''Carnival Magic'' is a which entered service on 1 May 2011. The ship was named and christened in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

by her godmother Lindsey Wilkerson, a former patient and current researcher at

St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a pediatric treatment and research facility located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1962, it is a 501(c)(3) designated nonprofit medical corporation which focuses on children's catastrophic diseases, par ...

. ''Carnival Magic'' was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

on 20 November 2008, launched from her drydock on 27 August 2010 and completed on 29 April 2011.

Sea trial A sea trial is the testing phase of a watercraft (including boats, ships, and submarines). It is also referred to as a " shakedown cruise" by many naval personnel. It is usually the last phase of construction and takes place on open water, and ...

s were undertaken between 17 and 20 March 2011. She has 1,845 passenger cabins and 746 crew cabins, and can carry over 6,000 persons in total. The lifeboat configuration of ''Carnival Magic'' differs from that of her

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

, , in that ''Carnival Magic'' has 18 double-size lifeboats, while ''Carnival Dream'' has 30 smaller boats. ''Carnival Magic'' also has a large, highly visible SkyCourse

ropes course A ropes course is a challenging outdoor personal development and team building activity which usually consists of high and/or low elements. Low elements take place on the ground or above the ground. High elements are usually constructed in tr ...

forward of her

funnel A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening. Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...

that is not present on her sister. There are 19 decks (although marked as having 15 decks on the deck plan because there is no "Deck 13" on Carnival ships) aboard ''Carnival Magic''.

Drydock refurbishment

''Carnival Magic'' was dry-docked in June 2016 which included refurbishment of some public areas. During the suspension of service due to COVID-19, she underwent a second dry dock for expansion of the casino area, in addition to obtaining the blue/white livery seen on the cruise line's other ship ''

Mardi Gras Mardi Gras (, ) refers to events of the Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday, which is known as Shrove Tuesday. is French for "Fa ...

.''

Cruising areas

''Carnival Magic'' spent her inaugural season, summer 2011, cruising the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

. She then made a transatlantic crossing in autumn, 2011, and was homeported in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

from which she made

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea ( es, Mar Caribe; french: Mer des Caraïbes; ht, Lanmè Karayib; jam, Kiaribiyan Sii; nl, Caraïbische Zee; pap, Laman Karibe) is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexic ...

cruises. In April, 2016, her homeport changed to

Port Canaveral Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world with 4.5 million cruise passengers passing through during 2016. Over 5.4 million tonnes of bulk car ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

from which she continued making Caribbean cruises. ''Carnival Magic'' re-positioned to

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

, Florida in September 2018, sailing 7-day eastern and western Caribbean cruises. She was expected to move homeport to

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facer ...

, Florida in May 2019. As of February 2021, itineraries include trips from Port Canaveral (Orlando, FL) to the Caribbean; New York to Bermuda, Canada, and New England; and Norfolk to The Bahamas, Bermuda, and the Caribbean starting in November 2021. Following Carnival's suspension of service due to COVID-19, ''Carnival Magic'' recommenced cruises on 7 August 2021 with sailings from Port Canaveral to The Bahamas.

Incidents and accidents

On 2 July 2013, during a seven-day Caribbean cruise, a 39-year-old male guest died when he accidentally fell from his cabin balcony and landed on an open deck area three decks below. In October 2014 a

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas (Texas Health Dallas, Presbyterian, or Presby) is a teaching hospital and tertiary care facility in the United States, located in the Vickery Meadow area of Dallas, Texas.

employee who may have handled lab specimens from

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

victim

Thomas Eric Duncan Thomas Eric Duncan (December 30, 1972 – October 8, 2014) was a Liberian citizen who became the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States on September 30, 2014. Two health care workers became infected with Ebola virus, 26-year-old n ...

after he boarded the ship on 12 October in Galveston. The hospital employee and her spouse showed no signs of the virus, but voluntarily quarantined themselves on the ship. The ship was allowed to dock in Belize, but the quarantined couple was refused the ability to disembark; thus derailing the plan to offload the couple for a flight home. Mexico went a step further and did not grant docking privileges to the ship. A

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...

helicopter flew to ''Carnival Magic'' on 18 October to obtain blood samples. The following day the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital employee and her spouse were allowed to disembark in Galveston after the tests were determined to be negative for both the employee and her spouse.

References

External links

* {{Carnival Cruise Line 2010 ships Magic Ships built in Monfalcone Ships built by Fincantieri