It was magic - or was it? My february 11-18 review

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Ellis had told us that we could wear our swimsuits and swim but there wasn't a place to change so we decided we wouldn't swim. I just had to get in the water though, so I took my tennis shoes and socks off and waded around some. The water was very cold,sorry, refreshing is the word Ellis used. Yes, it was definitely refreshing!

 

 

Another picture of the rainforest and a picture of Michael.

 

 

 

 

We made our way back to the vehicle while Ellis told us his story of how he ended up on San Juan. It was a great story, but I'll let him share it with you if you ever tour with him!

 

 

We left Charco Azul and headed back down for lunch. We stopped at the same place for lunch that we had taken a restroom break at on the way. I think it's called El Rancho, but I'm not sure. They had roasted pork,rice, plantains and various other items served family style. Maybe it was just seeing the pig roasting that morning or the smell, but it just wasn't for me. I loved the rice, but the pork and plantains I could have lived without. It is a nice atmosphere with the stream running right alongside the tables where you eat though.

 

 

 

 

After lunch Ellis took us back to the port area and dropped us off right in front of Walgreen's so Glen didn't have to walk very much to get back on the ship.

 

We had a wonderful day with Ellis and we will definitely use him again for another day adventure if we find ourselves back in San Juan.

 

Glen and Michael headed back to the ship, but Donna and I wanted to do a little shopping so we walked down the sidewalk and looked at all the local vendors wares. I purchased some maracas for William and Justin and some bracelets and necklaces for some friends back home. We made it back on the ship with plenty of time to spare.

 

Here is the Magic in San Juan

 

 

 

 

 

Glen was lying down so I put my swimsuit on and headed up to the Serenity deck to catch some sun and some z'ssss. It had been a long day and I was tired. I napped for a while and then got some pictures as we were leaving port.

 

Here is the waterworks area-

 

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Leaving San Juan -

 

 

 

 

Tonight was our 2nd Elegant night and got dressed up and headed to dinner at 6.

It was the same story as far as service and food. I loved our waiters, they were so nice, just too rushed. I don't even remember what I had to eat tonight. Old age is getting to me.

 

 

They had Guess that Motown Song with Schwartz tonight at 9, but we missed it because we wanted to snag a chair and watch the Dive In Movie that started at 9:30. It was Deepwater Horizon and I hadn't seen it yet. It was a good movie. It got cool up on the deck so I grabbed us some blankets and some popcorn. Glen made it about 3/4 of the way through and said he was tired and was going back to the cabin.

 

After the movie Michael and Donna said they were turning in and I went back to the cabin too. I stayed out on the balcony for a while because Glen was fast asleep, but for some reason I wasn't sleepy - umm, maybe that nap I had out on the Serenity deck before dinner could be the reason. I went out and pulled up our booking for our February, 2018 Magic cruise to see what our cabin number was because I couldn't remember.

 

We are booked in one of the family OV rooms on the Riviera deck for that trip because everyone except Lindsey will be cruising on that trip. I decided to walk down and find our cabin for that sailing. I really wish I had gone back down there during the day sometime so I might could have seen inside one of the family OV cabins but never did go back. Oh well, I guess I'll be in for hopefully a nice surprise when the time comes.

 

I still wasn't sleepy so I made a detour and went for a slice of pizza and back to the Lido deck to watch the midnight movie which was Bad Moms. I had seen it at the movies at home and although I didn't care for the language in the movie, it is hilarious. I can truly identify with some of those Moms and some of those situations. Not sure what time I headed to bed but it was late and Glen was still sleeping. It was ok though because we didn't get to Grand Turk until noon on Thursday and I could sleep in!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

I hope all of you are enjoying the review. I'm really trying to get it finished, but it is time

consuming.

 

I'll be back Friday to hopefully finish it. Tomorrow is Lindsey's 20th birthday (can't believe she

is already 20) and Glen and I are going to Atlanta to spend some time with her and take her out to eat

because we haven't seen her since before we left for our cruise. She goes to college and

won't be coming home until sometime next week during her Spring Break.

 

I promise I'm working on finishing though!

[chubby1]

C

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[easyboy]

I can't remember exactly but I do remember he told us his initial price was for pick up at the port and drop off back to the port. Since we wanted a stop at the beach it was an additional $12 per person. He still stayed with us but said it had something to do with the way the taxi fares were structured. I believe it was around $41 or so including the additional $12. I do have his card if you are interested in getting in touch with him.

