Our Itinerary
Saturday May 7th
Set Sail
Sunday May 8th
At Sea
Monday 9th
At Sea
Tuesday May 10th
St Maarten
Wednesday May 11th
St Thomas
Thursday May 12th
At Sea
Friday May 13th
Castaway Cay
Saturday May 14th
Disembark
First Impressions
My first impression of Port Canaveral was that it was a very beautiful port. I really enjoyed the way that it was laid out, and the observation deck that you could walk out onto and take pictures of and in front of the ship. We didn't spend much time here at all, our boarding number was called withing about 20 minutes of our arrival. Once we got through the welcome photo line and walked onto the ship, I remember being surprised at how small the lobby was. I don't know why, but I envisioned a GIGANTIC sprawling lobby kind of like the Grand Floridian or something. It was just surprising, not necessarily bad. We went straight upstairs to Topsiders for the welcome buffet. The food was good, but we were so awe struck and confused that I honestly don't remember much of what we had. I remember the food was hot, there were a lot of choices and the seating area was nice outside so that was all that mattered to me.
Stateroom
We went with a standard inside stateroom and were located on the 2nd deck – room 2513. I was nervous about being seasick, because I get motion sickness pretty bad so this was a big concern for us. I remember feeling the waves a bit at night, and it took me a while to get my bearings straight for a few days. But all in all we loved our room and the location. We didn't mind at all having an inside room. We are definitely the “we don't spend time in the room, so why waste the money” type of people. We were hardly in there and it was plenty of space for the two of us. I don't know if I would recommend it for more than 2 people, but it worked out well for us. Our stateroom attendant was a girl named Pilar, and she was amazing! We would see her in the hallway and she was always so wonderful and pleasant. We enjoyed talking to her whenever we would see her and she took very good care of our room. Once we accidentally left the “do not disturb” sign on the door, and she chased us down the hall to make sure we didn't want our room done. We were so surprised that we went to all the trouble to track us down, that we told her to leave it up and that we wouldn't need her to come in the rest of the day and we told her that it would buy her an extra little break during the day. Hopefully we were able to spread a little pixie dust to her that day.
Ship Appearance
The Magic was absolutely a beautiful ship, but I do see a little bit what people are talking about when they say how it is showing it's age. Not because of cleanliness. It was a very well maintained ship, but there were some things that seemed outdated. The adult area “Beat Street” seemed very “90's” and it could use a little bit of a revamp. The only other complaint I have about the ship was the elevators. They are SO tiny and awkward. This encouraged me to take the stairs more, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, other than that, the ship was very nice.
Dining
The food for the most part was excellent! Of course there were a few things that we didn't love, but overall Disney did a great job as usual. And we had the BEST dining staff. Our head server was Sompong (Sam) and the assistant server was Lady. They were fun and energetic and were exactly the type of servers I had hoped we would get. They worked well together and would joke with us, they really made our dining experience go from great to outstanding. I also thought that we would feel awkward sitting with strangers and I considered asking for a single table, but our table mates were wonderful. We have stayed friends since and have actually visited with one of the couples a few times since we live only about 5 hours away from each other. If people are on the fence about sitting with other people, give it a try - you can always try to talk to someone about changing seats or dining times later on.
Entertainment/Activities
I was a little nervous going on a
Disney cruise as 2 adults that there wouldn't be enough to entertain myself and my husband. But, there were constantly things going on at all times of day for all ages of people. Some activities that we tried were a drawing class, the wheel (which is basically wheel of fortune), a towel folding class, shuffleboard, and trivia. We also went to Beat Street nightly to watch the entertainment. They had cabaret singers, magicians, comedians, game shows, games for adults only and a DJ with dancing every night. Some of the stuff was corny and we wished it were better or that more people had shown up, but most times we had a great time laughing and singing along. We were never at a loss of things to do or places to see. There were several activities that I wanted to do, but we just were having a great time relaxing that we didn't get to them. Some things to look forward to next time – Pub night, TV tune trivia, watching movies in the theater, karaoke.
