disney-magic11

Note - this page contains multiple reviews.

Name: Joel Strickland
Email: joel.strickland@gmacinsurance.com
Age: 32
Occupation: auditor
NumberOfCruises: 2
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Disney-Magic
SailingDate: 12/16/00
Itinerary: St. Marteen, DWI & St. Thomas
Cabin: 2571
FoodDiningRoom: 90
CruiseDirector: 85
CabinComfort: 90
FoodRoomService: 85
CruiseStaff: 98
CabinAmenities: 90
FoodLidoDeck: 88
DiningRoomService: 100
CabinQuietness: 85
FoodMidnightBuffets:
CabinSteward: 90
ShoreExcVariety: 85
FoodVariety: 85
DeckService: 85
ShoreExcValue: 75
GoodForHoneymoon: 90
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland: 95
GoodForFamilies: 100
LoungeService: 95
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors: 90
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges:
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge:
OverallPortsofCall: 95
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 95
CruiseActivities: 95
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 100
EmbarkDisembark: 95
DiscoNightclubs:
DeckSpace: 90
Stabilization: 90
ShopsOnBoard: 85
SpaceRatio: 90
OverallCruiseValue: 90
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 26 Dec 2000
Time: 08:00:08
Remote Name: 167.19.248.25
Remote User:

Comments

My wife and I took our two small children (4 year old girl and 2 year old boy) on a 7 day cruise on the Disney
Magic to celebrate the Holidays. As you would expect from Disney, the cruise was outstanding! As opposed to
our previous cruise (different cruise line), embarking and disembarking were a breeze – more similar to
getting onto an airplane than onto a cruise ship. Very little waiting, even to clear customs.

The Magic was exceptionally clean and well maintained. It seemed that the staff was cleaning 24/7. All of the
staff that we interacted with was exceptional. Our waiter and assistant were both tremendous with our children,
and made a point to remember little things during the week (not just how I like my steak cooked, but also that
my kids liked certain colors of crayons and had unique food preferences). These two guys would have made
the cruise superb just on their own, but everything else was superb as well. Our cabin was kept spotless (a
tough task considering as many Fruit Loops hit the floor as my kids’ stomachs) and well stocked.

Our oldest child couldn’t spend enough time in the Oceaneer Club – an area for kids 3 and up. The children
are separated according to age group, so she was able to play with the same set of kids almost every day.
She wanted to ditch Mom and Dad all the time! Scuttles Cove is the daycare (for kids 2 and under). The area
was a kid’s paradise, with kids of every type. The caregiver to child ratio was very low, 4 to 1, so our son
received all the individual attention he wanted (needed?). The huge benefit of the kid programming is that my
wife and I got to dine together three times (twice in the main dining rooms and once at Palo).

The food was very well prepared. I especially enjoyed Palo – try the Calamari, the Chocolate Soufflé was
incredible, and the service was top notch. The only ding I have about the food is that the variety in the main
dining rooms was somewhat limited. Seemed like the fish choices were not as interesting as I would have
hoped, and we had roasted chicken on the menu just about every day. The deserts were outstanding – the
baked Alaska at the Animator’s Palate was great!.

The shore excursions are a bit pricey. We spent just about $100 on an excursion in St. Marteen (a bus tour of
the island) – which was very informative, but then took a $20 van ride to Magan’s Bay at St. Thomas. We
thought St. Thomas was the prettier of the islands we visited, but we weren’t able to do any snorkeling or
diving because of our kids – so perhaps our view wasn’t as accurate as it could have been.

This was an outstanding vacation!

