11/6-11/14 Carnival Magic 8 night southern Caribbean

[SeaBrz]

On 11/7/2021 at 7:58 AM, silversneakers said:

Best time to board ship is in the afternoon when all the major crowding has been moved onto the ship. I like to get there around 2pm and can just walk on without crowd aggravation.  People think if they don't get there early they will run out of food (LOL).  

Agree. I'm a couple miles from Port, but chose a 1:30pm boarding time.

[SeaBrz]

11 hours ago, gnocchi_mommy said:

We had a 25 hour day yesterday thanks to the time change, but it felt longer 😅 

 

Spent a good amount of time just people gazing in the early day- then caught the Jags game on deck. That was fun, they had the volume cranked and with the way the deck is walled in it had a stadium effect. They had games available in the Red Frog and multiple games on deck.

 

 

 

Lunch at the Mongolian BBQ was so good! The line formed early and the wait was long so if you try it out, just be patient.

 

One of the fun things we did was a Scottish dance lesson led by the cruise director. I’m pretty much the least graceful human being ever born and have zero coordination (years ago in the military my nickname was actually Grace - for an ironic reason lol) but I managed to follow along okay and he was a lot of fun!

 

Dinner was the Italian restaurant, $15 upcharge, well worth it IMO. I think I actually enjoy it more than the steak house even (although we will also be doing that later this week) Our server was super friendly and on the ball. We did the arancini appetizer which is delicious- you have to get it, I had the short ribs which were okay but I’ve definitely had better, my husband did some pasta dish that honestly looked a little suspicious, but he said was delicious. I did the lemon polenta cake and creme dessert and he did the salted caramel cookie thing- all wonderful.

 

Best surprise of the night and my big tip if you will be on the Magic- the Viva Variety! Show in the main theatre with Melissa McLaughlin. This was her very first show ever and she was AWESOME!! She sings tunes from the 40s to modern times and man- she has serious vocal chops. She slayed Whitney! She interlaces her act with humor and personal stories and it just felt like an intimate show, that left us smiling. She’s brand new so maybe this is why or maybe it’s because it’s an Elite cruise so the casino was busy but the theater was only maybe 25% full. Go!!! 
 

One more quick thing- last night was elegant night, and I’d say about 50% of the ship was dressed up. Not many were full gowns or tuxes though, mostly nice pants w/ dress shirts, some with jackets and nice but fairly casual dresses on the ladies. 
 

Throwing in our old people attempts at selfies, haha, we were somewhat dressed up though. 

 

 

Loving every update and you are such a gifted "story teller". After the Magic, I will look forward to reading more of your reviews for any ship. Great photos, too! My BIL is retired USCG and met my sister while stationed at Canaveral in the mid-80's. Coasties are the BEST!

[gnocchi_mommy]

13 hours ago, SeaBrz said:

Loving every update and you are such a gifted "story teller". After the Magic, I will look forward to reading more of your reviews for any ship. Great photos, too! My BIL is retired USCG and met my sister while stationed at Canaveral in the mid-80's. Coasties are the BEST!

Aw thank you! 

[gnocchi_mommy]

Yesterday was the second seaday in a row. We spent a little more time in the casino, the husband did decent on the blackjack table and I left a whole $22 up on the grown up arcade aka slots. We can hardly compete with these Elite casino cruisers but that was a good day for us.

 

We chose to eat at the deli for lunch, I had the caprese sandwich on focaccia and it was SO good!!!

 

Dinner was the seafood shack, and my review isn’t as glowing for that. I’m not sure what those little fried bits were I ate but they weren’t any kind of fried clam strip I’ve ever had before. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Tiny portion for an “additional fee” meal, and honestly just not good. My husband had the fish and chips and he said they were okay. On past cruises I’ve had the lobster roll and it was good, so maybe those are still a good option but skip the fried “clams”.

 

We spent most of the night at the Alchemy bar- there was a great band that did an hour or two of country then a few hours of 80s tunes and the deck 5 stage next to Alchemy was rocking all night. There was a deck party at the same time that we skipped, but it seemed like so did half the ship! We’ve met a lot of really friendly, chatty cruisers on this ship and everyone seemed to end up at Alchemy. 
 

We did make it to part of the dive in movie, last night it was Black Widow and I was really impressed with the acoustics! 
 

