Disney Magic Nov. 15-20 2nd Cruise Trip Report

The beach was clearing out by mid-afternoon. It did sprinkle for about 20 minutes around 12:30 or so (which is when we simply went and ate lunch - no worries!)

Disney Magic 2015 1382 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

My boys went on a bike ride to check out the island by themselves. They were among the last guests on the island (and we probably got back onboard around 4 pm).

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Kid-approval!

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We also tried out our snorkel equipment and my son's GoPro camera. We spent about 90 minutes in the water and that is a SWIM! I'd estimate that we swam close to a mile in total - the life vests are a necessity! We did about 80% of the snorkel course and probably each swallowed a half-gallon of salt water. TONS of fun, though, and it felt like we earned dinner that night! We have video of a bunch of different types of fish, and of the submarine and Mickey statue!

davidmbfonz · December 7, 2015

I think this is a new addition to the island: "Yoo Hoo!"

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Disney Magic 2015 1407-001 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

Back to the ship!

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The cloud cover was nice in terms of no sunburns and minimal squinting. And the air temp was just about perfect. The sky cast a strange color over the island though. Loved spending another day at Castaway!

davidmbfonz · December 8, 2015

The show on our last night was "Dreams" - it was by far my favorite. LOVED it. It had at least three showstoppers, including "Let it Go" that rivaled the movie/radio version, followed immediately by "The Circle of Life" - it seemed like vocal fireworks and this was the grand finale! Disney included so many classic scenes and stories into this one hour that it was obviously an embarrassment of riches!

One must remember that above all, Disney is an entertainment company - they know what they're doing in this department.

For our final dinner, we were back where we started - at Carioca's, but with a different menu.

IMG_3121 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

The tomato caprese was tasty...

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My wife and I both ordered the Beef Wellington...

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My daughter fell asleep and Widi and Romeo made her a makeshift bed. I think the cruise had finally gotten the best of her - at 9 PM on our last night!

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davidmbfonz · December 8, 2015

Love those lanterns!

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Dessert!

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And Romeo brought out creme brulee again for each of us! :rolleyes:

Our final towel animal.

Disney Magic 2015 1484 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

davidmbfonz · December 8, 2015

My boys ended up snuggling together the last night in the sofa bed by the porthole!

IMG_3115 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

We were back in Miami.

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Heading off!

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Still painting!

IMG_3129 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

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IMG_3130 by davidmbfonz, on Flickr

Thanks for reading... I'll give this a bit more reflection, then make a final summary post in a few days.

RiotAct · December 8, 2015

What an awesome review. Looks like you all had a blast!

davidmbfonz · December 8, 2015

Thank you RiotAct. We did indeed! :D

Rob_Jen · December 8, 2015

Thanks for posting this. We were on the same sailing and had a blast. Saw our kids in one of your pics of the deck party - cool. Brings back lots of memories of the trip. If your kids were in camp allot in the evenings they were probably hanging out with ours. I could not get my son out of the camp on this cruise. Gaga-Ball champs is all he kept saying.

davidmbfonz · December 8, 2015

Thanks for posting this. We were on the same sailing and had a blast. Saw our kids in one of your pics of the deck party - cool. Brings back lots of memories of the trip. If your kids were in camp allot in the evenings they were probably hanging out with ours. I could not get my son out of the camp on this cruise. Gaga-Ball champs is all he kept saying.

YES!! I didn't say much about the clubs, but our kids enjoyed them very much - gaga ball does seem to be all the rage!

The Sloppy Science was really well-done too. One night, I went to go pickup my daughter and she refused to go, giving me the explanation as she looked up from the table, "We're making flubber daddy!". She had on a white lab coat and nerdy scientist glasses. Cutest thing ever!

gambit57 · December 8, 2015

That was awesome! Thank you so much for posting all of that.

Sunkissed Mommy · December 8, 2015

Your review is very much appreciated. Disney reviews with pictures and details like yours are hard to come by on this site.

