How the ship fares 25 years after it launched
The Disney Magic ship is the very first ship built for Disney Cruise Lines. It was launched in 1998 to much excitement and fanfare. Since then it has sailed to hundreds of ports and entertained thousands of passengers. It has had some updates along the way, with its last refurbishment in 2018. The Disney Magic celebrates its silver (25th) anniversary this year and the spotlight is on Disney Cruise Lines as we all want to know just how magical the ship remains.
In November 2023, our family took a much anticipated Merrytime Cruise on the Disney Magic. It was our first Disney Cruise Line experience. The Disney theme was selected by the children in our traveling group. Although as adults, this was not our first choice, we tried to have an open mind and enjoy the many Disney interactions.
If you’d rather watch a tour of the Disney Magic, check out the video below!
The Dining Experience
Disney Cruise Lines finds ways to imbue the Disney show experience into every occasion, especially dinner time. On the Disney Magic cruise ship, there are three main dining halls, each with a different theme. We were assigned a table, serving team, and rotational schedule when we boarded the ship. We then had an opportunity to experience a new dining menu, room decor, and theatrical experience each night of our cruise. Our servers follow us from restuarant to restaurant, taking care of our drink and dietary preferences. By the end of our cruise, our team had our drink of choice waiting when we arrived. They knew that my niece would only eat mac and cheese and my nephew always got the steak option.
Lumiere’s
Lumiere’s was the first restaurant of our rotation. This venue is themed after the dining room in Beauty and the Beast, and was the only night that did not involve a show. While we had heard some people express disappointment by this, we actually thought it was a nice way to ease into our Disney cruise. We were able to focus on connecting with our extended family rather than being distracted by an elaborate display.
Overall, the food was good but not exceptional. We did have to wait a while for our first course to arrive, but once it did, all the courses were served in quick succession. I ordered the Chateaubriand-Roasted Filet Steak – as did three others at our table. Everyone else loved their meal, but I found my steak to be a bit overdone. Joe had the Roasted Rack of Lamb, which he thought was delicious – but only lukewarm. In fact, we often found that the food was not served quite hot enough, making a meal that could have been great merely okay.
Animator’s Palate
By the second night of the cruise, we had adjusted to the ship and were excited to eat at one of Disney’s renowned venues, Animator’s Palate. This restaurant is found on four of Disney Cruise Line’s ships and features walls with animations that come to life as you eat. On some ships, diners draw their own illustrations before their meal, which get incorporated into the show. Unfortunately, this was not a feature on our sailing.
Animator’s Palate had the most interesting menu of all the restaurants, described as “a savory fusion of Pacific Island foods, Asian cooking and fresh California.” I got the vegetarian main dish, Sesame Halloumi Parcels. It turned out to be a curry spiced filling wrapped in flaky phyllo dough. Most of our table chose the Crunchy Walnut Cake for dessert. This was a generous portion of one of the richest chocalate cakes I’ve ever had – almost too much of a good thing!
Rapunzel’s Royal Table
We were scheduled to eat at Rapunzel’s Royal Table on the last night of our cruise. This is the premiere dinner theater on board the Disney Magic so it was a real treat to have this venue as the grand finale for our cruise. It is themed after the movie Tangled. Rapunzel, Flynn Rider, and all their ruffian friends gather together to celebrate Rapunzel’s birthday. If you have a child celebrating a birthday on the cruise, make sure to let your wait staff know and they will surprise your table with a birthday cake.
This was probably my favorite food choices of all the dining rooms. For a starter, I had the Green Asparagus and Brocolli soup. I was a bit alarmed when it arrived because it was a very vivid green, but it was absolutely delicious. Joe had the Potato Cream Soup and said it was equally good. For my main, I had the Flynn Rider Platter with several different forms of pork sprinkled with home-made French fried onions. Aside from (once again) being not quite warm enough, it was very good.
A bonus of eating at Rapunzel’s last was that this also became the venue for our departure breakfast. The menu choice is the same regardless of where you end up, but it was fun to visit the themed dining room one last time before getting off the ship. No one in our party had early transportation to catch, so we were able to take our time and enjoy the breakfast. The service here at breakfast was the slowest during our cruise, as the servers had to simultaneously prepare for the next round of cruisers who arrived a few hours after we left. Despite this, our team made sure we got everything we needed to enjoy our last hour on the ship.
