Disney Magic
Let me start by saying that I really enjoyed this ship - and just about everything about the Disney cruise experience. The Disney Magic is a sophisticated product, done in art deco decor. There is nothing "Mickey Mouse" about it, although you can find several tributes to him around the ship if you want to. This is not a theme park. This is a bona fide cruise ship, with all of the amenities, activities and facilities you would expect to find on any new premium market product. Please take the time to read this review in its entirety. There is a good deal of innovation that I want to cover for you:
Documentation: Disney puts together the most complete documentation packet I have ever seen. It is cleverly designed and compiled in a paper "suitcase." Everything you need to know about the ship, shore excursions and Castaway Cay is inside.
Embarkation and Disembarkation: Disney built a gorgeous and spacious terminal building with very convenient parking. (No trams needed to take you to the ship!) Once inside, there is no need to wait in an embarkation lounge or "holding pen". You simply walk right up to the line that bears the first letter of your last name, and check in. We arrived at 1:15 PM (boarding starts at 1:00 PM) and had no wait at all. All cruise passengers are issued ID cards which double as rooms keys. When you board the ship, your key is put through a machine - much like they have in the theme parks. When you disembark in the various ports, you go through a similar process. Security knows at all times who is on and off the ship. This system is one of a kind. Once on board, you are greeted by a "cast member" who escorts you to the appropriate elevator. From there, you are on your own - but this is a very easy ship to navigate. Disembarkation was incredibly easy. When the ship is cleared, you can just walk off. No waiting for your number to be called. And amazingly, there are no lines, no mad rushes of people getting their luggage, and no hassles. The terminal is spacious and it is so easy to find your belongings by color coded tags. How Disney pulls this off, we may never know - but it works!
The cabins:
By anyone's standards, this ship boasts particularly large cabins. The outside cabins are 226 square feet. Veranda cabins are 268 square feet (including the balcony). The suites range from 304 square feet to 1,029 square feet. All cabins are done in blonde wood with an inlaid trim. They are elegantly furnished with rich colors - red, blue, green - no pastels here. The most ingenious thing Disney did in the cabins was to divide the bathrooms into two. One room has a toilet and a sink, while the other has a fully tiled bathtub/shower and another sink. The sinks are stainless steel with granite tops. Each cabin also has a full size couch, that converts into a twin bed. All are equipped with a safe, mini bar, hairdryer, desk, and TV. Storage space was plentiful. I promise you, there is not a 3/4 night ship in the business with these kind of cabins.
The restaurants:
There are three main dining rooms each accommodating 442 guests, and passengers have the opportunity to eat in all of them. This is the only ship in the world where passengers and their wait staff rotate each evening to a different venue.
Animator's Palate offers continental cuisine. When you enter the dining room, everything is black and white. Throughout the course of your meal, color is added on the walls, the ceiling and in the lighting. Various cartoon cells are displayed on the monitors around the room. At the end of the meal, you are treated to video excerpts of Disney favorites. The wait staff change into colorful vests and serve the best dessert of the cruise - a palate of sweets - blueberry cheesecake, chocolate banana cake, chocolate mousse, etc.
Parrot Cay is a Caribbean restaurant, done in bold colors, ceiling fans and artificial birds. It is charming and bright. There were some very unique (and good) items on the menu - crab cake, coconut encrusted shrimp with onion rings, jerk steak - to name a few.
Lumiere's is a salute to Beauty and the Beast. Certainly, this is the most formal of the three, with the most upscale menu. The escargot were the best I have had on a ship. There is really no formal night on the ship - but most people get dressed up on the evening they dine in Lumiere's.
Palo's, which seats 130 passengers, is an adult-only alternative restaurant located at the top of the ship. There is a small cover charge to dine here and reservations are required. Italian cuisine is served in a chic "Wolfgang Puck" setting, surrounded by a sea of windows. Food and service here are clearly top notch.
