OK this is for those that want to hear about more than just Mickey Bars.
This was a fantastic cruise.
My DH, DS (8) and I were on our first Disney cruise and first cruise for my son. I will not be our last! I would recommend the ship and the 14 days to anyone. Six straight days at sea were so relaxing and I didnt get to do half of what I wanted to!! We were in 7570 which is a cat 5 room. Perfect for us with a location midway between the aft and midship elevators.
I could go on and on about how great this ship is but then again you guys already know that. I will therefore start by saying thank you to all those who posted before me and who gave me such great information and tips. They all helped tremendously.
Ports: In Barcelona we took the Montserrat tour. We enjoyed this despite having a rainy day. My son was just amazed at the Basilica and the black Madonna. We were did a drive by of the key Barcelona sites including the amazing Sagrada Familia. We loved our trip to Seville (from Cadiz). The tour, the guide, the city, and the lunch were all fabulous. This was our best Port day. Will post pictures if I can. Gibraltar is a wonderful place and I recommend it to anyone. The siege tunnels were fascinating. That said, I think Disney should be ashamed at how badly they overbooked tours including the cable car. The line that our tour waited in was 80 mins (of a 4 hr tour!!)
. The line was 98% Disney tour people so they created it and I think should have done something like provide taxis to get people to the top. In the long run it was worth it to see the Barbary apes but really put a negative slant on the day. I also was not totally thrilled with the Jeep tour in Tenerife. 3+ hrs with a driver who spoke no English and less than 1 hr with the guide who did. The guide was very negative and kept saying this was too short and he had to cut things out. He basically without really saying it told us that this was a full day trip but that Disney cut them into ½ days so they could book 2Xs as many!!. 
Despite the few down things, the scenery and volcano (Mt tiedje) were fascinating and we were glad we went.
Castaway Cay: We did the snorkel boat. I highly recommend this. The reef was small but had a ton of fish.
Weather:
As previously stated, we had near perfect weather. We had rain in Barcelona and a few scattered showers one day at sea. Other than that it was high 70s and sunny!! I spent time at the pools each day and I had no problem getting chairs in either the shade on the sun.
Entertainment:
We loved all the standard shows which were of course new to us. Will not bore you experts with those. Susan Egan was fabulous. She is so talented and seems soooo nice. We enjoyed the French magician/comedienne Phil Keller. Jim Brickman was talented but did anyone else think he needs a serious dose of humility? Not really entertainment per se but we went to several of the educational lectures and thought Dr. McCarthy was great! We enjoyed the presentations on Atlantis and Christopher Columbus.
People:
We enjoyed meeting everyone and chatted with so many folks. I attended the Ladies tea and had a great time. Thank you GrandmomX3. We participated in the gift exchange with the fish extenders. My son really enjoyed coming back to the stateroom and looking for new surprises. Thanks to everyone for the candy, postcards, toys, lottery tickets and magnets. I really appreciated the Barcelona fish magnet on day one because it made my own gift delivery so much easier as I looked for the fish to make sure I didnt miss anyone. I do think one or two of you moved and I may have missed one two people but tried my best!! A final thank you for the book exchange and to all who participated in the book exchange bag. I enjoyed what I took and hope that someone else enjoyed the books that I left.
Food:
Having not had Mickey bars before we did not miss them!! We thought dinner was excellent, lunch options were great, but breakfast was just good. Bad pancakes aside, it would be good if someone gave the cooks a lesson on eggs Benedict or they should take it off the menu. Hard boiled the 3 times we tried except of course the perfect ones at Palos. The breakfast buffets normally had cold and gross pancakes and waffles. I missed the hot crisp Mickey waffles of WDW fame!! I did have great Belgian waffles off the menu of the island jam breakfast. I found that the made to order omelets were the best choice at topsiders. We did the sit-down at Lumieres about have the time and this worked nice for us. The dinners were always great and our servers were outstanding. We enjoyed all of the different menus. The med flavors and items were a nice touch. The first week we had some great fish (halibut, grouper) but the second week had mostly Salmon. I think it is because Salmon freezes well? I dont eat Salmon but had no problem finding other items. I ate some great beef, duck, pork, chicken, veal, and turkey - a great variety of choices. There was lots of shellfish all trip long. I have to avoid most of it due to allergies, but my DH has 3 or 4 lobster tails each time it was offered (2X at dinner I think). My 8 year old ate Lobster and a few other items off of the adult menu. It was nice that he could try things and if he didnt like them he could get something else. Only once did we actually have to order a second item for him, but just knowing he could do that lead him to try new things. We did Palo for brunch and dinner. Both were great. As promised the chocolate soufflé was wonderful but the Panacotta (sp?) was equally fabulous: We stumbled onto some great lunch buffets at Topsiders. My DH loved the seafood buffet. We had it twice but I heard it was offered 3 or 4 times. Cold lobster tail, peel and eat shrimp etc. I enjoyed.
