Magic - Labor Day Weel 2018

[edpeeks]

My wife and I have been on 21 Carnival Cruises (55 in total). Been on Magic twice before. The following is my experience, opinion and view on this most recent cruise (and cruising is our only form of vacation).

 

The room (9478 - aft balcony) was large as was the balcony (one lounger, two chairs). We have had this room before but this time there was an issue. At 4:45 - 5AM they moved loungers around making that noise . Our frustration was it only lasted 15 minutes, but by then the damage (being wide awake) was done. Do it >6AM! We complained and Carnival did compensate us on the 5th day. AC...just didn't work. For the first time we had to get a fan (and it was a whopper). The only real thing it did was muffle the scraping noise from above. Our room steward Leo was fine, nothing outstanding but did he job well. We still don't know how many rooms he had but it was way too many for anyone .

 

Casino Wow! Smoky! Lots of gaming tables though.

 

Getting on and off..easy peezy. Plats and Dias are treated well so persevere!

 

Food - Carnival must have gotten wind of RCCL's cakes because at lunch they had tall cakes at Lido. I put on 6 pounds and it was all cake! (Tip: the german chocolate was always dry but the icing was divine!) My wife usually has fish every evening (in the MDR) but she only had it once , fish just wasn't offered much.

We originally asked for a table for two; they gave us a 4 top. As usual, we checked on it the first day and found that out. They changed it to a table in the lower back of the MDR. We could not talk w/o shouting because it was so loud. And Robert, out waiter was bad. So we put in another request and we got upstairs with a delightful team led by Veronica.

Apple pie great, Bitter and Blanc superb, CMC always great. Hand sanitizing was not encouraged. And the dress code was that worst we had ever seen. We dressed up on formal night; on the first formal night a dude came in backwards hat, t-shirt, raggedy shorts, flip flops. We really don't care but...really Carnival if you really don't care...say so instead of having a dress code (or dress 'suggestion').

The BBQ on sea days was OK. It was served almost room temp. Guy's was great (but get there early!)

 

The comedians were OK; we did not attend the production shows. We had read too get the the comedy shows way early for a seat, at least on this trip not so.

 

We are going to take a break from Carnival. The next 5 scheduled are on Celebrity, Princess and RCCL. We love cruising; to get away for a spell and not have to make any real decisions...lovely. We prefer quiet and calm.

 

If there are any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer. (Now that the cruise is over, I don't get on CC six times a day but I will answer).

[nessz79]

Thanks for the honest review! We sail Magic in March with our 2 teenage boys. One day when it's just DH and I, we may try some other lines, but Carnival is still the most reasonably priced for families.

[disneylover89]

My wife and I have been on 21 Carnival Cruises (55 in total). Been on Magic twice before. The following is my experience, opinion and view on this most recent cruise (and cruising is our only form of vacation).

 

The room (9478 - aft balcony) was large as was the balcony (one lounger, two chairs). We have had this room before but this time there was an issue. At 4:45 - 5AM they moved loungers around making that noise . Our frustration was it only lasted 15 minutes, but by then the damage (being wide awake) was done. Do it >6AM! We complained and Carnival did compensate us on the 5th day. AC...just didn't work. For the first time we had to get a fan (and it was a whopper). The only real thing it did was muffle the scraping noise from above. Our room steward Leo was fine, nothing outstanding but did he job well. We still don't know how many rooms he had but it was way too many for anyone .

 

Casino Wow! Smoky! Lots of gaming tables though.

 

Getting on and off..easy peezy. Plats and Dias are treated well so persevere!

 

Food - Carnival must have gotten wind of RCCL's cakes because at lunch they had tall cakes at Lido. I put on 6 pounds and it was all cake! (Tip: the german chocolate was always dry but the icing was divine!) My wife usually has fish every evening (in the MDR) but she only had it once , fish just wasn't offered much.

We originally asked for a table for two; they gave us a 4 top. As usual, we checked on it the first day and found that out. They changed it to a table in the lower back of the MDR. We could not talk w/o shouting because it was so loud. And Robert, out waiter was bad. So we put in another request and we got upstairs with a delightful team led by Veronica.

Apple pie great, Bitter and Blanc superb, CMC always great. Hand sanitizing was not encouraged. And the dress code was that worst we had ever seen. We dressed up on formal night; on the first formal night a dude came in backwards hat, t-shirt, raggedy shorts, flip flops. We really don't care but...really Carnival if you really don't care...say so instead of having a dress code (or dress 'suggestion').

The BBQ on sea days was OK. It was served almost room temp. Guy's was great (but get there early!)

 

The comedians were OK; we did not attend the production shows. We had read too get the the comedy shows way early for a seat, at least on this trip not so.

