I'm too tired for a flowery review, but I know quite a few people are wondering about this itinerary. I'll try to post navigators tonight. This is sort of a rambling review, so if you have any questions please ask.
Overall, we had a very nice time. This was our first cruise on Disney and our first cruise with a child. We did rebook on board.
Stateroom-6143, standard inside, aft. Showing some wear, but still fine for us. Clothesline was broken in shower, quite a few cracked tiles on bathroom floor (previous occupant wearing heels, I presume), grout and caulk in shower was sloppy. No complaints about the beds. Couch had quite a few stains on it, but carpet was in nice condition. This cabin RATTLED and CREAKED like crazy. It didn't seem like there was that much vibration, so I'm not sure why it was so loud. Loved the location though and the muster station was in the chairs of Animators Palate.
Oceaneer's Club-Staff was WONDERFUL. Our son is 3 years 1 month old and we were a bit concerned about him getting lost in the shuffle, but it worked out great. By the end of the cruise they all knew his name and he couldn't wait to go back. He had a potty accident within the first 45 minutes of being there, and they changed his pants and called us. I suspected he would be given a warning or we would be talked to about him being potty trained, but nothing of the sort happened. They were sympathetic and so very nice about it, and he continued to use the club without issue the rest of the cruise.
Dining-Food was average. Main dining room food was worse than buffets and quick service locations. By the third night, we decided to start eating a small meal around 4 or 5 pm by the pool (we had late dining) because we knew we would probably leave the main dining room hungry. We are certainly not a burger and french fries type family, but those items were consistently good. We didn't eat pizza, but enjoyed the tacos. Wholly guacamole! They will load your taco up, so if you just want a little, make sure you tell them. The fresh fruit at Goofy's Galley was amazing, and I really enjoyed the bacon and brie sandwiches as well.
I don't think the kitchen on this ship knows what a good salad is. I ordered a cobb salad for lunch one day in Lumieres and what arrived was a slice of lunch meat turkey, 2 slices of bacon (same as the buffet bacon), and a half a hard boiled egg on thinly shredded iceburg (like what you would get on a cheap burger). The other salads offered were very plain and something I could throw together from my fridge in about 10 seconds. The exception was the Parrot Cay salad, which was very good. The lunch buffet salad area seemed grossly incomplete to me as well. Usually romaine, spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, and croutons. Some other toppings (shredded cheese?) would have been nice.
Desserts were almost entirely a miss for us. It seemed like everything we ordered had about 50% of the sugar it should have contained. Cost cutting? Health conscious? I don't know but we never finished a single dessert in the main dining rooms. They were mostly flavorless. Breakfast pastries were very good and far superior to any dessert we had.
Major problems with AP for us. We ate there for one dinner and our debarking breakfast and both times our food was cold. Our server's station was right next to our table so we knew it wasn't a service problem, it was a kitchen problem. My beef tenderloin was obviously cooked in advance, chilled, and barely reheated. The soups were inedible. DH's butternut squash soup was incredibly watered down. My baked potato soup tasted like starch water, and there was no potato or bacon I could find in it. The two adjacent tables to us did not eat their soups either. They were just plain disgusting.
The other dining rooms were good, with a few misses but overall a decent experience. Steaks were nice quality and large portion. Beef short ribs were really nice. Seafood buffet on the last sea day was okay if you like chilled seafood. They had snow crab, mussels or oysters (?? didn't look close), and crawfish. I prefer my crab legs warm and wished they had melted butter for them.
Our servers were Noel (India) and Kadek (Indonesia). Noel was good, but not the most personable server. I did feel like he was giving me the "hard sell" about leaving positive feedback for him. Kadek was a star and just plain awesome with our son. If I were on the Magic with small children, I would request him in a heartbeat.
Days at Sea-We found plenty of things to keep us occupied. Movies playing were Brave 3D, Wreck it Ralph 3D, and Lincoln. Nemo 3D also played on the first sea day in the Walt Disney Theater. We did a handful of family crafts with our 3 year old, things like door hangers, masks, etc.
Port-Cozumel. We did not get off the ship and hit the pools about 9 am. There was NO ONE in any of the pools at this time. We swam by ourselves in Mickey and Goofy and used the hot tubs for nearly an hour before ONE family joined us. We've been to Cozumel before and had no desire to get off with a child our DS' age.
