I just returned from my 5th cruise (all with Carnival) and it was another wonderful experience. I made it to the Gold club in the VIFP this cruise which I was excited about. It is the day after and I'm having one of those post cruise blues days. This cruise held many "firsts" for us. First of all it was the first time we cruised on the Magic. Let me start there. The only negative, to me, worth mentioning about the ship itself was the Spotlight Lounge. We spent a good bit of time in there and I must say my wife and I did not like it at all. We felt the layout of the lounge and the functionality of it left much to be desired. I won't go into detail on each thing but some of the things that I really liked about the Magic were the Sports area up top with all the different activities and the Waterworks. Having two teenagers and being a sports type myself we enjoyed those amenities. I won't say never, but I can't see us going on another ship that didn't have those type of amenities. It would have to be a certain itinerary that would leave us with no choice but to take that ship or until the kids are older and out of the house and not cruising with us anymore. Moving on, my wife and I noticed that there was much more lounging options on the Magic where you could find comfortable options and shade than on other ships. You'll probably notice this is more of a cruise review for a family but I hope everyone reading can pick something from it. I will also mention the promenade as always being a place we spend a good bit of time. It was very nice and we enjoyed the Ocean Plaza area with the taste bar and the different trivia they did in there. The one negative that stood out to me was more about the operations of activities and not the ship itself. All I can do is compare how activities were run on prior cruises and ships to this one and this was the worst. They would hold activities in places where it just felt cramped and I just felt like they could have done this in a better place. Two examples are the dance classes and the washers game. On past cruises, we enjoyed doing some of the dance classes and they would hold those in the big theater where you could get up on stage and all that. On the Magic they held these in smaller areas, such as the Ocean Plaza and "I think" the lobby and just that caused me to not want to take part. Also, my son and I were going to take part in the washers game to which they held in the Play it Again lounge in this tight spot between all the chairs. There may be reasons behind all of that but I just didn't like it. Ultimately, I was glad that the Magic has those extra amenities that I already talked about so that there are other things to do on the ship to stay busy and have fun if you aren't really diggin the pre-planned activities. We did go to two of the nighttime shows. We walked out of the Grooveline show and stayed for all of WIN. We probably won't plan to make the shows the next time. They were a little to risque for us and I ultimately didn't really think they were that good. We did enjoy the family comedy shows. I would circle those on my Funtimes to make sure to attend. I was disappointed that they didn't have HASBRO on the Magic but after going to the Future Cruise Talk I did find out that they will be adding that for next year.