We just returned from a 5 Day Cruise on the Disney Magic. We departed from Port of Miami. Ports visited were Cozumel and CastawayCay. We had stateroom 2550. The cabin was nice and quite. I really liked the 2 “room” bathroom. With 3 girls ....having the toilet and shower/bathtub in separate rooms was very convenient. The mattress were fairly comfortable. I do believe it’s about time for these mattresses to be replaced. Our stateroom host was great. He couldn’t do enough for us. My granddaughters (8 and 10) loved everything! The kids club (Oceaneers) was a favorite. They could check themselves into the club, and I would pick them up. They enjoyed the musical productions at the end of the day, too. These were well done. The girls loved dressing up on pirates night! (Bring your own costumes. Buying these on the ship are quite expensive). They also loved dressing up in princess dresses, which we bought before we packed for the cruise. We signed up - online - (a few weeks before leaving on the cruise) for ticketed Disney Character events. Do this as early as you can as they “sell” out. These events are free, but you have to sign up. Also we had fun with the Marvel Day-at Sea. Heads up - Since this is basically, just one day, the lines get very long ( hour wait) to meet Capt America and Thor! While we were waiting to get onto the ship, we were given a letter, informing us that the Mexican government recently lifted a tourist warning on traveling between the Cancun area and Cozumel. Nevertheless, Disney was cautiously avoiding excursions across this area. This made me very nervous about doing a reserved snorkeling excursion in Cozumel, so I cancelled it. We did a little shopping in Cozumel...a little overwhelming for an 8 and 10 year old due to lots a cigar smoking and salesmen calling out to us to buy their goods. Not much fun for us. Castaway Cay was a nice break. The captain couldn’t get the ship docked until about noon ( rough seas ) so we only had snacks offered on the island. We had Fun snorkeling (although not much aquatic life to see) . The girls felt comfortable in the floatation vests offered by Disney. We brought our own snorkeling gear since it ran about $100 for the 3 of us to rent them. We loved renting bikes ($10 each) and biking around the island. It was a great way to see the island and the beautiful ocean scenes. Bottom line, the girls had a blast on the cruise! And I loved seeing their joy and excitement. It was nonstop excitement over meeting Disney characters, nonstop high energy throughout the ship! I could hear young moms expressing exhaustion about day 3! My girls loved the pool area, even though the pool looked like a can of packed sardines....so crowded! My only complaint was the quality of the food. Given the price of a Disney Cruise, Disney should definitely improve on their cuisine! I heard multiple passengers complaining. The recent cruises I’ve done on - Celebrity, Royal Caribbean and Holland America; all had far superior cuisine to Disney. My girls weren’t too disappointed because all they cared about were the free ice cream cones and room service delivered cookies and milk at the end of the day. Read Less

Having done my last 3 trips on Carnival and Previous to the on Royal Caribbean was very much looking forward to Disney cruise having heard so many positive things about service and experience. While we enjoyed our trip very little impressed us about Disney. Water Park: Aquduck was very fun and lines were never to long even on a sold out ship Pool not having salt water was nice as well. Dinning: We felt dinner was on par with Carnival, buffet edge went to Disney both on food and having shorter wait times not sure if that was Disney or just a smaller ship that previous sailings Cabin: Traveling with the family split bathroom was nice room. Cabin had broken shower, malfunctioning toilet, and blue water dripping for an AC flood more on that later. Did not take a hot shower once on trip. Luke warm was best. Childrens Club: Lots of great activities for kids, was a step up from previous experiences. Entertainment: Seats in movie theater we to narrow to sit in making watching move impossible. Live shows were Fantastic one area they blew away other trips. Customer Service: Was poor at best. Massive leak took AC out in some areas had to dry clean clothing due to blue water leaking from cabin and hallway. Guest services was either border line rude to apathetic. Water come leaked for 2 of our 5 days. Repair and clean up started at 7AM waking us up 2 days in a row. As different crews argued who's responsibility it was. On every previous trip Cabin stewards know our our family's name and pleasantly greeted us in the hallway not the case on this trip was badgered while trying to get off the ship to confirm out shower had been fixed even after explaining to him we were going to miss our excursion. Disembarkation: Was smooth and pleasant set up time and breakfast was nice touch over other ships. Maybe my expectations were to high having read up about Disney experience and paying 2x times what 8 day Vista trip cost. But would not go back on a Disney Cruise again. While a couple things were nice i was longing for the enjoyment of my previous Carnival trips. Looking forward to trying one of the new RC trips next cruise. Read Less

