Disappointed

Item: Carnival Magic
Rating: 2.5
Author: games7522

Carnival Magic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

games7522

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 40

Overall rating:

2.5 out of 5

8 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: May 25, 2019

Ship: Carnival Magic

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 2458

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

If you're looking for an outstanding experience on a cruise, avoid this one. Rating this cruise at the bottom of our list out of many cruises. Starting with the food, the restaurant was good, the lido buffet, not so good. Only one side open many times with a large capacity ship. The food quality would make The Old Country Buffet look like a 5 Star restaurant. Taco joint never opened the entire cruise. Swirls, a Carnival theme, out of order or out of stock 50% of the time. Entertainment, well if like violins blasting on ten with a three song list, you have the feature group. Two theater presentation over a 8 day cruise, NOT GOOD! Clearly LOW BUDGET offerings on the entertainment category. Gamblers? A large number of machines were OUT OF ORDER the entire cruise. As far as pay outs, the machines were tighter than the virgin Mary. I you are selling prepaid future lung transplants, your business would be booming! If you didn't have cancer before, you will leave with it after you get off the ship from second hand smoke. Pools, only 2 very small. Lots of hot tubs, if you choose to indulge in 90F + weather.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment was non existent, pools small, lots of hot tubs if you like those in 90 F + heat. Activity director was better fit for a retirement home instead of a cruise ship.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

Needs serious improvement.

Service and Staff

2 out of 5

Only one staff member deserved a compliment and that was the cabin stewart "Lester", more like the "we don't care" attitude plagued the rest of them. You could tell they did not want to be there.

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Flip flops were necessary in the lido marketplace. Tennis shoes where like someone used cooking oil on the tiles to clean them.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

very quite, well stocked and like some other past cruises, you could see the steward took the time to make sure there was NO DUST coatings on things.

Ship tip

Avoid this ship if your a veteran cruiser. Needs serious improvements on the management side.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

3 out of 5

No excursions

Thumbs Up 0

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)

4 out of 5

Clean and enjoyable.

Thumbs Up 0

Grand Turk Island

1 out of 5

Dirty and very crowded.

Thumbs Up 0

Oranjestad, Aruba

3 out of 5

Extremely busy. Very crowded and pricey for what they have to offer. No reason to dicker and deal. No deal deals!

Thumbs Up 0

Willemstad, Curacao

3 out of 5

Good port, just shows the lack on routine upkeep and maintenance on the building and needs a little TCL. If your a shopper, save it for Mexico. It's Dutch Heritage tells you they are NOT DEALING on anything and the quality is not quite what it should be.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

2 out of 5

Confusion at best. But went ok only due to experienced cruisers.

9 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe 5 months ago

Thanks for sharing

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memibean 5 years ago

I also cruise every year. We just got off royal Caribbean harmony of seas. Great ship but they never told booked passengers that they opened it up in feb to kids under 12 free. Needless to say you could not get in any of the pools. Never had that problem on carnival.

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memibean 5 years ago

I agree. Stay home. I love the magic gaping back in May 2020 can’t wait

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ilovesquints 5 years ago

Just curious if you find anything positive with any of your vacations. You sound miserable.

Thumbs Up 2

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Tstanifer 5 years ago

I can agree that around the ship entertainment quality with Carnival has declined over the years, but I do love the shows in the main stages. I can always find a way to enjoy any cruise. (I’m not at work, no one can get a hold of me, I’m on vacation)

Thumbs Up 2

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cruiseplayer 5 years ago

Lol ! On the slippery floors . Yes there is some kind of oil in the cleaner they use , have almost landed on my butt many times with sneakers .

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jenn2831 5 years ago

U complained about aruba and curacao and the magic.......perhaps cruising is not for u

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CruzeFan 5 years ago

Seems like cruising may not be for you. Most love it, but it’s not for everyone.

Thumbs Up 1

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Tibauer 5 years ago

I’m going on Magic in October. Hope things improve

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Other reviews of this sailing

My cruise

An awesome cruise!!

LOVE PRIVATE ISLANDS