Christmas Magic cruise 2014

[labsnabys]

We are a family of four – mom, dad and two teenage boys ages 13 and 15. This was our second cruise, the first being on the Miracle out of Long Beach over Spring Break 2013. We have never traveled away from home for Christmas since our kids were born, so this was something completely new for us. We were a little apprehensive about losing that “Christmas feeling” on a Caribbean cruise. First, let me say that we were very impressed with the Christmas celebrations - Carnival went above and beyond to make it feel like Christmas for anyone who wanted to participate. Second, overall the cruise was a huge success for us and we will definitely continue to cruise Carnival and would choose this ship again without hesitation.

 

Travel day:

Our trip began on Saturday, Dec. 20th with an early flight from Reno, NV to Houston (George Bush Int’l.). We had prearranged with Cooltours of Galveston for a private shuttle to pick us up and transport us to the Holiday Inn Galveston on Seawall Blvd. ($360 RT for the family). After a bit of miscommunication with the pickup location (our confirmation from Cooltours said to exit toward the “shuttles” pickup area, but the van was waiting on the “limousine” side), we met up with our driver and headed to Galveston. Holiday shopping traffic slowed us down a bit, but we arrived in plenty of time to settle in and walk next door for a quick dinner. The Holiday Inn has its own restaurant, but there is a Subway and a little Greek restaurant in the strip mall right next door. There is also a Bank of America ATM right there in case you need last minute cruise cash!

 

In the morning, we chose to order room service breakfast rather than hassle with the elevators and morning rush to eat. The Holiday Inn has a complimentary shuttle to the cruise terminal, but it only runs hourly on the half hour. You sign up for a time slot when you check in, but many times were already full by the time we arrived around 5:00pm. We ended up on the 9:30am shuttle, which was okay since we had purchased FTTF. We were anxious to board the Magic and start our vacation!

 

The check-in process at the cruise terminal was so smooth and hassle-free, we were amazed. You drop your luggage at the opposite end of the terminal from where you enter to check in. Had we been paying attention to the signs, we could have saved ourselves some walking and made the process even smoother. Still, we were in the waiting area and ready to board by 10:45am. We were in our cabins by 11:15am. Our cabins were on Deck 8 mid-ship – the boys had an interior across the hall from our balcony cabin. This location turned out to be almost perfect. More on that later! For now, let the cruise begin!

 

View from our Holiday Inn balcony:

 

First close-up of the ship from our hotel shuttle:

[labsnabys]

Rather than go day-by-day, I tried to group my thoughts by topic. I don't know how this will turn out, but here goes.

 

Food:

 

First let me say that I did not take a single picture of food…we had some fantastic meals and some mediocre meals on the ship, but the food is not why we cruise and is not so much of a focus for us. We ate in the main dining room on only three occasions – dinner on embarkation night and Christmas night, and one Sea Day brunch on the second to last sea day. We had your time dining, and we did not wait at all on our two dinnertime visits (which were on the early side – 5:45-ish). We had dinner in the steakhouse on the first sea day which was also the first elegant night and my husband’s birthday. It was a fabulous meal with excellent service and well worth the $35/person cost. We received a free bottle of wine (choice of Chardonnay or Merlot) which was not bad. Even our teenage boys enjoyed every bit of the meal and were not in a rush to leave until after dessert. We never did try Cucina del Capitano which is my one and only food regret. The rest of the time, we enjoyed the variety of food available in the Lido marketplace buffet as well as some of the other choices such as the Taste Bar, Salad Your Way, and Oceanside Barbeque. A few favorites were the Tandoor, burrito bar, and deli sandwiches. The kids, of course, ate pizza from the Pizza Pirate practically 24/7.

 

On our last cruise, they were still giving out trays in the Lido buffet. From what we observed, there does seem to be less food waste without the trays, although the plates they give you are more like platters and people still pile them with far more than they can eat. The buffet lines were not too horrendous considering how full the ship was. The worst lines were at breakfast on port days...people move so slowly in the morning, it’s like the walking dead! During other meals when there were more options for food, the lines were shorter and moved much more quickly.

 

Kids:

 

We registered our boys, ages 15 and 13, for Club O2 and Circle C at the orientation on our first day, and they each attended their meet and greet that evening. There were lots of other teens on the ship, and both boys made plenty of friends that they hung out with throughout the week. There were lots of scheduled activities for each age group, and sometimes the kids participated and sometimes they did not. Our boys both loved Nemo, the director of Circle C. They thought that Steven, the Club O2 director, was a jerk. Being a holiday cruise, of course there were many, many families with young kids on the ship. Overall I would say the behavior of the kids was better than what I remember on the Miracle in 2013. The loudest, most obnoxious kids were around the 9-11 range as far as running and yelling in hallways and taking over hot tubs. That seems to be the age group where parents feel safe letting their kids run free but the kids don’t quite have the maturity to handle that much freedom. It was never an overwhelming nuisance, although the noise level from kids in the deck 5 port side hot tub was a bit much a couple of evenings.