Name: Angela Harper
Email: angelakharper@cs.com
Age: 31
Occupation: self-employed
NumberOfCruises: 3
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Disney-Magic
SailingDate: August 19, 2000
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean
Cabin: 7501/Cat. 10
FoodDiningRoom: 75
CruiseDirector: 65
CabinComfort: 85
FoodRoomService: 30
CruiseStaff: 50
CabinAmenities: 85
FoodLidoDeck: 50
DiningRoomService: 90
CabinQuietness: 85
FoodMidnightBuffets: 0
CabinSteward: 85
ShoreExcVariety: 85
FoodVariety: 60
DeckService: 60
ShoreExcValue:
GoodForHoneymoon: 40
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland: 60
GoodForFamilies: 60
LoungeService: 60
TenderService:
GoodForSeniors: 40
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 70
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities:
EntertShowLounge: 80
OverallPortsofCall: 20
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 85
CruiseActivities: 60
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 85
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 20
DeckSpace: 80
Stabilization: 90
ShopsOnBoard: 85
SpaceRatio: 85
OverallCruiseValue: 20
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 22 Jan 2001
Time: 23:36:19
Remote Name: spider-wo073.proxy.aol.com
Remote User:

Comments

I would like to start my review by stating that this website was of great use to me while planning my cruise
aboard the Disney Magic. I went to great lengths to research all of the major cruise lines and put much
thought into our choice. This was my 3rd cruise and my husband's second, but the first for our two daughters,
ages 7 and 5. Although I would not consider myself a seasoned cruiser as of yet, we knew that we loved it and
wanted our children to love it as well therefore we wanted their first experience to be a wonderful one.

Unfortunately, this was far from the case. This was the absolute worst vacation ever! If you are considering a
Disney cruise, all I can say, is run the other way. First of all, this would not be a cruise I would ever consider
without a child, and even with children, it was horrible.

In all fairness, there were a few aspects about the cruise that were positive, so I will give you a fair look at our
experience, just as I was looking for before we booked. I took along a small notebook to jot down our daily
events because I had every intention of coming home and immediately getting on this site and telling you all
what not to miss, and that this was the best vacation of my life. So, I will start with my notes, and then further
explain my ratings as needed.

We stayed in Cape Canaveral the night before embarkation at the Radisson Resort near the port. It was the
highlight of our trip. If you do take this or any cruise out of Cape Canaveral, I highly recommend the Radisson.
We had a suite and were very pleased. Kelsey's Pizza was within walking distance and was wonderful, the
best pizza I'd ever had.

We arrived at the port terminal a little early out of anticipation, which we found to be a mistake as we spent a
lot of time waiting. We were highly impressed with the way in which the embarkation took place. It was a little
crowded with over 2000 people in one terminal, but they were prepared for the crowd.

We were told at the terminal that we would not be going to one of the ports of call due to a hurricane. We
were aboard the second voyage of the Magic's 7 day itinerary to the Eastern Caribbean, including St.
Thomas/St. John, St. Maarten, and Castaway Cay. Although very disappointed, we understood. After all, we
did book during hurricane season, and we didn't want to be in one either.

Upon boarding, we were dazzled by the ship's beauty and size. She is amazing. So much detail went into the
decor and stability. We were allowed to go to our stateroom before lunch and store our carry-ons. We had a
deluxe inside stateroom, which we chose intentionally in hopes of preventing our children from getting sea
sick. Had we known ahead of time that the ship was so stable, we would have probably chosen an outside
cabin. The cabin was larger than the 2 other ships I had sailed on before, Carnival and a Greek liner.

By the next day, Sunday, we were now being informed that we would not make it to the Eastern Caribbean at
all due to the hurricane. Disappointing, of course, but understandable. We were assured that we would
receive equally exotic ports of call. At this time, I still had complete faith in the 'magic' of Disney and knew they
would give us an exciting vacation. Everyone expected they would exchange the Western Caribbean in its
place.

Everything started going downhill on Monday, and never came back up. We did go to the Western Caribbean,
Cozumel, Mexico. Unfortunately for us, we had already been, but still enjoyed Cozumel again. But we could
have gone to Cozumel on a 4 day cruise, paying far less. We assumed that since we were on a 7 day,
Eastern Caribbean itinerary, they would exchange it for a 7 day, Western itinerary, which on almost all lines
consists of Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios. Though our's did not. Our only other ports of call
included Freeport, which again could have been achieved on a 3 day cruise, and Castaway Cay, which was
way over rated, but I'll get to that in a minute. We certainly understood that they had to change the itinerary,
but we had already spent thousands of dollars for the quailty of a 7 day cruise and instead got the quality of a
3 day cruise.

