Day 1: Embarkation on the Carnival Magic

With a good night's sleep, Cindy and I awoke with minimal difficulty to start what would probably be a long day. By the time we got downstairs to the breakfast area, it was already hopping. Thankfully we were able to get us a big cup of coffee without delay and start waking up properly. We opted not to eat any breakfast, as we'd soon be on an 8-day feeding frenzy. Guy's Burgers, Blue Iguana tacos, chocolate melting cake, ice cream on Lido....well, I'm sure you get the point.

Magic in the Morning

photo by Stephanie Schneider

Right at 10 am, our shuttle, or bus actually, pulled up and we climbed aboard for the short drive to the cruise terminal. Having never cruised out of Port Everglades before, I was curious about what to expect. We drove through an industrial area which reminded me a little of the old Port of Houston terminal. Apparently, there's a lot of expansion and renovation going on. I couldn't immediately discern exactly where to go after we dropped our bags off, but a helpful employee pointed us in the right direction. Whoaaa! Look at that long line! I'm glad we are at that stage where we could bypass the general boarding and go straight to priority boarding. Once through security, we were escorted to the "Priority Lounge" to await actually boarding the ship.

Obligatory pre-boarding selfie

Time for a little Facebooking, ummm, "social media,"  before we board the ship, right? No college games have started yet, so I didn't need to open my ESPN app for any scores. Meh,  no worries. Just about 20 minutes or so of waiting and we were moving towards the gangway. Let the good times roll!

What's special about our cabin number?

I wrote about this very thing in a previous cruise blog, so for those that read it (thank you, by the way), please let some new readers take a guess first. Yes, the color is red, which means we are on the port side of the ship. That's not what I'm referring to, though. What is special about our cabin number? There were some pretty good, albeit wrong guesses the last time. Do you think you know? Please write your guess in the comments section below. 

Since we had immediate access to our cabin, we dropped off our carryon bags and headed up to Lido for some lunch. One of the best advantages of boarding early is there are no lines in the most popular dining venues. Our choices were wide open so where did we go? We followed our noses to the Mongolian Wok. 

Embarkation lunch

If only these photos could convey just how wonderful our lunch smelled! I made mine much spicier than Cindy's and enjoyed every last bite. Did I want a second bowl? Of course! Did I get a second bowl? No way! Remember, my faithful readers, pacing is everything on a cruise. Even though dinner was still a good six hours away, we wanted to be hungry so we could enjoy it. 

With lunch now complete, we decided to enjoy a cold beverage on aft Lido, and enjoy the scenery. The weather was almost perfect, with blue skies, and a mild breeze. It was...magical. See what I did there? Maybe it was just the Funship Specials we were drinking. 

Post-lunch libations

This trip would make cruise #5 for us on the Magic, so we didn't need to do much exploring. By this time, several of the college games had started, so I was happy looking up scores from some of the games and sending out a few "see y'all later" messages on social media. And taking a few photos of the Port Everglades terminal, since we haven't cruised out of here before. 

Three other cruise lines

You'll have to click on the photo above to see all three ships.  Go ahead and try it. I'll wait. See? You didn't lose your place here, did you? Can you identify all three cruise lines? Two should be easy, but the ship on the right is mostly hidden by the crane. The answer will be in the next blog.

Why is it that time flies by sooooo quickly when we are cruising? In what seemed like just a few minutes, we had to start heading down to deck 4, where our muster station is, for the mandatory safety briefing. During the safety briefing, all bar and food service is closed. Fair enough. We seasoned cruisers, at least some of us, know that timing is everything. We'll drop by the Red Frog Pub to refresh our drinks before they close. Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not advocating going into the safety briefing drunk, blitzed, buzzed, schnockered or whatever term you wish to call it. This briefing is important, especially for new cruisers. I am simply pointing out a way to make it a little more enjoyable. 

Thankfully everyone showed up to their assigned muster stations on time and the briefing went smoothly and quickly. We were released in relatively short order and it was off to Lido for the sailaway activities. Ahh, sailaway....perhaps one of my most favorite cruise activities. The embarkation sailaway is generally a big party on deck, with the CD and entertainment staff putting on dance moves with the crowd. Sailaway from the ports of call aren't big events, but I still enjoy standing at the rail as we get underway.

All of us "Big Sexy Flashers" (my term, by the way) had our custom shirts on and what a large contingent we made on Lido. The more, the merrier as the saying goes, and merry we were. I can tell already that there will be no shortage of fun on this cruise. Like there was ever any doubt to begin with...

Todd getting his groove on

We hung out on Lido for most all of the activities, then headed down to the cabin to freshen up for dinner. Our muster station just happens to be in the upper main dining room (MDR) where our table is. Cindy and I hoped we'd be seated at a large table with fun tablemates. We've never really had bad tablemates, and fortunately, we've usually had really fun people to dine with. Oh, wait, before heading to our cabin, I need to get a sunset photo. 

See ya next week, Ft. Lauderdale!

Not only had our bags already been delivered, but Rowena, our cabin steward, placed them inside the cabin for us. Wow, thanks, Rowena! That was really cool of you. Some people live out of their suitcase on a cruise, and others, like me, unpack everything and put it away. Personally, I'd rather unpack everything, but for those that live out of the suitcase, well, fine by me. It's your cruise, and you should do what works best for you.

