Bahama Cruise on the MSC Magnifica Cruise Line

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MSC Magnifica Cruise

Taking a cruise has been on my bucket list for a while now. Since I am a travel agent now, I was able to snag a really good deal on an MSC cruise and decided to give it a try. There are mixed reviews about the MSC cruise line, but I wanted to experience it for myself. I am here to say that our cruise experience on the MSC was worth the trip, and I would recommend you give them a try. This is a European cruise line so their procedures and expectations might be different than you see on other cruise lines.

LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP BOOKING YOUR NEXT CRUISE. FOLLOW MY INSTAGRAM @EXPLORINGSUNSETSTRAVEL OR EMAIL ME AT THE LINK AT THE END OF THIS POST FOR A FREE TRAVEL QUOTE.

Embarking on my first cruise

Embarking on my first 4-day cruise to the Bahamas aboard the MSC Magnifica promised an unforgettable experience that was filled with sunny days, vibrant culture, wonderful food, and the best theatre shows I have ever seen.

Setting sail on the MSC Magnifica provided European world class facilities, with some really good food options, and a large array of onboard activities and entertainment. Cruising through the crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean and embarking on the opportunity to explore the breathtaking beauty of the Bahamian Island of Nassau, where you can enjoy sun-soaked beaches, island foods, shopping, and cultural interactions with the locals makes this experience magical.

Cruise essentials

There were several items I purchased for my first cruise that I recommend.

• Lululemon Belt Bag - I used this every single day to carry my key card, cash, cell phone, and other small essentials. I loved having this with me!

• smaller carry-on suitcase with wheels - this suitcase was the perfect size for a shorter cruise. I was able to fit all of my clothes in this suitcase plus I carried a small bag to carry my shoes or anything extra I needed. This is also the perfect size for a carry-on for most air flights.

• portable cell phone charger - perfect for when your cell battery is running low, and you still have lots of pictures to take

• small portable fan - for fan movement at night while sleeping

• water bottle - refillable water bottle to keep you hydrated while by the pool

• hat - perfect to keep the sun out of your eyes while at the pool or beach

• Birkenstock Arizona sandals - the perfect sandal to walk around the pool

• motion sickness patches - just in case

Miami Florida Cruise Port

This particular cruise port was in Miami, Florida. The port was easy to get to although the traffic was busy the weekend we went which took us almost an hour longer than usual due to a boat show the same weekend.

There are several parking lots throughout the area to park at where they will transport you to the cruise ship. Those parking lots are cheaper than parking across from the cruise port. The only concern would be making sure that you get there in time to make the trip to the cruise.

We chose to use the parking garage across from the port. Although the price was a little higher, it was so worth not having to wait for transportation back to our car.

Miami port cruise parking

There are several different areas at the cruise port to park. We chose to park in parking garage D. You collect a ticket upon entering the garage and pay for parking once you leave after your cruise.

Cruise Port terminal D - this was the port in 2024 where the MSC cruise ship embarked from. They were building a new MSC cruise port at that time, but it wasn’t ready yet.

Parking fees - long term parking garage D is $22 per night. We paid $66 for 4 days/3 nights.

Surface lot D - $22 per day for oversized parking located next to the parking garage D.

Parking garages staffed by an attendant on cruise days only from 6am to 5pm.

Cruise check-in

As we crossed the street from the parking garage, we were met with a guy who you could give your luggage to while you headed inside the port to check in. It was courteous to tip this gentleman and we apologized for not having any cash which he was super kind to accept. Plese remember to bring a few dollars to tip him.

Prior to heading to the port, make sure to print your luggage tags on plain paper which you attach to your luggage prior to boarding with tape.

After dropping off your luggage, you will head inside through the first set of check-ins where you will show your passport or birth certificate and driver’s license with a photo ID before proceeding to the next set of check-ins. This process went rather quickly.

After that check in, you will get in the next line where you will head to the counter where the staff will take your picture (and your luggage if you didn’t drop it off earlier where they will run it through the x-ray machine) then check all of your boarding documents before heading onto the ship and to your room. Your luggage will be dropped off outside your room at some point that day. Our luggage was by our door within a couple of hours.

Cruise room check-in and key card

At any point upon entering the cruise ship, you can head to your room. Your room key will be hanging from your door as shown below. Open up the envelope and you will find two key cards inside. They will begin to drop the luggage off by your doors throughout the next few hours.