I had heard such wonderful things about Disney cruises so wanted to give them a try. As far as cruise ships go, it was a nice ship, but not any more special than other cruise ships. The extras of Disney are the quality shows in the evening and the personal touch they give like the announcement when you board the ship. The negatives are that the pool is extremely small and the waterslides are just okay. There was no rock wall or extra activities such as a mini golf course as are on other ships. It is the best bet if you are looking for character interaction for your children. Embarkation went well, but the disembarkation was not smooth at all. It turned into a free for all after breakfast and the lines were crazy long. People were cranky having to wait. I prefer other times where each color is called at a certain time. Overall a nice time and would consider going again for the kids. Read Less

OK. Coming out with anything but A++++ reviews of anything Disney can subject you to a backlash that makes coming out as a Trump supporter pale in comparison. We have many friends who are Disney addicts and have been on numerous DCL cruises as well as numerous annual trips to the parks. Yeah, we aren't "those" people. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE Disney, but it isn't like air and water is to life with us. Taking a DCL cruise was a bucket list item for us and with the kids getting older, now was the time. Found a good rate (for a Disney cruise "good rate" is kinda subjective) over 2 school holidays and we went ahead and booked it. Arrived the night before and stayed at the Hampton Inn Brickell in downtown Miami and it was awesome. Perfect pre or post cruise hotel. 15 min drive to the port and 35 minutes later we were on the boat. Now is Disney can just figure out a way to get the park lines to move that fast! Once on the boat, we immediately went to the pool decks to let the kids start swimming and once we saw the pools, our hearts sunk. We knew the kids swim areas were small on the ship, but we didn't realize they were THIS small. Kiddie pool was maybe 15 ft across and at any given time there would be 20-30 kids running around screaming, splashing, fall on eachother, elbowing each other, etc. It was like a kiddie Thunderdome and watching my 7 year old autistic son try to survive that environment was more stressful than Id have liked. The main pool wasn't much better. VERY small and at any given time packed with tons of kids to the point where you could hardly see the water for all the kids and life jackets. This is what I don't understand. Disney has more money than most small countries and can afford to build whatever they want. They build a boat to hold 2700 people, of which an easy 1500 will be kids, and make the pools smaller than what you'd find in a run down apartment complex. On the "at sea" day, it was truly a nightmare with every child on the boat in and around the small pools. Im sure Disney has some sort of reasoning behind this, and Id love to know what it was. The 2 water slides were ok but always packed too. Ultimately, we were VERY disappointed in that. As far as the room and the rest of the ship, it was very nice. The room was by the aft elevators and was in the perfect spot. Easy walk up or down a cpl floors to get to all the restaurants and the pool decks since they were all in the aft part of the ship. The room was very nice and clean. Beds were amazing. Split bathrooms was a genius idea and having the balcony was a welcome escape of the madness every now and then. Food was BY FAR the best Ive ever eaten. ANYWHERE. Heard DCL does their food up well, but never expected this. They could take the lunch buffet to any casino in Vegas and serve it for dinner and charge $100 per person all night long. And that was lunch!! Dinner was even better. Cabanas was just amazing. Every type of food you could possibly want. Dishes from all over the world made it an adventure every time we went to eat. I got to try alot of dishes Id never had before. Asian, Indian, Mediterranean, you name it. Plus piles of fresh shrimp and stone crab claws and snow crab legs at each meal. Absolutely beyond compare. The sit down restaurants were great too. Lumiere's and Animator's Palate were as promised. Especially AP. We knew it would be fun, but seeing it in person made it even better. Having the wait staff rotate with you nightly to different restaurants was a great idea. They knew what the kids wanted and didn't want