Best Disney cruise tips, tricks and secrets
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Unlike DCL, Royal Caribbean ships offer many specialty restaurants that are not included in your cruise fare. These specialty restaurants include varied options such as Johnny Rockets, Izumi Sushi and Tepanyaki, Chops Grille, and Hooked Seafood (they vary by ship) and they can be a great add-on to your cruise. There are also fun deck activities, including pools, a splash area for young kids, a play area, water slides, hot tubs, a sports deck (with a basketball court), and outdoor movies.
Kid clubs on Disney Magic
Guests Call For Disney to Remove "Insane" Tipping Practice - Inside the Magic
Guests Call For Disney to Remove "Insane" Tipping Practice.
Posted: Fri, 11 Nov 2022 08:00:00 GMT [source]
I highly recommend (and encourage) going the reef-safe route, especially because these sunscreens are as effective as the non-reef safe ones are. My favorite ones are All Good and MyChelle, both of which are animal cruelty free and feel great on my skin. It did feature the split bathroom design Disney Cruise Line is known for. One small bathroom contains the sink and toilet, and a separate little room has another sink and a tub/shower combo. The layout is ideal for getting multiple people ready for the day or for bed at the same time. Below is our cabin on Magic, which slept the three of us comfortably with the couch converting to a single bed.
How much does it cost to go on Disney Magic?
Here you'll find video games, an indoor slide, fun programs and games with the staff, arts and crafts, surprise character visits and more. Your kids need to be potty trained to stay in this club, so use that as motivation for a kid approaching 3 years old before your next cruise. All five Disney ships have amazing spaces for kids in the 3-to-12-year-old range in the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab. These lines can get long, so I recommend riding first thing when you board if the port is warm enough. If you like getting away to relax, look at purchasing access to the Rainforest Room for heated stone loungers, aromatherapy showers and even hot tubs on the larger ships.
Restaurants and food on Disney Magic
It's better to do a quick dinner and then head to bed (or back to the kids club!) than an early dinner and miss the evening shows because your kid no longer has the ability to sit still. Alcohol isn't free on board, but you can find discounted drinks at happy hour. On my most recent Disney cruise, select drinks were 50% off from 9 p.m.
Is Disney cruise really worth it??? I feel like I could do two cruises on another cruise line, or just one on Disney.
Its newest ship, Disney Wish, provides more cool spaces for adults than any previous vessel. With a capacity of just over 2,700 passengers, Disney Magic may be dwarfed by the industry’s newest ships – but few will be at want for things to do. Character cameos, water slides, multiple pools, an excellent kids’ club, and a fun activities schedule keep cruisers busy during the day and into the night. For those who wish to stay away from the kids for a while, the ship offers various adult-only options, including a quiet pool, a restaurant, several bars, and a spa.
Drinking age
These five cruise ships are in three different classes- with the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder being the two smaller ships and the Disney Dream and the Disney Fantasy being the larger two ships. If you’ve been a frequent reader here, you know that I am an avid cruiser on the Disney Cruise Line. I love their beautiful ships and fantastic service and have been happy on every single sailing I’ve done. We’ve reviewed all of their ships here and we’ve always had a positive experience. All tours turned out to be far better than the previous Disney excursions, they were all at our pace, and they were all far less expensive than if we had booked through Disney. An added benefit was that each tour was timed to avoid the crowds from our ship and other ships.
During the early and late months of the year, it'll sail out of Galveston. Disney Dream will spend the start and the end of the year sailing short trips to the Bahamas and Caribbean out of Fort Lauderdale, with a stint in the middle of the year (from May to October) sailing in Europe. In addition, Disney is offering a growing number of Caribbean sailings out of Galveston, Texas, and New Orleans. The line is particularly known for three- and four-night cruises out of Port Canaveral to Castaway Cay and Nassau in the Bahamas.
Both Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line offer paid WiFi access. Royal Caribbean has two levels of internet access- a standard and one that allows steaming and is paid by the day. They also have some very unique venues, including an ice-skating rink, an aqua theater, and smaller theaters like Two70. Like on DCL, performers can be seen in bars and other venues throughout the day. In general, I’ve found that the base rate on the Disney Cruise Line tends to be higher than a similar-length cruise on Royal Caribbean. Any form of trolling and/or harassment will result in a ban from the sub.
Pools
Disney Magic has come a long way since its 1998 debut as the first vessel on the Disney cruise line. Continual updates – including a 21-night dry dock refurbishment in May 2023 – have kept the ship up-to-date, and both kids and adults who are young at heart will find plenty of pixie dust scattered throughout their cruise. On Royal Caribbean, ships offer the Adventure Ocean Club – which is split into babies, juniors, and kids. The Adventure Ocean Club is free and offers “edutainment” programming for younger kids, including talent shows, art programming, science projects, and much more.
Time of year for cruising will also depend on your family’s needs and wants. For example, anytime school is in session is a good choice for a Disney cruise. Fewer people and often cheaper prices are a huge benefit to the off-season. However, if you absolutely cannot go during the school year, that’s clearly not going to work for you. It would also be a real plus if Disney Magic integrated a magical scavenger hunt type of activity that you see on other Disney ships. This would layer in one more thing for the kids to do on a sea day or between other activities.
These characters also have the great benefit of being in great, sea-worthy outfits! Eskimo Minnie on the Alaska sailings has totally stolen my heart, but Captain Mickey (and now Captain MINNIE!) are iconic. Specialty dining is a total experience on Disney cruises, and one of my biggest Disney cruise tips.
Check your Navigator app during your sailing to look for happy hours on your Disney cruise. Speaking of Facebook, the odds are excellent that your individual sailing has a Facebook group with several hundred people in it. If you wish to participate in gift exchanges, get to know your shipmates pre-cruise or tap into a hive mind for advice on picking excursions and packing, it's a big asset to belong to a group specific to your sailing.
We loved the excursion in Juneau that included an hour at the Mendenhall Glacier (though 30 more minutes would have been ideal), whale watching and a surprisingly good outdoor salmon bake. It was expensive at $279 for adults and $199 for kids, but it was a highlight of the trip, and I wholeheartedly recommend it if those activities sound fun to you. On the other hand, you don't need to book the $800 helicopter excursions to the glaciers to have a good time (though those flights look amazing). You can find plenty of full- and half-day tours in the $100 to $300 range that are excellent. But no matter how you choose to spend your days, get out and experience something you can only do in Alaska in at least one or two ports. For example, the cheapest Alaska sailing in 2024 is about $5,000 for a family of four in a windowless inside cabin and over $8,000 in a room with a private balcony.
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