Carnival Magic Review
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Our group ranged from ages 5 to 73, and Carnival was perfect for us. There were lots of activities onboard that were appropriate for our multi-generational group. We played washers, sang karaoke, played trivia games, attended family comedy shows, parked ourselves poolside, played miniature golf and just generally had a very good time together. A couple of notes about the activities: the murder mystery game was not well done so don't play it, the hairy chest contest was allowed to get raunchy so beware, the family comedy shows were outstanding except for Sheila K who clearly had trouble doing a family friendly show, the entertainment in the theater was so-so but our tweens enjoyed it. The pools are very small and very crowded so know that they are really for sunbathing not swimming. Our kids loved Waterworks and Sports Square! The little ones enjoyed participating in activities at Camp Carnival. We never left them there more than a couple of hours and always when there was a specific activity scheduled.
We thoroughly enjoyed having dinner together each evening in the Southern Lights dining room. Our waiters were excellent, and the view terrific by the back windows. We took full advantage of ordering multiples of our courses. The food was good overall at dinner with just a few misses. For lunch, my favorite place was the grill on the deck outside the Ocean Plaza. The sliders there were very good.
I was in cabin 7455, one of the L shaped balcony cabins, and loved it. My daughter and I found it very comfortable for the two of us. Even with twin beds, there was room to easily open the bathroom door. We enjoyed sitting on our deck, especially late at night and when coming into port. Our room steward was very friendly. He spoke to us everyday and made sure our cabin was tidy and stocked with glasses, ice, towels, etc. A couple of additional notes about our cabin are that the door was not magnetic so we couldn't use the magnetic dry erase boards we brought to communicate with each other and the bathroom had lots of shelving so we did not need to use our over-the-door shoe bag that we brought.
Cabin Review
We loved this cabin. Everyone else in our group had regular balcony cabins and were jealous. There is open space to the left of the door as you enter. We put our luggage, clothes hamper, and cooler in this space. There are two hanging clothes closets and one shelved closet. In addition, there are 3-4 drawers right next to the closet in the vanity so there is lots of storage space. There is also cabinet space to the right side of the vanity by the safe. The safe was large enough to hold all of our valuables. We had twin beds set up since I was traveling with my daughter. There was a small nightstand between our beds. We used a hotel key card to keep our lights on. And, there is doorstop tucked under the lip of the closets that we used to prop our balcony door open. Our balcony was super nice. We really enjoyed sitting out on it late at night and when coming into port. We were never bothered by noise and would not have known we were wrapped around an employee stairwell except for looking at the deck plan. The bathroom was very spacious from my perspective of a cruise 20 years ago. There are lots of shelves and counter space so we did not use the over the door shoe bag we had brought for our toiletries. The towels were nice and, best of all, were replaced regularly throughout the day as they were used. Our steward also kept ice in our cooler and made sure we always had clean glasses. The walls of the cabin were magnetic so I could use the magnets I brought but didn't really because our vanity was so long that we had lots of counter space. The cabin doors though are not magnetic which we didn't know beforehand so bring peel-off decals for your outside cabin door. Last note is to make sure you order coffee and a continental breakfast the night before using the hangtag. My sister didn't and it took a long time to get an order in the morning.