D'oh! We were so busy unpacking that we let the time get away from us. We hurriedly changed into our dinner clothes and hustled down to deck 4 aft, to our dining room. For this cruise, we were assigned to table 769, which is all the way aft. Had it not already been dark, I'm sure the view would've been fantastic. We found our table, a rectangular 8-top, already occupied by two couples. All of us were Big Sexy Flashers, so I knew we'd have a blast. Our tablemates were Jeff Denise from Ohio and Randy and Diane from Pennsylvania. 

I'm always hesitant to heap praise on specific Carnival employees because I don't want to imply that others I didn't name aren't deserving of the same praise. That being said, I would like to say that our waitstaff on this cruise was the best we've had in the past several cruises, bar none. We were fortunate to have Kumara as our Headwaiter and Setiawan and Jose rounding out the team. These three rockstars were attentive to every detail and we never had to wait for any courses or anything special we asked for. 

Setiawan, Kumara, and Jose

As is our custom, we asked for a cheese plate from the dessert menu as a "standing appetizer" each night. This is in addition to whatever appetizer is also on the menu, as the cheese wedges add a nice little touch. We enjoy sharing this with the rest of the table for those who want to partake.

Cheese plate appetizer

Those who have read my other cruise blog series, this will be familiar to you. For my new readers, I'll include the exact menu name and description of each dish I had during the cruise. I'm sure some of y'all will even notice familiar dishes. Yes, once I find a dish I particularly like, I'll order it again....and again.

Appetizer: Smoked Poblano and Corn Soup

Charred roma, crema fresca, cumin, lime

I don't recall ever having this appetizer before, and I'm glad I tried it out. The soup had a rich, smoky flavor with a nice mouthfeel. This is a keeper!

One of the few things I wish Carnival would change is their menu. Several dishes have gotten to be a bit, well, boring for me and a change would be nice. Other dishes, though, are really enjoyable and I'm happy to order them each time. Overall, I guess these balance each other out. 

Main: Pork Chop

Caramelized onions, stewed apple, mash

Nothing on the regular menu caught my eye, so I ordered off the "From the Grill" menu, which is available every night. The combination of apple and pork chop worked well and adding some of the caramelized onion to the mashed potato finished it to my satisfaction.

Dessert: Caramelized Phyllo with Caramel Cream

Caramel sponge, almond crumble

Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I've had this dessert before, either. As light as it was, this dessert packed a good punch of flavor. Both Cindy and I learned long ago to pace ourselves (sound familiar?) when it comes to dinner, so I was pleasantly full without being miserable. Good thing, too, as we still had plenty to do tonight. One thing was abundantly clear after our first dinner with our tablemates. We were going to get along fabulously! Even after this limited time, I could tell that all of us thought along the same lines on pretty much everything.

The timing worked out perfectly for us to attend the first "Clue: The Murder Mystery" show. This is a cruise-long event that plays out much like the classic board game Clue. This first show would introduce all of the suspects and their potential motives for the murder. While all of the names and weapons were identical to the original board game, the locations were adapted to the ship. Clues would be given throughout the week, and on the final sea day, the case would be revealed. Each participant would have until then to find all the clues and make their guess. One lucky person who had all the correct answers would be drawn from those who took part. Our first experience with this was on the Liberty, back in 2013. Josh definitely had fun with this. I know.......I know!

Once we finished with Clue, we headed all the way aft to the comedy club to catch comedian Graig Murphy's show. Cindy and I have never attended one of his shows, and I'm glad we were able to see him perform. He does a great show, and both of us had lots of laughs. I guess that's the whole point, right? If you ever get a chance to check out one of his shows, I encourage you to do so. I'm sure you'll have as good a time as we did.

By now it was close to 11 pm and our first "Cigars Under the Stars" (I'm lazy, so I'll just refer to this in the future as "CUtS") on the Lanai, deck 5 port.  With the exception of only a couple of nights, this would become a nightly event for us Big Sexy Flashers. What? You don't smoke? No worries, I don't, either. All were welcome to just hang out and enjoy the fellowship of the rest of the group. And enjoy an adult beverage or two (or more) should that strike your fancy. Many of the Big Sexy Flashers were longtime friends, or at least have sailed together on the previous two Big Sexy Flashback Voyages. Cindy and I were relative strangers to this august group, but we definitely departed as family at the end of the cruise. We were warmly welcomed (try saying that phrase three times really fast) that first night and made to feel part of the family right then and right there.

Cigars Under the Stars

Time definitely flew by and before we knew it, it was late! We broke up the fun and as we were heading back to our cabin, I made a detour to Lido. Some of y'all know what's coming, right? Yes, in true form, I decided to grab either a slice of pizza or a grilled ham and cheese sandwich? Why? Because I could! We started this "tradition," if you will, back in 2015 when our scuba club took a group cruise on the Magic. One late night, a few of us wanted a snack so we went up to Lido to grab something. I've done this off and on since then, and look forward to this nightly bite.

Snacks in hand, Cindy and I were walking to the drink dispenser when I heard "Hey Patrick, over here!" I looked around and had to laugh as I saw Josh and Frank sitting at a table, enjoying their own late-night snack. Well, I guess we just transitioned from "Cigars Under the Stars" to "Late Night Snacks on Lido." We enjoyed our food and called it a day. Our first port was tomorrow. We didn't have anything scheduled at Half Moon Cay, so we could sleep in before going ashore. It's been a long day, and our bed is definitely calling our name.

Do any of you have cruise "traditions" like late-night snacks or something unusual? I'd love to hear about it in the comments section below.

Coming up next, our day in Half Moon Cay.

The first blog in this series can be found here.

Until next time.....

carpe cerevisi