We traveled to the Port of Galveston from Orange, Texas, by way of highways 73 and 87 and the Galveston ferry. No problems. Arrived at the port by 10:30. We were awed by our big, beautiful ship, the Magic. We paid our tips to the man who took our luggage and then the guys went to park down the street (I think parking was $70.) They were shuttled back and then we all boarded. Quick and easy. We were eating lunch at the buffet on the Lido deck before noon.

We heard a rumor that our rooms were ready, so by 12:30 we were indeed in our rooms checking it out. My husband and I who had never cruised before were surprised at how roomy and nice it was. Even our friends, who had cruised before on Royal C. and Norwegian, said it was the best room that they had ever had. And the balcony was great. We met and asked our room steward if the balcony could be opened between our two rooms and it was quickly done. Nice!

I'll describe the room: When you first walk in, to the left is 3 closets....the first one has hangers and at the bottom are the life preservers; we hung our dinner clothes in here. Plenty of hangers. The second closet had 2 robes and more hangers. The third closet had shelves. After that, there is a long mirror on the wall above a long cabinet that has drawers, a sitting area with a bench, refrigerator cabinet, safe cabinet. There's a couple of plugs along here, but I never saw any need for an extension cord or power strip. Lastly, is a little shelf where the glasses and ice bucket is; other little shelves under that. Above that area is the flat-screen TV. Then you walk straight to the door that goes out to your balcony. So, we had plenty of room for hanging clothes and storage for all of our stuff. Now, back to the entrance door, to the right, this time, there is the bathroom. Sure, it's small, but we found it to be a good, practical design. I was surprised that there was plenty of shelves to put all my bathroom things. So, I did NOT need that over-the-door clear shoe holder (back in the suitcase it went). Plus, there was 2 towel hangers on the door that I did not want to cover. I especially liked the clothesline that you can stretch across the shower. It was long enough to hang a couple of bathing suits, even though we usually clipped our bathing suits to our balcony chairs to dry out. After the bathroom is the couch and small table. Then the bed with an end table and lamp on each side. Then there's a big window. Summary: Although we have nothing to compare it to, we felt the design of the room was great. We had plenty of room to store everything. Our suitcases fit under the bed, so they were out of the way. And the bed was very comfortable. Loved the balcony for morning coffee! Read more