Magic Dec 2-9 review

[natdalton]

My husband & I cruised on the Magic from Dec 2-9, 2012. It was his 1st cruise, but I had cruised 2x’s before on NCL about 10 years ago. We are both 35 years old.

We drove from Tulsa, OK to Galveston on Saturday before the cruise. (Houston traffic SUCKS). Neither of us had ever been to Galveston before and thought that it was a really cool little town. It’s a beach town with palm trees, surfer type shops, the ocean on 1 side of the street and hotels, restaurants, bars and shops on the other. There is also a pier with an amusement park on it that looked really fun and really cool all lit up at night jetting out into the water. I would love to go back to Galveston for a long weekend to hang out. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Resort on the Seawall. The room had an ocean view with a balcony. We enjoyed staying there.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel, made a stop at Walmart and drove up and down the seawall just to take in a lil of Galveston. We parked our car in Lighthouse parking and they shuttled us to the cruise terminal. We arrived at the cruise terminal about 11:00. Checked luggage with porters and got in line for our travel documents to be checked. My husband used a passport, I had the birth certificate, marriage license, driver’s license combo. They did not check the marriage license at all. Then on to scanning the carry ons. We had 1 bottle of champagne in a backpack. Husband put the backpack through the x-ray. They never got the bottle out to see what it was, to examine the seal or anything, just passed it right through, never even looked inside the backpack at all. We also carried on a 24 pack of bottled water. They tore into the middle of the pack and checked like 5, but I think that was mainly b/c my husband teased with the lady telling her “I hope you don’t figure out what we really have in those bottles”. (he was just teasing, they were just unopened waters).

Then onto the line to get our Sail & Sign card. They checked our travel documents here again, but again, never asked to see my marriage license. We sat down and waited for about 5 minutes for our zone to be called, took an embarkation photo and on we were.

All in all it took about 1-1.5 hour to get on board. My only suggestion would to bring something to put the 12 pack per person of waters/sodas in –a small ice chest on wheels or something. They get very heavy, very fast when carrying them around for a while!

[okwriter]

I was on the same cruise and Houston was way worse this time! They had five lanes funnel down to one lane for what appeared to be a couple of guys fixing two potholes. It must have taken an hour to go 50 feet. Did you get into Galveston about the time that wreck had things all clogged up there? UGH! I'm going again in April and seriously considering flying this time from either OKC or Tulsa.

 

I'll try to watch for the rest of your review. My group had a GREAT time! :)

[Rudyard]

(Houston traffic SUCKS)

 

As someone who lives here, you won't get an argument from me. Weekdays are even worse. Looking forward to the test of your review :)

[satxdiver]

We were on the same sailing of the Magic. We drove in from the west on IH10 and took the beltway around to IH45 staying in Clear Lake. We did not encounter many problems. Sunday we drove down to Galveston (~30 miles) without problem parking in the EZCruise lot. We were on the ship by a little after noon.

 

We were carrying two bottles of wine and a 6 pack of tonic water. Like the OP we put them on the belt through the scanner, picked them up on the other side and continued on our way. They did not even take them out to look at them. We both carry passports so no problems. I was surprised at how fast we got on the ship. We took our carryons to our stateroom and left them there. The stateroom attendant did complain but after we told him we just wanted to drop off our luggage, he was fine with it. We had lunch in the buffet and since we were one of the first to board, there was no crowd yet.

 

Once back in Galveston we carried our luggage off ourselves and were off the ship, through immigration and outside the terminal by 8 AM. Record time!

[natdalton]

We went to our room about 1:30. We had room 1280, which is an ocean view stateroom. We felt very little movement and had a little engine noise which wasn’t bothersome. I loved the bed! I have had back trouble my whole life. The beds are pretty firm on the ship and it was the 1st time I realized that’s what I need for my back not to hurt all the time!! I slept pain free all week. Came home to my pillow top mattress and I’m living on Aleve again. We got our luggage in time to get ready for dinner. All Rum Runners (3) made it throughJ.

