Live From the Carnival Magic - BC5

For the next seven or so days I’ll be writing from the Bloggers Cruise 5 on board the Carnival Magic. I’ll be telling you about my experiences and adventures during the cruise. I will try and tell the good… the bad… and the ugly. Those of you who have read my stuff before know that I can almost never consider anything ugly on a cruise, but you know what I mean.

This is my second “Bloggers Cruise”… the first on the Glory around a year ago. But for the most part, this won’t be about the “Bloggers ” part of the cruise. There are special “Bloggers ” activities a couple of times a day on every day including a Playa Mia beach party excursion. However, I don’t participate in all of the “Bloggers ” activities. I probably will attend less than half of the special activities.

The biggest reason I booked this cruise is that Ron Pass will be in the piano bar for this cruise. When John Heald and the “beards” at Carnival plan the “Bloggers cruise”, they select from the best Carnival has to offer. Since Ron Pass is indeed one of the best, they arranged to have him on this cruise. When they did that, I booked the cruise the very next day. Although Ron Pass was the main reason for selecting this cruise… having “the best” in other areas (like the comedy club and such) is a good reason for taking the Bloggers cruise.

This cruise left out of Galveston. For those of you that haven’t been here, it is a working port… not a cruise port. There’s none of the beautiful scenery that the ports of Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and or even Port Canaveral have. Except for two cruise ships in port, everything else is designed for industrial type shipping. Sailing out of the port you pass by all of the industrial areas. As ports go, this one is my least favorite. From a “beauty” point of view it’s kind of like a bull-dog… functional in its design, but not much to look at.

There are a couple of good things about the port. The first is the cost of parking. The “official” port parking is only 10 dollars per day, and you can get “off port” parking nearby (as close by as the official parking) for 5 dollars a day. The Florida ports cost twice that. The other good thing is that processing through the baggage area and “checking in” is very efficient in this port. One of the really good check-in ideas here is that they take your ID picture at one of several picture taking stations in the building before you go to board the ship. That way you don’t have to stand in line at the door of the boat while they take pictures one at a time. We arrived at the port about 12:30 P.M. and in less than 10 minutes we were on board the ship.

One of my big disappointments so far is the hamburgers. There was lots of hoopla a few months ago about getting some fancy hamburgers on Carnival ships. (“Guy Ferengie” burgers of something like that.) Well… I don’t know what ships have those “Ferengie Burgers”, but it is certainly not here. I don’t suppose that the hamburgers here were ugly… but they certainly were not good.

I usually spend the first afternoon on board checking out the “talent” around the pool. I also enjoy attending the sail away party on the pool deck… again checking out the “talent”. But today was a bit different. It was COLD! All of my previous non-summer cruises have been from Miami or Fort Lauderdale and they were much warmer. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but the sail-away temperatures out of South Florida have always been in the mid to upper 70’s… or more. Today it was in the low 60s.

Before all you women out there start “flaming me” for ogling the women, my first defense is that “I’m just a guy”. (Thanks to Bill Engval for that defense.) I’m sure you would like me even less if I didn’t ogle. And let’s face it… a lot of women work very hard to make themselves attractive. If us men didn’t look… if I didn’t ogle, then what would you think of me? And another thing… you women ogle too. Don’t try to deny it… women ogle.

I think the weather put something of a damper on the Sail-Away party. The usual hoards partying and dancing out by the pool that have been on my previous cruises just weren’t on this one. I could tell that there were a lot of people wanting to get the party going, but it just didn’t happen.

On reason for the less than stellar sail-away party may have been caused by a medical emergency shortly after we left the dock. The cruise director or assistant cruise director are usually at the sail-away to get the crowd “fired up”. But neither of them were there this time … possibly attending to the emergency. Whatever the reason, the sail away party lacked the pizzazz of the others I’ve been on.

The “word” around the ship is that the medical emergency was because someone fell down the stairs and was seriously hurt. We were still in the harbor area but some distance away from the pier. We were blocking the way for the other ship in port that was sailing about the same time as us. So instead of going back to the dock, the U.S. Coast Guard came out to pick up the injured person. I really feel sorry for that person. It must really “suck” to not even make it to open ocean.

I applaud Carnival for the way they handled the situation. Since we “pulled over” to let the other ship by and since we were just “parked” there, Carnival kept us passengers informed all along the way. They told us they were stopping to take care of a medical emergency… that the Coast Guard was coming out and we would stay parked until the Coast Guard got there. As much as I could, I watched all of the activity when the Coast Guard pulled along side. Both the Coast Guard personnel and the Carnival personnel looked well trained and handled the situation very well. If something were to happen to me, I would hope to have professionals like these around. I tip my cap to them all.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

Yet another adventure with the Kokomo Man! Can't wait! :D So sorry to hear about the passenger that was hurt. A woman was killed when she fell down the stairs of the Liberty of the Seas in the Catacombs a week or two ago. It was all very unfortunate and sad. :(

Bob,

Enjoy your cruise and thanks for the Live from. Will enjoy "cruising" along with you.:)

Can't wait to hear more.... And Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you happy birthday dear daddy happy birth day to you. And the others say happy birthday granddad

Happy Birthday to Bob!!!

