Bostwick girl

Sorry we don’t have better weather for you here in northeast Florida this morning!  Port Canaveral is nice and sunny tho. 
 

My itinerary for January 15,2022 still shows St. Kitts. Hope it’s open by then!

17 hours ago, Bostwick girl said:

You will really like the Magic! Of course a lot bigger than Elation or Miracle (Love miracle, she’s my favorite ship and I’ve been on a bunch!).  The layout is nice, easy to navigate, and plenty to do. We were on her for the 3rd time since startup on the October 31 cruise. The entertainment is good, there’s always something going on in the Atrium lobby and the Ocean Plaza. Our favorites were the Electric Waves violin group, fantastic, and the Magic Rock Band. Hope they’re still there. Food and service in MDR was good, as was the buffet on Lido.  Hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we did. We will be going back January 15, 2022. 
 

I see you’re from NC, our son lives in Roxboro, north of Durham.  Safe travels on your trip down and back!

 

I had this one posted in the other post you had with the wrong date, so just moving it over to the right one!  Glad your tests were negative and you’re almost ready to go! As I said before, safe travels on I95!
 
My other son has a Great Dane, he’s a wonderful dog!

You will really like the Magic! Of course a lot bigger than Elation or Miracle (Love miracle, she’s my favorite ship and I’ve been on a bunch!).  The layout is nice, easy to navigate, and plenty to do. We were on her for the 3rd time since startup on the October 31 cruise. The entertainment is good, there’s always something going on in the Atrium lobby and the Ocean Plaza. Our favorites were the Electric Waves violin group, fantastic, and the Magic Rock Band. Hope they’re still there. Food and service in MDR was good, as was the buffet on Lido.  Hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we did. We will be going back January 15, 2022. 
 

I see you’re from NC, our son lives in Roxboro, north of Durham.  Safe travels on your trip down and back!

1 hour ago, boomhower said:

 

That's because it's an older ship before they added sofas to many rooms.  The balcony's on Elation are simply ocean view rooms that had balconies added during a dry dock a few years ago.  It wasn't originally built with them.  Converted those rooms and then added the entire deck 14 G rooms on top and they do have a sofa in them.  

Yes, we were on her the second sailing after all the balconies were added. Was just really surprised there wasn’t even a chair in the cabin!  We asked the steward if there was supposed to be a chair and he just looked at us like he didn’t understand. Amazing the dollar difference for a balcony on Elation and one on most of the other ships isn’t much. 

On 11/8/2021 at 8:46 AM, joe/jack said:

WHAT IS THE NON-SMOKING CASINO LIKE ON MAGIC?
IS THERE A BAR. IS THERE WAITERS TO BRING YOU DRINKS

IS THERE A NICE SELECTION OF TABLE 

GAMES AND SLOT MACHINES? IS THERE A PAY OUT WINDOW

OUR CP SAYS MORE AND MORE SHIPS WILL SOON HAVE TWO CASINOS 

GOING ON MAGIC IN 20 DAYS 

thanks for your information 

 

It’s a nice area, an old conference room converted to casino.  Yes there’s a bar, yes there are waiters bringing drinks. Seems like there were 4 tables and roulette, maybe one more. A good selection of slot machines, not as many as the regular casino, but good variety and all prices. Yes there’s a casino payout area.  Have been on  Magic 3 times since August,  and have to say I definitely enjoyed the non smoking casino. The main casino was great in the mornings, not that many playing. It was definitely less smoky since you had to be playing to smoke. Either people were following the rules on their own or the rules were being enforced. We did see one or two smokers playing on the non smoking machines and said something to them. They all said they didn’t notice and moved.

2 hours ago, evandbob said:

We have used Med Express in Ft Myers and did not pay for rapid Covid tests.  I guess it depends on what type of insurance you present?

 

I don’t think they’re affiliated, but ours doesn’t take insurance for the testing. I didn’t try, but may be able to get reimbursed. Time we got back from our cruise I forgot about trying to get reimbursed.  
 

I don’t mind an ocean view room, although we seldom book them anymore. Guess I’m just a balcony person! Only thing bad about the Elation was our nice balcony cabin had no sofa, nor did it have a chair! We had to bring a chair from the balcony to have a place to sit other than the bed! The other 3 couples in our group had the same thing. So because of that I won’t sail on Elation or her sister Ecstacy again. Hope it doesn’t matter to you!