and treated us like old friends. This was a smart move by Disney. Ice cream and pizza was the one area where we came out ahead. Kids easily ate 40 ice cream cones over 4 days and we kept the pizza place in business. Not the best pizza, but it filled a void when you were hungry. Room service was good. the BLT was a big hit with us. The steak panini was great too. Would have liked to have a few more choices, but what we had was good. As for drinks in the room, bring your own soft drinks or be prepared to pay for them with room service. Knowing the kids would inevitably want a soft drink while in the room and knowing I wouldn't want to walk up to the pool desk to the soda fountain, we brought a pack of 8 oz pepsi bottles with us. Was definitely a smart move. As for the ship, incredibly clean and well kept. Never saw garbage or anything dirty. Public areas were as clean as your stateroom. After a cpl of days, the Disney themed music kinda begins to wear on you. For the first day or 2 its fun, but after hearing songs from Mary Poppins 500 times while walking around the ship, jumping off becomes a viable option. I didn't go on a Disney cruise expecting to hear hard rock or even most pop music around the pool because most of it isn't really what Id call kid friendly, and Im ok with that. Instead Disney has a playlist of about 25 songs that are palatable to families and plays it on a loop. Over and over and over again. I am a huge U2 fan, but you can only hear "Beautiful Day" so many times before you wished Bono never wrote that song. Again, small things, but when you can't get in the pools and are relegated to sitting on a chair watching the kids, pool music was all we had. The entertainment. Disney really stresses and PR's their kids clubs. They looked very fun and there were always kids in there, but my 12 year old daughter had no desire to go in one by herself and they aren't really set up to take special needs kids, so as a result we didn't use them. As a result, we felt like there wasn't much else to do activity wise. At night after dinner we literally wandered around the ship to pass the time while we waited for our stateroom to be turned down for the night. We did go to 2 of the live shows in the theater and the kids really enjoyed them. Very much Disney on Ice type shows...without the ice. We did get treated to many showings of Black Panther since it opened while we were on the cruise, but since Im really not amped about the movie to begin with, we didn't go. They had movies playing frequently in 2 theaters and for some, that's a great option but if you didn't really care for Marvel and Star Wars movies (my wife and daughter could care less) your options were thin movie wise. Character appearances seemed pretty regular, but we skipped out on them. We have plenty of character photos from our times in the parks. Alcohol. This is a big thing for me. Not because I want to get drunk, but I like to have a few drinks, especially when Im on vacation. Drink prices were pretty good and they had several packages for beer or wine. We bought a beer pkg the first day which came with 24 16oz beers of my choice, and a DCL cooler for $130. Yeah, thats alot of money, but if you stop and do the math and consider the convenience of not having to flag down a waiter or go to the bar for every drink (and pay another service charge each trip), it was worth it. Plus all the beers fit in the room fridge and our steward regularly brought us ice for the cooler. it was a very nice fabric soft sided cooler too, so having that by the pool and on Castaway Cay was great. DCL lets you bring on beer or wine and I brought a cpl of bottles of wine and my wife and I enjoyed them in the evenings on the balcony. We'd order a cheese plate from room service and it made a nice pre dinner snack with the wine. Castaway Cay. Very well laid out island with alot of potential. Packing 2700 people on the beaches they have makes for some very congested areas. We were able to find a place a little away from the crowds, which made it better. Water was pretty cold (didn't stop the kids though) and the amount of rocks in the sand and water wasn't what we'd have liked to have seen, but it is what it is. Guess when they dredged up all that sand for the beaches they couldn't sift the rocks out. Id like to see them expand the area and give that many people a little more elbow room. The lunch on the island was just so so . Like I said, the island has a ton of potential and Id like to see them expand a little bit more. Nassau is Nassau. Nothing special there. My daughter got to experience her first foreign city and that was fun, but after a cpl of hours t shirt shopping with her, we got back on the ship. The other BIG thumbs down on DCl was the internet. It is sold in packages and unlike other cruise lines, its sold in MB packages, not GB packages. I don't go on a cruise to spend my