During the early part of embarking, all guests will be asked to go to their room to watch emergency procedures on the TV. The emergency procedures will display for about 30 minutes where you will then be asked to proceed into the hallway to find your emergency exit. There will be staff to help guide you to your location where you will then return back to your room. This whole process will take less than 45 minutes.

Each room has 2 US outlets and 2 European plug-ins, shown in the picture below. These outlets were located by the desk area and were the only outlets in the room, besides the bathroom.

Cruise rooms

Our room was on the 10th floor and was room 10166 with a balcony. The room had a queen bed that they separated into two twin beds, 2 nightstands with lamps, a desk with a stool and drawers and a large mirror over it, a love seat that folds out into a bed, and a heavy small table in front of the love seat. There was also a TV with a mini fridge in the cabinet below the TV with drinks inside it. If you use any of the drinks, they will charge you for them. There was also a large cupboard to hang up your clothes that included a small safe with directions to use the safe. The dresser drawers open when you lift up on the slightly.

The room and furnishings are older but clean and as expected. You could watch some TV shows from our room such as HGTV, Food Network, the Discovery Channel and more. You can also watch the path of the cruise ship.

On the balcony you will find two outdoor chairs and a foot stool. Here you can sit outside in peace and watch the most magical sunsets. There is a patio light outside as well. After having a balcony room, it will be hard to ever have an inside room. Having a balcony was amazing. I sat out there every night either staring at the dark skies, watching the sunset, or reading a book. It was the most relaxing part of our trip.

Bathroom

The bathroom had plenty of room to move around. There was a shower only with liquid soap, shampoo, and conditioner for you to use. The bath water gets really hot so adjust accordingly. The bathroom has 3 shelves for you to store your bathroom supplies and a single sink.

The room does have a hair dryer, but it is located in the drawer of the desk located by the balcony door. The dryer cannot be moved locations as it is stuck to the drawer. The bathroom does not have larger plug sizes.

Purple Bar and Tiger Lounge

Ruby Bar offers a place to sit and chat with friends while ordering a drink from the bar.

There is nightly entertainment at the Tiger Lounge. You can play the yes/no game, trivia night, bingo and nightly music. The Tiger Lounge is located on the 6th floor and is a great place to spend a few hours nightly to be entertained. Get there early during an event as the seats fill up quickly. The schedule of activities can be found on your MSC for Me app.

Other MSC Magnifica bars

• Topazio Bar

• Cuba Lounge Cigar Room

• T32 Disco

• La Conchiglia Bar - located by the La Grotta Azzurra pool

• Ruby Bar

• Casino Bar

• Le Gocce

• Aurea SPA Bar

• Bar del sole

• L’ Olimpiade Sporting Bar

• L’Ametista Lounge - Piano area

Buffet in the Saraha Cafeteria

The buffet was open daily for 3 full meals a day. There were other times throughout the day when certain parts of the buffet were open for small snacks. The buffet is located on the 13th floor.

Breakfast was served daily from 6am to 11am. This consisted of scrambled and fried eggs, sausage, bacon, muffins, breads, sweets, yogurt, cereal, fruit, charcuterie board and more.

Lunch consisted of pizza, charcuterie boards, potatoes, hotdogs, hamburgers, Jamaican empanadas, salad fixings, and so much more.

Dinner consisted of a meat carving station, pork, chicken, pizza, ethnic foods, potatoes, vegetables, mashed potatoes, breads, salad fixings, sweets, and much much more.

Snacks include charcuterie board, sweets, cookies, pizza, breads and more.

The service in the cafeteria was excellent. Your dishes were cleared right away, and tables were cleaned as soon as someone left their table. You will need to get a clean dish each time you head to the buffet. The wait staff was friendly and helpful as needed.

The only negative things were that the food was never hot but was always warm and the ice machine couldn’t keep up. We would go to the cafeteria to fill our water bottles and at times there wasn’t any ice.

The buffet throughout our time on the ship proved to have busy times and then times when it was less busy. There was always a table to be found, whether that be inside by the buffet or outside on one of the patio decks.

I cannot say that all of the food was fantastic. However, there was a variety of food to choose from each night and some of the areas changed food options daily.

It was so fun to sit by the windows each day as we ate and watch the view of the ocean pass by.

