Carnival Magic - Bahamas

After three cancelled cruises thanks to this thing called a pandemic, we booked a couple months out for a 4-day cruise on the Carnival Magic from Port Canaveral, Thursday - Monday.  Good price and easy for us to get to from central Florida.  We purchased the beverage package for this trip since we were planning to stay on the ship most of the time.

Parking
A very rare occasion, we parked at the port for easy in and out.  Usually we’d book off-site for about half the price, but I didn’t want to deal with a shuttle.  Turns out that the port wasn’t busy – at all! – and the parking was so easy!  Not a bit of traffic, plenty of parking, and a VERY short walk to the ship.  Definitely worth it this time.  We paid at the end of the trip at self-pay kiosk.

Room
We booked cabin 7347, because if we got quarantined for any reason, I wasn’t about to have an interior room.  Our cabin was a perfect location. Close to an elevator and stairwell, mid-ship.  Easy to get to Alchemy and the coffee bar and the Blue Iguana on Lido.  The room itself was quiet.  I would definitely stay in this location again.

Experience on Board
With the Cheers Package, we had a lot of freedom with our fun drinks during the day and the wines at dinner.  On the first night, we dined at the Steakhouse (pretty typical for us) and bought a bottle of wine with our onboard credit from our Carnival stockholder shares.  If you were unaware, the first night in the steakhouse gives you either a free bottle of wine (not good) or 50% any bottle (SOOOO worth it!).  I asked for the wine menu and chose a Frank Family for $95 (minus 50%).  I didn’t expect that they would bring out a 2011 FF Cab – score!  It was well-aged, and I asked our server to decant only half the bottle since we had some drinks at the steakhouse bar before dinner.  It was delicious and went perfectly with our food, and we took the rest of the bottle back to the room to drink the next day.

Here’s something we did that was a first for us on Carnival. On Celebrity, we have our pre- and after-dinner drinks and ports at either the martini bar or Cellar Masters (dependent on ship), and I remember reading somewhere that Carnival offered a different cocktail menu in the steakhouse than on other parts of the ship.  We noticed that the steakhouse had a few different liquor options and a few different wine options, and we took advantage of that.  Bonus points for being near the Limelight Lounge for pre-comedy show ports😊  In addition, the Cocina del Capitano Italian restaurant has their own special wines.  So what did we do?  Well, I sent the hubs down to the buffet to get some cheeses, and we enjoyed a couple different Italian wines in the waiting area of the Italian restaurant.  Nice find!

Safety and Health
New section for me, I know.  As vaccinated passengers, we still needed to show proof of negative COVID-19 tests, which we scheduled at CVS two-weeks out.  Super quick and easy to get those done, but they are more readily available in our area than other areas around the country (major stress point for other passengers who were traveling into Florida from smaller towns).  At the port, we showed our passports, negative test results, and vaccination cards.  I was really nervous about this whole process, but it was not stressful once there at all.  In summary, I would 100% sail again soon!

The mask policy on board was followed by most passengers and all crew.  Even if some people were a little lax, it gave me peace of mind to know that they were, at the very least, COVID-19 negative upon boarding, if not already fully vaccinated.

The crew were constantly working to keep the ship sanitized, and we really appreciated their efforts.  The buffets being fully open did throw me off a bit – not gonna lie. 

Food
Food was good as usual, but I do want to note that we used the QR codes to scan the menus onto our phones, which ended up being very convenient.  As Anytime Dining guests, we utilized the on-app Main Dining Room check-in and were able to include our travel buddies on our requests so the 4 of us could be seated together.  There was never a wait.

Overall
It felt like cruising-as-usual to me.  No real hiccups at all.  Good entertainment, no issues with the masking policy, great service, and plenty of open space to find a place to chill during the day.

It felt GREAT to be back on a cruise ship!