Internet 
as discussed it was not pretty. We realized that we were at sea and just kind of went with it but the connectivity was a bit of an issue. Disney was great and refunded ½ of my husbands package since he could not use all the time. They dont control the satellite!! The fact that the internet manager was too busy to help because she was telling timeshares is a hint that Disney isnt planning to support or expand this service too much in the future. It didnt bother me one bit as I had no desire to be online but my husband was slightly craving sports news as espn was down as well!
Activities 
My DS spent some time in the clubs but not too much. We enjoyed a ton of family time. We thought the lab was well run and what he did participate in he enjoyed. He liked making flubber and chocolate chip cookies. He did not participate in but enjoyed watching the talent show and some of the Mickey mania games. Towards the end he went to the lab at night to skip the girly shows as he called them!! He loved having that choice! We also enjoyed the ocean quest open house times. They have some fun computer games to which all three of us got addicted. We played Bingo a few times and thought Melanie the Bingo leader was very entertaining. I also enjoyed the games and activities around the Goofy pool a lot. We enjoyed watching the movies both in the theater (Ratatouille, Meet the Robinsons, The Wild, PTCIII,), in the W. Disney Theater (Underdog) and on Ariel vision (High School Musical II and CARS).
Medical 
my son slammed his thumb in the bathroom near Parrot Cay while we were getting ready to eat dinner at Lumieres. He broke it and required 4 stitches. When he came running back into the restaurant screaming and dripping blood, the staff was great. Our head waiter, Gaspar, got us to medical very quickly. The staff and facility were great. We saw both doctors over the course of the week (2 follow-ups since we were on the ship long enough to need the stitches out!!). Cant say enough about Dr. Herb and the rest of the staff. They are great and it is nice to know if you need them, they are available. Dr. Herb stopped us almost everyday on the ship and just said hello and checked on my son!
Supplies there was no doubt that the ship was running out of some things but they did a great job to substitute and keep things going. Being new I may not have had the same expectations as others and was not disappointed in the least by any changes.The oddities included that they only had soda cups for the first day, after that they only had coffee cups for soda at deck 9 drink station, but then on day 11 these red WDW cups showed up for about a day. The also had walnuts in the Pecan oatmeal and of course the stripped ice cream bars. My particular favorite was the kids chicken noodle soup that had no noodles. The second time they offered it our server tried to dig a few up but DS still only had 4 or 5 noodles in the bowl (up from zero). The great thing was that the third time she promised him noodles. Well she served him the soup filled with cooked penne pasta!!
Dont know if she did this for just him or if the cooks came up with this for everyone but it was a nice touch!!
Well, that is the summary happy to answer questions about this great vacation.
We love The Magic
This was a fantastic cruise.
My DH, DS (8) and I were on our first Disney cruise and first cruise for my son. I will not be our last! I would recommend the ship and the 14 days to anyone. Six straight days at sea were so relaxing and I didnt get to do half of what I wanted to!! We were in 7570 which is a cat 5 room. Perfect for us with a location midway between the aft and midship elevators. I could go on and on about how great this ship is but then again you guys already know that. I will therefore start by saying thank you to all those who posted before me and who gave me such great information and tips. They all helped tremendously.
Ports: In Barcelona we took the Montserrat tour. We enjoyed this despite having a rainy day. My son was just amazed at the Basilica and the black Madonna. We were did a drive by of the key Barcelona sites including the amazing Sagrada Familia. We loved our trip to Seville (from Cadiz).
The tour, the guide, the city, and the lunch were all fabulous. This was our best Port day. Will post pictures if I can. Gibraltar is a wonderful place and I recommend it to anyone. The siege tunnels were fascinating. That said, I think Disney should be ashamed at how badly they overbooked tours including the cable car. The line that our tour waited in was 80 mins (of a 4 hr tour!!) . The line was 98% Disney tour people so they created it and I think should have done something like provide taxis to get people to the top. In the long run it was worth it to see the Barbary apes but really put a negative slant on the day. I also was not totally thrilled with the Jeep tour in Tenerife. 3+ hrs with a driver who spoke no English and less than 1 hr with the guide who did. The guide was very negative and kept saying this was too short and he had to cut things out. He basically without really saying it told us that this was a full day trip but that Disney cut them into ½ days so they could book 2Xs as many!!. Despite the few down things, the scenery and volcano (Mt tiedje) were fascinating and we were glad we went. Castaway Cay:
We did the snorkel boat. I highly recommend this. The reef was small but had a ton of fish.Weather:
As previously stated, we had near perfect weather. We had rain in Barcelona and a few scattered showers one day at sea. Other than that it was high 70s and sunny!! I spent time at the pools each day and I had no problem getting chairs in either the shade on the sun. Entertainment:
We loved all the standard shows which were of course new to us. Will not bore you experts with those. Susan Egan was fabulous. She is so talented and seems soooo nice. We enjoyed the French magician/comedienne Phil Keller. Jim Brickman was talented but did anyone else think he needs a serious dose of humility? Not really entertainment per se but we went to several of the educational lectures and thought Dr. McCarthy was great! We enjoyed the presentations on Atlantis and Christopher Columbus. People:
