During the last two weeks of August, 2012, my wife and I did back-to-back cruises on the Carnival Magic... a total of 14 days onboard... cruising from Galveston, Texas... and visiting Isla Roatan, Cozumel, Belize, Grand Cayman, and Montego Bay in Jamaica. It was our 14th and 15th cruises with Carnival! Out of all those cruises, our favorite cruise ship is... the Carnival Magic!
At the time we sailed on her, the Carnival Magic was the 2nd newest ship in the Carnival fleet... and she sported a huge number of improvements over the other Carnival ships we've sailed on. Even though I had done quite a bit of pre-cruise research about the Carnival Magic, I was really surprised once I got onboard and started noticing the combined overall effect of each of the little things Carnival had improved upon... it was clearly a superior ship over the others I had been on.
Carnival has obviously learned a lot over the years! This ship incorporates the best of their other ships and then adds a whole host of improvements.
Excellent location... away from all sources of noise. Close to the gym and the Serenity retreat. An easy elevator ride to the main show lounge or main lobby. It's great that neighbors in the other spa balcony cabins are not allowed to smoke... but beware that the folks on the lower decks are allowed to smoke on their balconies. A tiny amount of smoke may blow up to your balcony. The decor in the spa cabins is very nice and tasteful... not loud like on other Carnival ships. I thought the pictures in this room were hung too low, though!