Our family of 10 sailed on the Carnival Dream 18 months ago and had a great time--first time our family had all cruised together. Experience was so good we all wanted to do it again. We chose the Carnival Magic because it its similar to the Dream, seemed even better, when we were searching ships. We found the date available to us, the price we were willing to pay, even though we paid extra to have balconies next to one another. That's were the negative feedback will come from. When we booked the cruise through a Carnival rep, we told her how much we enjoyed opening our adjoining balconies so we could all sit out together, and the grandkids could go from one cabin to another without going in and out the hallway doors. That was a highlight of our cruise on the Dream and she assured us that could be done--just go let our cabin steward know to open them when we boarded. I called the week before we sailed, just to make sure it would be done and assured it would be, just to let the steward know. We did, he opened them, but when we returned from dinner the balcony partition was closed. We called him, asked why, he informed us it was a safety issue--no other explanation. We contacted guest relations without any additional explanation. We asked for her superior and we were given the same rehearsed answer--no other explanation. We had looked so forward to this part of our trip, and after being informed by two different Carnival reps, with no hesitation, it was VERY disappointing when it did not happen.

Another issue we had with this trip were the "professional" photos taken. We take this opportunity to have family pictures taken, and the majority of our pictures either had family members cut off on the edges or bad shading of faces, off-centering, terrible pictures for what you have to pay for them.

In the dining room we had an excellent head waiter, Alexis. But his staff could not speak or understand English. You would think this area would place staff who could communicate with passengers. Read more