I don’t like when people are lucky enough to cruise and only post negatives, so I feel a little bad going there but I did want to say if the crew is failing at anything- it’s lido buffet area cleanliness. We went up for the “late night snack” hour, meatball subs, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, some kind of pasta, and a little salad bar were set up. Almost every table on the open side was dirty. Dirty dishes on most, water rings, etc. The buffet itself on the passenger end (where you put your tray and walk ir through) was pretty gross. I felt like we saw barely any crew anywhere, cleaning like they normally would in there. If I’d had one less drink at Alchemy my germaphobe sense probably would have convinced me to walk away but I was Island Old Fashioned fueled and needed food so I blew off the ick around me and ate anyway. I’m not bent over in the bathroom today so I guess all’s well that ends well.

 

Today is a late day visit to Aruba- yay! We will be in port 1:00-11:00 pm. I added a last minute excursion today, only $20 PP party bus to Eagle Beach. I’ll review it tomorrow!

 

I apparently took almost no pictures yesterday. Here’s or reminder though to hydrate and that the CHEERs package includes free bottled water at all bars!

 

 

[lazydayz]

How was the party bus?  We enjoyed Eagle Beach but found it difficult to get a drink there.  

[gnocchi_mommy]

Internet slowed waaaaay down on board despite having the fastest package so gave up on finishing this review until back on land. Just disembarked. 
 

Going back in time to Aruba day- they added this $19.99 Beach express tour, ride a banana bus to the beach with a mini tour on the way. Being honest, you can easily do this on your own in a cab. Another couple did and it was $17 one way- but they paired up with another couple on the way back and split cost. We paid a few dollars more but it worked fine. The drop off spot was okay but we walked about 1/4 mile back to the Amsterdam resort section to take advantage of the beachside bar. Rented two loungers for $10 each, and scored a waterside umbrella. Loved it!!! 
 

Im gonna sandwich in here one HUGE CARNIVAL FAIL- disembarking. Holy Covid hell… okay back in the day if you purchased an excursion you had a meeting spot, like say- the spotlight lounge or the main theater, your little group then exited in an orderly manner. Not so anymore. Now, paid excursions leave at the same time as muster station A03- and it was a madhouse. We were packed like sardines on the stairs for over 20 minutes. It was the only time on board I really felt “unsafe” as far as Covid protocols- even though everyone wore masks. We were just all up in each others business. I tossed a picture of the chaos below.

 

That complaint said, we had an amazing day in Aruba and getting back on the ship was a leisurely event.
 

 

[gnocchi_mommy]

The next day was Curaçao and this was the highlight of the trip for us. This was our second visit here and this time we chose to stay in town. It’s absolutely beautiful- the street art is super impressive, the food and drink is wonderful, the locals are so friendly. The island is Dutch but there’s heavy African, Jewish and Spanish cultural influences. We toured the temple (the oldest in the Western Hemisphere!) and Jewish History Museum, I think it was $10 PP and also dipped into the Postal Museum - honestly because it was air conditioned and it’s the oldest building in Curaçao (1600s) at only $2 PP. I’m going to post a bunch of pictures from here because although this was only our second visit, I’ve decided it’s my favorite Caribbean port.  

[gnocchi_mommy]

Next seaday was Veterans Day- I had this long post about how awesome Carnival did the military tribute on this cruise but lost it I think- hopefully this isn’t a duplicate! Turn out was HUGE, in the main theater- people on all levels. When each branches song plays they are asked to stand so we stood proudly for Semper Paratus. Way more coasties than we have ever seen before! Carnival handed out small flags to everyone and it was a lovely event.

 

Platinum and Diamond reception was this day as well. 850ish platinum and 160ish Diamond on this sailing! Open bar, no limits- appetizers are still not back. Invitation specifically says “you and a guest” now btw. Tech difficulties meant the ship montage movie didn’t play.

 

With so many P/D, the ship ran out of pins and chocolate strawberries- and boy did we hear about it. Over and over. And over. Often by the same people. They told anyone who didn’t get a pin to contact Carnival  after the cruise and they would send one. They offered substitutions for the strawberries- I loved mine 🤷🏻‍♀️ Truffles, cheesecake bites, and macrons. Others were apparently not as satisfied, and I get it - we all have our favorites, but it seemed like a bit much to get upset over. 
 

This day was also remarkable because we found our first cruising duck!
 

 

[gnocchi_mommy]

Steakhouse night- this is what always happens. The chef offers a special little treat as an appetizer, the soup is great, the service is perfect, I order a ribeye and it’s better than any other ribeye anywhere, my husband gets some other cut of meat- tries my ribeye and pouts and says he should have ordered it. Every single time. This was no different 😄 

 

Chefs treat was a delicious Parmesan bonbon. French onion soup was outstanding and hubby said his lobster bisque was really good. My pork belly appetizer was “eh”, more pork than belly if you know what I mean. Tough not melty. My steak was perfection!!!!! My husbands Australian wagyu was good but as predicted he wished he would have gotten the ribeye. Someday he will learn! Chocolate domes for dessert. Super rich, just ate a few bites but it was delicious. Totally worth the upcharge. 

