Just Returned from the 1st Magic Sailing (3 night) from Miami

[tup1830]

Hello All,

Had another great cruise on the Magic out of Miami on Oct 28th.

Here are the good bad and ugly:

Good
- The ship overall was in great shape
- Characters pop up everywhere, all the time...which was great
- There were a lot of new staff, and since it was the first official sailing, the mood was very upbeat, very accommodating and warm and welcoming
- Room upgrades were available...but nothing at the port checkin....have to go to guest services after boarding
- Room keys are NOT given at checkin, they are in an envelope on the fish extender...a very weird situation, but made for a quicker checkin process
- The terminal flow was smooth, with the largest wait being for the results of the covid test
- Some may see this as a negative, but no paper in the room. I TOTALLY MISS the navigator, but the other stuff left in the room is all gone
- Dove chocolate in the room at night

Bad
- New staff, so a bit of a learning curve to get it just right, but overall, nothing that stands out
- Missed the fireworks because they cancelled and then returned the show. There was some rain and they announced on the deck that the show was cancelled, but then we heard the fireworks from inside. One of the cast members said it was updated in the app....we don't constantly check our app for cancelled and then restarted shows...totally a miss on disney's part
- Covid protocols are a hit or miss. Some cast members were strict about mask adherence, others could care less
- LOTs of unsupervised children running around. Cutting lines. Being loud. Eating in the stairwell....sitting on the floor...blocking the entire staircase. Example: Life guard will only let a certain number of kids into the pool at one time. Kids would bum rush the pool and too many would get in. The life guard would have to beg 10-15 times for kids to get out so that they stay within limit.
- Adults ignoring rules. Example: Masquerade party on the deck...rules are one family per blue dot. Nobody listened until a cast member came and then went back to normal after they left. Once the party started and characters came out, everyone ran to the front of the stage. Cast members didn't say anything. Children ran in front of my family, adults without kids stood in front of my kids (grrr), and others felt that the rules didn't apply to them.
- the APP....oh the app....Its nothing like the paper navigators. The information isn't the best about specials, deals, etc. The luggage information on debarkation wasn't there. It was hard to find things in the app. It was just a mess. If you think you need to be on the phone in the parks, they are trying to do the same with the App...and on the cruise, it doesn't work. The wifi isn't strong enough everywhere and fast enough to handle it
- Tried chatting with guest services, got logged out and re-entered the waiting virtual line 3 times...while sitting in the same place.
- Joining virtual line to get off the ship...it had an error and went back to the bottom of the list.
- Debarkation was weird. They called character colors, but not what proceeded it in case you missed it. I missed mine while in the elevator and didn't know to leave until i asked later.

Ugly
- We put in allergy information in the booking, but first night, no dinner for us. They improvised by giving us a bowl of lettuce for our appetizer and cooked noodles with a slab of tofu for dinner. It was pretty lame. On a 3 night, you shouldn't have to wait to the second night to get a good meal....especially since it was notated in the account for a long time prior to boarding. We complained and it was rectified, but missing 1/3 meals is pretty bad especially since we had palo one night.
- Guests were different this time. I stood in line waiting for ice cream and 2 adults just cut me off. I was only 3 feet behind the party in front of me. While waiting for pictures, one person was there and took 25 min with the characters...because they had family join them...and then had to get all pretty for the pictures, then another family member would randomly come. I get it, they deserve to take pictures, but its totally disrespectful to make everyone wait while you powder your nose...and your friend just woke up and wanted to take a picture too.
- I get that DCL wants to make guests happy and won't tell them much, but it just seemed that the rude guests ruled the ship. I had a guest take my daughters unopened milk container at breakfast because it was closer than going and getting it from the counter. I had a cast member say he will bring me a box of fruit loops only to forget and then not even offer an apology for forgetting. Just misses like these added up.

Happy to answer other questions you may have.

 

[curcio]

What was the reasoning given for the allergy mishap? If you don't mind me asking, what are your allergies? We are sailing later this month with food allergies and are very concerned that something like that may happen.

 

[lwilliam]

This makes me very nervous for our sailing. It will be our 22nd sailing but am worried about bringing our friends, their 1st and 2nd sailing. This sounds awful, the Disney Cruise line I’ve never experienced. No Platinum perks of boarding early disappoints me. One of our friends has a shellfish allergy, one has a coconut allergy and I have a nut allergy, a little concerned by your report. May I ask, when u finally board ship, are u allowed to go directly to Guest Services to change your dining time? Two of our friends have issues (stomach) eating late (all we could get when we booked. TIA

 

[dhutchin12]

I also wasn’t able to change my dining to first seating when I tried online. I called and they had no problem doing it by phone. I didn’t have to waitlist. I think it may be blocked from changing online. Hope this helps.