I was a little ho hum about our cruise because my 1st was on the Dream and I was worried about taking hubby and son on the Magic. But you've given me a lot of confidence that they will love it.

Rob_Jen · December 8, 2015

We have been on the Magic 3 times - We love that ship. Allot less people than the Fantasy. The Fantasy is a great ship as well but we love the Magic.

And yes super sloppy science was good as well.

Now I want to look for a cruise. We booked the Fantasy for next summer (dates worked out) but can we wait that long.......

davidmbfonz · December 21, 2015

We were on the same cruise. We had Romeo as our server for lunch on day 1 in Cariacos and for breakfast in Lumiere's. He is a wonderful server and I really wish he was our dinner server. He was very friendly and talkative.

Our servers were okay but nothing too special.

Hi Patricia - since you were on the same cruise, I was wondering if your experiences tracked ours, or were very different?

meatloafsfan · December 22, 2015

Hi Patricia - since you were on the same cruise, I was wondering if your experiences tracked ours, or were very different?

Our experiences were somewhat different.

Our dining team was fine but not "Romeo good". :p For the first time we had early dining because we were travelling with friends who had 2 little girls. I'd prefer not to have early dining again - service was uneven, sometimes rush, rush, rush, but then with big gaps where the servers were trying to reset other tables. We also had an issue on night 1 where the 7 of us were seated at a table for 6 with an extra chair on the end. With having my mother in a wheelchair (where it takes up much more space under the table than the average chair), this was unacceptable. I had to speak with our head server and have the table changed for the remaining nights. To me, having to make that request at all should have been unnecessary - there were plenty of large tables around us - we should have been given a table for 8 from the start.

Food was generally good but a bit uneven. I started ordering for my friend because I knew that after the first couple of days, she wasn't really enjoying the food. Once I started ordering some extras for her to try, she found many things that she liked. I only wish I'd been able to do the same for her husband but he was sitting at the other end of the table. There were a few new dishes and I tried most of them. Was sad to see the potato, celeriac and onion gratin gone and in it's place was a rather lackluster vegetarian dish which looked lovely wrapped in a phillo twirl but tasted terrible. Coffee was drinkable on the cruise and I found the buffet very good this time (we're not usually big fans of the buffet but found the food to be interesting, hot and fresh).

Adult activities on the cruise were good however I find O'Gills Pub not to be the best place to have all of them. It's very difficult to do crafts in such low light and it seemed like no one really wanted to sit at the high tables with the tall chairs - the booths were always the first to go. If we didn't get there early, we couldn't participate because my mother in her wheelchair, can't see or reach the top of the high tables (her head literally came to the edge of the table and would be looking under them). Crafts were kind of bland with the same ones being repeated not only cruise to cruise (we've done many of them several times) but repeated through the cruise as well (the picture pages/scrapbooking one was done a couple of times as were the paper cutting ones).

Tangled was very good. From the top of the theatre (where the wheelchair seating is) the show was a bit dark in many scenes and it could be difficult to tell what was going on though. The songs were great and the lantern lighting scene was fabulous.

Pools were a mad house but I expect that.

Sail-away was wonderful. We decided to sit at one of the tables on the pool deck farther back from the festivities but my dad went up so we could have some of the blue strings. They weren't available yet but 10 minutes later an officer came by to ensure that we had them.

Generally entertainment was good but we've seen the shows before and aren't really fans of magicians et al. We ended up with early nights several times.

Loved the movie theatre as usual. I just wish they wouldn't limit it to 4-5 movies repeated throughout the cruise. We saw Inside Out and Ant Man and my friend saw Bridge of Spies. We also enjoyed the movies on the tv - Jurassic World, Terminator, and a couple of others.

Castaway Cay day I crashed. We'd been on vacation for almost 2 weeks at that point and I'd had too many low-sleep or sleepless nights and slept until 11am. By the time we were ready to go off the ship, it was raining and decided it wasn't worth it for my mom and I (my dad had gotten off early to go snorkeling which he liked). We had lunch in Carioca's which was very good (same ribs as on the island) and then relaxed around the ship.