 

Deck 5 hot tub viewed from the balcony of 8300:

[labsnabys]

Cabins:

 

Our balcony was just a bit forward of the midship hot tub on 5 and three decks up. When the hot tub was full of screaming brats…er…young kids, it was not enjoyable to be on the balcony. We also noticed cigarette smoke odor drifting up from the smoking area on the deck 5 port side lanai, but not enough stop us from enjoying our balcony. Our cabins were otherwise in a great central location (8300/8302). Our boys had a different cabin steward, and both ours (May) and theirs (Dora) did an excellent job keeping the rooms clean and tidy and were very friendly and helpful. It was definitely worth the money to get the boys their own cabin. They were good about respecting our rules (in by 1:00am, no friends in the cabin, don’t leave messes for Dora, etc.) and in turn we got our own bathroom and privacy. We had a key to their cabin to keep tabs on them, but we never had any issues. It was a win-win!

 

Entertainment:

 

On sea days, my husband and I mostly relaxed either on our balcony, around the deck 10 Tides pool, or on a lounger somewhere on deck 11 aft. We participated in a couple of trivia and “guess the song” rounds, but it was pretty impossible to compete with groups of 6 or 8 people pooling their knowledge for answers. It was fun nonetheless, and there are certainly trivia and music games for every age and topic! We are not gamblers or bingo players, so I can’t comment on those activities other than to say they seemed well-utilized. We did enjoy a lot of the live musical entertainment. In particular, the duo Follow JC, Guitar Grooves with Adam, and the Magic Showband were all awesome. We were not fans of the piano bar entertainer Martyn Lucas. He is a fabulous vocalist, but the emphasis on loud backing tracks and lack of emphasis on the piano itself was not our cup of tea. The Punchliner comedy shows were hit and miss for us. We didn’t get to any of the “family friendly” shows, but saw three different adults-only comedy shows. Paul Lyons and Sid Davis were both hilarious – just fantastic! Earlier in the week, Derrick Eason had us yawning…literally. I may have dozed off during his extremely low-key and dull performance. Nice guy, but at some point a comedy show should include a few jokes, don’t you think?

 

We attended several of the big production shows including the Welcome Aboard show, Destination: Unknown starring Lady Hellevi, and the Holiday Show on Christmas Day. The lead male singer on the Magic (Troy Terrones) is the same guy that we saw on the Miracle in 2013. At that time, he was paired with an amazing female vocalist named Olivia Tenney. Olivia’s incredible voice more than made up for the fact that Troy was kind of a weak performer. His counterpart on the Magic, Janae Longo, is good but not great. Together they struggled with harmonies and hit more than a few sour notes. The dancers and showband are excellent on the Magic, and the overall effect was very entertaining despite the vocalists. The Lady Hellevi show was a lot of fun with many of the old standard magic tricks (saw a girl in half kind of stuff) combined with elaborate sets and costuming that made you wonder how the heck they got all of that stuff on that stage! The Holiday Show was so enjoyable, we both left with big smiles on our faces. More on that coming up. I enjoyed some of the nightly movies on the big outdoor screen solo since I tend to be more of a night owl than my husband. I just loved being out there at night watching a movie under the stars – what a life!

 

My favorite entertainment...lounging in the sun with a cold drink and a good book on deck 11:

[labsnabys]

Cozumel - Paradise Beach

 

We had never been to any of the ports visited by this cruise. We would have preferred the port days being broken up a bit rather than back-to-back, but I’m not going to complain! We had specific excursions in mind for Belize and Roatan, so we decided to make Cozumel our low-key day. We grabbed a taxi ($15 each way for 4 people) to Paradise Beach and had a very relaxing and fun day there. Entry is $3/person, and they ask that you spend $10/person on food and drink while you are there (which is very easy to do). The servers were plentiful, friendly, and quick. There were more than enough lounge chairs either in sun or shade depending on your preference (it was too windy for the umbrellas, but the beach is lined with rows of coconut trees). For an additional $15 each, we got our kids wristbands which gave them unlimited access to kayaks, paddleboards, and a mass of floating, inflatable climbing and bouncing structures. They had a blast and even met up with some kids they knew from our ship. There is also a huge pool if you are not a sand and salt person. Everything was clean and well-maintained. They also have free Wifi, so my husband was able to check up on his email and stuff. The taxi ride back to the port was a little hairy. Word to the wise: do not feel pressured to take the specific taxi you are directed to. We ended up in a run-down vehicle with bald tires and a maniac driver. Had we been more attentive and assertive, we could have passed on that taxi and taken the next one in line. Live and learn…I am just glad we made it back to the ship in one piece!

