Carnival Magic Review

4.0 / 5.0
1,506 reviews

Carnival Magic - 7/23- Eastern: We are back on the Carnival train!

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Magic
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Steveanaruss
10+ Cruises • Age 40s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
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Entertainment
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Additional details

Sail Date: Jul 2016
Cabin: Spa Balcony
Traveled with children

Let me start by saying that this was our first Carnival cruise in about 4 years. We took a break from Carnival and sailed on NCL and RCL a few times during that period. We mainly went back to Carnival because of the itinerary of this ship, and the recent Fun 2.0 upgrades completed. We were not disappointed and we are definitely going to cruise Carnival again.

This cruise was a celebration of my Wife’s birthday and our 15th wedding anniversary. We traveled with our son (11) and another family who also had 2 son’s (9 and 11).

Embarkation: We live in Tampa, so we headed out on our 2 hour journey around 8:30am. We arrived at the port, very little traffic that early in the morning, and were parked and walking to the terminal around 11am. We originally had purchased FTTF (Faster to the Fun), but decided to cancel it after the family we were traveling with could not get it. I cancelled online about 1 month before departure, but when we arrived at the terminal, we were told that we were on the FTTF list! I was honest and told them that we did not pay for it, but they insisted and told us about all of the perks…more on that later. We decided to “slum it” with the common folk and wait with our friends to board. We were in boarding group #5 and were called around 11:30 to board. Definitely the easiest embarkation I have ever been involved in. TIP – try to get to the terminal before 11am. If you do, I really don’t see the benefit of FTTF for boarding purposes. We were called 10 minutes after the FTTF group was. There is a reason that Port Canaveral is consistently rated as one of the best ports to get in and out of.

Cabin Review

Spa Balcony

Cabin 8S

Cabin: 12040 – Spa Balcony (Sleeps 3, no pullman): GREAT LOCATION! The room itself is your typical room, just decorated in muted tones of green and blue. My wife said it was very calming. You are provided a robe and slippers for the spa, along with ELEMIS products in the bath room. Balcony is a little small, but big enough for 2 chairs. You are directly across the hall to a door that leads to the elevators and walkway to the spa/gym. If you hang a right out of the room, you are taken to the Splash Deck. I was a little nervous about being so close to the splash deck with noise/etc. Not once did we hear it. Even during the middle of the day, we never once heard kids/etc. The Balcony is NOT covered, and if you look up, you can see anyone who decides to look over the railing from the Serenity deck, however the serenity is pretty empty at night, so you don't lose any privacy. The location alone is reason enough to book this cabin. Our friends were one deck below in Cabin 11244 and said they liked the location as well. The Spa Deck is 1 floor above and was great to relax in after working out in the morning. They have a Thelasso pool, tile chairs, Oriental Steam room, Dry Sauna and Aroma Steam Room that are included with your Spa Balcony. You are also given a “DIY In Room Scrub Treatment”, which you can select from Eucalyptus, Chocolate, Vanilla or Lavender. All of them smell really good. We went to this area daily and it was never really busy. Always a place to sit. Remember to wear your sandals or spa slippers, the floors in the spa area are very SLIPPERY!

Port Reviews

Grand Turk

The beach off the port is great. Short walk to Jacks Shack. Chairs fill up quick, so dont lolly gag getting off the ship. We were the only ship in port that day.

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)

The pool area is fantastic.

Port Canaveral (Orlando)

Very easy embarkation and debarkation. There is a reason why this is consistently voted the best port in Florida.

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