Disney Magic Review Jan 10-15th

I am going to post my review from our Disney Magic cruise from Jan 10-15th. It may not seem like a typical cruise critic review because I am copying and pasting from my travel blog. So bear with me. I'll gladly answer questions from anyone who has them.

To get started here is our background:

Me- This was my second Disney cruise. My first was in 2012, on the Dream, with my mom. We do an annual Mother/daughter trip. I have been on 23 cruises previously, so this is not a new experience for me. I think it's safe to say I like cruising ;) I am not a "writer" by nature, so my writing/grammar wont be perfect! My writing just flows out of my brain and through my fingers.

DH- This was his first Disney cruise experience. He grew up in a cruising family, so he's been on almost as many as I have. I was afraid of over-hyping this trip for him, so I didn't tell him a lot about the cruise beforehand. I have a bad habit of giving away all the fun surprises, but I kept quiet this time.

DS- At almost 3 years old this was his 7th cruise, but 1st Disney cruise experience. Yes, you read that right. We take him everywhere with us. We're fortunate enough to be able to drag our little explorer everywhere we go. Even when he doesn't like it! For a month before this trip he kept telling everyone we were going on the Mickey Boat. I will confidently say he LOVED this trip.

As a family, we live in South Florida- so hopping on a cruise tends to be easier for us than other people. Being within driving distance of 4 cruise ports put us at an advantage. My husband owns his own business so I plan around his slow seasons and he has his parents run the shop when we're out of town. Originally we were going to go on the Dream in December, but when I was poking around on the site and looking at prices I found a 5-day cruise for nearly the same price. January is a better time for my hubby to be away. Plus, the Port of Miami is an hour from our home, versus Canaveral being 2+ hours away. I figured the Magic would be a good ship to start on and we could work our way to the Dream and then Fantasy next. I've got plans for my family :D ;)

I was hoping to post introductory photos here, but photobucket is undergoing maintenance and I can't access my pictures :(

Subscribing, great start, cant wait to hear more. We will be on a 4 night out of PC over spring break.

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing what you thought of the Magic!

;-)

Disney always seems to have the edge in many aspects of their cruises. I find the typical Disney Cruise Line stateroom is larger than the typical cruise room. Not only are they slightly bigger, but they also have the split bath concept!

On both of my Disney cruises I had an oceanview room. On the Disney Dream I had an oceanview guarantee and they assigned the room about 3 weeks before my cruise. We had a handicapped accessible room at the rear of the ship, it was probably 3-4 times the size of a regular room and somewhat triangular! This time, on the Magic, I had a Category 9B. I picked the room this time and it was perfectly mid-ship. We were two rooms away from the mid-ship stairs & elevators which was very convenient. We had no issues with being near the stairs/elevators. Some people worry that it will be noisier.

I was very happy with our room. The window was large and round. My son loved to look out and spot the waves, ports, and rain (yeah, we didn't have great weather!) The window seat wasn't a real seat, but it was large enough for my son, almost 3 years old, to hang out.

Some people worry about Deck two being too low on the ship. I took an exterior photo from the dock in Cozumel to show how high the deck two rooms really are! Deck one is the small double-round windows. Deck two is where the larger single-round windows are. Hopefully this helps clarify how high/low the rooms really are!

The room had a lot of storage options. The desk/vanity area had 10 storage drawers, to the right of the desk was a tall cabinet with two large drawers and a double-door cabinet, and then next to the closet was another set of 5 drawers. Of course, there was also the closet to hang clothes. Suitcases fit nicely under the bed with plenty of extra space.

The split bath is a concept that I think other cruise lines should adopt. Carnival has some on their newer ships, but not in all categories, just a few oceanview rooms. We stayed in a split bath on the Carnival Breeze a year and a half ago. The split bath is essentially two "bathrooms." The first one, closest to the door of the room has a sink and toilet. The second one has a sink and a tub/shower combo. The reason why it's a great concept is that someone can shower or bathe without restricting another person's access to the toilet or sink. The bathtub is great when you have young kids. If you have teenagers or girls, the dual sinks/mirrors are also a blessing! Disney bath products smell spa-like. These are the same ones available at the Deluxe resorts at Wal Disney World. You'll receive this set up upon checking in to your room. If you use them up, the room attendant will gladly bring more!

If privacy is a concern for your family, you'll be happy to know that the curtain between the bed and sofa is fully functioning. We closed ours nightly to create a separate room for our son so we could watch a little bit of TV before going to bed. The sofa bed was a quick and easy switch, we didn't need our room attendant to help us because the back of the sofa folded down and the bed was there! My son would ask me to make magic and turn the sofa in to a bed. He would crack up laughing every time because I made a big deal out of it. My son loved having his own little "room" in our room!

