Carnival Magic- 6/16, Embarkation Day
Saturday, June 16th, Embarkation Day!
What a cliffhanger to leave you all on from the Pre-Cruise post. If you skimmed that post and didn't read it, I suggest you click back and go through it, because who doesn't love some good drama?
We woke up Saturday morning and realized it's finally cruise day! We also remembered that the hotel doesn't serve complimentary breakfast (Come on, just give us some waffles and cereal...) so we dug into our stash of Belvita bars and cold-brew coffee we purchased the day before. While getting ready for the day and packing up, I received a text and email from Carnival with the heartbreaking news: Due to "an issue impacting our maximum cruising speed," the ship wouldn't be in until early afternoon. Also due to this issue, "we will be unable to sustain the required speed to deliver a four port itinerary. Consequently, we will need to cancel our call in St. Thomas." UM EXCUSE ME? So due to a broken ship, we can't go to the one place we extremely wanted to visit? At this point, the issue has nothing to do with the medical emergency that happened yesterday; it solely revolves around a poorly functioning propulsion problem and that is 100% on Carnival's shoulders. Their compensation? Onboard credit of $65 per person plus a refund of taxes and fees and previously booked shore excursions. Before anyone gets on me, I've read the ticket contract, I know that it says they have the right to change the itinerary with no compensation, I get it. But when a majority of the people we ended up meeting said they booked that cruise because of the stop in St. Thomas, I don't feel like $65 is enough compensation. In addition to this terrible news, the new check-in time is from 3-6pm, four hours after the original start time.
The scene looks like this: My husband is fuming and I'm really sad, and neither of us talked for a few minutes, until I realized that we have a shuttle that's supposed to pick us up at 11:15, but now we can't arrive until 3pm. My husband calls GoPortCanaveral to see what to do, and they said they aren't adjusting their schedule and they'd pick us up at 11:15. I've read enough on Cruise Critic to know what would happen in that scenario: A) we get to the port and they tell us we can't enter that early and to turn around, or B) we get dropped off at the terminal and have to sit outside for 4 hours. Neither of those sounded great so my husband called back and the suggestion was to take the shuttle to the terminal then hang out at a restaurant nearby, such as Fish Lips. I already knew those restaurants were nowhere near the terminal and after a quick maps search, discovered that they were 3 miles away, which was certainly not walking distance and I wasn't about to pay for a rideshare to sit at a restaurant for 4 hours. My husband called a third time and said we wouldn't be taking the shuttle to the pier. So now it's about 9:30 in the morning and we need to entertain ourselves until heading to the terminal. We walked on the beach (spotting the Carnival Magic heading north into port), read, played cards in the hotel lobby, and ate lunch at Longboards again.
The beautiful beach just outside of our hotel:
That little speck on the horizon just right of center is the Magic slowly chugging into port:
After some back and forth about when to leave the hotel, I decided to order a Lyft at 2pm. I've also read enough Cruise Critic to know that showing up right at 3 would be a disaster, so I decided we should get a headstart on arriving to the terminal. It's a darn good thing I did! Our driver picked us up at 2:09pm and we had a good conversation as we headed to the terminal. A few miles away from the terminal we suddenly encountered traffic and it wouldn't end until we hopped out of the car, at 3:13pm. What a mess! Our driver was great and patient and I gave him a nice tip for his time and help, especially since a 20 minute ride turned into a 64 minute "adventure." The traffic at the terminal was crazy, and there were police helping to direct cars where to go. We quickly dropped our bags off and got in line outside. It was instantly hot and we were thankful that port staff were handing out bottled water. It surprises me how many people don't know how waiting in line works, so there was a lot of frustration on my part while standing in line. You move up when there's a gap in front of you, and you don't allow a group of people to cut in line. Ugh. We waited about 25 minutes in line before making it into the terminal, at 3:45pm, and received an updated itinerary:
Saturday- Embarkation
Sunday and Monday- Sea Days
Tuesday- San Juan 8a-3p
Wednesday- Amber Cove 9a-6p
Thursday- Grand Turk 7a-4p
Friday- Sea Day
Saturday-Debarkation
I was less than thrilled to have two sea days in the beginning and only one at the end, I think we lost an hour at San Juan, and Grand Turk was the only port to not get moved around. My husband was still incredibly ticked off and wasn't happy to see the new itinerary. We're given boarding zone 25 and sat and talked to a newlywed couple for about 30 minutes before hearing our number. At 4:25pm, we were walking up the gangway and onto our floating home for the week! To end all of that drama on a positive note, I will say this is the first time in 10 cruises that a situation like this has occurred (although our honeymoon did have the entire itinerary re-written). We stepped onto the Magic and knew we were fortunate to be there and to be sailing off for 7 days of vacation, regardless of the itinerary change, and we were determined to have a good time. All of the port staff we met were friendly and patient, and we tried to give that in return. It wasn't any single crew member's fault that St. Thomas was dropped, and they probably had a nightmare of a time that morning with angry cruise passengers debarking late, so we weren't in any place to add to the frustration.
