Let me start this off by saying that we love cruising. This was our 3rd Carnival Cruise. Previously we have been on the Pride and the Conquest and we enjoyed both and decided to once again cruise with Carnival aboard the Magic. From beginning to end.. something was just.. off. The day of our sailing, the ship was moving from Port Miami to Port Everglades. With that being said, we pre-checked in at the airport and they said that since we cannot get onto the ship until "late in the afternoon", they would bus us to a mall and we would meet back at the drop off location and be shuttled to the terminal. There was mass confusion at the airport and the carnival staff was being so mean to one another - it was a huge disorganized mess. We FINALLY get on a bus and the bus drive has no clue where he is going or where to drop us off. What was supposed to be a 20 minute bus rider turned into 1 hour of us driving in literal circles. We finally get to the mall and had 3 hours to shop and time to meet back at the location to get back on the bus... more mass confusion. People everywhere. Police directing us, some carnival staff telling us to wait - while some staff is telling us to get on the bus. Passengers running in front of us to get on the bus. It was just mass chaos and extremely hot outside to be out there waiting. When we finally get to the terminal, it was more confusion because some people had an arrival appointment and some did not. People were RUNNING through the lines to get up the escalator to get on board. I could not believe what I was seeing. No sense of organization at all and passengers acting like children.

Since embarkation was a total mess it started our cruise off on a bad note. But we were determined to still have a good time - and we did. Our cabin was small but nice enough. The cabin stewards were so kind to us and always had us laughing. The food options were awesome! We loved all the food we ordered! One thing though - although the service in the dining room was great - my appetizers were wrong on multiple occasions. I know that these things happen and I did not mind the mix up. Everyone on the staff was amazing and made the ship truly feel like home.

One thing that we did not like about this ship is that it seems like there are too many people. If you did not make plans to get a lounger by the pool early.. you were not getting a chair. Lots of people were saving their seats with towels and we actually saw the rules about not saving seats being enforced which was nice because I feel like it usually isn't. Along with the chairs, if you did not plan to have your breakfast/lunch at an earlier time.. you were going to be waiting in long lines. Everything we did had to be planned around the crowds and lines. If you weren't at a comedy show 45 minutes early.. you weren't getting a seat. We bought the Cheers! drink package and at the pool .. we waited SO long for drinks that we just ended up getting up and waiting at the bar almost every time. I know this seems so "first world problem" but when you're on a cruise and in your chair comfortable.. the last thing I want to do is get up and wait. We never had that issue on any other cruise we went on. Read more