Carnival Magic Review

Perfect family get-away!

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Carnival Magic
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joebess1
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Jul 2017
Cabin: Cove Balcony
Traveled with children

This was our fourth cruise on our fourth cruise line. I have now cruised with Holland America, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and now Carnival. Of the four, I would recommend Carnival over the others.

The Carnival Magic was spectacular, very clean, lots of energy, but with plenty of opportunity to relax and unwind. We cruised with three young children under 9, all of which loved the water slides, rope course, mini golf, and kids camp. The staff was friendly and professional. The cruise director, Dr. E, was amazing and very memorable, I'm still singing "Good Morning" in my head. The food was plentiful and delicious, much better than the food on our last Royal Caribbean ship. The dining room staff was fast and provided entertainment as well. The buffets were varied with foods from around the world and also high quality. The bar staff was ever-present and not TOO overpriced (it is a cruise after all.)

We will likely cruise again, and Carnival Magic will be high on my list. For the size of the ship, with 3600+ passengers, I never felt crowded and we never had to wait in any long lines. Of course you'll wait a few minutes to get through the buffet line, but even at peak times we never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes to get our food and sit down.

Cabin Review

Cove Balcony

Cabin 7C

We enjoyed our cove balcony room. Although perhaps smaller than the rooms on the upper decks, the cove balcony provided several benefits. First of all, the life boats hang on the deck above the cove balconies. This acts as a sort of sun shade making spending time on the balcony very enjoyable. Our room was below the galley, which did cause some early morning noise, but nothing that was too distracting. Being on deck 2 also made it convenient to use the stairs to the dining rooms and indoor attractions. Getting up to deck 10 and above did require using elevators, which was sometimes annoying.

Port Reviews

Port Canaveral (Orlando)

Embarkation was extremely easy. 13 minutes from our car to onboard.

Nassau

Nassau was loud, dirty, and an overall poor experience. The locals bombard you from your first step off the pier until you finally have had enough and get back on the boat. Others' experience may vary, but if we return to Nassau we will either stay on the boat or go to Atlantis.

Amber Cove (Puerto Plata)

We visited Ocean World, which was small and overcrowded. We had 3-4 hours to visit which was plenty of time. We paid for the dolphin encounter which was very fun and well run. The other shows didn't have enough seating and were lackluster.

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