Have fun!!!

Happy B-day. I'm gonna don my toga and fix me a fruity drink and imagine myself there.

Enjoy your Cruise...Looking forward to your updates! Tell Bobbi and James hello from Michael. I met them on the Conquest in 2009. Lots of fun!

Thank you for the day by day play by play. We are considering the Magic this summer.

Have Fun!

love your style ... I followed you here from your old reviews where you updated it with a link to your new ones.. Great idea.

And another thing… you women ogle too. Don’t try to deny it… women ogle.

darn tootin! Looking forward to reading the rest of your adventures!

Morning

Anyone who has read my posts knows that I like to spend my mornings out by the pool. I usually get breakfast at the buffet and take it to the pool area. Then I’ll spend an hour or so watching for all the characters on the ship… and writing about them. And OK… you got me. I also hide behind my dark sunglasses and check out all the hard-bodied women. OK… you got me again they don’t even need to be hard-bodied if they have the right assets or other “talents”.

But there was no “talent” by the pool this morning. It was still chilly. The temperature is still in the 60’s… not my idea of the temperature for hanging out by the pool. Even the “chair hogs” were not out in force. There’s maybe a hundred or so lounge chairs around the pool but this morning only a few had been occupied by the “chair hog deposits”. And there were only about eight or ten human beings in the chairs. All of the other chairs were empty. I was actually hoping for some chair hogs so that the chairs wouldn’t look so lonely.

I tried for a little bit to do my usual morning by the pool, but it was just too cold. (Yea… yea… yea… I here all of you… especially all the folks from Canada and such places… and you’re right, I’m a wimp when it comes to being cold.) So in about five minutes I “woofed down” my breakfast and retreated to the bowels of the ship.

I’m sure it’s warming up by the minute as we head south, but for now I’ve found a neat inside retreat to do my writing...the Red Frog Pub. It’s not crowded this time of day so I have a nice booth all to myself… to contemplate my navel and write to you guys. I’ll tell you a bit more about the Red Frog Pub later on.

The Magic is still a brand new, shiny ship. Every place you go on board the general motif is Emerald green. It’s really pretty. I think I’ll be referring to this ship as “Oz” since it reminds me the “Emerald City”. I wonder if any of the designers had that in mind considering they named the ship “Magic.”

This is the biggest ship I’ve been on. If I walk from the bow to stern a few times a day I won’t need to go to the gym. Well… I’ll still need to go to the gym because of all the chocolate melting cake I’ll eat over the seven days, but at least by walking around on a ship this size I won’t be a rollie-pollie when the cruise ends next Sunday.

Last night in the piano bar was “magic”. Ron Pass had the place “jumping”. There were a lot of the same cast of characters who were there on the last bloggers cruise. I think most of them, like me, who are much more Ron Pass fans than they are “bloggers cruise” fans. I let myself down. To quote the song; “mummm-hummm-mummm I love this bar.” “Just walkin’ through the door puts a smile on my face”.

It had been my intent to spend the whole night in the piano bar… to spend what’s left of my kids’ inheritance buying booze in the piano bar. But about midnight I ran out of steam. After only two frozen concoctions to help me hang on I headed back to the cabin. I think there’s another country and western song that is appropriate:

I ain’t as good as I once was… but I’m as good once as I ever was.

Afternoon

Today had the usual stuff out by the pool… the “mixology contest” and the “harry chest” contest, but because the weather was still cool, I (and a lot of others) spent time inside the ship rather than out buy the pool. The farther south we go the warmer it will get so by this time tomorrow the pool will probably chairs around the pool will probably be filled up.

Just “three cents worth” about the ship and then I’m going to get on to some crusin’ stuff. Even though it’s a big ship, in some ways it seems more crowded than the other Carnival ships I’ve been on. For instance, the elevators are always a “zoo” on embarkation day, but after that things seem to smooth out. But this ship hasn’t smoothed out yet. I think that’s because there are the same number of elevators as on the Valor (Freedom, Glory, and others), but this ship can have up to about 1000 more people on it. Also, the inside venues… shops, lounges, etc seem to be about the same size as on the other Carnival ships I’ve been on there are more people here trying to see and buy stuff.

There are two or three “neat” venues that other ships don’t have. There are two or three lounges that have an area where they have live music with different styles of music that move around depending on the day. On the other ships like the Valor, there is a live band ( or entertainment) that plays alongside the casino. They are on the main corridor from the front to the back on the ship and people are constantly passing through. Here in “Oz”, they created an equivalent place but it is larger, and separated from the casino and the main corridor. It has a good seating floor, and an area to dance. A vast improvement over the other Carnival ships I’ve been on.

Another neat place is thee the Red Frog Pub that I mentioned earlier. The word “Pub” is not right for this place. When I hear the word “pub”, I think of the traditional British pub like I often visited while I lived in Oxfordshire, England. But the “Red Frog Pub is not that way at all. Instead, the area is decorated in a Caribbean motif. And I like it that way. Rather than a cold damp English pub, it’s much more like a warm tropical Tiki bar… a great place to hang out in the late afternoon and have some frozen concoctions to help us hang on.