 

Paradise Beach water toys:

 

Guys were offering 1-hour snorkeling trips off this little dock:

 

Pool area at Paradise Beach:

 

Sun or shade...you choose!

 

The Carnival Pride was right beside us in port:

 

Across the way, the luxury cruise liner Regent Seven Seas Navigator:

Edited January 1, 2015 by labsnabys
add more photos :)

[labsnabys]

Belize:

 

The next day was Belize and our planned Carnival excursion to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. This brings us to my second and final regret of this trip. I wish I had booked this excursion outside of Carnival. First off, we basically wasted the value of FTTF by taking a Carnival excursion in our only tender port. Rather than getting priority tendering, we were stuck waiting in the Showtime Theater for over an hour until they had enough tender space to take our huge tour group all at once. When we arrived in Belize City, we waited again in a long line for the buses to take us to the ruins. The bus tour was interesting but very long so that when we finally arrived at Altun Ha, we had only about an hour to explore the ruins. While we did not necessarily feel rushed, we definitely would have enjoyed a more relaxed visit to the ruins. It was all a bit, “Go here, look at this, now stop, now walk forward, now climb up, now climb down, okay now 15 minutes to shop and get back to the bus!” In hindsight, a little more research on my part could have made this a much more enjoyable day. I let my fear of ending up with unreliable transportation and potentially missing the ship cloud my better judgment. LOL Once we arrived back at the port (fyi, the bus trip back takes about half the time as the trip there), we had yet another long line to wait for a tender back to the ship. We barely made the 4:15 tender cut-off time, and we had started our morning in the Showtime Theater at 9:15am! Don’t get me wrong – the ruins were amazing, and I highly recommend a visit to Altun Ha. Our guides were wonderfully knowledgeable, friendly, and so appreciative of our business. Just do your research and choose a method of getting there that works for you.

 

Some pics of the Altun Ha ruins:

 

 

 

Returning to the ship on our tender at the end of a long day:

[labsnabys]

Roatan:

 

Our final port was Christmas Day in Roatan, Honduras. What a gorgeous place! Belize was pretty with its lush jungles and interesting historic buildings, but Roatan’s green hills and colorful homes and villages were beautiful. We booked a zipline/beach adventure through Roatan Christopher Tours. Our guide, Shem, was waiting for us in the exact spot we were told to look, and we loaded up into a nice sedan for a quick tour of the island before heading off to the ziplining place. We really liked Shem. We started out by driving up to a very high vantage point where a group of locals had tables set up selling the usual shell necklaces and carved wooden trinkets. We were not interested in shopping, so we took a short break to walk around, enjoy the scenery and take a few photos, and then we moved on. The next stop was the iguana farm ($10/person entry) where we fed giant leaves to a zillion iguanas. This was not part of our original plan, but the boys really wanted to stop there, and I am glad we did. From there, we went straight to the zipline place. I wish I could remember the name…there are several of them on the island. The one has about 12 different cables of varying lengths and heights. We all had a blast! All day I was feeling bad that it was Christmas Day and we were making these folks work when they would probably rather be with their families. At each platform along the way, I would wish the guides “Merry Christmas!” and was treated to a “Merry Christmas, Milady!” by every one of them. The only bummer was that the flash drive containing the photos of our family plus ¾ of the group before us was apparently lost or misplaced, so we were not able to see or purchase the pictures their guide took. I took some with my own camera, and they didn’t seem to have a problem with that despite another visitor telling me she was told no personal cameras were allowed.

 

Good morning, Mahogany Bay:

 

In addition to a warning from Carnival printed on the Fun Times, there was this as you leave the little Disney-esque shopping village:

 

Shopping pit stop vista:

 

Even a non-reptile lover like me had to appreciate these guys:

 

One of the many cables we traversed:

 

Once we finished ziplining, the clouds opened up and that put an end to our beach/snorkeling plans. Instead we had Shem drive us back to the port where we called an early end to the day and went back on the ship. The staff added activities (like movies in the Showtime Theater) to the afternoon schedule since so many people were back on board early that day. I wish we could have snorkeled, but I was glad at least half of our day worked out. I know this port is often missed in bad weather, so we were happy to be there!

[labsnabys]

Christmas celebrations:

 

We have never traveled over Christmas since our kids were born. My husband does a lot of traveling for his job, so holiday time at home as a family is very special to us. We were a bit worried that it would not feel like Christmas on the ship despite reading that they put up decorations, etc. Well, our fears were completely unfounded. We brought decorations of our own for the cabins including tiny battery-powered lights, an inflatable Christmas tree and wreath, door decorations, and snowflake decals for the windows. The ship had wreaths and garlands and Christmas trees throughout the main lobby area and up the balconies in the atrium. There were also trees and decorations in other parts of the ship, but the majority of it was in the main Magic lobby.

