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| Lido Marketplace buffet |
After a quiet night at sea, we woke up completely ready to take on the day. We decided to try the Lido Marketplace for breakfast, which of course, was completely jam packed full of people. My son waited about 15 minutes in the omelet line, while we went inside and tried to forage for food. The only fresh fruit available included apples, bananas, sliced melon and cantaloupe so I was at least happy to have those for options, but the rest was heavy on carbs and fat unfortunately. If you are big eggs and meat kind of person for breakfast, you’ll do fine here. Other options include cereal, pancakes and French toast by the omelet station near the pool, and assorted breakfast pastries. I was happy to have some grilled mushrooms and a breakfast croissant sandwich with tomatoes and cucumber to start my day.
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| Sky Course |
We decided to give the Sky Course a try and it looked like fun despite the number of young kids giving it a go. I thought for sure it would be super simple since there were so many kids there, but believe me — looks can be deceiving. The course is color coded for easy use for beginner, moderate, and difficult tracks. We never looked at the code when we started and just opted for whichever track we felt like at the moment. When I say that the little kids literally race around the track, I’m not joking! You can’t fall because you’re in a harness that is connected to the overhead track, but try telling that to your brain that is convinced you are going to fall to the deck below. It’s truly a test of balance, skill, and maybe a little faith that will get you from point A to point B. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to do something a little bit different on their next cruise.
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| The Fitness Center during embarkation day |
The miniature golf course seems to be packed no matter what time of day so we skipped that and parted ways with our son who was off to find people his own age. Since we were dressed to work out, our next stop was the fitness center. Unfortunately, like the miniature golf course, the fitness center is always packed. Relatively small in overall square footage for a ship of this size, every piece of cardio equipment is in use no matter what time you go. Even the jogging track was packed with runners, walkers, and speed walkers. Personally, I don’t like fighting to work out and I’m hoping we will find the right time to not have to negotiate to use the equipment on board. With the fitness center open from 6 am until 10 pm daily, we might need to change up our schedules to get our workout in.
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| Red Frog Pub |
Without a workout onboard for the day, we went back to our cabin to shower and change and decided that a visit to the Red Frog Pub was our next plan of attack. I ordered Red’s Painkiller, which was so good and my husband had another pint of the Thirsty Frog Ale. Our son found us and the guys enjoyed a few games on the foosball table before we headed to the outside patio to sit in the swing and then play the beanbag game out on the deck. Unfortunately, we noticed that others were not terribly successful at playing as there were three beanbags on the lifeboat under us so we only had three to play with, but we still had fun. We added in our own challenge of if you didn’t score, you had to ten pushups. Guess who was doing pushups on the deck? Yes, I was and so was my son while my husband repeatedly scored. So unfair!
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| Punchliner Comedy Brunch menu |
By this time it was after 12 pm and we were thinking about lunch, but decided to try the Punchliner Comedy Brunch, which runs from 9 am until 1:30 pm in the Northern Lights dining room on deck 3 forward. They offer a nice mix of breakfast items, like a breakfast burrito, huevos rancheros, pancakes, and more as well as lunch items including macaroni and cheese. What I was excited to try was their Bloody Mary bar where you can make your own or try one of the special Bloody Mary choices. The bar sits outside in front of the dining room in case you want to concoct your own drink or you can choose off the menu. I decided on the Caribbean Bloody Mary and my husband tried the Spicy Bloody Mary as both were supposed to be spicy and they were, but I will ask for an even spicier one next time. I will absolutely give Carnival Cruise Line credit for trying something new with an otherwise normal and routine breakfast option and by offering brunch, we can all get what we want, be it breakfast or lunch. So kudos to Carnival for thinking outside of the box!
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| Hat Trick Casino |
Our afternoon was an extremely mellow one with some time spent in the casino, but the majority of time spent sitting out on the balcony enjoying the beautiful weather and relaxing. If you have a cabin with a balcony, grab the door stop that sits near the entrance to your room and put it in between the balcony door to prevent it from slamming. Everyone’s door around us was slamming incessantly, which can become initially bothersome to downright annoying after a while. With around 1800 children onboard this cruise, some of the kids were enjoying the door slamming to the detriment of their neighbors so parents please keep an eye on your kids.
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| Chile Relleno dinner in the Northern Lights dining room |
Dinner was our formal night and many people were dressed up and ready for pictures a night of fun. We signed up for Your Time Dining, which allows us to dine when we want and when we arrived at the dining room, we were immediately seated in Ulla’s station. Our server, Ulla, is from Latvia and an absolute gem of a server. She was sweet, friendly, and efficient and made our dining experience one to remember. We are going to ask to be seated in her section again because we liked her that much. For dinner my son appears to be in a rut as he ordered the guacamole and chips, fruit cup, and the flat iron grilled steak for dinner. My husband ordered the farmer’s Greek salad and the chile relleno and I tried the stuffed mushrooms and the chile relleno as well. Our entrees were terribly disappointing as the outer coating on the chile was rock hard and the filling was some bizarre combination of corn and potatoes. What was worse was that they left the seeds and the membrane at the tip of the chile, which meant it was alarmingly spicy. I would hate to have seen a child or someone who doesn’t like spicy food take a bite of that.
There are such a wide variety of activities that you can participate in while onboard the Carnival Magic with trivia games happening nearly every hour as well as music and dancing in various venues on the ship. We wanted to try the scene at Play It Again on deck 5 but there was only one other couple in there, which was a little weird considering it was after 9 pm. Instead, we returned to our favorite, the Red Frog Pub where Adam Coe was playing his guitar and singing. We jumped up on the bar stools and our favorite bartender, Jefferson, was there to offer us a beverage. This time my husband wanted to try the paddle with a few taste options and I tried the Caribbean Iced Tea. Somehow our son located us again (we can’t seem to lose that guy!) and he was able to join us at the bar and listen to the music, too. Jefferson had a magic trick with two pieces of metal that were interlocked that kept the three of us entertained for what seemed like an eternity. Although we couldn’t figure it out on our own, Jefferson helped us eventually so we didn’t have to beat our heads against the bar to figure it out.
I forgot to mention that we learned earlier in the day that the captain decided to keep our itinerary the same so will stay on track for our original plan. We heard cheering throughout the ship when it was decided and now everyone seems ready to truly unwind and enjoy their vacation. I know we certainly are ready to let loose and have more fun so stay tuned as I continue to blog live onboard the Carnival Magic.