Carnival Magic Jan. 20 Isle of Roatan, Belize and Cozumel

[Blueboss]

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

 

 

Back to the port

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

HAL Westerdam

 

 

CCL Magic

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

Last tender is unloaded.

 

 

 

Appetizer-Shrimp & Corvina Ceviche

 

 

Main Course-Tiger Shrimp

 

 

Main Course- Braised Beef something or other. I forgot what its called.

[Blueboss]

 

Dessert-Baked Alaskan

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

 

 

 

 

 

[Blueboss]

[cruiseclues]

Thanks for the great photo review...especially the food photos...can't get too many of those. :)

[funinthesun1964]

Thanks for the reviews, I was esp. interested in the report about cave tubing bz, we are booked for that tour on Feb. 26 (on Liberty). Looks like it was fun...I am looking forward to it. I wonder is there is a way to request a certain driver/guide? Sounds like you had a good one!

Did you think the lunch was good? Were you limited to one rum punch? :o

[MistyM]

Greatpictures! Some of the best I've seen!

[Blueboss]

Thanks for the reviews, I was esp. interested in the report about cave tubing bz, we are booked for that tour on Feb. 26 (on Liberty). Looks like it was fun...I am looking forward to it. I wonder is there is a way to request a certain driver/guide? Sounds like you had a good one!

Did you think the lunch was good? Were you limited to one rum punch? :o

 

We had a great time and want to go again, only taking our kids and their spouses with us. You could try requesting a guide, I don't know if they will honor it or not. I've read a few reviews about this company and it seems all the guides are very good. Our driver's name is Elsim (I probably misspelled it, but that is how it sounds). The lunch was very good, some of the best cole slaw I've ever ate! They do offer you another rum punch to take for the drive back to town. They are served in a cup similar to the shaker cups Jello Pudding use to have or the health shakes are mixed in. I just gave my cup to the guide when we got back to port. Pack bug spray! The mosquitos were pretty bad while walking to the river. Once we started floating, we didn't have a problem with them.

[nycfa]

Was your waiter named Eduardo? If so we had him on the Victory in August...we loved him.

 

Friends went in December and asked for him but they were told he was no longer on the ship. Wondering if this is him on the Magic?

 

:)

[funinthesun1964]

We had a great time and want to go again, only taking our kids and their spouses with us. You could try requesting a guide, I don't know if they will honor it or not. I've read a few reviews about this company and it seems all the guides are very good. Our driver's name is Elsim (I probably misspelled it, but that is how it sounds). The lunch was very good, some of the best cole slaw I've ever ate! They do offer you another rum punch to take for the drive back to town. They are served in a cup similar to the shaker cups Jello Pudding use to have or the health shakes are mixed in. I just gave my cup to the guide when we got back to port. Pack bug spray! The mosquitos were pretty bad while walking to the river. Once we started floating, we didn't have a problem with them.

 

Great, thanks for the info.

[Blueboss]

Thanks for the great photo review...especially the food photos...can't get too many of those. :)

 

Thanks. I felt a little awkward carrying my camera to dinner but my son's future MIL wanted to see pictures of the food. I tried to make a note for each dish we had, but forgot the complete names by the time we got back to the cabin to write them down. There is another photo review on CC with food pictures but he didn't put the names. Some of them looked really good, just didn't know what to order. LOL The only dish I really did not care for was the Diet Pumpkin pie, the texture was not right and flavor not as good as I make myself. We tried several dishes from the Didja Ever menu and was quite surprised how good they were. The portion size was just right for me but DH thought he was going to starve until I told him that he could order more than one appetizer and/or main course. He usually ordered 2 main courses and that seemed to fill him up. It's also nice to be able to do that if he couldn't decide between two dishes, he just got both.

[Blueboss]

Was your waiter named Eduardo? If so we had him on the Victory in August...we loved him.

 

Friends went in December and asked for him but they were told he was no longer on the ship. Wondering if this is him on the Magic?

 

:)

 

It's him. We loved him! He told us he had been with Carnival 14 years, started out as a dishwasher and worked his way up to head waiter. He said they work 6-8 months, take a 2 month vacation and when they come back to work are usually assigned to a new ship. I didn't ask how long he has left to be on Magic.

[Blueboss]

Another thing I noticed in Roatan and Belize is guards with automatic weapons. I did not take any pictures of them (I'm an Army mom and know how nervous our government gets about that). Roatan, they seemed to be posted outside the banks and financial places. In Belize we had to drive on the main highway that traverses the country and they had a check point about midway. We didn't get checked, something about being with an organized tour and a sticker on the window. Every time we saw one, DH would look at me like, "What did you get us into?" All our drivers were very good, but if you get nervous as a passenger, don't watch how they drive! Speed limits are suggestions, stops signs serve no purpose and they will drive on the wrong side of the road half of the time. DH was in the front seat for one of our tours and I thought he was going to have a meltdown when we blew through a stop sign! I saw others that would tense up as well if they got the front seat. One lady almost climbed over the seat back when a dog looked like it was getting ready to walk into the road and there was oncoming traffic. :eek:

[nycfa]

It's him. We loved him! He told us he had been with Carnival 14 years, started out as a dishwasher and worked his way up to head waiter. He said they work 6-8 months, take a 2 month vacation and when they come back to work are usually assigned to a new ship. I didn't ask how long he has left to be on Magic.