So with that thought, I’m going to close for today… go to the Red Frog Tiki Bar and have one of those concoctions I’ve been thinking of.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

I so look forward to my "virtual" cruise with you. Have a chocolate mocha thing for me and a couple of melting cakes for Jim.

Loving the updates. Good luck on your quest for "talent"!

Pix? (without food please!)

Just when I was getting bored with the posts here on Cruise Critic, I see you're back on a cruise! Yaaaayyy!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU! I love reading about your cruise adventures!!!!! :)

This is the second sea day in a row. I’m sure that you can already tell that I’m a bit behind in my postings I’m going to do something a little different today. Since the second sea day in a row is usually more of the same good stuff of the first day, I’m going to leave my usual banter behind and just post some stuff on the piano bar activities last night and post a few pictures.

Last night was Laura’s (AKA “Divetrash”) birthday. Most of you probably don’t know her, but she is the “unofficial Mayor” of the cruise critic thread about the Piano Bars. The theme for the night was “the Islands” and lots of folks were dressed up in tropical shirts and wearing a lei. Of course I’m always wearing a tropical shirt and looking for a lei.

I stayed in the Piano Bar to help close it down around 2:00 A.M. The pictures are in the posts to follow

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

The incomparable Ron Pass. Without him, this would be a whole different cruise for me... I probably wouldn't be here.

Sorry the pictures are so big... I don't know how to make them smaller here.

This is Laura - AKA Divetrash – (in back) and Paula (in front). I won’t tell you exactly what’s going on here… something of a “signing” to the words of the music. Lots of fun.

This time Laura is in front and Paula in back.

This is “Storman Norman”… One of the true characters on board BC5

Ron again… the Tiki bar is open.

Boat drinks… they ordered Boat Drinks. (Jimmy Buffett)

This must be the birthday boy that is at our dinner table!

I want to thank you guys for your encouragement and compliments you have posted. I really appreciate it and it keeps me going. I’m going to take this time to answer a couple of posts… and to tell you a sad story about one of the people who posted.

First, I want to say hi to Mary (mississauga). I understand why you didn’t want to go on this cruise… too many crazies… but I wish you were here just the same.

And Mickie (mickiemak)… I wish you and Jim were here too. Thank you for the birthday wishes but… ummm…. I’ve canceled all future birthdays. Tonight I’ll certainly have a chocolate mocha whatchamacalit for you. As far as the chocolate melting cake goes… I’m sorry that I’m not holding up my end as I’m trying to keep my boyish figure. But not to worry… Amy is more than keeping up her end and eating Jim’s share too. (I’ve created a monster.)

Now for a bit of a sad story… and I really do feel bad. This is about “Tonyslady”. She posted earlier and said she was going go don her “toga” and imagine herself here. You see… that’s Jodi, one of my daughters. She was supposed to be with me on this cruise. One of the early plans was to have a toga party for the birthday. She had her suit-case and everything packed… including the toga. She was ready to go.

Her husband was going to stay with her school age kids…they would be in school during the day and he would be with them in the evenings. She was going on the cruise with her youngest that isn’t in school yet. But…her husband, Tony (the Tony in Tonyslady) is in the U.S. Army. Five or Six days before we sailed, he was notified that he could be sent away in the middle of the cruise. With the possibility of no one to watch her kids… or the possibly of having them with strangers, she had to stay at home.

I really do feel bad for her. This was supposed to be her first cruise. Even worse, I know one of the things she really likes is nights in a good piano bar. So she is missing Ron Pass who is one of the best.

Now you shouldn’t have too much despair… this does have something of happy ending.

Although I can’t make up for the time we miss together on this cruise, I have scheduled a cruise for my whole family on the Valor for this June. On that cruise her kids will be out of school, so they’re all going. And we’ll have the toga party then… TOGA, TOGA.

Oh yea… if you didn’t catch it… “rwstout” is Wendy, another of my daughters… (Yea… the Woman to Blame was quite fertile; I guess I had a bit to do with that to, but it’s indeed the Woman to Blame who deserves all the credit.) Wendy might have taken Jodi’s place, but she had surgery just a little bit before the cruise and her “doc” said she couldn’t go. It will be a happy ending for Wendy too since she will be sailing with us in June.

Now… with my five kids and their spouses… and the twelve of their children… if I can just survive that June cruise it will be a happy ending for all.

That’s all for now… I’ve got some serious crusin’ stuff to do. I’ve got my dark sun glasses and I’m heading for the pool.

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

By absolute sheer coincidence I think Sargent_Shultz and I have indeed been seated at the same dinner table. Of course, he didn't introduce himself by his screen name when we all sat down to dinner... so I had no idea that he has another "Live from..." thread parallel to mine on this cruise. I followed the link on his thread and discovered that his web site is the same as the one on the cards he handed out when we introduced ourselves at dinner. The odds of randomly being seated at the same table are astronomical.

He's posting a lot of pictures on his web. Maybe we'll get together tonight and collaborate on the "live from..." posts for the rest of the cruise. In the mean time, those of you looking for pics should also follow the link below to his thread. Here it is.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1586241

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny