.  He had his passport and boarding pass with him.  After some time I heard they had started boarding the platinum and diamonds and DH still wasn't back.  Minutes later he called me FURIOUS... they weren't letting anyone else in the building due to lack of seating.  I get that.. however, DH explained that he had already been inside and that I, his wife, was still inside.  They still refused and said he would not be allowed in until after regular boarding had started.  Again, he said he already had a seat and that there was no way I could carry all of our luggage on by myself.  Still no go.  I told him I would just wait until he got inside and we would board together, but he said if I could find someone to help carry our things, to go ahead and board and he would see me in the room.  We hung up and they called FTTF.  I got up, put a back pack on my front, a back pack on my back, placed my shoulder bag on my shoulder, put the small back pack/purse in the front on top of the front back pack and had someone hand me the 2 packs of soda.  I was loaded down!!!  As I got up to the security lady, she gave me quite the look and I told her they wouldn't let my husband back in.  Turns out she was the one he asked and she was livid for him.  She took off to go get him but right as she turned to go, he came through.  It takes a LOT to push him to that level of angry, but he was irate, and rightfully so I believe.  The lady security guard told us to make sure we mention everything on a comment card.  He tried to take some of the bags from me (he said he looked like an a$$hole with me carrying everything) but I was locked and loaded so there wasn't an easy way to give him any bags.  I did let him carry the soda though. :)

From that point it went pretty quickly.. up some stairs and down the gangway and we were on.  We went straight to our room (which was ready!!).  Our key cards were in the mailbox right outside the door.

 

Dinner calls so I will finish the review later.... 

[jimbo5544]

2 minutes ago, DozerRay said:

This was our 5 cruse, 4th on Carnival, 1st on Magic and our favorite cruise so far.  Loved the itinerary and met so many great people on board.

It was also our first time in an aft balcony.  More on that later 🙂 Also, this is my first review so hopefully it flows.

 

I will say that we are really laid back and pretty easy to please people.  We don't ask a lot and can make a good time out of almost any situation.

 

We like to take our time and drive from NC to Florida for our cruises.  

 

Wednesday 8/28 - Charleston, SC

We stayed at the Mills House Wyndham for one night.  It was a pleasant enough stay: clean room, neat view of Meeting St, friendly staff.  We parked in the city parking garage a couple of blocks over so we could charge our car overnight.  I believe it was $20 for the night.  Great location within walking distance to pretty much anything near the battery.  We arrived pretty late so we just walked a few blocks to a little bar called The Griffon (there are signed dollar bills covering the walls - it was kinda neat).  The food was great, wait staff was fun.

 

Thursday 8/29 - Daytona Beach  - Ft. Lauderdale

It just so happened that my FIL and his girlfriend were staying in Daytona Beach for the week so we stopped by their time share and spent a few hours with them.  They stayed at the Wyndham Ocean Walk Resort.  Looked like a really neat place to stay.  Tons to do for families and lots of restaurants!

 

Continuing on to Ft. Lauderdale... We stopped a couple times to charge the car and do a little shopping.  We like to charge before our scheduled stops and this time we are glad we did.  Somewhere on the Florida Turnpike there was (what we assume to be) a fatal accident.  Traffic was stopped for well over an hour and thankfully we had plenty of charge.  We weren't too far from the site and could see a large truck had overturned and caught fire.  The cab was crushed.  I truly hope it turned out better than it looked.  As an aside, I ended up texting with the front desk clerk of the hotel where we were staying to let them know we would be arriving late, and he was so helpful and understanding!

 

Thursday 8/29, Friday 8/30 - Ft. Lauderdal

We stayed at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Marina for 2 nights.  We had a room on the 14th floor with a view of the port and it. was. amazing!!  I got up early on the 31st to watch Magic and Celebrity Equinox pull in to port.  We had a king room with a balcony.  Room was clean though did show signs of wear and tear.  It could definitely use some TLC.  However, we wouldn't hesitate to stay again.  

