no more magic

Carnival Magic Cruise Review

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 5
Helpful Votes: 72

Overall rating:

2.4 out of 5
Carnival Magic

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (New York Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 20, 2022

Ship: Carnival Magic

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

Terrible start and didn't get a lot better. You don't downgrade someone. Equal or greater value. Not less. They need to remember they're in the hospitality business. One couple wanted a cruise out of Baltimore, was told take this cruise..for $400 for the both of them. I paid more for a balcony I didn't get to use. A gentleman on 9 mid ship said he noticed an odor from the aft that didn't start getting better until Saturday. Still smelled it but wasn't as strong. Also heard of a lot of quarantined people on 1 from someone that was in it. How carnival gave away cabins to fill the ship and I over paid. Under staffed and the ship wasn't well maintained while out of service during the pandemic. Customer service debates you instead of trying for a fair solution let alone above and beyond service. They don't know how to. Had another cruise on this ship for next September, not happening. My first and last with this line. I will be canceling

Embarkation

2 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5
Main dining room wasn't ideal. Plenty of empty tables and they sat us right next to another couple and so close that our waiter had to go between the other party and us to serve us. Steakhouse was ok except the steak had a thick piece of white fat where you wouldn't expect it. Right in the middle of the meat. Guys bbq was good one day and so so another. Limited hrs, sea days only..Guys burgers were good except when they were cooked beyond recognition. Fries were good when properly cooked. Best fries on ship. Sometimes under done and other times over done. Needs consistency. Limited hrs but daily. Burrito at the cantina wasn't bad..Limited hrs. Pizza was decent. Like a bar type pizza. Open late but not 24hrs like it stated on the website. Only thing 24 hrs is the soft serve ice cream machine on 10 in lido market place. Deli was ok, open till 11. Buffet needs help. Seasoning and proper cook doneness would go a long way. If you ate something that was eh, your happy.

Onboard Activities

2 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5
They need better entertainment. Norwegian is like Broadway compared to this ship. Theater seats are stiff, uncomfortable with no legroom. Stage was nice.

Service and Staff

2 out of 5
Waiters were ok. Stewards were ok. Customer service needs to learn that they're in the hospitality business

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
I paid for a premium vista balcony 8473. Small aft room with a decent wrap around balcony. Room had a terrible odor of sewage, outhouse smell. Couldn't stay in it. Front desk said she had a room on 9 for the night. Guy came out and said no, put us on 6. Said we had a nice cabin. I said I paid extra for that balcony but couldn't stay there. 6 is noisy, by the theater. Sleep there for the night, and they'll get maintainable to try and diagnose and find what might be the problem. Come back at 9 and see what can be done. That was 2am. Go back down at 9and guy at desk said housekeeping said there was no smell, did we go to the room to check? No, we were told to come down here, why would we go there? So much for maintainable trying to find the problem, housekeeping said it's ok. Unacceptable, that smell irritated our sinuses and throat and we weren't going back. That room had blue filters over the AC vents to try and mask the odor. Didn't see them anywhere else on the ship. No soap in the bathroom. Luggage sheet usually on the bed was tossed on the 1 chair the room had. Toilet paper was water damaged and stained and didn't notice until after it was used. It had the fold which means housekeeping was they. Thought it was a design until the disgusting realization that it was damaged. Took about 3 days to not feel from that smell. Felt it wasn't healthy to stay in room. Woman from the platinum desk comes over with an attitude with a smile. Said we had 2 options, go back to booked room or stay in the noisy downgraded room. Said there is no other option. Clean Air over balcony and we took the downgrade. I wanted a refunded on the difference of the room. She said we had to take that up with the main office after the cruise. Days later they call in our downgraded room 6241, and ask how's the room? Does it still smell? Really? I'm in a different room. Offered us a steakhouse dinner. A round of drinks, have drink package. A bottle of wine and the last was onboard credit. Told her I feel if I accept any of that the main office will say we are ok with the downgrade. We're not.

Ship tip

Find another cruise line

Ports of call

Grand Turk Island

5 out of 5
Beautiful adults only inclusive beach. Beautiful water and a nice day

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

4 out of 5
Inclusive beach getaway. Nice staff and good food

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
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15 Comments

lesplas    2 years ago

Thx for sharing

CruisedudeNY65    2 years ago

Update: received a call today from the main office, they are refunding me the difference of the 2 rooms and apologized for my experience and told me engineers corrected the plumbing problem. Put an ozonater in the room. Said I could not have stayed in room anyhow. Apologized for how it was handled on board.

willwork4cruz    2 years ago

Bad smells are the worst but hard to fix if the workers can't smell them. The cruise ship can simply not refund your money, even if others paid less than you did, and even if you asked to be moved and only lower category rooms were available. That's just the way it is. It's not an attitude, just a rule. Hope you have good luck with corporate. I haven't read many complaints about Guy's Burgers but I guess you can't please everyone.

CruisedudeNY65    2 years ago

One last parting gift. I haven't been sick in 2 years, I have a bad sore throat and a sinus infection. 1 trip I'll never forget

1Spursfan    2 years ago

Sorry for your unfortunate cruise.

natelorip    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing.

SRAlbritton    2 years ago

Thank you for taking the time to share your cruise with us. Sorry it was such a mess.

Pittsfire51    2 years ago

We had the same sewage smell in our aft cabin a few years ago out of Tampa. I noted that on this site and was told I was a phoney and full of *S*

AuntPinkie    2 years ago

Sorry this cruise didn’t meet your expectations.

CruisedudeNY65    2 years ago

Debarkation went pretty smoothly. No major hangups and get out quick

leog    2 years ago

Service is definitely a problem. Sry bout your room. Guess I won't see you on carnival.

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing

GabeNSteph    2 years ago

I guess cruising is not for you

Schlinger    2 years ago

Smells are terrible and impossible to prove, so that's a challenge for sure. The opening hours of the restaurants and buffet are, simply put, unacceptable. Same as other "American" ships. Not going back either.

byhisgrace    2 years ago

Thanks for your review.

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