Carnival Magic, The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.....

[tap_out]

I have seen the Magic get a ton of flack on here lately. We returned not to long ago from a 7 day Bermuda cruise out of NY. I figured I would give you a quick un biased review of our cruise. 

 

This was the 8th Carnival cruise for my wife and I and only the second bringing our 6 year old son along with us. We are in our late 30s enjoy the shows, comedy, movies on the pool deck, and always get the drink package. Our previous cruise was on the Horizon in a Havana Cabana right after things got going again. To say I was a little nervous after reading such bad things about the Magic would be a fair statement. We have sailed her sister ships Dream and Breeze though. With my wife being a teacher we always cruise in August with crowds and a lot of kids. I will hit on a couple of key components that will maybe clear some things up for certain people debating on going on the Magic or cruising out of NY. 

 

Embarkation in NY 

We live in Maryland and love cruising out of NY. Its a short 2hr ride for us the Weehawken and we take the ferry to Manhattan. Couldn't be more simple. We arrived right at 10 for our 10:30 embarkation. It was definitely not the smoothest but I have seen far worse. There did seem to be a bit of confusion among employees in giving directions on where people should go. I was surprised to see them actually checking boarding passes for the boarding times and enforcing this. We were on the boat just before noon. Reading in the Facebook group it seems like things may have gotten worse later in the day. 

 

Fellow Cruisers 

We all know Carnival gets a bad rap for its clientele. Especially when cruising out of NY with a lot of New Yorkers and people from NJ on board. This was one of the biggest complaints I saw before the cruise took place. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really think this was a great group of cruisers. Call us lucky but I thought this was one of the better crowds we have ever cruised with. We never really ran into any rude on entitled people the entire cruise. Another thing to note for a cruise in August I really didn't feel like there was that many kids on the ship. We also never ran into any large group of crazy teenagers running the halls. 

 

Food

Another big complaint I have been hearing is how poor dining room service has been with staffing issues. Again maybe we were just lucky we had any time dining and had a great crew and requested them every night. Service was always under an hour and food was always average or above. We don't really do the buffet much. The few times we did go in the morning it was a bit of a zoo and I found myself regretting it. I did manage to get Mongolian wok during lunch time without much of a wait. Guy's lines were never long and moved fast. We ate at the Steakhouse one night. Food was decent and service was slow. My mother in law who joined us on the cruise treated us so I couldn't complain. If I would have paid $42pp I would have been a little disappointed. 

 

Entertainment

This is where Carnival usually shines and I feel like we were disappointed. The comedians on the cruise were bad. Really bad, the worse we have seen with Carnival. I believe there were 3 or 4 and we gave them all a chance and wished we had that 40 minutes of our life back. Guess we were just unlucky here because Carnivals comedians are usually very funny. The 4 main shows were all very good and the cast was probably the best we have seen in a long time. The strange thing is it seemed there were nights where nothing was happening in the main theater. Usually you would get a magician or something. They did do comedy in the main theater during peak hours one night so that was a bust. 

 

Dive in Movies 

It may seem strange to some but the main reason I come back to Carnival is because of the dive in movies. Imho there is nothing better then being under the stars with a Caribbean breeze in your face, drink in hand and watching a movie. This was a big bust here. I don't know if this is something new or just how they are doing things on the Magic but it was a big fail. Normally they would show an early movie more kid friendly around 5:30-6:00 followed by another movie around 8ish. Worked out perfect for us. Early dinner, go to the early show, watch a movie then late night comedy. The odd thing is almost all the movies were shown around 5:30 or 6 with no late movie. Sitting out in the son when its still hot with people still swimming kind of takes away from the whole experience. Looking at the fun times it appears they did this because they had deck parties every night. Which I am all for, but they must have started earlier then normal. On all of our past cruises they found time to do both. Looking at the list of movies John Heald posted we were excited. For some reason the played to movies twice. Not sure why they would do this, so there were several movies we looked forward to seeing that were never shown. Again it might seem like a petty gripe but I was kind of bummed. I hope this was just a Magic thing and not something they are moving towards across the fleet. 

 

Ship

All I read was how the Magic was in shambles lol. Maybe I just don't care but the ship seemed to be in just as good of shape as any other ship we have sailed on. Yes the hand rails were worn in places and even getting replaced in some. Carpet seemed in decent shape. Nothing stood out to me as a glaring problem. I will say this we cruised Breeze in 2019 and I think Magic was in better shape then her. The TV in our room did seem extra small this time around though. 

