Newsies Cruises (or, How We Braved Hurricane Erin on the Magic) - Our First DCL Adventure! - Aug '25 *NEW 09/11*

[Newsies]

I'm loving all the details and photos in your trip report. I've never been on a cruise, but I'm considering taking one sometime in the next year or so.

Okay, thank you so much for saying this because I have been TYPING and TYPING these past few days worried that I was digressing and you guys were going to be like, "can she just get to the point?" -- I'm glad the details are useful to you and I really appreciate the comment!

With all the security, my mind is kind of blown that room keys are just hanging up right next to the room. That is quite the honor system! If the halls are all roped off until the rooms are ready, it seems strange to me that they don't give you your KTTW cards when you are doing check in at the embarkation port.

It also blows my mind that luggage is just left in the hallways too, especially with how strict they are about luggage always being within your control at the airport.

YES, this blew my mind too when I first read/heard about these processes!

KTTW Cards -- It seems very hard to get away with fraud on these, as the charging is so easy to track and it's so easy to turn them off and distribute new cards if your card gets lost or, on the rare occasion, stolen. I remember being reeeeeeally little on a NCL sailing and losing my card and it was easy for me to go to guest services to get a new one. The envelopes by your stateroom are sealed in a way that you will definitely know if they've been tampered with.

Luggage -- again, it seems like every cruise line does this. I don't know the statistics on theft but I would imagine this would be a very hard heist to pull off, as you have to go past security to disembark and they'd see the luggage that matches the reported description.

Overall, while theft happens pretty frequently with fish extenders & stateroom door magnets, I think a lot less people are a lot less likely to commit a chargeable offense like stealing luggage or trying to commit fraud. Cruises sound like a very expensive way to get arrested or spend 7 days in a brig We felt very safe on the boat and at Castaway Cay!

 

[rdkeim]

Your stateroom looks very nice! The split bathroom is such a great idea - I'm sure it made getting ready for the day so much faster. I think 2 staterooms was the way to go. Love that you got all the souvenirs on your wish list. The bag is so unique. Very smart to get them day 1 as soon as the stores opened. Your research paid off! Hope dinner is better than lunch - I have a feeling it was.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

You have your priorities right - pool and shopping!

 

[mikeuno]

Thanks for sharing

 

[piglet1979]

I won’t even lie, Muster was absolutely brutal this afternoon. We were outside on the deck and it was SO hot and humid with no breeze, and it felt like we were there forever. I’m very jealous of anyone who got to do their Muster Drill inside!

I have been on 4 cruises and for 3 of them we have been in the theatre. It is better as we get to sit in air condition but it is still a madhouse. This last cruise (on NCL) they don't even do this. They make you watch a video before getting on. I liked this but it really wasn't that helpful.

 

[Newsies]

Your stateroom looks very nice! The split bathroom is such a great idea - I'm sure it made getting ready for the day so much faster. I think 2 staterooms was the way to go

It really was a beautiful stateroom! I was little when we were on Carnival and Norwegian, but I remember them being not the nicest staterooms on earth. These were palatial compared to NCL... although that could be, as you mentioned, due to the fact that we split two-and-two

Love that you got all the souvenirs on your wish list. The bag is so unique. Very smart to get them day 1 as soon as the stores opened.

LOOOOVE the bag! Definitely worth queuing before the store opened!

Your research paid off! Hope dinner is better than lunch - I have a feeling it was.

Yes! No spoilers, but not to fear -- dinner was great

You have your priorities right - pool and shopping!

Oh, absolutely! My favorite place to be and my favorite thing to do!

Thanks for sharing

You are most welcome, thank you for being here!

I have been on 4 cruises and for 3 of them we have been in the theatre. It is better as we get to sit in air condition but it is still a madhouse. This last cruise (on NCL) they don't even do this. They make you watch a video before getting on. I liked this but it really wasn't that helpful.

Disney seems to be the last remaining Cruise Line where Muster Drill is completed in-person, at each station, all at the same time. On one hand, Safety is "the first key" and I respect that about Disney. On the other hand... "Courtesy" and "Efficiency" are two other keys. There is really nothing courteous or efficient in disrupting every guest's afternoon, having everyone do this all at the same time, and then immediately everyone stampeding up to pool deck for the Sail-A-Wave party. The timing of that was absurd to me.