We stopped by Walmart to grab some snacks...or so we thought!!!  At this time, Dorian was still headed for Florida and the shelves were EMPTY!!  We meant to stop further north on the way down but totally forgot.  Oops.  We were able to get a couple of things, then stopped by the gas station for additional provisions :D.  That was quite a show too... the lines for gas were sooo long.  Thank goodness for electric vehicles!

Once at the hotel, we checked in and then did self parking.  Parking was $30/night for self parking and I believe it was $35/night for valet. We actually ended up parking in the valet lot as they had an EV charger there.  It was in use the first night but we were able to use it the second night.

Since we arried so late, the food options were limited so we ended up ordering a pizza from a local place (can't recall the name).  It was decent enough to satisfy 2 weary and hungry travelers!

Day 2 we slept in (glorious!!) then drove to Plantation Mall to charge the car and grab some food.  We stopped at a little pizza place to grab a drink and it was over $3.00 for a 20oz bottle of root beer!!!!  Won't do that again, but we did savor every drop ha!  I got a burger from 5 Guys and it was delicious.  After charging we drove to the port to find the parking deck. We had no trouble finding it, but there was a looong line of cars waiting to get in to park.  They were all brand new cars that appeared to be just off of a carrier.  I'm sure they were probably moving them to protect them from Dorian.  This made me panic a little as I was afraid all the spots would be taken. (They weren't).  Then we went back to the hotel to relax for a while and went for a quick dinner.  DH had Chinese from some local hole in the wall place that he said was very, very good.  I had PDQ.  We had some spotty rain throughout the evening.  That reminds me - the balcony is VERY slippery when it's wet!!

 

Also of note, I was watching NOAA to monitor the storm track, as well as the Port Everglades site and the Carnival site.  We also were signed up for texts from Carnival.  I felt like the communication from Carnival was adequate to keep us informed of what was going on.

 

Saturday 8/31 - Embarkation day!!!

As stated earlier, I had set my alarm to get up at 3:30 to be ready to watch Magic pull in to port.  She was slated to arrive at 4am.  I got up every few minutes to watch for her and finally, I believe, between 4 and 4:30 I saw her coming in.  It was really a beautiful sight!  I took pics and DH took a video.  He left his phone propped up on a table on the balcony while we went for breakfast to capture the full arrival and the sunrise.  Equinox came in right behind Magic so he captured that as well!

Breakfast was at Lester's Diner.  It was very good, but be aware that the portions are HUGE!!  After breakfast, we went back and finished packing up and headed to the port.  We had FTTF so I wanted to get there early to make sure we had a good parking spot.  Since Dorian was still sort of aiming for Florida, we wanted to park on a middle level just in case of flooding.  I think we got there around 9:30 or 10 and had no problem finding a spot.

I believe we headed in around 10 or 10:30.  We handed off 2 sea bags to the porters, tipped them, then headed in.  For carry ons, we each had a military-style back pack, a shoulder bag, and each of us had a 12 pack of soda and I had a small backpack/purse with our documents/passports.  Entry was quick and easy though we were sent to the wrong waiting area.  They sent us upstairs to the priority area first, then we were sent back down and finally arrived at the FTTF area.  At that time there were plenty of seats.

After 11:30 passed and no one had moved, I figured something was wrong. (We found out later from a crew member that a 45 year old man punched an 80 year old man in the face during the disembarkation process.  Authorities and paramedics were called and the 45 year old was arrested.  Horrible!!  Please be patient... everyone will get off the boat!!)

