Carnival Magic

This is our story of our Mediterranean Cruise... Be forewarned, there are A LOT of pictures! Before we start, first we need an introduction... We wanted to go on a trip without the kids. I kept telling Scott he owed me a BIG trip since he did this traveling job for 3 years and we deserved a nice vacation. The timing worked that my mom was going to be out of work and so Scott and I begged and pleaded with my mom and dad to watch Ethan and Emma... They agreed... There was some apprehension on their part... but the kids had a blast! Where to go??? We wanted to go somewhere in July, being our anniversary and all... We were looking at Hawaii, but we didn't want to go somewhere tropical in the middle of the summer, what fun would that be? We started looking at Europe, after all, we have a boat load of sky miles to use up! We ended up choosing a cruise, because we didn't have to cart our luggage everywhere, our meals are included and we would be able to see much more in our 7 days than if we planned it ourselves!

Now, let the journey begin!

We left late Saturday morning and flew to Atlanta and we flew a red eye to Barcelona. DIDN"T SLEEP A WINK! By Sunday morning (Barcelona time) we arrived... I was so TIRED! But the adrenaline was pumping! I was in Europe! We were waiting for our luggage and I couldn't contain myself! I was so excited to finally be there and off that plane!

Off to the boat we go! We figured out transportation and got ourselves checked in!

The Carnival Magic is a new boat and has been sailing in Europe for the past 2 months. We liked the idea of a "new" boat and we loved the itinerary so we gave it a go. We liked the boat, but the food was just ok and the staff, in my opinion, not the best... Oh, well... we still had a blast!

On our way to the boat! I'm smiling...Scott, not so much!

We couldn't go into our stateroom until later in the afternoon, so we explored, ate some lunch and wished we were asleep!

The adult only section of the boat. Nice stuff! We ended up soaking in the hot tub up here after our long trip to Rome... More to come about that :)

Carnival does have a reputation as the "Fun Ship" and they didn't disappoint! We did go down those water slides a few times. I felt like I was a kid again!

Barcelona... We ended up having to stay another day because of our flight out and we were able to see Barcelona before coming home... again stay tuned!

Our stateroom was the very back of the boat and we traveled these hallways very frequently!

After a nap and a shower we went out onto our balcony and watched us leave... BON VOYAGE!

Muscles!

Very happy to be here!

Our stateroom

These were actually taken the night before the end of our cruise...

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The weather was pretty much in our favor, but that first day there was high winds in Monaco (our first port) and the officials closed the port. Our Captain rearranged our itinerary so we could go to every stop and so we were headed to Sicily first and traveling up the "Boot" instead of down! So our first day was a day at sea.

We bummed around the boat, soaked up some Mediterranean sun, got a REALLY BAD sunburn on my legs (oops! forgot to put sunscreen there :), took a much needed nap, and we had our formal night. After dinner we headed outside to watch the sunset!

The next several pictures are of us goofing off and enjoying the view!

This is inside on the promenade... Fun stuff... Next Messina, Sicily!