Disney Cruise Line: Disney Magic Review
Cruising is something that I really enjoy and something that I plan to do as often as I can in the future. I love to explore every area of every ship from the amazing restaurants, bars, lounges, lido and promenade decks, pools water slides, Spa’s and more! I love mixing up different ships different Itineraries and in the near future different cruise lines! Because of this I’ve decided to review each ship I travel on as a whole. I will then also break it into different parts, like restaurant reviews, stateroom reviews ext and post them individually periodically as time allows…
For each review I will break each ship down into 5 categories: Food (of course!) Decor, Entertainment and Activities, Stateroom Cleanliness and appearance and of course most important Service! I will give each a score out of 10 and then total it and give it a grade at the end of the review.
Now onto the review of the Disney Magic!
Disney Magic
The Disney Magic was the Disney Companies very first cruise ship, the ship was built in Italy in the late 1990’s and the ships christening took place in 1998. At 84,000 gross tons, and 984 feet long it was a very large ship when it was first built so large in fact it was built in two separate locations in 2 halves and then the two were welded together! It is still a large ship by many standards (I mean almost double the Gross Tonnage of the Titanic!) and it even got a larger when it went though a massive Dry Dock in October of 2013 however compared to many ships now days it is small. However it still has a wide variety of actives and all 11 decks have something for everyone!
Now onto the review!!
Ship Food:
One of the most talked about things when researching cruises is the FOOD! Some of the talk is very good and other talk is bad saying that cruise food is old or frozen so the quality is not what you can get on land. In some ways I completely agree with the criticisms however in many ways I disagree with them. I have not sailed another cruise line YET however Disney does an excellent job at using the freshest ingredients possible especially in their top tier restaurant Palo. In the end I think Disney does a good job with food here are my specific thoughts below.
Disney Cruise line has no lack of dining options one thing is for sure and that is that you won’t come home hungry after a Disney Cruise! From a buffet, 24 hour room service, many lido deck dining options from a Pizza Window to Gyros and even 3 Main Dining Room’s that you “rotate” through each night! Disney’s rotational dining has its perks and drawbacks, a perk is the fact that each dining room has its own theme and its own menu its drawback (and perk) is that the Disney Magic only has 1 specialty restaurant Palo, yes this does mean that it has a lot of free dining however free dining isn’t always top quality due to the amount of people that have to be served at a time. For example some ships have 25+ restaurants with many specialty restaurants that provide a wide variety of dining experiences and customizable fresh food. In the end the food on DCL is hard to rate I love that they have a wide variety of free options especially for families however for me personally I don’t really enjoy grabbing something quick at the pool for lunch. I like to go enjoy a nice meal either in the main dining room or a specialty restaurant 3 times a day. (This is just my opinion I mean some people really knock Royal Caribbean because they do not offer lido deck food at all!) In the end I am just rating the Disney Magic’s food! Even though the Disney Magic doesn’t have many specialty restaurants because of the excellent Palo Dinner and Palo Brunch as well as a wide variety of free offerings I give the dining a…
Score of – 7.5
Ship Decor:
The Disney Magic really is a beautiful ship! Its very quaint and has a traditional ocean liner feel! For me this has its good and bad qualities – I like how beautiful and traditional it feels and in the areas that were re imagined it is truly incredible! However its atrium is missing a WOW factor that other ships have and the non renovated spaces are really lacking you can tell that the ship is 15+ years old… Overall the great re imagined area’s outweigh the bad and I give the ship a…
Score of - 7.5
Ship Activities and Entertainment -
This for me is the ships biggest flaw. It has some things that are excellent like the Oceaneer Club and Lab which are arguably the greatest kids clubs on any ship period! It also has an entirely updated lido deck fitted with an awesome Aqua Dunk waterside, pools, funnel vision and more! However as excellent as these things are the nighttime Broadway style shows were lacking and the ships adult area was really boring with poorly themed bars and lounges that didn’t appeal to me whatsoever. The Spa was nice for adults however it is not nearly as nice as other Spa’s at sea (for example the Disney Dream)
Taking off of this into account I would give the Disney Magic a 10 / 10 for Children aged 3 – 12 this part of the ship is absolutely fantastic however for Adults / Older Teens and Tweens its very much laking and is probably a 5 / 10… The lack of bars / lounges as well as extra activities contriubes to this overall
Score of – 7
Stateroom –
Disney cruise Line is known for their fantastic staterooms and they don’t disappoint! They are 25% larger than the average cruise ship staterooms they are incredibly well appointed with beautiful and comfortable linens, pillows, chairs really the entire stateroom is outstanding! We were in a concierge suite that was over the top however every stateroom on the Disney Magic is excellent! The Stateroom’s are one of the best parts of the Disney Magic leading to a perfect
Score of – 10
Service :
In my honest opinion the HANDS Down best part of the Disney Magic was the Service! From our incredible Waitstaff to our wonderful Stateroom host and concierge the Disney Magic brought service to a whole new level! Quite honestly I do not think it is possible to have better service on ANY vacation than what we received on the Disney Magic!
Score – 10
Overall Rating:
***Total*** – 42 or a 84% a solid B
There are many things that I love about the Disney Magic, service being at the top honestly I do not think its possible to have better service than what we had throughout the cruise! From our concierge Twanda to our Waitstaff everything was top notch! I also love that there is less people on the ship compared to the Dream or the Fantasy this is especially nice on Castaway Cay and I think it leads to better service on the Ship as a whole. However the smaller size did lead to some downfalls like a lack of evening activities especially for adults!
In the end the Disney Magic is a fabulous ship that I can’t wait to sail again!!!
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***Disclaimer***
These ratings as of right now are based just upon the Disney Magic I have also sailed the Dream but will be doing a full review of her later this year! The numbers could change when I do visit more ships in the upcoming year I have cruises on 3 ships planned that may alter my thoughts a little depending on how they are! However as of right now these are my scores for the Disney Magic!
I always order the New England Style Clam chowder! I am not from New England however I think the clam chowder is very good and is always a highlight of the meal for me its a must order on every trip to Liberty Tree.
I can honestly say this was the best $15 that I spend in all of 2014 Disney related or not!
