I am writing this report to give our opinion of the trip. I am writing an honest account of what we though so I am giving both the negative and positive.
We are just back from the Magic. We were an extended family of 8 with adjoining rooms. We were five adults and three kids (9, 11, 14). This was the first cruise for all of us so we did not know quite what to expect. I have to time to write this now so this is going to be long. I may ramble and jump from topic to topic but am just going to write it as I think of it.
Our first sighting of the Magic was absolutely awesome she is indeed a beautiful ship. We arrived at the terminal around 11:00 or shortly before. We had to wait in line for approximately 30 minutes so that was not too bad. Everyone was very friendly. I do agree that the lines to board the ship are not very organized and if we had not figured out where to stand and gotten into the line when we did we would have had a very long wait. By 11:20 or so the line was all the way back to the doors. I thought security was very good when boarding the ship and at the different ports. When we got back to port caniveral and got ready to disembark the security was very lax. We were told we would need our birth certificates but they never ask for them and barely glanced at our i.d.
ROOMS:
We were able to go to our rooms immediately staterooms 6114 and 6112 so that was a plus. We were in a category 6 room with verandah. At first I thought the room was too small for 3 adults and a 11 year old. We quickly got used to it and had no problems. There was plenty of drawer space and the closet was quite large. Our staterooom attendant was Carl and I honestly hardly ever saw him. I don't think his english was very good as he did not talk very much. However our room was always well taken care of and he did an excellent job. We had towel animals every night ( I think he was in training for those) my brother was right next door and his towel animals were always much better.
Our staterooms were very convenient to everything or at least the things that mattered to me (just one floor from the kids clubs and one of the theaters) we did not have noise problems at all very quite. We overpacked will take much less on any future cruises.
WEATHER:
According to the captian's bridge report we had rough seas the first two days 8-13 ft waves although not nearly as bad as the past April cruisers. Thank heavens for that or I would have been in trouble. The movement of the boat was felt by everyone to some degree. My mom did not really feel it at all, the rest of us took dramine non-drowsy and did not have a problem. The only exception to this was Thursday night the boat was really rocking due to the wind conditions more than the waves and my 11 year old woke up in the middle of the night (he was on the top bunk) and got sick.
FOOD: I have never seen so much food in my life, everywhere I turned there was more food. We as a group thought the food was only ok. I have been to restaurants in the states that offered better food. The steaks were usually tough and I did not feel like the buffet's offered enought variety if you were a simple eater. I know alot of people like the Magic's food and some of it was ok but overall opinion is they could have done better.
Our server was Gabriella from Argentina and our assistant server was a little guy from Thiland can't pronounce his name much less spell it. The service we got was excellent!! The servers work so hard and such long hours. It is unbelievable the hours that Disney requires the servers to work. Our server told of days when she only got 4-5 hours off out of 24 and that was broken up. Someone in the gift shop told me that the servers and restaurant workers put in about 84 hours a week. It is amazing how they manage to keep smiling and giving you great service.
It was incredible how they met your every need. It will take some getting used to when I get home not to have my crumbs swept away.
Tips:
Anyone who even thinks of not tipping these hard working much deserving workers should be ashamed. Yes folks, it does happen. My brother saw someone who looked a little upset and ask why and he stated that he was short $250.00 because some family had shorted him his tips.
St. Martin:
We went on the See and Sea short excursion and the water part of the tour was good. We got an island tour of St. Martin and spent about 45 minutes to an hour on a semi-submarine and got to go under the water. We personally did not like St. Martin because it is very unattractive except for the water views and it is also very dirty and unappealing. I would not have wanted to walk around on my own. Disney would be doing their guests a service by dropping this port and picking another one maybe St. Croux or another of the U.S virgin islands.
St. Thomas:
We thought St. Thomas was excellent. It is absolutely beautiful
and I could have stayed there for weeks looking at the views. We took a taxi to Coki Beach $14.00 round trip for two people. The driver tried to strike a deal and wanted to drive us around all day but we thought he was too expensive $200.00 for the day for 8 people. We said no so when he picked us up from Coki beach he took the long way back and gave us a tour of some of the best viewing spots on the island. for no additional charge. It was incredible and yes he was probably trying to earn his tip at this point but it was well worth the extra couple of dollars.
