Carnival Magic review with pictures!!!

I really am SO glad everyone is enjoying this so much!!! I too enjoy a good full review with lots of pictures. I have especially enjoyed those that are like reading a story and am glad I get to contribute in some way to the fantastic website that has made my cruise vacations more fantastic then one could ever expect.

Paul thinks it is hilarious how into this I am getting and keeps asking when Carnival will be calling to hire me. (HA, he thinks he is SO funny, well maybe he is sometimes…)

Anyway, where did I leave off... Oh yeah onto Sicily!!!

I have been very interested in tracking my family genealogy as of late and have found that both sides of my Fathers family are from Palermo, Sicily as far back as the last 1700’s (and based on the last names most likely a lot farther back then that).

We weren’t heading to that side of the Island though (which is probably a good thing because I would have dragged Paul around to churches to find more records that aren’t published yet) and were on our way to Messina.

There really wasn’t much to do in Messina so we decided we would head out to Taormina that day. Taormina is about a 30 minute drive from Messina and this actually caused a bit of problem for us. There was not a Rome in Limo tour offered in Sicily and the usual transportation options were limited.

All options were either unreliable or very expensive. In the end we decided to use the Carnival excursion for this day. It was $70 and it was just a ride to and from Taormina for that day (the excursion was called Taormina on your own). We were not in port very long this day and were worried about getting stuck somewhere and missing the boat. Courtney and Randy had also been doing Rome-in-Limo tours all week with another group as well so we were really excited when we found out they had chosen the same option as us and we decided to spend the day with them!

Here are a couple of shots we got on the bus and in Messina before we left. You can see the boys were a bit tired and fell asleep on the way there...

The Carnival Magic!!!

And finally our cruise buddies, Courtney and Randy, love these guys!

Our ride was through a lot of tunnels and winded around a lot of mountains. We were right by Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in the world, which was pretty cool (you can see it in the distance of a lot of our pictures).

Once in Taormina we had a few hours to walk around, get some lunch and visit the Greek amphitheater. We started though with a few pics in town, the city was so beautiful! This is actually one of the places that Liz writes about in Eat, Pray, Love if you have ever read that book...

When we got a little farther into town we saw this young kid walking around taking pictures with three or four photographers and looked like he was famous or something. He took some really silly shots though and Paul and Randy took this theme on for themselves and took some pretty silly shots as well.

The "famous" kid....

And Paul reinacting one of the previous shots we saw him take (oh gees)????

I decided to turn my purse into a fanny pack to avoid odd sunburns. Very touristy of me!

There were some "protection" machines in the streets right outside of these cute little cafes, we found this very odd????

Yummm.....

A few more shots aroound town before we heqaded up to the Greek Ampitheater...

Next was the Greek Amphitheater. Many people have played at this venue. It must have been amazing to see U2 play with this view! Here are some pictures form our time there…

Paul taking a silly famous kid photo again...

And Randy too....

I'm King of the World!!!!

When we were done we headed back down to town for some lunch. Once again Paul went for the pizza. It was SO hot this day I went for a lighter fare with some fresh tomato and mozzarella cheese, yummm! We also had some local vino. For you wine lovers out there going on this cruise this summer, the table vinos and wines they serve are VERY affordable! Usually a carafe of vino ranged about 2 to 5 euros and was always very tasty!

Loving your review and all the amazing photos. A European cruise is at the top of my bucket list along with a cruise to Hawaii. Maybe in a few years when the kids have moved out and it's just the two of us. :)

After lunch we headed out in search of a cannoli (this is where the cannoli is from and is one of my favorite desserts) and to pick up some gifts for my dad. He cooks a lot and would have been upset if we didn't bring him back some goodies from his home country!

A little stuck here....

Loving your review and all the amazing photos. A European cruise is at the top of my bucket list along with a cruise to Hawaii. Maybe in a few years when the kids have moved out and it's just the two of us. :)

Great plan! We thought the same way except it is before the kids move in LOL!!!

