Carnival Magic - Days 2 and 3 at Sea - 2025/03/09-10

It's Day 2 of our 8 day Carnival Magic Cruise. And today is a Day at Sea. We're sailing down to Aruba and it's going to take a couple days to get there. That means we're spending the day on the boat and enjoying all that it has to offer! 

Our first night in our cruise ship cabin went well. Being an inside cabin, it's super dark, and no one was in a rush to get up. Luckily on "Days at Sea" they offer a sit down brunch that goes until 11:30am or so. And from what our family, who have done this cruise before, tells us, it's one of the best meals on the boat! 

The menu for the Day at Sea Brunch is the same for each day you're at sea (4 total on this cruise I think). Our family raved about the French toast, skillet cake, and especially the steak and eggs.  

Alli and Ian tried the Flamin Tomato Soup, but they were served this giant bowl with not a whole lot in it. 

Our waiter said that it was just a joke, and then poured steaming hot tomato soup from a carafe. Alli loved it and thought it tasted like spaghetti sauce. 

I never can resist Chicken &Waffles on a menu. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't quite this. Bone-in Chicken Wings and a small waffle. 

But the steak and eggs, that was delicious! A filet mignon steak, served with eggs any way you like them. I picked over easy so I could soak up that runny yolk and make it extra rich. The steak was seasoned well and then even knew how to cook it rare! Yum! 

Ian didn't expand his palate very much, opting for chicken nuggets and french fries (with ranch please). Theresa thought her Huevos Rancheros was just okay, and the peach compote French Toast was average. She'll try something else next time. 

The dessert to go with the brunch though... that was great! A seven layer chocolate cake (we counted) with vanilla ice cream! So good! 

After getting back to the room, the kids quickly took off to head back to Camp Ocean to meet up with their new friends. Theresa and I have the day pretty much to ourselves! Being a day at sea, everyone who is on the ship is looking for a place to hang out. The deck chairs and areas around the pool are filled, but that's okay with us. We'll head inside where it's pleasantly cool. 

The best deal on the ship. Who needs to pay $16 a pound for candy when you can get a 25 cent jawbreaker? 

Didn't we just eat? Yes we did, but the Guy Fieri's Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que is only open for lunch during days at sea. Theresa has seen stories of long lines and we figured we'd better try it while it was available.  

I asked to try all the meats! 

The Championship Pork Butt, Blue Ribbon Chicken, Smoked Beef, and Smoked Andouille Sausage along with Mac Daddy Mac N Cheese and Molasses Baked Beans. I do love some good bbq. 

Sadly this was not very good bbq. Pulled pork was not very flavorful, the chicken was the same, the smoked beef was dry, the mac n cheese was bland mush, the baked beans weren't great. The only thing I liked was the sausage and even then. After trying it today, I think I'm skipping it for the rest of the cruise. There are better options for sure. Like the Pasta restaurant that has grilled chicken and alfredo pasta! 

What about the kids. What have they been up to? 

I gave Alli an old iPhone and a lanyard so I could text them to find out where they were and we could trade texts. She used the camera to take pictures of a few of the things they did. 

Like the ship-wide scavenger hunt! 

Ian and Alli paired up with another Camp Ocean kid who could sign themselves out and spent an hour on a scavenger hunt designed to help them explore the ship early into the cruise. 

They made good use of the maps posted by all the elevators and got permission from the workers before walking the middle walkways through the casinos. 

No parents can help, only adults you don't know. They were good to find the Carnival workers who helped point them in the right direction. 

And from our shaded seats indoors, we happened to see them as they came through the main atrium searching for something. 

They certainly look like they're having fun! 

This trip is letting them flex a little bit of their independence. 

Back in the room before dinner and Alli is showing us some of the things she did today. Like this stained glass lightcatcher we can put on our window. 

Our room steward Min has left us a fun towel elephant. 

Tonight's dinner is a formal, and everyone is requested to wear their nicer clothes. We don't have occasion to dress up too often, so we scoured our drawers before the cruise to find something appropriate. 

Dinner was fine tonight, but nothing especially memorable. Ian chose pizza this time instead of chicken nuggets. Look at him branching out. 

But they were really excited to get done with dinner and back up to Camp Ocean. They'll be there until 10pm tonight when it closes. 

Doing drawings, hanging out with friends, and playing video games together. 

But what should Theresa and I do? How about see a show? We listened and sang along to some fun piano music in the main auditorium. 

And a fun show afterwards, though next time I'm definitely bringing headphones. My watch was going off about a "loud environment" over and over again. 

The next morning, we were all slow to get up. The kids hopped down into our bed to snuggle and delay the inevitable start to the day. Our room is dark and usually pretty quiet, except with "GOOD MORNING, THIS IS YOUR CRUISE DIRECTOR VANESSA!" plays from the speakers outside the room and all over the ship. 

Another day at sea means another brunch. 

Alli knows the trick now. 

Yum! 

I had the skillet cake and steak & eggs and both were delicious. 

And you can't forget about the 7 layer chocolate cake for dessert. 

The kids ran to Camp Ocean after that to learn about marine flags. 

While T and I found a quiet place to read. 

And again, I see there must be another scavenger hunt going on today. 

Their posse has grown! 

Apparently they needed to go up 5 decks to get a drink and then come back down. 

I caught them later on, all having pizza together. 

And getting ice cream too. 

Back at the room, Min has made a monkey out of our towels. 

We had a little bit of down time. 

Wandered around the ship a little. 

And then decided to skip the main dinner service tonight. The menu was pre-published on the Carnival app and we didn't see anything that we couldn't miss. We'll figure out something to eat between the buffet, pizza, burger bar, and countless other options there are on this boat. The kids were happy because it means they could go hang out with their friends even earlier. 

And after 10pm when Camp Ocean closed, they wanted to keep running around with their friends until it was time for bed. T and I are really enjoying the free time reading, so sure, why not. 

We met back up in the room at 11pm for showers and then started bedtime.