Carnival MAGIC Western Caribbean Cruise Review

So the cruise we went on was the Carnival MAGIC ship out of Galveston. A Christmas week cruise was more expensive for sure, but family plans were going nowhere, so we decided it was a great time to go. Had lots of fun.

The ports were Montego Bay Jamaica, Cayman Islands (George Town) , and Cozumel & Cancun Mexico. In Jamaica we went up the Dunns River Falls climb at Ochos Rios. It was hilariously fun, even though it's pretty damn dangerous. You have to sign a liability waiver, and I bet they've had a lot of people injured there over the years. It was in the middle of a pouring rain so the river was really rushing. I know thousands of people have done it, but it felt like quite an accomplishment for us. Can't wait to watch the video they made of it.

One thing that bothered me on Carnival was how you have to jump up and open your stateroom door in order to hear the public announcements by the cruise director or the captain. That seems so bizarre. I asked them about it and they said it's because they don't want to bother people who are trying to sleep or have some privacy. But my point was how about giving guests the option to turn on/off their in-room speakers? However, I have been on cruises where they blast away with mostly meaningless announcements in the staterooms too, so I understand the issue.

Dan- that sounds like quite the adventure there you had at Ochos Rios! Bet there was some nice scenery; I think it's nice to be out in the nature like there here and there, even if it's in the rain.

And yeah I've had the same cabin audio issues as well- too loud or too low. One of our first cruises, we were being awaken too early in the morning by loud in-room broadcasts of what's coming in for today, etc. Then in later cruises we also experienced the issue you just had where we couldn't hear anything when the cabin door was closed. For emergencies I'm sure it'd come through no problem, but yeah it'd be nice to be able to hear what the captain is saying if you happen to be in the cabin when he is doing his daily status announcement. We've found that certain channels on the TV actually will have the same audio going on, but yeah each cruise line is different. The one we were on recently there was a knob that you could control what you hear, and that ship (explorer of the seas) is not exactly state of the art!