This was the second cruise I have been on. The first cruise I ever took was to Alaska about ten years ago on the Norwegian Star. I don’t plan on waiting another ten years to take another cruise because I’ve discovered that cruising is the ideal vacation! The destinations are exotic. the food is plentiful (and mostly pretty good depending on what ship you’re on), and the activities abundant. There really is something for everyone aboard each ship.With several thousand passengers, each vessel becomes your own self-sufficient floating home taking you from destination to destination.

Recap

Day 1: First day on the Carnival Magic
Day 2-3: FUN days at sea
Day 4: Roatan, Honduras
Day 5: Belize City, Belize
Day 6: Cozumel, Mexico
Day 7: FUN day at Sea
Day 8: Back to Galveston, TX

Service

The number one thing that stuck out the most for me was the incredible service aboard the ship. Day or night, we were greeted by smiles and warm salutations from the crew. All of them are glad to direct you around the ship and will happily talk with you and ask about your day. Most were willing to go out of their way to make sure you got what you wanted or needed. One that thing struck me was how happy everyone seemed. This is one thing I have noticed about successful retail stores and other businesses. Happy employees make for happy customers. Out of the five categories I have chosen to discuss and rate, service has to be the best aspect of the Carnival Magic. They worked hard to earn their added gratuity split amongst the crew. At night the wait staff would always sing and dance to a couple of songs. When was the last time you saw that at dinner?

5/5 for a near perfect experience with the staff.

Food

Never at any point was I or should you be hungry on a cruise. Any time can be eating time and there’s always something to eat, 24/7. On the case of the Magic, it was the Pizza Bar, the soft-serve ice cream machines, and room service. All in all, the food quality was a mixed bag however.

The breakfast variety between the buffet, the outdoor grill, and brunch was excellent. It was easy to find tasty (and healthy) items with good variety. For coffee and hot beverage drinkers there are several self-brewing coffee machines for coffees, teas, and hot chocolates. In addition, there are several fruit juices (orange, apple, and guava punch) and iced tea.  Be sure to grab some fruits and fill up your water bottles before heading out for the day’s adventures.

Lunch options included the buffet, the Cucina del Capitano restaurant (gratis, free, at lunch) or the other selected restaurants (poolside grill, pizza bar, the Indian Tandoor, or the Sub Shop (also all free). I highly recommend the Tandoor and Italian restaurants as the food is quite authentic (especially the Indian) and has a more homemade touch to them. If you’re ever looking for a quick snack, check out the Pizza Bar (which is always hot and fresh) or the grill for fries and/or a burger. These two options are perfect for and get crowded after a long day of excursions on the islands. There’s also usually at least one section of the buffet open between breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that dinner was the lowest ranking aspect in terms of food and in the greatest need for improvement on my list. Again, the service in the main dining room was excellent and the staff was equally friendly, cheerful, and helpful, but the entrées were really lacking in taste, presentation, and variety. Compared with some of the other dishes and creativity on the ship, dinner seemed to fall short. Every night there were two menus. One was a fixed menu that had American staples such as a burger, salmon, a beef and chicken dish, and other common dinner foods. The other changed day to day and could be found posted outside the dining rooms or on the TVs in the room. I always ordered off the daily menu to try something new, each time, feeling a bit disappointed. The descriptions of some of the dishes of seafood and steak sound mouthwatering, but in reality, left me feeling empty inside. This meal was frequently salvaged by the excellent appetizers and desserts though! The appetizer items were fresh ideas and different and I sometimes would get two of them because I knew they would be good. Desserts too were incredibly made and definitely left you wanting more.

Alternatively, you can make dinner reservations for either the Cruise’s steak restaurant (Prime) for an extra $35 per person or the Italian restaurant for an extra $12per person. Both are all you can eat of course. I’d suggest checking out the Italian restaurant for lunch since it’s free and has pretty much the same menu and the steak restaurant if you’re a big steak lover, it’s supposed to be very good and up to steak-restaurant quality.

3.5/5 for an underwhelming dinner that didn’t quite live up to the hype of the menu.

