First family cruise on Carnival Magic....”Fun Ship” Review

I decided to write a review of our experiences as a family of 4 on our very first Carnival cruise! I enjoy reading other people’s reviews and always appreciated the advice when we were planning our first cruise vacation...so I thought, why not write about our experiences. I guess a little background information would be good...so here goes! Please excuse if it’s not as detailed as other people’s reviews...it’s my first time doing this, so I might leave some things out.

My husband and I began cruising right after we got married and have been on Royal Caribbean, Princess and now Carnival. Our last cruise, before this one was in 2011...so quite a few things have changed since then. This was our first time taking the kids on a cruise...we wanted to wait until they were old enough...but still young enough so that school wasn’t a huge issue.

We have an 8 year old boy in second grade, and our daughter just turned 5 right before our trip and is in preschool 3 days a week. We decided to do a trip for her birthday and then the next one for our son’s birthday. My husband is in the medical field and works a ton so I stay and “work” in the home.

Our cruise was on the Magic and we left Feb 24th for a 7 days Eastern Caribbean cruise out of Port Canaveral. We also decided to spend 3 nights in Disney World as a Christmas present to our children. We love Disney and honestly couldn’t be that close to the Mouse and not visit. We were gone from from home for 11 days. Having the ability to have two trips in one was a dream come true and we would do it again the future!

That’s it for now. I will start later on about our pre cruise adventure in Disney and transportation to the port, plus the first day on the ship. Any questions feel free to ask! Hope this review helps Thanks for listening...more to come!

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We were on the same cruise, anxious to get your take on it. Following.

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Looking forward to reading your review!

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Looking forward to your review and how your kid's loved their first cruise.

Magic is our FAVORITE ship, so far.

We have 4 kids, and now 4 grand kids. Wondering if we have the nerve to take Grand kid's

on a cruise without parents. LOL.

Looking forward to reading more. Magic was my girls first cruise also (they were 5, 7, and two teens) and they still talk about it even after other cruises. I think that the first cruise stays with you like that ❤️

Thanks everyone! I will post more tomorrow....but you are right, the first cruise is special. They had a lot of wonderful memories and are excited about going back again soon! We are glad that our love for cruising has rubbed off on them. We prefer to take vacations as a family and unfortunately if they didn’t like cruising we wouldn’t be going on another one for a long time. (Like when they are grown) Looking forward to sharing our experiences! Have a great night 🙂

Thanks for the review.

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Looking forward to the review!

Pre-cruise adventure....We took a spirit flight from Cleveland to Orlando and had a great flight. We have never flown spirit, but the price with luggage was half that of any other airline at that time (round trip for 4 plus baggage, insurance, and seat assignments was 800) Spirit let our kids check out the cockpit and even get pictures with the pilots...they offered and at first we were like are you sure? They were friendly and pretty much on time, even with the ice storm we got that day.

We got to Orlando around 10:30 and went to meet the magical express and off to our resort. We love the Grand Floridian so that’s where we chose to stay for the 3 days before the cruise. The resort is amazing. Every time we go back we are still in the Disney awe and the Grand is no exception to that. Our room wasn’t ready so we dropped our carryons at the front and went on to the Magic Kingdom. When we got back later we were pleased to discover our room overlooked the castle and we had a perfect view of the fireworks. We spent the night few days in the Magic Kingdom, doing the BBB for our daughter, (getting made over like a princess in the castle) eating at Cinderella’s Royal Table and Be Our Guest, and riding as many rides as we could. It was a great beginning to our family vacation.

Finally it was Saturday...the day of the cruise. Our son was a little worried getting on a big boat, but we tried to relax him by talking about how much there was to do there (he has an anxiety disorder). Before our trip we arranged private transportation with Ace Luxury Transportstion. They arrived right on time at our resort and despite heavy traffic we were at the port in a little over an hour.

