tidefan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2007
Just off the 5-night Magic sailing. We've been on a lot of DCL cruises (I'm platinum and DW is Pearl) and so I thought I'd give a few notes about our trip as there has been a number of questions about the Magic since it's dry dock.
- Soul Cat Lounge is nice enough, but I'm not sure that a lot of people are familiar with the movie. It looks nice enough though and is a good location for trivia.
- Our air conditioning worked great in our stateroom (we were in an Inside cabin on Deck 7), better than rooms in the past.
- Our Standard Inside Stateroom on the Magic was much larger than our Standard Inside Stateroom on the Wish last year and had much more storage than we had on the Wish.
- Everything, at least to us, seemed in good repair. The only thing I noticed was one of the signs at Duck In Diner had part of the outside circle missing.
- Even though DW is Pearl, we took our time coming down from a stay at AKV and didn't get to port until 1:00pm, so I have no idea how the new PAT works.
- Our Palo Brunch was one of the best in all of our cruises. It was fantastic. Yes, I still miss the buffet, but this was such a better experience than our Palo dinner on the Wish last year.
- Castaway is SO much better on the classic ships. We almost felt like we had Serenity Bay all to ourselves. Also, the ribeye for lunch there was very good.
- Still no return of the post-Pirate night buffet
- Tangled: The Musical was excellent. We skipped the other shows as we've seen them more than a few times. We still want Villains Tonight to return...
- The new "Knowsmore" trivia system is excellent and the entertainment staff did a great job with all the trivia. Even with all the concierge guests lining up in O'Gills to go into the show right in the middle of trivia.
- Speaking of O'Gills, happy to say that the snack buffet was there every night and was complimentary. In fact, I didn't see charged items even on the menu.
- Room service is great, but why, oh why, do they default to serving Honey Mustard with Buffalo Chicken Wings?
- Still a bit salty that Cabanas is still not open for dinner. Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard. DCL, to me, is just using "staffing" as an excuse. Every other line out there has their buffet open for dinner. Personally, I believe that they are doing everything they can to funnel everyone into the MDRs. Per usual, we don't go to the MDR for Pirate Night as we don't care for the menu. It is really difficult to find something else. Your only options are Duck In Diner or Room Service (pizza did not reopen until 9:30pm)
- Glad that self-serve ice cream is back. So much easier. Also, they had really good GF cones that DW could use!
- I was very surprised at the number of first time DCL cruisers on the ship.
- For a "25th Anniversary at Sea" cruise, there was a severe lack of merchandise for it.
- It is a bit hot in the elevator lobbies on Aft decks 8 and 9. My thought on this was that I often saw staff just holding the outer doors on deck 9 aft open so that people could come in and out from the drink station or Daisy's delights.
- After being on the Wish last year, it was nice to go back to the regular Movie Theater setup. Saw Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion. Enjoyed them both.
- Speaking of movies, it still gets me that DCL charges for popcorn, but somehow Princess manages to include it.