And.... I think my two favorite pictures of the trip! They just make me laugh so hard! Paul was copying that kid again. We actually printed this picture and put it in my Mom's birthday card this year next to where it said I LOVE YOU. She laughed so hard and then said we were weird. I guess I can't not agree with that statement...

Great fountain for water in the center of town...

And just a few more pictures before we had to get on the bus to leave Italy, for good! We were so sad this was the end of our time here.

thanks so much for sharing all these and your honeymoon with us all. It's been priority number one each day to see what is posted, an absolute delight and making me smile :D

Our time was up and we boarded the bus for the ride back to the boat. We would be saying goodbye to Italy (hopefully not for forever). The ride back was very quiet and everyone took a nap. Once back we took a few pics in front of our beautiful ship, the magic…

When we got back on the ship we took showers (it was really SO hot that day and we were a mess) and relaxed in our room for a bit. We had left Sicily fairly early this day (like 6:00pm) which was a change compared to our 9:00 and 10:00pm departures. After our showers we sat out on our deck for a little while. Our cruise director (not John Heald, boo. He was supposed to be on our ship that week but had taken a little time off and we had his assistant instead whose name I can’t remember at the moment…) said that we were about to pass the Volcano of Stromboli. It is active daily and sometimes cruisers are lucky enough to see it erupt when they pass it. We heard a few loud explosions from the top but never got to see any red lava. You can see from the pictures though how the lava flows into the ocean. We were so close it was actually a little bit scary!

There was an actual small village on one end of the island right next to the volcano! I would not want to live there personally...

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That's all for tonight folks! Time for dinner and some Sunday night TV fun! I should be able to finish tomorrow with our sea day and the last day in Barcelona. Hope everyone is having a lovely evening!!!

Your trip report is phenomenal! We are taking a cruise on the Magic this summer (MoBay, GC, Coz). The itinerary you took is my dream :-)

Again, your review is outstanding and I am anxiously awaiting the rest ;)

You mentioned you didn't remember the cruise directors name, do you think it was James Charlton? He was our CD on the Magic last week, but i don't if he was the CD back then.

I have been enjoying every detail of this trip report! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! You are a lovely couple!

Good morning all, Hope everyone had a lovely Sunday evening. Well let's get back to it…

So, after we got to see the Stromboli Volcano we got ready for dinner. Tonight would be the first night we would have energy for anything being we finally got a bit of a break from a long port day and the next day would be a sea day, so no need to get up early! We decided to meet Courtney and Randy for dinner.

After dinner we headed over to the casino. Now I told you earlier that if you ordered a classic cocktail and saved the receipt you got a casino chip to match your own for any of the table games. We all turned in our receipts (I think we had 12 or so) and headed to the tables. Courtney wanted to play her and Randy's wedding date on the Roulette table which I thought was a marvelous idea! Paul and I did the same and we won nothing, boo.

Here are some pics of us playing around with our friends...

After losing to Roulette we headed over to the black jack tables. After playing for a little while we were definitely up but got bored and decided it was time to play a little poker.

Now, a word of warning to those of you who are not really poker players and who sit down at a cruise poker table just to try it. Beware the people who do know what they are doing that are there waiting for you to come! We both play quite a bit as we are in a weekly tournament with friends and we like to go to the casino near Chicago every once in a while to play as well. We know all the tricks of the game including spotting the newbies and I hate to say it but it is very easy to take all of their money. The thing about poker is it really is more than just luck and someone just trying it out is usually pretty easy to read. They also start with a low amount in their stack because they are unsure of themselves and the odds are against them compared to someone who starts with a larger stack. I've seen this on the last two cruises I've been on and always feel bad for these people. I am probably not helping myself by giving this word of warning (tee hee) but that is okay because like I said, I actually feel bad when it happens. We love to play and usually stick to the tournaments so as not to be the bullies taking everyone money but we have seen the same guys that know what they are doing sit at the table every night and all night and I just know they are racking it in. Anyway, hope that helps some of you…

Well between our black jack winnings and our poker winnings that evening we won enough to pay for the rest of our cruise bill that wasn't already paid for by our honeymoon registry. That was really the only evening we got to play (besides the tournament we entered the next sea day) and it was a lot of fun.