After we got out of the SUV we saw how crazy the port is. We had a drink with us and didn’t know you couldn’t bring it with us inside...so they were yelling to throw it away and it made our son even more anxious for the boat. We learned no drinks (or food not sure) when you are entering the area to check boarding passes and passports and will know next time not to have them. This part felt super rushed and kind of hectic and wasn’t the most pleasant start to our cruise but we rolled with it and got through in a short time. I do have to say that while it can be nerve wrecking to do, Port Canaveral does have its act together when it comes to getting you through and onto the ship. We had a check in time of 1-2 and we got there at 1:30 and by 1:45 we were on the ship...talk about quick.

Since it was after 1:30 our room was ready so we headed to deck 11 and saw our spa balcony room. It was in the forward part of the ship....11244 and was the perfect location to the pool, Lido deck, and elevators. The room had a Pullman and a couch that was already made into a bed. Our room Stewart was right outside our room when we got in and asked if we wanted morning or night. We said it didn’t matter, probably morning and he said how about both because of the number of people in the room? We said that would be great. Throughout the whole cruise we always saw him hard and work and no matter when we saw him he had a smile on his face and engaged in conversation. He made our children laugh and asked them how their day was and what they did. In all our cruises, he was the most engaging and probably the happiest.

After dropping our bags and checking out the room, we headed to Guys to get a burger. This was the only time there was no line there. It was greasy and good and everyone was happy. We explored the ship and little and then it was time for the Mustard drill as our children liked to call it. Dr E, the cruise director came over the intercom and tried to make the drill as funny but informative as possible. The kids laughed at his different accents and we managed to get through the tight space pretty quickly.

After the drill we toured the kids club area and got a list of activities for the week. They went over an questions and talked about the program. The kids enjoyed meeting the counselors and couldn’t wait to play video games and play in the igloo. We knew that they would have to go in the kids club when we went to the steakhouse, but we were also hoping that they would use it from time to time so we could relax in the spa a little and have some quality time.

After that we went to the pool for a little. The water was freezing for us so just the kids swam. We really liked the sail away party and the music that was playing. Everyone around us seemed to be having fun and everyone was ready to get the vacation started.

We had the early seating dinner but for the first night we chose to eat in the Italian restraunt. Our daughter was walking rather fast and she slipped and fell on the floor. Everyone came rushing over to her to see if she was ok. Like a champion she got up, bleeding knee and all and was like I’m all good. We had bandaids with us (that’s what having kids does...you keep bandaids with you at all time) and put one on. We were one of the only people in the restraunt and got a table by the window. All the food was amazing. My husband said he liked this better than the steakhouse and would go back again in the future. The portions were really big...I mean enough for 2 people to eat...and the food just keeps coming. The servers were really nice at the beginning, although really slow....but got slightly annoying toward the end. My husband and I don’t eat too much in one sitting...and I just had gallbladder surgery and a hernia fixed right before our vacation. For the past 6 months I had not been eating a ton....so this was really my first big meal in a long time. Our server gave us a little bit of a hard time about not eating our meals. It was a little uncomfortable but tried to brush is off. Then they sang a song they was like nails on chalkboard. It was loud and off key and took a long time. I wish they would skip that and not sing, because it was just bad. The kids enjoyed it so I guess that’s all that matter. Anyway, dinner and desert were really good flavor wise and we had a good time. The only downside is how long it took, the singing, and the waitress...but even with that we would still go again for the food alone.

After dinner we explored the shops and the kids got candy. We decided to head outside to the deck and look at the ocean at night. It was nice but really windy. It was time to go inside, unpack, get the kids showered and go to bed.

All in all, we had a great day. A little chaotic and a new experience but our children were already getting into cruising so it felt like a win in the vacation mode column. We are pretty easy to go people. Honestly it takes a lot to get us super upset on vacation....so some things that would really turn other people off, we try to let it go. My husband sees a lot of death in his line of work, so he says as long as nobody died today it’s a good day. That’s the way we try to live our lives. Hope you enjoyed the first part of my review and will continue onto day 2 tomorrow.

