We took this cruise because of the Casino promotion made it a deal difficult to pass. We had no high expectations. We usually cruise with Royal Caribbean, and the only other Carnival cruise (the one that gave us the casino promotion) was horrible. But actually it was an awesome cruise! Entertainment was fantastic - much better than on RC Adventure of the seas or NCL Escape. And the Magic is a beautiful ship with amazing crew. Their "Fun" team - headed by "Cheeky" was top notch. The waiting staff in the dining room was also outstanding. Definitely very enjoyable trip. The cons - buffet. It was the fist time ever we tried it once and didn't return. Completely senseless setup conducive to very long lines. Skip it and head to the main dining room - usually open for bkfast, brunch or lunch and dinner.

The biggest con came afterwards though - we all got Covid on a ship. We found out afterwards, that the newest variant of Covid is not detectable by the rapid Antigen tests, which is what most of guests took before boarding. So you can imagine the virus was all over the ship. It was the first time we got Covid, and took it pretty hard. We won't go on another cruise till Covid is under control. Really under control - not "pretend" it's over type of thing. Anyway, we also think Covid was the reason why we didn't see our cruise director the whole trip. We saw him one time - during the welcome aboard show - then he disappeared - must have been quarantined. No announcement was made, but Cheeky sort of took over, and she was great.