Our summer cruise to the Mediterranean was delightful. We spent 10 nights aboard the Disney Magic for a Mediterranean cruise leaving from Barcelona. The ship was wonderful. Getting on the ship - not even close to be acceptable! We arrived at the cruise terminal at our appointed time. What a mess. The line snaked around the terminal - no shade in sight and it was HOT. We were in line for over 45 minutes. It did not get any better once we were in the terminal building itself. This was so disorganized and really quite unacceptable.
We finally made it aboard but it was not a pleasant start to the voyage.
The Cabin
I thought the layout of our cabin worked great. We had a deluxe family oceanview stateroom with verandah. There were two separate bathrooms (one with sink and toilet the other with sink and tub/shower). This was very helpful when all four of us
needed to get ready at once. My youngest
prefers baths and the tub was key here.
There was sufficient space for our toiletries etc. in both rooms. Closet space was ample and the beds were
raised high enough to allow our luggage to be stored underneath. TIP: I did use one suitcase to store dirty clothes
during the trip which helped with clutter and space issues.
The in-room entertainment was okay. All Disney - all the time.
I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
However, I would have loved ‘on demand’ movies. This was something that we had on our
Princess ship. On the Princess cruise there were a couple of
nights where my husband and I would drop the kids off at the Club and retreat back
to the room to see a current movie together in our room. This was not possible with Disney. Not a huge hardship but something I noticed. There were, however, pretty great movies in the Theatre and on Deck including Spiderman.
The kids bunked in the living area. This worked out fine.
The room was absolutely big enough for us to manage
around. We didn’t feel overly
cramped. On many travel boards many people
complained about not having enough electrical outlets for their stuff. I don’t know how much stuff these people are
bringing with them but there was absolutely enough plugs and we have a teenager! Seriously, what are people plugging into
their outlets? We had 3 phones, 2 ipads,
and camera that needed to be juiced up.
There was never an issue. Note that there are both North American type outlets as well as the European type. If you have a converter, you will absolutely NOT have an issue with juice.
Dining
The food was good but not great. I am a bit of a foodie so I was a bit disappointed but even my husband (who is not a foodie) thought the food was not as good as what we had enjoyed on our Princess cruise. One exception was Palo. The food was VERY good. We ate breakfast in Cabanas – the buffet option. It was typical buffet breakfast fare. The kids liked the Mickey Mouse waffles. There was fruit and yogurt a plenty. Although, I do wish we got to see some berries on the trip. Just the same old pineapple, melon combinations over and over again. I generally find breakfast a grab and go meal in any event.
We always ate dinner at one of the assigned dining rooms. My philosophy is: I am on vacation; I want to be waited upon. I also hate the scene of kids and adults running around with heaping plates of food. But, that’s just me. What I loved about Disney is that we had a table just to ourselves. On Royal Caribbean, we were forced to eat at a table of 10 every night. This is where I may sound a bit snobbish, but I did not enjoy this. We had little in common with our dining mates and conversation was pleasant but not much else. I loved being with just my family. This was our family vacation - a chance to be with the kids and relax and connect. I also enjoyed the fact that dinners rotated in the 3 main dining rooms. It added a very nice variety to our evenings. Disney ensures that your waitstaff are with you the entire cruise. This is also nice as they quickly learn what you like, what your drink preferences are and are very attentive. It may not be so great if you don't hit it off with your waiters.
Of the three dining options, Carioca’s was my least favorite. The menu was boring and the food just okay.
I loved the Animator's Palette dining room and the last night you are there is extra special. Your drawing gets animated on the screens on the walls - so much fun!
What really struck me was that we were sailing in the Mediterranean and yet we never had a Mediterranean themed evening. Instead, we were offered Peruvian cuisine. When in Rome??? The meals overall were run of the mill. Thanksgiving like turkey and stuffing dinner one night was the best of the bunch. I never left thinking what a fabulous meal. That is, except for Palo.
Speaking of Palo, we did dine on our own one evening. We weren’t sure what to do with our girls but they were a-okay with our servers. We dropped them off at our table where our regular servers took care of them. Mind you, our oldest was helpful to ensure our youngest was behaving and safe. The servers knew what I liked the girls to eat and there were no hick ups there. Then our oldest dropped the youngest off at the Kids’ Club and she went to see Thor the movie. So, success as far as the kiddies were concerned. The one challenge of Palo is that it was all sooo good. I couldn’t decide half the time as to which appetizer or main I wanted, so the waiter brought both! TOO MUCH FOOD. But, oh so yummy.
Tip: if you are interested in the experience of drawing your cartoon for the animation after dinner, I suggest you not book your Palo dinner for that night. We chose the night we docked in Sardinia. Here is my logic on that one - Sardinia was an easy port - beach! I knew we would not be getting on the ship late in the afternoon, nor would we be be exhausted from all the site seeing. Had we booked our grown up dinner for the night of the Florence or even Rome day, we would have been baffed. Just saying ...
There is one thing I must mention when it came to dining. There was never an issue for special requests. My daughter adores broccoli (great kid right!) – so we asked for broccoli basically at every meal. NEVER an issue. This was very unlike our experience on Royal Caribbean. Maybe it was the ship (small & older) but nothing about dining was easy. Asking for broccoli was like asking for gold leaf to be applied to an apple – impossible. Truly, the wait staff told me that there could be no deviations from the menu. WHAT??? So perhaps my expectations had been lowered because of this experience on Royal Caribbean but this is where Disney did shine.
The worst part of the dining experience on DCL had to be the coffee. What they serve may be called coffee but brother, that is NOT coffee. I am not even one of those Starbuck fanatics. I like Tim Hortons, Mc Donalds etc. But what DCL tries to pass off as coffee is not even close to Nescafe. We experienced this brown liquid of disgustingness when we went to Disney a few years back and stayed on the Resort. What they call coffee is liquid stuff that they add hot water to. I did buy coffee a few times from the only coffee shop on board (way up on the deck tucked away in the adult section). This is inconvenient. Princess did this coffee thing right by having a true coffee shop right in the central plaza. I did know about this going in. I had read about the dreadful coffee on a number of cruise boards. TIP: So I brought some Starbucks Viva coffee packets with me. My husband rolled his eyes at the beginning of the cruise, but brother – he was begging for packs towards the end – let me tell you! I had some left over and happily gave them to my servers who also longed for real coffee.
TIP: Bring a case of water with you on board the boat - you will be very happy you did. The ship offers to sell you a case of water but it is NOT cheap. Also, take advantage of the ability to bring a couple bottles of wine on board with you and I rder wine glasses from room service. DCL actually allows two bottles per port which means you can be enjoying the best France, Italy and Spain has to offer - without that big markup. We often took a glass of wine into the dining room to enjoy with dinner without issue.
Entertainment
I think this is where DCL does shine. The shows are top rate - equal to what we would pay to see off Broadway for sure. In addition to the great shows, there are fun events like game shows, recent movies and trivia. I can honestly say we were never bored in the evenings. I do have one peeve. Can you image that they charge for popcorn? 6 dollars for a small box of popcorn at the movie theater. Really?
My youngest was 5 years old at the time and loved the Kids Clubs. My oldest was 13 years old and was hesitant at first in the club for her age group but soon found a bunch of girls to hang out with and text. Actually this was one great thing about DCL. On board there is proprietary wifi which allows passengers who have downloaded the app to text each other without data. We used this quite a bit to communicate with each other from different parts of the ship.