 

 

Thanks!! I will have to let my friend know....they met him in July and told us about him so we asked for him in August. I know he was near his break when we saw him but he had just gotten extended. He was greatly looking forward to going home and seeing his boys! :)

[Blueboss]

Thanks!! I will have to let my friend know....they met him in July and told us about him so we asked for him in August. I know he was near his break when we saw him but he had just gotten extended. He was greatly looking forward to going home and seeing his boys! :)

 

He talked about his boys and how hard it was to be away from them. Said he uses Skype to keep in touch with them, but it was hard when he had to say good bye. He was proud to make the sacrifice to give them a better life. Guess he connected with us since our son is half way around the world from us too, we had that in common.

[Diamondback]

Thanks for the tip on the bug spray - added to the packing list! We decided against cave tubing, though I want to do it one day. Just figured our youngest wouldn't appreciate the colder water and floating through a cave.

 

Was the picture of the three beers a type of bucket you could buy?

 

I almost asked about portion sizes as I thought they looked small but couldn't tell if it was the camera doing that. I would guess they see a ton of food waste so maybe smaller portions ain't such a bad thing. Plus I don't think anyone's going hungry on a cruise ship!

[Blueboss]

Thanks for the tip on the bug spray - added to the packing list! We decided against cave tubing, though I want to do it one day. Just figured our youngest wouldn't appreciate the colder water and floating through a cave.

 

Was the picture of the three beers a type of bucket you could buy?

 

I almost asked about portion sizes as I thought they looked small but couldn't tell if it was the camera doing that. I would guess they see a ton of food waste so maybe smaller portions ain't such a bad thing. Plus I don't think anyone's going hungry on a cruise ship!

 

Yes the beer was part of a bucket. Red Frog Pub has buckets for $20 and change. They had several import beers that you could choose from, all do not have to be the same brand. It's a good way to try different ones.

[goingcrzn11]

Great review. We are doing this intinerary in 6 weeks. Great pictures!

[Blueboss]

Great review. We are doing this intinerary in 6 weeks. Great pictures!

 

Thanks. I had to be away from my computer a couple of days but am loading up the last of the Cozumel pictures now. Hopefully, I can finish this review by tomorrow night. Enjoy your trip, we had a great time and want to go again!

[Blueboss]

Friday Jan. 25th, Cozumel. Lido deck had been invaded with towel animals or it was the worst case of chair hogging I have ever seen! It was a little rainy and the animals were wilting a little, but still fun to walk around to look at all of them. We had been to Cozumel before but didn't see much of the island. I really wanted to see the other side of the island and avoid the beach clubs this trip. We talked about getting a taxi and just drive around, but thought it might be hard to get one since 6 ships were in port that day. We booked Top 10 Best of Cozumel excursion through Carnival ($60 pp) that toured the island, went to the tequila farm and stopped for some shopping. We found our tour guide quickly, waited a little while for the rest of the group to assemble, then walked to the bus. Our first stop was Discover Mexico Park where we watched a short film (looked more like scenes of Mexico spliced together), walked through a museum where our guide kept a running commentary about Mexico and it's history. We then went outside and were given the option to wander on our own or follow the guide through miniature Mayan Temples. We ended at a food/drink and souvenir stand, watched traditionally garbed men do an aerial demonstration. Not sure what, exactly, the purpose was since someone in the group kept talking and we could not hear the description. Still pretty cool to watch. We then drove around the southern tip of the island to the east side and stopped at a beach bar. Once again, you could purchase food, drink and trinkets. We chose to watch the waves and take pictures. Next stop was the Tequila Farm. We found this stop fun, interesting and informative. They have little plastic cups (think medicine cups) so we could sample the different flavors of tequila before we purchased anything. According to the speaker, the bottles are hand blown glass. Can't say if it's true or not but everyone, that has seen ours, really like the bottles. There was a guy selling Margaritas in clay cups for $6. We bought two before getting back on the bus. I had to laugh as we were going down the drive, every fence post had young Agave plants growing in small clay pots that looked just like our margarita cups. :D Next on the tour was shopping in San Miguel. We stopped at two places, Diamonds International being one of them, near the downtown pier. We walked around a little, taking pictures and bought a few things. This tour ran a little late, we got back to the ship in plenty of time, just couldn't stop for a drink or anymore shopping. From downtown to the pier Carnival docks at is about 4 miles. DH and I counted at least 6 Diamonds International stores on that stretch of road! That night we got into some rough seas. We were on our balcony (deck 8) watching the waves and, some of the bigger ones, were misting us! They cancelled the 7 PM show due to it and the dining room was nearly empty for late seating. Wasn't sure we would survive dinner either, but went anyway. All it did to us was make us very sleepy. :confused: It was funny walking around the ship, seeing people stagger and then try to decide if it was the waves or how much they drank. Several people were dressed up but they chose flats rather than high heels, including myself. As far as I know, the only casualty was a dinner our waiter dropped. I didn't think he did too bad since he was carrying 4 dinners on his arm when a wave hit us and he bumped into a wall. The rough seas didn't put a damper on the midnight buffet and pool party that night. Although not as crowded as we saw on Elation, several were out dancing and having a good time.