oybolshoi
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Aug 16, 2004
- Messages
- 11,879
There is no easy way to do this, so I'm going to break it down into segments. As always, if anyone has a question about something feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer it.
The Ship - Wow! I expected something good because this is Disney after all, but even after watching the Travel Channel and Disney's promotional video, after all the pictures I looked at on different web sites, after all the research I did...I was still unprepared for the elegant beauty of the Magic. The moment we walked through the Deck 3 gangway into that 3-story lobby our jaws hit the floor. It's stunning, and nothing I write here could do it full justice - you're just going to have to experience it for yourselves!!
There are plenty of Disney touches around the ship, but they are subtle and add to, rather than detract from, the overall feel of casual elegance. Some of my favorites included the Mickey Mouse hand on the elevators that pointed to which floor the elevator was on, the mouse ears on the elevator grills in the lobby, and the Disney characters in the stairwell banisters on the stairs leading from the third floor lobby in front of Lumiere's up to the fourth floor overlook. I also enjoyed the random Disney artwork scattered around the ship - we took the stairs a lot so we were able to see some really cool animation sketches in the stairwells.
It's obvious that Disney put a lot of time and care and good taste into the design of this ship - It's very clean, comfortable, well laid out, and attractive. Exploring all the different areas of the Magic was a blast and even after a 7-night cruise I know there are areas we didn't make it to. Some areas that we really enjoyed were: Cove Cafe, Deck 10 above the Quiet Cove Pool, the Spa
:yes:: ), Deck 4 and those comfy deck chairs, Sessions, Palo, and the Promenade Lounge. We thought the Beat Street entertainment area was designed really well - it's very engaging and fun, but we didn't spend much actual time back there. We're not big night club people and we had a late dinner seating - by the time we were finished making gluttons out of ourselves we were usually ready to waddle back to our room and lounge on our verandah. This leads me to....
The Room: Cabin 6586 - We had a category 6 stateroom with a verandah and we loved it. There was plenty of storage space (we had four pieces of luggage and we stored all of it on one side of the closet), the bathrooms were small but decent. I liked the split bath, especially having a second sink. The bed was comfortable and we really liked the little sitting area with the sofa and table. By the way - we were just one room removed from the dreaded laundry room on deck 6 and I have to say that we did not notice any additional noise or heat or other problems due to our close proximity to it. I would suggest that you all stop worrying about being too close to the laundry rooms - it's not an issue!!
Having the verandah really opened up the room and made it seem much larger than it really was. There was still plenty of space for the two of us, but that verandah was awesome, especially on days at sea. We did get a bit of a shock when we got up on the morning we arrived in Cozumel - we pulled back the draperies after we got out of bed and had a Carnival Cruise Ship parked right next to us! Those folks could look right into our room from their ship - it's a good thing we were decent, otherwise someone might have had a bit more sightseeing than they'd bargained for!
We loved having the room serviced twice a day, which we didn't realize would happen. And our cabin steward, Daniel, was a joy. And those towel animals you find waiting each night when you come back from dinner are a real hoot! We had two kissing swans, a turtle, a snake, a monkey, and an elephant. The night of our romantic turndown with the REAS package we had a three-tiered towel wedding cake with two towel doves - all sprinkled with rose petals. Which provides a neat segueway to....
The REAS Package - My primary motivation for adding this package was the ability to pre-book all Palo dining options, but the whole package was a great value (at the current $299 price, that is -
). The basket was cute - it came with a small box of chocolate hearts, a bottle of Korbel Champagne, and a small photo album that holds a fair number of 4x6 prints. I loved the convenience of booking Palo before we sailed and the food there is to die for. The romantic turn down was lovely, although not everyone will get the same result. Our tablemates, a couple from Boston, also had the REAS package but with their turndown they just had the kissing swans and some rose petals. I felt so special with the towel wedding cake and doves - I just wish everyone could have received one! The breakfast in bed will be as much food as you want from a special menu - order anything you want off this menu and you'll get it! We ordered so much that it took two trays to bring it all (I wanted fruit and I wanted croissants to go with my eggs - is that so wrong??? ). And the spa treatment is good - either a couples massage for 50 minutes or the spa taster, which is a 25-minute facial and a 25-minute massage. We did the spa taster with an upgrade that included a well-being massage (this was an extra $50, but well worth the money). We saved our spa treatment until Friday afternoon - it was a nice way to wrap up a glorious week. We did breakfast in bed on Thursday (day at sea) and Palo dinner on Tuesday (Costa Maya).
That's it for now, kids - I gotta get back to work. Stay tuned for more trip info, including ports of call, the spa, the restaurants, and the service.
