An Average Caribbean Cruise
Carnival Magic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern
7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Port Canaveral Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 21, 2018
Ship: Carnival Magic
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 8012
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
This is a large beautiful relatively new ship. We cruised to Amber Cove, St. Thomas, San Juan and Grand Turk in April 2018. It was my wife's first cruise and my second. First the positives. There was a lot to do (perhaps too much). The food options were pretty good. The ports were good. Everything was on time. There were plenty of amenities. The rooms were perfectly adequate and the service (room steward, waiters, staff) was just fine. The Cruise Director (cook cook cookie) was really good. I would chose a ship based on him alone maybe. Everything was clean onboard also. Here are the negatives. This ship rocked constantly and there were “wake us up” odd banging noises in our cabin (or on the floor) the first three nights (and they were WAY too loud to be human made). These occurred about 10 times a night. We were in a middle cabin near the front. Not sure why all the rocking as we didn't really see rough seas. On my first cruise with Royal Caribbean I only felt rocking perhaps one day. While in port in San Juan we did notice that the older Royal Caribbean ship also ported there was much wider than the newer Carnival Magic. Maybe that makes a difference in rocking. There were too many kids on this ship for our liking and they were running up and down the halls and being a nuisance at times in the eating areas. We realize this is related to the cost of a cruises so that is just a personal opinion. Not sure why anyone would actually bring preteens on a cruise as 90 percent of a cruise is adult stuff unless you are on Disney? There are far better vacations for them at much lower costs. The shows in the Showtime Theater were average at best. Don't expect Broadway quality but they ARE something to do at night, especially for non-drinkers. There was WAY more smoking onboard than I expected. Too many smoking areas in my opinion. I grew up in the age of smoking, so I am not a prude. Just be aware of this beforehand. Probably the biggest negative is the bogus sales they have on board. Nearly all of what they offer can be had cheaper when you get home on the internet! Basically the only bargains were very few of the bottled alcohols (and most were NOT a bargain) and the one time they had t-shirts for $10 each. All jewelry and watches are over priced even when they supposedly had one hour “panic” flash sales. I am telling you now DO NOT buy jewels and watches onboard. It is a scam. They convince you it is a bargain and you cant access the general internet on your phone to do research, so you get confused. I am saving you a ton of money here.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Tandoor
Not sure this is a hit. Seemed to be a lot of food wasted as not many people ate here. I predict this buffet will fail. It would be better to have a full Italian, Chinese or Mexican buffet.
Mongolian Wok
This was not a very good Mongolian wok. You can get far better on land in your average city or town. The cooking of the food was not quite hot enough and the food got watery in the final bowl. Not enough sauce was applied to the food as well.
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
To avoid rocking get a cabin in the middle of the ship
Ports of call
Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic
Disembarkation
8 Comments
CloudNine72 6 years ago
Tera4567 6 years ago
Barbara139 6 years ago