Sprint180's Magic review Jan 4-12, 2020

[LPYRCRUISER]

As a person who grew up on a farm and then was a farm wife, I get how life gets busy.  But please, continue your great review! We sail Feb 23rd and reviews keep me going in our cold Vermont winter!

[sprint180]

6 hours ago, LPYRCRUISER said:

As a person who grew up on a farm and then was a farm wife, I get how life gets busy.  But please, continue your great review! We sail Feb 23rd and reviews keep me going in our cold Vermont winter!

Didn't quit the review, just had to get my tax paperwork to the accountant.  They have to be done by the end of February and for some reason he fails to appreciate me dropping them off in the bottom end of the month.  I can't imagine why!

Edited January 30, 2020 by sprint180

[LPYRCRUISER]

17 hours ago, sprint180 said:

Didn't quit the review, just had to get my tax paperwork to the accountant.  They have to be done by the end of February and for some reason he fails to appreciate me dropping them off in the bottom end of the month.  I can't imagine why!

Ah, I should have known that!! Farmers and fishermen taxes due March 1!!  since we sold our cows and don't file any farm income, I have gotten extremely lazy and struggle to get it done by April 15!

[TX Sweetart]

I'm taking this exact cruise the end of April. Looking forward to all the inside info! Thanks!!

[sprint180]

As I said had to take a break to get my tax paperwork together.   So, back at it.

Jan 7

St. Maarten today.  

We took a taxi to the beach.  Is Orient Beach in St. Maarten?   The taxi driver agreed to meet us a few hours later to take us back.   While there it rained and wasn't terribly warm but I stayed in the water the whole time so it was fine.  We rented some chairs for $10 or $15 each - I think I didn't do it.  The beach and sand was wonderful and we had a good time.  We did decide to go home an hour early but that was fine because our driver was in a bar and we just went and found him.  He swore he was only drinking ginger ale!  To be honest I felt the safest with him driving as I have on most of our other trips. So here are the pics.  There was a lady walking down the beach to the topless section, topless for those who have small children.  

 

 

[sprint180]

Jan 8th - St Kitts

Must not have been there,  I have no Funtimes and no pictures.....

Obviously I was just kidding.  My daughter, son and I went to a beach.  I will let you know if my daughter remembers the name but I can't remember.  We got a taxi which dropped us off and picked us up.  We didn't pay until we were returned back again.  I didn't pay (because I didn't have any cash - long story) so my daughter paid and I have no idea how much it was.  The beach was ok, kind of crowded and rocky.  We walked way down to the end where no one was.  We played in the water a bit then ate at a bar on the beach. It was expensive.  I didn't eat, I generally don't at the places we stop but the kids said it was OK.  Then went back to the ship.  I think everyone else just stayed on the ship.  Oh I think it was Cockleshell beach, or something like that.

Edited January 31, 2020 by sprint180

[sprint180]

On 1/24/2020 at 7:26 PM, hockeyluver said:

Looking forward to more! We cruise Feb 1st

Hey your cruise is almost here....Have fun!

Edited January 31, 2020 by sprint180

[mafiadon]

On 1/25/2020 at 9:10 AM, pooksma said:

Leap day cruiser! Am enjoying your review 🙂

I'll be on that cruise also, have fun

[sprint180]

Jan 9 Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico is the reason I chose this trip.  I have wanted to go there every cruise and finally get to go.

Some drawing on the wall they think from someone that was held there.

sleeping quarters

the other fort

[sprint180]

view of the ships from the fort

Random Puerto Rico Pictures

writing on the fort wall

After we went to the fort we walked around Old Town.  Not a lot to see but we stopped and ate.  My husband and son were tired of walking and not really seeing anything so they went back to the ship early.  

My daughter and I decided Puerto Rico was somewhere we would like to go back to.