It was weird boarding the ship so late, and when I kept looking at my watch and realizing it was 4:30 and we hadn't done anything yet, we rushed to the Tides Aft bar to get the party started. We walked up to the bar and my husband leans over to me, asking: "Doesn't that bartender look familiar? Where do we know him from?" when the lightbulb goes on and he answered his own question: RedFrog Brewery on the Vista, where we basically lived for 50% of the time we were on the ship in November 2017 for our honeymoon. Suresh, the bartender, looks up at us and freaks out, exchanging laughs and handshakes, saying he has goosebumps and that he was excited to see us again. Now, I think it's pretty awesome to be recognized by a bartender from our last cruise 7 months ago, regardless of what that says about us. We talked with Suresh for a bit and he made us two mango "Kiss on the Lips" frozen drinks and off we went to see the ship.
We're finally on the ship!
View from the aft:
We ended up in the atrium and did some people watching. It paid off when we saw this young boy enter the atrium, stare up, and drop his jaw. His excitement and awe at seeing the ship for the first time reminded me of my first cruise and how impressive everything was- I had the exact same reaction. We eventually headed to our room, dropped off our carry-ons, and got ready to explore. While in the room, our checked luggage was dropped off, which seemed really fast but welcomed. We were the chosen ones! After visiting our room, we wandered around the ship a bit more while being 40 pounds lighter and having less shoulder strain.
6434 port aft balcony:
The safe took me an extra second to find so I wanted to highlight it. The mini-fridge was in the cabinet to the left of it. We had Fun Times delivered but they were for the original boarding time plans and the entertainment schedule was for the original itinerary, but we did later receive updated copies.
My husband isn't a big fan of the atrium decor on Carnival ships and thinks they're pretty garish, but I think it's unique:
Exercise section next to the running track:
SkyCourse! We finally did this for the first time and will be reviewed on one of the sea days:
Entrance for the SkyCourse is up a level from the main deck and near the giant chess set:
Rain in the distance that would push the Sail Away party inside to the Atrium:
Pretty empty Lido deck....it wouldn't stay that way for the rest of the week though!
Muster Drill was at 6:15pm (our station was in the Southern Lights dining room) and then we walked around the ship some more. We were told that the dining facilities would all open at 7pm, and that anyone could use either dining room that night or eat in the Lido. We had Your Time Dining but weren't up for a full sit-down meal, so we went to the Lido around 7:30pm to grab dinner. The lines were ridiculous, as they only had one side of the marketplace open, and it took us 20 minutes to get through the line to even reach the food. I'm not sure if staff didn't anticipate this many people going to the Lido for dinner, but seeing these lines felt like a bad omen. After dinner we sat in the Red Frog Pub for a few hours to play cards and listen to music before walking around the ship more then heading to our room to unpack and lay down. As a piece of foreshadowing, thankfully embarkation day was the only stressful one, and the rest of the cruise was a great improvement from today.
We accidentally discovered this awesome staircase near the spa, which we ended up using a few more times because it was so cool:
The cool elevator to go along with it:
Actually a big fan of the decor in the Lido Marketplace:
If you ever need to hold a conference on the Magic:
Showtime Theater, which is infinitely better than the Vista's theatre:
The "Sail Away" party. Our Cruise Director was "Cookie" and he can be spotted in the band's overhang with the red hat and microphone. Overall, he was a blast!
The fun walkway into the Spotlight Lounge where Punchliner comedy is held:
The Piano Bar, deck 5 aft:
UP NEXT: Sunday, 6/17, Sea Day [LINK]
What a cliffhanger to leave you all on from the Pre-Cruise post. If you skimmed that post and didn't read it, I suggest you click back and go through it, because who doesn't love some good drama?