For us it was a relaxing 5 nights with spurts of activities. We got a very good price on the cruise ($1980 for the 3 of us in a 6A HA balcony on the aft of the ship). I feel that I received value for what we spent and I did do a placeholder for another cruise. I will only use that if I can find another good deal.

davidmbfonz · December 22, 2015

Thanks so much Patricia for this! Good info. It sounds like overall you had a good time, and restful. And you've coined a new phrase! "Romeo Good"! Love it!

I suspect, based on the variety of reviews/reports/comments on this forum that DCL may be a YMMV situation (of course, this is likely true for many things in life).

For people who haven't sailed with DCL before, but are reading through all the information here on Cruise Critic, I would urge you to try to see what is the common denominator across all these varying reports. It seems like you can count on the following with DCL:

Food: 4 out of 5 stars - not the BEST food you'll ever have, but also above-average. Check your expectations and you'll be fine. Try something new. Order several appetizers and entrees. This is a discovery/sensory experience.

Service: 5 out of 5. I think you can count on this as a common denominator. If the DCL cast members aren't making you feel special, it's likely NOT because they aren't trying. Lower your expectations slightly, and you'll be floored.

Pool Deck/Pools: a popular topic/complaint. In our 9 days on DCL, we haven't experienced crowded pools, relative to our expectations. If you think you're going to have a quiet, peaceful resort-style pool, then you will definitely be disappointed. I expect it to be busy like at a water park - the Dream definitely had larger pools than the Magic, though. We've also never experienced overly-long waits for the slides either. If there is a line, go do something else and come back later.

Entertainment/Shows: Disney is an entertainment company - this is what they do. Open yourself up to the experience and all the details and let them do what they do best. Rule #1: go to the shows in the main theater. Also try to go to any ad-hoc shows in the atrium - the performers have an incredible sense of professionalism - they're always on! Don't be turned off by the "Disney-kiddie show" factor - don't kid yourself: these are all based on ANCIENT tales, themes, and plots that serve as the foundation of Western civilization. It's likely any adult story, movie, or TV show you are into has its basis in these tales - so, don't cheat yourself by thinking this is just Disney's cartoony version of the world. This is a representation of OUR world and heritage.

Overall, we approach DCL as if its a Disney World vacation with a nautical theme, and that has served us well. If you approach it as a cruising vacation with some Disney touches, then you might be setting yourself up.

What do you think about all this?

Edited December 22, 2015 by davidmbfonz

meatloafsfan · December 23, 2015

Thanks so much Patricia for this! Good info. It sounds like overall you had a good time, and restful. And you've coined a new phrase! "Romeo Good"! Love it!

I suspect, based on the variety of reviews/reports/comments on this forum that DCL may be a YMMV situation (of course, this is likely true for many things in life).

For people who haven't sailed with DCL before, but are reading through all the information here on Cruise Critic, I would urge you to try to see what is the common denominator across all these varying reports. It seems like you can count on the following with DCL:

Food: 4 out of 5 stars - not the BEST food you'll ever have, but also above-average. Check your expectations and you'll be fine. Try something new. Order several appetizers and entrees. This is a discovery/sensory experience.

Service: 5 out of 5. I think you can count on this as a common denominator. If the DCL cast members aren't making you feel special, it's likely NOT because they aren't trying. Lower your expectations slightly, and you'll be floored.

Pool Deck/Pools: a popular topic/complaint. In our 9 days on DCL, we haven't experienced crowded pools, relative to our expectations. If you think you're going to have a quiet, peaceful resort-style pool, then you will definitely be disappointed. I expect it to be busy like at a water park - the Dream definitely had larger pools than the Magic, though. We've also never experienced overly-long waits for the slides either. If there is a line, go do something else and come back later.