The Food
Cabana’s Buffet
The main dining location outside of the three themed dining rooms was Cabana’s Buffet. We ate here several times and were quite impressed by the variety. The breakfast buffet had eggs any way you’d want them – scrambled, fried, poached, and even eggs benedict. There were pancakes, French toast, and the famous Mickey waffles. There were breakfast meats, donuts, pastries, cereals, and a wide selection of fresh and dried fruit and nuts. It was a very crowded and competitive place, especially at peak times, but the staff worked hard to clear the tables and make sure everyone got food. The one critique was that none of the hot breakfast items were more than lukewarm.
Cabana’s is also where we had our embarkation lunch. They serve lunch here every day until about 2 PM. Cabana’s is not open for dinner, so if you choose not to eat at your assigned dining venues you must go to one of the grab-and-go places or order room service for any evening food.
Duck-In Diner
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Pinnochio’s Pizzeria
The Duck-In Diner and Pinnochio’s Pizzeria are the two fast-food style eating spots located back-to-back in the pool area. Pinnochio’s had several different types of pizza starting at 11 am and available until late in the evening. The Duck-In Diner served burgers, hot dogs, fish sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and fries – all of the kid’s staples. Off to one side, you could also order a shwarma wrap with either chicken or lamb plus an assortment of veggies and sauces. We only ate here once and found the food just okay. The buns were on the stale side and the burgers weren’t amazing. Since the location was right between the AquaLab splash pool and the family pool, there were constantly small, wet children dashing every which way so it was a bit challenging to reach the order counter.
Daisy’s De-lites
A nice alternative to the buffet or fast-food was Daisy’s De-lites. This small corner cafe was right outside of Cabana’s and our choice when the buffet was closed. They had a nice selection of premade sandwiches, wraps, and fresh fruit. There was also a build-a-bowl counter where you could have a server make you a salad. Overall, this was the healthiest selection of food on the ship.
Eye Scream
Disney Cruise Line’s soft-serve ice cream location is called Eye Scream. This was an amazingly popular place, yet miraculously they never ran out of ice cream cones. There were three ice cream stations – two had the standard vanilla, chocolate, or twist option. The best part was the third station, which had different, rotating flavors. The day we stopped they had mint or cookies’n’cream.
Room Service
One nice perk offered by Disney Cruise Line is their free room service. These days, many cruise lines have an upcharge for room service outside of a basic breakfast. But Disney continues to offer a full menu service menu including snacks, sandwiches, burgers, chicken wings, desserts, and drinks. Unfortunately, the wait for delivery was always at least 45 minutes, and the food was delivered only lukewarm. It was still a nice alternative to braving the crowds to get food yourself.
The Disney Cruise Line Cast
Disney Cruise Lines has a reputation for having the best crew on the sea – or, as they call them, cast members. Overall, we found this to be the case. Most of the staff we encountered were smiling and cheerful, quick to ask if we needed anything and happy to help when we did. The staff at guest services were particularly efficient, we never saw a line longer than one person.
The Disney Characters
One assumption we had when we booked our cruise on the Disney Magic was that we would see Disney characters walking around the ship at all times. We’d seen videos of people running into Mickey and Minnie in their hallway, spotting Donald Duck coming down the stairs, hanging out with Spiderman in the teen lounge. This was definitely not the case on our cruise. First of all, we only saw the classic Disney characters – Mickey and Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and the Chipmunks. Second, they only appeared at very scheduled times and locations. I’m pretty sure there were some secret passageways to help the characters manuever around the ship unseen.
The Disney characters’ appearances were announced in the Disney Cruise Line app, so people could (and did) line up far in advance for a photo op. This was the cause of the only negative crew interaction we had on our Disney cruise. There were very few quiet places for families to gather outside of their stateroom, and we had finally found one and started playing a card game together. About ten minutes into our game, we noticed a crowd of people lining up nearby. Five minutes later, a cast member came over and told us we’d need to leave our seats as Minnie Mouse was about to make an appearance and they were moving the furniture. We asked for help finding somewhere else to continue our game, but she only gave us basic directions to a lounge room on the deck below us. We realize in retrospect that Disney Cruise Line is not very accomodating to non-Disney activities initiated by passengers.
