Carnival Magic Review
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I'm one of those people who, before we sailed, camped out on Cruise Critic reading all the reviews of the Magic, the ports of call, things to do, stuff to take, etc., so that I would know everything there was know. I had everything organized, excursions planned, packing done, and ready to go a week ahead of sailing. My husband just rolled his eyes at me and jokingly said I was way TOO organized! :) After we were on the ship - he appreciated some of that pre-planning I did because everything went just as planned with no surprises!
I have to say after cruising on the Magic in September, I was more than a little confused by some of the low Cruise Critic reviews of this wonderful ship! I know you can't please everyone, but....WOW, why the negatives? You're on a cruise, you're not at work, you don't have to clean, wash clothes or fix a meal! I can't imagine why you would complain?! I have cruised two other times with my teenage daughter (while the hubby went deer hunting) on mother-daughter cruises on Carnival's Ecstasy & Conquest, and we loved it. She married this year, and since my husband & I were celebrating our 35th anniversary, I talked him into cruising with me for the first time. After this Magical cruise - he's hooked. What can I say?
The Magic is a beautiful ship. We loved the decor. It's stylish and easy to maneuver once you get the hang of things. Our room (7th floor, aft, balcony room 7448) was very roomy and had plenty of storage. The balcony makes your room feel even larger. It also seemed pretty quiet down at this end of the ship. We loved the extra space to sit outside and watch the ocean go by. We had a king bed with a couch in the room. Our bathroom was plenty big and the shower was roomy. We didn't take (or need) an over the door shoe-holder as many suggest. We did bring along some clothes pins, because they were handy to clip our wet bathing suits to the clothes line in the shower at night. There were plenty of shelves in the bathroom for two people. There are two closets for hang-up clothes. I brought a few extra hangers with us, but there are quite a few in the closet. Another closet had three shelves we used for fold-up clothes. The dresser area had five drawers. I used one for makeup, and the others for our underwear & bathing suits. (There is a hair dryer in one of the drawers.) Our steward agreed to let us remove their cokes/drinks from the fridge and put in our own cokes we carried on board. The safe was sufficient size for all of our valuables, including my iPad, our 2 Kindles, valuables, passports, extra money, etc., when we were on shore. It is a key-pad safe, meaning you put in your own 4 digit code. (You don't use a card.) The room lights were controlled by our Sail & Sign card, or you could use a business card, etc., in it if you wanted. The S&S card was fine for us.
Cabin Review
Balcony
Our room was aft, on the port side of the ship. We were next to the balcony that starts wrapping around the back of the ship. We could see front & back of the ship pretty good from our balcony.
We felt this room was in a quiet area, since there isn't much traffic, other than the ones who have rooms at the end of the hall.
We had plenty of storage - 3 closets, and one that had 3 shelves. Plenty of room to unload all of our suitcases. We had 5 suitcases, and the stored under the bed easily. The dresser area is very roomy with 5 drawers. There is a hairdryer in one of the drawers. It's not super-powerful, but was fine for the week, so you don't have to bring your own. We brought a power strip, but I think I remember at least 3 plugs at the dresser area - so we really didn't need it. There is also a plug in the bathroom, but we never used it.
The kingsize bed was very comfy. There is also a full size couch and coffee table in the room. The balcony had 2 chairs and a table. We enjoyed the extra outside room the balcony gave us. One whole wall of our cabin was window & balcony door, so we had a beautiful view.
The bathroom was very roomy also. The shower had great water pressure. We never had any trouble with our shower curtain sticking too us, so there wasn't any need for the clothes pins at the bottom that some suggest. We did use the clothes pins on the shower's clothes line to dry our bathing suits at night though. There is shower gel and shampoo in the shower. I would suggest bringing your own conditioner, though.
There is a refrigerator in the dresser area. We asked our steward the first day if we could stow our own cokes in the fridge, and take out their drinks, which he agreed to. There is also a safe in the dresser area, that has a keypad lock. It was big enough for all of our valuables, iPad, Kindles, money, etc. I don't think it could hold a full size laptop.
The room steward kept us supplied with clean towels at all times. He kept our room spotless. There are two very nice robes in the room.
We loved the room, and the two of us never felt cramped at all.