Good enough to get the job done, just not magical.

Item: Carnival Magic
Rating: 3.9
Author: Ricdalek

Carnival Magic Cruise Review

Ricdalek

Contributor Level: First Mate

154 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 7

Helpful Votes: 186

Overall rating:

3.9 out of 5

8 Night Eastern Caribbean (Norfolk Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 16, 2023

Ship: Carnival Magic

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

Overall this was a cheap September hurricane season cruise to ports I've never been to so it served it's purpose. I was underwhelmed by the overall CCL experience on this ship after years of sailing RCI with its seemingly endless choices. And it really came down to the simple fact that everything food and beverage related was a wait in some type of line and/or was limited in some other manner. Overall, when all is said and done it was still a fun cruise on a good sized fun ship and it never hurts to be able to drive to a port instead of having to fly. Unfortunately I hear Sunshine will be replacing Magic in NFK.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

First time Embarking out of NFK. Norfolk terminal is a bit different from normal due to the tight quarters and no on site parking. Driving to the port, you park at a satellite location and take shuttles to the terminal. If you're used to using the off site parking, this will not cause a problem. They still made this very easy by doing the luggage collection at the satellite parking location. While a bit weird, it worked fine, just not as good as being able to park on site. There is curbside drop off on the sidewalk outside of the terminal area. Then walk across the street navigating in-between regular traffic and shuttle buses.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

The main dining room food was more than adequate. With your time dining and sea day brunch, you needed to use the app to make your reservation and wait to be notified. This system is not flawless and hosts were encouraged to teach guests to use the app and make the reservations themselves. There was resistance with trying to get the hosts to enter the reservation into their tablets. Based on this and the inconsistent service, stick to a traditional dining time. The buffet was the biggest disappointment overall. This buffet has so many different stations but only 2 are used at any given time. The main buffet lines would be 20-40 people deep at a given time and there would only be a handful of selections. Think of golden corral with 1/3 the amount of meal choices. Dessert bar, Mongolian Wok, Deli no complaints about the food, just an absurd lack of choices on the 2 buffet lines. I prefer the multi station set up without lines and plenty of different choices. What happened to bar/beverage service in the buffet? It was non existent. Specialty dining at both the Italian and the Steakhouse were excellent. Been a while since I've had a guys burger. Still good, but cutbacks are clearly evident here, the pig patty is essentially just a bacon cheeseburger now, not a patty made of bacon. Still closes at 6. Blue iguana was still good, just open till 2:30. Pig and anchor was not my favorite due to few choices. Others in travelling party loved it. Cheers package became a disappointment every time I had to find a bar that was open without being packed. Lines for everything made getting food a chore every time.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Comedians were top notch as usual. They are as a whole much better than the ones seen on RCI. Still need to get these comedians in the big theater more since it's not used for much else. Music around the ship was good. CD Dustin was fun. What Carnival does is very good, I just missed the variety of shows that RCI has, especially on the big ships.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Only had one MDR server at one meal could be considered unacceptable. General lack of mobile waiters providing bar beverage service. My room steward was excellent opening my cabin door for me and towel animals every night, traveling companions rated their room steward as below average. Was ok with once a day service and was never disturbed during the mid day nap before dinner.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Beautiful ship and maintained properly (look close enough and you'll find fault with anything) but the ship was overall very nice. Magic is an older design with the deck 3&4 nightmare and having to travel through a smoky casino to get to certain venues.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

The oddball 1A porthole cabins are a bargain room with a view and a great way to cruise on the cheap. What happened to the beds? Seems like they got smaller in width, the second berth in this specific 1A cabin is the sofa which was wider but not as comfortable as the mattress.

Ship tip

Just be prepared for lines everywhere for everything, pack your patience.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Norfolk, Virginia

4 out of 5

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5

Grand Turk Island

3 out of 5

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata), Dominican Republic

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

2 out of 5

Luggage tag distribution by hanging them on a board by the piano bar. I will just characterize as absurd unless you want to pay for faster to the fun to get a early number. Having to clear cabins by 8:30, breakfast ending at 8:30 and not getting to the satellite parking location until after 10AM. It felt like the cruise ended at 8:30 and waiting an hour to get off the ship. Miss the pandemic era of being able to stay in cabin until all luggage tags are called.

Traveler Photos

8 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe 1 month ago

Thanks for sharing

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Ricdalek 1 year ago

@Nebnema- Agreed, overall the food has taken a drop. Definitely with the limited selection of foods available on the buffet. The only food quality issue was with room service. It was just awful to the point where may never use it again. On the flip side, everything else was still very good including the MDR for the Seaday brunch and breakfast was excellent 7/8 days there. There was only one other dish I couldn't eat but that was my own preferences. Already miss the pizza.

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nebmema 1 year ago

We rarely eat at the buffet on CCL ships. Since the return to cruising the selection and quality of the food has deteriorated. The Magic is our favorite ship and size for us. Thanks for sharing.

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natelorip 1 year ago

Thanks for the detailed review.

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javawoody 1 year ago

Thanks for detailed review

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cbyron3 1 year ago

Not sure why anyone would choose to use the buffet with so many other great choices.

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Gwbigdog 1 year ago

Thanks for sharing

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cruising2004 1 year ago

Thank you for sharing your cruising experience on the Carnival Magic.

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