After the casino we headed over to the comedy club. That was kind of our thing the whole week. It was perfect because they were late at night and not the longest sets so we could handle staying up for them. I can't remember any of the comedians names in particular because it was so long ago but they were all pretty much fantastic. The only one that I remember being just "so so" was the guy with all of the puppets. He started out really funny and then it just kind flopped after that.

After the comedy show we headed to our favorite hangout place, the Red Frog Pub. We sat outside and enjoyed a few cocktails and then we went back to our cabin to enjoy the deck and go to bed.

The next day would be a sea day and we were definitely looking forward to finally having a day of relaxation!

You mentioned you didn't remember the cruise directors name, do you think it was James Charlton? He was our CD on the Magic last week, but i don't if he was the CD back then.

Yes, actually I believe it was James Charlton. We actually had sailed with him prior to this cruise when he was Jen Baxter's assistant on the Legend. He was great, definitely no complaints from us, just wish it had been John because I think he is the man! I've never understood why people give him such a hard time....

Is James now upgraded from assistant to director? If so good for him!

Maybe it's just me, but none of your pictures are showing up for me. Great review none the less and thanks for bringing back memories of our Med cruise last year.

Ahhhh, sweet heaven, we finally got to sleep in today!!!!! This was the first day (and last) that we would have the chance to sleep late and just take our time to do NOTHING!!!! We woke up around 9:00am and got our suits on right away and headed out for breakfast!

At first we thought about going to the main dining room for breakfast but I have to say every time I have eaten there I really have not been impressed. I'd much rather eat on the lido deck outside and get what I feel is the same food plus more choices. I decided on the stuffed berry French toast again because I love it so much before. I also went a bit crazy and got an omelet (they have a make your own omelet station outside at the grill right by the French toast) and some potatoes this day (I had lost 60 lbs before my wedding and this trip so I was really trying not to over eat which is pretty hard in Italy and on a cruise! I am proud to say I still have kept the weight off and am starting to work on the couple more pounds I have left to lose).

We took our breakfast to one of the outside tables and sighed with relief at the tropical music playing and the wonderful breeze. Paul asked me if it was too early for a drink and I said "heck no, we are on our honeymoon baby" so he headed over to the bar to get us a couple of Mimosas. We sat at our table for a while eating breakfast and then playing a game of rummy (we are VERY competitive and love playing games against each other and it helps that we are pretty equal so you never know who will win).

The pool area was not very crowded yet and I can say that it never seemed to be over crowded anywhere on the ship that week. I know we were pretty much at capacity and I was worried before we went that it would be way to busy but it wasn't!

After our game of rummy we headed over to the casino. There would be a poker tournament that morning at 10:30am and the winner would get either get $1000 or a free cruise for the year end final tournament for two people! There were ten of us exactly who had come to play and I was of course, the only girl. More women really should try playing this game, we have such an advantageJ

The game started and I was rockin it! In the end it came down to me and a guy from Russia, Paul was out and had taken fourth place. The bad thing about Carnival poker tournaments is only first place gets any winnings so second place walks away empty handed. Unfortunately I lost and got second place, boo. I was still proud of myself for doing so well against this tough Russian guy (anyone ever seen Rounders with Matt Damon, Ha) and I lost with a hand that I was not ashamed I had played…

After the poker tournament we went back up to our cabin to sit out in the sun on our deck for a while. I got a shot of Paul that he would kill me if he knew I posted but here it is anyway (tee hee)…

And one where he is saying something to me but not sure what it was????

Maybe it's just me, but none of your pictures are showing up for me. Great review none the less and thanks for bringing back memories of our Med cruise last year.

Oh sorry! It must be your computer because they show up for me and I haven't heard that from anyone else...

Thanks for reading along anyway!!!