time on social media, but having an almost teenage daughter, wifi connectivity is a matter of life and death to her. Logging on the first day, DCL offers you a free 50MB pkg to try to the system. Not really knowing how many MB it would take to use any of the apps on my phone, I logged on to the DCL Navigator app literally to see what the prices were for the other packages. I clicked to 2 pages on the app and poof, nothing. I had already gone through the 50 MB in 2 pages. After hours of begging from my daughter, I allowed her to access her Snapchat for 5 minutes the next day using the wifi, knowing we could find free wi fi in Nassau the following day. 5 minutes on Snapchat cost me $19.99. Unreal. This was incredibly chintzy and disappointing. Im guessing DCL wants families to spend time together on the ship and not on their phones, which I 100% agree with, but for those of us who have to stay connected for work, on top of the teenagers wifi addictions, it made for a bit of a headache. For me it was a welcome escape when I sent my boss a screenshot of the internet prices and told him unless he wanted to pay for them, Id read all work emails when we got back to Miami! As for wifi in Nassau, we found a weak signal in a Burger King and it was just enough for my daughter to reconnect to her friends for a bit. Lots of other places around town offer free wi fi, so just pick one and save your $ on the ship. My wife, who is by far the big Disney person in our family, summed up the whole trip on the sea day as we were watching 30 kids fight to the death in the kiddie pool. "Im waiting for that aha moment. That moment where it hits us and we say Disney was worth the extra cost and effort. I never got it". For her to say that, it said something. We completely get the Disney thing and would never discourage people from taking a DCL cruise. On the other hand, we won't be taking another one ourselves. There is no doubt that our kids will have a better time on another cruise line with more activities (bigger pools, water activities, etc) and we will pay alot less for it and we will leave our Disney experiences to the parks. If you aren't a true Disney fanatic, I can't help but think you will probably be a little disappointed in your overall experience. The food and staff in my opinion really saved the trip for us. Disney got those things down pat and were the highlight of our cruise. Just know what you are getting for your $$ and you will be ok. Understand there is no escaping the Mouse when you are on a ship with him like you can when you are at the parks!!! Read Less

Last year we sailed the Disney Dream and loved it. This year we decided to try the Disney Magic. The Magic is a smaller and older ship. It is showing some signs of wear, but overall is well maintained and clean. For what it's worth, we were told it is going into dry dock soon for some maintenance and updates. As a smaller ship, it was really easy to get around. The midship elevators could get a bit crowded but forward and aft were usually quick moving and often times we had an elevator to ourselves. The only time there was a really long wait for elevators was right after a major event (the pirate party etc). We were always able to find a seat near the pool and at the buffet. Restaurants were good. The buffet was always well stocked for breakfast and lunch. It was typical buffet food and plenty filling and satisfying. The poolside restaurants offered good food (burgers, pizza etc), and room service was prompt. The main dining restaurants were great as well. We were the last cruise to eat at Carioca's. It is being reworked into a Tangled themed restaurant now. Animator's Palette on the Magic is amazing (better than the one on the Dream in my opinion). Lumier's was probably my least favorite in regards to theme but the food was good. Our dinner staff was great. They always had a positive attitude and were willing to go the extra mile to make our meals the best they could be. They even entertained our children making hats and doing magic tricks. We splurged for Concierge this trip and it was well worth it. The Concierge team was top of the line, super friendly and full of energy. They truly made our trip magical. Andy and Kemisha were the greatest. They are gems and I hope Disney truly appreciates them, their customer service skills and their dedication. I hope to sail with them again sometime and wish them all the best. They deserve it! They define what customer service should be. The second we stepped off the ship to head home, we missed them. Ports were good. Key West was beautiful. We didn't do an excursion. We opted to walk around and explore on our own, which was economical and worked out well. We stayed on the ship when it was docked at Nassau and had a Cabana at Castaway Cay. Overall it was a great cruise. Read Less

