First off let me say that we were way happy to be a part of the inaugural cruise on the Magic out of Galveston. We originally booked it because we were excited that John Heald would be cruise director and Ken Byrne was the maitre d'. As it turned out, both of them were not in their positions. It really didn't affect our cruise, but I will say it was a little disappointing especially Ken being out do to the unfortunate altercation with a waiter. He was GREATLY missed in the dining room (more on that later). As far as John Heald, he was on the ship and we actually did bump in to him and had a short chat. James Charleton was the cruise director and did an outstanding job (although a little long winded on announcements).

Now on to the ship itself, she is a beautiful ship and I liked the common areas very much. I was glad to see that they realized the importance of having a stage area with room to dance on the promenade deck rather that blocking the walkways. The photographers still sometimes block the walkways but not as bad as on other ships and at least you aren't dodging musicians and dancers as well. The Casino Vault game however DOES block the walkway terribly and needs to be relocated.

We stayed on the 11th floor in a Spa Balcony room. The room was nice but about the same as any other balcony rooms we stayed in. Our room steward was good but he did miss our cabin service one evening which has never happened to us before. When we told him the next morning, he was very apologetic and did our room as soon as we left for breakfast but it was still another one of those, what the heck moments. Read more