The Live Shows
What would a Disney Cruise be without a live action Disney show? There was a different Broadway-style show each night of our cruise, featuring live actors singing and dancing across the stage and even coming into the audience. There were two showings each night, at the same time as the two dinner seatings. This allowed us to attend both the show and our assigned dinner time if we chose.
Tangled: The Musical
The first night of our cruise, the featured show was Tangled: The Musical. We were very excited to see this because we had just watched the Tangled movie for the first time the week before we departed. As it turns out, this may have been a mistake. Tangled: The Musical was *exactly* the same as the movie – the songs, the dialogue, the backdrops, even the framing of the scenes was designed to be as identical to the movie as possible. In hindsight, of course this is perfect for young children that are happy to watch the same movie twenty times in one day. But for an adult, a little variety can be nice!
There were a few differences in the musical versus the movie. The biggest thing was that Picasso, Rapunzel’s pet chameleon, does not have a role. I did love this cute little sidekick in the movie but I can understand why he was cut from the musical. The opening sequence introducing Flynn Rider was shortened a bit, having him quickly betraying his two henchmen rather than the longer chase scene from the movie. Maximus the horse did not have much of an intro, and if you had not seen the movie you would probably be a bit confused as to his role. However, of course every child in the theater knew who he was and cheered loudly when he appeared. The tower scene where Mother Gothel leaves to get Rapunzel flowers for her birthday, as well as the following scene where Rapunzel and Flynn meet for the first time, were both shortened quite a bit. Of course the Ugly Duckling tavern scene with the entire “I Have A Dream” sequence was there. But most of the dramatic tunnel escape following that were cut – for obvious reasons!
My favorite part of the musical was the lantern scene, when Flynn takes Rapunzel out onto the lake. Cast members dressed in townspeople costumes carried lanterns on long poles into the audience. They walked slowly up the aisle letting the lanterns drift over our heads. Whenever a child lifted up their arms, the cast member would let the lantern dip down gently so the child could touch the lantern. It was truly a magical moment!
Overall, we thought the musical was okay but it was clearly geared to the younger members in the audience. It was truly like watching the movie come to life. I have to emphasize that the musical was *exactly* the same as the movie. If your child has already outgrown the stage of watching the same movie ad nauseum, they may not enjoy this as much. That said, the costumes, props, and acting was well done. The character that played Mother Gothel on our ship was especially realistic.
One other critique I must mention was specific to our viewing. There were technical difficulties that delayed the start of the musical, so a cast member came on stage and began interacting with the audience. Every exchange ended with the phrase “Can I get some noise?” Small children do not need encouragement with this and she soon had every child in the auditorium shouting. The child directly behind us took this particularly to heart and began a high-pitched scream that would have summoned every dog in a two-mile radius had we been on land. Everyone in our vacinity looked pointedly at her parents, to no avail. After the third blood-curdling scream sent directly into my mother-in-law’s ear, Joe turned around and firmly said “Can you please cut it out!” The father did not take this well, more words were exchanged, and ultimately this family left the theather – but not before the child fake-coughed several times onto our heads. I understand that we were on a Disney cruise and the focus is on fun times for the kids. But I also think situations like these are an opportunity for kids to learn to have fun in a way that doesn’t take away from the fun others are having.
Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story
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Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic
There were two other shows offered on Disney Magic, but unfortunately after our bad experience at Tangled we decided to pass on the other shows. In our opinion, the shows were geared for a much younger age set (3 to 7 year olds) and did not have much to entice older kids or adults to come. The acting, singing, and dancing were just okay and the goal was simply to mimic the scenes from the movies as closely as possible.
Disney’s Pirate Night
A big deal is made of Disney’s Pirate Night! It happens on most Disney cruises, and even though this was our first Disney cruise, everyone in our group knew about this event. There are several pirate-themed events throughout the ship, beginning in the early afternoon. Many of the passengers brought their own costumes, swords, and make-up. Everyone also received a Pirates in the Caribbean bandana delivered to the stateroom, so although we didn’t bring a costume we were still able to get in the spirit.
The Pirates IN the Caribbean Party was a deck party with a story, timed to be between the early and late dinner times. The party kicks off with Minnie and friends dancing to some loud tunes. Then Captain Hook rappels down the wall and crashes the party. There is some interplay as Capitan Hook takes over the sound system to play his own songs, with Minnie in the background claiming “You won’t get away with this!” And of course, Mickey comes to the rescue, ziplining from the smokestack, across the pool, to take down Captain Hook and kick off the fireworks.