Entertainment

Entertainment on board was average. The shows weren’t particularly large productions, the singing and dancing was mediocre. Don’t expect anything near Vegas or Broadway productions. The games and other group ship activities weren’t interesting. The bingo was overpriced.The comedy shows were either not funny or too vulgar for my tastes.

The strong suits of entertainment on board would have to be some of the quieter parts on deck where you can just kick back and relax, read a book, and just enjoy being out on the water. The Hat Trick casino was decent and the dealers were friendly. Additionally, the fitness room was quite nice and there were a dozen treadmills facing the front of the ship. One of the other nice things to check out is the piano bar which plays nightly for several hours.

If you have young kids, I think they would enjoy the mini water park, ropes course, miniature golf, kid clubs, and teen nightclubs and all the other things catered towards a younger crowd.

The entertainment definitely needs work. I don’t think Carnival ships offers anything near that of Royal Caribbean’s. RCL has many large pools, rock-climbing walls, ice-skating rinks, and Cirque du Soleil style shows. NCL even offers Blue Man Group shows. I’m ok with mediocre entertainment provided I can entertain myself. We booked the cruise to travel to cool destinations. Enjoying the ship is just a perk of getting there.

3/5 for pretty keeping myself entertained.

Itinerary

On this Western Caribbean route of the Carnival Magic from Galveston, we visited three islands (in order) Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. I’ve heard it said amongst fellow passengers that every trip has one “bad apple” when it comes to a port of call. It was supposed to have been Belize. But I have to say that if you do your research ahead of time and know what it is you want to do and where others have gone, you can have a great time. Every island has something unique to offer, you just have to find it. For a detailed overview about each day, you can read about Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel‘s individual posts.

Each day’s Fun Times Guide listed all of the activities and happenings around the ship from sun up to well after sun down. There’s various classes, shows, activities, games, art auctions, and eating events going on around the ship.

In short, our time spent in Roatan was with a tour guide showing us the island, talking about its history, the culture, and how the local people live. We also stopped at their private zoo and saw a variety the animals before heading off to the beach in the late morning and early afternoon.

In Belize, we immediately found a tour company with a boat which took us to their private island where we spent the entire day snorkeling, swimming, and relaxing on the secluded beach.

In Cozumel, we lead our own self-gudied tour to the Chankanaab National Park and spent the rest of the day shopping in the port.

5/5 for seeing new places that most don’t get to see when they think “Caribbean.”

As an aside, I would love to see Carnival or the other operators out of Galveston sail to the Eastern Caribbean and add new destinations other than Jamaica and the Grand Cayman Islands (the alternate route that runs every other week).

Value

For $550 a person per week for the 7 night trip, cruising on the Carnival Magic is a great deal!That’s $80 per person per night which includes your room, as many meals as you can eat in a day, entertainment, and a ship that takes you to some incredible and pretty exotic destinations! Had we gone the week after (through Christmas), the price would have been more than double. If you can avoid any major holidays, you can save a bundle.

The only other things to factor in are getting to and from the cruise terminal (driving to Galveston for us) and gratuity for the hardworking staff. Gratuity runs $11.50 per person per day and is broken down to 50% for the dining staff, 32% for the room stewards, and 18% for the other staff. While the amount is “suggested,” you can adjust it up or down depending on your wishes at the end of the cruise. The staff works hard around the clock to make sure all the needs of the guests are met and in my book, they definitely earned and deserve the gratuity.

One thing that I wish was included or at least cheaper was free WiFi or internet access at kiosks. I can understand being in the middle of the gulf and having to use limited bandwidth for internet among thousands of guests could probably get taxing, but it’s 2013. Being off the internet for a week though is nice to get away and not have to worry about.

5/5 for a week-long of unforgettable fun at a good deal.

Overall: 4.3/5 and highly recommended!

If you’ve ever been to Galveston, you’ll probably find that there’s not really much there, particularly when it comes to the beaches. The sand is nowhere near the crystal white beaches of Destin on the other end of the Gulf of Mexico and it’s not as pristine. Overall, a good way to end the week long pre-Christmas trip! I might add the following week of Christmas was a great way to enjoy another vacation from your vacation!