Overall Disney's staterooms have a fresh clean feel to them. Everything was in tip top shape. The television programming is strictly Disney and two news channels, Fox & BBC. They played two feature movies throughout the day at set times. Everest and the Walk. We saw bits and pieces of each throughout the trip. If I piece the scenes together I think we saw 3/4 of each movie, haha. There was a channel playing Disney cartoon movies over and over as well as channels with Disney Junior, Disney cartoon shows, and the regular Disney Channel you see at home. Our one complaint was that closed captioning was not an option in the stateroom. My husband is hearing impaired and was disappointed that they did not have that as a standard setting on the TVs. We asked the guest services desk and they confirmed it is not an option but encouraged us to mention it on the cruise evaluation. SO I did.

Oh, yes and from my initial post I wanted to introduce each of us.

Yours Truly-

Hubby- I thank my hubby profusely for wearing the tie dye Mickey shirt. Some of his friends laughed, but I reminded them that when they have kids they'll understand that you do stuff to make your kids happy no matter what other people think or say! <3

Little Man- The reason we took the trip, sorta. As I mentioned before I'm a cruise junkie, so he was just the excuse I was looking for ;)

And all of us together!

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing what you thought of the Magic!

;-)

I read through your Magic review before going on my trip and it helped a lot! Thanks.

Lovely family!

Thank you for your report.

Enjoying the review/report and photos.

Thank you.

Keith

Thanks for so many photos. We haven't been on Magic since 2009, so it's nice to see how the staterooms have been upgraded. We'll be aboard Magic again in May for the eastbound transatlantic.

Disney is well known as an entertainment company, so it should not come as a surprise to anyone that their entertainment options are enjoyable, vary widely, and cater to all ages! I will break down the entertainment onboard in sections.

Walt Disney Theater

I am going to admit, that we only saw two of the four theater shows. For us it was about timing and our son. We missed night one, All Aboard: Let the Magic Begin, because our son wasn't in the Nursery and we knew he wouldn't sit through a stage show. We missed the big one, Tangled, because we went to the movie theater instead (more on that below). I will say that Tangled is getting phenomenal reviews and everyone on our cruise said it was great as well. They even gave us a nice playbill in our room before the show. I wish I had seen the opening night show, and possibly Tangled just for the review aspect. Disney does not disappoint when it comes to entertaining.

We did have the opportunity to see Twice Charmed, a new rendition of the Cinderella story. Theatrically is was great. The singers were wonderful, costumes were beautiful, and the set was impressive. Personally I just was not a fan of the story line. Essentially the step-sisters place a spell on Cinderella and go back in time to re-do the night of the ball to ensure she does not have her chance with Prince Charming. I will leave it at that for anyone who may see the show. I don't want to spoil the experience!

The other show we saw was Disney Dreams. I loved this one. It was a medley of Disney Animated classics from the 90s. These were the Disney movies I grew up on! Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and more. They threw in some Frozen for the "new school" Disney fans and kids. I was quietly singing along with many of the songs. The performers were top notch, they sounded like the actual characters from the movies when singing.

Buena Vista Theater

Disney Cruise Line has full-scale movie theaters on each of their ships. It's a nice touch because they show new and "still in theater" movies on their ships as well as recent releases at no extra cost. The seats were comfortable, stadium seating style, and they all made for a good view of the screen. None of the seats were too close and none of them were too far from the screen. We had the opportunity to take our son to see The Good Dinosaur while onboard. We have never taken him to a movie and he did great! On another evening, we sent our son to the kids club/nursery and saw the new Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This was my very first Star Wars movie, so now I feel compelled to watch the previous ones as well! On the Magic there is a small popcorn machine and Cast member outside just before the movie. Popcorn was $4.95 for a small bucket. There were also soft drinks for sale and a few candy packages. I ran up to the buffet and filled some soda cups for ourselves rather then pay for the bottled soda for sale.

Every Caribbean and Bahamas sailing on a Disney Cruise Line ship includes a Pirate deck party. No other cruise line's deck party can compare! You will see people dressed in basic pirate gear, like us, to full pirate costumes! Earlier in the afternoon your room attendant will leave bandanas in your room. Even the dinner is themed on that evening, no matter which dining room you are in, everyone has the same menu for Pirate Night. We had pirate night on night three, Cozumel day. We were in the Carioca dining room that night.

