New York Magic: Day 1

By
Saint Greg

December 5, 2022

Good afternoon. I just boarded Carnival Magic in New York City. I’m about to head to my room to drop off my bags. I am heading up to deck 10 in the glass elevator. We are looking down on the atrium bar.

Here is today’s Fun Times.

It looks like my room is ready. Let’s have a look around.

I just spent four days in New York so I have laundry already.

I am going to go ahead and send out a bag of laundry.

I went ahead and unpacked, showered, and changed clothes. Now I am heading to my safety briefing also know as the muster drill.

My muster station is in the main lounge. This has been the worst safety briefing of the six I’ve had since the restart. Normally they will just get you in and out. This one is trying to audition for comedy club host. She’s talking about Bermuda and telling Titanic jokes. I just want to get out so I can get something to eat.

I finally got out of the safety briefing. Now I am on the lido deck in search of food.

They don’t have any of the the veggies. This is just a meat, cheese, sauce, and onion ring version of the ringer. Even whataburger spicy ketchup couldn’t save those fries.

I am down at the atrium bar now for a fun ship special.

I did stop by the Alchemy and the Red Frog Pub. The Alchemy is empty. Red Frog Pub has three people. I stopped in Red Frog Pub to see if they had the half price fish bowls like I had on Vista in December. The only specials they have is $1 off hurricanes. There is no Cheers package the first day out of New York so the fish bowl special would’ve helped keep costs down.

It was taking forever to get a drink in the atrium so I decided to head to the Alchemy which I knew wasn’t busy.

I noticed on the dinner menu they are serving Chicken Parmigiana from Cucina Del Capitano in the Main Dining Room. It was good when I had it on Mardi Gras last year so I’ll probably go with that tonight.

One of the alchemists mentioned they are short some items because they just came off of a 9-day cruise. I wonder if that’s why Guy’s Burgers is missing it’s veggies.

I just heard an alchemist say they can’t make a sidecar. He’s making a sidecar with bourbon instead of cognac. I know they don’t have Hennessy either.

Cruise Director Ryan made an announcement that we still have several guests who haven’t done their muster drill. We won’t be able to leave until they do. The hub app says we are sailing away but we are not.

It’s not really 32 degrees.

I moved up to the lido deck for sail away. While we wait let’s have a look at what we can see on the Intrepid.

Concorde

Remember your “Mig-28” from the original Top Gun. Picture this one black. There is no Mig-28 though.

These two in the middle are real Migs. Real old ones.

E-1

F-16. That is what the Thunderbirds are.

SR-71 still looks cool and it’s been retired for over 30 years.

This is the USS Growler submarine.

I got a bloody mary at the red frog rum bar to balance out all the sweetness from the other drinks I had.

After four days in New York City these drinks look cheap.

We are now 30 minutes late for sail away.

I grabbed a seat to wait for sail away. We are now one hour late.

After sail away I got ready for dinner and requested a table on the hub app. I’m in the atrium waiting for my table assignment.

The string trio just wrapped up. Having not been on a Dream class ship in three years, It’s an adjustment with the stage being above the bar.

Hog parking only.

Cranberry bread.

Calamari.

Caesar salad.

Chicken Parmigiana. It’s not as good as the one I had in Cucina Del Capitano last year, but it’s still pretty good.

Showtime.

I didn’t realize we had a time change. We’re going ahead an hour. I guess we’ll get an extra hour the last night.

Chocolate melting cake.

Internet is pay day-to-day. Social or value plans only. It’s about $11/day for value or $8/day for social. So far value is good. I’ve been able to steam live TV with no problem.

My steward seems good so far. He picked up my laundry. He didn’t give me any issues requesting evening service. He even offered to bring towels or whatever I wanted in the morning. I don’t need anything in the mornings but it was nice of him to ask. The others I’ve had this year have pushed back on my choice of evening service.

I am at the Welcome Aboard Show now. Cruise Director Ryan Rose is on stage. I’m having to fight with the internet a bit in the main lounge. Fortunately my baseball game is over.

The rock band is playing in Ocean Plaza.

I headed to the comedy club for Jeff Harris’ show.

Between comedy shows I’m heading back to the front of the ship. This duo just finished up in the atrium.

I headed back to the comedy club to get a seat for Vanessa Hollingshead’s show. She was pretty good. Part of her show was pretty New York specific. But she does have a New York audience.

The night club is as packed as I’ve seen one. I don’t think there was room to walk in there. Ocean plaza is about half full. The band was playing Nirvana when I walked by. The atrium has shut down for the night.

Dune is the dive-in movie on lido deck.