All I have are two pictures from the beach. I thought it was pretty neat to be able to park just off the beach! After about 6 hours later (lunch in Houston), we were back to dfw!

Brunch on the Magic is incredible! The wide breakfast selection included many hearty breakfast items variety of other brunch items, some with a twist (like Frosted Flakes-coated french toast). I got a fruit plate, eggs Benedict with potatoes and hash browns (didn’t realize it already came with breakfast potatoes), french toast, and cheesecake for dessert. The waiter looked at me when he was taking the order and was like “you can eat all that?” and I sure did, enjoying every bite of it!

The rest of the day we took very easy, reading a couple books. That evening, the sunset was blanketed with thick patchy clouds which made for a unique sunset over the water.

The crew put on something special for Christmas (which was in a few days time). They had “holiday” caroling in the atrium complete with all the traditional Christmas carols, Christmas lights, a live band and singers, and SNOW shooting out from the upper decks on the tenth floor. It was a lot of fun and great to see that everyone was in the Christmas spirit! Oddly enough the word Christmas was never spoken by the staff. Why not call it for what it is?

Dinner for me was a chilled mango soup (amazing!), a crab cake (a little bit too mushy for my tastes), eggplant Parmesan (way too salty), a fruit plate, and a souffle for dessert (incredible!). Overall the dinner trend continued through the week. Good appetizers and phenomenal desserts, but lackluster entrees. In short, the entrees look better than they taste (take for example the eggplant Parmesan).

After a farewell song from the entire crew, dinner was over and we would soon back to dry land. They left us with a heart shaped towel that evening.

The morning started off very lazily and later than usual, having been up later than usual the previous night and waking up early to catch the sunrise each morning really takes its toll. We had a pleasant surprise that morning having come up to the pool deck and being greeted by a flock of towel animals!

As we were disembarking from the ship, the giant Carnival Conquest parked adjacent to our ship. It’s very cool to watch such a large ship maneuver into a relatively tiny port and park, sometimes nearly parallel.Our plan for the day was to visit Chancanab Park which is similar to Sea World in the US except it’s run by the government. So in a way like a state park with sea lion and dolphin shows, but also a beach. It’s not too far from the port and can be easily accessed by taxi (we were able to split a taxi on the way back).

In the park are a variety of animals, a mini rainforest with Mayan replicas, and a nice stretch of beach for snorkeling, swimming, and lounging. Unfortunately the day was very windy as a storm was blowing through so we didn’t dare go into the water risk getting smashed against the rocks. I heard the snorkeling off the beach is gorgeous which was unfortunate timing for us because I wanted to go swimming again!

You won’t find Shamu here but the bilingual English/Spanish sea lion show was pretty entertaining. There were handful of lions dancing, playing with beach balls, balancing objects, and interacting with the trainers and audience. You can swim with the dolphins though!

One other must-see of the park is the natural lagoon just behind the beach. It’s water is crystal clear turquoise and there’s plenty of fish swimming about.

Heading back to the port, Puerta Maya, you’ll find a lot of various souvenir shops and some restaurants (more just outside the port on the other side of the street). One interesting find is a mini Chinatown complete with a wifi cafe, grocery store, and restaurant all in one. I didn’t manage to find any free wifi, but a cafe seemed to have access for customers. I must say, it is nice to get away from the ethereal chains of the internet while on vacation that tether most of us cling to (me probably more than others).

As previously mentioned, a storm was coming in. And by the time we left Puerta Maya, it had grown very dark and extremely windy. That night, we faced 70+ mph winds as we sailed back north for Galveston. Thus, no sunset could be seen :(. That night and the following morning, the boat rocked and swayed side to side the entire time. I found it soothing to be rocked to sleep, but others didn’t take it as well.

Dinner that night was one of the specialty nights complete with my favorite cut, filet mignon with entertainment provided by the wait staff, Gangnam Style! The entire crew goes out of their way to make sure you are having fun!