The whole reason we chose Disney was for the children. I was told when booking, and in my research prior to
booking, that the characters freely roamed the ship and that we would see so much of Mickey that we would
be sick of him. We were told that they constantly interacted with the children. This is not true. The image you
see on the commercial is completely false! The characters are in assigned places for limited amounts of time.
Granted, they do place the times in the daily newsletter, but it is often when you are very busy doing other
things. It doesn't matter how many children show up, if they plan to be there for 15 minutes, that's when they
leave. All they do is form a line for the kids to get autographs, very little interaction. Every single time my
children were in a line, it was cut off in front of us. They never got to touch the characters. Our character
breakfast was scheduled for Thursday morning at 8:00, which we made sure to be at, only to find that it had
been cancelled, without our knowledge. On Friday, our last full day of the cruise, I tried once again and let
them stand in the very long line to greet the characters. Many people behind us gave up, leaving us the last
in line. After waiting for what seemed like forever, one of the crew members told us that they were cutting the
line off because the characters had to go. We were the last in line! No one was behind us. A lady ahead of us
gave us her spot when I began to get upset. The few people between us left, again leaving us the last in line.
A few minutes later, the same crew member came back to me, and told me they were cutting the line, and
again, I was the last in line. I got mad, but he walked off, wouldn't even listen to me. Guest services was no
help, actually extremely rude!

As for the children's centers, I guess they may be better than other lines, but far from the exceptional service
they claim to offer. I allowed my children to attend the activities because I wanted them to have a great time,
not because I needed a babysitter. However, I picked them up one afternoon only to find out that both of my
children had spent 5 hours in Topsiders, the top deck restaurant, sitting at tables coloring. Not my idea of
exciting activities.

That occured on Tuesday. Wednesday was our night at Palo's, which by the way was just ok, so we let them
go back to the kids' club during that time. After picking up my children, I discovered that my 7 year old
daughter had a swollen, black eye. Now, they give you a pager to call you if your child wants to leave, but I
was never notified via the pager, nor was I informed when I picked her up, even though the accident was
witnessed by a counselor. This was it for me. I understand that kids can be mean. I never even blamed the
other child, but I definitely hold the counselor and the club responsible. I should have been notified.

There were never any apologies. Not for the sorry itinerary, not for the rudeness, not for messing up our
character breakfast, and not even for my daughter's injury.

As for my ratings, overall, it was a terrible experience. Even if they offered me a free cruise, I don't think I
would take it. Embarkation and debarkation was smooth. Food in the dining room was average. I haven't
sailed on the elite cruise lines and I certainly didn't have superior expectations, and the food was still average.
Outside the dining room, however, was poor. On Monday night, we decided not to go to dinner but instead
just eat up on deck because we had early seating and didn't want to eat early. At 7:00 p.m., there was
absolutely nothing available. I finally tracked down a crew member and asked what there was to eat, and the
only option was room service. We spent 3 out of the 7 nights eating in our cabin and the food and service was
below average. Even when the little food stands were open on deck, and that's all they were, they were not
good. The stereotype of cruising and dining does not apply to Disney.

There were no grand buffets, no ice sculptures, actually, nothing that appeared to have taken much effort. I
think there was one late night dessert buffet, but we were told that it was pathetic.

When we were at dinner, our wait staff was good. Our waiter was pretty attentive, as was our assistant waiter.
The head waiter was rude. Our cabin stewartess was very friendly and was very understanding to our
disappointments while on board. She did all that any maid would do, change towels, turn down the sheets. But
nothing special. On Carnival, we had animals created out of towels on our bed every night, nothing like that
on Disney.

As for Castaway Cay, Disney's private island, we thought it was over rated. Carnival didn't have their own
island when we sailed with them, so I don't have anything else to compare it to. I hear it is better than the
private islands of other lines. We went snorkeling and you have to swim out to the snorkeling site which is a
very long distance. I am not a good swimmer and my children swim to play, but not distances. Even with life
jackets, we were all completely exhausted by the time we got back to shore. We had to pull the kids back in. It
was terrible.

