I had high hopes for the new Carnival Magic, since the only other Carnival cruise we've taken was a three day disaster to Cozumel. This ship is far superior and the ports were, for the most part, wonderful.

However, there were a lot of areas where improvement is called for.

SERVICE: Since we reserved a suite on the 7th deck, we received VIP boarding. What that meant was that we were ushered to the second floor of the departure terminal, while our standard cabin friends went to a longer line below. We were kept waiting, seated outside the registration room for about 10 minutes. When we were called in, we registered and then took an escalator back downstairs. There, we ended up in line almost next to our friends! We had checked in close to noon, the earliest time possible, but our luggage never materialized until 6 p.m. All of our friends got their luggage much sooner, even the ones in standard cabins. Some VIP service. Read more