The event was quite packed as most of the passengers were on deck to see it. The aft upper deck was closed to non-crew and passengers were also told not to be on their balconies during the show. Despite my introvertist aversion to crowds, I was really glad we went! The fireworks were worth it. Watching fireworks launched into a dark night over a dark sea was truly magical.
However, by the end of the show, we were on sensory overload and decided to skip our scheduled dinner in favor of room service. We had seen in passing that every dining hall had been turned into a pirate enclave, with servers dressed in style speaking pirate and singing sea shanties.
The Buena Vista Theater
We were lucky to have a chance to see Disney’s new 2023 movie, Wish, being shown on Disney Magic’s Buena Vista Theater the same week it came out in theaters on land. There were six showtimes for Wish on our cruise, and every one of them was standing room only. This was a cute movie with some catchy songs that I’m sure will become popular with the kids. I think the last Disney movie I saw as a movie theater premiere was Aladdin, so I might be a bit out of touch, but there were a few things I did not expect. First, the movie preview shown was an AI-Armaggedon-futuristic thriller that seemed entirely too violent for an audience with an average age of six. Second, that audience of six-year-olds was extremely fidgety! I don’t know if this was because of the crowded theater or because it was a free viewing of the movie, but there was a lot of coming-and-going throughout the show.
The Decor
Disney’s Merrytime Theme
On embarkation day, we entered the ship through the atrium, where a giant, four story Christmas tree was set up. The railings were wrapped with garlands and the crew were all wearing holiday attire. At the far end of the atrium there was a huge gingerbread house and the smell of cinnamon wafted through the air. From the balcony, Goofy waved enthusiastically as one of the crew announced our family name.
During the cruise, Christmas music was played occasionally over the speakers, and many of the trivia games and activities had a holiday theme. Santa Claus made several appearances in front of the Christmas tree – we always knew when this was happening because the atrium was absolutely packed. However, outside of the atrium area, there were not many holiday decorations and the ship seemed much as it usually did. I actually would get a bit of a shock each time we passed through the atrium and I noticed that Christmas was right around the corner. Hard to remember when you are in a tropical paradise!
Disney Magic Art Work
Every cruise line has a signature way of decorating their ship, and on Disney Cruise Line they of course feature the art and drawings of Walt Disney. Spread throughout the Disney Magic ship were literally hundreds of art from the early days of Disney. We saw so many different framed works that we started to wonder if the crew went around switching out the art from day to day. Most of the art pieces were labeled with the film and date, and it was fun to see the evolution of the drawing style through the years.
Disney Cruise Line Staterooms
Onboard the Disney Magic, we had Stateroom 7128. It was officially Category 07A, marked as an obstructed view balcony because there was a wooden enclosure with an open porthole rather than a clear glass railing. We actually preferred this arrangement as it gave us more privacy and protection from the wind than the regular balcony. There were seats built into one side in addition to the standard deck chair and table. We spent alot of time on our balcony! It was also great to be able open the balcony door and have fresh air from the comfort of our own room.
The room itself was very spacious (for a cruise ship) and nicely decorated. With two dressers, a vanity, a shelf in the closet, and ample room for suitcases under the bed, there was plenty of room to put things. The queen bed was quite comfortable, but worth noting is that it does not split into two twin beds. There was also a sofa that converted to a sleeper bed. The sofa was lacking in cushions but it was a nice place to sit. Our room had the split bathrooms that Disney Cruise Line is known for – one sink/toilet bath and one sink/shower/tub bath. With just two of us, there wasn’t much conflict for the bathroom anyways, but I can see how it would be helpful with a family.
The most fun part about our stateroom was the many Mickey Mouse emblems we found hidden throughout. Mickey was on our blanket, on the shower curtain, on the towels, and on the lamp shades. I bet there were even more that we missed.
Our Favorite Part of Our Disney Magic Cruise
Disney Cruise Lines lived up to our expectations, packing a lot of unique Disney themed experiences into four short days. In all honesty, we probably will not cruise on Disney again, due to the inflated cost compared to other cruise lines. But we did enjoy the extras that can only be had on a Disney cruise. And the best part: we created a whole lot of fantastic memories with our extended family that we can think back on for years to come!