The best pizza

Almost the entire day you could get pizza in the cafeteria. This was some of the best pizza ever. It had that wood fired flavor and was made daily. You could watch the pizza being made and although there were limited toppings it was still so delicious.

Another favorite part of our cruise was having pizza at about 11pm every night. We enjoyed sitting by the window watching the night go by as we talked about our day while enjoying some pizza.

Free drinks on the cruise

We chose not to pay for the drink package to save money as we are not big drinkers. Without paying for the drink package, you only get water, lemonade, juices, coffee, and tea bags. Online, it said you had to purchase the drink package to get ice cream, but this proved not to be true. Although there is some specialty ice cream by the La Grotta Azzurra pool for purchase.

Alcoholic drinks were available for around $10-15 each. They will charge the drinks to your room card.

Ice cream and desserts

Daily you will find ice cream and sweets from 12-5. We didn’t realize until the second day where the ice cream was located. Once you go through the buffet, there is a second space with more food across a hallway. This is where we found the ice cream. The ice cream is not self-serve, and you have to request it in a cone or dish from the servers. Ice cream options is vanilla, chocolate or swirl.

L’Edera Restaurant

There are two times you can choose for dinner on your cruise. We chose the 6:30pm meal. You could also choose the 8:30pm time but we wanted to eat early so we could get to the early nightly show. Whatever time you choose, that was your time for all nights on the cruise.

Our waitress was Rica who was very sweet and rather quiet. Many people who are avid cruisers commented on her lack of attendance at our table. After some research, it was noted that although on a Carnival cruise many cruisers comment that their server is very attendant and at their table often, on MSC this is not customary to their culture. We were fine with this type of service and didn’t have any concerns with our service.

At the L’Edera restaurant we found foods on our first night such as lasagna, vegetable soup, cheesecake with strawberry sauce; and our second night we didn’t go; and on our third night there was spaghetti with pancetta, caprese salad, and sugar free wild berry cobbler with ice cream. There were other options but those were the foods I tried.

Again, our food wasn’t hot, and each night they had different themed dinners such as Italian. We didn’t particularly like the dinners but having the option for a sit-down dinner that was included with our cruise price was nice.

Restaurants available for an additional fee

• Oriental Plaza

• Quattro Venti Restaurant

Daily programs

The cruise ship is easy to find your way around after a few trips up and down the stairs/elevator. There are signs at each elevator where the main things are located on the ship.

There is a digital sign located throughout the ship that will show nightly events and entertainment and where those activities are located. The digital sign is interactive and is touch screen so you can scroll to find the full day’s activities.

You will also be provided with the events of the day via the MSC for Me app on your phone. These events will be updated daily. You do not have to purchase the internet package to use this service. You can also text from an iPhone to other people with an iPhone even those not on the ship without the internet package.

Royal Theatre nightly shows

The Royal Theatre is located on the 5th and 6th floor and can seat up to 1,200 people. There were two shows nightly you could enjoy, either 7:15pm or 9:30pm.

If there is anything on this MSC cruise ship that they outdid themselves, it was their nightly performances. The nightly shows were absolutely amazing!! The costumes, choreography, dancers, singers and music were phenomenal. Each night there was a different themed performance with the first night being songs from the 80-90’s, the second night was about music based off of movies, and the final night was an amazing circus themed show with acrobatics that used a trampoline as part of their performance. It was amazing to watch each night.

Comedian

One of the nights there was a female comedian, Lisa Alvarado, which was extremely funny. Before she came onto stage, they reminded the audience that this was an adult only show and they did not recommend that kids attend this event. There were several smaller kids who most likely wouldn’t get some of her crude jokes, but the teenagers most definitely would. The events director and the comedian once she came onto the stage, immediately looked at the parents of the teenagers and mentioned again this was an adults only show. The comedian blatantly told the parents they were bad parents for allowing their teens to watch her show.

She than began to perform her comedic act and she didn’t hold back on her explicit content. Slowly the teens trickled out of the show. The comedian was extremely funny, but the entire show was about se…..x and very crude throughout. If that is your type of comedy you will enjoy this show.

The nightly shows are included in your cruise fare and do not cost extra.

Atlantic City Casino

We are not big gamblers, but we of course had to check out the Atlantic City Casino while on the MSC Magnifica cruise ship.

