Carnival Magic

By Peddler

• February 8, 2012

Cruise reviewCarnival Magic Dec 11 to Dec 18, 2011

Day 1, Embarkation

We arrived atLighthouse parking at 9:30 AM and immediately boarded the shuttle bus and wastransported to the cruise terminal by 10AM. We then proceeded to the check inarea which I will say went smoothly. Carnival had plenty of personal to checkyou in, walked thru the waiting area, security pictures taken and boardingpictures taken and was on the lido deck at 10:30 to 11AM. We are not V.I.P.,it's just the way they are now handling boarding…very smooth and very quick.

We had to waituntil 1:30PM to access our rooms so a drink of the day was in order and somesnacking on the Lido. At 1:30 we proceeded to our room (an inside cabin on deck6 fwd.). We had to wait a while on our luggage which arrived about 4:30PM (why,the length of time, ???). We also met our room steward Poespo, known as Po. Hewas very accommodating and polite, always knew our names.

At 6:30PM we allmet at the Northern Light dining room where we had "Your Time Dining". This wasa new experience for us as we have always had assigned dinning. This workedvery well for us. We were lucky all week as we rotated between 3 wait staffsand always had excellent service. After dinner we went to the "Welcome AboardShow" in the Showtime theater

Day 2 was a sea dayand gave us a chance to explore the ship, acquaint ourselves with the roomservice staff as well as the second of 3 Main Dining Room (MDR) wait staff.(More on the staff and dining room later). We also made the Showtime Theaterand saw their production of "Win". It was a decent production show.

Day 3 was a portday at Key West Florida. We (our group) had booked the "Hop On, Hop Off"trolley tour. I think we hopped off more than on as we were all fairly tiredafter the day. We went to the Aquarium Museum, Hemmingway House (didn't go in,I thought too expensive) Butterfly Conservatory, Southern most point for picsand walked down Duval Street and ate dinner at Salsa Loco. We then returned tothe ship with time to shower and dress for dinner This night we had a waitressthe we had a couple of years ago on the Conquest and she remembered us.

Day 4 was also aport day in Freeport Bahamas. Some of our group did the dolphin encounter andKathy and I did a coastal cruise with shopping in Port Lacaya Straw Market. Itwas a relaxing day for us after the walking that we did in Key West … We thenreturned to the ship with time to nap, shower, and get ready for dinner wherewe met the third wait staff of the week.

Day 5 was also aport day and the whole group booked the "Blue Lagoon Beach Day with Lunch".This also was a very relaxing day and the lagoon was really nice. They also hada dolphin show and we were served dinner of Bar B Q chicken, hamburger, riceand peas as well as an apple. The water in the Bahamas was really cold and wedidn't venture in …After dinner we went to see the juggler act…Good I guess,just not my cup of tea. Some of our group saw the comedy act in the "Punchliner"comedy club and really enjoyed it…unfortunately we missed it.

Day 6 was a sea dayand after 3 extensive port days, we decided to not do anything and weaccomplished most of it. Friday was also the second "Dress Elegant" night andeveryone looked very nice….Not a lot of Tux but definitely suits and/ or slacksand sport coats with dress shirts and ties.

Saturday Day 7 …Final day at sea … we all met for breakfast as has been the norm in the MDR …Kathy and I did most of the packing this day and we met later at the BurritoBar … very good by the way. We then finished packing and met in the Atrium toplay some bean bag toss then to ready ourselves for dinner.

Disembarkation …This really went smooth. We were told that self-assist would begin @ 7:15 AM sowe went to breakfast extremely early and then back to the room to gather ourluggage and meet in the Showtime Theater as per plans. When we stepped out ofthe elevator on deck 3, the exit had started and we feel into line and were onthe ground by 7:30 and in the car by 8AM.

Staff;

I feel this was oneif not the most friendly cruises we have been on, both with CCL (7) and RCI(3). Here is a rundown of those that made our cruise enjoyable.

Room Steward Staff;

Po … alwaysavailable and accommodating with a smile and a good morning or good evening.

Reginald, Po'smorning assistant, always happy and greeting us.

Gordona, Po'sevening assistant, a very hard working lady and a pleasure to talk to.

MDR;

Maître D : Igor…Very friendly, very busy, but never too busy to say Hi.

Hostess (maybeassist Maître D) ; Elizabeth … A very pretty lady and always very friendly andreally taking care of business.

MDR wait staff; wehad three different seating's.

A) Vivi and her staff

Vivi was the headwaitress with her assistant Thida and Agra

A very good group,we had Vivi for dinner I think 4 times and usually for breakfast also

B) Florica and her staff

Florica was the head waitress with her assistants, Edy and Adrian. We ate with her 2 nights.Again a very good group, very friendly and outgoing.

C) Christina …We ate with Christina 2nights and have really enjoyed her along with her assistants Andy and Tanja. Wealso had her a couple of years ago in assigned dinning on the CCL Conquest.Again very businesslike as well as being very friendly. It was good to see heragain.

I would also liketo acknowledge the bar waiter Ivan, who never let our drinks go dry.

In closing, We really didn't meet anyone (staff) that was unfriendly…all were smiling, outgoing, and I feel going beyond what was needed to make you feel welcome. I even had an opportunity to talk to James Charlton (CD) several times. May I say avery nice young man.

Jim and Kathy Hammack

Rm 6288 CCL Magic12/11/2011