Isle of roatan, Belize, and Cozumel
Carnival Magic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Western Caribbean (Galveston Roundtrip)
Sail date: September 07, 2014
Ship: Carnival Magic
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 9345
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 10 years ago
Review summary
Magic is a wonderful ship,and has many more amenities than the triumph . My only complaint has to do with the food. The lido buffet was not what I would call wonderful and is open for shorter periods of time and opens later for breakfast than we were used to on the triumph. We are early risers and had to wait a couple of hours to get some breakfast. Not a big deal for most folks, but we enjoy eating breakfast and watching the sun come up. The lunch and dinner selections seemed to be heavily italian, although they did have a few other things. This was the first cruise that I got bored with the meals. The mdr was great as usual. We went to the steakhouse one night and that was wonderful. The wait staff throughout the ship was excellent as usual.
If you go to roatan and belize, be sure to book excursions, While they are beautiful places with some great things to do, the ports are pretty lacking, so I wouldn't plan on hanging out at the port for the day. We had a hard time finding something to eat in roatan when we returned from our excursion. the only food we found was some really overpriced appetizers in a bar on the beach. Its possible we missed something, but was surprised that there were no restaurants.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
If you get up early, order room service to tide you over until the lido or mdr opens.
Ports of call
Mahogany Bay, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras
Traveler Photos
5 Comments
glomarrone 9 years ago
I think that this is a commo0n complaint that we are hearing more & more about lately on many of the cruise lines, not just Carnival. I hate having to navigate the buffet trying to balance a couple of different plates and then getting my beverage. I surely miss the trays the ships used to have. It seems like the ship's buffet keeps serving the same things every day.
Johngold 9 years ago
When my wife and I cruise we use the buffet early for fresh fruit and we make sure that we meet and speak to the guys at the egg station. The time that we ate in the MDR for breakfast were disappointing, but we do enjoy the dinners. We do not eat heavy on a cruise anyway, as our eating habits have changed.
To each his own i guess.
JohnsonL 9 years ago
I second "glomarrone's" comment and "trimphsurvivor's" review concerning the Lido Marketplace on Carnival Magic. The hours when there was no service were unpleasant during our Jan 2015 cruise and a complaint voiced by many other passengers. Embarkation at Galveston is primitive and long and then when the Lido closed from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM, we were on a modern cruise ship and hungry - that is not supposed to happen!
Our party of 6 got up at 03:30 had breakfast before our 06:50 flight and after the long on-boarding process, our next meal was almost 13 hours after breakfast. We can plan for this, but I don't believe we should have to plan and spend on airport food on the way to a cruise ship.
The Lido hours were also annoyingly short on port days but forewarned, we could plan around that, but again, we don't think we should have to plan that way.
In my Carnival survey I let them know the same things I mention here and in my Cruiseline review. I suggested they at least keep half of the Lido buffets open during the day at all times. I respect the hard work and time the crew puts in and I know staff is an issue for all the Caribbean cruise lines but one buffet line can serve people much faster than the Grill and Sandwich lines that are open when the Lido buffet is closed and give passengers reasonable feeding, if not fine dining, options.
glomarrone 9 years ago
Eating in the Lido of most cruise lines is less than ideal. I try to grab a table first before getting my food because who wants to walk around the whole dining area while your food gets cold. There used to be trays in the buffets but no longer. It is hard to balance your food while carrying beverages. There has got to be a better way. Having different stations is a good idea but waiting on several lines is not good. I prefer to eat in the MDR whenever I can or eat early.