Pools/Spa
It's no secret that the pools are small. We didn't spend any time at the kids pool, and we only sat near the family pool - we never went in. We did go to the adult pool and went in. Although it was busy, it was never so crowded that we couldn't get in or didn't enjoy ourselves. I do wish that people would be respectful and not “save” seats near the pool at the crack of dawn.
We never got a chair next to the pool, but we also didn't mind hanging out on deck 10 in the sun and then coming down the stairs for a quick dip in the pool. My only real complaint, and this is the thing that bothered me more than anything else on the ship is how early the hot tubs close. I respect that they have to clean everything and maintain at night, so everything is ready for the next morning – but at midnight on the dot, the lights turned out and there were maintenance staff kicking us out of the hot tubs. I do wish that they would at least keep the adult hot tubs opened a little bit longer.
The Vista spa was great. We didn't have any treatments done there so I can't comment on that, but we did get a pass for the rainforest room and we went there every day. I LOVED it. It was by far my favorite spot on the whole ship. It was very tranquil and relaxing. Fortunately for us, it was never busy and we could always get one of the tiled loungers. The sounds of the fountain and the light music in there is amazing. The steam rooms and sauna were nice, but I loved the loungers more than anything.
It was the only place on the ship that helped me when I felt my motion sickness acting up. The gym was pretty nice also. We tried to go to the gym while on board, but not only were we having too much fun to find time to go, but the motion of the elliptical mixed with the rocking of the ship messed with my equilibrium pretty bad. So we only went once. But it was a nice area.
Shows
The shows on board were all good. I enjoyed Disney Dreams the best, but they were all well done and cute. The other shows were the Welcome Aboard show, Villain’s Tonight, Twice Charmed and Until we Meet Again. The last show was the only one that we missed the whole week.
Ports/Excursions
Like I mentioned before, we went to St Maarten, St Thomas and Castway Cay. St Maarten was my least favorite port, but mainly because I didn't enjoy Phillipsburg which was where we docked. We were the only ship in port that day, and I thought I would enjoy that – but it just meant that the people on the island were desperate to make sales. They were a little pushy, but once we got out of there and took a taxi to Orient Beach we really enjoyed ourselves. The beach was very nice, and although we had a little rain that day we still had a really amazing day. Also - We didn't do much shopping except for jewelry. The jewelry prices were pretty good from what I could tell. My husband got me a new tanzanite ring while we were there and we were happy with the price.
While we were on St Thomas, we did an excursion through Disney. The “Full Day Sail and Snorkel to Honeymoon Beach” which also sails to Turtle Cove. We had a fantastic time, and although this excursion is a bit pricey, we thought it was well worth it. The staff was outstanding and fun, they played music while on board and they kept the drinks and snacks filled. They made rum punch for the adults, which was constantly being refilled. The snorkel location was almost all sea turtles, but we also saw a few sting rays and a barracuda. The reef was nice, but not as colorful as I would have liked. Honeymoon Beach was a very secluded beautiful private island. Once we were there, they had a lunch buffet set out for the guests. It included typical BBQ food like chicken, ribs, corn, baked beans, salad.
Castway Cay is an island that makes the cost of the cruise completely worthwhile. It is beautifully maintained, the food was great, the drinks were amazing and pretty reasonably priced. There were a lot of activities to do, but mostly it is a beautiful island for relaxing. We did Pelican's plunge about 20 times in a row, and loved it every time.
It is truly a magical island and the biggest reason we rebooked and will be sailing with Disney again this coming May.
Next year we will be doing the Western Caribbean, and we will be sailing on the newest ship The Fantasy! I can't wait!!! Hopefully the minor complaints that we had about the Magic will be different on the Fantasy, but regardless - I have a feeling that Disney has forever spoiled me from sailing on another cruise line.
Like I said, if anyone has any questions or comments - I would love to hear your feedback!! Thanks for reading!
My name is Heather, and my husband Bob and myself went on our first ever Disney cruise back in May. We sailed on the Magic from May 7th - 14th to the Eastern Caribbean. I wanted to put a review and a quick slideshow together to share our experiences. If anyone has any questions about first time cruising, the ship, ports, navigators, dining etc etc... I'll be glad to do my best to answer anything!!! 
Disney cruises are super expensive, but if you can find the money I would totally recommend it sometime! 