There was plenty to keep you busy and lots of ways to lose your money. Ha! I played the 50 cent slots and was able to win all of my money back which I then cashed out. You can pay with cash or use your MSC cruise card which charges to your room.

You can also find blackjack and digital roulette and many more gambling options.

Kids Clubs

There are several kids’ clubs on the ships for all ages, even teenagers. We did not take any kids on this trip so I cannot say one way or another how well those ran.

Pool parties and dancing

There was entertainment throughout our entire cruise on the pool deck area. From dance lessons such as salsa, merengue, and more, you always had something to do. The entertainment staff had such high energy and kept the party alive well into the night. You could also find yoga, white party, and kids dance parties as well. Dancing and music were in full swing once we arrived on the ship. The energy of the entertainment was incredible. I am not sure how the guys who run the entertainment can keep up their intense energy all day and into the night.

Pools and hot tubs

There are two pools located on the MSC Magnifica cruise ship. Each pool has two hot tubs located near the pool. The pools are only open certain hours of the day and do close at night. They are covered with a large net at night to prevent people from drowning as there is no gate to keep people out of the pool area.

There are lots of loungers located throughout the pool area and on the upper decks. At night they put all the loungers away, I assume for safety reasons, so people do not sleep on the deck. There are only two positions on loungers, either semi sitting up or laying down. These were not the most comfortable loungers and I wish the loungers would allow you to sit up so you can easily people watch without cranking your neck. Lol

La Grand Bleu pool

This pool is an open pool with depths up to 6 feet. No drinks are allowed at the pool. You will find two hot tubs for your enjoyment.

Other activities

On one of the upper decks by the pool you can find a tennis court and ping pong tables. I am unsure about the use of those activities since we did not use them on our trip. Other activities include bowling (for a fee), billiards, and a track.

La Grotta Azzurra pool

This pool also had two hot tubs. This pool has a retractable roof so you can still swim if it rains. Less people use this pool. There is a bar located next to this pool and it is closest to the cafeteria. There are table and chairs where you can eat your meals overlooking the pool area and the ocean.

Shopping

While on board you can take the opportunity to do some shopping. You can find high end purchases such as purses, jewelry, watches, alcohol and snacks. There are a variety of shops to choose from and make sure to grab an MSC souvenir before you leave the ship.

Spa and Fitness Center

For an additional fee you can have access to the SPA and Fitness Center and track. Here you will be pampered while you prepare for your day or get your morning workout in before you hit the pool.

Sunsets

If you have read any of my other blog posts, you will know that I love sunsets. So of course, I had to search them out while on the cruise as well.

Hotel stay before or after your cruise

Need a place to stay before or after your cruise? Check out booking.com or VRBO for places to stay close to your cruise port. Need help booking a hotel or flight? Email me at the link below, or DM me on social media.

Also find cheap air tickets or car rentals while visiting Florida.

Check-out

The night before your cruise ends, the cruise will announce that you will need to place your luggage outside your door in the hallway so it can be transported to the luggage pick up area where you will pick up after you leave the cruise ship.

Check out is 7:30am. We chose to keep our luggage and take it with us upon departure. This proved to make this process easier as we did not have to wait for our luggage before we headed home. We did have to carry our luggage down the stairs as we left.

After you leave the cruise ship you will be asked to show your passport or birth certificate and photo ID so have those documents ready.

During our 4-day cruise on MSC, we were supposed to stop at one port, the Ocean Cay, which is MSC’s Caribbean Island. Due some unforeseen weather storms, we were rerouted to Nassau. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to experience their island, but that just means I will have to go on another MSC cruise, which I would totally do. More information to come on our visit to Nassau.

Would I go on an MSC cruise again? Yes, I definitely would. I find that there are people out there who will complain about everything, some people are used to higher-class cruising, and this might seem like a downgrade to them. That’s ok, you just need to go into it knowing that the culture is different for a European cruise line, and that there were many great things about this cruise.

If you need help planning a MSC cruise, let me know and I am happy to help. I can also book Carnival, Virgin Voyages, Disney Cruises, Royal Caribbean and many more. Check my Instagram page @exploringsunsetstravel for more travel inspiration.

Enjoy the journey,

Meet the author: Jennifer

I am a girl who loves to travel and enjoys sharing expert family travel advice. I am a content creator and influencer on Instagram with years of travel experience and provide readers with advice, tips, and details on adventurous family travel and tips on saving money while boondocking or traveling across the US.

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