That's okay. Found his website though your post., but no pricing though. Thanks.

[Teends]

Love it so far. Tentatively scheduled for Nov 18th on her so very excited to read anything Magic related...

[Cruise Envy]

Thanks for doing this. It is helping make the time from now until I sail on her pass a little quicker.

[TerReuv]

We'll be on the Magic in October and in the cabin next to yours - 10274! We have been on the Lido deck before on the Conquest, but never this close to the actual deck. Can you tell me how the noise was in the cabin and on the balcony?

 

Thank you!

[JaniceB]

My granddaughter did the same thing to me Justin did to your daughter. One day I told her to please stop following me everywhere she is 5 so she became a little puppy and still followed me, LOL!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Good morning! I'm back and hopefully will have the time to wrap this review up today. I know it's been a slow

process but sometimes life tends to get in the way!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Love it so far. Tentatively scheduled for Nov 18th on her so very excited to read anything Magic related...

 

Thanks for reading - November will be here before you know it!

 

 

 

Thanks for doing this. It is helping make the time from now until I sail on her pass a little quicker.

 

 

You're welcome - I'm glad you are enjoying it. Time will pass and you'll be on the Magic in no time!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

That's okay. Found his website though your post., but no pricing though. Thanks.

 

 

Just get in touch with him. He is super nice! I think ours was $50 per person - price depends on which tour you pick.

 

 

We'll be on the Magic in October and in the cabin next to yours - 10274! We have been on the Lido deck before on the Conquest, but never this close to the actual deck. Can you tell me how the noise was in the cabin and on the balcony?

 

Thank you!

 

 

I never heard any noise at all in the cabin and that was something I was worried about. They do keep the hallway door closed that goes out to the glass doors that take you onto the Lido pool deck area though so I'm sure that helps. We didn't have any problem with noise on the balcony either. I usually propped open our balcony door a couple of inches each night too, so that I could hear the water and wind. It was like a natural sleeping pill!

[Clarasgrandma]

Thanks for sharing review. We will be on magic in February 2018 too, our first time on Magic !

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Wednesday - San Juan - continued

 

Sorry but I forgot to mention that tonight they did a show called 88 Keys. Since we wanted to go to the dive in movie we decided we would skip the show. That might not have been a good idea, because I overheard one gentleman say that in 30 or 40 cruises - that was the best show he had ever seen. Oh well, win some, lose some I guess!

 

 

 

Thursday - Grand Turk

 

 

We didn't have to be up early, but because Glen had gone to sleep way before me he woke up earlier than I wanted to get up. He just kept on about me getting up and us going to eat so I finally got up and we made our way to the Lido deck to grab breakfast. Michael and Donna usually went with us so we found us a table and made our way to the buffet for whatever we wanted for breakfast that day.

 

Breakfast to me was always good. I mostly had omelets, but one day I did have a burrito from Blue Iguana and it was huge and delicious. I love the orange juice too - sometimes it's a little sweet, but I just put a little water in it and it's fine.

 

There was an invasion of towel people around the Lido deck pool this morning- they were everywhere. It was really cute and when I went through there I snapped a few pictures of the"couples".

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Grand Turk at 12:00 so by then we were all ready to get off the ship and get in the water.

 

 

 

 

Michael and Donna were hanging with us again and we made our way down to the beach and grabbed some lounge chairs with umbrellas and sat for a little while taking it all in. The only thing I don't like about Grand Turk is how close they have the chairs. It's hard to get in and out and there are so many rows it makes it hard to get down to the water.

 

We got in the water and it was so nice and relaxing. We hung out there for a while and then went back and sat in the loungers. After a while, we started to get hungry so we all headed up to Margaritaville to grab some lunch. Ronnie, Lisa, Andrew and Megan were already there so we grabbed a table right beside them. We love the nachos there - it's such a huge portion we always share and we ended up getting the sodas that came with the free glass and all the refills you wanted. I think they were like $8.95 or so and the glass was really nice plus the free refills.

 

I ate and went back down to lay out in the sun some more. Donna eventually came back down too but the guys hung out in the shade at Margaritaville. Before long, it was time to head back to the ship and reluctantly we all did. We knew our vacation was almost over and it would be time to go back to the "real world".

