Carnival Magic Review
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There will be some that trash the January 15th trip on the Carnival Magic. I know this because I heard people on the ship planning it. So let's get past the 2 big complaints first, since they were really out of Carnival's control.
There were two very big problems this week. First, when getting on and off the ship in the Grand Caymans, tendering was outrageous., with those who were not taking excursions having to wait for hours to get off, and then waiting in line again to get back on before the last tender left at 3:30. While this seems a legitimate gripe, and I too stood in line to get back on board (I was on an excursion, so I didn't have problems getting off), there were half a dozen ships in port that day that the local tenders had to balance. Our ship was forced to wait on the others that came in before us or left before us. Trying to get over 20,000 people on and off ship would be an impossible task. Carnival could do nothing about it, and while frustrating, was a small inconvenience for the vacation.
As, too, was the fact that fog which closed the port of Galveston on our last day, meaning that we could not get off the ship until 7 hours after our expected arrival. Some got angry. And yet the whole crew of the Magic went way above and beyond to make those hours comfortable by allowing us to stay in our rooms (instead of telling us to go to a common area and wait), keeping bars and restaurants open, providing extra games and entertainment, and in general acting as if the cruise was still going on. It was a bad morning, but the entire staff made it a great time.
Cabin Review
Interior
The inside cabin was about what one grows to expect. It would be small if it were an apartment, but for a cruise ship, the inside cabin was roomy. With 2 powerplugs in the room and 1 more in the bathroom (non-grounded, so only certain plugs would work there, it was actually better set up than most.
I will say that having a rear-lower-level cabin, we heard a lot of noise going into and coming out of port. The engine noise was, to put if frankly, loud (since we got into port early, it did wake me in the morning). But other than those few time, it was a pretty quiet room. There was definitely ample closet space for me and my wife to put things... and plenty of room under the bed to store our suitcases. In general, it was a very nice stateroom.
The hallway on the first deck felt wider than most. In general, it was nice.