Magic 2/2 review - Fog, FTTF, CHEERS & an 10 month old. whew!

[coltsmama]

 

 

 

 

he didnt appreciate my "playpen" i made for him haha

 

My husband challenging his mom and niece and nephew to some foosball

 

[coltsmama]

 

 

 

 

 

[coltsmama]

 

not sure about all the wind on deck

 

after watching the sunset, we figure we had probably better get to bed

 

[fireman92]

coltsmamma,

 

are you from missouri? we are. where did you drive from that was 12 hrs long?

 

fireman

[coltsmama]

Satureday - Last Fun Day at Sea

 

 

We woke up to a pretty rocky boat and a much chillier day. I would say I felt quite a bit of motion on this entire cruise, though it never caused us any issues. Thats why I like rooms low and midship. We saw people with the patch on all throughout the cruise. We took a bonine daily and we never have any issues. Its pretty rocky today, but not too terrible. We were more bummed our trip was almost over and that the weather was getting cooler. I dont have any pictures from this day, as we didnt do much. lol. We pretty much hung out at our spot by the now dead pool, with jeans and jackets. We ate at the buffet for breakfast and everywhere was packed for lunch since it was chilly out. I decided to head to deck 5 to hit up the oceanside barbecue they have on sea days from 12-2:30 I had been meaning to try it the entire trip, but kept missing it due to naps which for some reason kept happening at exactly 12-2:30 lol. But i got it today, and man. I was so sad i had missed it the first two sea days! It was sooo yummy!! I got the slider and chicken quesadillas and the sweet chili sauce. omg. i was in love. I would say it was my favorite meal of the trip. go figure. and, apparently everyone was up at the buffet because it was packed at all the eateries up on the lido but the oceanside bbq, i walked right up and grabbed a plate. and it was all fresh. :) win-win.

My husband braved the lines at the wok, and said it was just ok, but he also got the spicy sauce, and he hates anything spicy.....

 

The weather was pretty cloudy most of the day, and sprinkled a bit here and there. We hung out at our table the whole day and basically ate and drank and watched whatever they played on the big screen.

 

At the end of the day, we went up to camp carnival to return the stroller we rented and my husband went to guest services to change the credit card on our account to a different card, and I went to the room to start packing up our things :( He came back and said he had walked up to guest services and the line was ridiculously long. Then he was able to get in the FTTF line and just walked right by everyone and he felt so important. haha

 

We had priority debarkation, which gave us zone 1 luggage tags, but we decided to do the self assist option so we could get off as early as possible as we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us.

 

After most everything was packed, we headed to bed for our last night. boo :(

 

 

[coltsmama]

Saturday - Last Fun Day at Sea

 

 

We woke up to a pretty rocky boat and a much chillier day. I would say I felt quite a bit of motion on this entire cruise, though it never caused us any issues. Thats why I like rooms low and midship. We saw people with the patch on all throughout the cruise. We took a bonine daily and we never have any issues. Its pretty rocky today, but not too terrible. We were more bummed our trip was almost over and that the weather was getting cooler. I dont have any pictures from this day, as we didnt do much. lol. We pretty much hung out at our spot by the now dead pool, with jeans and jackets. We ate at the buffet for breakfast and everywhere was packed for lunch since it was chilly out. I decided to head to deck 5 to hit up the oceanside barbecue they have on sea days from 12-2:30 I had been meaning to try it the entire trip, but kept missing it due to naps which for some reason kept happening at exactly 12-2:30 lol. But i got it today, and man. I was so sad i had missed it the first two sea days! It was sooo yummy!! I got the slider and chicken quesadillas and the sweet chili sauce. omg. i was in love. I would say it was my favorite meal of the trip. go figure. and, apparently everyone was up at the buffet because it was packed at all the eateries up on the lido but the oceanside bbq, i walked right up and grabbed a plate. and it was all fresh. :) win-win.

My husband braved the lines at the wok, and said it was just ok, but he also got the spicy sauce, and he hates anything spicy.....

 

The weather was pretty cloudy most of the day, and sprinkled a bit here and there. We hung out at our table the whole day and basically ate and drank and watched whatever they played on the big screen.

 

At the end of the day, we went up to camp carnival to return the stroller we rented and my husband went to guest services to change the credit card on our account to a different card, and I went to the room to start packing up our things :( He came back and said he had walked up to guest services and the line was ridiculously long. Then he was able to get in the FTTF line and just walked right by everyone and he felt so important. haha

 

We had priority debarkation, which gave us zone 1 luggage tags, but we decided to do the self assist option so we could get off as early as possible as we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us.

 

After most everything was packed, we headed to bed for our last night. boo :(

 

 

[coltsmama]

oops sorry about the double post!