We woke up Saturday morning and realized it's finally cruise day! We also remembered that the hotel doesn't serve complimentary breakfast (Come on, just give us some waffles and cereal...) so we dug into our stash of Belvita bars and cold-brew coffee we purchased the day before. While getting ready for the day and packing up, I received a text and email from Carnival with the heartbreaking news: Due to "an issue impacting our maximum cruising speed," the ship wouldn't be in until early afternoon. Also due to this issue, "we will be unable to sustain the required speed to deliver a four port itinerary. Consequently, we will need to cancel our call in St. Thomas." UM EXCUSE ME? So due to a broken ship, we can't go to the one place we extremely wanted to visit? At this point, the issue has nothing to do with the medical emergency that happened yesterday; it solely revolves around a poorly functioning propulsion problem and that is 100% on Carnival's shoulders. Their compensation? Onboard credit of $65 per person plus a refund of taxes and fees and previously booked shore excursions. Before anyone gets on me, I've read the ticket contract, I know that it says they have the right to change the itinerary with no compensation, I get it. But when a majority of the people we ended up meeting said they booked that cruise because of the stop in St. Thomas, I don't feel like $65 is enough compensation. In addition to this terrible news, the new check-in time is from 3-6pm, four hours after the original start time.
The scene looks like this: My husband is fuming and I'm really sad, and neither of us talked for a few minutes, until I realized that we have a shuttle that's supposed to pick us up at 11:15, but now we can't arrive until 3pm. My husband calls GoPortCanaveral to see what to do, and they said they aren't adjusting their schedule and they'd pick us up at 11:15. I've read enough on Cruise Critic to know what would happen in that scenario: A) we get to the port and they tell us we can't enter that early and to turn around, or B) we get dropped off at the terminal and have to sit outside for 4 hours. Neither of those sounded great so my husband called back and the suggestion was to take the shuttle to the terminal then hang out at a restaurant nearby, such as Fish Lips. I already knew those restaurants were nowhere near the terminal and after a quick maps search, discovered that they were 3 miles away, which was certainly not walking distance and I wasn't about to pay for a rideshare to sit at a restaurant for 4 hours. My husband called a third time and said we wouldn't be taking the shuttle to the pier. So now it's about 9:30 in the morning and we need to entertain ourselves until heading to the terminal. We walked on the beach (spotting the Carnival Magic heading north into port), read, played cards in the hotel lobby, and ate lunch at Longboards again.
The beautiful beach just outside of our hotel:
That little speck on the horizon just right of center is the Magic slowly chugging into port:
After some back and forth about when to leave the hotel, I decided to order a Lyft at 2pm. I've also read enough Cruise Critic to know that showing up right at 3 would be a disaster, so I decided we should get a headstart on arriving to the terminal. It's a darn good thing I did! Our driver picked us up at 2:09pm and we had a good conversation as we headed to the terminal. A few miles away from the terminal we suddenly encountered traffic and it wouldn't end until we hopped out of the car, at 3:13pm. What a mess! Our driver was great and patient and I gave him a nice tip for his time and help, especially since a 20 minute ride turned into a 64 minute "adventure." The traffic at the terminal was crazy, and there were police helping to direct cars where to go. We quickly dropped our bags off and got in line outside. It was instantly hot and we were thankful that port staff were handing out bottled water. It surprises me how many people don't know how waiting in line works, so there was a lot of frustration on my part while standing in line. You move up when there's a gap in front of you, and you don't allow a group of people to cut in line. Ugh. We waited about 25 minutes in line before making it into the terminal, at 3:45pm, and received an updated itinerary:
Saturday- Embarkation
Sunday and Monday- Sea Days
Tuesday- San Juan 8a-3p
Wednesday- Amber Cove 9a-6p
Thursday- Grand Turk 7a-4p
Friday- Sea Day
Saturday-Debarkation
I was less than thrilled to have two sea days in the beginning and only one at the end, I think we lost an hour at San Juan, and Grand Turk was the only port to not get moved around. My husband was still incredibly ticked off and wasn't happy to see the new itinerary. We're given boarding zone 25 and sat and talked to a newlywed couple for about 30 minutes before hearing our number. At 4:25pm, we were walking up the gangway and onto our floating home for the week! To end all of that drama on a positive note, I will say this is the first time in 10 cruises that a situation like this has occurred (although our honeymoon did have the entire itinerary re-written). We stepped onto the Magic and knew we were fortunate to be there and to be sailing off for 7 days of vacation, regardless of the itinerary change, and we were determined to have a good time. All of the port staff we met were friendly and patient, and we tried to give that in return. It wasn't any single crew member's fault that St. Thomas was dropped, and they probably had a nightmare of a time that morning with angry cruise passengers debarking late, so we weren't in any place to add to the frustration.