 

Wrap Up

All in all we had a great cruise. This was really a test to see if we could cruise with our 6 year old and still enjoy ourselves as adults. We found at that we very much could and he was great. He did enjoy the kids club, probably not as much as some but enough for us to feel like we still got some us time. Bermuda is Bermuda. Very nice and very expensive. The lack of a free transport that NCL offered made things tricky and an added expense. Our room steward was ok but that seems to be a spot that they are hit the hardest and they seem very overworked. We had the drink package and the bar staff throughout the boat was awesome. Debarkation was pretty smooth. Feel free to ask any questions and I will do my best to answer. 

[Guest BasicSailor]

Magic to my family is a wonderful ship. Sailing on her a few times now and will more than likely sail with her again. Great review, thanks for sharing .

[Jamman54]

Great review, thanks for  sharing! We'll be back on the Magic next September. 😎

[Indiansbaseball]

It’s not silly to me, we cruise for Dive In theatre too. It’s our favorite thing to do in the evenings. We were on Magic in May. Many nights there were no movies, that was  because of deck parties. I wish they would only do 1 deck party and more movies. We are headed out on Spirit soon and hopefully movies will be back ! 

[BeachDiva101]

Does anyone know the last time she was in dry dock or if she is scheduled to have a little refresh in the future?  Glad you still enjoyed your cruise despite not getting to do the dive in movies.  Thank you for your review.

[ChrisCJR]

A member of our party joked, "It would be great if Carnival created a venue for parties.  Like a nightclub or something." 

 

Couldn't be more true.  Deck parties are nice, and they were probably pushed a bit more due to covid, but there are plenty of places in the ship designed for partying.  The Seaside Theater is definitely appreciated at night by so many guests.  Hopefully Carnival takes notice of the feedback.  

 

Especially since they keep saying that they want a family atmosphere.  It doesn't get better than the Seaside Theater for that image.  Deck parties can get a bit rowdy.

[vamartha]

On 9/1/2022 at 8:36 AM, tap_out said:

 The TV in our room did seem extra small this time around though. 

LOL, I'm dying laughing here. We sailed the Pride last year and the Spirit this year and I'm like the TV is way smaller than any of the computer monitors in our house!

 

 

[doublek2]

Great Review!  We were on the cruise after yours (and they were still refinishing the railings on deck 11 lol!) and I agree with everything you said. Magic really is a great ship (one of our favorites - we have been on her 3 times) and we had a GREAT time!

 

Sorry about the comedians! It can be hit or miss. we had 3 new ones (to us) on this cruise that were okay. The other comedian we also had on Legend last month and he was pretty good.  

 

[mz-s]

3 hours ago, BeachDiva101 said:

Does anyone know the last time she was in dry dock or if she is scheduled to have a little refresh in the future?  Glad you still enjoyed your cruise despite not getting to do the dive in movies.  Thank you for your review.

 

Magic was drydocked in May 2021, right before the restart. But most of Carnival's drydocks since COVID have mostly been a hull repaint and very little else. They did replace the conference center with the smoke-free casino.

 

I imagine we'll have to wait for a few years before Carnival will start actually maintaining their ships again.

[jean87510]

We are on now and its a zoo.  Buffet long lines all the time with scant selections.  Im used to RCCL and celebrity so perhaps apples to oranges but its really noticeable.  Shows are not good.  Too many people in thermal spa.  No beds or room in thallosotherapy pool at 645 at night, 4pm...and zero enforcement of limiting crowds in there.  People bringing their KIDS in there!  

 

I like carnival.  I like the Bermuda run.  But the shortness of staff plus the increase of gratuities added to 1x a day for room turn down kind of turns me off.  Plus the lack of sales for anything on board is so dumb.  Why can't specialty restaurants offer a sale on port day dinners?  I'd pay for that.  Its sad because I started with carnival and I always liked it.  I guess its because its a 5 day Im currently on and it's just lacking in a lot of areas.  My 4 adult kids are loving it so I guess that's whats important.

[mz-s]

13 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

But the shortness of staff plus the increase of gratuities added to 1x a day for room turn down kind of turns me off.

 

I agree, it really miffed me too. We are expected to pay more for less service.

[MsTabbyKats]

27 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

We are on now and its a zoo.  Buffet long lines all the time with scant selections.  Im used to RCCL and celebrity so perhaps apples to oranges but its really noticeable.   

This is what concerns me.  We are buffet people and usually cruise with NCL...where the options are unlimited. (I never cared for "CCL cuisine")

 

How is the temperature inside the ship?  Some like it hot....I like it very hot.  Does one need more than a sweatshirt?

[jean87510]

8 hours ago, MsTabbyKats said:

This is what concerns me.  We are buffet people and usually cruise with NCL...where the options are unlimited. (I never cared for "CCL cuisine")

 

How is the temperature inside the ship?  Some like it hot....I like it very hot.  Does one need more than a sweatshirt?

first day it was hot so you'll be ok.  Its been fine.  Food wise yes of course everyone can find something to eat but it's limited compared to other lines in the buffet.