There has to be some way to do this that balances the convenience of self-mustering with the safety and thoroughness of in-person mustering. "Here are four different times Muster Drill will be offered at your station today. You can show up at any of these times before your first dining seating to complete the Muster Drill process." OR, alternatively, some type of alternative process where the assembly spiel is done in the theater on a rolling basis, card gets scanned there once, then you visit your assigned Muster Station quickly, card is scanned there a second time verifying the process is complete. Anyone who doesn't do this before 3 PM has to go to the 3:30 assembly.

Feels like there are a lot of different ways this could be made better for everyone. I don't understand!

 

[piglet1979]

Disney seems to be the last remaining Cruise Line where Muster Drill is completed in-person, at each station, all at the same time. On one hand, Safety is "the first key" and I respect that about Disney. On the other hand... "Courtesy" and "Efficiency" are two other keys. There is really nothing courteous or efficient in disrupting every guest's afternoon, having everyone do this all at the same time, and then immediately everyone stampeding up to pool deck for the Sail-A-Wave party. The timing of that was absurd to me.

There has to be some way to do this that balances the convenience of self-mustering with the safety and thoroughness of in-person mustering. "Here are four different times Muster Drill will be offered at your station today. You can show up at any of these times before your first dining seating to complete the Muster Drill process." OR, alternatively, some type of alternative process where the assembly spiel is done in the theater on a rolling basis, card gets scanned there once, then you visit your assigned Muster Station quickly, card is scanned there a second time verifying the process is complete. Anyone who doesn't do this before 3 PM has to go to the 3:30 assembly.

Feels like there are a lot of different ways this could be made better for everyone. I don't understand!

I agree with these ideas.

 

[Woth2982]

There is really nothing courteous or efficient in disrupting every guest's afternoon, having everyone do this all at the same time, and then immediately everyone stampeding up to pool deck for the Sail-A-Wave party. The timing of that was absurd to me.

I would like to add, try have a rambunctious 3 year old at the Muster Drill. Expecting him to stand in front of his sister (because tallest to smallest) and wanting him to be quiet! He was more of a distraction than anything! I pray he wasn't the only one who was not paying attention, but on a cruise that is made WITH kids in mind, there has to be a better way! That said, it is such a small blip in the day, but a very annoying one!

Love your purchases! I am heading on the Wonder to Alaska on Monday, yes I feel like the cruising queen this year lol, and I am so pumped for the exclusive Alaska merch!

 

[Newsies]

I would like to add, try have a rambunctious 3 year old at the Muster Drill. Expecting him to stand in front of his sister (because tallest to smallest) and wanting him to be quiet! He was more of a distraction than anything! I pray he wasn't the only one who was not paying attention, but on a cruise that is made WITH kids in mind, there has to be a better way! That said, it is such a small blip in the day, but a very annoying one!

Great point! I can't imagine how challenging Muster is with small children, it was overstimulating enough as an adult. It seems like a really bad experience, especially out on the deck, for small children and senior guests especially. The one thing I can assure you is that I would have NOT noticed your son, I was too busy thinking about how much of a mess my hair must have looked after sweating so hard on the deck, imagining how bad the stampede to Sail-A-Wave was going to be, praying they'd have the bag I wanted in stock, and wondering what I was going to eat for dinner

Love your purchases! I am heading on the Wonder to Alaska on Monday, yes I feel like the cruising queen this year lol, and I am so pumped for the exclusive Alaska merch!

Oh I am SO very jealous of you!!! DCL Alaska is on my bucket list. Funnily enough, while I was on board the Magic, my coworker was on board the Wonder in Alaska! The Alaska exclusive stuff is so cute, I am obsessed with Minnie in her parka and Mickey in his yellow fishing garb... you'll have to tell me all about the glacier and the pacific MDR menus! Have so much fun!