 

There was Christmas music all around the ship, and on both Christmas Eve and Christmas night, there was a huge sing-along in the Magic lobby. The staff handed out jingle bells one night and Santa hats the next night. Santa Claus visited the lobby on Christmas Eve for photos and for kids to sit on his lap and give him their last minute requests. They even made it snow in the atrium lobby during the sing-along! I don’t know if they were ice crystals or bubbles or what they were, but the effect was very cool. The Holiday Show on Christmas night was a fantastic way to top off the holiday. They had children from the kids’ clubs performing songs they had practiced with the entertainment staff, performances by the Magic entertainers, a story read by Cruise Director James Dunn (who is a riot and did a great job, by the way), a visit and tribute (with standing ovation) to the Magic staff in all departments by the Captain, and another visit from Santa Claus. It was not a slick program by any means, but felt very sincere and heartfelt and homey…like I said, a perfect way to cap off Christmas Day.

 

Some of the decorations we brought for our cabins:

 

These lights were a couple of $ at Walmart (tiny LEDs that run off AA batteries and have a 6 hr on/18 hr off timer):

 

Christmas Eve visit from Santa:

 

Elf towel animal from our steward:

 

Caroling on Christmas night:

 

[labsnabys]

Pools, gym, staff, debarkation

 

I know that our kids both did the ropes course and really enjoyed that. None of us ended up going on the water slides at all, which really surprised me. I thought our boys would be all over that! We spent quite a bit of time on the deck near the Tides pool…not so much around the Beach pool because it’s just so loud around there. We never did visit the Serenity deck, so I don’t know how crowded that got. We were always able to find a couple of loungers around Tides or a level up on Deck 11.

 

The gym facilities were great and I used them several times during the week. I had planned to check out the Boot Camp classes, but decided to skip it once I saw what was offered. The cost was $120 for four 30-minute classes plus a $35 spa credit and something else I can’t remember (I am thinking it was a seminar or something like that). The sign-ups for Yoga and Pilates seemed to fill up very quickly, but I think they only got a couple of takers for Boot Camp. I never had to wait for a treadmill, and there were lots of other cardio machines as well as numerous weight machines, free weights, exercise balls and other equipment.

 

The staff all throughout the ship was excellent, friendly, helpful, and all had a great attitude. Everywhere we went, we were greeted warmly and with a smile. Overall, we were very impressed with the ship and the staff.

 

Debarkation on Sunday went very quickly and smoothly. With FTTF, we were given zone 1 luggage tags and told to wait in the Northern Lights dining room at 7:45am for our zone to be called. We got off the ship shortly after they started the self-assist zones and were ready to enter Customs with our luggage by 8:30am. Since we all have passports, we were able to get into an express line through Customs. Our CoolTours shuttle was there to pick us up as we exited the terminal, so at 8:45am we were sadly waving goodbye to the Magic and heading off to Houston to wait for our flight home.

 

If anyone has any specific questions, I would be happy to answer them if I can. I don’t know when we will get to cruise again, but we have lots of great memories from this trip to hold us over!

 

[teachmid]

Thanks for the review. We're going on this cruise January 18.

How was the weather?

[pirate4me2]

That last pic is awesome!!! Thanks for posting your thoughts on the cruise.

[labsnabys]

How was the weather?

 

Teachmid, the weather was gorgeous. We felt like we lucked out, because it seemed as if we were following rain wherever we went (i.e. "It rained a lot yesterday"). The only place we hit rain was in Roatan, and that lasted about an hour. Otherwise, it was humid and warm...low 80s or so...wherever we went. It was very chilly in Galveston, but it warms up quickly as soon as you head south. Enjoy your cruise!

[iceman25c]

Howdy neighbor! We were in 8305, right next door. (by that I mean on the other side of the ship)

Edited January 2, 2015 by iceman25c
Forgot the even/odd room numbering

[get me off land]

Following! So excited to be on the magic later THIS year :)

[labsnabys]

Howdy, iceman! Hope you had as great a time as we did!

 

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk 2

[tkportersat]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to post.

[LBumb]

great job and pics

[daisitroy]

Thanks for that great review and the wonderful pictures. Glad your family enjoyed the trip.

[sungifts]

Thanks for the review! We leave January 18th! This will be our first time with FTTF. Glad to see you were able to board so early!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Edited January 3, 2015 by sungifts

[rufflesmom]

I have been on the Magic twice, Sept 2012 and 2013. She is a beautiful ship. I love her. I appreciate your perspective on the tours, as DH and I will be doing that itinerary in May on the Freedom. We have been to all of those ports before but it has been quite some time so a fresher perspective is good. Glad you had a great time.

[douglinc@msn.com]

Thanks for the review, we will be back on the Magic 1-25.

[erewhon]

Thank you for your interesting review.