 

We are going to take a break from Carnival. The next 5 scheduled are on Celebrity, Princess and RCCL. We love cruising; to get away for a spell and not have to make any real decisions...lovely. We prefer quiet and calm.

 

If there are any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer. (Now that the cruise is over, I don't get on CC six times a day but I will answer).

 

We sailed on the Magic Aug 18 and I was surprised how nice everyone was dressed every night on the cruise considering the amount of complaining I have been reading. I saw no tank tops and shorts were always dress shorts with a polo. The holiday weekend must have made the difference.

Fish was available nightly too. :confused:. Our family of 4 had no problem finding seats for the 8:30 comedy show but the later shows were impossible to find a seat unless you got there very early. I agree casino's were VERY smoky.

[edpeeks]

I was referring to fish on the main menu. The one night she had fish it was the salmon offered on the alternatives. There are other lines that offer barramundi, basa, etc.

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[Treyatl2006]

Thats weird that they only had fish on one night. They had salmon every night when I was on the Magic 2 months ago. And they had other fish other nights. This was in the mdr.

 

You are right about the cakes. Carnival Magic has the best cakes I've ever tasted on any cruise line. Carnival cakes used to be bland.

 

The smoke is really bad in the Casino and I talked to people who had hot rooms also. None of the people in my group of 22 had issues with AC.

[thanna]

Were you peaking at my notes!

 

We were also on this cruise and had very similar experiences. In 30 Carnival cruises we had never had a problem with the AC until this cruise. We had an interior room on deck 7 and it was not cool. They came with a meter (with tin foil wrapped around the thermocouple) and checked it and said it was 72 degrees. It did not feel 72. So their answer was to give us an old box fan.

Our room steward was just ok. Twice we had to track him down to get blue towels because he had not replaced them.

Casino was very smokey. We normal spend more time in the casino, but avoided it for the most part this time.

Kind of makes me wonder if they were having a more global HVAC problem that affected the rooms and the casino ventilation.

[kasuer]

We were in balcony 6489 and the AC worked great. Food was ok, not bad but nothing stood out other than the sweet potato fries from room service. So good! I ordered everyday. Great service all around from out steward, wait staff and bar tenders. Aft bar was a lot of fun!

[Badfinger]

I was referring to fish on the main menu. The one night she had fish it was the salmon offered on the alternatives. There are other lines that offer barramundi, basa, etc.

 

That salmon is excellent. I could eat it every night vs the 3-4 nights I usually order it.

[travelqueen101]

We sailed on the Magic Aug 18 and I was surprised how nice everyone was dressed every night on the cruise considering the amount of complaining I have been reading. I saw no tank tops and shorts were always dress shorts with a polo. The holiday weekend must have made the difference.

Fish was available nightly too. :confused:. Our family of 4 had no problem finding seats for the 8:30 comedy show but the later shows were impossible to find a seat unless you got there very early. I agree casino's were VERY smoky.

I have to agree with the previous post about the dress code on the ship. I was also on the August 18th cruise and people were not dressed appropriate for dinner. More came into the MDR dressed in shorts and a nice shirt and open shoes and no one stopped them. Some dressed like that on the formal night which I think was very rude.

[disneylover89]

I have to agree with the previous post about the dress code on the ship. I was also on the August 18th cruise and people were not dressed appropriate for dinner. More came into the MDR dressed in shorts and a nice shirt and open shoes and no one stopped them. Some dressed like that on the formal night which I think was very rude.

What seating? We had early seating on the second floor and I didn't see a single person not dressed nicely. I didn't see any men in shorts at all.

[CaraKeet]

We are cruising on the Magic in a few weeks and want to make a steakhouse reservation (and not the first night.) We have late seating dining and don't want to miss the Flicks show. Do you happen to remember what night the show played? TIA

[travelqueen101]

What seating? We had early seating on the second floor and I didn't see a single person not dressed nicely. I didn't see any men in shorts at all.

we were the late seating - 8:15 MDR. Mind you, there were still many people dressed appropriately. Also, my comments about our cabin AC, our room was not functioning that well at all - complained from day one. at best also 72-73 degrees - we were in cabin 9280 - great location just not great for AC. my friend was done the hall in an interior room and her AC worked great!!!! still had a great cruise, I just did not let the little issues bother me.

[bingomamma19]

I have to agree with the previous post about the dress code on the ship. I was also on the August 18th cruise and people were not dressed appropriate for dinner. More came into the MDR dressed in shorts and a nice shirt and open shoes and no one stopped them. Some dressed like that on the formal night which I think was very rude.

 

I have been on 10 carnival cruises, and I cant say that anyone's dress stood out in my head. I just don't really care what others wear and I don't look at others for the most part anyway.

 

We just got off the Legend to Alaska a few weeks ago. We ate in MDR every night...nobodies clothes stood out to me.