 

[Newsies]

Dinner at Lumiere's & Our First Night On Board​

We walked up Lumiere’s as they were opening their doors for dinner. They asked if I knew what my table number was, and showed me how to find it in the app.

Lumiere’s is, as you might expect, a Beauty & the Beast themed dining room on the Magic. Out of all three dining rooms on the Magic, Lumiere’s is really the only one that doesn’t have any type of “show” element to it. It is elegantly decorated, but not so elegant that you need to dress up beyond what you’d wear to a normal cruise dinner.

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Night 1 was also time for us to meet our dining team. We met our Assistant Server first, who took our drink orders, then we met our Server, who took our meal orders, and then we met our Head Server as he was walking around during the meal.

Tonight, we were enjoying the “Let the Magic Begin” menu, which is different from the typical Lumiere’s menu. This menu was offered in all 3 MDRs on Night 1 for our 5-Night Magic sailing.

The bread service of the evening was a carrot & scallion loaf with a cumin & cilantro dip:

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I hate cilantro and ended up loving this dip! The flavor was definitely more cumin-forward, so if you have the cilantro soap gene like I do, you don’t need to be afraid of it.

For our appetizer, I had the Chicken Bastilla. I had never heard of chicken bastilla before, but the way it was described on the menu – spiced chicken wrapped up in a phyllo-dough covered in cinnamon sugar – caught my eye and I figured I’d try something new tonight.

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This was so good it blew my mind! The chicken was spiced so warmly and fragrantly (not “spicy” at all) and the phyllo dough was nice and crunchy, with a hint of sweetness from the cinnamon sugar to compliment the chicken. This is a Moroccan dish, and I actually don’t know if there are any good Moroccan places to eat in NJ – but mom & dad have been dying to try Spice Road Table in Epcot, and I know they serve this here, so I think this dish just put Spice Road Table on our shortlist for May!

My main course was another pastry-wrapped meat: the Pork Wellington with gratin potatoes and vegetables.

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Heavenly. Beef Wellington is one of my favorite dishes, but this was my first time having Pork Wellington. The Pork was flavorful and not dry, the mushrooms were not overbearing and had that very mild earthiness I love, and the puff pastry was flaky and didn’t fall apart after the first fork full. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the puff pastry stayed on the fork throughout my entire meal. Just a very good entree.

The gratin potatoes were fine, but the one complaint I had about DCL dining is that they really did not do vegetables well. Everything was steamed (even if the menu said “roasted”), soggy, and lacking seasoning. With the exception of salad, every vegetable on my plate and at the buffet line this trip was giving “Birds Eye Bag.” A truly roasted vegetable with a nice char and some salt & pepper would have gone a long way.

For dessert, I ordered two: the Warm Sticky Fig & Pecan Pudding and the Kahlua Creme Brulee.

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The Warm Sticky Fig & Pecan Pudding was decent. Nothing to complain about but nothing to write home about, either. Just didn’t stand out.

I like Kahlua and I like creme brulee – but I didn’t like the Kahlua Creme Brulee. Go figure. It was a very bitter, black-coffee tasting dish.

Even though we ended on a lower note with the desserts, this was still an exceptional menu and I was really surprised & impressed with dinner this evening! The MDRs very quickly redeemed themselves from the less-than-steller welcome aboard lunch.


We got out of dinner late this evening around 7:15. Mom wanted to take a look at the stores, so we went to White Caps first where we did a little more shopping. Mom was very generous and treated my sister and I to the Magic-exclusive Pandora charm, and she also treated me to a dress with Captain Mickey & Minnie embroidered on it (thanks, mom!)

We also went back to Mickey’s Mainsail and I spotted another hot souvenir that I had seen on TikTok and didn’t want to leave the ship without – it’s a stuffed animal that looks like a towel elephant!

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We went back up to our room to drop our new treasures off. Our suitcases had been delivered and our Stateroom Host had turned down the room and made our first towel animal of the trip… he turned our bed runner into a crab!

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We were supposed to see the 8:00 showing of Twice Charmed, which is one of the three Broadway-quality stage shows on the Magic. Before I got on the boat, I said that I wanted to see all three shows, but honestly, I just wanted to swim. I was exhausted and with the hurricane still looming in our area and threatening our port days, I was still nervous about how the week was gonna go and since the night was warm, I made the rare decision to skip a stage show.

