This was our first cruise and it was awesome! If I sail again, I would definitely put the Magic at the top of the list... we saw a few other cruise ships in port and by appearance they seem to pale in comparison to the Magic. The service, food, rooms, bathrooms... all wonderful! I don't know how they keep up with it all! The waiters in the dining room for our planned dinners were one of the best parts! These 3 guys served us every dinner we had and we became quite attached to them! Overall the cruise and the excursions were great... there are just a few things I wish I'd known...

It's true what they say.... it takes a few days to find your way around and it is frustrating at times. By the time you have it figured out, the cruise is half over! Another good reason to take the same ship next time.... you dont have the painful learning period and you can just jump right in.

When planning the trip and looking at the activities on the Magic online.. I thought, how will we choose and how will we have time for it all? The reality is quite different. My boys are ages 8 and 13. I didn't plan or expect to take the 8 year old to Camp Ocean (daycare) at all... but his cousins were also on ship with us and they went so he wanted to go too. He went for a few hours on a few days and he seemed okay about it... they play video games, legos, watch movies, have snacks, play games... he was always happy to go back with his cousins but wouldnt want to go without them. He is a bit nervous in nature I think and did not want to do the big slides at the water park but he would play at the small slide area. He could not swim in the pool without close supervision. Although he CAN swim... the entire pool is 4 feet 4 inches and is usually PACKED with adults standing in it. So he could not touch bottom in ANY pool and it was very busy. He played mini golf twice and could never get on the basketball court and was too nervous for the sky course. All shows (comedy, music, trivia, etc) were too old for him. Kids are active and dont like to sit for that stuff so much. There is an arcade but at $1-2 dollars per game it adds up fast so it's not something we could do all day every day. So for my 8 year old... basically the only fun thing he could do was play at the small slide area. Read more