RaisingJoy

I was on the Legend with FTTF last week. We arrived at the parking lot at 11AM and were told there was a wedding and we had to leave and come back after 12. When we came back at 12:15 the lot was packed with rows of cars to get in. It took about 45 minutes to hand off our luggage and park. At the terminal there was a separate line into the building for priority boarding including FTTF and they didn’t look at your check in time. They did look at check in times in the other line and made people wait. Once in the building it was all just one big line. There was a drug sniffing dog that sniffed all carry on luggage. He seemed disinterested in his job lol. Every worker in the terminal was super nice, I loved the ladies who checked us in. I’ve never met funnier, friendlier staff at a cruise terminal. We didn’t get on the ship until after 1:30 and our room was ready. So for embarkation I’m not sure that FTTF was worth it. The priority tender for HMC and also priority debarkation were definitely worth the money. We had a villa so we had priority for that anyways, but last cruise getting off at HMC was a nightmare. We did self carry off for our luggage and we were in our car driving home by 9:45. So I would buy FTTF again just for those two perks. I hope that helps! I’m happy to answer any other questions.

You are correct, the app does cap the reservations at 10. However the table for 10 and the table for 12 are the same table, they just add a couple more chairs. We would check in 10 guests while in our room, there was never more than a 10 minute wait so we'd walk down to the dining room immediately and tell the hostess there were 12 of us not 10. She would ask for the names of the 2 additional guests and add them. By that time our table was usually ready and we'd go right in. This was how the hostess instructed us to check in. If your party is larger than 12 you will probably need to split into 2 groups.

The teenagers on the ship were out of control. Fistfights at club O2, kids getting kicked out of club O2 for bad behavior but then allowed back the next day, shutting it down, etc. My daughters said many of the kids had been on multiple cruises, the staff already knew them and they knew each other, so I don't think this was all just new cruisers not knowing how to behave. They gathered in groups on the stairs, my daughter was propositioned by one when walking to dinner. Another daughter had a boy put his arm around her, she removed it and said she wasn't interested, and then he and a friend followed her back to our cabin (no it wasn't a coincidence that they just went the same way, she heard him say "Let's follow her" and then they did). I did not feel safe having my teenage daughters wander alone and made them go out together. You weren't there to see the chaos. I feel like Carnival is just accepting this behavior, they had to decide if they're family oriented or party oriented, and I believe they have chosen to just let the adults drink and casino all day and ignore their children. Our cruise wasn't directly impacted except I had to worry about my daughters' safety. We already have another cruise booked from Baltimore in April, if it's more of the same it will be our last Carnival cruise. As for the spa, we bought spa passes and everything was open. We loved the thalassotherapy pool and the heated loungers, if I didn't have the kids and husband along I would have stayed there all day! We went in the morning shortly after it opened while the kids were sleeping in, and it was never crowded. We weren't in a spa cabin but we asked our steward for robes and he brought them, I used one going back and forth so I had a pocket for my phone. Also the spa showers have the Elemis products of you didn't bring your own, and anyone can use them. They're located across from the fitness center, and are nice and big, and there are hair dryers there too. I can answer any other questions people may have

I was on the Magic 7/18-7/26, and from what I saw club O2 was the problem. I have three teenagers, my oldest went to Club O2 the first night and didn't go back. During an ice breaker they went around the room stating what they liked to, she said the most common answer was "play video games and smoke weed" and staff said nothing. It's as illegal as alcohol in this age group and I don't think they would have allowed them to all say they like to get drunk, but this answer was apparently acceptable. It wasn't her crowd so she hung out with us and relaxed reading on the balcony. One mother told us her teenage daughter was left at her cabin door passed out but doesn't remember what she took. Someone knocked on the cabin door then left her in the hall. There was a fight at club O2, security was called and shut it down. However the teens just gathered in stairways and ran around playing manhunt and knocking on doors, basically being a nuisance so it was reopened. I will say security was everywhere on the ship. We saw them intervene when a parent and grandparent were just screaming at a small child, and again when there was a problem in the hot tubs. They sat outside club O2 a lot. My other teens found friends at circle C and had a great time with them. They made bracelets and had lots of ice cream and enjoyed the freedom of roaming the ship with their new friends. They said many of the kids knew each other and have been on many cruises and the staff knew the kids, so Magic isn't just full of new cruisers. We aren't the type to be in the nightclub, but honestly besides the family screaming at the child, all the adults seemed pretty chill and we didn't have any problems. This wasn't my favorite cruise (it was our fourth Carnival cruise), I found the entertainment pretty boring (the shows were like good karaoke with a theme, just singing with really no dancing or story), the comedians were just OK, and there wasn't much to do besides trivia (the pools were PACKED) but I loved relaxing on the balcony. Some other thoughts: portions are small in the dining room, after a couple days many in our group were ordering multiple apps or main dishes. I thought it was a nice way to try things but harder on the staff. Food was fine, some dishes were great, only the lasagna was inedible, but the melting chocolate cake was very soupy every night. We had anytime dining and never had to wait more than a few minutes for our large party of 12. Also it's been said before, but Carnival needs another late night food option, lines for pizza were so long after 11PM and that's were I saw tempers start getting heated. We just paid for it through room service, the pizza wasn't as good but my kids LOVED the donut sandwich. Our steward was wonderful and worked so hard, but only having service once a day meant the couch bed in one room was always set up as a bed instead of converting back and forth to a couch. We enjoyed the spa, I love those heated loungers!