We found the activities on board to be very slack. When they say that there is more for the kids to do than the
adults, they aren't kidding, and the kids' activities weren't exceptional either, as I have already stated. The
crew to passenger ratio is 3/1 as where most lines it is 2/1, therefore the service is less than it should be as
well, in all areas.

The ship itself is beautiful. If they had paid as close attention to the detail in service as they did in the ship, it
would have been a wonderful experience. Disney is much more expensive than some of the other cruise lines,
and from my experience, the worst in service.

I will never step foot aboard a Disney ship again, and if you are still considering doing so yourself, please
think again.

I will gladly answer any questions and accept any email concerning my experience. Feel free to write at
angelakharper@cs.com. I will write back. I'm sorry for such a long posting, I just didn't want to leave anything
out.

Name: Joanna Tierney
Email: jbtfree@aol.com
Age: 51
Occupation: Manager
NumberOfCruises: 8
TravelAgent: No
Ship: Disney-Magic
SailingDate: January 6, 2001
Itinerary: Innaugual 7 Day Carribean
Cabin: 6624/2642
FoodDiningRoom: 87
CruiseDirector: 70
CabinComfort: 95
FoodRoomService:
CruiseStaff: 75
CabinAmenities: 93
FoodLidoDeck: 78
DiningRoomService: 90
CabinQuietness: 75
FoodMidnightBuffets: 70
CabinSteward: 80
ShoreExcVariety: 80
FoodVariety: 75
DeckService: 85
ShoreExcValue: 75
GoodForHoneymoon: 80
CasinoStaff:
PrivateIsland: 95
GoodForFamilies: 95
LoungeService: 90
TenderService: 75
GoodForSeniors: 70
BeautySalonStaff:
EntertainmentLounges: 75
WheelchairAccess:
ExerciseFacilities: 80
EntertShowLounge: 85
OverallPortsofCall: 93
BeautySalon:
EntertainmentPoolside: 80
CruiseActivities: 80
Casino:
AirSeaProgram:
MedicalFacilities:
ShipCleanliness: 93
EmbarkDisembark: 90
DiscoNightclubs: 85
DeckSpace: 85
Stabilization: 85
ShopsOnBoard: 80
SpaceRatio: 80
OverallCruiseValue: 89
Submit: Submit Review
Date: 30 Jan 2001
Time: 12:56:10
Remote Name: 209.69.198.170
Remote User:

Comments

I am a member of the Disney Vacation Club so my cruise was 'prepaid' so to speak since I used my 'points.' As
a base of comparison, I am using five Princess cruises, one Celebrity cruise and one Royal Carribean.

Highest points are given for size of cabin and storage facilities: excellent. Compared with the Princess
Grande, where I needed to have the table and chair taken out so we could move around, these rooms are
palatial. We did have some problems with the noise in our first cabin and the Pursor's moved us the next
morning without any 'attitude.' In fact, we had our choice of two rooms...both outside cabins whereas I'd only
booked an inside. But even our first inside room was extremly well laid out if not as large as the outside.

Cruise director interaction was non-existant and in fact, this staff virtually didn't mingle as opposed to all the
other lines where they seemed much more accessible and gave the impression they had seen you before
whether they remembered you or not. Was disappointed that Disney, the company who pioneered the 'guest'
philosophy fell down so badly on this. I really felt like a non-entity.

Stage shows were uniformly good...and there were three. Lounge entertainment was fairly lame but given the
family nature of the ship, bland was the order of the day.

High marks also to the segregation of adult-only events, beaches, pool, times in lounges etc. As a matter of
fact, I'd like to compliment all the parents on our cruise. Not once did I see a child throwing a tantrum or even
running around unattended. Disney families really ARE quite nice!

Food? It was decent, on par with the better restaurants at Disneyworld. Variety was poor, but again, due to
the high percentage of children on the ship I guess I can see their reasoning. Palo, the adult restaurant of
choice was beautiful, well staffed and very inviting. Well worth the additional $5 p/p gratuity.

Now, the big one: would I go again? As a mom of two teenagers who grew up with Disney since they were 2
and 5, I will always have fond memories and a place in my heart for this company. However....other than
taking them on a nostalgic trip down memory lane, I and I believe they too would prefer a livlier atmosphere for
a cruising vacation.

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