Hope you enjoy your cruise! We just got off Magic yesterday morning. Had a great time. They have some good entertainment in the atrium lobby and the ocean plaza in the evenings. Food was good, also discovered the Steakhouse is casual dress (nice shorts and collared shirts for men) every night except elegant nights!  This was our third time on Magic since startup. We chose 12-12:30 arrival time for all 3 times, and each embarkation had a different way things went, nothing was the same. This trip they hadn’t started boarding when we arrived around 11:50, but started shortly. Not sure how they were letting folks in because we were in a special needs line and got on pretty quickly. I think we were checked in, dropped luggage and got S&S cards, did muster drill and up on lido with our traditional blue margaritas by 1:00. Have a great time!

I see Magic is yellow status. Just off yesterday, didn’t hear of anything, but when we were getting back on board in Cozumel, I noticed several boxes of supplies from eMed were being delivered on the ship. I assume they were those test kits from eMed to supply the medical needs on board.

6 hours ago, BoozinCroozin said:

Thanks for the initial report. The Embarkation part is what is killing me with Carnival. They need crowd control before the terminal. If it is not your boarding time, send them away from the terminal. Instead, selfish people without arrival times cramming everything up. It is a simple process. Leave or be denied boarding at YOUR loss. We just received a 10AM arrival and I think there will be 100s of people with 12:00PM boarding flooding the terminal. Scan the people arriving early, tell them it was their only chance, and if they are back before their time, they cannot board. 

We just got off Magic yesterday. Our embarkation was a little chaotic, but it was because for some reason, they didn’t allow anyone in the terminal until just after noon. Our arrival time was 12-12:30, we arrived at just before, unloaded and waited for our friend to park. Time she got back the lines were just beginning to go in. DH uses mobility scooter so looked like they were allowing them on so we got in that line. We had him, our Diamond friend and we’re platinum. Can’t really say what time slots the long line had, assuming they were the ones who should have been first, but guessing they were all mixed up. Didn’t really take long once we got in the door. We’re on board, dropped luggage and on lido getting our traditional blue margarita before 1:00.  This was our third time sailing since startup. Seems like there’s always something causing a backup, but have been on board just within our arrival window or just after.

Debark yesterday was another story. Didn’t take too long to get off, but because of scooter, had to take elevator. Still only one so took a little time. Got thru facial recognition and got our luggage with our porter, and out the door to parking garage. Guess what, only one of those elevators was working! Porter said he didn’t know why, they were working earlier in the week. Anyway, we were loaded up, paid the parking and on the road by 9:10.

We got off Magic this morning. Glad to see things cleared up, it was nasty this morning. Glad I brought jeans and my jacket, a lot of people didn’t. Couldn’t figure out why the parking garage elevators only had one working. 
I think the Liberty is just in for provisioning to my knowledge not cruising until Feb 14.  We had a good cruise, but weather was crappy in Belize, our friends cancelled their snorkeling excursion as did a lot of people. The violin group Electric Waves is really good, best was the Magic Rock Band. This was our third cruise on Magic since the restart and will be going again January 15th, which will be our Diamond cruise. People talked about the Platinum and Diamond get together on other ships not being good, ours was great! It was at 3:45 on the last day. There were over 700 platinums and 62 diamonds so they had it in the theater. Drinks were order what you want and flowed freely.  Enjoyed the smoke free casino and the main casino is certainly better now that you have to be actively playing to smoke. Food was good, both MDR and lido buffet and Steakhouse. FYI, they were out of oysters for the second time. 
 

Just off Magic 6 day this morning, we had 2 elegant nights, one on the sea day (2nd day) and the other on next to last night.  We left on Oct 31 and the ship was still decorated for Halloween. They took all that down on the 3rd night. Based on that, I’m assuming they’ll do Christmas as well.

52 minutes ago, hurricane0226 said:

We live in North Florida, by Tallahassee, and the local health dept does testing, do they do the rapid test, and will they have the results within a couple of hours? 

Can’t speak for the health department in Tallahassee, but the Health dept here in Palatka does free testing on weekdays, but their results take 72 hours. You should be able to call them about it.  I’m sure there’s a Walgreens near you, seems like I saw one last year when we were by the airport.