After dinner, we hit the Punchliner Comedy Club for a comedy show. It was OK. A bit too vulgar for my taste and more slapstick lame humor that was mildly funny at best. I’ve seen better on Comedy Central.

Not to be deterred by the windy weather, the midnight Mexican-themed fiesta was still on as scheduled. That’s all for the last port, Cozumel, day 6!

Our second port of call on the Carnival Magic brought us to the largest city of Belize and the formal capital to British Honduras, Belize City. It is one of the few countries in the region that speak English as their official language. There’s also a mix of Creole and Spanish as well. In the days leading up to our disembarkation and tender to the Belize shoreline, we were a bit apprehensive about this port of call. We had heard various things from other passengers about this being a crappy, rundown, and potentially dangerous (beyond the immediate port) port. Unlike most stops, this port was too shallow for cruise ships to venture, so we had to anchor off shore and take tender boats to actually get into Belize and find a tour to join.

We woke up to another beautiful morning complete with a sunrise and a nice ocean breeze. We also had neighbors that morning, the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas, also from Galveston on our same island route. It’s a really beautiful ship, especially on a backdrop of fluffy white clouds, blue sky, and turquoise waters.

We initially intended to book a tour with Carnival so that we could get an earlier tender off the ship (since they give priority to their own Carnival-booked tours) and be with a trusted operator that would get us back to the ship in time before the last tender. Unfortunately, by the time we tried to book, they were all full. We had done some prior research before docking so we knew some of the companies to look for and we knew we definitely wanted to go snorkeling and not cave tubing or sight seeing. The tour company we decided upon was Ecological Tours (Island Marketing if you book online) which owns a private island and beach called Goff’s Caye (pronounced “Key”). After waiting around in the heat of the city for a free boat to take us, we were finally back on the water leaving the city back towards the ocean, passed our cruise ship in search of greener waters.

The Belize port is very small. Only a small stretch of shops line this gated-section of the port. It was advised to not go beyond the gates into the city itself although I heard many tourist who did and say it was not bad. It’s probably just not a place you want to hang around after dark.

Goff’s Caye is like an imaginary private island paradise, something out of a dream. The sunrise image at the top of this post is actually Goff’s Caye. We had sailed by it on the way into Belize and I didn’t even realize. I recall seeing it and thinking what if I was trapped on a tiny island such as that one like Robinson Crusoe. The island itself is only a little bigger than an acre and has several palm trees, white sand, and a small gazebo where fresh lobster is grilling over a pit of fire. I must’ve been too busy salivating over the lobster that I unfortunately don’t have any pictures of it to share.After getting briefly settled on the island, the boat was ready to take people out a few hundred yards to snorkel around the perimeter of the island where the reefs are located. After a brief training demo, we were off to explore the depths below. My only real prior experience with snorkeling was in Phuket Thailand, from the previous summer. This time we had longer to snorkel and had more freedom to swim around the perimeter of the island. I got to see more fish and coral reefs. The water was quite clear and the fish were plentiful. I have to say though that the one instance we had in Phuket yielded more colorful fishes and clearer waters. I also wish I had an underwater camera to share pictures, maybe next time!

By the end of the excursion, we were exhausted and were happy to be back aboard the Magic by about 4PM in time for a late lunch, pre-dinner meal! And of course the obligatory sunset photo complete as we left Belize and headed north for Cozumel, tailing the Mariner throughout the night.

Dinner itself wasn’t too impressive this evening, but we had an incredible day on a private island! For my entree, I had some fish dish. I believe it was mahi mahi. The slab of neopolitan ice cream cake had an interesting twist to it.

This was the first morning I decided to get up at 5:30 AM to catch the sunrise and boy was it worth every minute of lost sleep! I haven’t seen a sunrise on this level in a long time! Over the next few days when I did get up early, the results were very rewarding. I should also mention getting adequate sleep on a cruise is no small task.

