kctwinmommy

One strange thing we found before the cruise. We like the diner type restaurant next to Radaisson and were planning on going there but the Friday night before the cruise it was closed.

Are you talking about the one IN the Radisson? Or Kelsey's next door? We've been to Kelsey's in the past. A long time ago, it was good. Last year, it wasn't good at all. That's why we found a different place this time. The restaurant IN the Radisson we only go to for breakfast, which is good (hard to screw that up! LOL!)

I am glad to hear the positive comments about the Radisson. This is our first time cruising out of Port Canaveral and we are staying there, as it seems to be the place to stay. However, we have read some reviews on Trip Advisor that have us second guessing our decision.:rolleyes:

What were the reviews saying? I mean, we need a place to sleep, somewhere that is clean and safe. I don't need fancy. The rooms have always been clean to us. I've always felt safe. We usually seem to get a room further in the back, and this time was no different. It actually faced the parking lot near the back, which was fine, it was quiet then. And we always get a good price with the military discount they offer. Considering when we get there, until the time we leave, it's usually about 16-18 hours! LOL!

I'll get this started and add onto it as the days go along. We booked this cruise last January, with friends of ours. We typically don't care too much where we're going. Living in Chicago, by November, we just want someplace warm with lots of sunshine. We didn't need to be doing anything crazy with excursions either. Having done Alaska this past summer, we just wanted to chill. We didn't know when we booked this, that it was a big Wheel of Fortune slots tournament, which meant a lot of people on board were gamblers and had won their way on the ship. Our group was my husband, my 13 year old son, and myself, along with another couple and their 14 year old son and 25 year old daughter. They're all Platinum and have obviously been on many cruises.

So, we stayed in Cape Canaveral the night before, at the Radisson and used Cocoa Beach shuttle to get there. We've stayed there for the past 10 years we've been cruising out of there and have never had any problems. The rooms are decent, clean, and they have a nice pool. This year, we walked a bit further down the road to GoodFella's pizza place.

Embarkation Day - Saturday morning - We grabbed breakfast in the hotel and then met our friend. They live local, so the husband dropped of the wife & 2 kids at the port, then picked up the 3 of us at the hotel. He parks his car right across the street and the 4 of us took the shuttle from there. We had FTTF and our friends are Platinum. We got to the port around 10:15-10:30 a.m. and walked right in, went through security, walked over to check in with Carnival (got our S&S cards there, with pictures taken). We skipped the sail away photos though, we didn't need/want them. Went upstairs to go through that checkpoint, where they took my husband's and my picture again since the one from downstairs didn't turn out well. Went up the gangway and went right to our rooms on deck 11, room 11264.

Our room steward (Agus) was just finishing getting our rooms ready, we had rooms next to each other with the balconies connecting. So we just hung on the balcony for the 5-10 minutes he needed to finish. After that, we went to the Cucina restaurant for lunch. It wasn't busy at all and it took maybe 10-15 minutes to get our meals. We all ate the create your own pasta dishes, lots of options - I would recommend checking the out for lunch during a cruise, it doesn't cost anything like it does for dinner.

Our luggage got to the room around 1:30ish which gave me time to unpack everything before dinner and just relax. For dinner, we had the early seating in the Southern Lights dining room. We had Rodren for our waiter and William as a head waiter. Both were very nice. The only thing I didn't like was that they brought out our dinners with the appetizers, if you didn't order an appetizer. I suppose we could have asked them not to do that for the week, just never though of it. LOL! There were like 2-3 nights when I didn't order an appetizer, and same with 2 of the kids, and they bring the dinner out with everyone else's appetizers. Again, not a big deal, but would have been fine waiting and eating with everyone else. The one person's flat iron steak was also super rare, so they had to correct that.

