Sprint180's Magic review Jan 4-12, 2020

[sprint180]

Hi all!  I really wasn't sure if I was going to write a review because I didn't take a lot of pics.  I also didn't do a lot on this trip.  This was just mostly a hang out and relax trip, not just for me but also the whole family.   It might be short or it might be long.  I have been told I can make a short story long.  Another problem is I can't get my pictures from my phone to my computer, so we will see how that goes.   I just took pictures on my phone and they aren't great but they get the point across.   Also, since this is CC I feel like I have to say, this was my experience.  It is OK  if I didn't like something and you did.  We all have different experiences.   So, here goes.....

I decided Febr. 2019 that I was going on a cruise.  Well, in our house it is sort of a collective.  Someone says, "where we going next time?"   Everyone says if they are in or out and it just goes from there.  For this trip it was myself, Vicki, 50, my husband 51, our 5 kids, 3 girls age 28-31 and two of their husbands.   Also, 2 boy age 21 & 23.   My 3 grandkids didn't get to go because they were in school which kind of made me sad.  But this is actually the first vacation ever that my family has all been together on so that was good.  The criteria for this trip was it had to be January or early February.  We are farmers so farming starts in April and goes through November.  My busy time at work, doing the farming paperwork is December.  We also have cattle so the end of February - March is out.  January it is.  My SIL wanted to go over his birthday which is Jan 10th so the decision was made.  We have all been on between 1 and 8 cruises so we have some experience in cruising and have tried 4 different lines.  Carnival, NCL, Royal and Princess.  We have loved all our cruises and all the lines and had a wonderful time on each.  We were excited to go back on Carnival because we had a blast last time.  I have no problem getting off work, I kind of work for myself.  My daughter and SIL are in the military and they had to wait until a month before the trip to ask for that time off which made me nervous.   Also my other SIL started a new job and told them about this when he started but there was still a small hiccup when another worker wanted the time off also, but it worked out.  After booking I headed to AARP to take my quizzes and earn point to buy the gift cards.   I took as many quizzes as I could, in english and spanish.   Strangely I did just as well in spanish as english and I don't know a lick of spanish.  But, ordered my cards and saved $1000.  Yay!   Used those cards to pay off the cruise and buy the extras everyone wanted.  Also got FTTF.  Was it worth it for this trip.  I'd say no.  There was no tendering which is what I would want it for but, I got it anyway.  And we did like it. But more on that later.  

Usually I research everything to death.  This time I did not.   I didn't even book any excursions in advance.  It seemed like time just flew because work was so busy that the cruise was here in no time.  I was so relieved when Christmas was over because then I had a week to enjoy thinking about the cruise.....

 

[sprint180]

So, 5 days before our trip we get a snow storm.  The radio said we had 24 inches of snow.  I wasn't worried because as long as I can get to the highway (I live in the country) I can make the 224 mile drive to the airport.  Thank goodness my husband bought a dozer so he could plow us a path to the highway and just in time too.   I don't know about everyone else but I was more ready for this trip then any I have taken.  So this was the pic of my yard when I left.  Thank goodness my yard blows mostly clean and the snow doesn't stick around the house.

[Sagittarius traveler]

It's okay sometimes I don't do anything in port but relax get a chair and eat food.

[sprint180]

++

Edited January 24, 2020 by sprint180

[sprint180]

We are finally off!   We took two vehicles so my husband and I got a nice quiet drive and the kids could get there when and how they chose.  But we all ended up in Omaha when we needed to.  We stayed at a hotel so we didn't have to get up early and drive the 4 hours to airport.  You never know what the weather is going to be like right.    So up and to the airport we went.  Even earlier then I had planned because my husband is a nervous nelly and wanted to be early.  Maybe he just wanted to be on vacay more then I did.  

 Of course my son and I both got stopped in security for a quick hand check, I always do and he usually does too.  This is a constant source of joy for the rest of my family.  I'll explain why I think this is later.

 Hurry up and wait.  Got to love layovers.

 

[Joe817]

A good start for your review! Look forward to reading more.