Roatan, Honduras was a real treat. When I first heard of places like Honduras and Belize, I didn’t know what they would have to offer. I had heard good things about Roatan, but didn’t know what to expect. I was blown away at Roatan and how pretty the island is. I think Roatan was my favorite port of call on the trip. The white beach was gorgeous and the tour of the island and local cities with Victor Bodden Tours was excellent. Our tour guide aptly named, Welcome, was very hospitable and welcoming. She even came back to pick us up after letting us stay on the beach a couple hours longer as everyone else wanted to return to the ship!

As soon as our ship docked at about 7 AM that morning, we were off to join our tour. We walked through Mahogany Bay and down a hill where there were a bunch of tour operators and hustlers looking for potential customers. It was packed with people and waiting vans and cars. One the drive back at the end of the day, I barely recognized the deserted spot on the road that was filled with people earlier that morning.

Our first stop on the tour was of French Harbor. We drove through some small cities and villages, learning about the history of the island and the culture. The island is quite poor, with tourism being the predominant industry after the fishing industry took a big hit when it moved to the mainland. There were a few recognizable American businesses.

The place we stopped in French Harbor had all these smiling kids that ran up to us. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the mind to bring some little candies or chocolates from the ship to share with them.

Next up was a local souvenir shop and then the tour headquarters where Victor has built a private animal park with tons of monkeys, birds, and other exotic animals.

After a tour through all the wildlife, it was time to hit the beach at West Bay. The beach is about a one mile stretch of sandy white beaches and crystal clear water. On the south end of the beach, is Tabyana beach where all the best snorkeling and reefs are. Unfortunately, they dropped us off at the northern end and when we realized where the best part was walking down the beach, it was time to head back to the ship.

By the time we got back to the port, we had a little bit of time to walk around. The port is called Mahogany Bay, and unless you’re sailing with Carnival, you’re not likely to end up on this part of Roatan as all the other cruise lines dock at Coxen Hole a bit further down. Carnival leases this property and built their very own port, complete with shops, their own private beach, and cable cars. I must say, a great deal of thought went into designing the port from the landscaping, the decor, and the shops. If you’re looking for local Honduras, this isn’t it. It’s 100% tourist.

While walking through the port, I spied a bunch of people hanging around an outdoor cafe with their phones and laptops in hand. I figured that there must be free wifi somewhere, so I started scouting on my phone. I noticed that there were a handful of networks, but that they were all locked. I decided to man up and ask this young guy what network he was using and the password he used. He had told me that he had randomly tried various networks until he found a key that worked. It turned out the password was 12345678 which was probably a default or just an easy password to give out. So if you’re ever looking for internet, most are 8 digits, and it’s worth trying to guess.

After being reunited on the internet for a few minutes to elate my withdrawal, my stomach got the better of me and we went back to the ship to have a really late lunch. It was about 4 PM and dinner starts at six every night. There is something nice about separating yourself from the internet and not being forced into checking emails, news, or status updates.

Sunset as we were pulling away from Mahogany Bay was pretty incredible. Not quite on par with sunrise, but still pretty cool nonetheless. There was even a hoard of other photographers vying for prime real estate on the side of the ship.

A few highlight dishes from dinner that night: a chilled peach creme soup, Tiramisu, and fruit plate!

Lastly, our pet frog for the night.

Day 5 is Belize, stay tuned!

The schedule above shows our itinerary for the week. During the course of the night, the weather cleared up and it was smooth sailing. The next morning, it began warming up and it was nice and sunny! There was an announcement that over the night, the ship made a brief detour and circled back when a patient had a “mild heart attack” and was airlifted by the Coast Guard. It’s always comforting to know that they can provide emergency medical attention at sea through their on-board clinic or evacuation if necessary even you’re out at sea.

We took our fun days very relaxing as we wanted to enjoy the vacation. We spent our time exploring the 12-deck (story) ship, eating, reading, and enjoying the beautiful views at sunset at sea. There were a lot of other activities going on like games and contests, bingo, classes, art auctions, comedy shows, duty-free shopping, the gym and spa, and the casino.