[coltsmama]

coltsmamma,

 

are you from missouri? we are. where did you drive from that was 12 hrs long?

 

fireman

 

yep we are! We live in Ozark, just between Springfield & Branson

[fireman92]

we are in st charles mo. second time on magic. how was the drive home? long? we are flying but always wandered about the drive.

[coltsmama]

Sunday- Debarkation day (booo)

 

For some reason, neither me or my husband slept very well that night. The boat was kinda rocky but not exceptionally so, but i dont know what the issue was. My husband got up at 2am and i was up by 4am. He had gone up to wander around the ship and i turned on the tv to watch the forward cam. About 20 minutes after i turned it on, you could see the fog roll in. I really hoped it was fog and not smoke at that point. It was wierd how quickly it came in! After a while i fell back asleep for a bit and when we woke up, we woke up to this and I knew we werent going anywhere!

 

 

 

The foghorn was blaring every minute or so and we were anchored, locked out of the port of galveston. There was zero visibility and you could hear other boats fog horns blaring through the fog. Very strange!

After a while, the cd, Noonan, got on the pa to tell us that, surprise surprise, the port was closed because of the fog. They planned activities for us and opened up the buffets and whatnot. Every so often they would update us, with basically no news. So we hung out on deck 10 in our spot with everything ready to go, even though they said it would be an hour and a half from the time they said we could head into port to the time we actually got there. All of the lines to get anything to eat were ridiculously long today, and our cheers program wasnt valid anymore :(

They finally opened up the port around 3 or so, and i must say, it didnt look like the fog had lifted any and we were going at a snails pace.

We had fttf and were doing self assist. We were instructed to head to the dining room on deck 4 to wait until we were cleared to leave.

Noonan finally came in, and before they announced the clearance to the ship, they let the platinum/diamond/vip self assist go, then we were cleared to go. Then they were going to call the platinum/diamond/vip zone numbers, and then the would clear the rest of the ships self assists and then zones. phew. FTTF saves the day again. We were out and on our way home by 6pm.

[coltsmama]

we are in st charles mo. second time on magic. how was the drive home? long? we are flying but always wandered about the drive.

 

pretty long. especially with stops for diaper changes! it actually took us a bit longer coming home because it started snowing as soon as we hit joplin

[soulsistah007]

Thanks for taking the time to post this review! I especially appreciate all the tips for bringing a 10 month old (the stroller and the play time on sea days). I would like to do a cruise next year when my little one will be 10 months old as well (currently he's still in the oven lol). As far as eating goes, what items did your son eat throughout the trip? Did you ever bring him to the MDR or did you rotate with your in laws in terms of watching him during dinner? Also, since he's so young, did you take any extra precautions with cleaning his hands....any concerns about him getting sick on board? Thanks!

[1Texascruiser]

Awesome review -- your family is precious and know you had a great time. Hope you had safe travels home and will be returning to Texas soon.

 

We are booked for the same voyage leaving 2-23-14 and will enjoy seeing the same sights you provided such great pictures of.

All the best!

[coltsmama]

Thanks for taking the time to post this review! I especially appreciate all the tips for bringing a 10 month old (the stroller and the play time on sea days). I would like to do a cruise next year when my little one will be 10 months old as well (currently he's still in the oven lol). As far as eating goes, what items did your son eat throughout the trip? Did you ever bring him to the MDR or did you rotate with your in laws in terms of watching him during dinner? Also, since he's so young, did you take any extra precautions with cleaning his hands....any concerns about him getting sick on board? Thanks!

 

 

You're very welcome. I'm glad to be able to help. Every child is different, but Colt is very laid back and handles change fairly well, so he did very well on the trip. We only went to the MDR one night and he stayed behind. We had initially planned on eating in the MDR more often and did plan on taking him with us, but we just really enjoyed the buffet. He ate yogurt and/or oatmeal/grits for breakfast. We would take some of the small boxes of cheerios to the room for a snack through the day. We got yogurt from room service a couple of times for snacks as well. From the buffet, everyday they had cheeses and fruits i would cut into small bits and baked potatoes i would mash up, and then they had different types of soups (navy bean, cream of mushroom, minestrone...) and i would mash the veggies with a fork and he loved that. Then they would usually have some other random soft things on the buffet, but we could always find something, like i said the baked potato was always there so he could at least have that to fall back on. there was always something he could eat.

As far as keeping him from getting sick, i was pretty paranoid ahead of time. I packed clorox wipes and wiped down every possible surface he may touch in our room. knobs, cabinets, walls everything. Then the stroller and his crib. We would was his and our hands while in the room and they had hand sanitizer staions throughout the ship, we would get the sanitizer, rub it most of the way into our own hands and then wipe his hands down with ours to rub it in the rest of the way, if that makes sense? lol. We also made sure to pack pedialyte, baby tylenol, teething tablets, anything like that to cover any circumstance with him. We probably overpacked for him, but i would rather be safe than sorry with a little one.

