Good cruise overall. My only two complaints are that food could be improved in the main dining room and more organization to make lines move quicker. It seemed like there is always a line on this ship for everything. It took us almost an hour to get back on the ship in Bimini, the Mongolian Wok was 45 min long the day we had lunch there, 2 1/2 hours to disembark. Lots of hurry up to wait. Norfolk is a convenient port for us and this makes for an affordable quick getaway with just a little improvement I would cruise out of here more often.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
We used Cedar Grove parking lot and boarded a bus immediately for the cruise terminal. From parking to stepping on the ship was only 45 min. Staff at the cruise terminal were friendly and kept things moving.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Our first dinner was at Cucina Del Capitano. Our server was amazing, but the food was only okay. The restaurant only had a few other tables while we were there and they had reservation options available every night. It doesn’t seem to be very popular and I didn’t find a reason to want to go back. Our second night we were in the Southern Lights dining room for 8:15 dinner. Our server, Ali was wonderful, but unfortunately we did not enjoy the company of our table mates and we asked to be switched to the Norther Lights dining room for the rest of our trip. We enjoyed the open seating times and just each others company. The food was enjoyable, but the service was what we truly appreciated. Our last night we dined at Prime Steakhouse. Roman, the manager and Clive, our server were absolutely wonderful and this was the best meal of our trip by far. It’s a very small dining room and it was booked solid every night so make sure to make your reservations early. We really enjoy blue iguana. It’s our favorite place to eat on the ship.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
We usually spend a lot of time on the serenity deck, but didn’t like that there wasn’t a pool on the serenity deck on this ship so we spent most of our time at the pool on the aft of deck 10 because it had a pool and two hot tubs. The casino was always busy and at night very smokey. We ended up gambling in the morning to avoid smoke and be able to play the slots we like.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
We really enjoyed the stage shows! I think the music in them really catered to our age group (45-50.) The three violinists are very talented and we loved them as well.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Our room steward Kadek was great. Our room was always stocked and well taken care of. I found all the servers in the specialty restaurants and the main dining room to be exceptional. We loved most of the bartenders and cocktail servers. We always tip extra and I find that that always gets you better/quicker service. My only complaint is they made it known to me they don’t like making martinis in a passive aggressive joke.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
The ship is a little older and that shows in some places, but she is very clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
The cabin itself was clean but does show signs of age (tear in the sofa, mirrors in the bathroom becoming discolored, dents in the walls, etc.) We stayed in an aft facing balcony which was very nice, but we were right under the pool so we could constantly hear the pool loungers being moved. One of the closet doors didn’t shut completely so if I didn’t stick a shoe in the door it would bang constantly. The remote control didn’t work half the time.
Ship tip
Book a reservation at Prime Steakhouse as soon as you can. If you don’t like sitting in a group setting or want to dine at your leisure make sure you are booked in the Northern lights MDR.
Expensive. As soon as we got off the ship we stopped at the first bar and we’re charged $23 for 2 bottles of corona. Another couple was charged $49 for 2 frozen drinks. Someone on our cruise had prearranged a special with lay low golf carts $90 for a four seater. She had uploaded a screenshot of their text exchange with the price and him encouraging her to let other cruisers know. When we found him he wouldn’t honor the $90 price because he said he thought the boat was leaving at 5:00 not 6:00. I’m all for supporting the local economy but I don’t like feeling like I’m being taken advantage of.
TERRIBLE. We always walk off with our luggage because it’s quicker. On this ship they called you to disembark by your muster station starting at 7:30am and unlucky for us we were the last one called and you have to be out of your room by 8:30am. So we were stuck just sitting in the casino for an hour and a half before we were finally allowed to disembark at 10am. The busses were there waiting for us, but for some reason we had to sit on the bus in the parking lot forever before we were allowed to get off and get our luggage.
We had the same issue with debarkation when we cruised in September. We were told to carry our own bags off because we booked the cruise ship port to airport shuttle. Our muster station was 4E. We called in the 2nd to last group called to disembark.
Just a heads up for next time... The Dream class ships have a second full service casino on deck 4 that completely nonsmoking. It is smaller so it tends not to have duplicates of every machine that is upstairs, but it did seem to have the newer and the most popular ones.
I’m glad you enjoyed your good cruise overall on the Carnival Magic. I appreciate you taking the time to share a good, thorough and detailed review. We also enjoyed our May cruise on the Magic and booked it again for May 2023. The ports of call are a big factor in the cruises we choose. 😎🚢☀️🩴🏝🪸🐠🌺🙏🏻
Your two complaints are certainly legitimate but really apply to pretty much everywhere in life. Some people enjoy meeting new people in the MDR and others don't. Glad there's options for both.
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