We finally got to take our family summer vacation! We have not been on a cruise in a while (you can't sail past 20 weeks pregnant or with an infant under 6 months old). Our last cruise was a year and a half ago when I was about 11 weeks pregnant. We had all been dying to get back on another cruise. It's the one thing every single one of us love! And it's hard to find something all 7 us really like. We took an 8 day cruise on Carnival Magic. We are loyal Carnival cruisers. The price, entertainment, service and past guest discounts are totally worth it! We booked for mid August to get the lowest fare. And since we have a large family we are required to book 2 rooms. So of course we want to book the cheapest rates possible! The little kids were in a room with me and Kevin and the big kids were next door. We made some signs for our doors. I booked inside cabins on deck 9. We were one deck below Lido, and if you cruise much, you know you spend a lot of your time on the Lido deck at the pool and in the buffet for meals. I loved our location. I loved that we were just one flight of stairs away from all the action!
Our first night we managed to make it to dinner! We chose early dinner this time at 6:00. We have had early, late and "your time" dinning and early seems to work best for our family.
Maggie and Kennedy hit the dance floor first thing!
Father/ Daughter pictures after dinner.
Of course we had to swim until midnight every night. And every where we go Kennedy made friends. This little guy was the first friend she made on the cruise.
Hooper didn't make it until midnight. He passed out.
Everyone slept in every morning, except Hooper. So Hooper and I had a little quiet time every morning together on the ship while we waited for everyone to wake up.
The first day was a Sea Day, so Jada, Kennedy and I played Bingo several times!
And we headed to the pool for the afternoon.
The boys spent lots of time on the basketball court!
We all enjoyed the sports deck too.
Our second night was the first of two formal nights. So we all got nice and dressed up and had lobster for dinner. We got our family pictures made also. I think this was the only night Maggie wore a dress.
Hooper didn't like to sit in the high chair. He preferred to stand.
Kennedy loved to swim in the pool and at the hot tub every night before bed.
Day 3, Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic. Kennedy, Hooper and I went to breakfast together while we waited on the others to wake up!
Beautiful Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic.
We rented the oven cabana on the far right for the day. It was amazing.
Waiting the get off the boat and go enjoy our day!
This was the deck on our ocean cabana. Complete with misters to stay cool while laying out. And the view was beyond gorgeous.
We rented the cabana so Hooper would have a nice cool place to rest. And he definitely enjoyed it!
The back of our ocean cabana.
Kennedy really enjoyed the kids waterslides!
Jada, Carter and Maggie really enjoyed the big water slides! The pool and water slides were free for everyone to enjoy at the cruise port. They were awesome!
Our cabana came with local snacks and a fridge full of local soda and water !
There is also a zip line at the port that goes over the water slides and pool. It was included in our cabana rental so we zipped several times. It was so fun!
Every night after dinner we hit up the arcade. The arcade was right outside our dining room and the kids loved the arcade. Hooper tried so hard to play the games!
Kennedy didn't quite make it through dinner this night.
Hooper eating broccoli.
Day 4, St. Thomas. Kevin and I had just spent a week in St. Thomas in May. We really enjoyed our time there and visiting the surrounding islands. But since we had just been, we gave the kids the option of staying on the boat for this port. We have never done that before. We usually always get off at the port. The kids chose to stay on the ship this day. The Magic is an amazing boat and we absolutely loved it, but it was very busy and crowded. I was told by the cruise director that it is always packed out. They always sell out for this ship. And it obvious why. So, staying on the boat meant we had the place to ourselves! No lines or waiting for anything!
The Waterpark was deserted. No lines for the slides!
Hooper ended up playing too!
The sports square was empty. So we played putt putt and fooseball alone. The sky course ropes were also empty!
St. Thomas in the background
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Had the pool and the entire Lido deck to ourselves all day!
Our dinner that night was still in the Port of St. Thomas. We got to watch a beautiful sunset while we ate dinner.
The magician came by at dinner and amazed us with his tricks!
Our photo from our formal dinner. This was the only pose that Hooper was looking in. So I had to pick this one, despite the hands on the hips from everyone!
The next day, Day 5, we were in San Juan Puerto Rico . I did a separate post about this port. We had such a wonderful day there it deserved it's own post. Find the link here:
Day 6 we spent in Grand Turk. We have ported here before and the kids love the port. We stayed and enjoyed the beach and pool beside the ship. I got to snorkel a bit and the kids played in the pool.
Nap time for my baby boy
Kennedy playing with more friends from the boat.
I had to force Carter to get a picture.
I found three huge conch shells while I was snorkeling. They would not let us take them back on the boat though.
Selfies at the Margaritaville pool.
After a long day of sun we made it back to the ship for dinner. Hooper LOVED the dinner rolls every night!
This was our late night swim.
Complete with midnight pizza and ice cream!
We ran into Maggie and her friends eating midnight pizza too!
Day 6, Sea Day. We spent the last day laying around, swimming, playing,eating... Just trying to enjoy our last day! We did NOT want to go home!
Swimming and breakfast overlooking the Caribbean water! No better way to start a morning,
All the swimming and splashing wears little Hooper out!
Kevin and Carter in the basketball competitions.
We had lunch the last day at the Pig and Anchor. This is Guy Fieri 's BBQ restaurant. We waited in line 30 mins for this feast. It was sooo good!! After lunch, we went up to the kids Camp Ocean to pick up the girls. They love Camp Ocean and all the activities! They got to do a Build-a-Bear workshop the last day. They LOVE making stuffed animals!
Kennedy named hers Star
Jada named her bear Oreo
They even got Passport Certificates for their animals
And of course, there was LOTS of ice cream eating.
We love ice cream!
Even at the pool and hot tub, more ice cream!
We had to take her new pet to dinner the last night.
I always hate to see our cruise end. It's a vacation our entire family absolutely LOVES. This was Hooper's first cruise and he loves it too! Good thing we have another one coming up for winter break in February on the brand new Carnival Vista! Can't wait!