[coltsmama]

Awesome review -- your family is precious and know you had a great time. Hope you had safe travels home and will be returning to Texas soon.

 

We are booked for the same voyage leaving 2-23-14 and will enjoy seeing the same sights you provided such great pictures of.

All the best!

 

Thank you so much. We had a fantastic time. We love cruising out of Texas, even with the potential with fog. It snowed a bit on our way home, but we made it. We werent ready to leave those warm temps behind!! I hope you guys have a blast and the fog leaves you guys alone. Seems like its been every weekend lately. Either way, I know you'll have a blast!

[coltsmama]

so in conclusion, the Magic was an amazing ship. We highly recommend it. The staff was all so helpful, our cabin steward, who I think I forgot to mention, was so nice. Putu, i think his name was. The food was mostly good. Definitely give the Oceanside bbq a try! I never got around to trying the burrito bar or the taste bar, which i really wanted to beforehand. Guess thats a good excuse for another cruise, right? ;)

FTTF was DEFINITELY worth it, especially if travelling with a small child. I will purchase every trip from here on out.

Cheers was also worth it for us, but we also spent most of our time onboard. It helps to find a good bartender and tip well to get a good relationship. We recommend Rudi at the poolside bar. Very funny guy

I also used on of those over the door shoe organizers that i hung in the closet and it worked like a charm, for all of our toiletries, brushes, toothbrushes, deodorants, sunscreen, and on and on and on.

Travelling with a baby:

If you want to rent a stroller, get to camp carnival as soon as you get onboard, or you might not get one. And the cribs are metal, and they dont have their own sheets, they just use a regular sheet folded up.

Bring a blow up bath tub. SOO useful

 

Here is a link to all of the Fun Times from our trip

http://cruiseforums.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=41646068

Edited February 17, 2014 by coltsmama

[riclop]

 

 

 

 

 

In my pre-cruise research, I had heard to bring a blow up tub to place in the shower, and it worked perfectly!

 

 

Love tha baby tub.

[coltsmama]

Love tha baby tub.

 

Thanks. It was a lifesaver!

[CheckersMidwest]

 

M...I...Z :D My son attends Mizzou. Small world. We were just sitting down on an excursion bus in Cozumel in 2012 when the older gentleman across from me leaned over and said, "Welcome to the SEC". :)

 

Thanks for the great review. We're sailing her in June/July. We're driving to the port for the first time ever - just over 900 miles. We're in northern MO and looks like it'll be about 15 hours or so for us.

Edited February 18, 2014 by CheckersMidwest

[coltsmama]

 

M...I...Z :D My son attends Mizzou. Small world. We were just sitting down on an excursion bus in Cozumel in 2012 when the older gentleman across from me leaned over and said, "Welcome to the SEC". :)

 

Thanks for the great review. We're sailing her in June/July. We're driving to the port for the first time ever - just over 900 miles. We're in northern MO and looks like it'll be about 15 hours or so for us.

 

how funny. it really is a small world! glad you enjoyed the review. we rarely take vacations that we can't drive to. its just so much easier to drive. it was about 12 hours for us but honestly it wasn't as bad as you would think. the way there was especially easy going, with a weeks vacation to look forward to ;)

[CruiseGal97]

I live in Missouri also! KC metro area, we are sailing out on the magic on June 1st but we are going on a different itinerary. This review was awesome by the way, I loved seeing the pictures! :)

[CruiseGal97]

Oh and we have drove down to Galveston Port 2 times to meet a ship. I like the galveston port, and its not that bad of a drive.

[coltsmama]

I live in Missouri also! KC metro area, we are sailing out on the magic on June 1st but we are going on a different itinerary. This review was awesome by the way, I loved seeing the pictures! :)

 

small small world :) my husbands sister and her family, who went on the cruise as well, live on the kansas side and my little sister just moved to KC. glad you liked the review. I know it was a lot of pics, but I think pictures make the review! :)

[coltsmama]

Oh and we have drove down to Galveston Port 2 times to meet a ship. I like the galveston port, and its not that bad of a drive.

 

this was our second as well, first with a baby. last cruise was jamaica, grand cayman and cozumel. wanting to do the key west itinerary at some point and we will most likely go out of galveston again. we really like the galveston port as well. the drive is really not bad at all. as lomg as the weather cooperates!

[watermelonqueen99]

Really enjoyed your review! I just had to post when I saw that you live in Ozark! We live in NE OK and we go to Branson all the time. We always stop in Ozark at Heather Hill Farms and get cheese samples, it's our tradition! :D