After dinner we checked the boys into Circle C and didn't see them the rest of the night. In general, it didn't seem that there were a ton of kids in Circle C. I mean, over the summer (which I realize is summer vacation), the Circle C had like 40-50 kids, because my son took a picture with the group in the main staircase. This cruise, there were maybe 10-15 kids I'd bet, and sometimes they were hanging out with the Club O2 kids, which was also a smaller group.

We've booked a cabana to ensure we have a spot of our own :)

We did this on our last cruise and loved it! It was nice to have a base camp to hang out at and then everyone could run back and forth to do what they wanted. It also turned out to be a good thing since one member of our group had unexpected surgery about a month prior, so she couldn't really go into the water much. It gave her a place to rest and relax. It was totally worth it to us.

Everyone has their own opinion on what they want to do. They wouldn't offer things there if nobody wanted to do them. For us, we just wanted to relax in the sun. We'd been running around a lot in the weeks before between work loads and school. Plus we did Alaska this summer and that was a lot of touring and adventures. We live in Chicago, we just wanted sunshine and warm weather! ;)

Our 2 favorite excursions were on our cruise...

Skagway - Glacier Point Wilderness Safari - we thoroughly enjoyed this trip. It was 6 hours long, but worth it. The men who ran the tour were very informative, interesting and funny. We were able to walk up on the glacier, see some of the beautiful scenery, and had such a fun time.

Juneau - Mendenhall helicopter ride - without a doubt the best thing we ever did. I realize the weather can play a role in this, but we were fine. We actually had amazing weather, we could see mountains that were miles away!

You can read about our excursions here...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2382500

I agree with many of the other posters here. You can find plenty of things people fault with Carnival and many other cruise lines. There are certainly things that go wrong and like others said too, I take what people say with a grain of salt too. I wasn't there, so I don't know what happened. Not saying people lie at all, but sometimes, people exaggerate things. Other times, it's a legit complaint. When someone with a couple posts comes here and posts a big negative thing, I usually dismiss it.

Today, it seems that many people are looking for compensation for things when they don't go 100% the way they wanted. We're so used to being safe behind our computer, we can say whatever we want. And it happens a lot! Were all our cruises perfect? Nope! A few little hiccups happened, but for the cost and ease of it, we enjoy it. We were with Carnival because we cruise with other friends, and they had been using Carnival. We know what to expect, we're used to it, so there's just no reason to change anything, but that's what works for us.

Someone else already mentioned this, but the snorkeling right off the beach by Margaritaville and up towards Jack's has gotten markedly better in the 4 years since I've been coming to GT.

You'll have to go out close to the line (marking the boundary of the swimming area) to find fish and coral. Look for the two sunken anchors and the sunken cannon. :)

The depth is around 15 feet up until you get to the dropoff (where the channel was dredged for ships to dock) and around 35-40 feet past the dropoff, which is pretty dramatic in itself. I dove to the bottom there -- we spotted a defenseless cinder block down there and just HAD to touch it :) -- and it felt like at least 35 feet.

I also noticed some coral growth there, including some brain coral, so please try not to damage any of it. I had to remind some kids to be careful with their fins.

Completely agree! My son & husband didn't go deep enough to see the coral, but the fish they saw were awesome they said. They also saw the cannon and an anchor. Honestly, for the price, you can't beat it! ;) Now that my son's getting older and more comfortable, we may look at excursions that go further out and deeper, but for now, he's totally fine with this.

What is the earliest you can board if platinum. Shuttle is at 9am which seems stupid.

We were walking on around 10:15 just 2 weeks ago. We had FTTF and our friends are Platinum. We were eating lunch in the Cucina by like 11:15! We didn't wait in any lines the entire process, never sat down to wait, etc... Got in, walked up to the initial check-in, went through security (which took like an extra minute just as people were putting their things up there), then walked right to a Carnival check-in, got our pictures taken, S&S cards, skipped taking the group photo, up the escalator, showed ID again (did have to retake my picture because it was goofy looking he said), then walked right onto the ship.