Because my granddaughter is a Disney person and we made her 6th birthday special for her. It was except for that god awful dinner food. I am still I’m shock cause of that food. When people ask me how my cruise was I tell them it was awesome but the food in the main dining I wouldn’t feed to a dog. I’ve never seen so much wasted food as I seen on this cruise. As of right now I would never book another Disney cruise again. I don’t appreciate being told how much I should tip someone. My granddaughter was in the oceanography club and spent two hours total cause she loved the ship more and it cost me a 60 tip for two hours. We didn’t get our final billing till the morning of our departure. I looked over it quickly and didn’t pay attention to that tip that they charged my card. Two hours doesn’t warrant a such a large tip. For the money people pay for this cruise the food should be edible and you should be able to tip what you want. Thank you for listening. Lynn Munday Read Less

We booked this cruise for grandsons 5th birthday. My husband, myself, daughter 27yo and son 24yo joined him. We all had a blast. Disney is top of line -we went when our kids were 13 and 10 and this trip was just as great. Everything from pier to ship went above and beyond- don't let the age of the ship fool you. The ship is clean, in great shape and does not show age. Interior room was fine for us--we had us in one and kids in one next to us (crazy that adjoining door was $600 more) --we didn't need it that bad! Our first cruise in 2003 we could not dock at Disneys private island, we did this time and it was the best private island I have seen. So much to do for all ages. I really wish Disney was not so much more expensive than other lines, husband says now that we did it once we wont do again--:( Can get a great experience on NCL or Royal Carribbean with great kids clubs as well. Read Less

We had a great time on the Disney Magic on our 5 day cruise out of Miami. The food was good from breakfast to late night snacks. We liked the room service which was included unlike many other cruise lines. The service from everyone was great. We especially enjoyed our dinner server. The entertainment was enjoyable for all in our group ranging in age from 7 to 60s. We especially liked the pirate night activities and fireworks. Our captain did a wonderful joy finding an area without rain to have the fireworks. Our balcony room was very nice with a great room host who whenever we saw asked how we are enjoying our stay. We liked the split bath. It made getting ready a bit easier for all. Seeing all the Disney characters was fun. The whole family had a blast. We can't wait to go on another wonderful Disney cruise! Read Less

I love cruising, I love kids, I love Disney! I’m still waiting for the WOW and we are home after 4 nights on this worst trip ever! The ship is gorgeous, the staff is incredible, but the food is disgusting and the wait times for a character picture is ridiculous. Why anyone would subject themselves to this when you can spend less and stay at Disney and have a great experience - I have no idea! The best part of the trip were the two guys in the dining room - Alvin and Enlish - they were super attentive to Maddox ( my 6 yr old grandson). There’s nothing to do on the ship except drop your kids off at the club or lab and do what? Watch a Disney movie? Absolutely ridiculous! Do yourself a favor - go to Orlando and stay in a nice resort, eat the food you want, go where you want to go! Disney is making a fortune off of bad food and boring activities. Read Less

I chose this cruise because I am looking for a new cruiseline to sail. Having cruised over 800 cruise nights on my previous cruise line I was ready for something better. From He moment I arrived at the port it was quick and orgainized. After checking in I had to wait for my boarding number to be called. That wait was awesome between the Characters and the very pleasant port agents, it was no time before we boarded. Upon boarding we were welcomed by an announcement of our name. We went to Luminars to sign up for Palo whIch is a must and mixology whIch was amazing. When we went to lunch they took our carry ons and brought them To our table for us. The food was amazing I felt like I was in a speciality restaurant. After lunch we went to our beautifully designed cabin. No detail was over looked. As far as entertainment Disney is number one in the entertainment industry so need I say more. Top notch entertainment all over the ship. More fun activities than anyone could ever do. A lot of first run movies in the Buena Vista theater, they even released the new Star Wars movie 1 hour before it was released on land. Of course they can have first run movies, they own the movies. Our dining service was exceptional to the point we asked for the same team for the ;ext cruise.I did B2B. Luminars was extremely elegant and the food was just as awesome, Animators Palate was by far my