Very late WestBbound Disney Transatlatic review.
Disney Magic Cruise Review to North America
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 50
Westbound Transatlantic
Sail date: September 17, 2016
Ship: Disney Magic
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 7548
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 7 years ago
Review summary
Sorry about the lateness of the review, its over year late but I just joined the site and no recent positive West Bound Transatlantic reviews for Disney were on this site so I thought it would be useful. A fun Cruise more about days at sea than the ports or lack thereof. Fun, relaxing and full of activity when you are in the mood. The big standout is the entertainment staff particularly Jo and her comedic hosting of music trivia and the fathom's night club. The Guest entertainers and comedians were also simply fantastic.Embarkation
Not bad, but lots of lines and waiting, probably the worst Embarkation from Disney so far for me and my family. Definitely not a good as Port Canaveral and a little worse than Vancouver, but acceptable. On the transatlantic, so many of the fellow passengers are gold status or above the priority lines are overloaded and not worth your time.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
I really enjoyed Palo food on this cruise, otherwise the food would be just an OK.
In general I found it more difficult on this cruise to communicate the simple option to avoid wheat in my food. I had issues both a Palo and the rotational Dinning on this, the English Language skills of the wait staff on this cruise both at Palo and rotational Dinning was somewhat limited. We only had 1 night at Palo, so dined in the main restaurant 10 times, even on the 10th time the Wait Staff was still bringing bread and we gave up on requests for some salad type pre-dinner snacks, that we managed easily to get on other cruises.
We are somewhat spoiled by the food options at home in Sydney Australia and the food on offer at the Embarkation Port of Barcelona was very good as well, so in comparison I found the rotation Dining food very average. The food at Palo, the extra cost adults only restaurant was very good.
Onboard Activities
The 11 day cruise was very chilled out, so access to the vertical water slide was easy with very little waiting. The cruise is simply jammed packed with on-board activities, Cooking Demonstration, Trivia of all sorts with lots of Disney of course. A big highlight was some of the Music Related Trivia games with Jo one the the Senior Entertainment staff, these games were usually at Ogills Pub. Bingo was fun thanks to the comedy of the staff, but after 11 days got a bit old, pace yourself with this. Another big standout was the Walt Disney, Disneyland, drawing and animation talks in the theater by long time Disney employee Stacia Martin. Lots of other things I did not make it to such as Improv 101, was also highly rated by other passengers on the ship.
Entertainment
With late dining and too many things to do on the ship, we did not make any of the "Broadway Musical shows". The guest performers were really the standout for our family, including our child when he could be lured away from Edge. The quality of the guest performers was truly excellent, particularly if you like both regular and physical comedy.
Children's Programs
My son found Edge (The Tweens youth club) to be fantastic. We could not keep him away, Edge has activities well into the night, but this was a west bound cruise so we got a bonus extra hour of sleep almost every day.
Service and Staff
Service and staff is somewhat of a mixed bag. Our room steward was truly excellent. The entertainment staff were exceptional. But as above the wait staff not so good.
Ship Quality
Disney takes food safety and the avoidance of illness outbreaks very seriously and strictly, but it does add to the on-board comedians joke lineup.
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Don't assume you wont like an activity until you try it.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
This was out Embarkation port no ship excursions here, but plenty to do and see, safety and crime may be a bit more of an issue compared with the USA or Australia. The food is fantastic in this city. Definitely an old world city with things you won't experience in the USA or Australia. Absolutely no issues if you can only speak English here.
We did a port excursion visiting the botanical gardens and hot springs. No of the available excursions offered the ability to swim in hot springs. A lot of the plants were from Australia so the gardens section was somewhat boring for me. The hot-springs a steam vents were very interesting. If I were to do it again, I would look for a tour, potentially a non-Disney tour, that did hot springs including swimming.
Not much to do in town here. Some interesting historic houses, but this will only fill an hour. The port is more like a large shed with a restaurant and some shops.
Visited the City's main historic fort by Taxi. Interesting place. The City is much bigger and much more interesting than Sydney Canada.
Arriving by boat into new York is interesting. After the friendliness of the boat and the disembarkation experience I was not in a New York State of mind on this trip. I have enjoyed it in the past but not this time, poor weather may have been a factor on this trip.
Disembarkation
The Disembarkation from the ship was OK, but customs, the port and complete lack of taxis available at the time the ship docks was very tiring. We were told Taxi waiting time was not over two hours by the time we cleared customs. We ended up walking with luggage a mile to our Hotel in times square. While technically this is not issue for us, we are all good walkers and veterans of long days at theme parks, the poor state of the foot paths in New York, the construction and the crowds turned this into a nightmare, not recommended when packed for a multi-continent vacation with an 11 day cruise.
Traveler Photos