Yep! Used it on the Magic 2 weeks ago and it was great. I think because our booking was linked to our friends, when I logged in to chat, it showed all the guests on both rooms. So I could message any of them, it was nice. And yes, it was nice having the schedule of events at your fingertips. I will say it was a killer on my phone's battery. But my phone is 3 years old, so I have to be a little more careful on constant use. And I don't use WiFi on my phone normally.

We got to the terminal around 10:15 2 weeks ago when we boarded on the 12th, and pretty much walked right through everything. We had the FTTF and went right through with our Platinum friends. Never waited in a single line. We were in the Cucina eating lunch by like 11:15!

Do you mind sharing the other excursions you did?

Here's my trip report, with all my excursion info...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2382500

Just curious, were the chairs, being rented, located by Reflextions restaurant and pool area, or were they further down, near the inflatables in the water?

If you paid money at Reflexions, you got a chair, use of the pool, etc... We didn't see the sign until we were leaving. They had a couple options. But there was a guy sitting out there renting the chairs, just past Reflexions and the scuba dive shop, he would move the chairs where you wanted them.

My son was part of Circle C last week, on the Magic. The schedule seems to be most of the same stuff he's done on the past 2 cruises. And they often deviate from it too. They played a lot of video games, Just Dance, karaoke, Family Feud, Apple to Apples, deck party, sports, dress to impress party, etc... I know they also hung out with the Club O2 kids on occasion.

One other thing I will mention. Casino had some sort of promotion with land based casinos for a wheel of fortune slot tournament.

 

Understand they gave away 375 cabins mostly balconies to people who generally had not cruised before. One of our tablemates got a very nice balcony on 9.

 

Tournament gave away $ 100' date='000 we understand and even after never saw such a crowded casino with so many machines being used. Casino must have earned the cost of the tourney back numerous times[/quote']

 

Based on the conversations in our roll call here, I already suspected many of the cruisers would be casino people. There were several references to it there. And yes, it was crowded a lot, which is fine with me, couldn't care less, never went there except to walk through (although I tried not to, nasty with the amount of smoke!).

 

And our friends thought the wooden box was cute. I guess, not being at that level, it didn't matter to me. We're at gold, probably will be there for awhile, and we were happy with our free water and drink ;) I'm sure there have been many gifts over the years with a variety of responses.

I know food and service are subjective, but how did you find them?

 

Glad you had a great cruise!

The service for the most part was great. But, we did have a couple problems in the MDR for dinner. One night, we waited I think about 50 minutes until we got our appetizers. Our waiters were very apologetic, saying something about a group/table that needed to be done by 7 p.m. for some reason. Wasn't totally sure what the deal was. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was a little annoying. I mean, we didn't have anywhere to be, but that was a long wait. I thought it was wrong of one table/group to dictate a schedule for everyone else though.

The food was also good for the most part. A few problems with steaks being cooked properly, but it was fixed. As I said, we didn't care that much for Pig & Anchor, Guys was great. The salad bar was good. Blue Iguana my son loved!

Thank you kctwinmommy, where did they get the snorkeling equipment from?

We have our own. You can get it pretty cheap from many of places here before you sail. I did see some table and vendors renting it on the beach, but honestly, it looked pretty used. ;)

Thank you for posting the December movies. I also saw that on John Heald's blog. I do have the list of November movies but was wondering which of those will be on the Magic next week.

I have the Fun Times somewhere, just not sure if I'll find them anytime soon! LOL! I did reply, maybe to you, in another post, with all the movies I can remember being on the Magic this past week. Keep in mind, we had an 8-day cruise. I guess ours was a little different than it's normal schedule. For example, we went to Curacao, the first time the Magic went there.

Excited to hear you were on deck 11. Have a balcony room on 11 in January. Were you Starboard or Port side? Could you smell smoke while on your balcony? What was your room # and could you hear noise from the slides above?? What was the general feel of this deck? First time on 11 for us.

