We stayed night of 7/5 at Radisson, great hotel. Only complaint is they don't have bellman service and it is almost impossible to find a luggage cart on site. The hotel is spread out and there are only 3 elevators within the complex. My suggestion would be to request a first floor room close to the front because that is where you need to carry your luggage out to pick up the shuttle. You need to make a shuttle reservation when you check in. We had 3 families, 6 adults and 5 kids ages 6 - 13, so we were assigned to the 10:00 a.m. and 10:20 shuttle. One word of advise is that even though the Radisson assigns a shuttle time, it is on the honor system when the shuttle pulls up. People go out early and will just push ahead when a shuttle pulls up. You really need to keep track of where you are in line and speak up.
Arrival at the port is very easy. Shuttle drops you off into a parking lot area - there are attendants ready to take your luggage. You then walk a short distance to the terminal and as long as your paperwork is filled out you can go directly to the registration lines. We had no lines at all at approx. 10:30 a.m., check in was smooth and then you go to another line to board ship. They started boarding the ship exactly at 12:15 p.m.
The atrium is just beautiful as you enter the ship and have your first (of many) photos taken. There was a sign as you entered that said the ship was completely full so no room assignment changes could be made. I must say that even though the ship was full, it never seemed crowded at all.
Charging privileges are automatically added to all KTTW cards when you check in - we stopped at guest services as soon as we boarded to have them removed from our youngest daughter's card - took only a few seconds, very easy.
We went directly to Top Siders Buffet for lunch. The food was wonderful, had a nice table outside under the shade near the Mickey pool. It was a wonderful way to start!
We then went to register the kids for camp, no problem, registration was very easy, made Palo reservations, explored the ship a little and went to our room where are luggage was already waiting.
We had Secret Porthole room 5020 and I can't say enough about this room and the location. It was just perfect - only 3 doors from the elevators - couldn't have asked for more. My first reaction was boy the rooms are small, but once you unpack the suitcases and get everything where it belongs there is really plenty of room, enough draws and closet space for all. The split bath with 2 sinks was great. Don't forget the over the door shoe rack it was the best $6.00 investment. You can't imagine how many small things you can find to tuck away that would be all over the place without it.
We changed into our swim suits and went out to the pool. Kids did the Mickey slide with minimal wait, good idea to get a few runs in if you can, it does get crowded especially on sea days.
Everything closes down at 3:30 pm to ensure that everyone returns to their rooms for the dreaded lifeboat drill at 4:00. Nothing much to say here, it's hot, not much fun, but necessary and it was over within 30 minutes.
Back to rooms and than back up to Deck 10 for sail away party. This was great, the staff gets everyone dancing, band playing, characters come out and join in. Everyone was having a blast!
One interesting note - the Carnival Pride pulled out from port 30 minutes before the Magic. We were told this is Carnival's newest ship. We watched it as it pulled away with one Coast Guard boat alongside . Didn't think much of it, but when the Magic pulled away, there were a few Coast Guard boats and a helicopter flying directly over the ship until we were lead out of the harbor. We also saw scuba divers in the water checking around and under the ship before it pulled out. Security was very tight. They also had dogs sniffing the carry on luggage as you were getting on board.
Back to our rooms to unpack, shower and change for early dinner seating.
We ended up with LAPLAPL dinner seating, but we thoroughly enjoyed every restaurant, any seating would have been fine. We had 2 tables right next to each other, kids sat together at one and adults at the other. Our head server was DeePak. He was a wonderful and great with the kids. He had a new magic trick each night for them. The night we went to Palo's, the kids went to Luminiere's themselves. DeePak insisted that they should come and they thought it was a really big deal dining without the parents!
All the main shows were wonderful, some maybe a little bit better than others, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss any. All lasted around 60 minutes. Very entertaining, the kids really looked forward to each nights show.
Day 1 was wonderful and it only got better!
(more to come)
Arrival at the port is very easy. Shuttle drops you off into a parking lot area - there are attendants ready to take your luggage. You then walk a short distance to the terminal and as long as your paperwork is filled out you can go directly to the registration lines. We had no lines at all at approx. 10:30 a.m., check in was smooth and then you go to another line to board ship. They started boarding the ship exactly at 12:15 p.m.
The atrium is just beautiful as you enter the ship and have your first (of many) photos taken. There was a sign as you entered that said the ship was completely full so no room assignment changes could be made. I must say that even though the ship was full, it never seemed crowded at all.
Charging privileges are automatically added to all KTTW cards when you check in - we stopped at guest services as soon as we boarded to have them removed from our youngest daughter's card - took only a few seconds, very easy.
We went directly to Top Siders Buffet for lunch. The food was wonderful, had a nice table outside under the shade near the Mickey pool. It was a wonderful way to start!
We then went to register the kids for camp, no problem, registration was very easy, made Palo reservations, explored the ship a little and went to our room where are luggage was already waiting.
We had Secret Porthole room 5020 and I can't say enough about this room and the location. It was just perfect - only 3 doors from the elevators - couldn't have asked for more. My first reaction was boy the rooms are small, but once you unpack the suitcases and get everything where it belongs there is really plenty of room, enough draws and closet space for all. The split bath with 2 sinks was great. Don't forget the over the door shoe rack it was the best $6.00 investment. You can't imagine how many small things you can find to tuck away that would be all over the place without it.
We changed into our swim suits and went out to the pool. Kids did the Mickey slide with minimal wait, good idea to get a few runs in if you can, it does get crowded especially on sea days.
Everything closes down at 3:30 pm to ensure that everyone returns to their rooms for the dreaded lifeboat drill at 4:00. Nothing much to say here, it's hot, not much fun, but necessary and it was over within 30 minutes.
Back to rooms and than back up to Deck 10 for sail away party. This was great, the staff gets everyone dancing, band playing, characters come out and join in. Everyone was having a blast!
One interesting note - the Carnival Pride pulled out from port 30 minutes before the Magic. We were told this is Carnival's newest ship. We watched it as it pulled away with one Coast Guard boat alongside . Didn't think much of it, but when the Magic pulled away, there were a few Coast Guard boats and a helicopter flying directly over the ship until we were lead out of the harbor. We also saw scuba divers in the water checking around and under the ship before it pulled out. Security was very tight. They also had dogs sniffing the carry on luggage as you were getting on board.
Back to our rooms to unpack, shower and change for early dinner seating.
We ended up with LAPLAPL dinner seating, but we thoroughly enjoyed every restaurant, any seating would have been fine. We had 2 tables right next to each other, kids sat together at one and adults at the other. Our head server was DeePak. He was a wonderful and great with the kids. He had a new magic trick each night for them. The night we went to Palo's, the kids went to Luminiere's themselves. DeePak insisted that they should come and they thought it was a really big deal dining without the parents!
All the main shows were wonderful, some maybe a little bit better than others, but I wouldn't have wanted to miss any. All lasted around 60 minutes. Very entertaining, the kids really looked forward to each nights show.
Day 1 was wonderful and it only got better!
(more to come)