[jean87510]

Also since we are in a spa cabin its much quieter but many reports of kids and adults running loose yelling, banging on doors, screaming, singing...  Bring your headphones or ear plugs.

[phoneman69]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Magic. DW and I are taking are Grand kids in June 2023 on her. Hope she remain in good shape.

[helo driver]

12 hours ago, mz-s said:

They did replace the conference center with the smoke-free casino.

Are you saying Magic has a smoke-free casino? That will make DW happy for our upcoming sailing!

[Crusin Karen]

I'm sailing her for first time in 2 weeks.  I'm on deck 2.  What's the secret for getting to MDR for ATD?  TIA.

[ChuckF]

I'm pretty sure all the Dream class ships have a casino annex (smoke-free) on deck 4. Not sure about  the Vista class. 

 

[spazilla1]

Thanks for the review, we sail in january 2023 .  We sailed hersister the Breeza and it was great. We will be out of port canaveral by then.  Did you see where carnivalmpassed a curfewnfor kids 17 and under in the cabin by 1 am unless wuthnan adult? Hopefully rhis cuts downmon all the door banging.

[funinthesun1964]

On 9/1/2022 at 8:36 AM, tap_out said:

 

Do you remember the comedian's names?  I'm going on a cruise next month (not Magic) and wondering who we will have. 

 

Entertainment

This is where Carnival usually shines and I feel like we were disappointed. The comedians on the cruise were bad. Really bad, the worse we have seen with Carnival. I believe there were 3 or 4 and we gave them all a chance and wished we had that 40 minutes of our life back. Guess we were just unlucky here because Carnivals comedians are usually very funny. The 4 main shows were all very good and the cast was probably the best we have seen in a long time. The strange thing is it seemed there were nights where nothing was happening in the main theater. Usually you would get a magician or something. They did do comedy in the main theater during peak hours one night so that was a bust. 

 

 

 

 

[Bostwick girl]

All the door banging unfortunately is not kids! It’s those people who just can’t go in and out of a door without slamming! We just got off liberty Friday, the cabin next door was 2 older adults, no kids, kept slamming balcony door every time no matter the time. The young couple on the other side were fighting at all hours of the day and night! So guess in my instance I’m taking up for the kids. There really were very few kids on our cruise, guess school had started back.

 

[Saint Greg]

On 9/2/2022 at 4:49 PM, ChrisCJR said:

A member of our party joked, "It would be great if Carnival created a venue for parties.  Like a nightclub or something." 

 

or a place for movies..like a theater.

 

[DrSea]

On 9/1/2022 at 5:36 AM, tap_out said:

Dive in Movies 

It may seem strange to some but the main reason I come back to Carnival is because of the dive in movies. Imho there is nothing better then being under the stars with a Caribbean breeze in your face, drink in hand and watching a movie. This was a big bust here. I don't know if this is something new or just how they are doing things on the Magic but it was a big fail. Normally they would show an early movie more kid friendly around 5:30-6:00 followed by another movie around 8ish. Worked out perfect for us. Early dinner, go to the early show, watch a movie then late night comedy. The odd thing is almost all the movies were shown around 5:30 or 6 with no late movie. Sitting out in the son when its still hot with people still swimming kind of takes away from the whole experience. Looking at the fun times it appears they did this because they had deck parties every night. Which I am all for, but they must have started earlier then normal. On all of our past cruises they found time to do both. Looking at the list of movies John Heald posted we were excited. For some reason the played to movies twice. Not sure why they would do this, so there were several movies we looked forward to seeing that were never shown. Again it might seem like a petty gripe but I was kind of bummed. I hope this was just a Magic thing and not something they are moving towards across the fleet. 

 

Interesting outdoor movies keeps you coming back to CCL as this is a basic staple across all the major CL, like PCL, RCL, ?NCL, etc. 

 

Have you tried other lines before?

[auburn77]

Will be sailing on her in November. Last time was her inaugural cruise out of Venice in May 2011. We loved the ship then. Can't wait to sail her again.

[tap_out]

21 hours ago, DrSea said:

Interesting outdoor movies keeps you coming back to CCL as this is a basic staple across all the major CL, like PCL, RCL, ?NCL, etc. 

 

Have you tried other lines before?

 

Yes we have sailed NCL twice. I think the two 7 day cruised combined they showed maybe 5 movies in the back are of getaway and escape. 

 

We have sailed Royal 8 times. It has been some time and some of the ships may have pool side theaters but they did not when we sailed. Best we got was a movie or two in the aqua theater on Allure. 

 

I know princess puts a big focus on their movies but I think were about 15 years shy of our first princess cruise lol.