favorite because of the way animation starts out as black and white and by dessert the animation turns to color, the service team leaves so that the guests can see the show going on all around the room. At the end of the show the service team comes back out to finish the show their black and white vests are now in color. Palo’s Brunch is a must. Just an amazing brunch. They service gets even better if you can imagine that in Palos. A very under utilized beautiful place on the ship is Keys. Most people don’t explore the ship enough to find it. It is the extremely elegant Piano Bar in the After hours adult section of the ship, it is all the way forward on Deck 3. They truly have hand crafted speciality drinks that they put the finish touches on them tableside from a beautiful cart that is brought to the table. I would suggest everyone give Keys a try. Just an awesome cozy place to enjoy a drink and listen to amazing piano players. Again Disney being number 1 in the entertainment business they only have the best entertainment. If you are traveling with kids and would like a before dinner drink the Promenade Lounge is on 3 between 2 dining rooms. They have a band and dance floor. It is so cute to see the little ones dancing on the dance floor. They also have a toddler play area in the corner it has a swinging door and is closed in with short walls so people can watch the little ones play. Sail away and the tropical deck parties were both amazing. Pirate night only Disney can do a celebration in this fashion. Between the two seatings there is a Pirate Party on Deck 9 and only on Disney fireworks at sea, I had a great view on Deck 10 starboard side Aft. Service throughout the ship is truly the best in the industry. Disney is clearly a luxury cruise line with a family feel. CastAway Cay is truly the best private island in the industry. They have so many activities for children and adults. They adult only Beach is just beautiful. In the family beach area they have a bar called Conched Out bar. What is so amazing about this is it is not a hut on the sand which they load up from the ship before the guests get there like on competitors private island. No this is a building that can be closed up when not in use. There are coolers that can be locked, sinks, prep areas, tile floor complete with drains. Disney spared no expense on this private island. People say and I was one of them, Disney Cruises are to expensive and their are to many children. As far as expense you get what you pay for and then some. As far as the children for one they are more well behaved than children are on other lines. Parents are more attentive to their children. After all this is not the cruiseline where parents sit at a bar and let their kids run the ship. Parents want to share this amazing experience with their children. When they want some adult time the kids go to the kids club. The kids club is the best. I wanted to go play in the kids club. By the end of the first day I was asking myself why didn’t I start sailing Disney in 1998. As far as the kids the first day I was very aware of them. By the second day I was actually enjoying seeing the magic of Disney through their eyes. I did see some melt downs which is to be expected because they children get so excited and stimulated so melt downs do happen too. What I saw was Cast Members go to those children very quickly to attend to them. One little girl was dressed as a princess and she wanted her dad to walk her down the stairs like Prince Charming. He wasn’t getting it. After about four times of her not wanting to come down the stairs, a cast member came over took her hand like a prince and walked her down the stairs. She was fine after that. Again entertainment and service was top notch. Something that was so much fun was to go see Santa. Families dressed in Pajamas to get their pictures taken with Santa. As a grownup I put on my Minnie Mouse bow flannel Pajamas, Minnie Mouse Bow headband and Minnie Mouse over sized shoe slippers and walked through the whole ship to go stand in line to see Santa. Santa spent as much time with me as he did the kids. One more thing to note. They provide very high quality soap shampoo and conditioner and lotion daily, best shampoo I have used in a long time. The water is also the best in the industry. My hair never looked better. As far as drinking water it is very purified more than any other line IMO. Normally drinking ship water my hands and feet swell. Not on Disney. Also on the other cruiseline I sailed I had to bring an air purifier. I walked into my room and the air was so fresh and crisp like purified hospital air, I just can’t say enough about how wonderful Disney Cruiseline is. If it’s a luxury cruise line you are looking there is a reason why Disney Cruiseline with 4 ships is number 1 in the industry. Be ready to be spoiled in a way no other cruiseline can do. Read Less