I didn’t expect to be so tired but it felt like we were going from place to place hitting mark after mark all day long. From the time we got on the ship it felt like we always had somewhere to be or had to wait for something. I don’t think spending an hour at Rapunzel’s Royal Table helped. From there, we went to our staterooms, then we were waiting around for the pool to re-open, then we had to go to Muster, and then from Muster we rushed off to Sail-A-Wave, then I was waiting for the stores to open, then by the time I was done shopping I had to get to our dinner time, we got on the ship at noon and then suddenly I blinked and it was almost 7:30 in the evening.

It was a lot of “hurry up and wait” all day long, so I just wasn’t in the mood to stand in line for the theatres. Grace & I changed back into our bathing suits and went up to the pool deck.

It was a really nice evening for a swim. We hopped into Goofy’s Pool for the first and only time on this trip and enjoyed The Incredibles while we swam around for a bit. The water was a bit warmer than I was expecting, which was kind of nice in the evening. We also sat in the hot tub for a little while.

I don’t think we were at the pool for very long, but I am really glad I ended Embarkation Night like this. This was what I wanted out of the rest of the cruise! Just relaxing and enjoying the ambiance of the boat. I do regret missing Twice Charmed a little bit, but it was kind of worth it!

When Grace and I were done swimming, I got my first teeny-tiny ice cream cone of the trip from the Eye Scream self-serve station, then we filled up our water bottles at the drink station outside of Cabanas. Do not forget your refillable water bottle if you are sailing on Disney Cruise Line! You are going to want to have a nice, ice-cold tumbler full of water in your stateroom at the end of the night. Also worth mentioning: soft drinks are free on DCL. Other cruises will make you buy a package if you want unlimited soda or whatever, but it’s included in the cost of DCL. The only drinks you’ll have to pay for are alcoholic beverages, smoothies, and specialty coffees. You’ll also have to pay for soda and bottled water if you try to order it through room service, which is another great reminder to have a refillable cup on you!

We all went back up to our staterooms for the evening. Grace and I had to unpack, and even though we weren’t starving, we decided to order some room service to fuel us through it! This is another thing to love about DCL – free 24/7 room service. Water & soda leave room service bottled, so you’d have to pay for them, but the food and drinks like coffee, juice, tea, and milk were free. Grace wanted a Mickey Premium Bar, which are also free on the ship! We also ordered two of their most legendary options – buffalo chicken wings and warm chocolate chip cookies – and unpacked while we waited for it to arrive. We also found that they had almost the entire Disney movie catalog on their television free for you to enjoy! So we watched A Goofy Movie while we unpacked, enjoyed our food, showered and got ready for bed.

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The room service was great! The wings were good but the chocolate cookies & milk became a standing evening order for us. In fact, I just loved wrapping up every evening in my stateroom on the cruise. Putting on a Disney movie, enjoying room service… it was just a beautiful way to end the night, and the next day would be beautiful, too!

 

[Stacybaeasm]

Why am I so excited about the room service? I literally was like "This might be the thing to push me over that hump to book a cruise." LOL. Ahh...give the fluffy girl free delivered food and she will book a trip.

Now, as a theatre person, my first thought was NOOO...don't skip the show!!! But I can also understand how tired you were and the pool was calling. Honestly, after reading this, I wonder if I would have made the same decision?? I hope you got to the other shows though.

Now, about this refillable bottle thing. If soda from the fountains is also free, could a person bring 2 refillable containers and get water AND soda all day??? Because that is another check in the plus column for me!

 

[justafigment27]

A Newsies update to brighten this heavy day! Yeah!

Your embarkation evening sounds great! Sometimes the best things are the little things that just allow for vacation relaxation.

On my last DCL cruise, our muster station was in the upper part of the theater. It was so nice just to show up at the theater and get assigned a row and told to move all the way down. We literally sat in air conditioned comfort for the duration. I told my husband that I was going to start picking staterooms based on muster station!