Coki beach is the most beatiful water I have ever seen. As previously stated I could have stayed there forever. You could see straight through the water and there were lots of colorful fish. We went snorkling and fed the fish dog bisquits of all things. They came right up to you we also saw some nice coral. I highly recommend this beach. They were people renting beach umbrellas and chairs at a reasonable price.
I guess Coki beach spoiled me for Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay:
I was very dissapointed in our experience. The weather was beautiful and so was the beach. I spent the money on the snorkle lagoon thinking it would be like Coki beach, clear water and lots of fish. The water was very cloudy and you could not see anything. The water at times looked dirty. We got a spot at the family beach and managed to get an umbrella, chair and hammock. If you want to swing this get there early and do not take the tram. Our kids love to swim and are usually hard to get out of the water. They also did not like the sea grass that is on the bottom. It felt squishy each time you stepped on it. Everyone was ready to go after about 2 1/2 hours. The BBQ was also quite good. The scenery and food were great the water was the only disappointment. Are the water conditions always this way?
Entertainment on Ship:
Pools:
Small, very small as stated on other posts. My son did not have any problem with it he is 11.However, you literally could not have swam if you tried. It was elbow to elbow people in the goofy pool.
Entertainment was overall good for the children especially the character appearances however there were usually long lines. For the adults it could use improvement. The navigator series is a good idea that they need to expand on. The making of the magic was especially good. In case anyone missed this the magic was made in two different halves then joined together.
Morty the magnificant was anything but in our opinion. Disney really could do better. Disney dreams was awesome and they need more shows of this caliber instad of Morty. We really enjoyed Disney dreams. Movies showing were The Rookie, Harry Potter, Big Trouble, Return of Neverland, Snowdogs, Tombraiders and a couple of others I can't remember.
Overall grade for this cruise: B
Would we cruise again? I think so but we will probably check out Carnival or one of the other cruise lines. I think my parents would have been happier with more ports of call instead of two days at sea. Any suggestions anyone?
To all upcoming cruisers Happy Sailing!!
We are just back from the Magic. We were an extended family of 8 with adjoining rooms. We were five adults and three kids (9, 11, 14). This was the first cruise for all of us so we did not know quite what to expect. I have to time to write this now so this is going to be long. I may ramble and jump from topic to topic but am just going to write it as I think of it.
Our first sighting of the Magic was absolutely awesome she is indeed a beautiful ship. We arrived at the terminal around 11:00 or shortly before. We had to wait in line for approximately 30 minutes so that was not too bad. Everyone was very friendly. I do agree that the lines to board the ship are not very organized and if we had not figured out where to stand and gotten into the line when we did we would have had a very long wait. By 11:20 or so the line was all the way back to the doors. I thought security was very good when boarding the ship and at the different ports. When we got back to port caniveral and got ready to disembark the security was very lax. We were told we would need our birth certificates but they never ask for them and barely glanced at our i.d.
ROOMS:
We were able to go to our rooms immediately staterooms 6114 and 6112 so that was a plus. We were in a category 6 room with verandah. At first I thought the room was too small for 3 adults and a 11 year old. We quickly got used to it and had no problems. There was plenty of drawer space and the closet was quite large. Our staterooom attendant was Carl and I honestly hardly ever saw him. I don't think his english was very good as he did not talk very much. However our room was always well taken care of and he did an excellent job. We had towel animals every night ( I think he was in training for those) my brother was right next door and his towel animals were always much better.
Our staterooms were very convenient to everything or at least the things that mattered to me (just one floor from the kids clubs and one of the theaters) we did not have noise problems at all very quite. We overpacked will take much less on any future cruises.
WEATHER:
According to the captian's bridge report we had rough seas the first two days 8-13 ft waves although not nearly as bad as the past April cruisers. Thank heavens for that or I would have been in trouble. The movement of the boat was felt by everyone to some degree. My mom did not really feel it at all, the rest of us took dramine non-drowsy and did not have a problem. The only exception to this was Thursday night the boat was really rocking due to the wind conditions more than the waves and my 11 year old woke up in the middle of the night (he was on the top bunk) and got sick.
