Disney Magic Review

4.5 / 5.0
493 reviews

Wonderful Southern Caribbean Itinerary

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Disney Magic
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hillorie_m
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Oct 2014

I was blessed to go on a limited "test run" itinerary on the Disney Magic going to the Southern Caribbean. They did 4 runs in September and October 2014, and DCL is undecided if they will renew this itinerary. I SURE HOPE THEY DO!! The islands were wonderful! We went to Antigua, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, and St. Kitts. The locals were extremely nice and friendly. They were accommodating and shared their islands with us for the day with lovely, hospitable attitudes. I think DCL is trying to steer cruisers more toward their own corporate, man made, cultureless "island" Castaway Cay, and Disney is not necessarily going to continue this itinerary. I can tell you that I and my children benefitted from seeing other cultures, meeting new people on the islands, hearing the wonderful music, and eating the local food in a way that COULD NEVER happen on a man made corporate island like Castaway Cay. Unfortunately, the typical Disney clientele will be too unintelligent and too inter-culturally awkward to realize this.

As for the ship, my state room was wonderful. We splurged on a 1 bedroom concierge level suite and it was well worth it for our family of 5. My mother saved her money and booked a very inexpensive stateroom that had no windows just for her, and it was also fine. She had no complaints. So both extremes on the ship as far as rooms go are plenty good. Overall the service was impeccable. Our stateroom hostess Beverly kept the room immaculate twice a day, including the night time turn down service. The room was really nice and well maintained. It was cozy, and having a verandah is the way to go if you can spend the extra money. I also loved having a bathtub and 2 bathrooms.

The food, however, was a great disappointment! Our servers were absolutely wonderful people, but the food was mediocre at best. Aaron and Kristi were great servers, and Aaron especially was outstanding at his job. I never told him how I really felt about the food because he was trying SO hard that I could never complain to him. I am a foodie. Here's what I can tell you about Disney Cruise food. It is over-abundant and very impersonally prepared. You could tell that it was created on a factory like assembly line. The cooking staff was obviously exhausted from churning it out day and night and had lost all of their creativity and love for food in the process. I never had an actual bad meal, but I never had a good or memorable meal onboard, either. It was excess availability of average food, all the time. It was always served lukewarm. Even the fruit tasted like Costco half-ripe and picked too early corporate fruit! Wouldn't you expect to have amazing fruit in the Caribbean?! Children were offered kids menus that included nothing but chicken fingers, spaghetti, and mini burgers, with an occasional fish, ALL THE TIME. If your kids live on chicken nuggets and pizza at home then I'm sure they'll love the food onboard. If, however, your children are good and well-rounded eaters, they will despise the children's menus, trust me.

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