 

 

 

 

We had all talked about not going to the MDR for dinner tonight because to be honest we just hadn't been real impressed with the majority of the food we had eaten and the service was slow. I decided to check out the menu and they were having lasagna and some other things that sounded pretty good so at the last minute we decided to go on the MDR.

 

I had the lasagna as several others did and it was really good. Dinner was once again kind of slow.

 

I have no idea what we did tonight. I think we visited the casino and deposited some money so Carnival's bottom line would look a little better! Oh yea, we did go pick out the pictures we wanted from Elegant night as well and we caught some of the 80's Rock and Glow party on the lido deck too.

 

Headed to bed then because that relaxing day on the beach had made us really tired.

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Friday - final sea day - I'm sad

 

We woke up to another gloriously beautiful day - someone must have been watching out for us this week because we never had one drop of rain nor any rough seas.

 

Headed to the Lido for breakfast again today. I was really beginning to tire of omelets so I decided to have some fried eggs instead. You can get the fried eggs or even scrambled at the same station where you get your omelets on the Lido deck.

 

After breakfast I told Glen all I really wanted to do that day was take my book and towel and find me a good place to sit and read and be in the sun. He said he would hang out with Michael, Donna and Ronnie so Lisa and I went to find out some chairs.

 

We ended up on deck 11 all the way aft. We had great comfy,cushiony seats and a beautiful view for the day.

 

 

 

 

I actually did start reading my book today (on the last day)! I napped and read, napped and read - well again, you get the picture.

 

Actually in between napping and reading I was messaging Whitney about booking a cruise for us in July. She is going to college to be a honors History teacher and is only going to have 1 week in July she can vacation and therefore is going to miss our family vacation in June so we are trying to figure something out for us to do that week in July. I had my PVP look for us but the rates are so much higher in the summer and I'm also not sure I want to be in the Caribbean in July as warm as it is there in February! We decided to think on it and not book just yet.

When I got hungry for lunch I decided to try the Cucina Del Capitano for lunch. Since there isn't an up charge for lunch I thought that would be a great time to get my Italian food fix and it was close to where our chairs were also. I had the fettucine with alfredo and bolognese and it was good. I really preferred the bolognese to the alfredo though and normally I love alfredo sauce.

 

I spent the remainder of the afternoon sitting just right there enjoying my last day of vacation.

 

Reluctantly I made myself go back to the cabin and shower. I also had that dreaded task of packing so I decided to do a little of that before we headed to dinner also.

 

We had all decided we would just head to the Lido deck for dinner tonight because there wasn't anything that really struck our fancy on the menu tonight. Also, we didn't really want to spend 2 hours of our last night in the dining room.

We all met up about 6:45 and went to eat. The food was ok but nothing to write home about. I did have a really good dessert though - one of the best I had the whole time I was on the cruise. I have no clue what it was - it was creamy like Tiramisu and tasted a lot like Tiramisu without the ladyfingers. Gosh it was good!

 

After dinner I ran to the jewelry store because I was entered into a drawing to win something - needless to say I didn't win though.

 

There were balloons on deck10 above the atrium that you could write what your favorite memory of the cruise was during the day today. At 9:00 or so Schwartz went to the atrium and they had a big balloon drop. It was neat to see the balloons float down from deck 10 all the way down to the Atrium bar area. It was colorful too.

 

 

 

 

We headed back to the room to finish up packing and then went to the America Rocks show in the theatre. It was a really good show. Just as I said before, the entertainers on the Magic were awesome, very talented people.

 

I was also in a drawing in the casino at midnight for a free cruise and you had to be present to win, so even though I knew I probably wouldn't win I couldn't take that chance and decided to hang out down there until the drawing. Well, you guessed it - I didn't win!

 

 

Time for bed because we have to be up EARLY tomorrow morning. Our vacation will be over and it will be time to head back to work, dishes, laundry, ballgames, refereeing the kids, well, you get the picture.

Edited March 10, 2017 by GeorgiaMomof4

[Florings]

The last night is always so sad! Packing, the waiters singing their Leaving on a Jet Plane song in the MDR. We always have a wonderful time, but get really bummed on the last day from about 3pm onwards....:(

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Saturday - Debarkation day

 

We were up really early because we knew the ship had docked early (around 4:30 am) at Port Canaveral so more than likely they would start debarking early.

