We have just completed a 9 night Carnival Magic cruise in the Med and had a fantastic time. As we are new to cruising as a family I found the Cruise Critic Reviews helpful in my own planning for the trip - and so wanted to share some feedback for fellow travellers to aid your own planning in the future.
We embarked from Barcelona and we found the boarding process to be smooth and effortless. Compared to some other Ports we visited I would suggest that Barcelona is well organised and a good place to use for departing on a cruise. Debarkation is of course the time none of us want or like but that worked well too-the cab line was long but the wait was maybe only 30 minutes and cabs were plentiful.
Our biggest concern going into the Cruise was that we opted for the Outside "5 berth" family Cabin. Would that work? Well - it did! Yes - we had some "moments" when all of us were in there together but overall it was fine and it allowed us to spend our money in far better ways. It really is a good sized cabin for 5. Our kids are 9, 11 and 15 and it still worked for us - so for younger kids you will be fine. I was also amazed by the cabin sound proofing - for 9 days you would never have known we had people either side of us. Very good! We were at the back of the ship and very low level (deck 1) so we did get some engine noise and also some noise when docking but it was not too bad. Further mid ships may be better though.
Corridor outside had quite a bit of engine noise but inside it was fine. The cabin was well insulated to noise and couldn't hear anything from neighbours and only minimal corridor noise. Good to have the 2 bathrooms (only one toilet though) due to 5 of us sharing. These cabins are sold as Family cabins and they did work out ok for us. Good amount of storage -again considering were 5 sharing. Well worth the cost saving to have this cabin rather than 2 adjoining or a balcony - spend the money on cocktails and excursions instead !!