Hey my readers!! Recently I took my first cruise EVER and let me tell you it was a blast! If you are a foodie and love travel, this kind of trip is for you! As a cruise newbie I did learn a lot and gain some tips that I will use on the next one I take. I wanted to share those tips along with some pros and cons of cruising with Carnival and my overall thought about the cruise vaca!

We decided to cruise with Carnival on one of their newest ships, The Carnival Magic. We have family and friends who cruise a lot and said that they had been dying to go on the Magic, well when booking our trip we saw the opportunity to travel on this high demanding ship and decided to take it. My parents cruised with Carnival for their honeymoon, which was 27 years ago. They had told me all about how their ship was so extravagant, with chandeliers everywhere and ice sculptures. Well going in I had very high expectations, lets just say that the Carnival Magic did not completely reach those expectations… at least not with the appearance. For being one of their newest ships, it seemed outdated. BUT their crew made up for their outdated appearance… They were remarkable and I was so impressed by their positive attitude all week!

Now lets talk about the boat itself and what Carnival Magic had to offer. Can’t talk about a cruise without talking about the FOOD! The ship had food galore and catered all taste buds. We wish we had known that you could have eaten breakfast at the Southern Lights Dinning room instead of just the buffet because that is what we would have chosen! We ate their the last 2 mornings and it was so good! For lunch, Guy Fieri had 2 restaurants on board, a burger and a BBQ joint. Best burgers you will ever eat! They were delicious… unfortunately we couldn’t get past the burgers to go try the BBQ place. They also had a buffet with a variety of options to choose from as well as a pizza place, a cantina, and a 24HR FRO-YO bar! The one con was that majority of these closed at 4pm… no worries though, the ship had 2 large dining halls and 2 restaurants. We looked forward to dinner each night in the Northern Lights Dinning room. We had the best wait crew that made each dinner extremely enjoyable. What we enjoyed most was that the menu would change each night so it would be a surprise on what we would eat for dinner. And to top off the night you had to visit the Alchemy Bar where their mixologist would mix up the perfect customize drink for you! The cruise director kept the entertainment going from morning till night. He planned various activities throughout the day for you to do and they would always be in your Fun Times. Some of our favorite things to do on the boat were to obviously layout on the lido deck, play putt putt on the outdoor activity course, watch movies underneath the stars on the big screen, and see the amazing performances at the Showtime theater.

 Our cruise was a week long and we sailed to 4 different destinations, Dominican Republic, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turks. Next time I would sail with fewer destinations so I would have longer at each port. Our favorite destination was San Juan, Puerto Rico! We decided to take the Rum Mixology and Salsa Lesson excursion and we are so glad we did! It was a BLAST so I highly recommend it!

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC  

SAINT THOMAS 

SAN JUAN

GRAND TURKS 

TIPS + DO’s & DON’Ts

• Go see all of the performances at the Showtime theater
• Grab a Drink at the Alchemy Bar
• Eat a burger at Guy’s Burger Joint
• Have a Ice Cream Cone from the 24hr FRO-YO Bar
• Eat breakfast at the Southern Lights Dinning room—WAY better than the buffet
• Have at least one Carnival Melting Chocolate cake.
• In the Dominican Republic stay in Amber Cove instead of doing an excursion.
• In St. Thomas go around downtown and shop or visit the beach but be sure to grab a Bushwacker before leaving the island.
• In San Juan, take the rum mixology and salsa lesson then take a stroll through the street market!
• In Grand Turks, visit the pool at Margaritaville and then head over to the beach to ride the jet skies.
• Grab some popcorn & watch a movie underneath the stars on the lido deck
• Get the “Your Time Dinning”
• Avoid booking excursions unless you have done your research