Disney Magic Review

4.5 / 5.0
493 reviews

Lots of fun but aging, poorly configured ship, dangerous disembarkation process

Review for the Bahamas Cruise on Disney Magic
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lexmiller
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Oct 2017

This was our third Disney cruise, the second time on the Magic. The Magic and the Wonder are sister ships, nearly 20 years old. The Fantasy and the Dream are larger, more modern in every way, and only 5 years old. After cruising on the newer Fantasy, and now back again on the older Magic, the positive factors of the newer Fantasy/Dream just scream at me - the whole time this cruise on the older Magic, I was mentally comparing/contrasting the older to the newer ships, and the older come up far short, sadly. The staff is doing a great job trying to keep the ship spiffed up, but it’s like putting lipstick on a pig, frankly. On our balcony, there were so many paint chips that had chipped off, collecting on the balcony floor, it was unsightly and only brought attention to the rust - you could see the rust at the base of the balcony walls and how the staff valiantly paints over it to hide it, but the paint just flakes off - of course it does, it’s physics. And the flow of the ship, meaning the poor configuration of the public hallways and the very tight buffet, to name a few issues…….the most glaring and dangerous issue is Deck 3, the area in front of the Promenade Lounge. As a passenger, if you want to traverse the length of the ship on Deck 3, which is something you’re going to do every single day as the Atrium is on one side of the ship and if you want to go to Carioca’s for a meal, or anything on that side of the ship, you have to pass through the choke hold passage at the Promenade Lounge. This passage is roughly 6 feet wide - so, picture two way traffic, traffic that includes strollers, wheelchairs, walkers, whole families - and add to that, tables and chairs all along the porthole windows which is part of the passageway - MAYBE, if they’d at least take out the tables and chairs, the passage wouldn’t be as dangerous. Deck 4 is also very dangerous, in this exact section but a deck above. Shutters, the photo shop, has a doorway opening that goodness help you if you’re looking down at the photos you just purchased, as you’ll walk straight into a staircase and plummet down - literally the entire doorway opening spills directly into this staircase. You have to walk out of the doorway and walk immediately to the left to avoid tumbling down the stairs.

So, in this same vein, let me try to get across the horror that was disembarkation - but nothing I can write can possibly portray how bad, and how very dangerous, it was - this is not hyperbole. You exited the ship Deck 3 Midship - remember that - never ever take the aft elevator on disembarkation day. ALWAYS take the midship elevator and skip the line spilling from the Deck 3 aft elevators filled with literally hundreds of people who are simply standing still as they cannot move due to the number of people. It took us 30 min to traverse a distance that would on a “normal” day, take 2 minutes - and it “only” took 30 min because we cheated the line twice in sheer desperation so as not to miss our transportation. We left our cabin at 8am, took the aft elevators to Deck 3 and could barely get out of the elevator, as the entire area was JAMMED with people waiting to get off the ship - can we say claustrophobia? Can we say NO ORGANIZATION, NO CREW around, anywhere, to help or direct?? It was chaos. People were having to group on the stairs, going up and down, just to get out of the way so that people could exit the elevators - the hall was jammed, no one could move as there was no flow, yet the elevators kept spilling out people, so people had to congregate on the stairs. These are full families, young kids SCREAMING, strollers, wheelchairs, walkers, luggage, baggage of all kinds as remember, this is disembarkation - when you get off the ship for the very last time. Everyone has to cram through the Deck 3 bottleneck at the Promenade Lounge that I just described to you in the above paragraph!

And no one had bothered to at the very least, remove the chairs and tables which further clutter the chokehold passage at this point! So everyone is emptying the aft elevators with their children and belongings, clogging the area at the elevators because the Promenade Lounge chokehold passage is clogged as the line to get off the ship is so long as every single person is exiting the ship. COMPOUNDED by the bizarre fact that the restaurant located on Deck 3 aft, is open for breakfast!! HOW INANE!! Open Animator’s Palate on Deck 4 for breakfast, as that is out of the way! SO, you’ve got the clog from everyone getting off but there are also lots of people that are flowing against the crowd, to get into the restaurant, OH GOODNESS, it was chaos. And as I said, no staff anywhere in site to help direct, to separate those trying to get off from those that were going to breakfast. Let me say this - without a shadow of doubt in my mind, regarding the mob of unmoving people at the elevator - if a fire had broken out, we would have all perished. I am not exaggerating one iota. A fire hazard like none I’ve ever encountered. To end what was a very pleasant cruise in many respects, this way, well, it left a very sour taste in many mouths.

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