Help! New to Cruising!

[DisneyMomChristine]

Hi!

We are considering a November 2016 cruise out of New York. We are a family of 4 (2 girls, 6 & 8) and 3 grandparents.

Here are my questions:
1. Staterooms - we are cosidering a room with a large porthole or verandah. Where is a good location on the ship - ie, what category/class/deck should I be looking at? Basically, I don't want to feel the anchor going down.
2. Dining - is formal dining necessary? We want a relaxing vacation and don't want dresses, suits, etc.
3. Entertainment - is there a show every evening?
4. Grandparents - we want a vacation where they don't have to do a tremendous amount of walking. Is this possible? 2 grandparents love all-inclusive vacations, 1 doesn't like heat all that much. I'm thinking there would be a good mix of "resort" with air conditioned activities.
5. Ports of Call - should grandparents choose to stay on the ship while we lounge on, say, St. Maartin, is there any issue with that?

 

[SillyInventor]

1. You can find the deck plans of the Magic on the DCL site. Both as download and as interactive map. Just have a look around. Anything between decks 4 and 8 will be close to something and further away from another thin. However the majority of these decks are staterooms with Verandah, that are more expensive than porthole rooms. So think what amenities you will use most (buffet in cabanas, adult pool, bars) and choose accordingly. Midship is more expensive than aft or forward.

2. No. Formal, semi-formal and pirate dress-up are all optional. You will see many people dressing up and might like to do so too. For kids dressing up on pirate night can be much fun. For a family event dressing up and having some celebrity pictures taken can be fun too. But you will not be denied diner when not dressing up.

3. Yes. Every night a Disney-show or entertainer will perform in the Walt Disney Theatre. As your itinerary has nog been sailed recently there are no recent Personal Navigators of your cruise, but check out some recent navigators of other Magic cruises to get a good idea what will be going on around the Ship: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/personal-navigators/#tab1

4. The Ship is fully airconditioned and there will be a lot of indoor activities. There will be some walking involved as the Ship is appr 300m long, so your stateroom will not be close to everything. Having a midship stateroom will put you "closest to everything", but that doesn't mean close to everything.

5. There is no issue at all to stay on the Ship while in port. All services (except shops) will be available, but less activities will be going on. Everybody can leave and reboard at will. Kids <18 must be accompanied by an adult from the same stateroom or authorized to leave without an adult with a form, available at guest services.

Most important thing is: relax, have a great cruise and build some fine memories with your family. Everything else is secondary.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Do yourself a favor and get the Passporter Disney Cruise Line book--invaluable for first time cruisers!!

 

[undertheradar]

Hi!

We are considering a November 2016 cruise out of New York. We are a family of 4 (2 girls, 6 & 8) and 3 grandparents.

Here are my questions:
1. Staterooms - we are cosidering a room with a large porthole or verandah. Where is a good location on the ship - ie, what category/class/deck should I be looking at? Basically, I don't want to feel the anchor going down.
2. Dining - is formal dining necessary? We want a relaxing vacation and don't want dresses, suits, etc.
3. Entertainment - is there a show every evening?
4. Grandparents - we want a vacation where they don't have to do a tremendous amount of walking. Is this possible? 2 grandparents love all-inclusive vacations, 1 doesn't like heat all that much. I'm thinking there would be a good mix of "resort" with air conditioned activities.
5. Ports of Call - should grandparents choose to stay on the ship while we lounge on, say, St. Maartin, is there any issue with that?

Are you prepared to fly everyone back from San Juan? That cruise ends in San Juan, it does not return to NYC.

 

[JuicyFruit]

Hi! We also did a cruise from New York. You will love it!
1. As for staterooms, we tried to get one near the elevators. That might be ideal for the grandparents, if mobility is an issue. We did choose a cabin with a port hole with the digital images. Just because my kids ( 13 and 10 year old ) wanted that and thought it was cool and it was cool! Don't know if I would want to spend extra for a verandah? Unless, if it was an Alaskan cruise. More to see outside in Alaskan cruise.
As for which category? Depends how much you want to spend? Will it be one cabin for you and your husband with the kids?

