A little background: I traveled with my husband and our 3 boys, ages 14, 14, and 13. This was our 6th cruise and 3rd with Carnival (2 with RCL – Oasis and Liberty- and 1 with NCL- Jewel). I will give my review of the Magic and include a brief comparison to RCL.
Getting there/Embarkation: We are from NJ so we flew to Orlando the day before the cruise. We rented a car at the Orlando airport so we could go to Disney the day before the cruise. We returned the rental on the morning of the cruise at the port rental location and they shuttled us the mile or so to the port. Since our car was set for return by 10:00am, we were at the port by 10:30 or so. This was probably the best/quickest embarkation we have ever had. We only waited about 30 seconds in the security line and the same for the cruise check in line. Check-in took a few minutes as we had 2 cabins to check in. We got through that and after about 5 minutes we boarded the ship. We were on the ship and exploring by 11:30 am. We ate lunch around 12 and our rooms were ready by 1:00. Luggage was delivered before the muster drill so we were all ready to go! Of all of the cruises, Carnival has always been the quickest and easiest embarkation.
Cabins: We had connecting staterooms on the 7th deck in the front of the ship. The rooms were standard balcony rooms. They were always clean and our room attendant was very friendly, although, we only saw him in the morning and evening when he was cleaning the rooms. Our balcony was the first balcony on the side in the front of the ship, so we had a camera right at the top of our balcony. The connecting door connecting our two balconies was very narrow as it seems as though it is in a support beam. The balcony had a bit of a dirty feel to it and always had water collected because it didn’t go towards the drain. The doors connecting the staterooms were also strange in that they couldn’t be propped open, so every time someone went through the doors would bang shut (kids just don’t gently close the door). I eventually put a towel around the door frame on the floor so it would stop the banging. There should be a way to hold the doors open.
We enjoyed walking around the downtown area.
If you don't book an excursion you are stuck in the port shopping area. We ended up taking a local tour and had a great time, but this is never recommended as these tours are not backed by the ships