As a side note, we had a very old 59 dollar certificate from only who knows when.....so I decided to see if there was anything to be done with it at guest services. I think it was from a friend when we had talked about taking a cruise on Carnival about 8 years ago...that’s how old it was. Anyway the guy at the front had never seen it before so he said he would go talk to someone about it. Turns out they stopped using those a long time ago and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. I said I totally understood but I figured I would ask anyway. I don’t know if it was my upbeat attitude or if he felt sorry for me, but before I left he said wait...I will take the certificate and give you a bottle of wine, your choice for up to a 50 dollar value. I said great and thanked him. He told me he would let the dining staff know and we could have it tomorrow. I thought he really went above and beyond to make me happy, even though the certificate had expired he essentially traded it for wine...which we drink anyway so it was a win win. It really made me feel like he cared about making me happy and it was a nice way to start our first vacation with Carnival!

We explored the ship and little and then it was time for the Mustard drill as our children liked to call it. Dr E, the cruise director came over the intercom and tried to make the drill as funny but informative as possible. The kids laughed at his different accents and we managed to get through the tight space pretty quickly.

Loving your review so far. Happy to hear the GS rep went above and beyond to make you happy! Nice touch. Question...was the muster drill not held in one of the dining rooms?

Loving your review so far. Happy to hear the GS rep went above and beyond to make you happy! Nice touch. Question...was the muster drill not held in one of the dining rooms?

No our section was held in the showtime theater, on deck 5 maybe...the upper section of the theater. In fact there were people who got there late who had to stand on the side. Everyone else had a seat but it was packed...and we had to wait a while because there were quite a few people missing so they kept calling their names to come to the drill. The people behind us had children about 6-10 years old who kept bumping my husband in the back of the head....and unfortunately their parents never said anything to them to stop...so it was annoying.

Enjoying your review and will continue to follow this.

Keith

Great beginning to your review! Thanks for taking the time to do this. We thought the Magic was a great ship, and that Dr. E was a hoot! It actually made the Muster Drill bearable and entertaining.

Too funny, not only were we on the same cruise but right next door to you in cabin 11246.

Too funny, not only were we on the same cruise but right next door to you in cabin 11246.

That is too funny! Hope our kids didn’t bother you that week. We constantly had the talk with them to keep their voices down and not talk so loudly (especially our son if he gets into freak out mode...he worries a lot about time and if we are running late he really freaks out) So again, very sorry if the kiddos ever bothered you 😬

Not bothered at all, only heard the kids talking a few times on the balcony and not loud at all. Hope they had a great time! Enjoying your review, I love hearing other opinions.

Day 2-Sea Day!

Continuing onto the next day. I was lucky enough to have an amazing husband who got me a facial and a hot stone massage booked for the morning. He originally scheduled me a sea weed wrap and massage therapy appointment but I had to cancel that due to my surgery a few weeks before. Anyway, I regularly get massages at home for my lower back and it was nice to compare the two treatments. I have only ever gotten a facial once at home as a Christmas present from my parents. The facial was really nice and I did buy one product from them, which I can buy online when I run out. I am already seeing improvements to my skin and even though it was pricey I am glad I bought it. (I love taking care of my face so I do go to Sephora and buy pretty good facial products anyway). Thr husband and kids slept but were awoken by a phone call asking where I was for my massage and the hubby freaked for a moment thinking I was missing, but really they got the time wrong. Due to the error I only got a 60 minute massage instead of 75 minutes and try had me schedule another 30 minutes for free later on in the week. All in all the massage was good but next time I would try the poultice one instead. Again she hit the products hard but I said no thank you and she told me to think it over. After that I went back to the room to see if the family was there.

Everyone had eaten breakfast and were getting ready to go to the pool. I decided to wait and just eat lunch in a little bit and hang out with them at the pool. We had a good time, but again the water was too cold and we watched as the kids had a good time. Some little kid pooped or something in the pool because it was brown and they had everyone get out. We decided to eat at the lido buffet and then drop the kids off at the kids area to play.

The hubby and I went to the spa area and went into the thelassas pool for a bit and relaxed on the heated tile loungers. It was nice to just have some time together before we went back to get the kids.

