We booked an Eastern Caribbean cruise on Carnival after cruising several times on Royal Caribbean. We selected this cruise primarily for it departure port (Port Canaveral) and itinerary, which included Amber Cove, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk. It had been several years since sailing with Carnival, and I can say we were quite happy with our experience. Although a little confusing to get to the designated parking area for our cruise, embarkation at Port Canaveral was simple and quick. We did take advantage of Carnival's Faster to the Fun, which helped in that we could arrive as early as we wanted.

The Magic is the largest ship that we have cruised on, but after a day or so on board the crowds seem to filter out except for the the more popular spots (e.g. Guys Burgers, Pig and Anchor, Punchliner). There were always plenty of activities going on, and Dr. E was an outstanding cruise director. We attended three production shows, all of which were entertaining and of high quality. As with every Carnival cruise, we did encounter some rude cruisers intent on sending one or two of their large groups to save a dozen seats 30 minutes before show times. The food in general was probably the best of all of our cruise in the past 6 or 7 years. We ate at the buffet for breakfast and it was about what you would expect. The Blue Iguana offered a delicious alternative to the standard buffet scrambled eggs. Any-time dining in the Northern Lights was pleasant with good variety and quality. The wait staff was good but seemed to be a little overworked. We had a balcony cabin on Deck 9 which was a first for us and will likely be the standard for our next cruises.

Biggest gripe about this trip was the stench of cigarette smoke coming from the casino that polluted the air on the Promenade Deck. We also encountered several rude passengers who felt that the smoking rules did not apply to them. I really wish a cruise line could figure out how to make totally smoke-free cruising work. Also, the hot tubs seemed to be always filled with unsupervised children, probably a function of our cruise dates that fell around spring breaks. Read more