May 14-18, 2012, I surprised my 8 year old son by taking him on the Disney Magic for his birthday present. I found the price of the trip to be fairly reasonable and my thought was that I could get the excitement of Disney and the luxury of a cruise all in one. My excitement was extremely short lived.

At the terminal we were pleased to see Mickey Mouse!! Just as soon as we got in line to meet and get our first picture with Mickey, it was his break time so Minnie came out. I can understand that everyone needs a break, but I would have thought that on Day 1, when all of the passengers were waiting in the terminal, Mickey would have been around THE WHOLE TIME! I came to realize that this was to be expected with every character appearance for the remainder of the trip. Each day brought on new realizations that this Disney Cruise was a HUGE waste of money!!! Going into this trip, I was under the impression that it would be Disney everywhere, but I quickly realized that it was not the case AT ALL. The character appearances were few and far between and it seemed that every time we saw a character, the line would already be cut off.

Our excursion to the Aquaventure in Atlantis was exciting!! That feeling was short lived when after only about an hour into the fun, the water park was shut down due to sever thunder, lightening and pouring rain. I understand that weather is not predictable. Back to the ship we went to find ourselves bored out of our minds!! What is there to do besides spend money playing bingo, or in the arcade?!!? My son did not want to go into the youth activity room so other than that, there is truly nothing to do as a family when the weather is bad. By the 2nd night on the ship, we both wanted to go home. Day 3 brought us to Castaway Cay. Another HUGE disappointment!!! It was a boring island. Leading up to the cruise, I was under the impression that Disney's private island would be packed full of Disney fun. All we found was a beach, 2 waterslides, and small game area. The weather was cloudy which made for even more of a disappointing day. Not to mention, a few short character appearances. We went back aboard the ship early...again Read more