[georgiacat]

I am enjoying your review and love your pictures.  I look forward to going to Curacao for the first time next fall after seeing your pictures.

[joe/jack]

11 minutes ago, gnocchi_mommy said:

Steakhouse night- this is what always happens. The chef offers a special little treat as an appetizer, the soup is great, the service is perfect, I order a ribeye and it’s better than any other ribeye anywhere, my husband gets some other cut of meat- tries my ribeye and pouts and says he should have ordered it. Every single time. This was no different 😄 

 

Chefs treat was a delicious Parmesan bonbon. French onion soup was outstanding and hubby said his lobster bisque was really good. My pork belly appetizer was “eh”, more pork than belly if you know what I mean. Tough not melty. My steak was perfection!!!!! My husbands Australian wagyu was good but as predicted he wished he would have gotten the ribeye. Someday he will learn! Chocolate domes for dessert. Super rich, just ate a few bites but it was delicious. Totally worth the upcharge. 

Thank you GM for sending all those wonderful photos 

 

[gnocchi_mommy]

Amber Cove- I purchased a snorkel catamaran excursion through the ship. When we looked at the tickets we noticed the 7:15 am meeting up 😳 This is tricky for a couple that likes to close down the alchemy bar every night… but we stiffened our spines and vowed to somehow do it. The night before though, a pink note was in our mailbox. Excursion cancelled and refunded due to sea state!!! We may be the only people on board who were cheering that cancellation. 
 

We slept in and walked casually off the ship into what felt like a furnace, and made our way down the 20 mile long pier with a loose plan to find chairs at the pool. Except. We made it all the way there, sweating and huffing and puffing and arguing over nothing. At the pool area every seat seemed to be taken or was far from the water, then we began to argue about which bad seating area was the least bad… and finally we looked at eachother, laughed, and said let’s just go back to the ship. So we did! Guess what we found? An amazingly empty pool deck!!!! Score!!!! Now that was a great way to enjoy Amber Cove.

 

We did the free pasta bar in the Italian restaurant for lunch and it was sooooo good!!!

[gnocchi_mommy]

80s glow night was kind of a bust, not at all like pre-Covid. Remember when they used to put out a special late night buffet on the deck and there would be tons of people dancing? This was mostly line dances led by the cruise director- I think probably to control the masses… and it was at 8:15 which means late dinner people couldn’t make it. I mean, we had fun but this was not a really a glow party. They were handing out beads and nothing glowing. Oh well, we made our own party…. Starting at Red Frog but again the real action was at the Alchemy. 

Edited November 14, 2021 by gnocchi_mommy

[gnocchi_mommy]

Yesterday was the last full day, day 8…. And we were feeling all 8 of those days!! Took it easy for much of the day, met up with all of our new cruise friends at night. Not a whole lot to add but a shout out for the seaday brunch which was fast (unlike past cruises) and fantastic!!! 
 

Groove for St Jude turn out was fantastic!!!! Look at the lines in the pictures. We set a new post-shut down record with $5360 in donations.

 

Then there was a short squall and I had to include this picture because the woman on the lounger cracked me up- she was not letting a little rain ruin her vacation!!! That’s the attitude!

[gnocchi_mommy]

Disembarking today- it was pretty messy. We self assisted, and waited in the northern lights dining room (platinum) and there were some issues with other groups going ahead. Now I need to preface this with the fact it was absolutely messy with little communication but we still made it off by 0830. I was totally shocked by the way some of the passengers behaved, grown adults, some old enough to be my parents- were shouting at Carnival employees and other passengers. Just super rude and entitled behavior they should feel embarrassed about. You really don’t need to shout you are platinum in a roomful of platinums!!! You really don’t need to shout at all, actually. 
 

Anyway, don’t want to end on a sour note because the cruise was great, the staff was wonderful, and most of our fellow passengers were also great.

[lazydayz]

Sounds like a fun cruise.  Sorry disembarking was a mess, but 8:30 isn’t bad.  Our turn in two weeks!  

[80sGal]

Thanks for the great review!  We have a similar itinerary in Spring.  Did you originally have Bonaire on your itinerary?  Has Carnival suspended that port?  Glad you had a great trip.  This  will be our first voyage to the ABCs.

[mcgore83]

Great review!  Thank you for sharing!