The deck party starts a bit late for the young ones, 9:45pm. We kept our son up late that night so he could experience it. It begins with songs and dancing on decks nine and ten. Mickey does an impressive aerial stunt and then around 10:15pm they shoot fireworks off the ship. It's an impressive show! These aren't small time fireworks, they are professional and the shows goes on for a good amount of time. I recommend the starboard side of the ship and deck 10 for the best viewing. After the fireworks they have a pirate buffet in Cabanas, the buffet on deck nine. We kept our son up late on this night so he wouldn't miss the experience. Hey, it's vacation and we wanted to take it all in!

Great review so far. Love the matching tie dye shirts.

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk

People hear Disney and automatically think KIDS! Yes, Disney cruises are great for kids, but did you know they offer MANY different activities and spaces for adults only?? From Dining, bars, a pool, beach, etc there are plenty of places to escape from your children and have a moment with your significant other or other "mature" friends! I'm going to give you a run down of all the adults only spaces (many that we did not use on this trip) and review one of the activities we took part in.

Quiet Cove Pool

Yes, Disney ships have a dedicated adults-only pool area on deck called Quiet Cove. In this area you can escape the loud, splashy children's areas and relax in a kid-free hot tub! Just off of the Quiet Cove pool area is Cove Cafe serving specialty coffees and treats like pastries and treats. They also have magazines to read while relaxing in the comfortable environment. We did not sue this area because it wasn't great weather on or cruise and we used our kid free time doing other things.

Serenity Beach

On Castaway Cay, the private island, there is a dedicated adults-only beach to escape to with hammocks, beach chairs, and umbrellas for no extra charge. Not interested in laying in the sun? Try a massage in a beach-side cabana! We did not go here on this trip, but I did spend time there in 2012 when I went with my mom.

Palo

Palo is the 18+ specialty restaurant onboard. It does have an extra cost to it. We did not take the opportunity to dine there on this trip, but I did in 2012 when I cruised on the Dream. The food is delicious and views are spectacular! As with on the Dream and all other Disney ships, Palo is located on the top deck with a large expanse of windows to watch the sunset if you time your dinner just right ;)

Waiting patiently for more. Keep it coming - you are doing a great job.

Within the After Hours district you'll find Keys- the piano bar, O'Gills Pub, and Fathoms night club. These are adult only spaces at night. During the day, they offer things like Coaster Crafting, Bingo, and trivia. We took a Mixology Class in Keys on the first sea day. (I will review more in a bit).

Mixology Class

We had the opportunity to join a private mixology class on the ship for $20 per person. It was set up by another cruiser from a group we found on the social website we cannot mention here. They offer public ones as well, you have to look for the information in the Navigator and sign up in advance. We aren't big drinkers, but we thought it would be fun to try! The class lasted nearly two hours. Alejandro taught us how to make 6 different drinks that they serve in the bars and lounges on the ship. We ended up enjoy one drink more than others, the Caipirinha. So much so that I went out and bought Cachasa and a muddler once we returned home! The final drink of the class was a layered drink- we were not a fan, but it was a fun drink because the bartender told us we could not use our hands to lift the glass! Alejandro gave everyone New Years Eve champagne glasses that they had left over from the NYE sailing. So we left with a nice souvenir as well.

and the Leblon Cachasa that I bought when we got home!

What movies were they showing besides Star Wars?

The Good Dinosaur

Star Wars (many many times)

Ant Man

Inside Out

Bridge of Spies

Those were the movies featured on our cruise.

Sorry to hear your weather wasn't too great. I was just on the 24-29th sailing and the crew had been mentioning he weather hadn't been too great lately. Thankfully we had lots of sun and warmth on ours. You're doing a great job on the review. Keep it up.

I promise I will be back with more. I've been taking care of some business for my husband today and haven't had time to write new posts.

Oh, yes and from my initial post I wanted to introduce each of us.

 

Yours Truly-

 

 

Hubby- I thank my hubby profusely for wearing the tie dye Mickey shirt. Some of his friends laughed, but I reminded them that when they have kids they'll understand that you do stuff to make your kids happy no matter what other people think or say! <3

 

 

Little Man- The reason we took the trip, sorta. As I mentioned before I'm a cruise junkie, so he was just the excuse I was looking for ;)

 

 

 

And all of us together!

 

Love the tie dye ! Where did you find them ? Guessing onboard, but we have to get some for our Magic cruise ! If it makes Hubby feel better, we cruise without kids, and will wear the shirts with pride !

Love the tie dye ! Where did you find them ? Guessing onboard, but we have to get some for our Magic cruise ! If it makes Hubby feel better, we cruise without kids, and will wear the shirts with pride !

I purchased the shirts on Etsy. The company is called Coconut Cuties Designs. She custom makes them. Many different colors. I ordered and received them in less than a week, but she's also local to me so it was probably faster than most other people.