[sprint180]

We flew into Fort Lauderdale, and because of some delays we landed the same time my daughter and her husband landed from Utah.  That was fun and we could catch the same shuttle to the airport.   we stayed at Hotel Morrison.  It had a free shuttle to the hotel but by the time we got to the hotel we were kind of wishing we just took a taxi.  I called the hotel right when we got there.  We waited for a very long time before he finally came.  My daughter called also when she got there.  We weren't sure if we were getting picked up or not but he did come and got to the hotel safely.  as we were checking in other people called for the shuttle and the driver was in no hurry to go.  He sat there quite a while before he left which is I suppose the reason we waited so long.  The hotel was good.  I can't remember what I paid a room but I do know it was one of the more inexpensive ones as my daughter booked it and she is frugal.  It was a nice hotel and nice rooms.  I'm not sure if there was a store around that you could pick up something if you forgot it because I actually had everything I needed.  Well I forgot my sunglasses in my car at the airport and I forgot to leave my winter coat in the car so I had to carry it through the airports but I was pretty much set with what I needed.  ANyway....My daughter Amanda wanted to eat somewhere really good so she found a restaurant with 5 stars on whatever she was looking at.  And, it was a block from the hotel.   So italian it is..... After walking around in circles because we were trying to follow the map on her site we finally found it.   We opened the door and walked in and oh my, there was only 8 or 9 tables and none big enough for 9 people.  My daughter and I stayed and ate and the rest decided to find somewhere else to eat.  I'm not sure where that was but the restaurant we ate at was really good.  Wish I could remember the name,  I will try to find out from my daughter.

 

[amyotravel]

11 minutes ago, sprint180 said:

 I'm not sure where that was but the restaurant we ate at was really good.  Wish I could remember the name,  I will try to find out from my daughter.

 

 

Well, according to your picture it was Tuscany Caffe & Restaurant!

Edited January 24, 2020 by amyotravel

[sprint180]

Jan - 4th

After a good nights sleep we were up and ready to cruise.  The hotel had a nice basic breakfast.  Several of my children went to work out (nope not me!) Showered, changed and we were ready to go.  The hotel offered a shuttle for a $$ but we took Ubers.  Way cheaper and faster.  We have done the hotel shuttle a couple of times but there seems to be a  lot of waiting.  Our Uber was suppose to hold 6 people.  It had 4 seats.  No problem.  I grew up in a family of 9 children.  We had a Dodge Dart for a car.  We didn't go anywhere where we weren't stacked two high.  We snuggled in and were at the port in no time.  Right here was the benefit to FTTF for us.  We got to the port, showed the first person that looked like they might know what they are doing.  They pointed us past the long line of people waiting and we didn't stop walking until we were checked in.  No waiting, just through security and our checking in and then to sit in the waiting area for about 5 minutes and then we were headed on the ship.  Very fast.  I read there was a lot of confusion and the people helping didn't know about fttf sometimes and so on.  Luckily everyone was informed and we had a great check in.

this is one of the most exciting times for me.  Walking up the alley to the ship.

[sprint180]

The Magic

Just some quick thoughts on the Magic.  I noticed lots of rust when we got up to her.   The kids noticed too which surprised me as I assume I only noticed it because of reading about it on CC.  Way more then the other ships we have been on.  They were painting over it in Puerto Rico I noticed.  No worries, just something I noticed.   The inside looked wonderful.  I was curious how the decor would be as the Elation was our last Carnival cruise and that decor is a bit weird to me and as I said I didn't really do any "research" so it was a fun surprise to me.  The ship is super easy to get around.  My last cruise I still hadn't gotten the ship totally by the time we got off and it was a 7 day cruise.  But the Magic was easy from day one and as I said the decor was nice and there were tons of people walking around cleaning, more then I have noticed on other ships.  

We ate breakfast which is something we usually don't do.  You know, trying to get in shape for the 2 hour feeding schedule we will be on once on the ship.  So we really weren't hungry when we got on and just walked around the ship a bit.

Amanda trying and failing to gracefully get on the hammocks in the serenity place.

 

Kates attempt at what ever that equipment is.  I couldn't even get my feet off the ground.

the only time I saw empty chairs without towels on them.

 

Edited January 24, 2020 by sprint180

[sprint180]

Simon London was our cruise director.  Now I would never in the past even remember a cruise directors name.  Well, that isn't true.  One of them was Cory.  And I only remember him because one of his things was he said when you get in an elevator say "Cory say's hi" as an ice breaker.  And if someone else had been to his show they would know what you were talking about and you would make a new friend.......   My kids and I  were in the elevator with two teenagers.  It was silent then one of them quietly say's "Cory say's hi"  We all started laughing then and chatted till we got off.   That is a fun memory but I don't have any other memory of a cruise director.    When I asked my husband he said "well don't you remember Steve?"   Um, no.  What was he on.  Anyway,  here I go making a very short story long.   I thought Simon was fabulous.  He was very involved.   Was great at crowd control.  Was great at getting people involved not just talking at them and telling them what's going on next.   I can see why he got the job and gets such high marks.  I will definitely remember him.  

[hockeyluver]

Looking forward to more! We cruise Feb 1st

[SDPadreFan]

We are doing a B2B in a Spa Balcony on Magic in October. Eagerly awaiting more from you.

[pooksma]

Leap day cruiser! Am enjoying your review 🙂

[sprint180]

14 hours ago, hockeyluver said:

Looking forward to more! We cruise Feb 1st

You will have so much fun, and it's coming so soon!