Characters-GREAT interactions. The lines did get long a few times, particularly for the Princess meet and greet in the lobby at 9 am on the sea days. If that is a must do, get there early. The other characters occasionally had long lines, but their appearances were frequent enough that we didn't feel the need to stand in them. We have a 3 year old who literally RUNS at characters when he sees them. We tried to prevent him from doing it when he saw characters rotating out and walking through the hallways, but they didn't mind ONE BIT. They always hugged him or gave him a high five.
Cruise Staff-Incredibly friendly and fun. We enjoyed all our interactions with them with the exception of one family craft time. I don't recall the man's name, but he was a taller man with brown hair. It was obvious he wasn't a kid/craft type person. He wasn't bad, per say, but he wasn't good either. DH and I just kinda chuckled as he barked out instructions for mask making and gave us the rules for proper glue and sparkle use. Sharee (sp?) was WONDERFUL with the kids in our craft times and during the Wake Up with Disney Junior program.
Cleanliness-AMAZING. I wear flip flops often I make a habit of washing my feet when I come home because they get so dirty. I wore flip flops all day and my feet were CLEAN! From the aft elevators to our aft room we walked past 3 Dyson vacuums everyday. The hard floors on decks 3 and 4 squeaked when you walked on them, literally squeaky clean. For all but one meal, we were handed a wipe before entering the dining area. The kids' hands were squirted with soap when they entered the kids club, forcing them to go directly to the sink to wash. Crews were seen pressure washing the decks daily.
Age/condition of the ship-Seemed fine to us. You can tell she is older but we never felt she was old. The layers of paint on the metal are starting to build up. Saw a few rusty spots but nothing major. The carpets and upholstery in public areas looked very nice. The vinyl chairs in Animator's Palate are fairly scuffed and starting to show their age. The tube TVs in AP are also starting to look a bit dated, fuzzy, burn in on a screen or two, and one flickering.
The equipment in the Oceaneer's club was starting to look a bit worn around the edges to me, with the color rubbing off. It looked like they had recently replaced a few things as they matched in theme but didn't match exactly in design/color/material. I doubt any kid would notice though.
Overall, we had a very nice time. This was our first cruise on Disney and our first cruise with a child. We did rebook on board.
Stateroom-6143, standard inside, aft. Showing some wear, but still fine for us. Clothesline was broken in shower, quite a few cracked tiles on bathroom floor (previous occupant wearing heels, I presume), grout and caulk in shower was sloppy. No complaints about the beds. Couch had quite a few stains on it, but carpet was in nice condition. This cabin RATTLED and CREAKED like crazy. It didn't seem like there was that much vibration, so I'm not sure why it was so loud. Loved the location though and the muster station was in the chairs of Animators Palate.
Oceaneer's Club-Staff was WONDERFUL. Our son is 3 years 1 month old and we were a bit concerned about him getting lost in the shuffle, but it worked out great. By the end of the cruise they all knew his name and he couldn't wait to go back. He had a potty accident within the first 45 minutes of being there, and they changed his pants and called us. I suspected he would be given a warning or we would be talked to about him being potty trained, but nothing of the sort happened. They were sympathetic and so very nice about it, and he continued to use the club without issue the rest of the cruise.
Dining-Food was average. Main dining room food was worse than buffets and quick service locations. By the third night, we decided to start eating a small meal around 4 or 5 pm by the pool (we had late dining) because we knew we would probably leave the main dining room hungry. We are certainly not a burger and french fries type family, but those items were consistently good. We didn't eat pizza, but enjoyed the tacos. Wholly guacamole! They will load your taco up, so if you just want a little, make sure you tell them. The fresh fruit at Goofy's Galley was amazing, and I really enjoyed the bacon and brie sandwiches as well.
I don't think the kitchen on this ship knows what a good salad is. I ordered a cobb salad for lunch one day in Lumieres and what arrived was a slice of lunch meat turkey, 2 slices of bacon (same as the buffet bacon), and a half a hard boiled egg on thinly shredded iceburg (like what you would get on a cheap burger). The other salads offered were very plain and something I could throw together from my fridge in about 10 seconds. The exception was the Parrot Cay salad, which was very good. The lunch buffet salad area seemed grossly incomplete to me as well. Usually romaine, spinach, tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, and croutons. Some other toppings (shredded cheese?) would have been nice.