 

Sometime while we were sitting there we realized that we left our lanyards in the car so DH went to grab them and to have a smoke.  To be clear, he DID clear this with security BEFORE he left the building.  He had his passport and boarding pass with him.  After some time I heard they had started boarding the platinum and diamonds and DH still wasn't back.  Minutes later he called me FURIOUS... they weren't letting anyone else in the building due to lack of seating.  I get that.. however, DH explained that he had already been inside and that I, his wife, was still inside.  They still refused and said he would not be allowed in until after regular boarding had started.  Again, he said he already had a seat and that there was no way I could carry all of our luggage on by myself.  Still no go.  I told him I would just wait until he got inside and we would board together, but he said if I could find someone to help carry our things, to go ahead and board and he would see me in the room.  We hung up and they called FTTF.  I got up, put a back pack on my front, a back pack on my back, placed my shoulder bag on my shoulder, put the small back pack/purse in the front on top of the front back pack and had someone hand me the 2 packs of soda.  I was loaded down!!!  As I got up to the security lady, she gave me quite the look and I told her they wouldn't let my husband back in.  Turns out she was the one he asked and she was livid for him.  She took off to go get him but right as she turned to go, he came through.  It takes a LOT to push him to that level of angry, but he was irate, and rightfully so I believe.  The lady security guard told us to make sure we mention everything on a comment card.  He tried to take some of the bags from me (he said he looked like an a$$hole with me carrying everything) but I was locked and loaded so there wasn't an easy way to give him any bags.  I did let him carry the soda though. 🙂

From that point it went pretty quickly.. up some stairs and down the gangway and we were on.  We went straight to our room (which was ready!!).  Our key cards were in the mailbox right outside the door.

 

Dinner calls so I will finish the review later.... 

Nice start, sailing on the Magic again in March

[havanadaydreaming]

We were on the Magic 9/8(balcony), stayed at Hilton Marina with port view (11th fl) and ordered pizza delivery before cruise (coal fire place).  Small world. 

[Cairns Cruisers]

Wow fights and a lockout, surely it gets better for you once on board.

[Butterbean1000]

2 hours ago, DozerRay said:

 

After 11:30 passed and no one had moved, I figured something was wrong. (We found out later from a crew member that a 45 year old man punched an 80 year old man in the face during the disembarkation process.  Authorities and paramedics were called and the 45 year old was arrested.  Horrible!!  Please be patient... everyone will get off the boat!!)

 

What is wrong with people??  Good start!  We sailed on the Magic and fell in love.  It was our first cruise on a Dream class.  We're booked on the Breeze next month. Can't wait.

[DozerRay]

On the ship -

Room 7461 Aft Balcony 

This was our first time in an aft balcony.  First impressions - seemed kind of small, but still adequate.  No couch in this one.  There was a small chair between the bed and the windows, though.  We had plenty of space for all of our things.  One thing we did this time, that I learned from a thread here on CC, was to bring small square fabric bins/cubbies (for lack of a better term).  We bought them at the dollar store and got 2 sizes.  Two were about 8x8in and five were about 5x5in. The smaller ones were perfect to put in the closet on the shelves and you can fit 4 on each shelf.  I will definitely pick up more of the smaller ones.  

One thing that I didn't like was the bar in the closet for hanging clothes.  Instead of being situated left to right across the closet, it was front to back, so when you hang clothes, you have to look through everything to find what you need.  Weird set up!  Someone had left some plastic hangers so we had plenty.

Bathroom was the standard Carnival set up.  We hang a shoe holder on the door to keep our toiletries in to save space on the counter.

We DID have issues with soot on the balcony.  I didn't realize until we came in one afternoon and there was black stuff on my hands and on our clothes.  We let the steward know and he did a great job of trying to keep it cleaned up but you can only do so much.  After the 3rd day or so, we made a trip to guest services and they did offer to do our laundry for free and they also gave us free drink coupons, which I thought was very nice.  They also called the next couple of days to check and see if it was still happening.  It seemed like once we started going to ports, it didn't happen any more.  I'm not sure if it was because of continuous sailing on the sea days that produced more soot, or if the steward cleaned more... either way, we didn't really experience it again for the last half of the trip.