 

[sprint180]

Jan 10 - Grand Turk

The plan today was to go to the beach.  My husband wanted to go to Margarita Ville but we didn't stop.  The night before I heard the captain say there was 8 foot swells.  He said a lot more but I didn't necessarily listen.  I did try to sleep however it was quite noisy.  Our room was situated between two floors of rooms but it was still quite loud.  When we got up I told my husband that it sounded like someone was bowling (not kidding)  he laughed because that is exactly what he was thinking.  We didn't have a hard time walking around or anything.  It was the gentle kind of swells not the choppy rocking.  So it wasn't an issue for us.  Also we heard a lot of metal banging during the night.  Note to self...I probably won't get another room in the front of the ship if I can help it.

 

[sprint180]

Jan 10 - now a sea day

Today we played a lot of trivia.  We kept trying to leave then they would start a country music one, then a rock music one.  What's a person to do.  I know people complain that a lot of people use their phones.   I can't speak to that.  No one should have been in fear of us winning because although we can sing almost any popular song from the 70's to now, we can't name a title or singer to save our life.  My guess is the one that won 2 or 3 trivias in a row may have used a phone but I have no idea.  It was just something fun for us to do.  

For supper we ate at the MDR.  It was my SIL's birthday.  I had earlier ordered a cake to be delivered to our table.  You can do that at the candy store.  I didn't know you could do this but the lady in front of me did it so I thought I would do that too.  The servers sang Happy Birthday to him and I will say the cake was way better then the ones on the buffet.  

Jan 11 - sea day

 

I have absolutely no idea what we did besides I got another massage.  Which was wonderful and she didn't try to sell me anything extra.   After my massage I did go to the Debarkation Presentation.  Yes, I did learn something but I missed most of what applied to us.  Simon then went on to tell us to give everyone a 10 when we get our surveys.  That kinda bothers me.  You will get the score I think you deserve not just 10's all around.  Only my husband got a survey anyway.  But I did it for him.

[sprint180]

Some final thoughts.

Muster drill - We were in the theater.  It was the most orderly we have ever been let out of a muster drill.  They went by rows and there was no mad dash to the door.  Kudos to them

MDR - and reservations....  Well this was a con for me.

The first night we go get in line.   Some guy walk through the line (which was huge) and tells us to go on our phones and make a reservation then go anywhere.  So we did.  It says 10 minutes.  Which apparently everyones did.  So we are not going anywhere else because it is only going to be 10 minutes right.  Also, apparently what everyone else thought too because it was a huge cluster in front of the door you had to push your way through what a mess (kudos to Royal Caribbean on the Allure, they have this down)  When we get all 9 of us to the desk they say "your table is downstairs"  So we go downstairs, our table is right there, we sit down.  As we leave I asked the gal at the desk what we were suppose to do.  Push our way through the cluster because who knows if these people are waiting for their table to be ready or are waiting in line.  Don't want to make anyone mad.   She said to just "push your way through"  with I must say a sort of embarrassed smile.  

Next night our table is ready we check in at the desk, they say your table is downstairs.  We go down the stairs which goes down into sort of the middle of the room.  We ask a waiter where our table is.  They tell us, we sit down.  Then another server comes over and rudely says "we have procedures here, if you want this table you will have to wait."  So I just as rudely told  him this was our table, showed him my phone and said.." If you have procedures you should probably explain them to the passengers so confusion doesn't happen. We did check in and they told us that our table was down here,  That is the only "procedure" that was told to us."  He was all nicey nice then.  Soooooo  apparently If they say your table is downstairs, that translates to.  Your table is downstairs so you need to go downstairs and check in at the desk down stairs (we didn't know there was a desk to check in to down stairs)  Be prepared to wait in line there too.  Of course no one tells you any of this.   OK , after the first three nights the MDR cleared up a bit.  Wasn't the confusion for people.  But on the last two nights it was back and a mess again.  That is something they really need to work on.  Also, we thought the food was the worst on all of our cruises.

Another con, a very small one.   I ordered strawberries to be delivered to each cabin on the third day,  I wanted them delivered on that day for a reason.  They were delivered on boarding day for some reason.  To all the cabins.    If they aren't going to deliver them when you ask then they shouldn't ask when you want them delivered.

All in all, we wouldn't go on the Magic again probably.  Probably not on Carnival again.  Never say never though.  I just think they have changed a lot since our first trip and the other cruise lines do a better job for the money.