Let's cut to the chase - the food is not gourmet, but is certainly acceptable, and in several instances - quite good. I was surprised by the chilled jumbo shrimp at the lunch buffet - even on embarkation day. The soups and salads were above average. Desserts in the dining rooms were much better than those at the buffet, although they have fabulous jumbo cookies on the buffet everyday. This is the first ship I have been on where they offer tacos at the grill. There is a separate hot dog/hamburger stand and a separate pizzeria. In addition, the ship has an ice cream stand called Scoops, where they serve several flavors of freshly made ice cream and frozen yogurt - with all the toppings - throughout the afternoon. Let's put it this way - you won't go hungry. I found that the real difference was the service. I have to say that this ship has some of the best dining room service that I have experienced on any large ship. No, it's not white glove - but the servers speak perfect English. They are very attentive and accommodating. They are sincere - and want to make sure you leave happy. Actually, this attitude carries over to the rest of the ship. Crew members offer to help when they see you need them - even when it is not their job. A cleaning person saw that my daughter was crying and came over to ask what she needed. We asked if she knew where we could get apple juice. She went and got it for us. (This was not a wait person - this was a cleaning person.) Another time, my son was crying during the show. I didn't have milk for his bottle. One of the entertainment hosts came over to help me. He went to three bars before he came back with a glass of milk. I consider that above and beyond the call of duty.
Topsider's Buffet seats 332 inside and 294 outside. Here, you can enjoy a casual breakfast or lunch. My main criticism here is that the buffet lines are very narrow - making it tough to get around someone if you need to. Additionally, there are only two buffet lines, which are not nearly enough to service the passenger count - particulary at the embarkation lunch and perhaps on the day at sea on the four-night itinerary. On the days that the ship calls at Nassau and Castaway Cay, it is a non-issue. Most ships of this size have four to six buffet lines. There is a separate salad/fruit station and a dessert bar - with wait staff manning each to make sure you get what you need. There is someone to serve you at the coffee/juice machines - which is a nice touch because it is non-existent on most ships.
As a side note: there are two other choices for breakfast and lunch - Lumiere's is table service, and Parrot Cay is buffet-style, however the wait staff will carry your plate to your table and you can order certain items from the kitchen.
A note on incentive group dining - you never have to worry about getting late seating dining, as all of the families beg to have main seating. What a pleasant change!
Public Rooms:
The Spa and Fitness Center offer 8500 square feet of exercise and relaxation options. You will find the usual workout equipment and spa treatments and therapies. The most unique feature is the Tropical Rain forest - where you will find saunas and steam rooms which surround a lowly-lit fully tiled room featuring a center fountain and several lounges. It looked like the perfect place to escape and unwind.
The Walt Disney World Theater was by far the best theater at sea I have ever seen. First of all, it seats over 1000 passengers in completely unobstructed view, cinema seats. The acoustics and equipment are top notch, as are the production shows. Yes, they are done ala Disney, but do have lots of adult content. Currently, they offer Disney Dreams, The Voyage of the Ghost Ship and Hercules - and they were technically superior to every other cruise line show. The theater was packed for every performance. What other ship offers three Broadway-style show on a three night cruise? In addition, some of the featured singers perform in the nightclubs. The talent on board is truly professional.
One thing to note: Late seating dining passengers attend an early (6:15 PM) show, whereas the main seating guests attend the late (8:30 PM) show.
The Buena Vista Theater is a superb 268-seat cinema that plays first run movies. On our cruise, we could have seen Civil Action, A Bugs Life, and many other Disney owned features. This is a terrific venue for an award ceremony for a group not large enough to use the theater.
In the Promenade Lounge, you can enjoy cocktails as you watch the world float by. In the evening a wonderful jazz ensemble played for listening and dancing.
The Conference Center has three rooms that join to form one large facility. Total square footage is 1387 square feet. During our cruise, an incentive group was using the entire center as a hospitality suite. If a group were to need a additional meeting space, Disney is happy to offer them the three venues on Beat Street, which seat 251, 153 and 78 passengers.
Beat Street is the adult only entertainment plaza - which is similar to Pleasure Island (if you have been there.) There are three lounges - Up Beat is a comedy and improv club that is decorated like the outside of the Partridge Family bus, and offers three show nightly - 10 PM, 11 PM and 12 AM. It's refreshing to see the comedians poke fun at Disney a little bit here and there. Sessions is an intimate piano bar, and my favorite spot on the ship. The seats against the windows offer personal headsets for passengers to listen to a variety of (mostly Disney) music. Rockin' Bar D is a rock and roll/honky tonk roadhouse featuring a DJ and all kinds of upbeat dance music.
