Magic Cruise 7/16-7/22
Carnival Magic Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 15
6 Night The Bahamas (Norfolk Roundtrip)
Sail date: July 16, 2023
Ship: Carnival Magic
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 2397
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 9 months ago
Review summary
We were looking forward to another Carnival experience after our great cruise last year. It did not live up to the standard set previously. A few bright glimmers, but overall a little disappointing.Embarkation
A little disorganized- lots of people- not enough people to help move things along. WiFi made the check in process challenging for the Carnival employee
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food quality was definitely a major step DOWN since my cruise last year. ( Both buffet and MDR) The dishes were under spiced and the cakes in the buffet LOOKED amazing but tasted awful! The lines for every meal were too long- waiting for over 40 minutes to go through the line.
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Onboard Activities
Pool was over crowded daily- adult only pool was overcrowded with children
I really liked the smoke free casino on floor 4!! I spent my time there since the floor 5 was like a smoky haze and I smelled like an ashtray walking through the area. Thank tou for offering this in a smoke free environment!
Entertainment
Dustin was a wonderful cruise director! He never seemed to tire!! He was personable and welcoming.
Just June- oh, my goodness!! Hands down best comedian on the ship! She was amazing!!
Children's Programs
O2- Understaffed and appeared not under control. Children were out of the club running around the hallways causing havoc and my daughter didn’t say there were any “events” really planned beyond a scavenger hunt. I would suggest keeping sport areas open later and planning more to do. Kids will always find a way to occupy their time- better to plan out positive choices to avoid what we saw on the ship.
Service and Staff
Positives- Budiasa (Restaurant Team Leader) from Indonesia in the MDR was incredible! He was warm, inviting, and made our dinner experience memorable! He was the highlight of our meals! We loved when he sang! My only wish was that we had the same server each night like last year’s cruise.
Aline worked in the buffet and made me a delicious omelette each day. She was incredibly kind and greeted me with a smile each morning.
Ship Quality
Design was fine and fairly easy to navigate. (That would receive 3 stars)
The staff attempted to keep the common areas “clean” to the eye however I don’t think there has been a deep clean/ sanitation in a long time. (3 out of the 4 of us have come home sick- and we are not alone. MANY people got sick according to our Facebook group. I think it could have been mitigated with more regular sanitation. It seems the COVID protocol is a thing of the past.) The hallways smelled like sewage each day. No wonder since people were urinating in the hallway (video posted on TikTok) and I passed several areas of vomit on the carpet in the main areas. (Left untreated) This is beyond disgusting.
Cabin / Stateroom
Overall it was neat and efficiently designed. Not sure about the bathroom sanitation aspect but the towel animals were fantastic. I would suggest larger bath towels as my larger husband had to use the pool towel daily.
Ship tip
Be a “joiner”- go do all the things- try it all out- be adventurous! There is always something to do on the ship!
Thumbs up
1
Ports of call
I think with time the staff will become more efficient in directing the large number of people.
We did not do an excursion and used an outside agency for parking.
Resort World- what a waste! The tram took us to the beach- (did not allow us to get to the casino/ pool) not enough drinks for the number of bodies- (alcoholic or nonalcoholic) Food that was included- chicken fingers and chips. Not worth the $100 Per person price tag
The port of call pier needs some coverage from the elements to make it more comfortable for getting back on the ship. My daughter almost passed out waiting in the sun. Eventually we got up to the shade tent and we got some water in her. There were several elderly people waiting there as well. That could have been really bad medically.
Efficiently set up- met our excursion to Pearl Island right off the ship. Pearl Island was incredible when we were the first ones on the island. (Later on it got really crowded!) The island had a lot of places to sit- shade- activities- amazing value! The buffet food was delicious and they provided us with bottled water. (It was nice since it was so incredibly hot). The only downside to the excursion was the return to ship pick up system! So many people- no system to organize the people and there were not enough boats to accommodate the amount of people. We almost missed the boat due to lack of return transportation. They ended up overloading the boat to get us back- definitely over capacity!!
Swimming with the pigs excursion was incredible! After waiting beyond the time we got to ride in a double decker bus with AC to the beach/ pig excursion. Marie was our tour operator and was by far the best tour operator we experienced on the trip! The excursion was well set up- we rested on the beach and then went in the water while the pigs were released. (Suggestion: The workers should carry a small skimmer net to collect the pig feces while we feed them in the water. It got a bit gross- like swimming in a pig toilet) We took a ton of photos on our phone- didn’t need to spend a fortune once there. Tshirts and souvenirs were available for purchase.
Disembarkation
Try to keep families (especially with minors) together. People were merging from several areas and we were separated from our daughters. We tried to get to them and were told to get back. My daughters were not permitted to wait by the employee until we reached them- they had to go out into cruise terminal alone. Not safe.