 

After reading reviews on CC, I really was not expecting the food to be very good. We were both very happy with pretty much everything we ate! Lido buffet –good, MDR –good (a lot of fresh seafood dishes available :p), Salad bar on Deck 5 for lunch –I really enjoyed, Tandoor –good, Mongolian wok –our least favorite, Italian restaurant at lunch is free – good (husband loved the clam sauce).

 

We had Any Time Dining and were very happy w/ it. If we got there and there was a long line, we’d run and go look at the pictures or take a spin through a Fun Shop for a few minutes, come back and the line was always gone. The line moved fast. I didn’t care for our waiter only 1 evening, all the rest were good.

I would not recommend ordering anything from the bar or specialty while in the MDR. My husband ordered a beer one night –it never arrived, one night a shot of Bailey’s & an espresso it didn’t arrive until 30 minutes later and by that time we were actually leaving the MDR when she walked up to us with it, he tried ordering it again one night and the Bailey's took 20 minutes, after dessert was already finished and the espresso never showed up. The point of ordering it was to have it with dessert. Never having even received the espresso, what's the point in having the Bailey's? One night, again, wanting to have it w/ dessert he ordered a Jamaican coffee right after the main course was served and it made it on time for dessert. So if you insist on having a fancy coffee in the MDR, order it about 30 minutes earlier than you really want it.

 

We went to 2 of the late night adult comedy shows, which were funny. Went to a ventriloquist show, which was ok. We hung out at the Red Frog Pub the most and really enjoyed it there. The waiter named Evanston is wonderful! Their coconut shrimp was great and definitely worth $3.33 and the Pina Coladas the best I’ve ever had!

[rustycar]

We were on the same cruise also and agree with the traffic in Houston! Once we made it through Houston we thought we had it made but ended up right next to the accident coming into Galveston. We actually had flying debris hit our van! By the time we found a spot to turn around the paramedics and police were coming. Was in the back of my mind the whole cruise wondering if everyone was ok. Looked very serious , we were traveling about 60mph so hope everyone is ok!

[kiraryker]

We will be staying at the same hotel when we cruise on the Magic in January - can't wait! Is the walmart close enough to walk to from the hotel?

 

Also any recommendations on a limo company to get from Houston to Galveston? We are having a heck of a time finding one.

[natdalton]

We will be staying at the same hotel when we cruise on the Magic in January - can't wait! Is the walmart close enough to walk to from the hotel?

 

No the walmart is a couple of miles away.

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review, looking foward to the rest of it.

[jdyer09]

Walmart isn't close enough to walk but some of the hotels have a shuttle. There are a couple of hotels within walking distance but its on the other side of the island from the terminal. So I'd choose wisely.

 

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review!

[natdalton]

Ports of Call:

Montego Bay, Jamaica –we got off the ship and right there in the building signed up for Carnival’s hop on/hop off bus ($15 pp charged to your S&S card). The first stop was the Rose Hall shopping, which was a good 15-20 minute drive away. This shopping center was very nice and I did not get the impression that you could haggle the prices here. They had liquor stores, shirts & souvenir stores, perfume stores, what looked like high end jewelry & watch stores. We quickly got back on the bus and were dropped off at Doctor’s Cave Beach. Cost $6 pp for entrance, $3 pp for chairs, and $5 for an umbrella (I think those were the prices). The beach was a pretty busy. I rented a snorkel mask for $6 and snorkeled by the pier just a little. I didn’t see much where I went, but I heard later that some people saw some really great stuff in another place. We ordered a bucket of beers, but warning, they come as draft beers in plastic cups w/ lids -6 come in a bucket of ice. After the beach we got back on the bus and went to The Pork Pit. We ordered shrimp & ribs. The shrimp were the hottest I’ve ever had. I actually had to go to the bathroom and splash water on my lips. The ribs were only about 4-5 inches long; too small to be of a pig or a cow, so I don’t know what kinda animal they came off of. They tasted okay, but I wouldn’t recommend them. I heard their pulled pork was really good though. Then we got back on the bus to go back to the shops by the beach, did a little shopping before catching the bus back to the ship.