2. There are formal nights. However, they do not enforce it. I've seen people dressed in jeans on formal night. We did dress up. My husband just did the khaki pants with a casual dress shirt with no tie. I did the regular black skirt with a nicer tank/blouse. My girls just did the summer/sun dresses. No formal dress wear for us. Takes too much luggage space.

3. Yes. There is show every night. We chose the early sitting as we have young kids. We eat early and my kids get tired if they stay up too, too late. My husband loves the shows and he is not a big fan of cruise shows. If you do an early dinner sitting, there is a show afterwards and vice versa. Warning-you must request if you want early or late dinner seatings. Early seatings book up fast. You can be put on the waiting list, if the early seating is full.

4. This cruise would be perfect for the grandparents! Lots of areas for them to relax ( indoors /outdoors ) and to people watch. If they want, there is a pool for adults only ( if they wanted to escape for a bit).

5. As for the ports. I have to admit, I haven't been to St. Maartin. Sorry, couldn't help you with that. The heat might be too intense for the seniors?
Even if the grandparents stayed behind while you check out the ports, it's kinda nice to relax and enjoy the quiet ship.
If you stop at Castaway Cay, the grandparents should definitely check that out. Lots of easy accessible facilities, loungers and food!

Have fun cruising from NY. We did some some site seeing before and after the cruise. It's awesome to disembark next to the Statue of Liberty !

 

[SillyInventor]

Are you prepared to fly everyone back from San Juan? That cruise ends in San Juan, it does not return to NYC.

Good point!
Itinerary is: New York - 3 days at sea (yeah!) - St. Maarten - Tortola - San Juan and there you disembark. The next cruise of the Magic takes her to Miami, where she will homeport for several months.

We did choose a cabin with a port hole with the digital images. Just because my kids ( 13 and 10 year old ) wanted that and thought it was cool and it was cool!

If you stop at Castaway Cay, the grandparents should definitely check that out. Lots of easy accessible facilities, loungers and food!

The magic portholes are on the Dream an the Fantasy only, not on the Magic.
Unfortunately this cruise does not stop at Castaway Cay.

 

[Maggie'sMom]

1) If it fits your budget, then I'd splurge on the veranda rooms. The reason being that the porthole rooms are either forward or aft, or on the lower decks. You can get closer to mid-ship on a middle to upper deck with a veranda room, which would minimize the walking. As a PP mentioned, you can't be close to everything so you can either pick to be close to the amenities you think you will use the most, e.g. the pool deck, or you can try for a mid-ship, middle deck location where you aren't super close to any one amenity, but you aren't super far from any place either. On the Magic, I would probably pick decks 6 or 7, mid-ship.

2) You will likely have a formal night, and possible an additional semi-formal night on your cruise. However, as PPs mentioned, DCL doesn't enforce a formal/semi-formal dress code so you won't be turned away from the MDR if you aren't in formal attire. I recommend that you still pack at least one pair of dress pants and a dress shirt for the men/boys and either a skirt or a pair of dress pants for the women/girls. Even if I didn't wear formal attire on formal night, I'd feel out of place in jeans or shorts, although plenty of people do wear that casual of attire. If you or the grandparents want to dine in Palo (the adult restaurant which has an upcharge) then be aware they do enforce the dress code there. But dress pants and dress shirt are fine. You don't have to be in suits and dresses, just dressier.

3) Yes, there is a show every evening. 3 of the nights will have Disney productions. The other nights will have guest entertainers, e.g. comedians, magicians, hypnotists, etc. I'd definitely recommend you see the show when it's the Disney productions. The other nights you may choose other activities. There's so much going on that there's no way you can do everything.

4) Yes, there are plenty of air-conditioned activities. Cruises are very close to all-inclusive vacations with the exception that alcoholic beverages are not included.

5) There's no problem if they wish to stay on the ship in ports of call. There aren't quite as many activities on port days but there are still things to do. And the ship is not as busy so they may find that they enjoy it without as many people around.