The Carnival Magic is a beautiful ship. We were looking forward to our second Med cruise with Carnival. New port of departure for us; Barcelona was dazzling and different from what we experienced in other trips to Europe. Nice weather, nice food, friendly (for an urban setting) people, and breathtaking architecture and history.
This cruise was a month after the maiden cruise and it was interesting for us to see crews still hurrying about finishing "the punch list": corrections (prior table/umbrella design didn't hold up on rear deck so they were being retrofitted); chaise and chairs were breaking and being replaced so initial tight budget items being re-examined; finishing certain repairs every morning had hammering and drilling waking my wife up early. Thank goodness for good coffee. These are things you might think about with new buildings, interesting to see it apply to a big, beautiful ship. I learned that that was part of advantage for Carnival to sail in Med after maiden trip: closer to construction company.
The crew was friendly and trying hard to get into the groove that helps them in their time onboard. Some were still learning differences between the Magic and where ever they had last served. The cruise director, John Heald, was already on script by our trip; an odd advantage of CruiseCritic reviews was that we had already heard his "Nice & Ezy" joke online.
This small, out-of-the-way cabin was great. Less foot traffic in the hallway outside your door. Only a few steps from the less-used rear stairwell up to the Lido deck for breakfast and the rear deck for sun (and the smoking area)