We sail tomorrow, Sunday. Had our tests done at Walgreens on Friday morning. Their test is called ID Now and it’s a NAAT test acceptable to Carnival. We had results in just under 2 hours, and there’s no cost.  In August when we cruised we decided to do our MedEx urgent care because there wasn’t a Walgreens close who did the test. They did all 3 of us together and we had results in 15 minutes. They charged $50 per person and did not take insurance. Glad our nearby Walgreens started doing the test.
 

Carnival doesn’t assign you a boarding time, you select the time you arrive when you do your check in 14 days prior to cruise. Things are a little different right now due to COVID.  I suggest you read the health and safety protocols on Carnivals web site, they are right at the top of the page.

No.  We were in Nassau earlier this month, went to the casino at Atlantis. The requirement is photo ID, a copy of your COVID vaccine and negative COVID test within the past 5 days. The taxi let us out before the casino where they had a guard checking papers. 

15 minutes ago, Djptcp said:

We sail on Sunday and are fully vaccinated. Had our rapid antigen test this morning with the results emailed to us in 15 minutes. Printed out the results and we are ready to sail. There is a local site open 8am-6pm  every day sponsored by our local county health dept. and it was free. I was leary of CVS since I read so many people were having their appts. cancelled. Other states may have similar set ups with the health depts. if people are looking for alternatives to CVS.

We also are sailing Sunday on Magic. We scheduled our rapid test thru Walgreens. They do the IDNow which is acceptable. Our appointments (there were 3 of us) starting at 9:45 this morning. Since we all had appointments, we could all do it at the same time. We were done and on the road back home at 10:00.  My DH got his results email at 11:30, my friend got hers at 11:36 and I got mine at 11:55. This was our second time using Walgreens, and it’s free.

our backup plan is the MedEx clinic nearby which is open every day and do testing every day. We used them first time in August. Only thing with them is they charge $50 per person. They did our tests, sent us back to wait in the car and we had our results in 15 minutes.

. 

You’re correct, no Sports Bar. On the oct 7 sailing, the Red Frog pub had 3 college games on Saturday and 3 NFL games on Sunday. They were also playing the same games in the casinos. There were no empty seats.

If you want to purchase your Cheers package or anything else you can buy presailing, you can use your gift cards to buy those as well. 
 

On Sunday the October 7 cruise on Magic showed a few NFL games. There’s 3 TVs in the casino, they had one or two, and the red frig pub was showing 3 different games. On Saturday, these same places were showing college ball. Don’t know if they’ll show the SEC OR ACC championship or not. I remember them showing the super bowl on the big screen before the pandemic.  I seem to recall carnival got the NFL package.  Although I’m a Florida Gator, I doubt we will be in that game, but it would do my heart good to see Georgia whip Alabama!

I’ve never personally had the Cheers, not worth it for us anymore) but from what I’ve read here and on Carnivals website about it, I can answer a couple of your questions. First, those Starbucks type coffees are only available at the coffee bar location, usually on Promenade deck, don’t think you could order from MDR. Theoretically you can get your coffee then go to one of the bars and order your other drink. Keep in mind there’s a 15 drink limit per day, per person.

our friends we travel with order drinks in the dining room. Sometimes the drinks are fast, sometimes not, you can get one on your way, no problem with that, whatever drink you want.  As to the steakhouse, you can do the same thing. Order at your table whatever you want from the bar (they have their own so doesn’t take long) or bring one with you.

Hope this helps, I’m sure others who are more familiar will chime in soon! Enjoy your cruise!

I scheduled our IDNow tests at Walgreens this morning for Friday. In the past you could only book 2 days in advance, but this morning you could book 4 days out. This will be our second time using Walgreens, it went well the first time. We had 3 in the vehicle, did the test at the same time, one got her results in 40 minutes, we got ours 5 hours later. Guess it depends on how fast they do the tests in their lab.

Don’t know if it matters to you, but if you enjoy having a sofa in your cabin, then don’t book Elation. There’s no sofa, only a straight back chair. We will never sail on her again!  I would definitely choose the Sunrise any day!

2 minutes ago, CMOTO said:

Does every Walgreens have these tests??  How much do they cost?

I don’t think every Walgreens has the test. Unfortunately you have to go on line to their website, go thru the whole process to see what test is available at what Walgreens.  There is no cost for the testing, it’s free!