So I am trying something new. Usually I blog after we have returned from our trip and everything settles down. This time I am going to try to write a little each day. However, we purchased the Premium internet package and frankly.... it stinks! LOL
Carnival Magic Day 1: Our embarkation went smoothly. We parked at the port. It seems like the staggered embarkation times are going well. It really wasn’t crowded. The Captain’s lounge, however, was pretty full this time. I had some WhenShipHappens lanyards made and handed them out to a few couples we were talking to while we were waiting. Next thing I knew they were all gone before we boarded! Guess I will be ordering some more. They came in and announced boarding was slightly delayed because 1 person from the previous cruise was still on board somewhere and they were looking for him! Ha Ha. So in case any of you were wondering… they will find you :)
This cruise was special to us because we were bringing Mark’s parents. His mom has cruised with us before, but this was his Dad’s first cruise and really, first vacation ever and it was our treat. I have run myself crazy trying to make sure everything was perfect for them that now I am a scattered brained mess… lol. I keep losing MY things. I told Mark I was afraid I was developing dementia! He lovingly says my brain has just been too busy focusing on everyone else. I guess we’ll see…
We went right to our rooms to drop off our things before heading out to explore. Mark wanted to get his Dad a Bottomless Bubbles card and I told him just to go to any bar and they should be able to do it. They happened to walk into the Red Frog Pub and ended up being the first customers and getting a free beer! What a way to start it off! I am so glad I snapped these pictures off the monitor because the next night they called our room after dinner and asked for Mark to come back and re-take his photo. They said it accidentally got deleted and they needed it to send to corporate ?? His Dad was no where to be found so I ended up being in the retake. They asked for our home address and email so .... Hmmm. I guess we will see. Thankfully though I have this picture!
I took the Mom’s and Trenton and we headed up to eat! We ran into a life sized towel animal and could not turn down the photo opportunity.
The lido on the Magic looks wonderful. It looks like the decking and pool got a facelift as well as the famous Guy’s Burger and my all-time favorite Blue Iguana. We headed straight for the tacos! The rest of the afternoon was pretty un-eventful. We walked around and looked at the ship (I couldn’t really get any good pictures because there were too many people on board already.) Here is a pic of the pool atleast... with a huge line at Guy's burgers in the background!
I will try again later. That afternoon we attended our Facebook Meet and Greet. It was nice to see some online faces and looks like everyone was having a great time! Funny story about my lanyards… I actually ordered them for the Meet and Greet. They were arriving by UPS the week we were leaving for the cruise so I was anxiously tracking them. The night they were supposed to come I checked my UPS app thingy and it says they were delivered… To a Man… Outside My House! It completely freaked me out because Mark was traveling. Turns out the neighbor got them. He thought we were already gone.
Back to the cruise… I had made reservations for the Steakhouse and we were all really excited about it. I emailed the Steakhouse prior to the cruise and requested a 6:00 time. I was told it was full and they could accommodate us at 5:30. I said that was fine. Once we were onboard I confirmed our 5:30 time in person with the steakhouse representative that was trying to get people to sign up and then again by phone because they called and left a message on our cabin phone. We showed up at 5:30 and were literally “Shoo-ed” out of the Steakhouse and they said they were not ready to give them a few more minutes. We waited 10 minutes… standing outside the now closed door. Mom’s back was starting to hurt and really… it was just awkward standing there all dressed up. Mark finally just walked in (because he’s not scared) and the whole staff was around the corner laughing and telling jokes. He almost lost his cool when the girl came over and said she was holding a meeting. He said he didn’t care. Our reservation was for 10 minutes ago and they could either offer us a seat or reschedule because he wasn’t having his family stand out in the hallway any longer. They sat us down. They didn’t even have our table of 6 arranged so we had to wait for them to move some tables. After that everything went smoothly and dinner was fantastic. We were offered a free bottle of wine since it was the first night which certainly helped to ease my frustration. I was a little shocked and disappointed with how things went. We have eaten at the steakhouse many times and never encountered customer service like that. It’s all good now. We turned in early… day 1 is always exhausting for me. Apparently Mark’s Dad was out living it up until 1:30 AM! LOL