Except for evening set-dining at 6PM, all of the other food can be found up on deck 10, named Lido. This is where the pools and outdoor access are as well. There you can find the 24-7 pizza buffet where you can have your own pizza made, the Indian buffet, grill, sandwich shop, and the regular breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening buffets. There’s always something to eat on deck 10.

If you know me, I try to eat pretty healthy for the most part. This was my breakfast the first two mornings. They always had a bunch of nice looking fresh fruit every morning. I love fruit, but I hate cutting it, so this was perfect to have so many choices.

The following two are lunch from the Cucina del Capitano Italian specialty restaurant and the last is from “Tandoor,” the Indian buffet. The tandoori chicken was excellent! The Indian staff on the ship really know how to cook!

 From bow (front) to stern (back).

There was a lot of moisture in the air and so you could occasionally catch a rainbow pop up if you were lucky.

Except for the first day it was raining, I made it a point to catch sunset every evening and a few sunrises (which meant being up before 6 AM).

Sunsets without clouds aren’t the most interesting, but sprinkle in some more clouds and the result can be quite dramatic.

The lighting each night and sunset was gorgeous! These are some of my favorites from the trip of the ship itself.

Following sunset each evening at about 5:30PM, we’d have to get ready for dinner at 6PM.

Dinner Sunday night, was the first of two “captain dinners” where the dress was formal and they served lobster or filet mignon. Every other night was pretty casual, and the menu ranged from lesser cuts of steak, fish, seafood, to chicken, pork, or vegetable dishes.

Every night, the waiters would sing and dance. Since I’m terrible with song names and older music, I recognized very few. There was one night where they were all dancing to Gangnam Style which was hilarious.

One of our waiters, Gede, was really getting his dance moves on.

After dinner, we usually caught part of a show, walked around, or tried our luck in the casino. Every evening that they would come to turn down our sheets, they would leave a towel animal (these things were so cute), chocolates, and the schedule of activities for the next day.

More to come on the next days from Roatan (Honduras), Belize, and Cozumel (Mexico)!

Finally school was out and my vacation could begin! The ideal vacation that I had in mind for this past Christmas was somewhere warm, relaxing, and beautiful. Over the next few posts on our voyage, you’ll see that all three goals were accomplished. The reason this was the cruise to the “end of the world” was that we’d be in Cozumel on Friday, December 21, the last day the Mayan calendar cycle ended.

Our 7-day (Sunday to Sunday) cruise on the Carnival Magic left from Galveston at 4PM, so our first day started off with a bright and early drive from Dallas to the port. We had left a little before 7 AM and hoped to arrive at around noon, in-time to park, get on the ship, and have a little (late) lunch. We hit a nasty storm on the way down and it got really rainy around the Houston area all the way to Galveston and continued non-stop pouring as we sat on the boat waiting for its embarkation.

It took us a little longer than anticipated because of the rain, but once we got checked in, and hopped aboard at about 3:30, we went to find something to eat.The beauty about being on a cruise though is, any time is mealtime!

Luckily, by about 4:30PM when we were slowly pulling out of the port, it slowed to a drizzle and we were able to get up on the top deck and watch the city drift off before us.

The rest of the evening and night remained cloudy, breezy, and cool as we sailed into the darkness. Festivities were just beginning to start as everyone became accustomed to the ship. Over the course of the next week, we would get lost several times, taking wrong-turns and wrong stairwells to get to dinner or various other places. But before long, we and everyone else, had figured out the best way to get where they were going and people seemed to just slowly disappear as the ship got seemingly less crowded.

At dinner the first night, we found our table in one of the two main dining rooms, the “Southern Lights Dining Room” which is in the back of the ship. That night we got to meet the eight other guests that would be sharing dinner with us for the week. After dinner, we checked out the welcome aboard show in the main theater. The entertainment was hosted by the Cruise Director Jacques and featured the “Magic Dancers” and the house band. Over the week it would be the same artists in a variety of different musical styles and dance themes. While it wasn’t always Broadway Entertainment, it was decent some nights.

More to come on the Magic!