Desserts were almost entirely a miss for us. It seemed like everything we ordered had about 50% of the sugar it should have contained. Cost cutting? Health conscious? I don't know but we never finished a single dessert in the main dining rooms. They were mostly flavorless. Breakfast pastries were very good and far superior to any dessert we had.
Major problems with AP for us. We ate there for one dinner and our debarking breakfast and both times our food was cold. Our server's station was right next to our table so we knew it wasn't a service problem, it was a kitchen problem. My beef tenderloin was obviously cooked in advance, chilled, and barely reheated. The soups were inedible. DH's butternut squash soup was incredibly watered down. My baked potato soup tasted like starch water, and there was no potato or bacon I could find in it. The two adjacent tables to us did not eat their soups either. They were just plain disgusting.
The other dining rooms were good, with a few misses but overall a decent experience. Steaks were nice quality and large portion. Beef short ribs were really nice. Seafood buffet on the last sea day was okay if you like chilled seafood. They had snow crab, mussels or oysters (?? didn't look close), and crawfish. I prefer my crab legs warm and wished they had melted butter for them.
Our servers were Noel (India) and Kadek (Indonesia). Noel was good, but not the most personable server. I did feel like he was giving me the "hard sell" about leaving positive feedback for him. Kadek was a star and just plain awesome with our son. If I were on the Magic with small children, I would request him in a heartbeat.
Days at Sea-We found plenty of things to keep us occupied. Movies playing were Brave 3D, Wreck it Ralph 3D, and Lincoln. Nemo 3D also played on the first sea day in the Walt Disney Theater. We did a handful of family crafts with our 3 year old, things like door hangers, masks, etc.
Port-Cozumel. We did not get off the ship and hit the pools about 9 am. There was NO ONE in any of the pools at this time. We swam by ourselves in Mickey and Goofy and used the hot tubs for nearly an hour before ONE family joined us. We've been to Cozumel before and had no desire to get off with a child our DS' age.
Characters-GREAT interactions. The lines did get long a few times, particularly for the Princess meet and greet in the lobby at 9 am on the sea days. If that is a must do, get there early. The other characters occasionally had long lines, but their appearances were frequent enough that we didn't feel the need to stand in them. We have a 3 year old who literally RUNS at characters when he sees them. We tried to prevent him from doing it when he saw characters rotating out and walking through the hallways, but they didn't mind ONE BIT. They always hugged him or gave him a high five.
Cruise Staff-Incredibly friendly and fun. We enjoyed all our interactions with them with the exception of one family craft time. I don't recall the man's name, but he was a taller man with brown hair. It was obvious he wasn't a kid/craft type person. He wasn't bad, per say, but he wasn't good either. DH and I just kinda chuckled as he barked out instructions for mask making and gave us the rules for proper glue and sparkle use. Sharee (sp?) was WONDERFUL with the kids in our craft times and during the Wake Up with Disney Junior program.
Cleanliness-AMAZING. I wear flip flops often I make a habit of washing my feet when I come home because they get so dirty. I wore flip flops all day and my feet were CLEAN! From the aft elevators to our aft room we walked past 3 Dyson vacuums everyday. The hard floors on decks 3 and 4 squeaked when you walked on them, literally squeaky clean. For all but one meal, we were handed a wipe before entering the dining area. The kids' hands were squirted with soap when they entered the kids club, forcing them to go directly to the sink to wash. Crews were seen pressure washing the decks daily.
Age/condition of the ship-Seemed fine to us. You can tell she is older but we never felt she was old. The layers of paint on the metal are starting to build up. Saw a few rusty spots but nothing major. The carpets and upholstery in public areas looked very nice. The vinyl chairs in Animator's Palate are fairly scuffed and starting to show their age. The tube TVs in AP are also starting to look a bit dated, fuzzy, burn in on a screen or two, and one flickering.
The equipment in the Oceaneer's club was starting to look a bit worn around the edges to me, with the color rubbing off. It looked like they had recently replaced a few things as they matched in theme but didn't match exactly in design/color/material. I doubt any kid would notice though.
It really helps as I plan and makes me super excited in anticipation! 
