Great cruise!
Carnival Magic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 127
8 Night Southern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: December 07, 2019
Ship: Carnival Magic
Cabin type: Oceanview
Cabin number: 2267
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 4 years ago
Review summary
Overall our cruise was great, any day spent not at work is great and being on vacation with family and friends makes it even better. We def plan to sail the Magic again in the future to do the things we didn't get to do on this cruise. The Southern Caribbean was beautiful and we can't wait to go back!Embarkation
Overall it was ok, Port Everglades was def more chaotic than I remember from our 2007 cruise and def not as easy as Port Canaveral. We got there at 1230pm (our assigned time) & the line was very long which was unexpected at that point of the day. Once inside the terminal it was just insane, people everywhere & the staff seemed flustered. Thankfully once we got through the last check point we were able to go straight on the ship.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We ate on Lido every morning for breakfast & as always the food didn't disappoint. My husband had the breakfast burrito on a few occasions and said it was delicious. Our evenings were spent in the dining room where we enjoyed a variety of food. We were cruising with friends so we had lots of opportunity to try diff dishes. My friend is gluten free and she had no problem picking meals that were safe for her to eat.
Onboard Activities
My husband and kids really enjoyed the waterslides, esp the bowl slide. We also attended trivia, kids did karaoke and we enjoyed the live music in Red Frog Pub. We had so much fun at the Hasbro Family Game Night. Both my son and husband were chosen to play! The kids also had fun at the Arcade esp on the half price days.
Entertainment
Overall the shows were great, as always the Carnival Entertainment staff are amazing. However we were very disappointed in the Country Show. During the "warm up" they were playing all kinds of popular, recognizable songs. The crowd was very excited and into it. However once the show began, they did a variety of songs in the 45mins and only 2 were known. The excitement that was in the beginning def wasn't there at the end. No one was dancing or clapping. It was clear not many knew the music. But that was the only show we didn't enjoy. The rock show and the final Christmas show were wonderful.
Children's Programs
Both of my kids went to the clubs a lot during out 8 day cruise and they loved it. My son is 10yrs and his club did a variety of things from dancing, and games to a scavenger hunt around the ship. He came back with face painting numerous nights, medals for games etc. My oldest is 16 and she also enjoyed the clubs. She made new friends, they also did a scavenger hunt, had a dance and a variety of other events. On our last night both kids received special notes from the staff that said how wonderful they are and were so happy to meet them. We also did the build a bear at sea party and the Dr Seuss breakfast both of which were awesome. Our family highly recommends both.
Service and Staff
As always Carnival staff were amazing. I ended up becoming very sick with pneumonia by Day 6 and had to visit the ships medical clinic. The staff/doctor took great care of me and checked on me often. Our cabin steward also checked on me daily to ensure I was ok. He was great with our kids, always asking how our day was and if we enjoyed our port stop. Our cruise director Simon was also lots of fun! Our server in the dining room Albertus was so much fun. He made us laugh, he danced for us and brought us way too much food!
Ship Quality
While the Magic is not our favorite Carnival ship, we very much enjoyed our cruise. There were no issues with cleanliness or anything else.
Cabin / Stateroom
We really enjoyed our cabin. This was our first time with a Deluxe Oceanview and the only difference is the extra washroom space. Our main washroom had a shower, toilet & sink and the 2nd bathroom had a tub/shower and sink. This came in very handy when 4 of us needed to shower and get ready for supper. We cut our prep time in half by having a 2nd shower. We love having the large window to enjoy at night or as we pulled into port. The space is perfect for a family of 4. Our son slept on the sofa bed and our daughter on the bunk that pulled down from the ceiling.
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
We were in Fort Lauderdale for a short period of time before the cruise. We arrived to our hotel 9pm the night before we sailed. Once we returned we did stay an extra day and did a Water Taxi Tour to see the Christmas Lights. This was a wonderful tour.
Thumbs Up
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Half Moon Cay, Bahamas (Private Island)
Half Moon Cay is as beautiful as expected! We didn't do an excursion here, we just hung out on the beach, enjoyed the music, had a couple drinks, some lunch and did some swimming.
This was our 2nd time in Grand Turk and just swam and relaxed. I highly recommend talking the less than 10min walk up the beach away from the main ship crowd and hang out near Jack's Shack. We had another ship in port with us so the area right near the beach was super busy but near JS it wasn't busy at all.
Curacao is beautiful and we wish we could have been there longer. The day before we sailed our port stop got changed with Aruba so instead of being in Curacao for 14hrs we were there for 7hrs. This was still sufficient time to look around the cruise port area briefly and enjoy an excursion but we would have loved to had more time to explore on our own as well. We will def go back! We did an Island Tour that included a stop at the Blue Curacao Distillery and a 2hr stop at Mambo Beach.
While we enjoyed our excursion bus driver/music and the bus, the tour itself & what we saw of Aruba was disappointing. I was expecting to see beautiful sites, gorgeous teal water and amazing beaches. What we saw was a church for 10mins, a lighthouse for 10mins and then a 2 hr stop at Moomba Beach that had murky water and too many boats around to really swim too far. Once our tour was over we did venture back out to the shops area but it was the same items in pretty much every store for a different price. Aruba definately wasn't what we expected. I have seen photos of Eagle Beach which were amazing, we saw nothing close to that.
Disembarkation
Due to being so ill by the end of the cruise, I was taken off the ship in a wheelchair, assisted by a Carnival staff member. My family stayed with me and we got off together. It took a little longer than I expected, the crowds were busy and numerous times the terminal employees had to stop allowing usage of the elevator because it was so backed up at the other end. But overall it went fine and the staff member stayed with us until we got to the shuttle for our car rental.
Traveler Photos