It was HOT on the balcony.  No shade or breeze really to speak of.  The sunsets at night are gorgeous though!!

For the first 5 or 6 days, we kept the thermostat down all the way and it stayed nice and cold in the room.  For the last few nights, though, it got warmer and warmer no matter what it was set on.  It wasn't enough to complain about, though.  

The bed was comfy and there were 4 (!!) extra blankets in the closet.  (2 bags with 2 blankets in each)  I REAAAALLLY wanted to take one home, but we didn't. 😄

 

Our room steward, David, was great!  We chose once/day service and asked what time was easiest for him and tried to be out of the room to make it easy.  He kept things tidy and kept our ice bucket filled without us having to ask!  (NOTE - we DID have towel animals! 😄 )  He did ask if we needed anything anytime he saw us.

Aft balcony final thoughts - We are glad we did the aft balcony but it's not for us.  We wouldn't choose to do one again.  We will stick with regular balconies and may try a cove balcony in the future.

 

General things about the ship -

We thought the ship was beautiful.  I loved the green!  I could never figure out where I was though, lol.  That has nothing to do with the ship or it's layout, that's just me.  Magic is the largest ship we've been on.

The hallways and elevators were unusually hot. I'm a very cold natured person and they felt super hot to me so I know they must have been sweltering to others.  We felt like we always had to wait for a long time for elevators, however, some friends we met on board said they never had to wait and this was their best experience with elevators.

 

Laundry  - we did laundry on day 2 I believe.  The dryer I used had no heat so we had to wait for another to open up and I left a note on the no-heat one so nobody else would use it.  Later in the week we tried to do laundry again and all machines were full.  We heard people saying they were waiting for hours for machines.  Then someone said the machines on a lower deck were broken so some folks were bringing laundry up to other floors.  We did kind of feel like there should be more machines for a ship with 4000 people.  I believe there were only machines on 3 decks.  Then the water pressure seemed to take a dive.  One woman put her clothes in the washer and left them to wash, came back 45 minutes later and the washer never filled up.  Later the same day, they did have part of deck 3 and 4 (I think) blocked off due to water leaking.  Perhaps that was the cause.

It became a farce to try to wash clothes; people were getting up at 3am and still not able to wash because the machines were still being used.  We were finally able to do laundry on the last sea day at about 5-6 am.  DH witnessed some guy remove someone else's clothing from a washer (it was finished) so he could use it.  He just placed it on the washer and said "they aren't here.  It's finished and I need it", so DH told him that was incredibly rude and he took their clothes and put them in our dryer (our clothes were done and there was still time left on it).

 

Food - We thought all of the food was good!!  We did Your Time Dining and used the HUB to request a table on the nights we ate there.  It was super easy and no matter what time we went, we never had a wait.  Over all we thought the food was better than on previous ships.  I don't remember a lot of specifics, but I do remember that DH had some pumpkin thing... it was a main dish and he said it was almost like a pumpkin pot pie and DELICIOUS!  I had a bite of it.. I don't like pumpkin but it was very good.  The texture was great!  We do like to try the weird foods.  We had done the braised ox tail before and it was pretty good.  This time we did the wild boar (I put it in my Caesar salad and it was sooo good!!), and the frog legs.  I was not a fan of the frog legs, but DH liked them.  We missed the rabbit.. we were at the steakhouse that night.

Steakhouse was fantastic.  We do it on every cruise and have not had a bad experience or bad food yet.  I always get the cowboy ribeye and this time DH got the Australian Wagyu.  I tried the wagyu and it was tender but I prefer the ribeye.

We both thought the buffet was good too.  The salads were super good... best yet on any cruise.

The deli had good hotdogs, which we had for lots of late night snacks and DH had some other sandwiches which he said were really good.

