Carnival Magic - Our first family cruise together! - Day 1 - 2025/03/07-08

It's time for another Flowers family adventure! 
Theresa's family just love love love going on cruises. The warm weather, the food, the entertainment. We see them when they come through Florida on their way to a cruise and they always have great things to say about it. The kids were wondering when/if we're ever going to go on a cruise ourselves? 

Well kids, it's time! After getting a deal in her inbox, Theresa found one that worked out great for our schedule and would visit some fun places too. And so, on a Friday afternoon, we all piled into the car and drove down to Miami! It's going to be a fun one! 

Because the cruise leaves relatively early on Saturday morning, we opted to get a hotel nearby and spend the night. That way we've got plenty of time to get to the cruise terminal the next day without rushing. 

What should we eat for dinner? Since we're in South Florida, Cuban food sounded appropriate. 

We found a place with great reviews, the Caribe Cafe, Restaurant, where the waitresses hardly spoke any English (fine with us), and we used our broken Spanish to order. We have great memories of a place in California Theresa and I used to eat at that had amazing Cuban food called Havana Mania. This one wasn't quite the same...

But it was still really good. Even Alli, who ordered an adult meal, had no problems cleaning her plate. Ian boldly ordered chicken fingers from the kids menu. Very adventurous. 

Back to the hotel where we'd spend a restful night. We're all excited for the next day. 

Looking out towards the airport runway. We've got a great view from our hotel room. 

Breakfast at the hotel was slammed, and it was a very limited offering. Must be a whole lot of other people heading out for cruises too! 

We found a couch and pulled a coffee table up to it to enjoy our bagels and coffee. 

After getting packed up, it was time to drive to the terminal. Us and everyone else! It's 11am and we have a check-in time of 11:30am. I'm sure we'll get there with plenty of time. 

We slowly shuffled our way forward, merging with even more people coming from another direction. But there's our berth! Terminal F for the Carnival Magic! 

After leaving our car in extended parking ($25/day), we grabbed all our luggage and started towards the boat. It's massive! 

Sure enough, by 11:30am, we made it past the first of many checkpoints before heading up the stairs to get our luggage screened. Sure we could drop it off and have it delivered to our room, but we do carry-on everywhere else, so why stop now. And hearing some general announcements on the ship a few days into the cruise that "some people haven't received their luggage, if you have something in your room that's not yours please contact guest services." made us happy we had all our things with us. 

Who's a good boy? After lining up for the metal detector, a K9 unit sniffed everyone's bags. 

Just a few more checks left...

And we're on! Welcome to your first cruise! 

The rooms aren't quite ready yet, so we've got to keep everything with us for now. First stop, our muster station. In the event of an issue on board, this is where we'll go. They scanned our cruise cards and we were free to explore the ship! 

Who is hungry? It's a cruise so the food is sure to be plentiful! Our first stop was the massive buffet at the back of the ship. Since everyone else who has boarded the ship has nothing to do and nowhere else to go, it's packed! Nearly all the seats where taken and luggage was blocking the aisles. We found a table with 2 seats, put the kids in them, and went to look for food. The lines are a little crazy too, so we'll see what we feel is worth it. 

What's this? Just one level up from buffet is the Cucina del Capitano, an Italian-themed specialty restaurant. At night, you can dine here for an add-on fee, but at lunch, everything is included! And look at all this uncramped seating! Hostess Gabriella welcomed us and showed us to a table. 

That doesn't look like pasta. Ian opted instead to wait in the pizza line just outside and bring his food here. 

But this girl is a real pasta lover. Now she has to figure out which one she likes best. Pasta with meat sauce, red sauce, or something else. 

Calories don't count on a cruise, right? 

Theresa came up with a philly cheesesteak sandwich, sourdough burger, and french fries, to go along with the linguini alfredo, lasagna, bread, and everything else we have. The grilled chicken here was really really tasty, and on future visits, T and I would order 3x chicken to go with a little bit of pasta. 

Without the kids realizing it, Theresa snuck off to the room as soon as 1:30pm rolled around. She's got some decorating to do before we get there. 

She came back and joined us in the restaurant a short time later and asked if we were ready to go check out the room! Deck 9 is just one level down from the pool deck and buffet where all the action is. I wasn't sure if we'd be hearing them through the ceiling, but everything was well insulated so we didn't hear anything. Plus we're just one floor down from getting late night pizza, ice cream, and more! 

Welcome to our room! It's a little small, but I feel that RV living has helped us get used to that. But where are the kids going to sleep? 

Our room steward, Min, stopped by a short time later to introduce himself. If we need anything, he gave us a phone number to call him if we ever needed anything. After we came back, he had lowered the kids beds down from the ceiling! Cool! 

Now that we're full on food and have left our luggage in the room, what should we do? Let's explore the ship! There's a sailing away party on the main deck and the music is loud and the beat is thumping! Everyone is ready to have a great 8 day vacation.  

At the top of the ship is a big ropes course. The kids and I took a few laps around it, reminiscing of our time in Shanghai doing the ropes course there. 

Kinda weird to think about being a hundred feet in the air on the top deck of a cruise ship, on a ropes course. 

Without even noticing it, it was so smooth, the ship pushed away from the dock and started to move out to sea! See you in 8 days! 

4pm. Goodbye Florida! 

These corridors leading to the rooms are a little trippy. It's a straight hallway going from one end of the ship to the other. It almost feels like you're looking at a mirror because everything just repeats the same over and over again. 

Time to head to dinner! Our first dinner on the cruise! There were three options to choose from when we registered. Early dining. late dining, or anytime dining. Since we didn't have specific agendas each day, we picked anytime dining and we were super happy with it! Whenever you're ready to eat, just tell them you're coming in the Carnival App. They'll tell you the estimated wait time and text when your table is ready. We liked to eat right at 5:30pm, and never did have to wait for a table. It let us eat and have the nights to ourselves, for shows, friends, or whatever. 

Every single night, the menu in the dining room changed. And if multiple things looked good, you can order as many appetizers and desserts as you like. You could even order 2 entrees, but all subsequent entrees were $5 each. Still, not a bad deal. 

And for the less adventurous, there's always the Kids Menu to pick from. This one never changed. 

I can have 2 beef entrees? I chose the 12 hour braised short rib and the broiled striploin steak. The short rib was super tender. The steak was less so, but still, I'd eat it. 

We loved our serving staff though. I Gede was super attentive and called us each by name. And when it was time for dessert, the whole staff of the restaurant came out and led everyone in a dance. Lots of fun! 

The kids couldn't wait to get back to Camp Ocean though. They have games there, along with a fun staff, and they're starting to make friends with the other kids. Plus, we gave them the ability to sign themselves out (versus needing a parent to do it), so they could run around the ship getting ice cream and snacks as much as they want. 

Flip cup tic-tac-toe.

Jenga tower

They were allowed to stay until 10pm, at which time they came to find Theresa and I reading books on the top deck. It's been a good start to the cruise!