This makes me very nervous for our sailing. It will be our 22nd sailing but am worried about bringing our friends, their 1st and 2nd sailing. This sounds awful, the Disney Cruise line I’ve never experienced. No Platinum perks of boarding early disappoints me. One of our friends has a shellfish allergy, one has a coconut allergy and I have a nut allergy, a little concerned by your report. May I ask, when u finally board ship, are u allowed to go directly to Guest Services to change your dining time? Two of our friends have issues (stomach) eating late (all we could get when we booked. TIA

 

[Cheburashka]

This makes me very nervous for our sailing. It will be our 22nd sailing but am worried about bringing our friends, their 1st and 2nd sailing. This sounds awful, the Disney Cruise line I’ve never experienced. No Platinum perks of boarding early disappoints me. One of our friends has a shellfish allergy, one has a coconut allergy and I have a nut allergy, a little concerned by your report. May I ask, when u finally board ship, are u allowed to go directly to Guest Services to change your dining time? Two of our friends have issues (stomach) eating late (all we could get when we booked. TIA

I just returned from this same 10/28 Magic cruise and have posted a trip report about it:

A Halloween on the High Seas Magic Getaway Cruise

It was a great cruise, not perfect, but no cruise is ever perfect. As for rude guests, well yes, I have noticed that on certain MIami cruises that have a lot of wealthy South American nationals sailing, you do get to witness a certain level of entitlement from a small number of guests. I've seen it before and saw it this cruise, but it wasn't overwhelming for me. One example was a group holding a portable radio that was playing very loud music while waiting in a slow line to reboard the ship after Castaway Cay. Really, who blares loud music while waiting in line? But that kind of thing only happened here and there, and did not spoil the cruise. I hope you'll read about the pluses & minuses I noticed on my trip report, to get a more complete idea of what it was like.

I'll add that imo the biggest minus was that Dreams was the theater show instead of Tangled. DCL, what were you thinking?

 

[Cruising Engineer]

I just returned from this same 10/28 Magic cruise and have posted a trip report about it:

It was a great cruise, not perfect, but they're never perfect. As for rude guests, well yes, I have noticed that on certain MIami cruises that have a lot of wealthy South American nationals sailing, you do get to witness a certain level of entitlement.

- Guests were different this time. I stood in line waiting for ice cream and 2 adults just cut me off. I was only 3 feet behind the party in front of me.

I noticed the difference in guest behavior depending on the origination of the cruise. Bad behavior was plentiful on a Southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan, PR. Same thing as (pre-covid) cutting in line, loud music (from verandah and staterooms next-door), and lots of missing door magnets. Never had a problem with PC embarkations nor San Diego or Vancouver. Just an observation.

 

[dreamer17555]

What theater shows were there on the 5 night?

 

[Karin1984]

Rude guest behaviour, is that not something that can happen on any cruise at any time? Sometimes you are more lucky or unlucky than others.

 

[Cheburashka]

Rude guest behaviour, is that not something that can happen on any cruise at any time? Sometimes you are more lucky or unlucky than others.

Yes, but one can notice a certain trend within certain populations. Just like there has long been a phenomenon of certain overbearing New Jersey moms at WDW during Jersey week, or issues with large groups of Brazilian teenagers in the summers at WDW.

There is a small subsection of wealthy South American nationals who cut lines and are otherwise inconsiderate of their fellow guests. It isn't most of them, just like most New Jersey moms are just fine, and most Brazilian teenagers are just fine, but it is a minor percentage of that population that notably acts in a way you don't see from other groups. Their behavior is so annoying that they draw attention to themselves, and after you see it often enough, you recognize a pattern.

No, it wasn't random. You don't see the same behaviors when sailing out of Vancouver or Port Canaveral, as another poster pointed out.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Rude guest behaviour, is that not something that can happen on any cruise at any time? Sometimes you are more lucky or unlucky than others.

reading between the lines, what is being described as rude behavior can often be attributed to culture clashes between guests of different nations and the difference of what is normal and accepted in peoples home country.

 

[Cheburashka]

reading between the lines, what is being described as rude behavior can often be attributed to culture clashes between guests of different nations and the difference of what is normal and accepted in peoples home country.