Cakes!!!   I kept hearing about the wonderful cakes so I finally made my way down to try some.  The first one I had was some sort of apple something and it was AMAZING!!  DH had key lime pie and said it was not very good.  We also had another apple dessert (it was like a cobbler) and it was super good and German chocolate cake (top and bottom layers were a little dry but the middle was moist and delicious).

I thought the pizza on this ship was just ok.  I've had better on other ships.  But they seemed to always be busy!

Guys burgers were good as always

Guys Pig and Anchor - we thought it was delicious. Others have said it was not good or just ok.

 

In general, the lines were long but moved fast (except for pizza but it was late and the only thing open when we went!) and we never had an issue getting a table.  Lots of people utilizing the hand sanitizer and washing stations, so that was good to see.

 

The wait staff was awesome at all venues.

 

Entertainment

The small venue entertainers were superb (best we've seen so far)!  The violinists in the lobby were great!  We spent a lot of time in the Ocean Plaza listening to the Sea Monkeys and thought they were phenomenal.  (as pointed out in another thread, if you are a dancer, they didn't really play a ton of songs conducive to dancing).  There was also a brass trio who played alone as well as with the Sea Monkeys.  And an acoustic artist at Red Frog who was also really good.

 

We watched one comedian (can't recall his name.. Katz maybe??) and he was really good.  We got to the venue about 15 minutes before show time and got a seat, but they filled in quickly and several people stood for the entire performance.

 

The main theater shows - oh boy.... 88 Keys was pretty good, we thought.  However, the other 2 we watched, Country Road and America Rocks (I believe those were the names.. one was country and one was rock) were just horrible (same cast).  We thoroughly enjoyed them, but for totally different reasons... it was just so bad.  A couple of the singers were ok but the rest were not good.  *side note - the actual musicians in those shows were the Sea Monkeys and they were great and even did some singing in the rock show, which made it slightly better.  We had a blast talking about the shows later.  I'm glad we went.. it was an experience lol.  Seating seemed to be readily available even after the shows began.

 

We did some music trivia in the lobby with CD Simon and I will say, this was SO much fun!  We will definitely do this on future cruises.

 

Alchemy

This was the first time we've ever done Alchemy and it was a really neat experience.  (by "we" I mean DH lol).  Those are some very talented bartenders.  Also as noted in another review, the placement of Alchemy was awkward.  It was in the Ocean Plaza and everyone kind of spilled into that area.  It was also kind of hard to hear if you wanted to converse, as there was almost always some sort of music playing in the plaza.  

 

Pools and sports areas

We didn't use the pools or sports areas at all but they didn't seem to ever be so crowded that people couldn't move in the pool.

 

Other notes

The bar in the casino is really the only place to watch sports if that's important to you.  It got crazy busy on College Football Saturday.  I think there are a couple of TVs in Red Frog but I don't know what they showed.

The casino is half smoking, half non-smoking but the smoke smell is very noticeable as soon as you enter deck 5.  They had fans but IMO they were blowing the wrong way... they had them situated on the smoking side blowing toward the non-smoking side.  May have been better to place them the opposite way.

 

Over all, no matter where we were, people were generally super polite, friendly and respectful.

 

More later... this has turned out way longer than I imagined... haha.  Next up will be the ports and debarkation!

 

 

[dctravel]

Love the review! Matches many of our experiences on the Magic a few weeks earlier. Chef Alapati (the head chef) seems to have really stepped up the food game. Recent reviews are all a notch above those from several months ago. He is such a nice man, I’m glad others are enjoying his food too!

[beachgal58]

Wonderful review, thank you for taking the time to write it!

 

[homeofthedog]

Great review and looking forward to reading more. You make it so visual, like I am right there with you. Great job!!👍😉

[dani85bri06]

My daughter and I were sitting a couple seats down from you in the FTTF area!  I remembered hearing you say they wouldn't let your husband back in and thinking how absolutely ridiculous that was.  Glad to hear he made it back in so you all could enjoy your FTTF benefits!!