My husband and I and our three year old son went on our first cruise in January. Overall, it was a wonderful experience, and we have already booked the same cruise (ship and ports) for 2015. However, our experience was somewhat challenged by our son, who seemed to be lacking in sleep and in an over-stimulated mode most of the time... something to keep in mind when traveling with small children.
Being our first cruise, we had no idea what the embarkation process would be like, and I have to admit I wasn't overly thrilled with the process; however, we were delayed about two hours due to the previous ship returning late (fog), and overall, I believe all was handled well. Thankfully, we checked our bags in (we debated this) as we did not realize the cattle-like waiting process. As our son grew more and more tired and cranky as a three year old can be, I went to the help desk to ask if we could have a lower number due to the three year old child two hours past his nap time. One woman instantly answered "no, we can not do that". But the kind hearted woman next to her asked what number I had and proceeded to swap my card with a lower one. We were so grateful for her kindness.
On board, we did not partake of any shows, and we actually did not do the main dining or restaurants either (except for the Red Frog one night for their snack options). We felt it was easier to stick with the Lido buffet, pizza, BBQ, sandwiches, burgers and other non-sit down options. I have seen a lot of mediocre to bad reviews about Magic's food, but honestly, we thought it was good. Certainly, there were no-so-great options, but overall, for our situation, I was very pleased. And our three year old ate more on the cruise than he usually does at home!
Our cabin was in the interior. (Being on a tight budget, we wanted to save our funds for the excursions.) It was very clean with a great steward.