13 hours ago, SDPadreFan said:

We are doing a B2B in a Spa Balcony on Magic in October. Eagerly awaiting more from you.

I tried to talk my husband into a B2B but it was a no go.  Then part way through our trip he was like.."Can you stay on if  you want and go again?"  " YES, but you have to do that in advance! "    Anyway, maybe next time.

1 hour ago, pooksma said:

Leap day cruiser! Am enjoying your review 🙂

Thank you, Your's is coming in no time it looks like.   Enjoy it!

[grandmarnnurse]

Following along, as I have a B2B booked on the Magic for my 50th Anniversary in April. (5 & 11). Can’t wait to read more! 

[SDPadreFan]

2 hours ago, sprint180 said:

I tried to talk my husband into a B2B but it was a no go.  Then part way through our trip he was like.."Can you stay on if  you want and go again?"  " YES, but you have to do that in advance! "    Anyway, maybe next time.

 

Next time, just remind him about all that snow.

[sprint180]

We had 4 rooms on this trip.  My husband and I had an inside.   We don't mind insides and they are cheaper!   We don't spend a lot of time in them so that is ok with us.  Also I wanted everyone to be together and what we did worked out great.   My husband and I had room 7226 and inside.   Kate and Calvin had 7224 a balcony.   7222 a balcony for my daughter Megan and her husband. and room 7214 for my two sons and daughter. 

 

This is room 7226.  Everything in our room worked great.  The air worked super!  No problems at all.

Room 7224, balcony.  Everything good except the air was a bit slow. 

Room 7222, balcony.  Air worked OK was kind of hot.  Smelled like pot for the first two days until it got aired out a bit.

7214

This is 7214 set up for 3.  This room had all sorts of problems.  When they took a shower it would back up through the drain behind the toilet.  Their room was HOT.  The air didn't work worth a hoot.  There was a lot of noise coming from somewhere also.   And, the music outside their room was loud at night.  These rooms are all in the same area.  the music outside mine was pretty low but theirs was loud, I can't imagine why. 

Some other things I noticed.  The sewer smell I noticed the first two days.  The first morning when I went into the front elevator area on deck 7 it smelled terrible.   But I only noticed it that day.  Also noticed it off and on on aft deck 5. 

The bathrooms had bar soap at the sink and shampoo and body wash in the shower.

Showing the pic of the plug in in the room.  I always need to bring a plug extender or a power strip because my camera charging block is big and I can't plug it in on a lot of cruise ships. 

 

[sprint180]

The laundry, one on aft deck 7 one on 10 right outside the elevators and one somewhere else I am told.   This is what is offered for $1.50 each.  The washers and dryers are $3 each.  The dryers dry super hot so I finally got smart and dried on delicate.  That seemed to work well.  The washers took 40 min and  The dryers seem to take about that long also.  I always took mine out early though.  The dryers on 7 were out of order a lot also, but there were 6 so at least 3 seemed to be working at all times.  TO pay for the washing and drying there is a thing you slip your card into on the wall.  On deck 7 it didn't work well and people seemed to be having to shove it in at least 3 times.  Mine would not work and someone told me I had to take it out of my lanyard because it wasn't going all the way in.  So there's the tip.  Deck 10 the machine worked much better.  In the laundry rooms there is also a sink and iron and ironing board if you need it.

Edited January 26, 2020 by sprint180

[sprint180]

Our room steward was Anton.  Of course he did a great job.  Called me by my name before I even went into my room.   Kinda freaky.  Asked if we wanted morning, evening, or both.  I said both but actually only wanted fresh towels if needed in the evening.  He gave us the full evening turn down though.  He asked my family the same.  Did they want morning, evening or both like your mother.   How does he know that I am their mother?  This is crazy! 

As I said we had FTTF.  None of the rooms were ready when we got on and from the sound of it they did not know that 7214 was suppose to be fttf.  That was fine with me we didn't want to stay in our rooms but we did all go and drop off our backpacks or what ever we carried on so we didn't have to carry it around the ship.  That was really nice.  And none of our luggage didn't seem to be delivered until fairly late so I wouldn't count on that early delivery.

Now, here is a funny story.................

That evening I went back to the room for some reason and our luggage had been delivered.  As I walked into our room I hear a loud buzzing.  I'm thinking it is the intercom or something else but I can not find it anywhere and it really was fairly loud.  Too loud to ignore so I thought I'd tell the steward in case something needed to be fixed.  As I opened my door  Anton happened to be standing in the hall so I tell him there is a really loud buzzing in my room..... He smiled and quietly said, "I think it's coming from your luggage."  I leaned over and sure enough our luggage was buzzing.  He walked out then and I opened my husbands luggage to find his rechargeable razor going nuts in his bag.   I was quite embarrassed as I'm sure there was speculation that it was something else. 