Thanks for reading!!
Brenda
The Ship - Wow! I expected something good because this is Disney after all, but even after watching the Travel Channel and Disney's promotional video, after all the pictures I looked at on different web sites, after all the research I did...I was still unprepared for the elegant beauty of the Magic. The moment we walked through the Deck 3 gangway into that 3-story lobby our jaws hit the floor. It's stunning, and nothing I write here could do it full justice - you're just going to have to experience it for yourselves!!
There are plenty of Disney touches around the ship, but they are subtle and add to, rather than detract from, the overall feel of casual elegance. Some of my favorites included the Mickey Mouse hand on the elevators that pointed to which floor the elevator was on, the mouse ears on the elevator grills in the lobby, and the Disney characters in the stairwell banisters on the stairs leading from the third floor lobby in front of Lumiere's up to the fourth floor overlook. I also enjoyed the random Disney artwork scattered around the ship - we took the stairs a lot so we were able to see some really cool animation sketches in the stairwells.
It's obvious that Disney put a lot of time and care and good taste into the design of this ship - It's very clean, comfortable, well laid out, and attractive. Exploring all the different areas of the Magic was a blast and even after a 7-night cruise I know there are areas we didn't make it to. Some areas that we really enjoyed were: Cove Cafe, Deck 10 above the Quiet Cove Pool, the Spa
:yes:: ), Deck 4 and those comfy deck chairs, Sessions, Palo, and the Promenade Lounge. We thought the Beat Street entertainment area was designed really well - it's very engaging and fun, but we didn't spend much actual time back there. We're not big night club people and we had a late dinner seating - by the time we were finished making gluttons out of ourselves we were usually ready to waddle back to our room and lounge on our verandah. This leads me to....The Room: Cabin 6586 - We had a category 6 stateroom with a verandah and we loved it. There was plenty of storage space (we had four pieces of luggage and we stored all of it on one side of the closet), the bathrooms were small but decent. I liked the split bath, especially having a second sink. The bed was comfortable and we really liked the little sitting area with the sofa and table. By the way - we were just one room removed from the dreaded laundry room on deck 6 and I have to say that we did not notice any additional noise or heat or other problems due to our close proximity to it. I would suggest that you all stop worrying about being too close to the laundry rooms - it's not an issue!!
Having the verandah really opened up the room and made it seem much larger than it really was. There was still plenty of space for the two of us, but that verandah was awesome, especially on days at sea. We did get a bit of a shock when we got up on the morning we arrived in Cozumel - we pulled back the draperies after we got out of bed and had a Carnival Cruise Ship parked right next to us! Those folks could look right into our room from their ship - it's a good thing we were decent, otherwise someone might have had a bit more sightseeing than they'd bargained for!
We loved having the room serviced twice a day, which we didn't realize would happen. And our cabin steward, Daniel, was a joy. And those towel animals you find waiting each night when you come back from dinner are a real hoot! We had two kissing swans, a turtle, a snake, a monkey, and an elephant. The night of our romantic turndown with the REAS package we had a three-tiered towel wedding cake with two towel doves - all sprinkled with rose petals. Which provides a neat segueway to....
The REAS Package - My primary motivation for adding this package was the ability to pre-book all Palo dining options, but the whole package was a great value (at the current $299 price, that is -
). The basket was cute - it came with a small box of chocolate hearts, a bottle of Korbel Champagne, and a small photo album that holds a fair number of 4x6 prints. I loved the convenience of booking Palo before we sailed and the food there is to die for. The romantic turn down was lovely, although not everyone will get the same result. Our tablemates, a couple from Boston, also had the REAS package but with their turndown they just had the kissing swans and some rose petals. I felt so special with the towel wedding cake and doves - I just wish everyone could have received one! The breakfast in bed will be as much food as you want from a special menu - order anything you want off this menu and you'll get it! We ordered so much that it took two trays to bring it all (I wanted fruit and I wanted croissants to go with my eggs - is that so wrong??? ). And the spa treatment is good - either a couples massage for 50 minutes or the spa taster, which is a 25-minute facial and a 25-minute massage. We did the spa taster with an upgrade that included a well-being massage (this was an extra $50, but well worth the money). We saved our spa treatment until Friday afternoon - it was a nice way to wrap up a glorious week. We did breakfast in bed on Thursday (day at sea) and Palo dinner on Tuesday (Costa Maya).That's it for now, kids - I gotta get back to work. Stay tuned for more trip info, including ports of call, the spa, the restaurants, and the service.
Thanks for reading!!
Brenda