That behavior isn't universally accepted in those home countries, though. Cutting in line and blatantly inconveniencing others is due to the entitlement of some wealthy members of those countries. The majority of South American nationals do not behave that way.

 

[tvguy]

Bad
- New staff, so a bit of a learning curve to get it just right, but overall, nothing that stands out

Wonder why the staff is new? They aren't even back to full capacity yet and allegedly the castmembers really wanted to get back to work. Wonder why so many decided not to return to work?

 

[RedHead0186]

Hello All,

Had another great cruise on the Magic out of Miami on Oct 28th.

Here are the good bad and ugly:

Good
- Room keys are NOT given at checkin, they are in an envelope on the fish extender...a very weird situation, but made for a quicker checkin process

Bad
- Missed the fireworks because they cancelled and then returned the show. There was some rain and they announced on the deck that the show was cancelled, but then we heard the fireworks from inside. One of the cast members said it was updated in the app....we don't constantly check our app for cancelled and then restarted shows...totally a miss on disney's part
- LOTs of unsupervised children running around. Cutting lines. Being loud. Eating in the stairwell....sitting on the floor...blocking the entire staircase. Example: Life guard will only let a certain number of kids into the pool at one time. Kids would bum rush the pool and too many would get in. The life guard would have to beg 10-15 times for kids to get out so that they stay within limit.
- Adults ignoring rules. Example: Masquerade party on the deck...rules are one family per blue dot. Nobody listened until a cast member came and then went back to normal after they left. Once the party started and characters came out, everyone ran to the front of the stage. Cast members didn't say anything. Children ran in front of my family, adults without kids stood in front of my kids (grrr), and others felt that the rules didn't apply to them.

Ugly
- We put in allergy information in the booking, but first night, no dinner for us. They improvised by giving us a bowl of lettuce for our appetizer and cooked noodles with a slab of tofu for dinner. It was pretty lame. On a 3 night, you shouldn't have to wait to the second night to get a good meal....especially since it was notated in the account for a long time prior to boarding. We complained and it was rectified, but missing 1/3 meals is pretty bad especially since we had palo one night.
- Guests were different this time. I stood in line waiting for ice cream and 2 adults just cut me off. I was only 3 feet behind the party in front of me. While waiting for pictures, one person was there and took 25 min with the characters...because they had family join them...and then had to get all pretty for the pictures, then another family member would randomly come. I get it, they deserve to take pictures, but its totally disrespectful to make everyone wait while you powder your nose...and your friend just woke up and wanted to take a picture too.
- I get that DCL wants to make guests happy and won't tell them much, but it just seemed that the rude guests ruled the ship.

Happy to answer other questions you may have.

The room key thing is apparently how other cruise lines did it pre-COVID. I sailed Carnival in January 2019 and that's how we got our keys (having only been a DCL cruiser prior to that I found it odd, but later found out that's pretty common. That's a bummer about the fireworks, guests shouldn't have to be constantly checking the app for cancellations/uncancellations of things. I wonder if there's a way to do push notifications?

The allergy thing surprised me, because the last time I cruised DCL someone in my party had some sensitivities (not even outright allergies) and they were militant about it. Not trying to downplay your experience just saying that's not always how it is. I wonder if it has to do with the newer crew that you mentioned? That's a bummer.

Really a shame about the behavior of people on board. I've only cruised out of PC so I can't comment on the trends of passengers from other ports, as some other commenters have, but that's really disappointing (both that in some cases adults couldn't get their children to behave and in other cases couldn't behave themselves!

 

[Cheburashka]

There were a lot of positives to this cruise, though. I found the crew very positive and caring, with no lamely indifferent crew members. Mistakes were made, but they were in good faith. I did hear ship-wide announcements about rescheduling of the rained out Mousequerade Party & fireworks, btw.

And the new muster drill was light years better than the old one. That really improved the embarkation day experience imo.

On the negative side, I did wish that the deck 4 promenade deck chairs were available. They were tied closed so that no one could use them. All of the pool deck loungers were available, though.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Wonder why the staff is new? They aren't even back to full capacity yet and allegedly the castmembers really wanted to get back to work. Wonder why so many decided not to return to work?

Most likely because all the cm's that did the UK staycation cruises on The Magic finished their contracts, so there is a whole new batch of cm's, and very likely they are either new new or this is their first contract since the restart, so they are re learning everything after being on shore for over a year AND they have all the new Covid policy's and procedures to learn.

 

[tidefan]

We were on this sailing as well.

First the good...