We were on the port side, about 6-7 cabins in from the Lido deck. Never heard anything from above, below, or outside! And I think I smelled smoke once or twice, but that was probably people on the balcony. Smoking on 11 was on the starboard side. We always love being near the top of the ship, so we have usually booked a deck near the top, always a balcony.

We just came back from there and my husband, son, friend and his son all snorkeled right off the beach, in front of our cruise ship! They saw amazing fish, tons of them, a huge variety, and a canon sunk in the water, oh and an anchor. They went out like 2-3 times and loved it! Didn't cost them a penny and they saw a ton of things. My husband and our friend have both snorkeled and dived. By both boys hadn't done much snorkeling, never diving. My son had tried it last year but got freaked out, this time he loved it. They went past the ropes there, closer to the ship.

We were just there this week and we loved having it! They only have 10 and they were all booked. We were 7 people (2 families), and the dads/sons were able to walk to the beach and snorkel. Us ladies hung out at the cabana. The other mom had surgery recently, so she has to be more careful with the sun and just trying to be comfortable, so it was perfect. Plus, having been to the restaurant last year and dealt with crazy busy, long service, it was nice to have our own server. We ordered some drinks at one point, and the nachos, which are HUGE and delicious!!

If you can, try and rent a cabana at Margaritaville, then you'll have a place to hang out. You can always venture down to the beach later on, when people start wandering around.

We were just at Surfside this week. It cost us $10/taxi ride, for up to 5 people. We had 7 people, so we had to take 2 taxis. I just read that there are some buses that are cheaper.

The beach was OK. There is some sort of restaurant (Reflexions), with a pool that you can use I guess, we didn't. The airport is also right there, so we had about 6-8 planes land while we were there for 2-3 hours.

We were just there this week. Our friends we were traveling with, the husband asked in the center when we got off the ship for a beach to go to. I wasn't there, but for some reason they recommended Surfside Beach. Honestly, it wasn't anything exciting, but it was still nice. There were maybe 25-30 people on the beach, all spread out. There were 2 guys renting chairs, but we just laid out our towels. The boys were all in the water anyway. We just stayed there for about 2-3 hours, got some sun, did some snorkeling (the boys said it wasn't that great though). We didn't fully use anything there either. There is the Reflexions place, which appeared to have food and a pool. The taxi cost us $10, for up to 5 people. Since there were 7 of us, we had to take 2 of them. We didn't know/see the bus info, so we just did the taxi. The taxi driver tried getting our friends to change, and they radioed our taxi driver, but we couldn't actually tell if they were communicating with our friends or not, some language issues. But later, our driver said we should have gone to Eagle or Palm beach. Oh well, either way, we just needed a beach, some water and sunshine. We thought it was a little neat to watch the planes land too.

We do exactly what you first asked about doing. Just got back as a matter of fact from doing that. We fly into MCO the night before our cruise, and we book Cocoa Beach shuttle, we pay for the RT shuttle. So they take us to the Radisson that night, and then in the morning we used a local shuttle (well, different this time because of going with friends), and then when we docked this morning we had our Cocoa Beach shuttle return trip reservation there. Walked off the ship at 8:00 and went right over to the desk to check in. We had to wait because our friends had to go get their car by the Radisson and bring us something. But once we were ready, we waited like 15-20 minutes for the next shuttle.

We had a wonderful time on our 8-day cruise on the Magic. I'll do an actual review over the next few days, although it may take a little longer with the holidays coming up so quickly. But if people had some general questions that I can answer, I'll try my best. I don't drink, so don't ask me about the bars/drinks. We went to a couple of the shows, we saw some of the Lido deck activities, we did an excursion in Curacao, my son & husband snorkeled in all 3 islands, my son was in Circle C. We had a balcony room, next to our friends, on deck 11.

Soo... if I can answer anything, I'll try!