At Sea

Sunday, July 6th was our day at sea. We were still adjusting to the 6-hour time zone difference when we were told to set our clocks back yet another hour. Travelling to Europe is amazing. Dealing with jet lag, not so much.

Today would be a bit of a relaxing day. A chance to enjoy the ship and to prepare ourselves for the upcoming ports of call.

And a punishing 2-hour exercise session at the fitness club. Have to try to keep in shape with all of this eating.

With that, let’s explore the Disney Magic.

The Disney Magic was launched in 1998. She was refurbished in 2008 and went through another refurbishment in 2013. She is 984 feet in length, a maximum width of 106 feet and she can cruise at up to 22 knots. She can hold 2,700 passengers. The Magic has 11 decks.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we were in stateroom 7092. (Click on any image for a larger photo and slideshow).

However, many Disney passengers cannot tolerate a minimalist doorway into their stateroom. All around the passenger decks were doors like this one on stateroom 7043.

When we first entered the ship on deck 3, this was our view.

Deck 3 midships is the main gathering area for many of the shipboard events and it would usually include live entertainment and half a dozen photographers taking family portraits. It could get pretty crowded.

Senses Spa and Salon was where the fitness club was located on Deck 9 forward. A beautiful environment. Although I didn’t take any photos of the fitness area — there are some limits after all — the cardio machines overlook the bow of the ship. It was novel to spin and perceive forward momentum with panoramic views of the ocean.

The Magic offers three main dining areas plus a buffet. I think our favourite restaurant was Animator’s Palate. It is a 462-seat restaurant on Deck 4.

Lumiere’s was likely our second favourite restaurant on the ship. More of a formal, elegant restaurant.

Carioca’s was a bit of a step down from the other two restaurants. Pleasant but not as unique as Animator’s Palate and Lumiere’s.

And finally, Cabanas. I’ll show you the entrance into the restaurant. Beware of buffet restaurants. All you can eat buffet restaurants can be hazardous to your health.

Unique to the Disney Cruise Lines dining experience is the concept of rotating restaurants. We were assigned a table — for this cruise we were table 1 — and each night we went to a different restaurant. We were served by the same dining team. They become good friends during the cruise and their service is unlike anything I have experienced in a restaurant setting. They knew us by name before we met them. Here was our serving team. First was Cedomir from Croatia. He did so many small things to make the cruise memorable particularly for Matthew.

Ralex was our drink server. He is from the Philippines. He has served on the Disney Cruise Lines for 15 years.

And Mehmet from Turkey was our server. Wonderful man. Always kind, attentive and very hard-working.

To close off our tour of the Disney Magic, a few shots from around the ship.