Carnival Magic Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,504 reviews

Some Hit Some Miss

Review for the Western Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Magic
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QfamCruiser
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jan 2015
Cabin: Balcony

This was our 3rd Carnival cruise. Some of it was great, parts were a mess.

Embarkation was a nightmare. Our port was Galveston. We did online check in and had passports. It seemed like we went from line to line. There was no differentiation - just one humongous line. It took us TWO HOURS to get thru all these line- from the time the shuttle dropped us off to the point we had our Sail'n'Sign card. I was ready to cry!!!! At least lunch was ready when we boarded.

Food - my husband and I never did the MDR - we wanted a very laid back time. So we couldn't be bothered. Maybe I should have. The buffet lines were not very appealing. Food was almost always overcooked, flavorless, and downright looked gross. This goes for all meals. We stuck to the very basics. Bagels, boiled eggs, oatmeal for breakfast. Although, even the boiled eggs were overcooked and the oatmeal was beyond hope. Boiled for 15 minutes is my guess! For lunch and dinner, we made sure to get a salad ( this was the best part of the buffet) and something simple like baked potatoes, rice, noodles. Desserts always looked gross. Thank goodness for the free ice cream (: we tried the pizza bar, the burger bar - those were pretty good. Room service was prompt and good. We only used it for cold sandwiches and salad, but I can't complain at all. Next time I will definitely try to branch out and go to the MDR or other small specialty restaurants. The biggest issue with food, aside from the subpar quality, is the LONG lines everywhere. We weren't on any set schedule, so we found these lines were consistent. Also, it seemed like there was a constant shortage of food! My husband and I were always picking the last bit of something. It seemed like there were either not enough workers to prep and serve food, or they plan very poorly. Maybe they are trying to discourage people from pigging out like there's no tomorrow, as we saw constantly, but those of us that eat normal portions suffered due to this. They did a good job of keeping the food areas clean of dirty dishes though.

Cabin Review

Balcony

Cabin 8G

No complaints about our deck. We were close to the food areas and entertainment.

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