All in all, we didn’t particularly like Jamaica. The water and the mountains in the distance are beautiful but the people just won’t stop trying to sell you stuff. Sitting in our chairs on the beach we were asked so many times if we wanted bracelets, shells, weed, fruit, etc. Shopping on the streets right outside of the beach entrance, you go in and they immediately follow you around trying to talk you into stuff. It just got really old. However, I have to admit that I teared up a little when I heard the first Bob Marley song actually in Jamaica –that was a little magical.

While in Jamaica, we had purchased a few bottles of rum. When we got back to the ship before getting in line for the boat, we went rummaging through our backpack to get our rum out to check in. We couldn’t find it anywhere. We assumed we accidentally set it down and left it somewhere, so we gave up and just got on the ship. Backpack through xray scanner, nothing detected, through we were and it wasn’t until we got to our room and completely emptied the backpack that we realized we just smuggled on 3 bottles. Oops.

I’ve read other reviews that getting back on the ship in Jamaica was unpleasant, due to the guards rudely pulling people (mostly men) out of line and patting them down & doing extra scans trying to find drugs. I did not see that happening in the least.

[natdalton]

Grand Cayman – We booked a private charter with Shaun Ebanks of Seven Seas Charter. I cannot say enough good things about Shaun and our day in Grand Cayman. There was nothing that could have been better! Mr. Ebanks met us at the gate holding a sign that said “Dalton & Party”. We promptly went to his van and drove to his 34 foot sailing yacht at the docks. Along the way he told us very interesting details & the history of Cayman Islands. We boarded his boat which was plenty big enough for our party of 12 and our 1st stop was the Stingray Sandbar. We fed the stingrays (with food he provided), held them, got back massages from them, learned all about them, posed for pics with them and kissed them for 7 years good luck. Having a small group, we each received personal attention from both the stingrays & our captain. All the other groups out there were 30+ people and there is no way those large groups could have gotten the full experience that we did. We stayed there approximately 1 hour, which was plenty of time for all 12 of us to get a good amount of time to interact with them. We all got back in the boat and the next stop was the Coral Gardens. Mr. Ebanks provided very good snorkels, masks and flippers for everyone to snorkel. We saw lots of beautiful fish, coral, another stingray, and Mr. Ebanks’ wonderful 1st mate, Erlon, put a piece of squid on a stick, hit a rock a couple of times and out came a huge Moray Eel. He did that a couple of times, so everyone could get a good look & take pictures of it. After about an hour of great snorkeling, we loaded back up. Next stop, Starfish Beach. This beach was absolutely gorgeous. Erlon found us several large, live starfish and they put them all over us for a fun photo op. We also took fun group pictures here. It’s a very small beach with no one else on it, whatsoever. We got there by boat, I don’t even know if there is any other way to get to it. I spent most of our time there looking for shells and found some little crabs in a bush. After being there a while, we loaded back up and had a leisurely boat ride back to the docks. During our time on the boat, Mr. Ebanks provided us with water, soda, Cayman beer, a lot of good conversation and he had some good Bob Marley playing. What a nice, informative, & above all, professional man he is! Erlon was fabulous too –such a sweet, funny, hardworking man. Loved them both!! Mr. Ebanks drove us back to the cruise terminal and we had about an hour to shop before getting back on the boat.

 

Now, let me tell you a little about how this day came about. Keeping in mind that my husband and I were traveling alone, I found this awesome looking tour on his website, but of course couldn’t afford it all by ourselves. I got on our very active CC roll call & FB event page and asked the group if anyone would like to join us. I had to ask a few times over some passing weeks, but finally, others became interested and I found 10 other people to join us. So the excursion wound up only costing us $60 per person.

 

Let me tell you people, BOOK THIS TRIP. All emails were responded to quickly and the whole day played out just like Mr. Ebanks outlined when we made the reservation with him, some 6 months ahead of time.