The ESPN Sky box is located in a "faux" funnel in the middle of the ship. This is a great place to watch any sporting event. There is an area with actual stadium seating, plus a more traditional sports bar room.
Studio Sea is a 294-seat facility that features game shows, trivia programs, karaoke a DJ and a top 40's band. It's about time a ship had an exclusive place to host these types of programs.
If you have not figured it out already - it would be hard to get bored on this ship. I felt that our cruise was way too short, considering the number of options we had on board. We were only able to sample each of them, and could have easily stayed on for the next cruise to fully enjoy them.
The pools - there are three of them, all suited to different types of passengers:
Mickey's Pool is designed to look like "you know who's" face. It features a huge yellow water slide that is being held up by Mickey's white glove. Of course, this is where you find most of the junior cruisers.
Goofy's Pool and hot tubs are provided for use by families of all ages.
Quite Cove is an adult-only pool and hot tub complex.
There are a few shopping venues with mostly Disney merchandise. I am glad to see that the Magic is more concentrated with great entertainment facilities than stores. This is certainly not a "Mall at Sea."
Castaway Cay (Private Island):
This is the best, and certainly the largest private island in the business. First of all, instead of tendering, the Disney Magic docks at Castaway Cay. No other ship docks at their private island. (On any other ship, if the seas are choppy, you may miss the private island experience all together.)
You have a choice of walking or taking a short Disney tram ride to the beach. There are three separate beaches - one for families, one exclusively for groups and one for adults only. If you want to go to Serenity Bay (the adult beach) you can walk 20 minutes or take a five minute tram ride. There is one central barbecue buffet (featuring chicken, shrimp, ribs, hot dogs and burgers) and several bars and shops on the island. The beaches are dotted with beach umbrellas, lounges, chairs and hammocks. Never a problem to find the right spot to sit and enjoy the sun, sand and surf. There is plenty of "indoor" seating for lunch under large cabanas. The group beach has its own facility, but food is not served there. A calypso band plays throughout the day. There are several shops, restrooms, showers and a first aid station. There are even massage cabanas, for those who really want to relax. You can rent all kinds of water equipment and bicycles to explore the island on your own. Disney has created an underwater preserve for snorkeling. Here, you can see sea turtles, lobsters, barracuda, and a variety of tropical fish. What a fabulous experience for everyone!
Now, at this point you must be asking yourself, "What about the children's programs?" On our cruise, there were about 650 children on the ship - and the amazing thing about it was that they did not overpower the ship. First of all, Disney has the most extensive children's program anywhere. The kids have a place to be, with full programming from 8:30 AM until 1:00 AM that night. The counselors will even feed the children lunch and dinner in the Topsider's Buffet - so you don't see too many of them in the dining rooms. Teens have their own "coffee house" lounge called Common Ground. There is over 18,000 square feet of kids-only space on the Disney Magic. Even at Castaway Cay, there is a private kid's only facility called Scuttle's Cove, where children are welcome from 8:30 AM until 3:00 PM.
Here is what you need to consider: On all other 3/4 night cruises - Carnival, NCL, RCCL - there will be children - and sometimes lots of them. No other ship has private adult-only facilities - so kids show up at the pool, on the beach, in the nightclub, etc. Only on the Disney Magic, can adults completely escape the younger cruise crowd, in a dining room, at a pool, on a beach and in three nightclubs.
So, can an adult-only incentive program work on the Disney Magic? Absolutely! I am a blackjack player, and I did not have time to notice the lack of a casino. If a passenger wants to gamble, he has all day and night to go to several hotels in Nassau and Paradise Island. There are so many unique things to do on this ship that it almost becomes a non-issue. The Magic is truly a 7-night ship that just happens to be on shorter itineraries.
Is the Disney Magic worth the higher per person price, as compared to Carnival, NCL and RCCL? If you consider the size of the cabins, the Spa, the entertainment options, the quality of the vessel and the Castaway Cay experience - the answer is absolutely - yes! Haven't incentive groups been going to Orlando and Disney World for years? Why not take it a step further, and sail on a truly magical vessel....the Disney Magic.