The kids had a great time at camp and couldn’t wait to go back. They were in two different age groups...our daughter was in the younger one and our son was in the middle group. I believe tonight was the night of the glow party....but honestly can’t remember.so I will talk about it, but it might have been the next night.

We got ready for dinner. The first formal dinner of the cruise and we were totally lost on how to get to the dining room. We ended up waiting in line for the Southern Lights dining room but were directed to go to the Northern Lights. No biggie. As we made our way down there we stopped and got some

Formal pictures and ended up buying a few digital copies later on in the cruise.

We had the early dining time at 6:15. We met our server and he was really nice, but you could tell they had a lot to do....he seemed rushed and busy, but still our food came out pretty quickly. Dinner was really good, although not the best lobster I have ever had...but pretty good considering they have to cook for so many people at one time. The greatest part of the dinner was when they stopped to sing and dance. Our children love the movie Trolls and the song was Can’t stop the Feeling. They were excited, singing and dancing and jumping up and down. Our server got our children and a few others in the area up and had them dancing and singing in the middle of the room with him. We thought it was sweet and they were having a good time...although I could see how some might not care for that part of the dinner. After that our server went right back to the serving our desert and then it was time to leave.

I believe this was the night of the glow party but I am not certain...it might have been the next night. Also I can’t remember if tonight was the love and marriage show. In any case I believe it was so we dropped the kids off at camp after changing and went to the show. It was funny but the newlywed couple was obviously very drunk (the guy) and were just crazy. I don’t want to offend, but telling everyone you just had sex in the therapy room of the sp that day was def too much information. Other than that the show was good and we laughed with Dr E as he did the show.

We picked the kids up from camp and they had a great time. The glow party was a ton of fun and they got lots of goodies to take home. They each made friends and couldn’t wait to go back. I guess it was going to be harder to get them to do things with us as the week progressed because they always seemed to want to check out the kids club each day and were disappointed if we picked them up too early.

Our sea day was relaxing and fun. We are not big drinkers and don’t like to stay up too late so we never went to any clubs or the bars at night. That’s it for day 2 of the cruise. Tomorrow we move on to our first port of call Amber Cove! Thanks 💜❤️💙

I'm really enjoying your review! My two boys are the same age as your kiddos, and my older son has an anxiety disorder as well. I'm really happy to hear how much your son enjoyed the cruise, I've had some worries about how my boy would do, but it sounds like the kids club is really engaging. We did a Disney cruise with our kids last summer and my older son did great, I had my fingers crossed that it would go well on Carnival and you are putting my mind at ease!

No our section was held in the showtime theater, on deck 5 maybe...the upper section of the theater. In fact there were people who got there late who had to stand on the side. Everyone else had a seat but it was packed...and we had to wait a while because there were quite a few people missing so they kept calling their names to come to the drill. The people behind us had children about 6-10 years old who kept bumping my husband in the back of the head....and unfortunately their parents never said anything to them to stop...so it was annoying.

Thanks for clarifying!

Great review!

I'm really enjoying your review! My two boys are the same age as your kiddos, and my older son has an anxiety disorder as well. I'm really happy to hear how much your son enjoyed the cruise, I've had some worries about how my boy would do, but it sounds like the kids club is really engaging. We did a Disney cruise with our kids last summer and my older son did great, I had my fingers crossed that it would go well on Carnival and you are putting my mind at ease!

Yes the kids club was awesome. There weren’t too many kids this sailing, which was a good thing as the staff knew their names and seemed to interact with them pretty well. Our son loves the free time when he got to play video games because we don’t have that at home. (He has a Nintendo 3ds but no big video gaming system)

Our daughter loved the arts and crafts and the group activities. At first our son was hesitant to go in, but after the first time he went, literally was asking all the time to meet up with his friends. He saw them around the ship too and got to play basketball and other games with them on the sports deck. It was nice that they both got to do things that they enjoyed!

Following. Can't wait to hear your reviews of the ports. We are going on this same cruise in May. I love the Magic and Dr E is the BEST cruise director (IMHP).

Thank you for posting