[natdalton]

When we got off the ship we caught a cab for $15 for the 2 of us to Mr. Sancho’s Beach Resort. Entrance cost $50 per person and included all inclusive alcoholic drinks and food. The beach is beautiful and the menu is plentiful (a lot of fresh seafood item included). We kayaked off the beach and even saw a little stingray. We walked up and down the beach and I found a big conch shell to bring home. We swam in the ocean, but due to the sun burns that we had acquired the day before in Grand Cayman, we mainly sat at a table on the beach under a thatch umbrella enjoying the never ending drinks, food, scenery and the fun people we met there. The bathrooms are clean and lockers are available at no extra charge, you just have to put a $5 deposit down, which you get back once you turn in your key at the end of the day. There are also inflatables in the ocean, parasailing and jet ski’s available for additional fees. At the end of a great, fun, relaxing, pina colada filled day, we caught a cab back to the ship. While walking out of the resort, there was a group of 4 also returning to the Magic, so we split the cab, making it a little cheaper for the return trip.

When it comes to ports of call, you just can’t go wrong with Cozumel and Mr. Sancho’s is a place I definitely would return to.

[natdalton]

We chose self assist debarkation, which means you do not put your luggage outside of your room the night before, but instead keep them and carry them off yourself in the morning. We went got through customs, jumped on the bus for Lighthouse parking, were back to the car and on the road by 8:40 am.

 

We had a wonderful trip. The ship is very clean, plenty of activities to do, the food fantastic, i really enjoyed the comedy shows and Red Frog Pub. What i hear people complain about the most is the lines and the fact is, the fews lines you will see go very quickly.

 

I would difinetely recommend the Magic!

[natdalton]

A few details I forgot to include in the review:

 

The omlette bar on the lido buffet is the bomb.

We tried the Comedy Brunch the first sea day. I got the steak and my husband got the eggs benedict. It was okay but we did not return b/c we liked the quicker style of the, go get what you want, eat and leave instead of a dining room feel.

 

In the MDR for dinner, every once in a while they do Fun Time, where they play songs, the waiters dance and people get up and dance w/ them. Not many people joined in, but we did, and It was really fun to act like a big dork.

 

 

The only negative of the trip is the price of the dang drinks. With so much time to kill on sea days, that, coupled with the passing sea, relaxing on a pool chair, you find yourself needing an alcoholic beverage. But i found it hard to relax, knowing i was paying $20 for a bucket of 4 beers or $8 for a pina colada. 4 beers go very quickly between 2 people and thinking of our ever rising bar bill was freaking me out. However, the Awesome Bar Program is going to remedy this problem by our next cruise.

 

Feel free to ask any questions.

[ladytiger96]

I love your review Natalie! One of the best parts of the cruise was all the people we met from the CC group. I want to comment on your port review: First of all, you got an EXCELLENT deal in Cozumel. For comparison: We rode xrail cars at $80 x 4 people. I hated it but the boys thought it was fun. Later, we were famished and had little time before going back to the ship so we went to a Mexican restaurant. 4 people...2 were kids. We had 2 orders of fajitas and 2 orders of tacos. We DID have 4 good sized margaritas. The bill was $78! Not including tip. I thought that was a little high in Mexico. So your $50 for beach access plus all you can eat and drink was a STEAL. Regarding Cayman, there were 60 people on our stringray trip. We didn't end up feeding them but did get to hold them and do the back massage after a long line. I still absolutely LOVED my cruise but will do things differently next time!

[Star24K]

We are sailing on the Magic in March. Did you see any shows that were “Must See”? Entertainment seems kind of thin in the evenings.

[natdalton]

We went to the hypnotis show which was entertaining, but other than that just went to a couple of comedy shows, which we really enjoyed.

 

We are sailing on the Magic in March. Did you see any shows that were “Must See”? Entertainment seems kind of thin in the evenings.

[natdalton]

There are shows each evening though, that we just never made it to. There is plenty to do.

[cruiseclues]

Thanks for your review...especially the info on ordering drinks in the MDR. :)