It was weird boarding the ship so late, and when I kept looking at my watch and realizing it was 4:30 and we hadn't done anything yet, we rushed to the Tides Aft bar to get the party started. We walked up to the bar and my husband leans over to me, asking: "Doesn't that bartender look familiar? Where do we know him from?" when the lightbulb goes on and he answered his own question: RedFrog Brewery on the Vista, where we basically lived for 50% of the time we were on the ship in November 2017 for our honeymoon. Suresh, the bartender, looks up at us and freaks out, exchanging laughs and handshakes, saying he has goosebumps and that he was excited to see us again. Now, I think it's pretty awesome to be recognized by a bartender from our last cruise 7 months ago, regardless of what that says about us. We talked with Suresh for a bit and he made us two mango "Kiss on the Lips" frozen drinks and off we went to see the ship.
We're finally on the ship!
View from the aft:
We ended up in the atrium and did some people watching. It paid off when we saw this young boy enter the atrium, stare up, and drop his jaw. His excitement and awe at seeing the ship for the first time reminded me of my first cruise and how impressive everything was- I had the exact same reaction. We eventually headed to our room, dropped off our carry-ons, and got ready to explore. While in the room, our checked luggage was dropped off, which seemed really fast but welcomed. We were the chosen ones! After visiting our room, we wandered around the ship a bit more while being 40 pounds lighter and having less shoulder strain.
6434 port aft balcony:
The safe took me an extra second to find so I wanted to highlight it. The mini-fridge was in the cabinet to the left of it. We had Fun Times delivered but they were for the original boarding time plans and the entertainment schedule was for the original itinerary, but we did later receive updated copies.
My husband isn't a big fan of the atrium decor on Carnival ships and thinks they're pretty garish, but I think it's unique:
Exercise section next to the running track:
SkyCourse! We finally did this for the first time and will be reviewed on one of the sea days:
Entrance for the SkyCourse is up a level from the main deck and near the giant chess set:
Rain in the distance that would push the Sail Away party inside to the Atrium:
Pretty empty Lido deck....it wouldn't stay that way for the rest of the week though!
Muster Drill was at 6:15pm (our station was in the Southern Lights dining room) and then we walked around the ship some more. We were told that the dining facilities would all open at 7pm, and that anyone could use either dining room that night or eat in the Lido. We had Your Time Dining but weren't up for a full sit-down meal, so we went to the Lido around 7:30pm to grab dinner. The lines were ridiculous, as they only had one side of the marketplace open, and it took us 20 minutes to get through the line to even reach the food. I'm not sure if staff didn't anticipate this many people going to the Lido for dinner, but seeing these lines felt like a bad omen. After dinner we sat in the Red Frog Pub for a few hours to play cards and listen to music before walking around the ship more then heading to our room to unpack and lay down. As a piece of foreshadowing, thankfully embarkation day was the only stressful one, and the rest of the cruise was a great improvement from today.
We accidentally discovered this awesome staircase near the spa, which we ended up using a few more times because it was so cool:
The cool elevator to go along with it:
Actually a big fan of the decor in the Lido Marketplace:
If you ever need to hold a conference on the Magic:
Showtime Theater, which is infinitely better than the Vista's theatre:
The "Sail Away" party. Our Cruise Director was "Cookie" and he can be spotted in the band's overhang with the red hat and microphone. Overall, he was a blast!
The fun walkway into the Spotlight Lounge where Punchliner comedy is held:
The Piano Bar, deck 5 aft:
UP NEXT: Sunday, 6/17, Sea Day [LINK]
So, our cruise was right after yours and we missed St. Thomas and had a revised itenerary... and I agree with you, the compensation was not enough.
ReplyDeleteI understand the contract too and think the $50 would have been fine IF we had just missed the port, but they switched up our other days as well. I wish they would have dropped another port like Amber Cove or Grank Turk, personally. I really hate it for you guys because your cruise boarded so late so you basically lost a DAY of a cruise and didn't get reimbursed very much. I mean, you lost at least 4 hours as well as a dinner service. It stinks that the shuttle company wasn't more accomodating as well.
I loved that fun staircase! We always took it when we went to the Serenity deck, and we spent a lot of time there. Didn't do the ropes course so I can't wait to read about it.