Edited January 26, 2020 by sprint180

[grandmarnnurse]

8 hours ago, sprint180 said:

Our room steward was Anton.  Of course he did a great job.  Called me by my name before I even went into my room.   Kinda freaky.  Asked if we wanted morning, evening, or both.  I said both but actually only wanted fresh towels if needed in the evening.  He gave us the full evening turn down though.  He asked my family the same.  Did they want morning, evening or both like your mother.   How does he know that I am their mother?  This is crazy! 

As I said we had FTTF.  None of the rooms were ready when we got on and from the sound of it they did not know that 7214 was suppose to be fttf.  That was fine with me we didn't want to stay in our rooms but we did all go and drop off our backpacks or what ever we carried on so we didn't have to carry it around the ship.  That was really nice.  And none of our luggage didn't seem to be delivered until fairly late so I wouldn't count on that early delivery.

Now, here is a funny story.................

That evening I went back to the room for some reason and our luggage had been delivered.  As I walked into our room I hear a loud buzzing.  I'm thinking it is the intercom or something else but I can not find it anywhere and it really was fairly loud.  Too loud to ignore so I thought I'd tell the steward in case something needed to be fixed.  As I opened my door  Anton happened to be standing in the hall so I tell him there is a really loud buzzing in my room..... He smiled and quietly said, "I think it's coming from your luggage."  I leaned over and sure enough our luggage was buzzing.  He walked out then and I opened my husbands luggage to find his rechargeable razor going nuts in his bag.   I was quite embarrassed as I'm sure there was speculation that it was something else. 

That is so funny! Yes, I do believe they all thought otherwise, and got a few chuckles out of it! 🤣🤣🤣

[sprint180]

22 hours ago, grandmarnnurse said:

Following along, as I have a B2B booked on the Magic for my 50th Anniversary in April. (5 & 11). Can’t wait to read more! 

Oh I hope you write a review.  I enjoy reading everyones experiences.

[sprint180]

January 4th 2020

As I said when we got on we just sort of wandered around because no one was hungry yet.  I eventually ate at the BBQ place.  It was OK, not great.  Some ate at the Lido.  I may as well talk about the food here .  We thought the food was probably the worst we have had on a cruise.  The steaks in the MDR were poor quality.  We like to try new food but weren't impressed with what Carnival had.  My daughter and I ate at Cucina for dinner one day.  It was included for dinner service.  That was good.  I just had the bowtie pasta with a red sauce.  The Lido always had lines and things were set up in weird places.  You had to wait in line for grits or oatmeal, my breakfast of choice.  Then the toppings were in a place where you had to lean over the plates to get to them..  That was kind of gross.  Also I notice something the toppings were before what you would be putting them on.  I also like dessert!  The German Chocolate Cake was not good.  The coconut filling was so dry it didn't hold the cake together.  Stuff like that.  But, the ice cream was so good.  I was  disappointed in myself that I waited until the third day to try it. 

 

Spa - I made an appointment for a massage when we toured the spa shortly after we got on.  I had fallen on the  ice a couple of weeks before we left and had been to the chiropractor several times.  It was feeling better but I was sure a massage would help tremendously and it did.  So while the others went to the sail away party I was trying not to fall asleep on the massage table.  Before I left I booked one for the last day too.  I told her I wasn't buying anything extra so there was no attempt at an up sale. 

We love to play Bingo.  Did we ever win?  Nope.  Still fun though. 

After supper we watched what ever was on the big screen.  It was hard to find a seat but we were there a bit early so we actually got some.  Most of the time we didn't.

Then as with most nights it was back to the room to play cards and order room service.  The fries are great.

[sprint180]

January 5

Sea Day...

We walked around the ship and did the usual.  Ate, napped, ate.  You know the drill. 

We also tried the ropes course.  We knew we needed the close toed shoes so we did that but my daughter couldn't go on because she was wearing a tank top.  Not sure what that had to do with anything but just a warning to wear a shirt with sleeves.  Not sure if she ever went on it.  It wasn't as impressive as the pics seemed to look but it was fun.

We went around a couple of times then were off to the next thing.

 

Dinner in the MDR

This is who I found on my bed that night.

[sprint180]

Jan 6th

 

Not a lot going on.  Did a little fake exercise.  Just guessing some trivia, played cards.  The usual sea day stuff.  I know at different points the kids went and tried to get sun chairs but as you would guess.  There were plenty with no one in them but they were all "saved" 

We also watched the hairy chest and lip sync contests.  They aren't my thing but people seemed to be having fun and enjoying it.  We did not go to the final night of the lip sync contest but heard it was good.