• My DW is Gluten-Free and this was her first DCL since this happened. For the most part, we didn't have any issues. In fact, our server, Adanna, was excellent about making sure that my DW's orders were put in ahead of time, even for the "special" location at Cookie's on Castaway to get your allergen friendly meal (which, she said the Castaway meal they made her was excellent).
• Ship was in excellent shape and I thought the crew was excited to have guests sailing again from the US.
• One of the best Cabin Stewards that we've ever had.
• Rapunzel's Royal Table was amazing. The decor is fantastic and the food was the best (we thought) of the 3 restaurants. The desserts are worth it alone (Fry Bread and Creme Brûlée Cheesecake!!!)
• Entertainment staff (game shows, trivia, etc) did an excellent job.
• Finally got to see Jungle Cruise. Really enjoyed it.

The bad...

• Weather was not great on this cruise. (Not DCL's fault)
• Also noticed some of the issues noted above with other guests, but sometimes you get that.
• Not sure why, but they only showed Dreams in the Walt Disney Theater (along with a Nightmare Before Christmas sing-along one night). First DCL cruise where I never made it into the Walt Disney Theater...
• Absolutely zero HOTHS merchandise. Merchandise as a whole was disappointing
• No DVC meeting on the ship

The Ugly...

• We went to Palo Brunch on Day 2. I am not sure if our server had not worked in Palo before or what, but we had a lot of issues, primarily with service. First, we were there almost 3 hours, which just shouldn't happen. The server said that in part, this was due to my DW's gluten allergy. Well, I can understand that, but only to a point. First off, it was 45 minutes before we were served any bread. I think that they waited until GF bread was ready as well, but I was surprised they didn't go ahead and bring at least some to the table (they always did in the main dining rooms and the GF bread was there pretty quick as well). Another issue we had was that she didn't apply our Platinum discount. When we left, we got a bill for $135. I asked the server and she said we had to do that later with Guest Services. As she was saying this, the Maitre'd was passing by and heard and corrected her on the spot and told her she should have applied everything before creating our bill. He stated he would get it fixed (which was fine). The next day, we still had the charge on the bill, so I did the "chat" with Guest Services who said it would be taken off the bill. I checked back later, and they had credited our bill, but only for 2 of the 3 people. Had to go down to the Guest Services desk to finally get that straightened out.

 

[Cheburashka]

Another issue we had was that she didn't apply our Platinum discount. When we left, we got a bill for $135. I asked the server and she said we had to do that later with Guest Services. As she was saying this, the Maitre'd was passing by and heard and corrected her on the spot and told her she should have applied everything before creating our bill. He stated he would get it fixed (which was fine). The next day, we still had the charge on the bill, so I did the "chat" with Guest Services who said it would be taken off the bill. I checked back later, and they had credited our bill, but only for 2 of the 3 people. Had to go down to the Guest Services desk to finally get that straightened out.

I had a minor bill problem, too. I had booked a bike rental pre-cruise, and once onboard, I was able to get a cabana, which includes bike rental, so I asked for my original bike rental to be refunded, which they said they would do. When I examined the final bill, I saw the original bike rental charge & its refund, but then later, another bike rental charge was added. So I had to call Guest Services to get that straightened out, and will have to monitor my credit card for the final charge or refund.

Check your final bill, folks. They're still learning. It's also annoying that they no longer automatically give you a paper bill end of cruise. I should have asked for one to take home with me, in case I have an issue with my credit card charge.

 

[Cheburashka]

Another perk of this cruise was that even though it was a 3-night cruise, the Animation Magic presentation occurred at Animator's Palate. That is usually reserved for longer cruises.

 

[BadPinkTink]

@Cheburashka the Dreams theatre show and the Animation Magic presentation at Animator's Palate were both part of the UK 2, 3 and 4 night UK staycation cruises on The Magic, so its not surprising they kept them for the restart of the USA cruises

 

[tvguy]

Most likely because all the cm's that did the UK staycation cruises on The Magic finished their contracts, so there is a whole new batch of cm's, and very likely they are either new new or this is their first contract since the restart, so they are re learning everything after being on shore for over a year AND they have all the new Covid policy's and procedures to learn.

I guess, but prior to the shutdown they had four full ships of staff, and now they only have partial staff due to limited passenger capacity. I would think they would have plenty of experienced staff wanting to come back. And while the new policies need to be learned, they aren't hugely different that the norovirus protocols that have been SOP for 20 years. However, it may be no different that any other working sector right now, workers either don't want to return for a variety of reasons, or more likely , they just have vanished into thin air.