Hope you all enjoy your trips.   

Vicki

 

[sprint180]

And some more stuff I forgot.

Debarkation started around 6:45.  We didn't fly out until 3:30 so we just waited in the theater until the late departures.  Everything was smooth and we were sad to go, because who wants to go home to the cold.

everyone hates to see this happen.

more waiting

 

 

 

Just took this pic of our airport.  We got in at around 9:30 and the lights are off.  I took this when we just got off the plane  I always think it is funny after being in the big airports that we can see from one end of the airport to the other.   But, there is two terminals!

And it's warmer then I was expecting so that is good!

Edited February 2, 2020 by sprint180

[Indianamale]

I'll be sailing on the Magic in early March and I hope I don't have the same experience.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 

[dltvermont]

On 1/30/2020 at 9:59 AM, LPYRCRUISER said:

As a person who grew up on a farm and then was a farm wife, I get how life gets busy.  But please, continue your great review! We sail Feb 23rd and reviews keep me going in our cold Vermont winter!

 

Hi fellow VTer. Dont want to hijack the review, just saw where you were from. We are on the Magic in April. Cant wait!

[sprint180]

20 hours ago, Indianamale said:

I'll be sailing on the Magic in early March and I hope I don't have the same experience.  Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 

Oh I hope I didn't sound like we hated it, we didn't.  We have a wonderful time every time we cruise.  There were some hiccups though but that didn't stop us from enjoying it.

[sprint180]

Photo package -

I ordered the photo package online.  I think it was $80 or $90.  You got 5 pictures and a 16x20.  Unfortunately the 16x20 has to be the same as one of the 5 pics you choose.  Why?  the photos are already taken and printed, but what ever.  One of the evening my kids and I were walking around and taking lots of photos.  We always get pictures.  Last year on Princess I paid $99 and got every photo we took - over 60- in digital and physical. 

The photos were nice and you could get some nice ones if you were looking for that.  We like fun ones so I think the lady I ordered them from thought I was crazy for picking the ones I did.

the nice ones first...

and the fun ones...

 

The sales lady was worried that I picked this one and my daughters face was covered up.  That is exactly why we picked it.

and our 16x20

Edited February 5, 2020 by sprint180

[pe4all]

Great family pics!  Just off Magic this past Sunday - different itinerary, but great cruise.  We also did the deck 4 to deck 3 walk when we made our dining room reservation on the hub app the first time, and had to gently push our way through the crowd, getting the hairy eyeball from others along the way! After that we knew to go directly to the deck 3 entrance.   I agree that Simon London was a good CD - one of the better ones I have had.  Made things run really smoothly.

[Buffalofirsttimer4]

sprint180  thank you for sharing your experiences on Magic with us and what great family pics you all took.

[sprint180]

On 2/5/2020 at 7:11 AM, pe4all said:

Great family pics!  Just off Magic this past Sunday - different itinerary, but great cruise.  We also did the deck 4 to deck 3 walk when we made our dining room reservation on the hub app the first time, and had to gently push our way through the crowd, getting the hairy eyeball from others along the way! After that we knew to go directly to the deck 3 entrance.   I agree that Simon London was a good CD - one of the better ones I have had.  Made things run really smoothly.

We got tables on both the upper and lower levels so we didn't know where we should go in at and didn't even know there was a check in on 3.  So that is something good to know before you go, you have to check in at the level your table is at.

[sprint180]

On 2/5/2020 at 7:24 AM, Buffalofirsttimer4 said:

sprint180  thank you for sharing your experiences on Magic with us and what great family pics you all took.

Thank you, life is too short not to have fun.  We did make it on the "wall of fame several times!"

 

[LPYRCRUISER]

One quick questions:  do you remember if there were any traditional dining tables in the Northern Lights?  Or is it exclusively for YTD?

 

[sprint180]

On 2/6/2020 at 3:02 PM, LPYRCRUISER said:

One quick questions:  do you remember if there were any traditional dining tables in the Northern Lights?  Or is it exclusively for YTD?

 

I believe that dining room is just YTD