We enjoyed meeting everyone and chatted with so many folks. I attended the Ladies tea and had a great time. Thank you GrandmomX3. We participated in the gift exchange with the fish extenders. My son really enjoyed coming back to the stateroom and looking for new surprises. Thanks to everyone for the candy, postcards, toys, lottery tickets and magnets. I really appreciated the Barcelona fish magnet on day one because it made my own gift delivery so much easier as I looked for the fish to make sure I didnt miss anyone. I do think one or two of you moved and I may have missed one two people but tried my best!! A final thank you for the book exchange and to all who participated in the book exchange bag. I enjoyed what I took and hope that someone else enjoyed the books that I left. Food:
Having not had Mickey bars before we did not miss them!! We thought dinner was excellent, lunch options were great, but breakfast was just good. Bad pancakes aside, it would be good if someone gave the cooks a lesson on eggs Benedict or they should take it off the menu. Hard boiled the 3 times we tried except of course the perfect ones at Palos. The breakfast buffets normally had cold and gross pancakes and waffles. I missed the hot crisp Mickey waffles of WDW fame!! I did have great Belgian waffles off the menu of the island jam breakfast. I found that the made to order omelets were the best choice at topsiders. We did the sit-down at Lumieres about have the time and this worked nice for us. The dinners were always great and our servers were outstanding. We enjoyed all of the different menus. The med flavors and items were a nice touch. The first week we had some great fish (halibut, grouper) but the second week had mostly Salmon. I think it is because Salmon freezes well? I dont eat Salmon but had no problem finding other items. I ate some great beef, duck, pork, chicken, veal, and turkey - a great variety of choices. There was lots of shellfish all trip long. I have to avoid most of it due to allergies, but my DH has 3 or 4 lobster tails each time it was offered (2X at dinner I think). My 8 year old ate Lobster and a few other items off of the adult menu. It was nice that he could try things and if he didnt like them he could get something else. Only once did we actually have to order a second item for him, but just knowing he could do that lead him to try new things. We did Palo for brunch and dinner. Both were great. As promised the chocolate soufflé was wonderful but the Panacotta (sp?) was equally fabulous: We stumbled onto some great lunch buffets at Topsiders. My DH loved the seafood buffet. We had it twice but I heard it was offered 3 or 4 times. Cold lobster tail, peel and eat shrimp etc. I enjoyed. Internet
as discussed it was not pretty. We realized that we were at sea and just kind of went with it but the connectivity was a bit of an issue. Disney was great and refunded ½ of my husbands package since he could not use all the time. They dont control the satellite!! The fact that the internet manager was too busy to help because she was telling timeshares is a hint that Disney isnt planning to support or expand this service too much in the future. It didnt bother me one bit as I had no desire to be online but my husband was slightly craving sports news as espn was down as well! Activities
My DS spent some time in the clubs but not too much. We enjoyed a ton of family time. We thought the lab was well run and what he did participate in he enjoyed. He liked making flubber and chocolate chip cookies. He did not participate in but enjoyed watching the talent show and some of the Mickey mania games. Towards the end he went to the lab at night to skip the girly shows as he called them!! He loved having that choice! We also enjoyed the ocean quest open house times. They have some fun computer games to which all three of us got addicted. We played Bingo a few times and thought Melanie the Bingo leader was very entertaining. I also enjoyed the games and activities around the Goofy pool a lot. We enjoyed watching the movies both in the theater (Ratatouille, Meet the Robinsons, The Wild, PTCIII,), in the W. Disney Theater (Underdog) and on Ariel vision (High School Musical II and CARS).Medical
my son slammed his thumb in the bathroom near Parrot Cay while we were getting ready to eat dinner at Lumieres. He broke it and required 4 stitches. When he came running back into the restaurant screaming and dripping blood, the staff was great. Our head waiter, Gaspar, got us to medical very quickly. The staff and facility were great. We saw both doctors over the course of the week (2 follow-ups since we were on the ship long enough to need the stitches out!!). Cant say enough about Dr. Herb and the rest of the staff. They are great and it is nice to know if you need them, they are available. Dr. Herb stopped us almost everyday on the ship and just said hello and checked on my son!Supplies there was no doubt that the ship was running out of some things but they did a great job to substitute and keep things going. Being new I may not have had the same expectations as others and was not disappointed in the least by any changes.The oddities included that they only had soda cups for the first day, after that they only had coffee cups for soda at deck 9 drink station, but then on day 11 these red WDW cups showed up for about a day. The also had walnuts in the Pecan oatmeal and of course the stripped ice cream bars. My particular favorite was the kids chicken noodle soup that had no noodles. The second time they offered it our server tried to dig a few up but DS still only had 4 or 5 noodles in the bowl (up from zero). The great thing was that the third time she promised him noodles. Well she served him the soup filled with cooked penne pasta!!
Dont know if she did this for just him or if the cooks came up with this for everyone but it was a nice touch!! Well, that is the summary happy to answer questions about this great vacation.
We love The Magic