Entertainment/Shows: Disney is an entertainment company - this is what they do. Open yourself up to the experience and all the details and let them do what they do best. Rule #1: go to the shows in the main theater. Also try to go to any ad-hoc shows in the atrium - the performers have an incredible sense of professionalism - they're always on! Don't be turned off by the "Disney-kiddie show" factor - don't kid yourself: these are all based on ANCIENT tales, themes, and plots that serve as the foundation of Western civilization. It's likely any adult story, movie, or TV show you are into has its basis in these tales - so, don't cheat yourself by thinking this is just Disney's cartoony version of the world. This is a representation of OUR world and heritage.

Overall, we approach DCL as if its a Disney World vacation with a nautical theme, and that has served us well. If you approach it as a cruising vacation with some Disney touches, then you might be setting yourself up.

What do you think about all this?

Ermm, I don't necessarily agree with all of your points.

We've had some not 5/5 service on DCL in the past. This round our service was average - very much in line with what I expect from any cruise. On our first DCL cruise, our dining room services were a 5/5 but on our Dream cruises they would be lucky to get a 2/5 from me. We've never had an exceptional room steward on DCL (good ones yes, but we've not experienced the above and beyond stuff that others have - maybe because we don't have kids) most have been average for the industry and we've even had one who fished out used shampoo and conditioner from the garbage can (I guess she didn't feel that they were *completely* empty) and hung back up dirty towels and bath mats that were placed on the shower floor for replacements (and yes, the one bath mat was actually dirty - my mom had been caught in the rain and we wiped the wheel of her chair so she didn't track that bit of mud around - the room steward put the part that had the brown tire track so it wasn't seen when folded).

The food I struggle with as well - maybe I'd be generous and give them 3.5/5? I have in the past had meals where there was nothing I enjoyed (unusual for me) and still don't like the "French inspired menu" served at Lumiere's (though I did try the vegetarian dish - the mushroom pasta - on the recent cruise and found it good). Room service for us this time was a bust and has been uneven in the past (on the Dream I swear it was the best, hottest, freshest food on the ship but we had some issues on the Fantasy and this time on the Magic though our first cruise on the Magic it was very good). Same with the buffet - this time it was our saving grace but other times it was blah. I used to think that DCL's pool deck food was the best in the business but then Carnival stepped it up with many made to order items (pizza, guys burgers, blue iguana cantina, deli, etc.) and their ice cream is 24 hours a day (as is their fresh, thin crust pizza) so I find their casual, non-buffet stuff better.

I will agree that the main shows / family entertainment are top notch on DCL.

I guess for me, I've seen too much inconsistency between my cruises to say that DCL is 4/5 or 5/5 on anything.

I'm big on knowing what I'm getting and feeling like it's always going to be "worth it". I'm okay paying a 3 star price for a 3 star experience because I'm going in knowing what I'm getting and I've been able to determine my value point. For me, Royal is a 2 star experience (we don't use the "active" features like rock walls, ice skating, flow riders, etc. so I find few activities to keep me busy), the food is okay, the room is well laid out with lots of storage but the beds tend to be hard and the pillows small, love café promenade but dislike their buffet - however, when booking I always look for a 2 star price and expect a low key vacation.

For DCL, it's usually 5 star pricing but I'm not positive that what I'll get out is a 5 star experience. That's my main issue with DCL - value and consistency - knowing what I'm paying for is what I'm getting.

davidmbfonz · December 23, 2015

If our cruise in October 2016 goes the same way, we'll be 3 for 3 on awesomeness (13 nights total), which is a pretty good record. Here's to hoping! (Dreaming?)

First Time PR · March 9, 2016

F

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

ookpik · March 13, 2016

What a fab revue! Thank you.

You have a beautiful/handsome family.:)

davidmbfonz · March 14, 2016

What a fab revue! Thank you.
You have a beautiful/handsome family.:)

Thanks - that's very sweet of you. And I enjoyed writing it! Glad you liked.

Disney Magic Nov. 15-20 ** 2nd Cruise ** Trip Report

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Disney Magic Nov. 15-20 2nd Cruise Trip Report