When it is possible we always try and do self assist debarkation because once vacation is over, it's over and I want to be on my way home. Especially this time since we had left all our kiddos home and as much as I enjoyed my time away I was really missing those little rug rats (and the big ones too).

 

We grabbed a quick breakfast on Lido and was back in the room before 7:00. Sure enough, about 6:50 they started calling for self-assist passengers. We had FTTF and had gotten a letter in our room telling us to head down to the Showtime Theatre to wait to be called. Michael and Donna went with us and not long after we got down there they announced that the Platinum and FTTF people could start debarking. We were off the ship and through customs by 7:10 a.m. I couldn't believe it - that was the fastest we had ever gotten off the ship.

 

We headed to the Park and Cruise shuttle which was already there waiting and got on the first shuttle back to the parking area. I gave them our ticket and when we got off the shuttle bus they already had my car out there waiting with the back up so we could load our luggage and be on our way.

 

At 7:30 a.m. we were headed on our 590 mile or so journey to get back home.

 

We made it home about 5:15 and Whitney and Justin were waiting at the back door. Justin jumped out of Whitney's arms to me and gave me the biggest hug and squeeze! It was good to know I had been missed (and he really loves his Whitney a lot!) William and Hope were there as well and it was good to see them too!

 

 

Some final thoughts -

 

I hope everyone has enjoyed my review. Please take it as such - a review. It's just mine and Glen's personal thoughts and feelings about our trip so take it with a grain of salt. What some like, others don't and vice versa.

 

I really thought the Magic was a good ship - it does have a lot to offer entertainment wise and especially with the waterworks and sports square areas for kids. Although I was displeased this trip with the food, some of that could have just been me since I was sick, but I don't think so since so many of the others felt the same way.

 

 

It's been a while since we've been on a bigger ship so we were wondering how we would like it compared to the Fascination, the Paradise and the Sunshine. I like that the bigger ships tend to have more entertainment venues such as the Ocean Plaza and more things for kids to do, but I really like the more personable feel of the smaller ships. I think from now on when Glen and I cruise or if I cruise with my girlfriends we may stick to the smaller ships and save the bigger ones for times we cruise with the kids.

 

I did get a survey from Carnival when I arrived back home and I filled it out noting my concerns about the staff being overworked and the lack of time they now get to spend interacting with the passengers. I also told them about the things I was pleased with on the ship!

 

We are booked on the Magic for a family and friends cruise next February and I'm hoping for better food on that trip. There will be a total of 19 of us (as of now) going so I know we will have a blast!

 

In the meantime, Whitney and I decided on a 5 day cruise in May on the Fantasy. Donna is going with me and one of Whitney's friends is going with her so we will be having a girls' trip this time!

 

If any of you have any questions, please ask away. I'll do my best to answer them.

 

Once again, thanks for following along. We had a great time and if you are sailing on the Magic I'm sure you will too! I mean, it's vacation - how bad can it really be?

 

Here is a picture of my family - all of us!

 

 

Left to right - me, Lindsey, Collin, Whitney, Justin, Hope, Glen and William

[GeorgiaMomof4]

The last night is always so sad! Packing, the waiters singing their Leaving on a Jet Plane song in the MDR. We always have a wonderful time, but get really bummed on the last day from about 3pm onwards....:(

 

 

 

Yes, us too. We didn't go to the dining room the last night so we were spared that sad song the waiters sing!

[Florings]

Enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time to share your adventures!

 

You have a lovely family!!

[GeorgiaMomof4]

Enjoyed it and thank you for taking the time to share your adventures!

 

You have a lovely family!!

 

 

Thank you so much!

[Rock_ON!!]

Nice review and you have a lovely looking family.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Namelocg]

Thanks for the great review. After 42 Carnival cruises I finally booked the Magic, yesterday, for December 2nd on this same itinerary. Looking forward to another great cruise.

[mj]

This was a great review, Thanks for sharing.

[easyboy]

Great review and beautiful photos, especially your family's. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[albycruisin]

Thanks for the great review. After 42 Carnival cruises I finally booked the Magic, yesterday, for December 2nd on this same itinerary. Looking forward to another great cruise.

We're booked on that same cruise. It's a Fab and Fifty cruise as a number of us have that big birthday this year! Alby Cruisin party of 12! Thanks GeorgiaMomof4 for giving us a glimpse into the ship and ports.:)