FOOD: I have never seen so much food in my life, everywhere I turned there was more food. We as a group thought the food was only ok. I have been to restaurants in the states that offered better food. The steaks were usually tough and I did not feel like the buffet's offered enought variety if you were a simple eater. I know alot of people like the Magic's food and some of it was ok but overall opinion is they could have done better.
Our server was Gabriella from Argentina and our assistant server was a little guy from Thiland can't pronounce his name much less spell it. The service we got was excellent!! The servers work so hard and such long hours. It is unbelievable the hours that Disney requires the servers to work. Our server told of days when she only got 4-5 hours off out of 24 and that was broken up. Someone in the gift shop told me that the servers and restaurant workers put in about 84 hours a week. It is amazing how they manage to keep smiling and giving you great service.
It was incredible how they met your every need. It will take some getting used to when I get home not to have my crumbs swept away.
Tips:
Anyone who even thinks of not tipping these hard working much deserving workers should be ashamed. Yes folks, it does happen. My brother saw someone who looked a little upset and ask why and he stated that he was short $250.00 because some family had shorted him his tips.
St. Martin:
We went on the See and Sea short excursion and the water part of the tour was good. We got an island tour of St. Martin and spent about 45 minutes to an hour on a semi-submarine and got to go under the water. We personally did not like St. Martin because it is very unattractive except for the water views and it is also very dirty and unappealing. I would not have wanted to walk around on my own. Disney would be doing their guests a service by dropping this port and picking another one maybe St. Croux or another of the U.S virgin islands.
St. Thomas:
We thought St. Thomas was excellent. It is absolutely beautiful
and I could have stayed there for weeks looking at the views. We took a taxi to Coki Beach $14.00 round trip for two people. The driver tried to strike a deal and wanted to drive us around all day but we thought he was too expensive $200.00 for the day for 8 people. We said no so when he picked us up from Coki beach he took the long way back and gave us a tour of some of the best viewing spots on the island. for no additional charge. It was incredible and yes he was probably trying to earn his tip at this point but it was well worth the extra couple of dollars.
Coki beach is the most beatiful water I have ever seen. As previously stated I could have stayed there forever. You could see straight through the water and there were lots of colorful fish. We went snorkling and fed the fish dog bisquits of all things. They came right up to you we also saw some nice coral. I highly recommend this beach. They were people renting beach umbrellas and chairs at a reasonable price.
I guess Coki beach spoiled me for Castaway Cay.
Castaway Cay:
I was very dissapointed in our experience. The weather was beautiful and so was the beach. I spent the money on the snorkle lagoon thinking it would be like Coki beach, clear water and lots of fish. The water was very cloudy and you could not see anything. The water at times looked dirty. We got a spot at the family beach and managed to get an umbrella, chair and hammock. If you want to swing this get there early and do not take the tram. Our kids love to swim and are usually hard to get out of the water. They also did not like the sea grass that is on the bottom. It felt squishy each time you stepped on it. Everyone was ready to go after about 2 1/2 hours. The BBQ was also quite good. The scenery and food were great the water was the only disappointment. Are the water conditions always this way?
Entertainment on Ship:
Pools:
Small, very small as stated on other posts. My son did not have any problem with it he is 11.However, you literally could not have swam if you tried. It was elbow to elbow people in the goofy pool.
Entertainment was overall good for the children especially the character appearances however there were usually long lines. For the adults it could use improvement. The navigator series is a good idea that they need to expand on. The making of the magic was especially good. In case anyone missed this the magic was made in two different halves then joined together.
Morty the magnificant was anything but in our opinion. Disney really could do better. Disney dreams was awesome and they need more shows of this caliber instad of Morty. We really enjoyed Disney dreams. Movies showing were The Rookie, Harry Potter, Big Trouble, Return of Neverland, Snowdogs, Tombraiders and a couple of others I can't remember.
Overall grade for this cruise: B
Would we cruise again? I think so but we will probably check out Carnival or one of the other cruise lines. I think my parents would have been happier with more ports of call instead of two days at sea. Any suggestions anyone?
To all upcoming cruisers Happy Sailing!!
